If you take your Bibles with me this morning and turn to the book of James, the book of James chapter 3, that's where we're going to be in today. The book of James chapter 3, the author of this book is the half-brother of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and he is the leader at this time of a church, of the Church of Jerusalem. And in the book of James, we find a pretty consistent theme of faith without works is dead. I'm not talking about if you don't do certain works, you're not saved. It's talking about here that a true believer is gonna be able to be, you're gonna be able to tell a true believer by his works. If you've accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, there's certain things that you're gonna do naturally because you did that. And that's what James is talking about here in this book. But in chapter three, we notice a transition into the subject of our words. And that's what I wanna talk about today. I wanna talk about the tongue. And here in chapter three, that's the main focus, the tongue. And our Christian life should be demonstrated by the deeds that we do, but our tongue, our words that we say, give evidence of our Christian life as well. So our words should bring glory to God and be a blessing to others. Now with that thought in mind, Let's jump in right into our text in James 3. We're going to start reading verse 1 if you'd follow along with me in your Bibles. James 3, verse 1 says, My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive greater condemnation, for in many things we offend all. And if any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able to brittle the whole body. Behold, we put bits in the horse's mouth, that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven by fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth. Even so, the tongue is a little member, and boasts its great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire of hell. For every kind of beast, of birds, and of serpents, and of the things in the sea is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind. But the tongue can no man tame. It is unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith, bless we God, even the Father, and therewith we curse men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be." Here in the third chapter of James, we see several things. We see in verse 9 the inconsistency of her tongue. We bless God, and then we curse men. You know, we come to church, we sing the hymns, we say these memory verses, we amen to the preaching, but then we go, and we hop in the car, and we go through the drive-thru and say something that we shouldn't to the drive-thru worker, or we curse men. That's what the Bible says here. We see the power of the tongue. You know, it's referred to in verse 6. as a world of iniquity, a world of sin, in this small member that we call the tongue. You know, as we study today, I want us to examine our tongue. You know, some of us, maybe we have the practice, I know my parents, they instilled in me, you know, we don't cuss, we don't use profanity, but our tongue is, how we use our tongues is not just, The bad way is not just cursing and saying things that we shouldn't, bad words, but we can even say good words and still hurt people. We can say words that aren't necessarily bad, but we can use them in a bad way. And as we study this passage, let's just ask the Lord to help us examine our own tongue. You know, each one of us can make great improvement in the way we use our tongues. And if you think otherwise, you may have a bigger problem than you thought. So let's go ahead and jump in. And before we jump in to this passage, I want us to, number one, notice the tongue and its connections. You know, the tongue is connected to every other part of our life. I want us to go to Matthew chapter 12, the book of Matthew chapter 12. Matthew 12, verse 33. We see here the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, Matthew 12, verse 33. He says right here, either make the tree good and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt. For the tree is known by its fruit. O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things, and the evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. Here in Matthew, we see that the Lord makes a distinct connection between our tongue and what else? The heart. He says here in verse 34, he says, for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. The tongue speaks, whatever the tongue says is a reflection of what's already in our heart. You know, and some people, As we go out and meet people on the streets, people always say, you know, I have some bad habits. You know, the things I say, I'm rude sometimes, but they're just bad habits that I have and I'm trying to overcome. But the truth is, that's already in the heart. When we say something mean to somebody else, when we put somebody down, when we grumble, when we complain, when we always look at the negative stuff and talk about it, you know, those are things that are already in our heart. The Bible says, out of the abundance of the heart, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. And when we choose to say these things, we're really just revealing what's truly in our hearts. That's what the Bible says. You know, Jeremiah 17 verse 9, it talks about the heart. It says the heart is deceitful, and it says that it's evil. Those are our hearts, and that's because we've been cursed by sin. So with that understanding, knowing that what comes out of our mouths is thoroughly connected to our hearts. Let's go ahead and go back to our passage in James, James chapter three. And I want us to see the tongue and its condemnation. The tongue and its condemnation. In the first verse of chapter three, we see James, he says right here, he says, My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive greater condemnation. James, he was leading a church in Jerusalem. He was guiding the church there. And in the place of leadership, in a place of leadership, you have the opportunity to speak