James 3:1-12 - The Untamable Tongue

Good morning, Calvary Chapel. Are you guys ready for a fire

and drill now? Everybody got that information

down. Hey, man, thank you, Sister

Karen and all those who put that together.

Thank you for that. Sister Kerry, thank you so much

for those very exuberant, exciting announcements.

A lot's going on Calvary Chapel and we thank God that he's

moving in this house. Going to ask that you would take

your Bibles out. And if you would please turn to

the second, I'm sorry, 3rd chapter of James this morning.

We're going to cover verses one through 12.

And while we're doing that, I would like to welcome everyone

that's here this morning, all of you who are have come back to

worship with us. If you were here recently for

the first time, we thank you for coming back and worshiping with

us. And, and of course, all of you

who are here for the very first time, it's always a blessing to

have you guys come in and just see what we're all about here at

Calvary Chapel. We pray that your worship

experience would be good and we pray that you feel God's love

while you're here and that you feel welcome.

And all those who are listening by way of the radio or listening

by way of Grace FM online, those who are behind prison doors, we

want to thank you for always being faithful and coming with

us. Just want to say this morning,

our brothers, Will and Hillary Thomas have been hit with a loss

and they are dealing with the loss of Hillary's mother.

They just recently dealt with the loss of her, of her father,

and now they're dealing with the loss of her, of her mother.

So we ask that you would keep Will and Hillary Thomas in your

prayers, please. And hopefully maybe some point

today. Pastor Clark and Cindy and I

would like to try to get down there.

My wife is under the weather so she won't be able to to come

with us, but we thank God for that, that we'll be able to do

get down and just have her spiritual family and many that

will be going down to have her spiritual family support them in

this time. I would like to thank also

Sister Kerry for letting me know that today was Pastor's

appreciation that I had no idea every now and then someone will

come and tell me, hey, what today is doughnut day, your

doughnut appreciation day or Starbuck coffee appreciation

day. And I have no idea when these

things happen. They just kind of come up, you

know, today's hamburger day or whatever it is.

You know, I like those kind of holidays though.

But anyway, I want to thank you guys and, and what a just an

awesome fellowship this is and just how much love is spreading

around around this house. We always feel your support and

we want to thank all of you on behalf of Clark and myself and

our wives. We want to thank all of you for

your service and your faithfulness to do what God has

called you to do. We wouldn't be able to do what

we do if it wasn't for you doing what you do.

And I would like to spend out a send out a special thank you to

our wives because without having the women that God has caught

into our lives as helpmets, we will not be able to do this.

So we thank God for Terry and, and, and for Cindy in many ways

of supporting us to do what it is that God has called us to do,

which is really important. Just like those of you who are

in ministry, your spouses are also associated with that

ministry as well because they help you to do what it is that

God has called you to do. So thank all of you.

OK, having said all that, let's turn to the Word of God.

Amen. OK, as I said, we are going to

be in the 3rd chapter of James and we're going to be looking at

verses one through 12. Let's pray and let's get into

the Word. Father, once again we come and

we assemble together as per Your command, that we should not

forsake the assembling of ourselves together as some have.

We ask so God, that as we assemble that you be here with

us, even as we know that Your promises are yay and Amen.

You promised that if two or three of us, whenever we gather

in Your name, that You are here in the midst of us.

And I'm so glad you didn't say I will be there.

You said I am in the midst of you.

So, Father, we thank you for your presence with us this

morning. And the topic that we have this

morning, Lord, as you know, is a very tough topic.

It's a topic of dealing with the tongue.

But Father, we ask for the grace, we ask for the mercy, we

ask for the wisdom, the understanding to rightly divide

this word. Father, we need your Holy Spirit

to reveal this truth to us. We need your Holy Spirit to help

us Lord, to leave here and to be able to be doers of this word

that we hear this morning. We ask you for these things in

the name of our Savior and our Lord.

In Jesus name we pray, Amen. I was told a story recently that

said that there was a pastor who have been doing a series of

things and. He came to the end of his sermon

one Sunday morning and he looked out at the congregation.

He said, come back next week because next week we're going to

talk about the most troubling or troublesome and the most

unsettled, the most evil, the most divisive member of our

church. So I don't need to tell you that

that next Sunday it was packed. People will wonder if they were

going to, if they were going to be a slideshow on this person.

You know me. Who?

Who is it? And then, of course, he went on

to talk about the untamable tongue, which is the most unruly

member of our church. Throughout this section, James

has been basically letting us know in very practical ways and

we keep saying that because it's important.

It's very important for me because he's very, he's very

black and white about the things that he's talking about and very

direct. As we said last week and, and,

and last week, he talked about works and talked about the, the

relationship between saving faith and our good works.

Before that he talked about having, as we said, you know, no

partiality in our service to the Lord in this week and all those

things that he talked about the last few weeks.

It was about the maturity, our spiritual maturity and how you

can tell that one is spiritually mature.

And as he talked about last week, good works is the evidence

of one that is not only spiritually mature, but is the

evidence of our saving faith. So is the word, or so are the

words that we speak. So is our speech.

How important it is to have speech that that represents and

glorifies God. You see, our deeds in our words

should reflect our faith in God. Our speech should be evidence of

our profession of faith. So what I'm going to do, I'm

going to read this all the way through 1st and then I'm going

to go back and we're going to deal with it.

Amen. So he says this in verse 1 of

chapter 3. He says, my brother, let not

many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a

stricter judgment, for we all stumble in many ways.

If anyone does not stumble in Word, he's a perfect man, able

also to bridle the whole body. Indeed.

And we put bits in horses mouths that they may obey us, and we

turn their whole body. Look also at ships.

