Services | The Tongue

Bulletin

Hymn # 214 “All the Way My Savior Leads Me”

SCRIPTURE READING – Matthew 7:24 - 29

Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
OFFERTORY MUSIC – Pru Hungate

Praise and Worship
“Behold the Lamb”
“This Is Amazing Grace”
“Way Maker”

Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“The Tongue”

PRAYER TIME / Time of Reflection

“Resurrection Power”


Sermon Notes
James 3:1 & 2 We all stumble, but if we don’t stumble in what we say you are perfect
James 3:3 – 12 The tongue is small but has a big impact
Proverbs 6:16 – 19 God hates a lying tongue
Proverbs 16:21 – 27 The difference between the words of the wise and the fool
James 1:19 Be quick to hear and slow to speak

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Scritpures

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Transcript of Service

We all want to do better. We can tell that by the plethora of self-help books. There is even a...and that if you want to improve, that you do one hard thing a day. The Book of James gives us advice how to do not just A hard thing, but one really hard thing consistently and master it.

To do that one really hard thing and master it, the Scripture says we will become perfect or complete, not just better in one area. Let's find out what that one really hard thing is and how to master it. It is interesting. Take care of our bodies. We worry about and try to affect the midsection. Some of us better than others.

Some of us that goes up and down and up and down. But we always seem to be concerned. Oftentimes we will go to them to either get stronger or develop muscles so that it will impress usually the opposite sex or other people. We do all of these things. We get makeup and facials and all these things to make our face look better.

Peace, banal, even gentlemen go get manicures and pedicures. Even though I keep getting people saying you should go get a pedicure. Not for me. But people do these things to make improvements on their bodies. But the problem with all of these improvements, doing them, for instance, if you stop worrying about your weight, it will go back up again because that is the way life is. If you are a runner and you stop running all of a sudden you can't run as far or as fast as you used to be. It is the way the body is. But we do these things.

But all of these things that we do to look better, we never consider one part of our body it is small. We will have a larger impact on our lives and other people's lives if we actually and that part of the body is very small. It is called the tongue. And it is opposite of the other parts of the body. For you see, the more I exercise the stronger my body is. However, we will see in the scriptures the better you and other people will be. And so we are going to take a look at the tongue and what we should do about it. Part of a lot of people who are doing self-help will tell you one of the things and one of the ways to get better on things is to do a hard thing every day.

You that we should not only do this really, really, really hard thing, but not just do it once a day but consistently and constantly to the point that we master it. Because there is benefits to you and me if I do. So if you have your Bibles, turn to James, which is found right after Hebrews, chapter 3 and we are going to start with the first couple of verses. Actually, there are 12. So it says this, start off, not let many of you become teachers by brother. No, we will incur a strict or judgment. Now, I say that because in essence people like me who profess to be teachers, we need to make sure that what we say is accurate and consistent with the scriptures.

Because by me teaching you, if I teach you incorrectly, hold me to account. He's going to hold me to a stricter standard than you'd listen to me. If I'm not presenting the scriptures accurately, then you either need to discuss it with me or find somebody who does. And if for some reason you can't do that, then you've heard that teaches according to the scriptures because we do that. But then it goes in now to specific to all of us. But we all stumble in many ways. So James understands that we're all human. We all are sinners.

We all fail. We all fall all the way down, but we stumble. And the older I get, the more I seem to stumble. But we have this way. So we stumble in many ways. There are opportunities untold to mess up. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man able to bridle the whole body as well. So as I started out, we try to do better when it comes to our strength and our weight and all these things.

I do these things. It only impacts, for instance, my weight or my endurance or my strength, but all these things, but in saying, if I am able to bridle the tongue, I become perfect. I become complete. So the idea is that the first thing we ought to be doing that is very, very hard is controlling the tongue. You might be able to control other things, but you're only controlling that thing. James is telling us, if you're able to control the tongue, you're going to be sure many, many other things to the point that you'll be perfect. In the scriptures, we kind of think perfect is absolutely, there's being complete that you need nothing else. So you want to be the best you you can be controlled this tongue.

You could be good if you're stronger. You can be good if you look better. You could be good if you have less weight, but all those things are only related to that one thing. James is saying, master the tongue. Be perfect. You'll be able to control all those other things, because if you can control the tongue, you can control your appetite. You can control other aspects of your life. You can control your attitude.

If you control the tongue, but the don't want to be controlled, it is a very hard thing. One of the additives that we Americans have is that it is you should engage your mind before you engage your tongue, but we tend to not do that. We tend to rather than thinking. One of my favorite lawyer jokes is in the middle of a trial, there's two attorneys representing one side and one attorney representing the other side. And all of a sudden Mrs. Jones, who's one of the parties, gets up and says, I object. The judge goes, why do you object? She goes because the other side has two attorneys.

