starting in verse 1 of James chapter 3. Not many should become teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a mature man who is also able to control his whole body. Now, when we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we also guide the whole animal. And consider ships, though very large and driven by fierce winds, they are guided by a very small rudder. Whenever the will of the pilot directs, so too, though the tongue is a small part of the body, it boasts great things. Consider how large a forest a small fire ignites. And the tongue is a fire. The tongue, a world of unrighteousness, is placed among the parts of our bodies. It pollutes the whole body, sets the course of life on fire, and is set on fire by hell. For every creature, animal, or bird, reptile, or fish is tamed and has been tamed by man. But no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it, we bless our Lord and Father. And with it, we curse men who are made in God's likeliness. Out of the same mouth comes blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things should not be this way. Does a spring pour out sweet and bitter water from the same opening? Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers? Or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a saltwater spring. yield fresh water. Who is wise in understanding among you? He should show his works by good conduct and with wisdom, wisdom's gentleness. But if you have a bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart, don't brag and lie in defiance of the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every kind of evil. Let's pray again. Father, as we are singing of your holiness, it's just an awesome thing. And as Colton prayed, Lord, we want to tremble at your word. And in this passage, Lord, you call us to not only tremble at your word, but to tremble at speaking on your behalf. Lord, let us be careful. before we ever say, oh the Bible says, this is what's true. Lord, teach us to measure our steps and our words. As we embark on this new chapter of James, Lord, I pray that in this study you would teach us how to gain control over this massive power and force that you have put in each one of our mouths. We ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. How many books do you suppose you read in a year? Some of you are big readers, some not as much. Can you imagine reading over 130 books a year? That would be like one book every two to three days, without a break, all the way through the whole year, every year. If you read that much, you'd be taking in quite a bit of information, wouldn't you? The reason I give you that number is because, you know, very few people read that many words. That's about how many words all of us are speaking all the time. They say if all the words that the average person speaks in a year were put into print, it would fill 132 books, 200 pages each. It's incredible if you just stop and think how much we talk. We're constantly talking. God is a self-revealing, communicating being, right? And we are made in his image. And so every one of us has this powerful drive to communicate. We're not like animals. Animals, they can't speak, they don't have language. They can communicate some very, very basic, basic things about I'm hungry or I'm in danger or whatever, but most people, if they were only able to communicate as much as animals, would very quickly go insane. God created us in such a way so that each one of us is just a fountain of words. Now it's true, some fountains are gushing a little more than others. We understand that, but even quiet people speak millions of words. We've been studying through the book of James, and in chapter 3, James addresses the world of our words. And we find out very quickly that our world of words is a world of trouble. He starts the chapter with what seems at first to be a very strange command in verse 1. Not many of you should presume to be teachers. Actually, the word presumes is not even in the Greek. It's just, not many of you should be teachers. The reason I say that's strange is because that doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the New Testament. Everything, all through the New Testament, teaching, the teaching ministry is held in such high esteem. 1 Timothy 3.1, Paul says that if a man desires to be a preacher, a pastor, that is a noble desire. That's a noble task. It's a good thing. The teachers and preachers in Ephesians 4 are described as God's gift to the church. Teaching is absolutely a central component of church life. Jesus spent his entire ministry going around teaching and preaching. That's what he did. He taught and he preached and he commissioned his disciples to go out and do the same thing, to go out and teach and preach. And then he commissioned every one of us to do that in the Great Commission, Matthew 28, 19. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything that I've commanded you. One of our most fundamental duties as Christians is teaching, every single one of us. Colossians 3.16 says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom. This is everyone's duty. All of us are to do some teaching on an informal basis and some of us are called into leadership in the church where there's a special responsibility to teach. That's the primary responsibility of a church leader, is teaching. According to 1 Timothy 3, 2, no one is allowed to be an elder in the church unless he is able to teach. And a lot of churches stumble over that. That's tough for some because there are some really skilled leaders and administrators out there who don't have the gift of teaching. You know, they're great at leading, they just can't teach. And it seems like it would make such good sense to let those people do the governing and the oversight of the church, because that's their ability. And so often, men who are gifted teachers are kind of mediocre in the areas of administration or leadership or oversight or decision-making. And so a lot of churches say, why not