Prescription to Pain

Can we thank God one more time for his presence, setting us free. Thank you, Jesus. While everyone is still standing, I want to calibrate our hearts and our minds, and we're gonna start with the word of God. So right where you're at, it's on the screen. I wanna read God's word over us to unlock the parts of our hearts or our minds or our souls where God needs to go. So Proverbs 4.23, word spoken from one of the wisest men definitely of the Bible and even in human history, King Solomon says this. For those in the room, those watching online, this is words that apply to our lives in 2026. Guard your heart with all diligence. Put up a protection, a barrier, a shield. Guard your heart with all diligence. From it flow the springs of life, the issues of life, the problems of life. Guard your heart. Guard your heart. Guard your heart. Today, spirit of the living God, we invite you into this place and we say, have your way. God, I'm asking that you do what no man, woman, or child can do in this moment. I'm asking that your spirit unlock our padlocked heart today that we're able just to come before you and receive. Go to those places of our hearts

that feel maybe hidden or dark or afraid of letting anyone in. Will you invade this space and transform our mind? We honor you. We love you. We thank you. We give you all the glory in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. Go ahead and turn to your neighbor. Greet them. Online family, we're excited that you're here. We know that your presence is here. You are welcomed and you are wanted here at Revere Church. Well, welcome to Revere. Again, my name is Bianca. I'm one of the pastors here. If you are new or visiting, I just wanna be another face that gets to say, you have a space. You have a seat here at Revere. We are actually joining in right with a new series that we're in entitled Talk is Cheap. We're going through the book of James. And this time we did it a little bit different. Rather than going exegetically, meaning verse by verse, we're actually tackling a topic in a chapter and then you, through the free DF that we put together, the free PDF that was free 99 for you, you get to outwork chapter four on your own. Why?

Because I want you to fall in love with the word of God. I want you to be transformed by the word of God. I want you to understand the word of God. And so today as we dive in, I want us just to kind of pause. We're almost halfway through this series. Next week is our final week. And I just kinda wanna pause for a second and ask ourselves some questions. What's the issue behind the issue? What's the thing that we see? What's the thing that we don't see? I bring this up because several years ago, I went to the doctor because I started to have a lot of headaches, really, really bad headaches that were turning into micromigraines, if you will. So every morning I would wake up and from the base of my cranium all the way to the top of my head, it would be like throbbing. And I did what any well-intentioned, spirited woman would do. I went to the internet and I went to WebMD. And I found out I was indeed dying, okay? I deduced myself with definitely having a brain tumor. And I was about to call Make-A-Wish Foundation, tell my family where to spread my ashes. And I know you think I'm dramatic, but bear with me because my mom had brain cancer. And anyone who knows, anyone who's lived through cancer or you have been a family member to someone who's gone through cancer,

it's always that slumbering fear. It's gonna get ya. I have since submitted my fear of that to the Lord. But at the time I panicked and I called my doctor and I said, I need to see you immediately. And so I went in and I told him all the symptoms. I told him all the reasons why I had rightly deduced myself. I told him about what I was feeling. I told him how it was making manifest in my life. I told him the pain that I was in. And I was expecting the prescription to be, you indeed have a brain tumor. But instead, like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Kindergarten Cop, he looks at me and says, it's not a tumor. And he laughs. I don't laugh because I have a tumor on my pituitary gland, which I told him. I have a tumor on my pituitary gland, which means I don't find you funny. I've lost my ability to find you humorous. And he said, no Bianca, I want you to open up your mouth. And I showed him my teeth. He said, yeah, you're grinding your teeth. And this is most likely a residual effect of stress, not a brain tumor. So go to the dentist, get a night guard. See you next year at your checkup. See, I thought I knew what the issue was, but it was the issue behind the issue.

