Taming the Tongue - Pastor Jack Graham - James 3:1-12

[Music] [Music] we love to talk don't we talk talk talk it's political talk it's sports talk it's news talk as family talk it's a lot of talk in our generation not only are we talking in what we say but what we send online social media a lot of words being spent in fact one-fifth of your life on earth is spent talking and that doesn't include the amount of time we spend talking to ourselves and we do talk to ourselves in one year if your average rate of speed is typical and for men that's about 25 20 thousand words a day for women that's about thirty thousand words a day with gusts up to fifty thousand but if you speak at an average rate of words per day you will fill up 66 books of 800 pages each in one year you didn't know you were saying that much writing that much maybe you wouldn't want the story to be told as to what you're writing with your words every day but it's true words matter and today I'm talking about the awesome power of the spoken word from James and the title of the message is taming the tongue now some people have just a natural gift at communicating some people are introverted you don't say too much others are extroverted and we say a lot I obviously spend a lot of time talking when I was in grade school when they were marking my citizenship I would often get an often get marked down for talking in class just talking whatever and but maybe you're a talker maybe you're not I did hear about a young man who went to work at a grocery store and he was an exciting young man I mean he had a lot of ability a lot of charisma and he was working at the back the produce area one day and a little lady walks in at the end of the day just before shut off closing time was there and he she said young man young man said I need a half a head of lettuce he said well ma'am I don't even know if we sell a half a head of lettuce but I'll find out so he walks an aisle or two over and finds the manager of the store and says sir I know it's closing time I hate to ask you this but there is a crazy big bat of a little old lady who walked in here once a half a head of lettuce and he turned around and saw that the little lady had followed him back there but quick as a flash she said but we're in luck because this fine little lady wants the other half so they took the lettuce they cut it in half they wrapped it up they put it in a sack and she went on happy as she could be and the manager was really impressed said son I saw what happened how you just stuck your foot right in your mouth and extracted it with such expertise that was amazing he said you're not from around here are you he said no sir he said where you from he said I'm from Lancaster Pennsylvania said oh Lancaster Pennsylvania I've heard of it he said yeah you know we're famous for two things in Lancaster Pennsylvania really what what are you famous for in Lancaster Pennsylvania he said well for one our hockey teams we got the meanest roughest toughest greatest hockey teams on the planet in Lancaster Pennsylvania said well that's great said what's the other thing he said well we don't like to talk about it that much but in Lancaster Pennsylvania we're known for our ugly women I don't know if it's the cold the temperature what it is but the ugliest women on earth are from Lancaster Pennsylvania store manager said really my wife's from Lancaster Pennsylvania and quick as the flash the young man said oh really what team does she play for now some people just got it when it comes to talking sometimes though we get penalized for mouth in motion right and in fact the tongue is a kind of muscle that's a membrane in your body that gets more exercise than any other muscle you have medically it's just a few ounces of slab of mucous membrane but the nerves the bundle of nerves around us enable it enabled us to chew and and to taste and and to swallow food and of course to articulate words with our tongues part of the creative power of God we are made of the image of God and God who speaks breathe life into us and inwards into us and enabled us with words to communicate with him and and with one another it's a great gift from God when you go to the doctor if you're sick if you're doing a physical often the doctor will ask you to open your mouth and stick out your tongue put that little stick down there to your gag nearly look down in your throat look at your tongue and I'm gonna know exactly what they're looking for but I do know that has something to do with my health and your tongue tells us all of us a lot about our spiritual health about how we're doing spiritually especially the matters of the heart because Jesus said in Matthew chapter 15 and I'll post these on the screen for you verses 10 and 11 and he called the people to him and said to them hear and understand it's not what that goes into the mouth that defiles the person but what comes out of the mouth this defile and he went on to say do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled but what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the what the heart and this defiles a person for out of the heart come evil thoughts murders adulteries sexual immorality theft false witness and slander as the old timers used to put it what's down in the well will come up in the bucket is what is in the heart that is reflected and regurgitated if you will by the tongue by the mouth it is a powerful thing and it is difficult to learn how to control our words to control our tongues some never do there's an epitaph about a lady by the name of Arabella Young says beneath this stone a lump of clay lies Arabella Young who on the 24th of May began to hold her tongue I heard about one lady who came forward in an old revival meeting and she said pastor I've come to lay my tongue on the altar he said well I'm not sure it's gonna work this altar is only twelve feet long right here James is talking about the tongue your goal is spiritual maturity that's what the book of James is about growing in your faith and becoming more mature in Christ that's your goal and a true mark of Christian maturity life maturity is how you use your mouth how you manage your mouth how you use your tongue so let's begin reading in chapter three verse one not many of you should become teachers my brother's for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness always gives me pause when I read that because I know I'm highly accountable to God for what I say and what I do verse two says for