Introduction:
James 1:26 - If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.
How to Watch Your Mouth (James 3:1-12)
- Recognize its Controlling Influence . (Jas 3:1-5a)
- Refuse to underestimate its Destructive Power . (Jas 3:5b-9)
- It can spread Corruption Easily and Quickly . (Jas 3:5b-6)
- It can be a Weapon in the Hands of Satan . (Jas 3:6b)
John 8:44 - "He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies."
- It is impossible to Fully Tame . (Jas 3:7-8)
- Resolve to only use it for Blessing . (Jas 3:9-12)
Matthew 12:33-34 - "Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks."
Ephesians 4:29 - Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:38-00:41
You can turn your Bibles to James chapter three, verses one through 12.
00:41-00:47
You know, some of you may not know this, but I used to be an intern at Harvest over 10 years ago during the early days of the church.
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We met at Marshall Middle School.
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Pastor Jeff graciously let me shadow him for a year and even preach four times during that internship.
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And also a part of that internship was giving announcements on Sunday.
01:03-01:41
And as Jeff whoops, announcements aren't anybody's favorite thing do. I'd rather preach a sermon any day of the week, they come up here and give announcements. It's a bit awkward. You don't want to be over prepared and stiffly read from a piece of paper, but you also don't want to be under prepared and have no idea what you're gonna say. And back then I had no experience, so standing in front of a room of people and talking was a bit uncomfortable. It I was called to give an announcement about a mission trip fundraiser.
01:42-01:47
And to ease the tension in my stomach, I tried to make an off-the-cuff joke.
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It didn't go very well.
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It was cringey, it was unintentionally rude, and it went over like a lead balloon.
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No one laughed.
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A hush fell over the crowd.
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And to avoid offending people with the same exact announcement, I'm not gonna tell you my joke.
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Even though some of you the entire time will be thinking, what was his joke?
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What did he say?
02:12-02:13
What did he say?
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None of your business, don't worry about it.
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Let's just say it was so bad that Pastor Jeff had to jump on stage and try to walk that horse back to the stable.
02:23-02:28
But unfortunately, that horse was miles down the road and there was no hope of bringing it back.
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And hopefully, history won't repeat itself and Jeff's standing right here, waiting to jump on stage as close as he can just in case history repeats itself again.
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You know, we laugh in retrospect about that moment, but it wasn't very funny when it happened.
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I think back to that moment, and many like it throughout my life, and I think to myself, what was I thinking?
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Why did I say that?
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As soon as I made that joke, I instantly regretted it.
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We've all been there, right?
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This happened to anybody else besides me.
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Don't you dare leave me alone up here like I was 11 years ago.
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It's happened to every single one of us.
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You let a careless comment slip out to your spouse.
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You join in with your friends in making crude jokes that you know are out of bounds.
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You blow up at your kids for the millionth time this week.
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You say something extremely idiotic that you wish you could just grab out of the air and shove back down your throat, but you can't.
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You can never ever take back what you say.
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We're in the middle of our sermon series in the book of James, which is filled with difficult, yet necessary commands for how we are to live out our faith as followers of Christ.
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And James has shown us over and over and over again that true faith leads to submission and obedience to the word of God.
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True faith leads to a transformed life.
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And this morning we're gonna learn that true faith leads to transformed speech.
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And a few weeks ago, Pastor Jeff touched upon the importance of our words in James 1:26.
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If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle or control his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless.
04:29-05:14
worthless. Simply put, do not claim to know and love Jesus if you do not seek to filter your words and control what you say. Do not claim that Jesus is your Lord when your tongue is completely out of control because your tongue is connected to your heart. Your words say a lot about you and reveal who you really are. And James ramps up the seriousness of our words in chapter 3 verses 1 through 12 and clearly lays out why and how we should watch our mouths. This isn't just a minor issue that we should put on the back burner of our to-do list.
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This is an essential aspect of our faith that we cannot ignore. And I'll be honest with you, whenever Pastor Jeff assigned me this passage a few months ago, I one of the things I struggle with the most.
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But the Lord has really used these verses to take me to the mat this week and point me to my desperate need for Him.
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And I hope the same will be true of you as well.
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So let's go to the Lord in prayer and ask for His help because we all definitely need it.
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Father, we come before you and we ask and pray that we would be a people that tremble at your word.
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We not only seek to believe it, but we seek to live in light of it.
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I pray your Holy Spirit would preach a much better sermon in our hearts than I possibly could with my mouth.