just let the teachers teach? And the people who are good at oversight oversee the church and run the place. That's just not God's design. God wants the teachers to be the overseers in the church. And here's why. It's because knowledge of God's Word is more important than administrative skill when it comes to decision making in the church. And this isn't to say that management ability is unimportant. That's actually also a requirement for elders. In order to be an elder, you have to be able to have enough management skill. You've got to be able to prove your management skill in your home so that you can have management of the church. And so that's important. By far, the greatest emphasis in Scripture falls on the teaching when it comes to leadership in the church. In Acts 6, when the apostles' administrative responsibilities began to interfere with their teaching and preaching and prayer, and they couldn't get it both done, guess which one got delegated? It was the administration and the organization. Teaching is the priority. The exhortations for church leaders to be faithful in teaching and preaching in the ministry of the word is, those exhortations are as solemn as they come. When Paul exhorts Timothy to be faithful in preaching, listen to how serious this charge is. I mean, just listen to the preamble here. 2 Timothy 4.1, in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge, preach the word. be prepared in season and out of season, correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and careful instruction." That's quite the charge. So with that strong current flowing through the New Testament pointing to the value and the importance of the teaching role in the church, it's a little bit of a surprise when you get to James 3 and he comes out of the gate and just discourages his readers from becoming teachers. What's happening here? Is James going against the flow of the rest of the New Testament? And another question, how did James put this principle into practice back when he made the decision to become a teacher? Right, because he's a teacher. We know he did that, he decided to become a teacher because look at verse three. He says, because you know that we who teach, verse two, we who teach will be judged more strictly, right? He includes himself. We who teach. So in spite of his own warning, James made the decision, go ahead and become a teacher. Evidently, James wants some people to read this verse and say, okay, I see what you're saying, James, but I'm going to go ahead and become a teacher anyway. And he wants other people to read this verse and say, wow, now that I understand that, I'm not going to be a teacher. James' purpose in writing this passage is to weed that second group out of the pool of potential teachers. He doesn't want to discourage that first group from teaching, but he does want to discourage the second group from teaching. And so let's just take a look at the context here and see if we can figure out who's in which group here. Who are these people? Who's in the second group? Who are these people who want to be teachers but shouldn't? They need to give that up. I think we can answer that question in two ways. If we look backwards into the preceding context, we can see James just got done rebuking some people that he called fools in verse 20 of chapter 2. They're fools because they made too much of a separation between faith and works. Remember, they didn't understand the relationship, and so they ended up teaching easy believism, and it's bad doctrine. They're fools. Obviously a person who doesn't have an understanding of sound doctrine shouldn't be a teacher. That person's not ready to be a teacher. 1 Timothy 1.7 says they want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm. So people like that, they've got a strong desire to teach, but obviously not ready. So that's one kind of person that James would discourage from being a teacher, but I don't think that's his primary focus. There's another group that James wants to weed out of the pool. They're people who, they might have great doctrine, and they might be really smart and be excellent communicators, but they've got one particular problem that should keep them out of the teaching ministry until that problem is solved. And James is gonna spend the whole rest of the body, the main body of the book of James addressing that problem. And it's the problem, you'll see it in every section from here on out, and it's the problem of pride. In chapter 5, just kind of work backwards from the end, chapter 5 he rebukes the rich people who thought they were better than the poor people. At the end of chapter 4 he rebukes the people who were boasting and bragging about their future plans and were relying on themselves instead of God. Right before that he rebukes people who were judging others and looking down on them thinking they're better. And before that is this whole section calling them to repentance for their pride because God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. So all of that's what's coming in the rest of the book, but the nearest context is right here in chapter 3. And you heard Colton read it at the end of his reading. We see here in chapter 3, after James gets done describing the power of the tongue, his section on the tongue, he gives us a contrast between the good kind of wisdom and the bad kind of wisdom. The primary marks of the bad kind are envy and selfish ambition. There are people who want to be teachers because they've got all this wisdom, but it's the bad kind of wisdom, and you can tell that because it's marked by envy and selfish ambition. You see that in verse 14 and again in verse 16. Now, the term selfish ambition refers to people who they want a title. They want honor. They want to be respected. They want to be looked up to. They're wise in their own eyes, and they want status. They want popularity. And the envy part comes when those people tend to be hostile towards the people who have those positions that