we all stumble in many ways and if anyone does not stumble in what he says he's a perfect man meaning a mature man also able to bridle his whole body 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 also though they are so large and are driven by strong winds they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs so also is the tongue a small member yet it boasts of great things how great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire and the tongue is a fire a world of unrighteousness the tongue is set among our members staining the whole body setting on fire the entire what's these words course of life we love existence literally and set on fire by hell for every kind of beast and bird of reptile at sea and creature can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind but no human being can tame the tongue it is restless it is a restless evil full of deadly poison with it we bless our Lord and Father and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God from the same mouth come blessing and cursing my brothers these things ought not to be so does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and saltwater can a fig tree my brother's bare olives or a grapevine produced figs neither can a salt pond yield fresh water now James is a master illustrator and in this passage of the tongue he gives us some metaphors regarding our mouths there are six of them he talks about the bit in the mouth of a horse he talks about the rudder on a ship he talks about a fire a spark that can set ablaze he talks about a beast that the tongue is like a beast or like a monster in the mouth it's like poison it can produce poison he said it's like a fountain and it is like a fig tree and with all of these illustrative comments very practical James ever practical tells us about the tongue and what it can do and how it sets the course and even the character and the destiny of our lives couple of things one our words give us direction that's the first thing our words what we say give us direction in life that's why uses the illustration about the horse and the bridle it's amazing you could take a 1200 pound animal and put a 90 pound child on it but with reins and a bit a small child can control that great horse same it's true of the rudder on a ship no matter how big the ship is it is moved by the pilot at the direction of the rudder so he's saying here that our tongue controls the direction of our lives change the way you speak change what you say and how you talk and you can change the direction of your life it's true I'm gonna say it again change the way you speak how you use your tongue and it will change the course the direction of your life proverbs tells us in Proverbs 821 that life and death are in the power of the tongue a very powerful thing is the tongue and if you speak negatively if you're constantly reflecting negativity and what you say then ultimately you will live a negative life it's a simple principle really how you talk to God how you talk to yourself how you talk to others dramatically influences the course of your life and if you are filled with with words that are worthless or careless or empty or even profane then ultimately that's that's the way your life's going to turn out all right let me let me just share a couple of ideas I mean for example we're are powerful they can change your life you go to an altar and you say I do and I promise you that changes your life if someone stands before a judge and says the judge says you're not guilty that changes everything if you're before a doctor and you hear your doctors say your kids are free those words are life changed if if you say no to a temptation when when you're just under attack and and and you you just can feel the breath of Satan on your neck you know and you say no in the power of God's Spirit to temptation that can change the course of the direction of your life right when you say yes I will follow Jesus Christ that not only changed as your direction it changes the destiny your eternal future your words matter words can change history and have if words are demonized out of the mouths of a Hitler then war and disaster comes but words that come out of the mouth of a great evangelist like Billy Graham can can change history as well words are powerful if you speak words of faith then your life is filled with faith if you speak God's Word God's promises God's will upon your life it changes everything for the good and the reverse is true training your tongue and tempering your tongue is difficult in fact James tells us here no one can control it there's a beast it's beast in your mouth that's another illustration he says you can't contain or control this beast some have tried even by taking bowels of silence I heard about a young man who decided he was going to go to a monastery and take a vow of silence to try to control his tongue and so he was told no you didn't you know I speak for three years except you get at the end of each year two words so the young man made it through the first year and when he appeared before the Monsignor he was asked you have anything to say and he said simply bet hard so he went back and spent the next year in silence didn't say a word came back the end of the second year the Monsignor said okay you got two words he said food cold went back spend the third year in silence didn't say a word he had two more words to say at the end of the third year they said what do you had to say he said I quit to which the Monsignor said doesn't surprise me at all all you've done is complain ever since you've been here no it's impossible to control our tongues apart from the work of God's Spirit in our lives and yet it's important this is not a small deal it's a big deal Colossians 3 verse 17 is a scripture you should note says for whatever you do in word and deed do it do everything everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ with gratitude in your hearts giving thanks to God the Father through him when we put Christ first in our lives we put him first into what we do and what we say and we are able according to this we should to speak or say anything or write anything or post anything or send to anything which we could not sign the name of the Lord Jesus if you cannot glorify God and magnify God with your words then don't say them don't you need to ask in every situation if you if you post it if you you you send it if you say it social media is a whole new world of being able to express ourselves but