The symptoms were not indicative of the problem. So I think sometimes, as James so beautifully pulls out, is that he is about to talk about the cause and the cure. He's about to talk about the problem and the prescription. So if you're the note-taking type, I want you to jot down the title. The title of today in James chapter four is Prescription to our pain. The prescription to our pain. Turn with me your Bibles to James chapter four. This is week four, this is chapter four. There's a pattern here. You can still download your free DF. I would love for you to join us for the next two weeks as we dive into this book. Why? Because I believe that right now for this moment, the book of James is a message for our house, is a message for this church. But I believe that it's a message for the capital C church. See, James has been pinpointing problems. There is pain in the church and he's about to pinpoint the problem of the pain. And in chapters one, two, three, four, and eventually in five, he begins to have honest conversations with the people of the church. Like we've had honest conversations in the last couple of weeks. See, James is talking about the preferential partiality

that's going on in the church. You are nicer to rich people. That shouldn't be. James tells him, hey, you're playing favorites. And you know what? The widows and the orphans are being mishandled and that should not be. He's talking about that there is favoritism within the church and that should not be. He's saying that there's jealousy and envy in the church and that should not be. He's saying that y'all are speaking with words that are tearing down, not building up and that should not be. And in chapter four, he doesn't stop. He's like, hey, you are being slanderous, you're talking trash and you're gossiping and that should not be. But see, they're dealing with things that we don't deal with here. No, no, no. Us? Not at all. James is a book written in antiquity, definitely cannot speak to us in modernity or can't it? See, within every church, not just ours, there are symptoms and we think we know what the problem is but it's not a tumor. What's the goal of James?

In week one, I told you that the goal of James, yes, is to teach us how to live thriving lives as followers of Jesus, but ultimately, he's writing this letter to them for the sake of unity. So what's the goal? Unity. What's the problem? Our hearts. And in this church, I have tried laying a very solid foundation. I don't like to use the word Christian. I like to use the word follower of Jesus because in our cultural climate, as I lick my finger and see where the spirit of God is blowing, we are using the name Christian as a ticket or a label to get us into places like a spiritual country club. You can't be born into Christianity. You can't be born into a church. You can't be born into a religion. As a follower of Christ, we have autonomy and we get to make a decision. I choose to deny myself and to live in the ways of Jesus. So James is reminding them, hey, hey, if you say that you love Jesus, your actions should not be how you're acting. But see, I was, I grew up in a church and I'm so grateful for the teaching that I received as a child, as a teen, and as an adult. And the teaching that I received was very good

because it gave us a lot of do this and don't do that. And that's good. And there was a lot of conversation like Christians do this and Christians don't do that. But if we are not careful with our language and our high bar for legalism, we could teach and perpetuate behavior modification. Or if I do this and follow this and say this, then I get to say, I am a Christian. I have no fun. I have no joy. I am boring. I had a lobotomy. No, no, no. Christianity is not about behavior modification. It is about life transformation. When you say that you are a follower of Jesus, you are saying not my life, not my will, but yours be done. And if you are new here to Revere, I have never been ever so clear and direct and succinct about why I've decided to give my left ovary to this community. The reason why, that was funny. That was funny. That was funny. My life, you know. Every church should be about salvation. We don't wanna see people go to hell. Let's introduce them to Jesus and they can find their way to heaven.

I love that. That's amazing. But we exist for more than that. And there's many churches that care about outreach and we care about outreach. We love it. And there's many churches that care about a community where you have a place to fall, soft place to land when life is hard. And we care about that and we create that. But me, what I want you to know about me and why I'm giving everything to this community is because I care about transformation. I care about your life going in one direction, encountering the word of God, the power of his spirit, conviction from his Holy Spirit that we are transformed. Because I have seen marriages transformed. I have seen wombs transformed. I have seen children transformed. I have seen people transformed. I have seen businesses transformed. And I don't stand because, oh, we're amazing and high and mighty. I stand before you and say, it is the spirit of God that is moving in this community. And that's what I'm giving everything for. If you come here, I expect life transformation. Not an easy life, but a life that is transformed through cruciformation. The cross changes me.