they covet. You see this all the time. They think, I'm the one who should be standing up there. I'm the one who should have that position. And Jesus warned us about people like that in Matthew 23, 7. He said, they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them rabbi. Rabbi means my great one. Oh, they love that, just music to their ears. Yeah, call me rabbi. They love having titles, honor, respect. the reverend, doctor, you know, whatever. These people are usually pretty easy to spot when they come here to Agape because they'll come and they'll say, I want to teach right off the bat. I want to teach. I want to teach. And so we'll say, OK, great. How about you start out? Maybe you can teach a youth group. We need someone to teach a youth group. And they're not interested. There's no title that goes along with that. There's no special honor that goes. I mean, there's no reputation. People aren't even gonna know they're doing it, most of the people in the church. And so, they're not interested. These are the kind of people that say, right away, I wanna be an elder, I wanna be a deacon, I don't want this and that. And we say, well, what leadership ministry are you doing right now? And, well, nothing just yet, but boys, here's what my plans are as soon as I'm ordained. That's someone who they care about the title more than they care about the work. Those are the last people you ever want to place in leadership. Leadership in the church, and especially in the teaching ministry, is a place where there's a constant temptation to pride. I mean, it's a bad place to enter if you already have a pride problem because there's so much temptation. A lot of it's because you're all so gracious. I mean, people are kind to their teachers. When you teach a class, and the people are responsive, that puffs up your pride. And if they're not responsive, that's pretty... I mean, if you teach a class that starts out at 40 and after four weeks it's down to six, that's pretty humiliating, right? But if it starts at six and then it goes up to four, and you have to keep changing rooms because it keeps getting bigger and bigger and people are crowding in, even the most humble man is going to be tempted to be puffed up with pride when that happens. And so there's a constant temptation to cater to people's desires. When you become a teacher, you start to want to cater to that, become more popular. Especially if you make your living teaching, right? Because for someone like me, if I preach and you don't come back, I'm out of a job. And so my livelihood depends on people wanting to hear more of my teaching. And so there's a constant temptation to be formulating the things that I say in my sermons in such a way as to gain the approval of men. It's just a constant temptation, but it's a deadly sin. Galatians 1.10, listen to this. Paul said, am I now trying to win the approval of men or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. That's quite a powerful statement, but it's true. Seeking the approval of men destroys the teacher's faith. Did you know you cannot believe and do that at the same time? Jesus said that, John 5, 44. How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain praise that comes only from God? That is contradictory to faith. It is incompatible. Seeking honor from men is incompatible with faith. Every human being seeks honor. Every one of us, we do. We seek honor. That's good. There's nothing wrong with that at all. The question is, do you seek it from God or do you seek it from men? Romans 2, 7 says, To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory and honor and immortality, He will give eternal life. You seek it from God, He'll give you glory and honor and eternal life. But if you seek it from men, you are not a servant of Christ. And that's hard because if you're a faithful Bible teacher and you go verse by verse, you're going through the Scripture, you're teaching whatever it says, you're just teaching it, sooner or later you're going to hit something and you're going to realize, if I teach this, that is not going to go over well. I preach this, we're going to lose some families. People are going to be upset with me. Giving is going to drop. That happens all the time. And it's in those moments when you find out whether you are working for the approval of God or working for the approval of men. On top of that, there's the fact that when you are a Bible teacher, you've got a lot of influence on people's lives. There's another reason why it's a temptation to pride. People, sometimes people come and they'll tell me they've made some huge major life decision based on some little thing that I said in a sermon. And it's frightening. But you gotta realize, you know, a Christian, what is a Christian? A Christian is somebody who devotes his entire existence to doing whatever the Bible says, and their main way of finding out what the Bible says is through Bible teachers. And so Bible teachers have tremendous power and influence over people's lives. And so it's a temptation of pride. On top of that, for some people, it's really easy to fall in love with the attention you get when you're a teacher. You know, you tell a joke and a whole room full of people laugh, that can get pretty addicting pretty fast. If you say something and people grab a pen, it's like, wow, I gotta write that down. That can stroke your ego. To have people think of you as being wise and they come to you for advice and so many different aspects of being a teacher can so easily puff up the ego and so, in fact, that's why God gave Paul that thorn in his flesh, remember? It was to keep him humble. Without that thorn, even Paul would have been puffed up with pride. So when God gives you a gift of teaching and puts you in public spotlight, very often that will come along with some very major thorn, some terrible weakness that just stands as a constant humbling influence all the time. And so if that's what the teaching ministry is, constant temptation towards