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Lord, may you be with my mouth and give me the words to say.
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And may you give everyone in this room the ears to hear.
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In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
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All right, so how to watch your mouth.
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Number one, recognize its controlling influence.
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Recognize its controlling influence.
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So James kicks off the longest teaching about the tongue of the New Testament in a very surprising way.
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Verse one, he has this to say, "Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, "for you know that we who teach "will be judged with greater strictness." He really comes out the gate swinging, doesn't he?
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James has an extremely high view of scripture and the task of teaching other people about scripture.
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When a man stands behind a pulpit, he is called to declare what God has definitively said instead of sharing his own flawed and subjective opinions.
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He is not called to entertain.
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He is not called to innovate and bring his new ideas and interpretations.
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He's not called to use the text as a springboard to talk about what he really wants to talk about.
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He is called to faithfully read the text, explain the text, illustrate the text, and apply the text.
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That's it.
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This is why I agonize and pray over every single word as I prepare.
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I go over and edit these sermons a lot because I wanna make sure that what I'm saying is accurate and honoring to the Lord.
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I know the same is true for Pastor Jeff and every other man who preaches here, because we believe what James says here is true.
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We believe that we will be judged with a greater strictness, which means that we will have to give an account someday for every single word that came out of our mouths we stood before you.
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And some of you are thinking, "Phew, I'm glad I'm not a preacher.
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"Don't have to worry about that." Well, do you teach back at Harvest Academy?
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Do you teach your own kids?
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Do you lead a small group?
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Do you teach some other kind of class here at Harvest?
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If that's true of you, then this verse has something to say to you as well.
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James wants every single teacher or preacher of the word to approach the sharing of the word with an air of responsibility and reverence.
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This is not a task that should be rushed into quickly or treated flippantly.
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Teaching the word of God is by far the most important thing you could use your mouth to communicate, prepare and present like you believe that.
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You must recognize that your teaching has an influence and an effect.
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And the question is, does my teaching have a godly influence and effect, or does my teaching have a worldly influence and effect?
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Am I painting an accurate picture of God and his word, or am I painting a completely inaccurate picture of God and his word?
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And James continues to discuss the influence of the tongue in our lives in verse two.
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He writes, "For we all stumble in many ways, "and if anyone does not stumble in what he says, "He is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body." So James calls out a reality that we cannot avoid.
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We all stumble and sin multiple times a day in multiple ways.
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None of us are flawless and perfect.
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How you stumble may be different than how I stumble, but these things are sins nonetheless.
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But then James seems to contradict himself and make an exception when he says, "And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, also able to bridle his own body." So, you must be a perfect person without any and all sin if you never ever stumble or mess up with what you say.
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Who wants to raise their hand and claim that this verse is describing them?
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Where's Mr. and Mrs. Perfect?
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Really, nobody?
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None of you, are you sure?
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Well, that's really the point that James is making here.
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This verse describes none of us, because we all stumble in this area without exception, which we have all admitted by not raising our hands.
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And James uses two common illustrations to help us understand the powerful influence of our tongue in verses three through five.
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If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well.
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Look at the ships also.
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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.
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So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.
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So our tongues are like the bit of a horse's bridle and a ship's rudder.
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Both are very small things that control the direction and destination of very large things.
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I actually have a picture of a bit and bridle for you.
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A bit is placed in the mouth of the horse to control their head movement and in turn control where they go.
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And many modern cruise ships still utilize rudders to steer and to maintain course.
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And I actually have a picture of a giant.
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That's how big a cruise ship rudder is.
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That may seem big to us, but if you zoomed out, you would see that it's really small in comparison to the rest of the ship.
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You know, cruise ships, we've all, maybe you've been on a cruise before with multiple restaurants, huge decks, and multiple activities.
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You hold thousands of people, but if this rudder isn't steering you in the right direction, you will not go to the islands that you paid to see.
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So James says that our tongue is very small in comparison to the rest of our body, but like a small bit or rudder, it can accomplish big things for good or for bad.
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The same bit and bridle that can lead a horse on the right trail can also lead you right off a cliff.
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The same rudder that steers you to Aruba can also crash you right into a coral reef.
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Your tongue can lead you to blessing or to ruin, to victory or to defeat, to a close-knit community, or to self-inflicted isolation.
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Your words reveal the direction of where you were heading and can even give people a sneak peek of your eternal destination.
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So based on how you've been speaking over the past few weeks, where are you heading in life?
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What do your words say about you?
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Are you on track?
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Are you traveling down the path that God has laid out for you in his word?