publicly many times. You know, a boss, he speaks to his employees, and the employees are listening, and they're hanging on to what he's saying. They're hearing instruction from him. A coach, when he's talking to his players right before a game, these players are hanging on to what he's saying. The pastor, he preaches to the congregation, and the congregation holds on to what he's saying. In the same way, a government official, the country hangs on to what they're saying. And here, James is talking about the great power, the great accountability those in leadership have. He says, those who have opportunity have greater responsibility, and because of that, they have more accountability. He says right here, my brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive greater condemnation. You know what he's saying here? He's reminding us that we're gonna be held accountable for every word that comes out of our mouth. Why? Because if as a pastor, you tell your congregation something that's against what's in God's word, they're gonna hold on to that. And now I'm accountable for the decisions you make. You know, as a teacher, you're accountable for what you're telling your students. You could tell them something completely wrong and something that doesn't make sense, but they'll hold on to that and they'll grow up with, Their understanding is just messed up. People in leadership, people that are masters, as the Bible refers to them, are going to be held accountable more than just people that are listening. But as Christians, we're gonna be held more accountable for the things that we say than unbelievers. Why? Because we have the truth. Why? Because when we accept Jesus as our receiver, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us and He's working in our lives. And as people that know the truth and have the truth, we're gonna be held more accountable for the things we say. So as Christians, we need to take this reminder to heart. Here in the second verse of chapter three, we can tell that The church in Jerusalem had a lot of trouble with their tongues. And we see that by James writing here. He says, for in many things we offend all. See, he says here in the next part of the verse, if any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man and able to brittle the whole body. That word perfect is talking about mature believers, somebody who's grown up, somebody who's mature. But who are the mature believers? Are they the ones who've been in church the longest? Are they the ones that have been saved the longest, the ones that have important positions in the church? We see here through this verse that the mature Christians, the mature believers, aren't the ones that have been there the longest, but are the ones that use their tongue most wisely. Why? It's because our tongues tell our story. You know, somebody can tell you, somebody can be very winsome, somebody can be really put together, can play the part, but if you observe them and how they speak to other people and how they use their words and how they communicate with other people, you'll be able to tell who they really are. You see, our words tell our story. The words that we use show people what's truly in our heart. gets provoked and gets angry and they yell out something. That didn't just come in the moment. It's not the anger that provoked that. It's something that's in their heart that just came out. And we need to seek to be right with the Lord in our hearts if we're going to tackle this issue of the tongue. If we're right in our hearts with the Lord, then what comes out is gonna be what? Blessing? It's gonna be honoring to the Lord? And we find here that the church in Jerusalem had this problem, and I think of how many times do we have the same problem? Like I said in the beginning, we might not go around using profanity, but how many times in our interactions with one another, with our brethren, with our family members, We speak things that aren't honoring to the Lord. Time after time, especially with close family members, with our siblings, I think of my sister and I, we're always throwing jabs at each other, and that's part of being a sister, part of having a sibling. You know, it's just, how are we using our tongues? Are we putting people down? Are we hurting people? And as we get into the next couple of verses, we're gonna see the power of the tongue. The power of the tongue, you can hurt somebody with words. I don't have to go up to somebody and give them an uppercut right in the chin. You can hurt somebody just with your words. You know, I think of people that are important in my life. My wife can, If I'm having a bad day or something, she would come up to me and she could encourage me with her words, or she could push me all the way to the ground with a simple phrase. And our words have power, our words have meaning, and all of us need to make improvements in this area of the tongue. The tongue tells our story, it tells of who we are. Number three, I want us to look at the tongue and its illustrations here in the next couple of verses, because to help the church to help God's people stop the disruption and division that was happening here in the church of Jerusalem. You know, God gave us this chapter and he illustrates several things here for us. Just look there in verse number three. The Bible says, behold, we put bits in the horse's mouth. Has anybody seen a bit that goes in the horse's mouth? When you're riding a horse, usually there's a little piece of metal that goes in the horse's mouth. Why? Because it allows you to control the horse. If you pull this way, it causes a little pain in the horse's mouth, and the horse pulls around this way. And that's what it's talking about here. It says, behold, we put bits in the horse's mouth that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole body. Here it says, it's talking about the horse, and in the next verse, it talks about the ship. But the truth is, if we get on a horse that's unproperly trained, if we get on a horse that doesn't have the right bit in its