pride, even for the most humble men, then the last thing you want is people getting into the ministry who are already puffed up with pride. or who are susceptible to that. That's why you don't want new converts as elders. In 1 Timothy 3, 6 it says, Notice, the concern isn't that he'll be a poor elder or that he won't do a very good job. He might do a great job, the concern is, the danger is, he might become proud. He'll get in there and he'll look around at the other men and he'll say, wow, I've only been a believer five years, I've already made it up to this level with all these guys, and then they get puffed up. That was a problem in James' day, it's a problem in our day. There's a problem with, there's a tendency to, in our culture, to overvalue leadership. People with extroverted, public-type gifts are admired. People with quiet, behind-the-scenes gifts are undervalued. If we give some big award or special honor to someone, typically it's not gonna go to the person with the gentle, quiet spirit, even though that's what's of great worth in God's sight, right? We follow the world's lead and we give special honor to the people that are up front and they're visible. And you can see this in the way that people talk about their children. You can see this value. They see their kids developing leadership skills, and they get all excited. Wow, look at him. He's such a leader. I mean, if we look at that biblically, he's such a leader, so what? Leaders are just another part of the body, right? They're just a body part. That's like, he's such a leader. That's like looking at your elbows, like, wow, that is such an elbow. You know, so what? Luke 22, 24, Jesus said, I mean, an event happened with Jesus where it says, a dispute arose among them, his disciples, as to which of them was considered to be the greatest. And Jesus said to them, the kings of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who exercise authority over them call themselves benefactors. But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves." See, in the world, leadership is lordship. In the church, leadership is servanthood. So people who have ambition for a title or position or glory for men, they need to be weeded out of the pool of potential teachers. They're not ready. So how does James accomplish that? How does he weed these people out? How does he discourage those people from pursuing being a teacher without discouraging the people that are truly called? Well, he does it by giving a warning about the downside of teaching. He says, not many of you should be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. That's how he weeds them out. He gives them that warning. You're going to be judged more. Now, what does that mean? This is important to understand because some people take that to mean that there's a higher standard for teachers than for everyone else. That's not what James is saying, nor is that even true. There's not a higher standard for teachers. How could there be a higher standard for teachers than for regular Christians? What's the standard for regular Christians? Matthew 5, 48. Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect. That's the standard for normal, everyday Christians. How are you going to get a standard higher than that? The standard for regular Christians is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbors as yourself. There's no higher standard than that. I mean, if somebody wants to argue that there's a higher standard for leaders than for regular people in the church, my question would be this. Tell me. You tell me. Give me the list. What's the list of sins that's perfectly okay for non-leaders, but leaders, you can't do them? What sin is okay as long as you're not a teacher? There isn't one. There isn't one. See, God's law is the same for everyone. You just think about the qualifications of a pastor in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. We go to 1 Timothy 3, 2. It says, now the overseer, here's the list of qualifications. He must be above reproach. Well, does that mean that it's okay for everyone else to be beneath reproach? Number two, he must be a one-woman man. Does that mean all the rest of you can just sleep around? It keeps going. Temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable. Verse 3, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. Every single one of those are things that are required for everybody. You can find places in the New Testament that call for all of us to do those things. The reason they're given as qualifications for people in leadership in the church is simply because the leaders in the church are to set the example for the way to live for the rest of the body. They're to be able to be people who can live out that example. So it's not talking about a higher standard for teachers. What is it talking about? Well, notice what it says. He doesn't say, don't be many teachers because we who teach will be judged by a different standard. What he says is, we who teach will be judged more strictly. See, it's not that there's a higher standard, it's that there's a greater accountability to the same standard. The consequences for violating this standard, if you're a teacher, are more severe. If you're a lover of money, if you're a lover of money, there's going to be consequences in your life. If I'm a lover of money, there will be worse consequences in my life. Chastisement from God for the teacher is more severe. Luke 12, 47 says, that servant who knows his master's will and does not get ready or do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. For everyone who has been given much, much from everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded. And from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. God holds you accountable for what you've been given, how much knowledge you have, and if you're a teacher, presumably, you have more access to knowledge, right? And so God is gonna judge you more severely. Think about Moses. You ever wonder why God