And what I was realizing. My life growing up as a Christian is that it's very easy to be a Pharisee. And what happens is that you can say the right words and do the right things, but at the end of the day, your actions and your words reveal what's within. This is where you pick up James chapter four, verse one. James says, hey guys, what causes fights? What causes squabbles and chitchats and prayer circles? What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? James is going to drop dive. James is gonna start telling on people. He's gonna say, hey, hey, you know the issue that you have with that guy, the issue they have with the sister, the one that you're going to talking to everybody and their mama about, guess what? It's not them, maybe it's you. What is warring on inside of you that causes you to behave this way, to act this way or to do these things? Notice he gives us the source of where these issues are coming from. He says, from your heart, from within. You have a diseased heart, you have heart disease. Now, the word disease comes from a contractive word that is dis-ease, so your heart is not at ease. So I have to ask you, what's going on in your heart today? What's in your heart that you don't want anyone to know?

What are the words that you've been saying and the things that you've been doing and the things that you've been thinking and the retaliation that you want to have that now is coming out of your mouth and in your actions? Matthew 12, 24 says this, this is the words of Jesus. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. If you think it, if you feel it, it will come out. I grew up with this candy dispenser called Pez. Anyone familiar with the Pez candy dispenser? Yeah, we're old, we're the old ones, yeah. So there was these character heads, there was comic heads, there were cartoon heads and if you open the mouth really wide, a candy would pop out. So if you were a Pez and I opened your mouth, what would come out? I spent a lot of time in counseling and therapy and doing the hard work of healing and trying to live a life of integrity and giving my life over to the Lord in a way that feels healthy and right and not religious, but in the way that God would want me to. And what I've discovered in this therapy healing journey is that there's always an issue behind the issue. You know, if you're married and you fight over the toothpaste tube on whether the cap goes on or the cap stays off, do you know that that marital strife is not because of toothpaste? It's the issue behind the issue. And so let's bring this down,

put the cookies on the lower shelf. If I press you and what comes out, if I open your mouth and what comes out is anger, I have to ask, is it anger? Or is it something behind the anger? Because in therapy and in counseling and in wisdom, what we discussed and discover is that anger is a secondary emotion. Anger is easy to do. Anger is easy to express. It's easy to access because it doesn't require vulnerability. And so what we are discovering, what science is discovering in many cases is that it's not just that you're angry. You might be depressed or sad. It's the emotion behind the emotion. That requires work. That requires to ask hard questions. What is in me that I don't want anyone to see? If you're here today and when I open your mouth, shame or humiliation comes out. Maybe the real issue is feeling flawed or inadequate. What's the issue behind the issue? If you're here and you open your mouth and bitterness and gossip comes out of it, it's highly likely that you might be feeling unloved or not wanted. I'm here to tell you, it's not a tumor. It's not. James 2 says this. You desire but you do not have, so you kill.

Now we need to pause for a second because last week we were in chapter three and in chapter three, Sam walked us through the power of the tongue, that there's life and death. And I just want to pause for a second and thank Sam for dispelling and dispersing the word of God. So proud. And here's the thing, I work so hard on messages that they rhyme and there's good stories and all this other stuff. Do you know the hallmark of a great message? You remember it. That's the telltale sign of a great message and all week I'm like, prophesy means to speak life. You know how many times I stop myself and I'm like, speak life, I will not speak death. James in chapter three is reminding us. Words have the power to kill or to bring life. So when James continues on this thought because remember James did not write a letter and say period full stop now Chapter 4 no no after the letter was written theologians decided to make it easy for us to locate certain passages Chapters and verses so we can't say because he's in chapter 4. It's a different thought It's not so when he says in verse 2 you desire, but you do not have so you kill he's not talking about He's also about that type of murder He is talking about in chapter 3 when he says your words can kill you could speak death So James is saying hey you desire so you and you don't have so you talk trash and you murder somebody You speak death over them does that make sense now are we connecting the dots? Oh, it's gonna get better shots fired He says you covet, but you cannot get what you want so you quarrel and you fight So here James is saying oftentimes the reason that you are fighting the reason you're talking trash the reason you feel away The reason why you're triggered is an unfulfilled

