Pastor Jon Burgess
September 29, 2019 - W1939

Practice Makes Perfect

A Life Worth Living

Pastor Jon Burgess

September 28 & 29, 2019

Aloha, New Hope! As we finish our series, A Life Worth Living 24/7, taken from the Book of James, I’m so thankful that we serve a God who doesn’t demand perfection! He reminds us in today’s message that Practice Makes Perfect, and we grow through a big theological word called sanctification.

Sanctification is a process from the day that you and I met Christ to the day that we will meet Him face to face in Heaven and become more like Him! It doesn’t happen automatically; it happens intentionally! 

The process of sanctification is especially true with the words that come out of our mouths! Our words matter a lot more than we realize—they bring either life or death! If there’s a place that we could use a little more practice, like me, it is to practice what we’re saying and how we’re saying it! 

I believe God wants to give us an understanding of the power of our words because the entire book of James talks about our words. He actually drives it home in… 

James 3:5-6 NIV says: “⁵ Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. ⁶ The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.”

James wants us to understand that we are not to underestimate the power of the tongue, and how just one word can set everything on fire! He is trying to drive home to us that resident within each word is the power to either burn something down or to build something up, and to understand the responsibility that we’ve been given with our words. For example, how that little offhanded comment or that little word spoken in frustration, is burning our relationships alive!  God wants to teach us that instead of causing more fires, maybe we could start putting out more fires by… 

1. Practice Expressing Appreciation 

We need to practice expressing appreciation because we live in a world of depreciation. Have you noticed that? If you have a nice painting in your house and your kids are throwing darts at it, is it appreciating or depreciating in value? It doesn’t matter if it was a Van Gogh or anything like that, you have now depreciated that, based on how it’s being treated! How much more value are the lives that God has put around us? Are we throwing darts at them with our words, or are they being appreciated in value?

James 4:11-12 NIV says: “¹¹ Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it.When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. ¹² There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?”

Remember, James is talking to the church, not to the people in the world. He is telling the church, “You must stop talking to each other that way. You’re setting each other on fire. You don’t even realize it!”

We live in a world that’s tearing down each other: Our kids go to school and they are torn down by their peers; we go to work and get torn down by those we’re working with—and we feel depreciated in value! 

If there’s any place where you should feel appreciated, where your value is growing instead of decreasing, it should be the church. And yet, James makes it clear that even in the church, we sometimes set each other on fire—slandering and talking bad about each other behind their backs. And James is saying there’s no room for that. Romans 12:21 says, "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." 

2. Practice Paying Attention

If we learn to listen, it will make people feel appreciated and also help them to understand that we are paying attention. This is what James is getting at:

James 1:19-20 NIV says: “¹⁹ My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, ²⁰ because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. 

James is saying that if you want the righteousness of God to be produced in your life, you cannot make it happen through anger and control! Instead, you must reverse the process from what is natural to you and tap into the super-natural. Pay attention and be present with the people in your lives. First, listen to them before you let those words fly—be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry!

This is probably one of the most challenging verses in my life, but God is inviting us all to practice being quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry—practice makes perfect!  So, if you're like me and you tend to do the opposite of what God said to do, James is inviting us to put into practice a development of righteous thinking and living! Ask yourself:

Is my goal to be right in this argument and conversation? Thinking about the next argument and what I'll say that will really top whatever it is that they said last. That's ultimately why we end up destroying each other in our relationships. 

If my goal is to preserve the relationship, then I must put the matches away and be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. 

As a society, we are alone because we are actually not paying attention to each other; but we're burning each other alive with our angry words and not taking time to hear the heart behind the words!

What would happen if we started using our words to actually pay attention to each other and started using our words to appreciate each other, and…

3. Practice Honest Assessment 

None of us really like assessments. Our brains are very good at tricking ourselves into thinking that things are much better than they actually are. We are good at assessing each other, but are not good at self-assessment. 

James 1:21 NIV says: “Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.”

I want to encourage you that you don’t have to track into tomorrow what you stepped in today with your words. Some of us will literally save our relationships if we would practice self-assessment and quit saying, “Well, you shouldn’t have said that,” and “You shouldn’t have done that.” Quit pointing fingers at everyone else, and actually admit that these muddy footprints are mine!

Before you assess someone else's need, could we admit humbly, “I need to be saved from the use of my words; I need to admit that I have some filth that I need to take care of”?

 The way to take care of the mess that I’ve dragged into my relationships through my words is to… 

4. Practice Immediate Action

Not procrastinating, not putting it off saying, “Well, you know what, I’ll just wait for more confirmation that this is really for me.” I don’t think there’s probably a person who doesn’t need to check on your words. 

James 1:22-25 NIV says: “²² Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³ Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror  ²⁴ and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵ But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.”

The mirror of the word of God reflects back to us what area in our lives He’s calling us to be more like Him. If we don’t immediately act on it when we hear a message that James is telling us, you will forget it—that’s just human nature! You will deceive yourself by being just a hearer of the word—be a doer! 

One word is all it takes to destroy the beauty in the lives around us. I just believe that what the Lord wants us to understand is that our words are a big deal! And the God of the universe is speaking His word over us and saying, “Please understand, you’ve been made in My image; I spoke you into existence and given you authority with your words!”

So if you're having problems with your words and are stepping into it like I have, the word of God will change the words that come out of your mouth!  The more of the word of God is in you, the more of the word of God will come out of you!  That's the reason we've been memorizing scriptures.

Our final scripture that we'll be memorizing is James 1:22 NLT that says, “But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.”

You can download this scripture on to your wallpaper; that's one way you can put something into immediate action! 

Study Questions:

1.     Who do you need to appreciate, listen to, or apologize to today?
2.     How will you practice immediate positive action in your life today?
3.     What ways will you honor God through your family and friends?
4.     How will you use your tongue/words to appreciate others?
5.     How will you be honest about yourself and others?