Dave preached a very challenging sermon on the theme of ‘advance’ tonight, speaking from 2 Samuel 5:12-25. God is clearly interested in the advance of His people (think of the Israelites being led out of captivity and advancing into the Promised Land or of the advance of the gospel commanded in Acts 1:8, for example). On a personal level, we are commanded to ‘grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ’ (2 Pet 3:18). There is a need for us to move forward rather than standing still, for it is all too easy for us to become stuck in the proverbial rut.

In this passage, David has finally become king – after a period of waiting which must have seemed interminable to him – and his newly found authority is being challenged by the Philistines. The way that David dealt with this challenge can teach us a lot.

1) He went to the stronghold. In other words, he went to the place where his army was the strongest and knew that if he was to win this battle, he needed to be in a place of strength to deal with the enemy. We need to go to our stronghold, Jesus, and spend time seeking Him in prayer if we are to have the strength to overcome the enemy.

2) He enquired of the Lord. He did not presume that he knew what God wanted him to do, but asked God. We need to walk according to God’s Word. Sometimes we will be required to stand still; sometimes we will be required to wait. But when He tells us to move, we need to be ready to move.

3) He followed God immediately. He was obedient to God’s command. We need to trust and obey God. The name given to God at this point was ‘the God who breaks through’. God is able to break through our impossible impasses and move in ways we cannot fathom.

4) David did not assume that the first strategy would be the same forever. He enquired of the Lord again. We can be very guilty of assuming that a strategy that has worked in the past will continue to work, without realising that God has moved on. We can be in danger of complacency, feeling comfortable, revelling in what God has done in the past without realising that there is ‘so much more to be revealed’. We need to seek God for what He wants us to do now and not settle down into a comfortable status quo.

5) When we hear the rustling in the leaves of the trees, we need to be prepared to move. When we sense God’s Spirit nudging us, we have to be quick to obey His prompting. God is moving. Can we hear the rustling? It’s time for us to advance, to move with God, to be ready to go. We need to seek Him more than ever so that we know His will and move accordingly.

Today we had a birthday to celebrate. There’s always something very special about a child’s birthday:

There’s also something very special about a homemade cake like this one!

Stephen preached from 1 John 2:3-6 this morning, looking at what it means to know Jesus. These verses strongly link obedience to our knowledge of God.

Knowing someone or something involves being aware through observation, having a knowledge of the person or situation and being absolute regarding something. It’s far more than the kind of ‘followers’ people have on social networks like Twitter or Facebook. Knowing Jesus involves more than clicking a ‘Like’ button on a computer or phone. John shows us that our relationship to God must be outworked in everyday living. Jesus said ‘if you love me, keep my commands’ (John 14:15). Obedience is the key to being His follower and is the way to completeness.

Knowing Jesus means we have to live as He did (vs 6), which means we have to find out all we can about how He lived. We need to digest the word of God and spend time seeking His face. Knowing Jesus is a big challenge; it’s easy to talk about, but we will spend our whole lives discovering how He lived and living in obedience to Him.

James 3:1 says “Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.” As a teacher by profession, that is quite a scary verse! At the Bible study on Thursday, we looked at this verse and considered the question ‘what makes a good teacher?’

Those who teach carry great responsibility, and those who have greater responsibility will be judged accordingly (see 1 Cor 4:2, Matt 25:29). In the context of James 3, the teacher’s use of words is perhaps their greatest tools and as we saw, words can be used to encourage and build up or to cut down and destroy.