desire in your heart What's the goal of James? Unity, what's the problem? our hearts So today we're creating space at the end of service Because what I do know is that I'm glad you came here, but you didn't come for the worship I'm glad you came, but you didn't come from the matcha or the cold brew I'm glad you came, but you didn't come just for the fellowship I'm glad you came, but you didn't even come for the word you came to encounter God And so I am going to get out of the way and create a space for you to get with God at the end of service Today because if we have a heart problem and we have a diseased heart, we're never gonna walk in unity Do you let the number one killer is not kovat or cancer? The number one killer is heart disease around the world and I love that sometimes the physical parlays with the spiritual So today all I want to do is say It's a heart. Okay What is in our heart? James is calling not those out in the world those people those non followers of Jesus and non Christians No, no, he's talking about those within the church now this entire series I've been trying to elevate and have us think higher than just our church because I do believe that his message Is for the globe those inside and outside of the church, but let's just spend a few minutes hypothetically going through this passage and maybe just maybe if we say that we're Christians if we say that we're followers of Jesus I Think it's high time. I think it's very fair that we do a self-evaluation To see wait a minute. Do my words match my actions and do my actions match my belief because here we are 2026 years later still wrestling with the same things that James is talking about and James is over here saying hey Hey, hey Revere here in this church. There's men and women that speak about men and women in the church I've been in church long enough to know that humans are gonna human So this is not an indictment against us or make us feel like really really bad, but it is a moment for us to say If that's me I don't want to be that because I'm a follower of Jesus and my behavior my comportment my decisions my words Everything that comes out of me must be a reflection of Jesus

May we be people that don't tear people down so that we could be lifted up. No, no No, no, we will not use our words to tear down We will use our words to build up James continues this on this this thought of what's going on in the church This is not something he's like plucking from thin air. No. No, uh-uh. He goes further go to verse 11 He says brothers and sisters men and women Saints and eights do not slander one another What is that do not tell a lie don't mess with somebody's reputation Anyone who speaks against his brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it you were speaking against God When you judge the law you were not keeping it but sitting in judgment on it So what you're saying is God get off the throne. I'm a better judge than you Verse 12, there's only one capital L lawgiver and Capital J judge. It's not judge Judy This is the Lord God Almighty the one who is able to save and destroy but you Who are you to judge your neighbor? This is actually one of the most commonly known verses from Christians and non-christians Because we love to throw that verse out there. Who are you to judge me? Who are you judge me? I want to be very clear. I love grace. I believe in grace, but we talk about judgment I think it's important that we as followers of Jesus get the right to in to judge fruit So when we say judge we make a judgment it is for clarification It is not for condemnation It's for evaluation not for condemnation meaning if you come in to this house with the false doctrine and you say I'm the sister of Jesus I'm gonna be like I will judge that I will evaluate that and Say you a heretic. No, no. No, so there's right things to judge if somebody is in Then we must handle that sin, not to condemn them, but to bring them back to the cross. So when we judge, there's a way to do this. And you know who taught us how to do this? Jesus. I told you, if any pastor ever asked you a question, the answer is always Jesus. Just shout back, Jesus, okay?

There you go, there you go. Who taught us this, church? Jesus. Good job, Bible scholars, yes. Don't turn there. Matthew 18, 15 says this. If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault. Just between the two of you. Don't go to your prayer circle. Don't go to your cousin's dog walking, mailman's ice cream dispenser. No, no, no, no, no. You go to that person. Don't talk about it. I gotta pray about it with my community group. No, you don't. No, you don't. You don't. You gotta go to that person directly. Jesus said that. And if they listen to you, you've won them over. We don't have time to go fully through this, but Jesus goes on to say, and if they do not receive that, then bring in another witness. So somebody doesn't just throw a grenade of an accusation, have things explode and run away. No, no, no. You need someone to confirm that.

And here, Jesus is saying, hey, that person could be restored. So the question I'm asking in a room of this size in a church of our size is, how is your heart? If we just take a moment and assess. How is my heart? Where do you go when your heart is broken? Where do you go when your heart is shattered? Where do you go when your heart is diseased? What do you do when your heart is betrayed? What do you do when your heart is bitter? What do you do when your heart is angry? What do you do when there's doubt in your heart? What do you do when you're angry or disappointed or disillusioned or confused? Have you ever been there? See Orange County? We could easily play Pharisee and fake. So I'm gonna ask you again, have you ever walked into church with a broken heart? Have you ever walked into church angry, disillusioned, confused, bitter, upset, disillusioned? Yeah. Where do you go? Oh, that's a good one. I love that. Good answer, good answer. Look at what James tells us, James 4, 8. Come near to God and he'll come near to you.