was so harsh with Moses? I mean, in a moment of temptation, he strikes the rock instead of speaking to it, and the penalty is he doesn't ever get to enter the promised land. Doesn't that seem like a lot? I mean, why is God so hard on Moses? Well, because Moses is the greatest leader, Moses had the greatest access to God, and so Moses gets the most severe consequences for his sin. If you fall into some sin and I fall into that exact same sin, the rod comes into your life and the rod comes into my life, it's gonna be more severe for me just because I'm a teacher. And part of the reason for that is because of the influence that teachers have with their sin to influence other people to sin. When you're a teacher, you teach people whatever you do, good or bad. Matthew 5, 19, Jesus said, anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. So the consequences, here's one thing, the consequences for sin are more severe for the teacher. And then in addition to that, the sheer volume of the number of sins you're gonna commit is gonna be naturally greater for the teacher because he's using his mouth more. And that's where he goes in verse two. He says, we all stumble in many ways. If anyone's never at fault in what he says, he's a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check. No one on the planet is capable of opening his mouth for very long without sinning. Proverbs 1019, when words are many, sin is not absent. It's axiomatic. It's so easy to sin with your mouth, right? It's just, we understand how sin works, right? All sin originates in the heart, Jesus said. It all starts out in the heart. And there are a lot of sins that they're in your heart, but they never make it to your hands and feet. You don't actually do them. You might hate someone in your heart, but you don't go so far as to murder them or hurt them or whatever. You might covet something in your heart, but you don't go so far as to steal it. Lots of sins can be in your heart and they don't make it into your actions, but not very many sins can be in your heart without coming out of your mouth at some point. It'll come out. And notice what James says there in verse two. He says, we all stumble in many ways. I mean, think of how many ways you can sin with your mouth. How about the hasty, thoughtless word? Or the proud word? Or the selfish word? Or the self-serving exaggeration? Or the sly suggestion? The manipulative flattery? Words of anger, words of slander, gossip. innuendo, words of doubt, impure words, rebellious words, self-aggrandizing words, words of condemnation, threats, words that inflict guilt, words that induce shame, unkind, unhelpful words, words of criticism, boasting, complaining, grumbling, divisive words, self-serving, selective stories, lying, half-truths, false doctrine, insensitive words, sarcastic words, insult, belittling words, discouraging words. There's just no end to the ways that you can sin with your mouth. We all stumble in many ways. That's why in Romans 3, when Paul wants to summarize the sinful condition of fallen mankind, he focuses on the mouth, Romans 3, 13. Their throats are open graves, their tongues practice deceit, the poison of vipers is on their lips, their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Talking is just dangerous and not a little bit dangerous. I mean, listen to the extremes that James goes to warn us about the danger of talking. Verse 5, consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. Compares it to a wildfire. I mean, we know about that in Colorado, the devastation that comes from those things. The tongue is also a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person. It sets the whole course of his life on fire. It is itself set on fire by hell. Verse 8, no man can tame the tongue. It's a restless evil full of deadly poison. Verse 9, with the tongue we bless our Lord and Father and with it we curse men who have been made in God's image. Out of the same mouth comes blessing and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. I mean, the tongue, it's powerful, it's uncontrollable, it's incendiary, and it's double-minded. So every time you open your mouth, you're risking all of that. And guess whose mouth is open Most often around here. Mine. I stand up here every Sunday, I say 7,000 words while you just sit there and say nothing. The main tool that a teacher uses for his job is a dangerous, deadly, destructive, devastating thing. Talking is like walking through a minefield. It's just a matter of time before you step on a bomb. And teachers just spend a lot more time walking back and forth through the minefield than everyone else does. And so James says, think twice before you become a teacher. He's not saying don't become a teacher. He's saying don't become a teacher unless you are prepared to take the task very, very seriously. There's no room for teachers and preachers who don't take the task seriously enough to be careful about what they say. You're going to have to spend more time in the minefield. You're going to step on one. And when you step on one, the blast is going to be bigger for you than it is for everyone else. So more opportunity to sin, greater consequences when you do sin. It's dangerous. You know, if I asked you to give me, if we started the sermon, I said, give me a list of the most dangerous professions out there. Some of you might say, oh, I don't know, fireman or coal miner or race car driver or rescue swimmer or whatever. I don't know if anybody would say Bible teacher. I think James would. I think James would say that is the most dangerous profession there is because if you're a race car driver or a coal miner or something, worst can happen, you have an accident, you go to heaven. But as a teacher, you can put yourself in a position of being punished by God in more severe ways than anyone else. And when you make mistakes as a teacher, they can ruin people's lives. People can end up in hell. Bible teachers are a danger to themselves and a danger to others. And