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Or are you totally off the path and going your own way?
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I encourage every single one of you to do some self-reflection today.
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Evaluate the content and tone of your speech.
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Invite your spouse, your kids, and your friends into this conversation because they can point out the blind spots that you cannot see.
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Don't just assume that you're doing great in this area of life because you could be failing and stumbling without even realizing it.
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You could be unintentionally drifting off course and riding in the wrong direction.
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And if that's you, I don't want you to remain clueless any longer of the controlling influence of your tongue.
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I want you to recognize its importance and do something to change your direction.
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So how to watch your mouth, number two, refuse to underestimate its destructive power.
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Refuse to underestimate its destructive power.
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So not only does the tongue have the ability to influence, but it also has the power to destroy, to wound, to wear down, and to tear down.
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Every single one of us has a deadly weapon in our mouths.
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One pastor I read this week has this to say, "No wonder God put the tongue in a cage behind the teeth, "walled in by the mouth." Could be a dangerous animal.
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In verses five through eight, James unpacks three different reasons for why the tongue can be so devastating and destruction.
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You have A, B, and C on your outline for those three things.
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Letter A, it can spread corruption easily and quickly.
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It can spread corruption easily and quickly.
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Let's read verses five through six.
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How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire.
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And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness.
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The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life.
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James is the master of the metaphor.
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And he broke every single rule we learned in English class growing up by constantly switching up his metaphors.
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So first our tongue is a rudder, it's a bit, and now it's a small fire that can engulf an entire forest.
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You know, this comparison should really hit us in 2023 because we are constantly bombarded with images of wildfires on the news.
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And I read this past week that up to 90% of wildfires are triggered by acts of human carelessness, acts of human carelessness, such as flicking a lit cigarette into the woods or leaving a campfire unattended.
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A small act of carelessness can cause acres and acres and acres of damage and even lead to the loss of human life.
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In a similar way, small acts of carelessness with your tongue can cause an exhaustive amount of damage to your family, to your friends, to your church, and to yourself.
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James says that your fiery tongue is a world of unrighteousness, which means that there is no ceiling to the heights of wickedness that it can climb to, and there are no limits to the wreckage it can leave in its wake.
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James says the tongue is set among our members, staining, defiling the whole body.
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You know, whenever you're around a campfire, whenever you're around someone who's smoking a cigarette, you get that same smoky smell stuck in your hair, stuck in your clothes, and stuck in your nostrils.
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That happened to anybody else besides me.
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You can only get it away by washing your clothes, by washing your face, by washing your hair.
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Your words can leave a similar stench on you and others as well.
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Your destructive words have a corrupting power that hang over you like a cloud and can tarnish and ruin your witness and example.
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Nobody wants to be around that person who only has negative things to say about everybody and everything.
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Nobody is rushing to be close friends with that lady who constantly bashes people behind their backs because you know that when your back is turned, She's gonna be saying similar things about you.
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Nobody wants to hang out with that guy who is bitingly sarcastic and picks apart people with his words.
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That wicked stench can repel people and make them not wanna be around you because they don't wanna get that wicked stench on themselves as well.
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In verse six, we are told that our tongues can set fire to the entire course of life.
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Other way to translate that in the original Greek is the circle of life.
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And no, James isn't busting out into the famous Lion King song.
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He is simply referring to our circle or sphere of influence.
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You have to understand that your words don't just affect you, they affect every single person around you.
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You can spark a massive conflict or controversy with just one sentence.
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You have the power to shatter someone into a million pieces.
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You can say something in a few seconds that haunts someone for the rest of their lives.
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Every single one of us in this room can pull up something that someone has said to us that we will never, ever forget.
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Why else can the tongue be so destructive?
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Let her be.
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It can be a weapon in the hands of Satan.
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It can be a weapon in the hands of Satan.
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You may be thinking at this point, well, Taylor, people are just way too soft.
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Whatever happened to sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.
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Why can a few sounds from my mouth cause so much damage?
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What's the big deal?
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Well, James makes it crystal clear This is a big deal, at the end of verse six, when he says, "The tongue is set on fire by hell." Your tongue can be a tool of instrument and healing in the hands of God, or it can be an instrument of death in the hands of Satan.
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Jesus has this to say about Satan in John 8, 44.
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"He was a murderer from the beginning "and does not stand in the truth "because there is no truth in him.
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"When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, "for he is a liar and the father of lies." Satan sits back with a giant bowl of popcorn and is so entertained when you choose to hurt people with your words.
