Well, from the reading of the text this morning, we recognize that our speech, the words we use, have power. They have power for good, and they have power for bad. And you might be able to think of some words from history that will help you kind of think through, like the words that influenced times and people. And I have just a couple that I want to share and remind you of, and here's a few. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. It's the opening phrase of our Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin. Set changed history, really, with those words. How about this one? It's one small step for man, right? One giant leap for mankind, kind of inspiring a nation as they started space exploration, one that we have heard many, many times. One that I remember personally, growing up in the 80s, Ronald Reagan said, Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall. And really talking about the Berlin Wall dividing the city there, but really also double meaning there with the Cold War dividing nations. So just powerful words that had an influence in the course of human history. But if we go back to the scriptures, we'll see some other words that were very, very powerful and changed the world, changed everything. From the very beginning, let there be light. God, spoken to existence, the world we know. His words recorded in scripture for us, but followed up right after that. Did God really say the liar, Satan, from the very beginning, starting his deception when he questioned God? God threw Moses to the Egyptian slave master, Pharaoh. Let my people go, powerful words. But probably the most powerful words ever spoken in human history that changed everything were spoken by our Lord. It is finished. Changed everything for us. And Christians throughout the millennia have repeated that and known that and they say the living Lord is risen. He is risen. He is risen indeed. We affirm the work of our Lord and Savior. Powerful words, powerful words that changed history forever. Now it's likely you may have experienced some words in your life that have affected you, both positively and negatively. Perhaps you can recall a hurtful or demeaning statement that's really haunted you for years. It's had a negative impact on your life. Or maybe you have a word or a letter you've received from someone. Some encouraging words that have just buoyed your spirits, have lifted you up, have helped you, and it just remains etched in your memory, and you carry it with you all these years. Words have power. Words have meaning. Speech, we can all agree on this, they have impact for good and for bad. So, we have been going through James, and in the background, James has been talking about our speech over the first few chapters we've looked at. James 1.19 tells us, talk less, listen more, be quick to hear, slow to speak. James 1.27 says you can be deceived to think you're religious without controlling your tongue. He said it can't be that way. James 2.3, the sin of partiality which Scott unfolded for us, really revolves around the words we use to people. You sit here, you stand over there. We're using our speech wrong. And James 2.12, in the background there, summary would say, let your words be motivated by faith and by love. Last week, we got to tell and show And Jeremy unfolded the Scriptures for us and said, if you have a genuine faith, your words will be justified by your actions, by the things you do, by living out your faith for the good of others. Really, faith being proven out by its production of good works. And that's the theme through the first two chapters here, a testing or a proving of the believer's faith. proven by its response to the word in chapter one, proven by its reaction to partiality in chapter two, and then proven by its production of good works that we heard about last week. And we arrive at our text this morning, the longest discussion of words and speech in the New Testament, and our speech moves from the background now to the forefront, and we will see that our faith is proven by self-control. Faith is proven by self-control. If we were to summarize the passage that Jennifer read for us, we could come up with a theme here and just lay it out into this kind of big idea, this main truth, that those who claim truth in Jesus, true faith in Jesus, must guard their tongue. Those who claim true faith in Jesus must guard their tongue. And the passage breaks down nicely in kind of two sections here where we see the influence of the tongue and the inconsistency of the tongue. And there's three main points that we'll look at. Guard your tongue, it directs your life. Guard your tongue, it can destroy your life. And then guard your tongue because it displays your heart. We're gonna walk through this passage this morning and we're gonna look at this together. So let's start with just a brief word of prayer and let the Lord guide our thoughts this morning. Father, we come to you this morning knowing that this is an area that we are gonna find that we all struggle in. We all stumble. So I pray, Father, that your word will do its work in our life this morning, that we can grow, that we can change by your grace and with your help. Will you help us to understand the word this morning? Will