And I have one. And on the other side, when one attorney is talking, the other attorney is speaking. When my attorney stands up and talks, I have no one thinking. And so we have this kind of thing that when we speak, we don't think when we're in arguments, what happens? Instead of listening to what the person says, we're already thinking about respond to. The scripture says, hold your tongue, control it so that you can be perfect. So it says, so he goes on to illustrate this.

Now if we put up the bit into the whole so that it will obey us, we direct their entire body as well. He's saying, all you got to do is put a bit in a horse's mouth and you can turn it and you can make it go whatever you want. The horse weighs a couple of thousand pounds. A rider may weigh less than a hundred pounds, but you can control that large animal based on what it has in his mouth, that he controls it. And he's saying, this tongue can control the body. Put it under control.

Look at the ships also. They are so great and are driven by strong winds are still directed by a very small rudder, wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. He's saying, when you take a look at a, and even the massive oil tankers and aircraft carriers, all things, they have a rudder.

It is very, very small in comparison to the whole ship, but yet that rudder is able to direct that ship even in stormy weather. The tongue is similarly. That tongue can direct your movement, your attitude, your if you control the tongue. And notice it says the pilot, it's the pilot who is the one. He's at the wheel of the ship directing it.

That one person with a wheel is able to conduct the whole ship, whether there are thousands of people on the ship or not. He's in control because he's in control. So also is the tongue. Is a small part of the body. It seems inconsequential. Because it's so small. Notice when I started the message where all of us are talking about how we should look better or be physically stronger or have our nails done or whatever or hair or makeup.

And yet we're never concerned about the tongue which can get us into or out of so much trouble. Maybe we should be more focused on that. Why? Because yet it boasts of great things. We tend not to want to be around those kind of people who are always boasting about how wonderful they are. And it boasts great things I could do. And the conclusion, the older I get, the better I was. Because I'm able to tell you and you can't verify it.

So I can be the greatest whatever when I was 13. And of large, big deal. But we can boast great things with this mouth, with this tongue of ours. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire.

Even Smokey Bear has now changed it from wild preventing forest fires. Now it's preventing wild fires. Why? Because fires.

And Southern California is well aware of what a small flame can do that thousands of people can go home with this. And many people die because of a flame set. It can destroy great things. I start. There's also this statement that unfortunately is not true. Used to be six and stones they break by bones.

But words can never hurt me. I'm sorry, that's not accurate. Because sometimes you might get a broken bone and at my minute, two weeks or months, your character being assassinated may never heal. There may be bitterness or resentment that has come from that that are held on for years. And it may affect that person because of what was said about them.

As people said, once your integrity is questioned, where do you go to get it back? If there's a fire, you can rebuild a house. How long does it be to rebuild your credibility? So words can have devastating results. Parents should know this. The way they speak to their children can have lasting impacts on their lives, not only but as adults. It's a small word.

For every species of beasts and birds and reptiles and creatures of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. You just talked about horses. Horses used to be wild animals and yet now they're under our control. We can, you can even go to sea world and see somebody ride an orca or have them speak and do all these things. We train orders and seals to do tricks. We even have lions and tigers at circuses to do all these things that are wild animals. We trained them and we came then.

We came goats and cows. All these various animals and yet since we're able to do that, yet this is but no one can tame the tongue. It is a restless, evil and full of deadly poison.

That's the impact of the tongue. It's telling us it can have such devastating impact. We need to control it and master it. And again, you know, you can tell a person a thousand times how much you love them or appreciate them or think they're smart or wise or one negative comment, one neutral comment they can take as negative divorces all those thousands of compliments. The tongue is poisonous. It only takes one bite of a snake to kill you. It has poison. And therefore we should not only because of the devastating impact that the tongue has, we should control it.

For our own benefit, it says, if we're able to do this, if we're able to control the tongue, if we're able so that we don't speak, when we shouldn't speak, we are perfect. We are complete. We are masters of many things, not just one. James continues to say, with it we bless our Lord, Father and with it we first been, we've been made in the likeness of God.

And this one hits me right in the face. I can be driving my car, singing on the radio with worship music and whatever. And some will cut me off and I'll say something unkind. We bless the Lord with one word and we curse people with the other. I wasn't alive when he was, but he was obviously talking about me because I do that. I should control the tongue so that I don't do that. He doesn't hear me or she doesn't hear me, but I did with this same tongue, I bless God in curse men. And for this safe mouth, we blessing, these things ought not to be this way.