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He gets a massive kick out of you twisting the truth because he is the father of lies.
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If you're a Christian, there is nothing that Satan can do to unsave you or wrench you out of God's tight grip.
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But he can lay temptations before you with the intention of getting your eyes off of God, off of who he wants you to be, and off of what he has called you to do.
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Your God has a plan and a purpose for your life.
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But guess what?
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Your enemy has a plan and a purpose for your life as well.
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Satan wants you to be as ineffective for the gospel as possible.
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He wants you to become a miserable, bitter, oblivious, and self-focused Christian who makes no impact for the kingdom of God.
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I have to say, our enemy is doing a fantastic job of accomplishing this mission, isn't he?
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Look at the church landscape and bear witness to how many professing Christians are following the game plan of the enemy they claim to hate, rather than the ways of the God they claim to love.
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The way that people in the church world can speak to and about one another is despicable, and it's disheartening.
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The church should be a place of unity and not infighting, a place of friendly fellowship and not friendly fire, a place where we follow the lead and prompting of the Spirit, not the lead of our enemy.
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Let us not give our enemy any more ammunition in his battle against human souls.
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An essential aspect of training someone in firearm safety is the constant reinforcing of the deadly capabilities of a gun.
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In the same way, as a follower of Christ, an essential aspect of our training is the constant reinforcing of the deadly capabilities of our tongue.
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So why is the tongue so destructive?
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Letter C, it is impossible to fully tame.
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It is impossible to fully tame.
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Let's continue on with verses 7 through 8.
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For every kind of beast and bird and reptile and sea creature can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue.
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It is a restless evil full of deadly poison.
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You know, it's truly amazing to see what animals can be trained to do.
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If you jump on YouTube, you can find videos of elephants painting beautiful pictures, Monkeys doing sign language and playing video games.
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Did you know that in Sweden, they are training crows to pick up litter off the road?
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They've even been trained to pick up cigarette butts and put them in special waste bins.
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Everyone's worried about AI replacing their jobs.
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I guess we have to worry about birds now too.
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Some dogs are trained from birth to help the blind find their way around or sniff out explosives, counterfeit money and drugs.
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And then there's my dog, Murdoch.
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I love Murdoch, he means well, he's great with my kids, but he's a doofus.
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Since he was born, he's been super hyper and age has not changed that.
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He's almost seven years old, he's showing no signs of slowing down.
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He's getting a little bit white around the face, but his behavior's not changing at all.
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And the real kicker is we tried to train him, didn't we Kate?
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We took him to a training class graduated. I have some pictures to prove it. He has a diploma. He has a cap. I didn't give him a gown.
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He didn't seem very excited, did he, to get this training certificate. We have this certificate on file that tells us that Murdoch is a trained dog. That tells us that he doesn't ignore trained commands. That tells us that he will listen to us no matter what.
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But his behavior tells me something much different.
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We'd all like to believe that our tongues are expertly trained, like those painting elephants, or those Swedish crows that tidy up the road.
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But if we're honest, our tongues are more like Murdoch most of the time, lacking in proper training and running wild.
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According to James, the tongue is impossible for us to fully bridle, control, and tame.
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He says that it is a restless evil full of deadly poison.
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He just keeps piling on the negative descriptors for what our mouths are capable of.
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At this point in the sermon, you may be a bit exhausted.
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Maybe feeling a bit hopeless and helpless.
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Maybe thinking, okay, Taylor, you're telling me to watch my mouth, but you're also telling me that I can never fully watch my mouth.
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What should I do?
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What hope do I have?
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Well, earlier on I said that no one is perfect in how they speak.
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And that's true.
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There is no mere human being who has ever or will ever fully tame the tongue.
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But there is one person who has done this perfectly, the Lord Jesus Christ.
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During his time on this earth, he always respected his parents.
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He never talked back to them.
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He never once told a lie to avoid an awkward situation or impress others.
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He never tore apart someone's reputation or slandered them.
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He never made fun of a disciple behind his back to the other disciples.
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Jesus only preached the truth at all times, and he never once had to make a public or a public retraction for something that he said.
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Yes, he spoke hard truths, but he did so with righteousness and purity.
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This perfect son of God did the unthinkable by suffering and dying in our place and on our behalf.
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We are told in scripture that on the cross, he not only took our sin upon himself, but he actually became our sin.
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He became our lying, our gossiping, our complaining, our harsh words, our false promises.
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He became all of these things for us.