you help us to be able to apply it to our lives in a way that will be well-pleasing to you? And we pray in Jesus' name, amen. So we're gonna start here with the influence of the tongue, and we're gonna be looking at verses one through eight. So let me just start here right at the top, verse one. So right away in verse one, the influence of the tongue is addressed, and he's using an illustration here of teachers, with a warning given to them. great care and much prayer must go into becoming a teacher. And while it may seem strange to kind of, it might seem disconnected to have this statement right here from chapter two into chapter three about guarding our tongue, it actually is really good because he moves from proving the topic of wrong teaching about faith and works to the serious responsibility that we have to be accurate with how we handle the word of God. So why does he single out teachers here at the outset? There's a couple of options that folks have come up with. First, some say this whole chapter 3 really is addressed to teachers, and all the illustrations revolve around the church body. That's kind of a minor view of this text. But most agree that this serves as a convenient transition point for James to begin a general warning, a general teaching regarding the tongue. And so I think the main point here is not about the teacher, it's just an illustration of how the tongue can be used for good or bad. Teachers tended to have a more, what would you say, prominent role in society during this time, during the life of the early church. It kind of had its roots probably in the rabbinic authority in the Jewish community. Rabbis enjoyed much prestige. They enjoyed much authority and respect, and that's things that people like, right? We want authority. We want prestige. We want to be respected. And apparently there was a problem. There was a problem with people trying to become teachers of the word prematurely. Maybe they weren't qualified. Maybe they weren't ready for this, or maybe they had wrong motivation. And James is issuing a warning here. He says, if you're going to teach, you've got to learn to hold your tongue under restraint. And he uses the term stricter judgment. They will be judged with greater strictness. Now this is not saying that the teacher, if you want to take it to the pastor, that he's held to a much higher standard than your average Christian. It's actually just talking about the use of the tongue and how he's handling the word. He's judged more strictly by how he teaches or she teaches the word. So we do know that a teacher has power to influence many for good. But we can also influence for bad, and even unwittingly, by teaching things falsely, we can lead people astray. So James says, be warned. It serves as this warning to the believers here, to the teachers, be warned, friends. If you're gonna teach the words of God, if you're going to be accurate, you need to be prepared, be serious about it, be motivated by his glory, not your own. And this serves as a transition here in verse two. It says the teacher, he's talking to that, but he shifts it to the focus of the whole congregation, the whole church. Because he says, for we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, also able to bridle his whole body. So he begins to lay out instructions and some pictures of how our tongues can be used positively and negatively. And the focus of the remainder of the text is gonna be on the whole congregation here. We all stumble in what we say. Would you agree with that? Have you ever made a mistake? Have you ever said anything you wish you could take back? A harsh word in a meeting, a cutting remark that's quickly followed by, I'm just kidding, that was just a joke, and you realize you probably weren't joking, but you're trying to cover for yourself, right? These hurtful things that we can say, we all stumble. We're not perfect. Perfect means here, in this term, full of integrity in our whole life. It's actually talking about the one who would never sin in his speech. So he's looking ahead and saying, if you're perfect, you can control this. But we all stumble. We all have difficulty here, and that's where we get to our first main point this morning. Guard your tongue. Guard your tongue, because it directs your life. And he gives us two pictures of this, how it can direct our life. A bit guiding a spirited horse. Now I don't want you to think about a horse that's gonna just, or an animal that's going down rows back and forth and it's just kind of domesticated that way. This is talking about an unruly horse, perhaps. A very high spirited horse. A powerful animal with a will of its own being controlled by the master who's riding it. Or a rudder steering a ship that despite its size, this small rudder can steer it wherever it needs to go, even in the turbulent winds. The verse says, if we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the ships, they're so large, they're driven by strong winds, they're guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So, also, the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. a bit and a rudder, they seem to be insignificant things. Sometimes you can't even see them. You can't see that bit in the horse's