mouth, you know, we're putting ourselves in danger. Why? Because if it doesn't have a bit, if we can't control the horse, you know, the horse might say, oh, why is this person climbing on my back? And might get on two legs and knock us off. Or if we have the wrong bit on the horse, it might cause too much pain and the horse might get nervous and mad and might throw you off as well. You know, if we get on a horse that's improperly trained or has the wrong bit, we're putting ourselves in danger. Verse number four, we see the ship illustration. Behold also the ships, which though they be so great and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whethersoever the governor listeth. If you get in a boat that can't be guided, are you gonna feel safe in that boat? No, you're not. And if you can't guide the boat, then you're endangering yourself, but guess what? You're endangering everyone else on that boat. And you're endangering everyone else on the other boats and wherever, on the docks. You're not just endangering yourself, but everyone else around you. And you see here, God is trying to show us that if we live with an uncontrolled tongue, we're endangering not only ourselves, of those around us. Verse number five, it compares the tongue to, it says, a tongue is a little member, but boasts great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth. It compares the tongue to a fire. It compares, the tongue is something so small, but it can cause so much damage. I remember In 2019, my parents are missionaries in Mexico, and we were blessed with many, many hundreds of acres for a camp. We host retreats, and we have teens come out in the summer, and the Lord does a work in their lives. It's a very special place, but it's a beautiful pine forest. And I remember in 2019, we had a family camp. And we had a great time, but one night, I believe it was the night before the camp ended, this man was nudged out of his bed early in the morning by his wife to go check on their son that had just fallen off a bunk bed. And the father gets up and goes to check on the son, and he puts him back in bed, and he looks over to the window, and he notices a bright light. And he's like, well, that's weird. It's 4.30 in the morning, why is there sun out? So he goes out and he opens the door and flames are just outside the cabin. A family the night before, or that early that morning, they had put a little campfire together. They had had a little time of testimony and sung songs together. But when they put the fire out, they decided to kick the hot coals down the mountain. And in a matter of hours, the whole camp, the whole forest was on fire. And that was quite an experience. but thousands of acres were destroyed just by a little piece of hot coal that was kicked down the mountain. And here, that's what the tongue is compared to. The tongue is small. The size of the tongue compared to the whole body is small. It's a little member, but oh, what great matter a little fire kindleth. In verse six, it's compared to the fire, a world of iniquity. I think of a fire, and as a kid, you're always taught to not touch a fire. If you see the oven, and it's a gas oven, and there's a little flame, you're taught to not touch it. Why? Because you're gonna get burned, it's gonna hurt. And here, the tongue is compared to a fire. It can cause pain, it can cause destruction, just as how it destroyed all of that pine forest back in 2019, our camp. It can cause great damage. And as a boy, I I remember I was I was probably nine years old. And my father, he was on the phone with one of his old friends and hadn't talked for a while. And I was overhearing the conversation and he said this and it stuck with me. He said, I'm proud of my son. And that was that was special to me, you know, because I wasn't in the room. It was something in his heart. And I held on to that. It was something I still hold special. It's so special to me today. He said he was proud of me. And you know, my dad, you know what he could have said? He could have said, oh, he never does what he's told. You know, he's useless. You know, he's worthless. That's what he could have said. You know, the sad thing is that many parents treat their kids in that same way. Do you guys see the power of the tongue? The tongue can be used for great things. You can go up to somebody and encourage one of your brothers and sisters at church. You know, you can be going through a hard time in your life and somebody comes behind you and puts their arm around you and says, you know what, I'm here for you. You know, here, I'm praying for you. It's gonna be all right. You're not alone in this. The tongue has power to encourage somebody. but just how great power it has to encourage somebody, it also has the power to destroy someone's life. I think of the countless kids that grew up in school, and they're constantly put down by words. You know, the words have power. Our words can be used to build people up, or it can be used to tear people down. And we all need to be careful of how we're using our tongue. We all need to be careful of how we're speaking to those around us. And I wonder how many parents would say today, you know, I'm gonna be, I'm gonna use my words more wisely with my children. Telling a child, I'm proud of you, I love you, is something that children don't hear a lot today. You know, we meet a bunch of kids on the buses and they've never heard the phrase, I love you. I wonder how many parents would be more intentional about use of how they use their words with their children. I wonder how many husbands would be more intentional and be more wise in how they use their words towards their wife. You know, as men, we're not as, I'm trying to be careful here, we're not as emotional or words don't mean the same to us that they do to a woman. It's just who we are. But if you tell a woman, you tell your wife, I love you, You know, they need that. It does great things for them. And likewise, wives to their husbands. How many would say, you know what, I'm going to use my words more wisely towards