as Christians and followers of the Lord Jesus Christ I should always ask myself does this represent Jesus Christ and reflect his love in my life growing Christians learn how to control their tongues under the guidance of the Holy Spirit because it sets the course of our lives secondly our words can bring destruction not only they bring direction but our words can bring destruction so James illustrates with a spark and a fire and just a small spark we've all had spirit experiences with matches and fire and just just a small spark can can destroy a house or destroy an entire forest James says the tongue I noted it stuffed when I read it sets on fire the course of nature the very wheel of existence in other words all of life our affect is affected by our words and all the people in our lives James says here that the tongue can be set on fire of hell the word is Gehenna Gehenna was the garbage dump outside of Jerusalem burning constantly smelling sulfuric it was it was disgusting Jesus described Hell as the eternal garbage dump burning with fire it's the rubbish heap of the universe he said the tongue can reflect garbage regurgitate filth James tells us an evil tongue defiles and destroys the entire body a tongue set on fire of Hell say you ever heard that in conversation somebody says to somebody else okay give them hell give them hell so he's talking about here and the tongue can start a Hellfire that can never be put out in a person's life when you think about the words we use on the on the negative side let's start there we'll flip would flip it in just a second but here are the kinds of words that can start a fire that you can't control let's start with careless words you ever been run over by a hit and run mouth careless words meaningless words vain words you know some people they don't use vaio words they just use vain words and Jesus said we'll give an account at the judgment seat of Christ for every vain idle word that we speak scary careless words can destroy lies in a matter of minutes sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me not true words can hurt and they can they could hurt a lot a sports writer for the Atlanta Constitution several years ago wrote these words about the tongue he said I am more deadly than the screaming shell from the Howard sir I win without killing I tear down homes and break hearts and wreck lives I traveled on the wings of the wind no innocence is strong enough to intimidate me no purity pure enough to taunt me I have no regard for truth no respect for just justice no mercy for the defenseless to my victims are as numerous as the sands of the sea and all that is innocent I never forget and seldom forgive my name is gossip just idle words that can become very hurtful words I wonder how many careless thoughtless words have ruined relationships and fractured families and torn churches apart and destroyed reputations careless words words without thinking we should always ask the Holy Spirit to help us think before we speak that we would think before we sinned then there are contemptuous words angry hostile words someone said make your words sweet because someday you may have to eat them I wonder how many wives have been beaten down by the words the verbal abuse of an angry husband how many children have been wounded for life by the hostile words the angry words of parents who don't pay attention they're like weapons that can break down spirits criticism and destructive language words that wound you have to live with the consequences of what you say and often people around you live with the consequences of what we say contemptuous words hateful angry censor Asst that's the next kind of word senseless words negative critical caustic slanderous backstabbing backbiting and James who is our brother here says brothers and sisters this should not be true about us if we open our mouths and say ah and the Great Physician looks down what does he see and what's coming out of our hearts say well I don't gossip but you know people just tell me stuff don't let somebody use your ears for garbage kids don't participate in gossip or slander in censor it's words and then carnal words fleshly words filthy words profane words he speaks of both blessing and cursing in this passage blaspheming God and blaspheming others filthy words potty mouth porno words immoral words that come out of the heart did you know that all of the Ten Commandments can be broken by our words not just our deeds that's why we can we could pretty much know that we've broken all the Commandments at least by our words if not our deeds we we could dishonor God by our words we can we can exhibit false worship and idol worship with our our words we can we can offer murderous accusations and assassinations with our words we can we can tell lies and bear false witness with our words we can we can covet with our words we can express vile and lustful thoughts adulterous thoughts with our words we can steal a person's reputation with our words words matter so it's true when James says this can set off a course of advance a fire in your life that can destroy everything he talks then about this monster a beast said we contain the animals just so James takes us on a trip to the zoo said you can tame animals but this beasts uncontrolled in your mouth this monster in your mouth is is restless and it's powerful and it's poisonous and a few drops can kill but that brings me to the final word here which says our words then display our character that's what he's talking about when he says out of one side of our mouth comes blessing and the other side of our mouth comes blasting or cursing as the Indian used to say speaking with forked tongue to tongue you ever been to time or to tongued blessing and cursing someone said that the profanity of the church is greater than the profanity of the streets and what that means is you know we come to church we you know hey brother how you doing let's praise God together and then in the parking lot saying got cut you off you jerk what's wrong with you or we go home and before we even get home we're in on a rancorous argument with someone in the family and how it happens all the time because our tongues cause us a great deal of trouble one minute we're praising God the next minute we're profaning people that God made that's what he's saying you great people in the Bible had trouble with their tongues job who overcame such disaster in his life said I I am vile I lay a hand over my mouth like that Isaiah