I grew up in the New King James version of the Bible. And so in my mind, it's always draw near to him, draw near to him and he'll draw near to you. All week, this one sentence has wrecked me. Where do you go when your heart is heavy and overwhelmed? Draw near to Jesus, draw near to Jesus and he'll draw near to you. What's the prescription to our pain? James is gonna tell us. There are areas, I'm gonna give you these four things at the end of service, I want you to take a look at what area maybe do you need to open up your heart and let the Lord do an excavation of your heart. The first one that we see here in verse eight is the prescription to our pain is to draw near to God, draw near to God. And I love that he uses this word, come to Jesus and Jesus will come to you. Draw near to the Lord and the Lord will draw near to you. You know why I like that? Because there's a sense of reciprocity. Oh, that's a big SAT word, stay with me, stay with me, church, put your thinking caps on, okay? So much of our Western culture and communication has been like, Jesus is chasing you, Jesus is focused on you, Jesus is gonna heal you, Jesus is gonna bless you and all of that is very, very true. He's leaving the 99 for the one, great, he got you. Now, what do you do? All of this is true but as mature believers,

as Christians, as followers of Jesus, James is writing to them and saying, hey, hey, hey, wait a minute, timeout, T.O., wait a minute. This is an active participant activity. If you say that you believe Jesus and you believe in Jesus, guess what? What are you doing to draw near to him? How many of you have ever been in a one-sided relationship? You know, you are the one that's the initiator, you're the one that's the lover, you're the one that's the chaser, you're the one that wants to reconcile. How many have been in a one-sided relationship? And all the people who are not, guess what, it's you, okay? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go to therapy, it's fine, okay? Maybe you haven't been in that situation but y'all seen them. The one that is the taker in the relationship, the one that, you know, is waiting for the other one and sits back with even higher expectations more and more. And yet, we do the same thing with Jesus. Come and find me, come and bless me, come forgive me, come bless me, do more, love more, me, me, me. Whoa, whoa, that's not the type of relationship that I want to be in. I want there to be a sense of mutuality and reciprocity. And what I love about the encouragement

and the promise of James. That no matter what it is in your heart, no matter what's in your heart today, you can draw near to God and he'll draw near to you. Are you sad? Draw near to God. Are you mad? Draw near to God. Are you in sin? Draw near to God. Are you bitter? Draw near to God. Are you angry? Draw near to God. Are you doubting? Draw near to God. Not to perform, not to be perfect, not to play, not to pretend, but to draw near to him because he cares for you. Right where you are. He loves you, he sees you, he knows you. He's saying, come, come, you come to me. I'll meet you right where you are. Prescription to our pain. Draw near to God. Prescription to our pains. We see in scripture, purify your heart. Continue on in verse eight. James says, wash your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Now this would have been understood in the context that's being read because during this time, if you were to go to the temple and make a sacrifice, you could not come with unclean hands. And so there would be this ceremony

where you wash your hands for the things that you have done. And so James is using this parallel metaphor to be like, hey, what have you done that you need to ask God to forgive you of? Purify your hearts, you double-minded. This is the third time that James uses this phrase double-minded. That's like a split mind where you say one thing and do another, or you're wishy and you're washy. So James is coming after the wishy-washy Christians. And he said, yeah, yeah, yeah, you can't do that no more. You can't say, I wanna change, but you won't give up the weed. You can't say, oh, I'll do anything for the Lord, but I'm not gonna let go of that relationship. You can't say, oh, I want God's purpose for my life and continue to gossip and talk trash about those that look like they're walking your calling while you're still stunted in the cubicle. It doesn't work like that. Wash your hands, what have you done? Purify your hearts, what have I kept hidden? If you want your heart to heal, stop treating the symptom and go after the problem and it requires a cleansing. So draw near to God, wash your hands. Prescription to our pain that we see here is repent. That word repent actually means to make a U-turn. You're going in one direction