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And if you have trusted in Christ alone for salvation, he has fully paid the price for all of your many failures and faults.
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And in return, his perfect righteousness has been given to you, has been accredited to your account before the Father, which means that you are now treated as if you never once failed or stumbled in your speech.
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You are now treated as if you perfectly spoke as Jesus spoke.
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Praise the Lord.
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It is in light of this amazing truth that we seek to watch what we say is in light of this awesome truth that we seek to tame the tongue.
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We don't seek to tame the tongue in our own strength with the desperate long shot that God will love and accept us.
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We seek to tame the tongue in the power of the Holy Spirit with the confident assurance that we are already loved and accepted in Christ.
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We must look to Jesus as our perfect substitute and Savior.
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But we should also look to Him as our perfect example and follow in His footsteps.
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I wanna give you some homework today.
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I want you to go home this week and read one of the Gospels.
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Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.
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And I want you to zero in on how Jesus speaks.
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I want you to zero in how he uses his words.
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And imitate that.
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And slowly but surely over time, you'll see and others will see that you look and speak a lot more like him.
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How to watch your mouth.
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Finally, resolve to only use it for blessing.
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resolved to only use it for blessing.
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In verse 9, James gives a convicting example of how the tongue can be restlessly evil and full of deadly poison.
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He writes this.
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"With it, we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God." So James is saying that many have a forked tongue, And they try to use it for two contradictory purposes-- for blessing and for cursing.
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You use your mouth to say how much you love God, but then you use that same mouth to tear down other people and show them hatred.
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You come to church, you sing all the songs, you say amen in all the right spots, but on the way home, you passionately cuss someone out who has not fallen the rules of the road as you would.
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You wake up tomorrow morning, you have your devotions, you pray passionately to the Lord, and then a few moments later you walk downstairs and you intentionally condescend your spouse and put them down to make them feel bad.
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You rock out to worship music during your commute, but at work during a meeting, you intentionally to belittle and embarrass a guy on your team in front of all your colleagues.
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According to James, this type of behavior and lifestyle is delusional and hypocritical.
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Imagine that you were extremely sweet, complimentary, and pleasant with me as one of your pastors.
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You always have a kind word to say to me.
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You even send me nice notes on occasion.
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But it comes to my attention that at church, whenever I'm not around, you are unbelievably rude to my kids.
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You lose it on them in the hallway as they're running down the hallway.
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You even give them mean nicknames and make fun of some of their physical features.
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Let me ask you an obvious question with an equally obvious answer.
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If I find out about this, are we gonna have a great relationship?
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There's no chance of that, right?
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You can't treat my kids that way expect to be buddy-buddy with me.
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You can't be on bad terms with my kids and be on good terms with me, because they are an extension of me.
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Sam and Emmy were made in the image and likeness of my wife and I.
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If you disrespect them, that shows that you don't truly respect me.
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In a much greater way, how can we bless the Lord with our mouths and then use that same mouth to hurt and to harm those made in his image and likeness.
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When you disrespect someone with your words, you are ultimately disrespecting their creator.
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And on the other hand, when you bless others with your words you are ultimately blessing the God who made them.
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I can tell a lot about you based on how you speak to everyone around you.
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And James continues on in verses 10 through 12 to explain why this dual purpose of the tongue does not work or make sense.
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From the same mouth come blessing and cursing.
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My brothers, these things ought not to be so.
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Does a spring pour forth from the same opening, both fresh and salt water?
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Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives or grapevines produce figs?
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Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.
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James says, my brothers, these things ought not to be so.
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Ought not in the original Greek is a very strong negative statement that's only used once in the entire New Testament, and that's here.
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James is making it crystal clear that this kind of hypocrisy should have no place in the life of the church or in the life of a believer.
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And he closes with using two more metaphors for our mouths.
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Our mouths are like springs and our mouths are like trees.
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I'm not a big nature guy, but maybe you could help me with this.
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Have you ever come across a spring out in the woods or on your wilderness wanderings that pours forth both fresh water and salt water?
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No, because that's impossible.
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Whenever you go to Sorghum's, do you angrily kick an apple tree produce cherries?
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Why not?
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Because apple trees cannot produce cherries.
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They can only produce apples.
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As James says, a fig tree cannot produce olives, and a grapevine cannot produce figs.
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The same way a transformed heart should not be bearing the rotten fruit of evil speech that harms and hurts others.
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Instead, it should only be bearing the right fruit of words that bless and help others.
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And Jesus speaks this in Matthew 12, verses 33 through 34, which Jeff talked about a few weeks ago.