so if James were a country western singer, he'd be singing, Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be teachers. Don't let them write sermons or stand up and talk or come judgment day, they'll be in for a shock. So, if all that's true, who in his right mind would want to teach? And why is James a teacher? You know, I actually remember as a kid listening to Waylon Jennings sing, Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys. And the next line is, Don't let them pick guitars and drive them old trucks. And I remember thinking, he's sitting there picking a guitar while he's telling my mom not to let me grow up and pick a guitar. Now, how is that? And James is the same way. He's a teacher. He's sitting there teaching us about not being teachers. Didn't he listen to his own advice? Why is he a teacher? Clearly, some people are supposed to be teachers. So how do you know if you're one of them? Well, the most basic answer to that question is in Romans 12, 6, which says this very simply. We all have different gifts according to the grace given to us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it's serving, let him serve. If it's teaching, let him teach. If it's encouraging, let him encourage. If it's contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously. If it's leadership, let him govern diligently. If it's showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. How do you know if you're supposed to be a teacher? If God gave you the gift, be a teacher. Just make sure you take that responsibility very, very seriously lest you fall under God's judgment. The fact is the church is in desperate need, desperate need of good, skilled, gifted, careful, expository teachers and preachers. There's a drought of that in our culture. And God doesn't give you a spiritual gift so you can sit on it. ever. Remember the parable of the talents in Matthew 25? The servants were entrusted with different amounts of money and the master left and they put that money to work until he returned. The first two, he returned, they said, we put this money to work, we got this return, here's your return, and he says, well done, good and faithful servant. That's where that phrase comes from. But that third guy, he sat on it, he just buried it in the ground. His master returned, he says, here's your talent back and There was no return. And what do you say to that servant? He said, you wicked, lazy servant. He wanted a return. He said, that servant is going to be thrown into hell. If God gave you the gift of teaching, yes, you'll face a stricter judgment if you fall into sin. But if you decide to just bury that gift and not use it to serve the church, you're going to face even worse judgment. First Corinthians 12 to 14 makes it very clear that no one receives a spiritual gift for himself, it's always for the church. Whatever gift you receive, it's not for you, it's for the church. And if you don't use it to serve the church, you're defrauding both the church and the Lord. Now, does God sometimes call you to do things in the church that you're not gifted at? Absolutely. all the time, but the primary way God wants you to serve this body is in the area of the spiritual giftedness that he gave you. I love Edmund Clowney's statement. He says, what has God put in your power to do in his service? Whatever you can do, you must do. If you're gifted, then you're called. People need to be reminded of that even after they get into ministry. Because leadership in the church is hard. It's just very hard. And there's a constant temptation to quit. Always. And so Paul had to tell Timothy, do not neglect your gift. 1 Timothy 4.14. Don't neglect it. And then again in 2 Timothy, I remind you, fan into flame the gift of God. Don't neglect it, Timothy. Stir it up. So he said, well, how do I know then if I've got the spiritual gift of teaching? Well, I'll just say the simplest way is this. When you explain passages of Scripture to people, do they usually understand the passage of Scripture better after you're done talking than before you started talking? You probably have the gift. If they're more confused at the end than they were at the beginning, you probably don't have the gift. But if you find that you just have a knack for making people understand, and you can do it, you can kind of adjust to whoever you're talking to. You know, there's some people, they just say it the same way no matter who they're talking to. People, it's a gift of teaching, they know how to just conform it. Whatever person they're talking to, they can make that kind of person understand this principle. That's the gift of teaching. And then I'd say this, use the people of God to verify your giftedness. God's people want to hear gifted Bible teachers. There are plenty of Bible teachers running around saying, I got the gift, I got the gift, and a whole group of people following behind him saying, no he doesn't, no he doesn't. But when somebody does have the gift, God's people will be eager to listen. They'll want to hear it. Anytime you want to know what your gift is, just pay close attention to the things that really seem that you do in the church that seem to bless God's people, that bear fruit. And then once it's established that you have the gift, then you need to start fanning it into flame, like Timothy. It takes study and training and practice to develop that gift. And most of all, to prevent your ministry from becoming worthless, it's got to be governed by love, right? 