series: Practice
title: James 4:13-17
teacher: Jacob Bender
date: Thursday, November 16, 2017
I recently saw an episode of the humans of New York video series (the video is on this page under resources) they were interviewing this lady and what she said really struck me… it stayed in my head a long time…
She was saying that when she was younger, she was raised to believe that life was going to be a rose garden... she was a good kid, did good in school, listened to her parents, and from the sounds of it, was basically told that because of all of that…
because she did what she was told,
that life was hers... but then she said:
“But it wasn’t a rose garden. And it isn’t for anyone… and that is too much for some people to handle…”
The implication was that when people grow up, and life does not go the way that they are lead to believe that it will when they were younger, that reality has the power to break people, and it destroyed some of the people she knew…
like…
they didn’t know how to handle a life that didn’t end up the way they felt they were promised that it would.
Then she continues and speaks a question into the camera:
“how do I handle it?”
then she said:
“I remember that I was told that, by people who loved me... and who really wanted that for me.”
When the words of the people returned void, the heart behind them kept her out of the path of bitterness… which is an easy road to travel down when things aren't going your way, or the way that someone else made you believe that they would.
And as I read this passage over and over this week… her story kept coming to my mind. Those last words kept repeating…
“They really wanted that for me.”
Great intentions that lead to disappointment.
And I want us to understand that going into this… in chapter 3, James talks about the power of the tongue… your words create worlds… they create realities for people, and they can create delusions for people… which is why we, especially as leaders, need to be so careful with how we speak the words that we speak to others… we need to watch the promises that we make, while at the same time inspire people to do the work of the ministry.
Not because of where we are all going... but because we are called to go there, wherever it is, together.
CLICK HERE to listen to the podcast by Pastor Peter Haas that was referenced in this message.
Below is the commercial for the episode of Humans of New York that was referenced at the beginning of this teaching.
Below are other messages about the power of our words.
Though this EQUIP session is hard on "vision"because of the way that it can be used to manipulate people - we are a church that believes in vision, and in working toward what God puts on our hearts. The following teachings are Courage Church vision messages, and are provided here as a way to add balance to your study..
Guest Speaker Shane Willard.