What is the most important thing you personally know how to do, and do you think it will still be done that way in twenty years? Many of us are working with computer programs that will be obsolete in two. Mechanics tell me how different car motors today than they were at the start of their careers. It seems like the information we know has an expiration date that arrives faster every year. How do you prepare a generation for what's next?

Titus has the answer for us: Teach them sound doctrine.

What is the most important thing you did this week? Did you get something fixed at the house that could have caused major damage down the line? Did you lay out some plans that will course correct your life? Did you have a hard conversation with someone about sin? If it was the third option, according to James, that was far and away the most important thing you did.

In a letter full of admonitions and commands, we might be left wondering what to do if we or someone else violates these commands. If we recognize that in ourselves, then we need to, in obedience to verse 16, confess our sins to those whom we sinned against. But if we see someone else going astray, what do we do? Simply put, we are to go talk with them and try to turn them back.

While I think James has in mind here serious sin or doctrinal error, it doesn't have to be a "blow up your life" kind of sin for you to need to be brought back. When approached correctly, guiding someone away from their sin and to Christ is the most loving and important thing we can do. Whether the person is in the church or outside the church, sin needs to be lovingly confronted.

I think these two verses can be split into equal parts warning and hope.

If you want someone to remember what you tell them, where do you put the most important information, the main takeaway you want them to remember? Maybe you want to lead with your important concept because that is when people are paying the most attention. Maybe you want to put it at the end so it is the last thing that people hear you say.

James does both.

"Dad's coming" gives hope or dread depending on the type of day you've had, doesn't it? If you have been frustrated trying to get something to work, hearing "Dad's coming" is hope. If you've been misbehaving, "Dad's coming" is a dread. It doesn't matter when in the day this is said, hearing those words will have their intended effect immediately. I remember getting a lego robot set one year and I had put almost all of it together, however, I thought I had turned the page on the manual only to discover I had built, after a day's frustration, two left legs. And now it was time for bed. But Dad was coming home. I woke up the next day to find my lego robot—standing—on the kitchen table. All was set right.

Now, most of us have much bigger problems than a lego robot with two left legs (although, kids, I do still see how this as a big problem for your worlds, so blessed are you), so do the recipients of this letter. However, the letter is invoking a much more powerful Being than my dad. James is telling us that the Lord, Jesus Himself, is on the way.

James finally gets to the most practical point of all: how we use our wealth.

James isn't here denouncing riches in and of themselves but their abuse, and the Old Testament is in perfect harmony about that. We find in the Proverbs "A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the sinner’s wealth is laid up for the righteous." (13:22) Or 22:4 "The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life." Or 3:9-10 "Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine." Abraham was a wealthy man as was Job, whom the Lord points out specifically to be a great servant. Solomon asked for wisdom and as a reward for such a request was given more wealth than the nation had ever seen before or since.

We've all heard the phrase "the final word on the subject." It is meant to get across the idea that once something is said it is authoritative. We exercise this right as parents, don't we? "I've said it, so that's final." We see this in the scientific world once something has been tested and retested a sufficient number of times, that can be considered "settled" science. In the political world, we hear that from the Supreme Court. Once a case has been decided there, that is the final word on the matter.

Or is it? We find as parents that that final word on no ice cream might start to give once a headache starts. We have found that even a Supreme Court decision isn't finalized for all of time, but when new judges ascend the court, such a final word is replaced seemingly by another "final" judgement. Even science isn't static.

There is no human being who is able to utter the true last, authoritative word on a subject because we are not divine. And when I put it like that, we of course all agree in principle, but that is not how we think or, in terms of this passage, talk in practice, is it? James, in returning to the topic of the tongue warns of judging our neighbor and speaking presumptuous plans. These actions are related because they assume the same thing: that I myself am the determiner of other's character and my own future. James is here to tell us that this isn't true. This will come as both a conviction and a comfort as we look at our two points today: You aren't the authority, so don't judge. and You aren't the authority, so don't presume your plans.

This week, we welcome guest preacher Jackson Hice to show us the Good Shepherd out of John 10! 

We are catching up on uploads this week, so here is last week's sermon on James 4:1-10! 

How do you know that you are wise? Is when you can answer most questions asked of you? Is it when you have an understanding of how life works and how to navigate it? What does it mean to be wise? And do we really want to be?

James, as we have seen over and over again is intensely practical, really to the point of discomfort. James is all about showing your work. A Christianity that is just another thing to occupy your mind isn't worth much. Sure the nerds have fun, but Christianity isn't a life of the mind thing. It needs to actually do something to be worthwhile. It needs to change me. That is what James is interested in. He wants something that motivates the care of widows and orphans. He wants something that looks out for the poor, changes how I speak, and rules how I live. He wants something that makes a real difference in the believer's life and those around them.

And because it makes a real difference in our lives, that means a lot of things have to change, including what we think about wisdom. Usually we try to define wisdom as knowledge used well. It's knowing that a tomato is a fruit but doesn't belong in a fruit salad. It's knowing how money works but also what it is truly for.

In our passage today, we see that wisdom isn't just what goes on in your head, but it is the outpouring of a shaped soul that looks a lot like holiness. James' wisdom doesn't come out just in sage words, but sanctified actions. He isn't the only one to think this, either. Jesus says the same thing in Matthew 11:19 "The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”" and more poetically in Luke 7:35 "Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.” They were falsely accusing him, yet if they would look at his actions, they would see his wisdom.

Over the next chapter and a half,James will present the difference between wise and unwise living, shows in greater detail where unwise living takes us, and ultimately provides that solution on how to be wise. We will look at just the first one today.

Talk isn't enough to prove you're going to heaven, but it is enough to send you to hell. Both thoughts are true for the same reason: talking is so easy to do, in fact, it has never been easier. Nearly everything in our lives has made it faster and simpler to talk. We came up with the landline to share voices immediately. Then we made the cell phone so we could have this ability anywhere. Then we made the internet so we could permanently place our voices out there to talk for us even when we are not talking. Now with AI I can build things just by talking. Indeed, what hath man wrought?

The way that this promise was presented to us was that all of this communication would be like sending torches into the darkness. Truth as it really was could be revealed for all to see in the flickering digital light. Injustices could be corrected, power could be held accountable, yes, even the gospel could be communicated faster and wider than ever. All of it was and is true. However, as James tells us, the darkness we bear those torches within is a bone-dry forest, branches and leaves everywhere ready to lap up the least spark. It is no wonder that James spends so much time on speech and the tongue, as this is quite a power to steward.

The solution isn't to extinguish the torch. How can the Savior known as the Word have silent followers? Woe to us if we preach not the gospel, but woe to us if we do not tame our tongues.

The solution that James gives to us is implicit rather than explicit, but the way he details the problem is a useful teaching tool in itself. When I began the process of learning how to drive my mother's day one lesson was this: I was driving a 3 thousand pound death machine to myself and others if I use it improperly. It was a sober start, but it was necessary. I had to come to grips with what I was doing. Today, James gives some us talking lessons with the sobering introduction to begin.