mouth on his tongue, but you can't see the rudder under the water. And I think we can understand this simple illustration a little bit as well, like what controls us, what guides us. when you think about how your day would go if that invisible internet connection just disappeared for you. What would happen? You can't see it. You're out of control, right? Probably feeling that way. Or the hottest day of the year comes and the little AAA battery that's in your thermostat dies. And you don't know what's going on, but you know it's not working, right? And it's a problem. Things that we can't see. But his point is, look how something so small, look how something so small can direct and control something more powerful and much larger. That's the case with the tongue, causing our words to have a massive impact on our life and the life of those around us. But just as good comes from the bit and rudder, so too can good come from the words that we use, the encouraging words. The words where we come alongside someone. We speak truth and love. And that may cause us to say some difficult things, but we're doing it in a way to help and to encourage and to come alongside them. We must guard it. We must guard our tongue. It directs our life. And a true and pure faith is exposed in what we say and how we interact with others. Guard your tongue. It directs your life. And just as the tongue can be a small force for good, it can also be a small force for evil. And that's where we're gonna see that guard your tongue, because it can destroy your life. And it can destroy the life of those around you. Verse five, how great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire. And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. stains the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and is set on fire by hell. Now notice how James uses small and great again. A small fire can set ablaze a great forest, a big forest. Robert Horne gave me an illustration of this about the Sawmill Fire in Arizona in 2017. 46,900 acres were destroyed by a fire, and it all started with a gender reveal party. You might have read about this in the news. The guy had the idea, he's gonna shoot the target, he's gonna blow open the bag and show what gender the baby is, but It went south pretty fast, and the fire got out of control. A small fire did over $8 million worth of damage. Apparently, this occurred in James's time, too, because he's using the picture of the small fire out of control. So much destruction in a short amount of time. A careless camper with one small fire can destroy a forest overnight. This is what he's saying. And the thing about fire and the thing about words, with control, they can provide light and warmth. Picture the beautiful fireplace providing the warmth for you. It's a fire under control. But without control, it can burn the house down. It's what the tongue has the power to do. This is James's point. It can set your whole world on fire. A careless word can destroy a life overnight. And I think he means to convey the varied relationships that we have in our life being set ablaze by that uncontrolled tongue, destroying relationships, damaging businesses. Things just going south, inciting violence among people. It's very difficult to even have civil discourse today because things get so incited and out of control. And he says, in fact, our tongues can be used as a tool of Satan, set on fire by hell. the father of lies, the adversary, seeking to destroy. And I think he used this term hell, the word Gehenna, because his readers would have been very familiar with a valley that's right outside the walls of Jerusalem called the Hinnom Valley. Trash was burned there day and night, but in the Old Testament, it was a place where pagan worship was practiced. Children were sacrificed to Baal and to Molech by fire. Jesus used this same example in his teaching. It's an unforgettable description to the readers of the power that rests in the tongue to destroy life. What you say, what we say can affect anyone and everyone around us. Your words can destroy your life. So I think the question becomes, how is this possible? How is it possible for the believer to have that much power to destroy a life with their tongue? I think verse seven and eight alludes to that for us. For every kind of beast and bird of reptile and of sea creature can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind. Now don't think about your pets. Don't think about taking the big creatures and you're domesticating them, they're gonna live with you. Not every creature has become a pet. A more proper rendering of this word might be to subdue or to subjugate. So it's a look back to the garden. Man was given the garden mandate to have dominion over the earth and to rule over and to bring under control all the animals. Even the wildest of beasts can be put under control and contained in a zoo. But, he says in verse eight, no human can tame the tongue. It's a restless evil, full of deadly poison. The tongue is the opposite. A man cannot control his own tongue. A person cannot subdue that small part of his body that affects every other part. and can wreak so much heartache and pain. He uses the term restless evil and deadly poison, but you think