and you turn around to go in the other direction. The word repent is simply, I'm sorry, please forgive me. Today in our time of really doing a heart check, my invitation to you is that you understand and that you're willing to maybe go up to not just God, but go to others who you have hurt. Because sometimes it's easy to listen to a message like this and be like, and he hurt me and she hurt me and they hurt me, but who have you hurt? God, I want you to heal my heart and if I need to repent to my brother and my sister, let it start with me. You might be here and you might be like, God, I need you to heal my heart, but you're not willing to draw near to God because your doubt has kept you at bay. You might be here and you don't want to cleanse your hands. You want to hold on to that grudge. You want to make them pay. Maybe the healing for your dis-eased heart will come when you repent, when you wash your hands. And look at James continues on this last encouragement. His prescription to our pain is to humble yourself. And to humble yourself, it requires that you evaluate where you've been wrong and that you're open to how to get it right. Humility requires that you evaluate where you've been wrong and you're open to make it right. James 4.10 says this, humble yourself before the Lord and he, he,

not your boss, not your wife, not your spouse. No, no, humble yourself before the Lord and he will lift you up. I won't make this statement as dogma or as core Christian component or belief, but this is what I will say. I actually have witnessed with my own eyes that it doesn't matter what someone has done, the sin that they have done, when they are willing to humble themselves. I have seen time and time again, the Lord redeemed them and put them in a place of honor. I live by this mantra. You can't go wrong doing right. You just can't, you just can't. Play low, the low man wins. I've seen time and time again, even if I feel like I'm justified or if I'm right, I will always say, Lord, check my heart. I humble myself before you. If there's anything in me that should not be here, remove it and I repent and I'm sorry. I live by the truism of my father who says, God, time and truth. In God, through time, the truth is always revealed. Don't worry about retribution. Don't worry about vengeance. As the Lords, can we walk with integrity and say, I can only be responsible for me. And for me, I will live like this.

I will repent. I will apologize. I will clean my hands. I'll make right so the Lord can heal my broken heart. So in a moment, we're gonna participate in community. communion, because we're going to remember. As you walked in, you received a communion cup, and that communion is symbolic of what Jesus has done for you. In Luke 11, 22, Jesus pulls together bread and wine, which are symbolic of his blood, and he speaks this over them. He says, he took the bread, which is symbolic of his body that we've broken, and he gave thanks, and he broke it, symbolic of his body that is broken for you and I. And he gave it to them, saying, this is my body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. So in this moment, we're going to remember what Christ has done for us. And because Isaiah says by his stripes we are healed, I firmly believe that people are going to get heart healing in here today. I firmly believe that as I was praying and pounding the ground for a word for you today, that some people are going to get spiritual breakthrough, but it's going to require a moment of stillness and quiet and solitude. So I want you not to partake in communion yet. I want you to sit with the elements. I want you to remember Jesus' body broken for you. I want you to remember his bruised, bloody, bludgeoned body broken for you. And I want you to remember. And then I want you to come with all the issues in your heart, all the things that you're afraid of, all the things that you're feeling, all the things that you feel unjust, all the things that you want to get right because they did you wrong, all those things. Bring it to Jesus. Bring your heart disease to Jesus. And I believe that if we're committed to do the work, that the Lord can heal us. Right now, this is doing the work. Don't think about the breakfast burrito. Don't think about the lunch, brunch reservations. Don't think about your kids. They're fine. Don't think about the parking. I got to get out of here. No, you don't. You're fine. Okay. You want breakthrough? Sit down. Okay. Open up your heart and get honest with the Lord. Then we will partake in the elements individually. Usually we do this corporately together. So we together remember, but I believe that you can commune with the Lord right where you are today because he knows what you need. He sees you. He knows what's in your heart. He knows what you're carrying. And he's just like,

hey, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I'll give them rest, rest for their weary souls. So I want you to hold the communion elements in your hand. I want you to do the work. What is in your heart? What does the Lord need to heal? And then I'll walk us through communion.