1 Corinthians 13. Spiritual gifts without love are a resounding gong, clanging cymbal. The real Bible teacher sees God's people and his or her heart just aches for them to understand God's Word. I just want them to understand it. I want them to get this. It's not a craving to be up front. It's not a longing to be in the spotlight. It's not a longing to be looked up to and respected or to have a title. It's not a longing to be thought of as clever or funny or to have people laugh. It's a longing for people to get what's in God's word into their heart. It's a driving passion that when you come across a principle in scripture and you understand it, you just can hardly breathe until you get that into someone's heart. I've got to tell people this. If you have a craving to be the center of attention, you're not ready. If you have a desire to make a name for yourself, you've got your eye on some title, some position, James is saying, stay away from the teaching ministry, you're not ready. The increased severity of God's judgment on your life, it's not going to be worth whatever thrill you get from being in that position. So if there's a lack of humility in your life, stay away. If you love telling people what to do, but you have a hard time being told what to do, stay away. There's a lot of guys that they're great at telling, they have a tough time being told. If you're the type of person that can only learn from certain people, and there's not very many people in the church that can teach you anything, stay away from the teaching ministry. You're not ready. One of the most damaging blights on the church of Jesus Christ is the unteachable teacher. And then one more. If you're picky about who you teach, stay away. Again, I've found that people with the gift of teaching, they're thrilled at the opportunity to teach anyone. And it doesn't matter if it's ten teenagers in a youth group or a thousand pastors in a conference, they just love the opportunity to teach God's Word. You might be sitting there thinking, this passage just doesn't apply to me. You know, I'm not interested in teaching. I could have stayed home today. I'm not even interested in teaching. So what does this passage say to me? Actually, quite a bit. James mentions the wannabe teachers in verses 1 and 2, but after that, you notice the whole rest of the discussion, teachers disappear from the discussion. Everything he says in this chapter applies universally to everyone. So if you have a tongue this morning, this is for you. This passage is for you. Because remember, there isn't any higher standard for teachers, only a higher accountability to the same standard, which means all these principles apply to everybody. So what's the principle today? What is this principle we're talking about? When I was describing selfish ambition, You might have heard that and thought, oh, that's not me. I don't have any desire to be a teacher. I don't even want to be in the spotlight or end up up front or anything. A lot of you prefer staying in the background. But think about it. The principle. Isn't there still something in you that craves the approval of men, sometimes even more than God's approval? I mean, is there anybody here that doesn't sometimes struggle with that? In his book, The Pursuit of God, A.W. Tozer has a whole chapter on the heavy, heavy burden of seeking human approval. It's a burden. Jesus says, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest, Matthew 11. One of those burdens that Jesus promised to give us rest from is the exhausting labor of self-glorification, trying to get the approval of men. It's wearying. Tozer says this, he says, the heart's fierce effort to protect itself from every slight, to shield its touchy honor from a bad opinion of a friend or enemy will never let the mind have rest. Continue this fight through the years and the burden will become intolerable. Yet the sons of earth are carrying this burden, continually challenging every word spoken against them, cringing under every criticism, smarting under each fancied slight, tossing sleepless if another is preferred before them. Oh, people gave him credit instead of me credit, and I got this insult, and so-and-so was short with me. I gotta be glorified. And the effort to get the approval of men is exhausting. Think of the things that you say about yourself when you're praying. When you're confessing your sins to God. When we had communion, you're confessing your sins. Think of the things you say about yourself in those moments. Oh God, I'm such a worm. I'm so sinful. And think about how worked up you get when someone else says those very same things about you. Or they treat you as if you really were the worm that you just got done telling God that you are. The work of convincing yourself and everyone else that you're better than you are is exhausting work. And the ordeal of keeping up our impressive facade to win or maintain approval of men, it's a full-time job that taxes us to the breaking point. And Jesus comes to you in Matthew 11 and says, He offers you rest from that. He says, if you're a believer, look, here's what Jesus says to you right now. If you're a believer, Jesus says, I lived a perfect life for you in your place. Do you understand that? That's what justification in chapter two is talking about. See, on my worst days as a pastor, My comfort isn't that, well, at least I'm still better than certain other pastors. That's not my comfort. My comfort is Jesus Christ is a perfect pastor in my place, in God's sight. If you've really blown it as a mom, Christ is the perfect parent in your place, in God's sight. There's your comfort. You're in Him. If your efforts at work, at your job, are just inadequate, Jesus is the perfect employee in your place. That's where your status comes from. You're in Christ. Forget about the approval of people. And forget about the approval even of that person in the mirror. The only approval that matters is God's. You don't have to keep up this mad scramble to protect our reputation and the reputation of the God self. You don't have to carry that crushing burden. Lay it down. Right now. Right now. Just lay it down. Let Jesus carry that for you. If he lets your reputation get dragged in the dirt for a time in the eyes of men, so be it. That's okay. The only thing that matters is that you're pleasing in God's sight, pleasing in the sight of God the Father because you are in Christ. And when the time is right, he will bestow honor on you in the eyes of men. It'll happen