them? You know, time after time. I'll come home and I'm tired from work all day, or maybe I'm stressed out about a project or whatever, and my wife comes up, and usually in the early spring or the early fall, I'd mow the lawn, and my wife comes behind me and says, wow, the yard looks great. And, you know, that just filled me with energy, you know. She used her words to encourage me. When I'm going through a hard time and she'd say, you know what, it's going to be all right. don't worry about it, and she'd try to encourage me, and that did wonders in my life. Stuff you really can't explain, it's just that feeling, and I know that you know what I'm talking about. But I wonder how many of us would say, you know what, I'm gonna be more wise with how I use my words. We have great power in our words. I think of how many children, we're all somebody's child, You know, everyone here, we have parents. And if you still have your parents alive, I wonder how many of us would say, you know what, I'm gonna be more wise in how I speak to my parents. My wife, I have a really bad habit, bad tendency that I don't keep up with people that I love. So I love them and I care about them, but I have a bad habit of not keeping in contact with them. And even with my family. And my wife, the other night, she said, hey, you should call your mom. You should give your mom a call. And I was like, all right, all right, fine. So I gave my mom a call, and we had a great conversation. I could just tell that that made her day, just her kids reaching out to her. And I know as a parent, many of you could say, hey, it's wonderful when our kids reach out to us. I'm not a parent yet, but it's something that you can see. It's something that you can see the power of words in the lives of other people. I wonder how many kids would say, you know what? I'm going to try to be a blessing to my parents, to my grandparents with the words that I say. Because really, words are so powerful. And you know, as we determine to do these things, to be wise with our words, You know, we must not expect someone else to start the change that is needed. You know, we can't expect somebody else to take the first step in how we speak to one another. We gotta turn to break the cycle. I know there's a cycle of somebody says something bad to you and you respond and say something bad to them and it's an unending cycle. So somebody has to break the cycle. These truths are gonna have to be taken into our hearts if they're gonna have the proper effect on us. we need to determine to use our tongues wisely. I want us to go to Psalm chapter 39. Psalm chapter 39. Look at a prayer that I believe the Psalmist David, King David wrote. Psalm 39 verse one. The psalmist says, I said I will take heed to my ways that I sin not with my tongue. I will keep my mouth with a brittle while the wicked is before me. I wonder how many of us would say, you know what, I will take heed to my ways so that I might not sin with my tongue. We have great power with our tongues and we can hurt a lot of people and we need to Control our tongues. We need to make sure that our hearts are right with the Lord so that what comes out is not Destruction is not putting people down and I wonder how many us would say you know what? Just like the psalmist here. Just how David understood that he Had a problem how many us would say you know what I'm gonna determine I'm gonna consider my ways and I'm gonna Determine that I'm not gonna sin with my tongue. I If we continue to read in James chapter 3, verse 6, back in our text, we notice something really interesting. We notice that we can't do this on our own. It's not a work that we can do in our own strength. The Bible says in verse six, it says, the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body and setteth on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire of hell. For every kind of beast, and of birds and of serpents and of all things in the sea is tamed and hath been tamed of mankind. But look closely to this phrase in verse eight. But the tongue can no man tame. It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison. Here it's a reminder for us that we cannot do what God wants us to do without his help. We can't tame our own tongue. You know, we have, mankind has tamed every beast on this world, every animal. You know, human beings, mankind is at the top of the food chain. You know, we're the ones that control everything that goes on in this world as far as other living beings on this earth. You know, we, there's people that have jaguars as pets, there's people that we've tamed bears, we've tamed lions. You know, mankind has been able to tame everything. Accept our own tongue. We can't tame it. It is unruly evil and full of deadly poison. That's what the Bible says we need God's help and David knew that he couldn't master it as well. And he says in Psalm 141 Psalm 141 He says this in verse 3 and 4 if you turn there with me in your Bibles Psalm 140 and 41 Psalm 141 verse 3. This is King David, he says, Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth. Keep the door of my lips. Incline not my heart to any evil thing, to practice wicked works with men that worketh iniquity. And let me not eat of their dainties. Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness, and let him reprove me. Here we see that David, he says, set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth, and keep the door of my lips. David understood that he couldn't tame his own tongue. David understood that his heart had there had to be a change in his heart before his mouth could see a change. And you know what he says here? He says, set a watch. Oh, Lord. He looks up to God. He says, Lord, I need your help. I need you to keep the door of my lips. And I wonder how many of us, especially during this Christmas season, we're around our family members. And remember, where there's people, there's problems. How many of us would say, Lord, keep the door of my lips? Lord, guard my heart, incline not my heart to any evil thing. You know, our hearts are wicked. That's what Jeremiah 17, 9 says. Our hearts are wicked and we can't trust them. We need, they tend to want to go to evil. That's just part of our sin nature. We need to ask the Lord, Lord, help me. Lord, incline my heart to good things. Incline my heart to your word and help me to grow in this area. And I wonder how many of us would say, Lord, set a watch over my tongue. Lord, guard the gate, guard the door of my tongue. Let's keep reading back in James chapter three. James chapter three. We see that even as just we see the inconsistency really of mankind of our tongues. It's really really just it's sad because it's true in all of our lives. Verse nine says, therewith we bless God, even the Father, and therewith we curse men, which are made after the similitude of God. You don't have to raise your hand, but how many of you would say, you know what, I'm guilty of the same thing? You know, I come to church and I praise God. I come to church and I say, God, I love you. God, thank you for your goodness in my life. You come here and you're trying to honor him, but then you leave church and you get in an argument with your family member in the car. You go back home and you say things that that you have no business saying that God looks down upon. The Bible says that we use our mouth for blessing God, but then we curse men. See, we see the inconsistency of our tongue. It's easy when we're around the people that know us and the people that we know very well, it's easy for our tongues to slip up and say something that shouldn't. No. Oh, well, she deserved. No, it's we need to control our tongues. And how do we do that? We do it by staying close to the Lord and asking him to help us in this area. And we need to stop trying to say, make excuses. And then say, you know, these are just bad habits or I was raised this way. And in college, one of my professors, you always said this. You said your past is influential, but it's not determinative. I'm going to say that again. Your past is influential, but it's not determinative. Just because you were raised a certain way, just because speaking a certain way was in your past and you were around it your whole life, doesn't mean you have to keep living that way. It doesn't determine who you are. It doesn't determine who God wants you to be. It's influential, but you have the choice whether or not it's gonna, but it's not determinative. You still have a choice. So as we consider these things, let's remember this truth. You say, we need to ask God to help keep our tongues in line. Lord, give me this kind of tongue that honors you and glorifies you. And Lord, when it goes out of line, Lord, help bring it back in line so that I'm honoring and glorifying you. Lord, I know my tongue has great power and I can cause great destruction, but Lord, I want it to be the kind of tongue that builds people up. I want to use my words to encourage my fellow brethren. I want to use my words to encourage my family. I want to use my words to tell people about the gospel. Wouldn't that be a great thing for us to ask the Lord? See, we all have improvements to make. We mentioned this in Sunday school. You know, the Christian life, you don't just get to a certain point in your Christian life where you have to stop growing. Something that was always taught to us in school is as a Christian, you're either growing or you're rolling back. You're never just stagnant. So we need to continue to grow and continue to ask the Lord, Lord, help us in this area of our tongue. Now let's determine to have the right hearts with Him. How do we have a right heart with God? You spend time with Him. May I be close to him? How do you get closer to a family member, to a friend? You spend time with him. You commune with him. You talk to him. You listen to him. And we can do the same thing with our Lord. spend time reading his word. This is what he's given to us. Everything God wants us to know is in his word. And aren't you thankful for that? We have his word and he wants to hear us. He wants us to pray and commune. And as we spend time with him, the more time we spend with him, the more our hearts will be tied to his. And the more right our hearts will be with him. Why? Because we're spending time with him. So let's remember that As we determine to have right hearts within, let's remember that our mouth is really a reflection of what's in our heart. Do an exam on your own life. Do a test on your own life. What am I saying? Try to think back at previous conversations that you've had, previous encounters, and say, you know what, how am I using my tongue? Am I encouraging people, or am I putting people down? Am I building people up, or am I tearing people down? You know, there's so much power that is just in a little member of our tongues. And the Lord here has given us a whole chapter, really, in the book of James to address this matter. There are so many other verses in scripture that talk about the power of the tongue, that talk about the importance of having a right heart so that your tongue can be tamed with the Lord's help. And it's not something that we should overlook. As we go out this season, I wonder how many else would say, you know what, I'm going to determine to ask the Lord to help me in this area. None of us have made it. We all have improvements to make, and I pray that today we'd make a decision. And it's easy to sit in church and to agree with what the speaker is saying, but let's make a decision. And I'm gonna use my tongue for good. I'm gonna honor the Lord and I'm gonna bless other people with the words that I'm saying. Will we do that today? Let's go ahead and stand. And I'm thankful for the Lord's word and for his truth. And I wonder how many of us today would just like to take some time and pray and just ask the Lord for help. We can't tame our tongue on our own. but we have power to do great damage and do great good. How many of us would take some time right now while Miss Priscilla plays and just ask the Lord, Lord, I need help. Lord, help me with this issue of the time.