We looked at a range of quotations about teachers:
1) “A good teacher should promote the active engagement of the learner.” (Mary James)
2) “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” (William Arthur Ward)
3) “What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches. “ (Karl Menninger)
4)2 Teach is
2 Touch lives
4 ever
5) “Nine-tenths of education is encouragement. “(Anatole France)
6) “A good teacher is kind, is generous, listens to you, encourages you, has faith in you, keeps confidences, likes teaching, likes teaching their subject, takes time to explain things, helps you when you’re stuck, tells you how you are doing, allows you to have your say, doesn’t give up on you, cares for your opinion, makes you feel clever, treats people equally, stands up for you, makes allowances, tells the truth and is forgiving.” (the sayings of pupils in a secondary school who were asked this question.)
7) “A good teacher is somebody who learns more every day.”
8) “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. (Henry Brooks Adams)
9) “The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called “truth.” (Dan Rather)

James is well aware, however, that we all stumble in many ways and the need to tame the tongue applies to all of us, not just teachers. For those who teach, however, James 3:1 is a constant reminder of the responsibility we carry and should be an incentive to guard our speech, mindful that our words carry influence.

Our lives need to reflect the character of Christ. Casting Crowns have written a song called ‘Lifesong’ which reflects the verses studied in James 3.

Empty hands held high
Such small sacrifice
If not joined with my life
I sing in vain tonight

Hallelujah, hallelujah
Let my lifesong sing to You. (Casting Crowns, ‘Lifesong’)
Casting Crowns, ‘Lifesong’

As the psalmist prayed, so our prayer is that the words we say and the things we do make our lives sing for God: “May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.” (Ps 19:14)

At the Bible study tonight, we looked at James 3:1-12. James has been showing us the connection between faith and works, and our speech is another area where the connection between what we believe and how we live needs to be lived out. This passage in many Bibles is headed ‘taming the tongue’ (reminiscent of Sunday’s sermon on meekness, where we learnt about the ‘wild stallion tamed‘.) The passage is not difficult to understand – what is difficult is actually putting it into practice!

James uses examples to paint pictures of how the small body part known as the tongue has influence beyond its size. He talks about the bit used to direct a horse or the rudder used to steer a ship – both seemingly small things that ultimately exercise great control. In the same way, he says, the tongue is just a small part of the body, but makes great boasts. It’s like a spark that sets a whole forest on fire. His language is blunt and unequivocal: “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 3:6) He goes on to compare it to ‘a restless evil, full of deadly poison.’ (James 3:7)

The poison comes, he says, when out of the same mouth come both praise and cursing. Our speech to and about God may be pious, but if we are not speaking well to and about men (made in God’s image), there is dissonance. Our lives are not integrated. This kind of disparity can’t continue: ‘my brothers and sisters, this should not be!’ (James 3:10)

We looked at why words are so important (because they reflect who God is and the medium through which He has chosen to work – see Ps 33:4, 6; Ps 12:6, John 1:1, Genesis 1:1).

We looked also at how our speech often falls short of what God wants it to be (see Ps 55:21, Ps 64:2-4, Prov 12:18, Prov 18:8, Eccl 5:3, Matt 12:36-37).

We also looked at what our speech should be like: how we need to meditate on God’s word and pray that our words will be pleasing to Him (Ps 19:14), how we must hide His word in our hearts so that we do not sin against God (Ps 119:11), how we must live not on bread alone but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matt 4:4) and how a gentle answer can turn away wrath (Prov 15:1). Jesus, in the parable of the wise and foolish builders, showed us that the difference between wisdom and folly really lies in whether we put His words into practice or not (Matt 7:24-26). James has had much to say about this already in James 1!

Words are powerful and can be used for good purposes or bad ones. We can use words thoughtlessly, unwisely, rashly, hastily, cruelly, unkindly, jokingly, tactlessly…. Sometimes it’s not just about the actual words we say but how we say them that matters! Quite often, we need to be quicker to listen than to speak and learn to think before we speak, for after all, words are only the overflow of the heart. They reveal what is within.

The real problem we face is not our words. Our words may well be the symptom; the disease is an unsurrendered heart (see Matt 12:33-37; Mark 7:20-23). Just as a leopard cannot change its spots, so the taming of the tongue is beyond our human strength (see Jer 13:24; James 3:8). We have to raise our white flag in surrender to God before ever we can hope to gain mastery over our speech, for we need to have the mind of Christ formed in us if we are to live the kind of life He calls us to.