back to James 1, 8, a man who's unstable. He's just unstable in all his ways. In this context, it's like the idea of that wild animal, while he's contained, he's chafing at the bit. He's pushing against everything, trying to escape, trying to become uncaged. He's spreading deadly venom. It's bad, bad because it can do so much, it can destroy in so many ways morally and socially, economically, spiritually, draining people. So I want you to pay close attention to the words in the text here. No human being can tame the tongue. This is what I think James is trying to say at this point. When it comes to the words and what we do with our tongues, we can't do it on our own by sheer willpower. It's not possible. And it's not, though, this is not some moralism where we just gotta try harder and dig a little bit deeper and try to make ourselves better. We need someone else's help. We can't do it on our own. It seems hopeless. But we're gonna get back to that in just a moment, so hold that thought. We're thinking through the danger, how it can destroy the life. And I just want to share with you six common sins of the untamed tongue. What is this restless evil? What is this deadly poison that we're talking about that has so much power? There's a lot. I just picked six. I just want to walk through this. Lying. What is that? Just saying something that's not true. That's a common occurrence. Happens all the time. Happens all around us. Maybe we do it by withholding information, by just sitting on things, by not telling the whole story. Lying. Colossians 3, do not lie to one another, seeing that you put off the old self with its practices. And Proverbs 12, lying lips are detestable. God hates a lying tongue. Lying. Number two, complaining. Grumbling or murmuring about your circumstances, displaying a lack of trust in God's plan. What do you think about the people of the Exodus for a moment? God has rescued the people from Egypt, he leads them, he provides for them, and they still murmur and complain. In the wilderness wandering, God tells them to go up and take the land. But they devised a plan of their own because they're like, I don't think he's gonna do this, right? I don't think he's gonna do this for us. Look where he's brought us. They devised a plan to send out spies to scout out the land. And when those men returned, they confirmed actually that the land was really good. God was right, the land was good. But 10 men complained about what they were gonna be up against, the giants of the land. And within 24 hours, they were doubting his promise. They were doubting what he could do. They were complaining about what God was sending them to do. And with 24 hours, these 10 men turned a million people the other direction. Turned them against God's plan, and it cost them a generation. You think, wow, that's crazy. But how often do you complain about God's plan? How often do you think there must be a better way, right? God, we believe God is sovereign, but we complain about what He does in our life. We can't do that, no complaining. And maybe last week, when Jason gave his update from the Pastoral Search Committee, maybe your heart was complaining a little bit, like, what's happening, why? Well, we rest in God, and we trust in Him, and we say He is in control. We can't complain. Stop complaining. Number three, gossip. We have lying, we have complaining, grumbling, and gossip. This is casual or just an unconstrained conversation or reports about other people and typically involves some details that are not confirmed as being true. We're spreading gossip. Even true things, we're spreading things that are true, that can be considered gossip. You might say, well, I never speak gossip. You text it. That's your words. That's your words coming out. A gossip's words are like choice food that goes down to one's innermost being, Proverbs 18 says. We love to hear the latest gossip. And our challenge today is guard your tongue. Guard your tongue. Slander, words used to defame or disgrace another, ruining someone's reputation. Election season is upon us. This is what's gonna be happening. We're gonna be hearing this. Does election season ever really stop? I don't think so. But it seems like this is the most popular thing to do is to engage in slander about the other person's opponent. It's terrible. Titus 3.2 says, don't slander anyone. In Proverbs 20, whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets. He says, stay away from that person. Don't associate with a slanderer. Number five, profane, impure speech. This is coarse speech. This is sexually immoral. This is crude, joking. This is people who say, well, boys will be boys. And I say, no, no. Paul says, stop it. Don't talk like this. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk or crude joking which are out of place, but instead, let there be thanksgiving in Ephesians chapter five. No profane speech. And how about contentiousness? Number six. Just provoking an argument. Disagreeing for the sake of disagreeing. Playing the devil's advocate, right? As charcoal to hot members and wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife. Are you the type of person who likes to debate and just wants to find a reason to complain and to question everything? Do you stir up strife on insignificant matters? Do you enjoy starting that? Well, Paul says, do it all without grumbling and arguing. These are sins of our speech. These are just six. These are just six things and these are things that we find ourselves doing often probably. Maybe you have to consider how often do you engage in this? There may be a time we have to repent of this and turn to the Spirit, to the Lord for forgiveness of our sins of our speech. Now, we've seen how that we guard our tongue because it directs our life, and we guard our tongue because it can destroy our life. It can just tear us apart. And our next section here is the inconsistency of the tongue. So we're gonna guard our tongue because it displays our heart. Where is all of this coming from? Why is all of this happening in our life? Well, in verse nine, James says, With our tongue, we bless our Lord and Father, and with it, we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the very same mouth comes blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. We as humans can be so inconsistent in our life. What does this look like in the life of the believer? It's pretty easy, though, to fool people. We just know the right things to say. We know the right words to use in the right setting. Today, we're standing here, just earlier, we're singing, we're clapping for the baptisms, we're praying together, we're encouraging each other, we're checking on one another, we're praying thanks to God with our church family. But in about maybe 20 minutes from now, when we're all done and you're driving home, you're gonna get up to the street up here to the red light, and there's gonna be a lady who's not paying attention, and she's gonna not turn left while it's green, and it's gonna turn red, and you're gonna miss your opportunity to go. And maybe you're gonna start yelling at her through the windshield and honking your horn. This is what we do. We come right here and we bless God And we walk out the door and we curse the people who are made in His image. Or you're gonna be at the restaurant and you're gonna spend an hour being rude to the waiter that's helping you. And then before you leave, you make your payment and you're gonna leave a little gospel track for him. Wow. This is how we are inconsistent. And James says, these things must not be. I think he would say today, if you're going to speak that way to an image bearer of God, keep your literature in your pocket because he doesn't need to hear that after how you've treated him. And the crazy thing, we may never do or say anything like this to people we don't know very well. but we can seem so nice, so kind, so gentle and loving and public, but our dear families and our close friends, they see a different side. They have a different experience with us because we just lash out at them. They get the brunt of everything. The demeaning language, those harsh words. Friends, We cannot worship God and treat his people like trash. Left to ourselves, we're in a bad place. And the reality is we cannot contain it. We cannot control our tongue on our own. Because the problem goes much deeper. It goes to our heart. And he writes, does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond produce fresh water. Sounds very familiar. I think James learned this from someone else's teaching. If you want to flip over to Luke chapter six, verses 43 to 45, you can find where he heard this. Luke chapter six, verses 43 to 45. Jesus said, no good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn bushes or grapes from briars. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart. And an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. The mouth speaks what the heart is full of. Let's circle back to show and tell again from last week, right? Our words reveal what is actually going on inside of us. It's displaying who we are. Whatever is in the well or the spring comes out in the water. Whatever is in the tree comes out of the root. This is what produces it. Now a couple things to note here, he's not saying, he's not talking to unbelievers here. He's talking to his brothers and sisters. And he's saying that there's so much duplicity and that inconsistent with life redeemed by Christ. This is not how the believer is to live. It's the opposite. We ought to be growing more consistent in our speech. So, our tongue has power. Our tongue has the ability to do a lot of damage. It's unruly. So we say, guard your tongue. It directs your life. Guard your tongue, it can destroy your life. But guard your tongue because it displays your heart. So what do we do with this? What do we do with these things? There's a couple of suggestions for you today. And fortunately, we're gonna be able to continue next week and dig a little bit deeper into the last section of chapter three to talk about how we can actually change our heart But here's some application for you today, just some things for you to consider. Speak life-giving words. Ask God to help you change the words you're using and start to begin to speak life-giving words to people around you. Proverbs 12 says, the words of the reckless, they pierce like a sword, they hurt. But the tongue of the wise brings healing. It gives life. Our theme verse today, Proverbs 15, four, a gentle tongue is like a tree of life. It brings healing to people. So speak life-giving words. Even if you're having a difficult conversation, would the other person know that you're for them? Or they think you're coming after them hard? Speak life-giving words. Words that can bring hope for the heartbroken. Right after that, I would say speak them often. Speak life-giving words often. Don't hold back, be generous with those words. