“Don’t Waste This” – Part 4

May 10, 2020 ~ James 1:19-27 & 3:1-12

 This will be shorter than it is for most weeks. Though this is the sermon time and I have a biblical text, I want to talk to you about an issue that’s been on my heart all week.

The title of this series is, “Don’t Waste This.” The premise is that every experience—good, bad, or ugly—is an opportunity to learn and grow. “Don’t Waste This” is more than just a title, it is also a hope, and an admonition for us to take time to stop and think about what’s going on around us and in us.

 This is unprecedented in our lifetimes; we’ve never been here before. We may never be here again in our lifetimes. So, what can we learn? How can we grow? How will we change? I ask these questions both individually and corporately.

 As I read the text for this week’s message, I couldn’t help but think how much it applies to our lives in 2020, but maybe not in the way that seems obvious.

The text for this week is taken from two different parts of James’s letter,
1: 19-27 and 3:1-12. In both passages, James wrote about the way we use our words.

• The point of the passage from chapter one is that our actions are a much better indicator of spiritual realities than our words are.
• The point of the passage in chapter 3 is that our words should not be used to both praise God and denigrate people.
• In that same passage in chapter 3, James describes the tongue as “a world of evil among the parts of the body.”
• If you know that by experience, say, “Oh, my.” Go ahead and type it in.

These passages have really gripped me this week, but maybe not in the way that seems obvious.

As I think about the way I use my words, there is one word that keeps going through my mind, “Idiot!” Not because I’ve thought of myself as an idiot for the way I’ve used my words but because it has rolled off my lips so many times in the last few weeks.

It’s typically triggered by something on social media I don’t agree with or that rubs me the wrong way or something I see someone doing that strikes me as wrong for any number of reasons.

Thankfully, as a pastor, I’m holy enough not to post those things on social media. That’s great of me, isn’t it? Please! Who’s talking like an idiot now?

 As I read James’s words this week, I couldn’t help but think that so many of us put things on social media that we would never say to someone’s face, and that’s problematic.

• It’s not problematic because social media has changed us.
• It’s problematic because social media provides what we think is a safer way to tap the well of incivility, meanness, selfishness, and self-righteousness that lives in all of us.

 The Prophet Jeremiah was right when he wrote, “the human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” (Jeremiah 17:9, NIV)

 Jesus, with a phrase that could be laid on the foundation of Jeremiah’s words, famously said, “from the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks,” (Matthew 12:34).

 Too often nowadays, we filter our physical speech but not our online speech. I would argue that that means nothing, especially when we will say things online that we wouldn’t say to someone’s face.

 Now someone might say, “Well Rob, that’s where you’re wrong. If I would put it online, I’d also say it to someone’s face.”

 If you are not yet a Christ-follower, you can tune me out for a few minutes. But if you keep listening, I might actually sound like one of the obstacles you have to Christianity.

 To those who would both post and say something to someone’s face that is untoward, let me ask if such behavior is something to be proud of? I wrote these words in a letter to our Trinity family in June 2015: It’s not just those who agree with us who read what we write. Do our written words serve to build a bridge and lead folks closer to the savior, or do they serve to burn a bridge and keep folks far from him? Do they reflect Trinity’s calling to be a welcoming place of love and acceptance where people can find grace in healing, or do they slam the door of grace in the face of those who need it most?

 Now, please don’t think you’re off the hook if you don’t live online. Online or in person, listen to these words from the Apostle Paul:

• “Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone,” (Colossians 4:6, NLT).

Now let me leave you with two challenges and a prayer to pray this week:

• Challenge # 1: encourage someone this week by sending them a card or encouraging email or private social media message.
• Challenge #2:
  • Review your social media posts for the last month, including things you shared.
  • Choose one that you probably shouldn’t have posted and post an update with an apology and the reason why you shouldn’t have posted it in the first place.

Write this on a sticky note, put it on your computer, breathe it as a prayer before you go online.

 Psalm 19:14 (NLT) - May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.