the the great prophet when he saw the Lord High and lifted up he said I am a man of unclean lips amidst a generation of people of unclean lips that's descriptive of our generation there's just so much filth in the air there's just so much violence in vocabularies and both men and women are spewing out this filth words sending out poisonous words Moses was angry one day and he it really ended up out of the Promised Land because of it and it says in Psalm 106 verse 33 that because he was angry he said I spoke rashly with my lips how many times have we spoken rashly we we wish we could get it back but of course it's like slitting open a feather pillow and the wind blowing the feathers everywhere you could never get some of that stuff back in the pillow Peters sinned against Christ and denying Christ and with the same mouth he confessed him and said I will never deny you and yet when he was warming his hands by the fires of the Romans he ended up and running away denying Christ it's disturbing isn't it when I look at my own and I see in my words both blessing and cursing is it's disturbing James uses these words to these illustrations of a fountain whether it's sweet water or salt water or whether it's a fig tree this these illustrations of nature by saying what is at the root will bear the same fruit and so the problem is with the heart the person with a harsh tongue has an angry heart the person with a negative tongue has an anxious heart the person with an overactive tongue has an unsettled heart the person with a filthy heart are a filthy tongue as a impure heart a person with a critical sensories tongue has a bitter heart and so on but let's flip that on the other side a person with compassionate words has a loving heart a person with an encouraging tongue has a happy heart a person with a truthful tongue has an honest heart I enjoy watching the ESPN 30 for 30 presentations video presentations and I was watching the one on Coach McCartney bill McCartney formerly of the university of colorado national championship team he was also the founder of the Promise Keepers movement it's a powerful story called the Gospel according to McCartney I believe but in in it he said something that I stopped it paused at several times so I could write it down here's what Coach McCartney said the measure of a man is his words are they true can he back them up in the final analysis McCartney says what else do we offer people can you back up your words do you live them out our words come from our hearts and the only way to tame the tongue is first of all to get a new heart the Bible talks about getting a brand-new heart because the old heart is deceitful and desperately wicked and the only way to transform our tongues is not Reformation or even education you can improve your vocabulary with education you can improve maybe your attitude with Reformation but you can only change your tongue and your actions your words and your deeds with transformation we need a new life and this is how Jesus Christ changes our hearts and changes our lives I can tell you I've seen it over the years many many times how a man or a woman whose tongue was off-the-charts but then transformed by the power of Jesus Christ then ask the Holy Spirit to control your tongue give God control of your tongue James says we can't do this on our own we need the supernatural power of God the psalmist said it this way in Psalm 141 verse 3 set a guard over my mouth o Lord keep a watch over the doors of my lip set a guard on my mouth Lord watch my mouth or pray the prayer of the psalmist in Psalm 19 and verse 14 let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight O Lord my strength and my Redeemer God watches our words and looks into our heart and then use your tongue to the glory of God use your tongue for God's glory the best way I know how to transform the tongue by the power of Christ is that use my tongue and my words to magnify Christ in praise and in worship the psalmist said thy loving-kindness is better than my lips will praise you Oh magnify the Lord with me I will bless the Lord at all times his praise will continually be in my mouth the scripture says that we're to bring to God the sacrifice of praise the fruit of our lips I don't know why we seem to be so reluctant to use our words to worship what we say or what we see I was watching both some basketballs a mask last night and also some Alabama football and over there in Alabama they had about a hundred thousand people screaming in those stands roll tide and they were rolling last night sorry LSU but it was scary he was so loud and you go to a ball game you cheer you shout you stop you raise your hands you slap in high fives nobody thinks a thing about it you call that person a fan but you come to church and if somebody you know lifts a hand or shouts to the Lord or praises God or seeing something that person is a fanatic praise God with your words with your worship to him remember worship flows out of the heart and it's possible it's possible that you don't worship with your lips because you don't have it in your heart to do it I'm not saying tip the cup but if it spills over shout to the Lord praise God from whom all blessings flow Oh for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemers praise I wish God would give me a thousand tons and a thousand lifetimes to speak of the wonders of his love and the power of His grace in our lives that's how we're to use our tongues our words as our witness our tongue is a testimony how you do it how's the testimony of your words the testimony of your worship how's your life going is it negative and downhill going in the wrong direction and your words are just destructive self-destructive or are your words powerful and persuasive Joshua 1:8 says that we are to keep God's Word in our mouths at all times speak the Word of God over your life speak God's promises over your situation express God's praise no matter what and your words your tongue will be transformed to the glory of Jesus Christ the most important thing you could say with your tongue for words if I only had four words to say to the world these would be my four words Jesus Christ is Lord

Channel: Prestonwood Baptist Church

Views: 24,040

Rating: 4.7849464 out of 5

Keywords: @LifeWorks, #TamingTheTongue, Taming the Tongue, Pastor Jack Graham, James 3:1-12, prestonwood, sunday service, 2015-11-08

Id: 4gdY4xrh_so

Length: 36min 48sec (2208 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 16 2015