And I confess, that's right. They ought not to be this way. We need to change the tongue. We need to master it. So he goes on says does a fountain stand out from the same opening, both fresh and in the answer is no, because guess what? Bitter water affects fresh water.

You can have a gallon of pure spring water. And you put a simple drop of cyanide in that water. And it poisoned the whole water.

So not the amount of the poison versus the amount. It's that the poison affects everything. Seeing affects everything. And a fig tree, my brother, and produced olives or a vine produced figs, or can salt water produce fresh. He's basically saying is who you are, you demonstrate your fruit. What is your tongue saying about your fruit? We talk about the fruit of the spirit of love and gentleness and peace and joy and all of these things and that we aspire to these things.

But if we're not mastering our tongue, we're destroying our fruit. We're not producing the fruit we ought to as a perhaps a fig tree, we're not producing figs if we're cursing. Then go to the next. I'd appreciate it. Now we're going to get really with the Lord. Thanks.

And Psalm, I mean, I'm sorry, in Proverbs chapter 6 verse 16, he says, this, there are six things which the Lord hates. We're all talking about how much God. Boom. There are six things that the Lord hates.

Yes, seven, which are an abomination to him. The writer here, Solomon is going to tell us what those things are. Maybe we ought to take note. How do you ice a lying tongue in this blood? A heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, a false witness who others lies and one who spreads strife among the brothers. Notice how many things a lying tongue, those who who build those who want strife, all these things have to do with the tongue. So there are seven things that God hates and are abomination and many of them involve the tongue. I enjoy watching Twilight Zone.

The one back in the 60s, not the current one, not the colorized one, though. It has great moral implications and many of the shows that I've seen because they're back in the 60s. I think now I'll watch them again. There's one that applies here. This gentleman who had a kind of a false sense of who he was, he would always talk. He was a member of a gentleman's club and not what you guys are thinking, one where rich guys hung out.

There was this other rich guy who didn't like him. He said, if you were able to stay silent for a year, I'll give you this incredible amount of money. But the term was that he had to be in a like a plexiglass glass so that they would be able to see whether he was able to accomplish this feat or lose. And the older gentleman who made the bet was confident he would not lose because this guy always talked. So he was secure. So he goes into this container for a year and he comes out not having said a word.

Because the gentleman that was so convinced didn't have the money to pay the bet. So it didn't work out for the guy anyway. But you know why the guy was able not to lose the bet. He cut out his tongue before he entered into the thing. See, he was promised was worth more than his tongue.

God promised this us perfection. If we just master this, how much value is that? And he's not asking us to master it. The wise and heart will be called understanding. This weakness of speech increases per basis, persuasiveness.

You'll, as we say, you'll get more flies out of honey than vinegar. Pleasant and enrene and uplifting is valuable. Understanding is about and alive to one who has it. But the discipline of the fool is falling. The heart of the wise instructs his mouth and adds for goodness to his list. Notice you want to be wise and struck this.

Tell it, you are not master of me. I am master of you. Again, one of the great things that we have is it is better to remain silent and let people think you're a fool than open your mouth. We think that if we just are able to say something, it'll convince me.

And couples know this. If I just tell you another thing, you'll be able to be convinced that I'm right. And we go back and we go back and we go back. We're so worried about winning as opposed to the relationship. Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. Is your mouth being used as a or a scorpion? There's a way that seems right to a man, but in its way is death.

A worker's appetite works for him for the hunger urges him on. A worthless man digs up evil. Words are like scorching fire.

And again, as James had told us, a little fire can be devastating throughout. And so the last recommendation which started before in chapter 1, James tells us this, this you know my brethren, you know it. This is not the first time you probably heard them sermon about the tongue and speech. You know what I'm about to say. You know what I've said. You probably even agree with what I said. You said this, but everyone, but everyone and everyone includes you and me. Everyone must be quick to hear.

So to speak and hang. As someone once said, we have two ears and one mouth. We should use the ears at least twice as much as we use the mouth.

And yet again, we seem to be convinced that we are so wise, we are so smart that you can't simply exist with what you should do and how you should go. And maybe just maybe I should hear you first. Because if I hear you first, I might understand I don't have sufficient wisdom. So all I should do is do is pray for you what to do. Or by hearing you that I might be able to give you sweet wisdom to and better your life, to give you healing to the soul and to the bone as opposed to poison and hatred. Quick to anger. And yet Jesus, the only time we ever saw him angry, was when they disrespected his father's house. So I'll give you this permission.

Not I. Not I'm not saying the Lord. So I give you permission. If someone just respects God, you might say something. Might even get angry. Except that we should be something hard.

Not just do something very, very hard. But we should master what comes out of this mouth. And all God's people said.