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for the building up of others according to their needs that it may benefit those who listen. Don't just stop saying hurtful or hateful things. Start saying helpful things and do it a lot. Every day, every day, you have an opportunity to speak life-giving words into people. You have multiple opportunities to do that. Affirm your spouse. Affirm your children. Tell them you're proud of them. Affirm your parents. Build up your coworkers or your classmates. Tell them how good of a job they're doing and how valuable they are to you and the organization that you're part of. Encourage others on a regular basis with your words. Speak life-giving words. Speak them often. The last suggestion here is to check your heart. Start today. Start today checking your heart. This is really the full circle of what James is teaching in this passage. We're finding out how difficult it is to control our tongue, and we need to take a good, long, prayerful look at our heart, because our words flow right out of that we just learned. Here's some things to consider. A critical heart speaks critical words. A bitter heart speaks toxic words. A self-righteous heart speaks judgmental words, and a fearful heart can speak negative words. But it doesn't have to be that way. It does not have to be that way. God can help us and change us so that we have a grateful heart that will speak gracious words, a faithful heart that will speak true words, a peaceful heart that can speak reconciling words, and a loving heart that can speak healing words. We can do just the opposite of what our tendencies are. So what are you consuming? What voices are you listening to? What's filling your heart up that's coming out in the overflow through your words? If you don't like the words that are coming out of your mouth, consider this, what's going into my heart is what's gonna come out. And to change what comes out of your mouth, we have to change what goes in. And how do we do that? Well, the text today can kind of seem a little bit hopeless. Because, back up in verse eight, he says, no man can tame it. No man can do it. But thankfully, he didn't say no one. He did not say no one. There is one who can help us. His name is Jesus. And He can change everything for you. He did it. He is actually the only one who ever lived perfectly with His words. Everything He said was right and true and just and honorable. Perhaps today, my friend, this is what you need. You need Jesus. You need Jesus to change you. You need Jesus to be part of your life so that your heart can change. He can take that heart of stone and He can give you a new heart that's open to Him that will change your life forever. He can speak the life-giving words to you. But maybe you are a believer, and maybe this is a particular area of struggle with you. This is a hard message to speak today, because as he said earlier, we all stumble. And I'm running through my mind as I'm going through all of this and preparing, I'm thinking, man, I struggle here. This is a hard thing to do. Well, it's just proven the point that James has told us. This is difficult. But we can yield to the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit in our lives to change us, to bring that small member under his control and can change everything. So ask God to fill us with his love and grace. Pray for life-giving words that will give hope and healing and help to others. And as I said, next week we're gonna dig a little bit deeper into this, of how we can change, how we can change our hearts to heavenly wisdom that will motivate us through this. But I challenge you today, take these suggestions, speak life-giving words, speak them often. Check your heart, but guard your tongue. Guard your tongue. Will you pray with me? Father, This seems impossible, and with men, it is impossible. We struggle so much in this area of our speech, and there's so much in the scripture that comes out and helps us to understand why. Father, today, I pray you will use the words that were spoken from your scriptures today. I pray, Father, you will use it in spite of my inability to communicate them well. But Lord, will you use your word to change hearts today? There may be some who are far from you. Will you draw them close to you today? Will you change their hearts forever? There may be some who are just struggling in this, and we fight it, and we battle, and we wanna change, but we're not filling our heart up with you, and your word, and your healing. Lord, will you help us today to yield to you, Holy Spirit, and change us from within? God, we wanna honor you in this area. We hope our words to be your words, to be life-giving words to those around us. And we pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.