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Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known for its fruits.
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You brood of vipers, how can you speak good when you are evil?
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For out of the abundance, out of the overflow of the heart, The mouth speaks.
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You cannot have a forked tongue.
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You cannot straddle the fence and have one foot in worldliness and the other in holiness.
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That is not how your tongue or your heart works.
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You have to pick a lane.
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Will you pick blessing or will you pick cursing?
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Will you pick love for God and love for people or will you pick hatred for God and hatred for people?
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As we close, I want to share a verse with you that I revisit often, and I want you to commit to memory.
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Ephesians 4.29, "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear." This is the biblical filter that you should run every thought through before you say something.
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I want you to ask yourself three questions based on this verse before you ever let a word exit your mouth.
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Three questions.
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Number one, is what I'm saying corrupting?
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Is what I'm about to say corrupting?
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Is it obscene? Is it crude? Is it unbiblical?
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will this dishonor God?
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And if you're unsure, take the safe route and don't say it.
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Number two, will this build up the person that I'm talking to?
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Will this build up the person that I'm talking to?
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Will this bless them?
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Will this help them?
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Will this point them to the grace of God?
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Or will it hurt them and point them away from Him?
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And the third question, every husband have your pen ready.
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Write this down.
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Is this the right time to say it?
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And all the wives in the room said amen.
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Is this the right time to say it?
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Sometimes you can say the right thing at the completely wrong time.
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Sometimes the best thing to say is nothing.
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Be sensitive to the person's need in that moment and consider what they need to hear and what they don't need to hear.
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Make sure that your words fit every single occasion that you find yourself in.
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Choose to be a person who speaks blessing to and over those made in the image of God, which covers every single person that you come into contact with without exception.
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You know, James is a book of action.
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James didn't write these verses to give us an interesting lesson on the tongue.
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He wrote these verses under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit so you will seek to watch your mouth on a moment by moment basis.
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He wants you to truly understand how much is at stake when you open your mouth.
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He wants you to recognize it's controlling influence over you and others.
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He wants you to refuse to underestimate its destructive power.
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And he wants you to resolve to only use it for blessing and not for cursing.
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Maybe you've come to the realization this morning that you don't truly know and love Christ.
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And this reality is made very clear by how you speak.
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If that's you this morning, I implore you to place your faith in Christ alone for salvation.
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And then and only then will you be transformed from the inside out, and your mouth will be given the ability to be used for good.
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And for the rest of us, we only take a few moments to do some personal inventory and bring our speech to the Lord.
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As our team makes their way forward, our worship team, please bow your heads and close your eyes.
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Spend some time with the Lord and ask for his help so you can obey and apply the verses we just read.
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Pray that he would clear your heart of specific idols and sins that have a vice grip on your heart and are pouring out of your mouth.
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Lust, anger, bitterness, distrust, impatience, pride, or fill in the blank with whatever you're wrestling with.
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Push aside all distractions and focus on the changes that the Lord is calling you to make.
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Holy Father, we come before you in our undone because we are a people of unclean lips and we live among a people of unclean lips.
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And Lord, we have seen your glory this morning in your word.
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And we realize, Lord, how we have sinned against you today, this week, or the course of this past month.
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And we come before you and we thank you for the mercies of your son.
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We thank you that he showed his love for us on the cross, coming to die in our place.
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to take all of our sinful words upon Himself and becoming our sinful words and paying the penalty for all of our sin.
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Lord, in light of that truth, Lord, help us to use our mouths for You and Your glory.
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I pray that we wouldn't use our mouths to make ourselves feel better, to impress others, Lord, to hurt others, to elevate ourselves.
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May we use our mouths to speak the truth of Christ and show others Christ.
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Lord, I don't want this message to just stay here in the building this morning or to stay in the parking lot for that it would stay with us the rest of this week.
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And your Holy Spirit would do the work that only he can.
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That he would challenge us, he would convict us that he would change us.
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Lord, we thank you for your goodness.
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We thank you for your mercy.
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And may we now use our mouths to sing to you with a heart that is full of love.
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In the name of Jesus, amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read James 3:1-12
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Why do our words carry so much weight for good or for bad? Why is underestimating the power of our words detrimental and destructive?
What is your biggest struggle/stumbling block with your speech? What is the heart issue behind that speech issue?
How can you resolve to use your mouth for blessing this upcoming week? Who is God calling you to bless in particular?
Breakout
Pray for one another and that you would resolve to use your mouth for blessing and not cursing.