at the right time. In the meantime, he just says, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I'll give you rest. Lord, teach us to seek honor only from you. Forgive us for our selfish ambition, self-glorification, self-exaltation. Oh Lord, we slip into it so easily. We come in here and we sing praises to you. And even as we're praising you and exalting your name, we're thinking sometimes about what people think of us exalting you. And we're exalting ourselves. Lord, let us just rest in Christ. We pray that in His holy name. Amen. We've got about 10 minutes left here before we dismiss. So any questions about the sermon? Something that needs to be clarified? Okay, so how do you receive a compliment without allowing it to puff you up? There's a couple of dangers with receiving compliments. One is letting it puff you up. You come to me and say, Darrell, you're a brilliant teacher. Yeah, I think that's about right. I mean, obviously, you want to avoid that, where you're just sort of believing your own press clippings. But there's another error on the other end of the spectrum to where it just turns into self-deprecation. You ever seen those people? Oh, you did a great job. No, I did a terrible job. I blew it. And they start putting themselves down. And that's wrong, too, for two reasons. One, it's still pride, right? Because where's your focus? Still self, right? So it's just as much pride. And secondly, it's unloving. How many of you just love it when you give someone a compliment and they respond by just putting themselves down and reject your compliment? Nobody likes that, right? That's unloving. Why do people give you compliments? What do they want? They want to encourage you, right? They want to put a smile on your face. So what's the most loving thing you can do when someone gives you a compliment? Smile! Enjoy it! Just say thank you. I mean, it's a gesture of love. And if you don't agree with it, that's all right. Don't worry about whether the compliment's even accurate. Just receive what's being done. What's being done is they're trying to encourage you. So be encouraged. Just be encouraged. And receive it from the Lord. Whatever part of it's true, just say, God, if that's true, if what that person said about me is true, And I have that in your sight? Thank you. Because I know that you caused that. You put that in me. And turn your attention to God. And so you can just say, I think when people compliment you, just say, praise God and thank you. Those are the two things you need to say. Praise God, direct attention to God, and thank them for the compliment, and just say, man, that's so encouraging. I appreciate that. Anything else? Exactly, yeah, so one of the dangers is if you see a passage like this that talks about the formal position, the office of teacher in the church, you say, well, that's not me, then somehow you're off the hook from ministering the word of God in general, and that's just not true. We're all, what does Colossians say? Let the word of Christ dwell in you, who? You, richly teaching and admonishing one another. with all wisdom. So we all, we're to make disciples. Everyone of us make disciples. And so whatever you learn, yeah, pass it on. You gotta pass it on to your wife, to your kids, to your husband, to your siblings, to your friends. And man, I would just love it if every single person in this room right now would just pray. And if you don't have someone that you're discipling, Just say, God, show me one person in this church that I can just have coffee with once every other week and try to pass on some things that I've been learning. And on the off week, somebody I want to learn from that I could have coffee with, and I can kind of pick their brain. That's the responsibility of every Christian. So, yeah, thanks for that. Yeah, there is a good kind of enjoying favor with men. because it said Jesus grew in wisdom and stature in favor with God and with men. And so there is a good kind of enjoyment of man's approval, and here's what it is. To the degree that that approval represents the heart of God, it matters to you. To the degree that it's different from the heart of God, it doesn't matter to you. So if 10 people come up to me after a sermon, And eight of them say, Darryl, that was the stupidest sermon I've ever heard, it was dumb, you know, whatever, it was terrible. And they hated it. And two of them said it was a good sermon. If the two are people who really know the word and they're very close to God, they're godly, they're walking by the Spirit, they're full of the Spirit, I'll walk away from that." And the other two aren't. They don't know the Scriptures very well or they don't care very much about following Christ. Then, even though it was eight against two, I'll walk away from that, very encouraged. Right? Because the people who know God's Word, I had their approval, that matters to me because that's more likely to represent what God thinks. If it's the other way, what if the eight of them say, Daryl, brilliant sermon. Man, I thought that was the greatest sermon. You should get an award for that. And then the two say, Daryl, you need to be more careful. That wasn't very good. And again, those two are the ones that really know the scriptures and the eight aren't. I go away chastised and repentant. So when you think about the approval of men, think in terms of does this represent, is God speaking through these people? Or are these people just driven by human wisdom? And the more they're driven by human wisdom, the less their opinion matters to me. And the more they're driven by godly wisdom, the more their opinion matters to me. See that? Okay, all right, good, one more. Yeah, that's right. And we'll get into that when we get into that section. Whatever you do, you're always teaching by your actions. Whenever you open your mouth, you're teaching, and whenever you do anything, you're teaching. And so, if you feel like you're one that has a lot of wisdom, show it by humility and humble actions.