Although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they

are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot

desires. Even so, the tongue is a little

member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little

fire Kindles, and the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity.

The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the

whole body and sets on fire the course of nature, and it is set

on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and

bird, of reptile and creature of the sea is tamed and has been

tamed by mankind. But no one can tame the tongue.

It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse

men, And we have been who have been made in the similitude of

God. Out of the same mouth proceed

blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought

not to be so. Does a spring send forth fresh

water and bitter from the same opening?

Can a fig tree my brother and bear olives or a Grapevine bear

figs? Thus, no spring yields both salt

water and fresh. I don't have to tell you that

throughout our lives, many times we have experienced the

devastation of the power of the tongue.

We have experienced the the problems that someone has when

they just use their tongue in ways that could be detrimental

or ways that can be harmful. We've done it, I've done it.

I've certainly used my tongue in ways that I should not have.

And I'm sure people have used their tongues against me in ways

that they should not have. The tongue is an untamable

member. And when we look at this

particular passage, we see that James in talking about the

tongue, he starts first of all with the, you know, with, with,

with teachers who uses their tongue to communicate God's

word. So he says, he says, my brother,

let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall

receive a stricter judgment. James said, For we all stumble

in many things. If if anyone does not stumble in

Word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.

But now when we look at that, he is saying to those, and he must

have been in a place where there were many men who were trying to

jockey for position to be teachers who were just motivated

to go and teach. And James is saying to them, oh,

let me slow up a little bit. First of all, you need to

understand that teachers will have a stricter judgment.

So before you decide that you want to go and teach the Word of

God, you need to have something settled within yourself.

First of all, are you called? As I told you before, my

grandmother said that you can know a good preacher because

there's some who were sent and there were some who just went

and, and, and, and so we understand here what James is

saying, that first of all, you need to be called.

Were you called? Were you truly called?

Do you have, do you truly have a heart to teach God's word?

Or are you just interested in hearing your own voice?

Or are you just interested in being in a position of

authority, or you just interested in being able to have

some semblance of control over what people are hearing and what

people do? But you have to have a heart for

God and for His word. Are you able to just stand flat

footed and preach the truth regardless of the culture,

regardless of what the, the, the saying is these days or what

people accept these days, regardless of somebody talking

about relative truth, Are you able to give the absolute truth

and stand by it and not be swayed by what people think

James is saying you need to slow down a little bit before you be

become a preacher because you're going to be judged according to

those things. You will have the stricter

judgment. Teachers are held to a higher

standard. Not only are they held to what

they teach, we have to rightly divide what we teach.

We have to make sure that there's time that we study and

all of those things, but not only that, but to live what we

teach, which is just as important.

James is saying, are you willing to spend the time that's needed

to rightly divide what you're teaching?

Because there's some teachers enjoying that particular time.

They were dealing with preachers who were teaching heresy that

were leading the people away from Jesus.

They were teaching things that were abominable.

And James is saying that you better make sure that you

understand because you're going to be held to a stricter

judgment. And notice he said we will be

held to a stricter judgment. He included himself in that.

Then we go down here to verse 2. He said, for we all stumble in

many things. If anyone does not stumble in

Word, he is a perfect man able also to bridle or to control the

whole body. James says here that we all

stumble and I like the fact that he mentioned we in this, he

didn't just say you all stumble. He said we all stumble.

Yes, James. And we talked about who James

was right? He said, you know, James was

actually had the, the, the, the nickname of being James, the

just He also had a nickname of being old camel knees.

We talked about how he he prayed so much and so often that he had

calluses on his knees. James was known to be a

righteous man. James was the half brother of

Jesus. Yet he says we all stumble in

many things because we do. None of us are perfect and James

realized that that included him as well.

But we should also understand that when he that when he says

that we're not saying he's not talking that, that, that when

you you know, and he said, you know, when he says that we

stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in

Word that he is a perfect man, he's not saying that you're

going to be perfect. He's talking about a mature

Christian. He's talking about being mature,

learning and, and, and becoming more and more like Christ.

But if you are able to keep your tongue, if you are able to not

stumble in Word, he says you're a mature man and you're also

able to control your whole body. Doesn't mean that when we do

stumble that we're not saved. It doesn't mean that we all do

have times when we come short of God's glory.

But when we stumble, it reminds us that we all need God's grace.

We all need his mercy. We all need him because we can't

do it in and of ourselves. We all need the Holy Spirit to

help us in this because we're not perfect.

Now, if, if we were perfect, you know, he talked about being

perfect. If he was, if we were perfect,

then we would be that person who would never ever have to take

anything back that he says. He would never have to take

anything back. You know when he, when he says,

you know, he, he don't say words that are hurtful or unkind or

untrue. He doesn't say words that are

selfish, proud and rude or, or or have these momentary

outbursts of anger. He doesn't do that.

Just if he was a perfect person. Well, that's not me because I

have had all of those things. I have said things that were

hurtful. I have said things that were

unkind, even untrue. I've said things that were

selfish. I've been proud.

I have said things that were rude and I have had outbursts of

anger. So we all deal with these

things. We're not perfect and we all

experience these kind of things, but if this becomes your

lifestyle, if this this becomes your, if this categorizes you as

the person, the kind of person you are, if this is your norm

and not just something that you deal with every now and then,

then we have to consider whether or not we have had true

conversion, that we have had that new heart.

Did we have that change that takes place, that transformation

that takes place whenever Jesus comes to live in your heart?

But the fact is we're not perfect because if we were, we

could control everything about us.

So in verse three he says when we put bits and horses mouths

that they may obey us. I enjoy that because I love

horses. Anybody else out here like

horses? Ah, there you go.

OK, yeah, I love horses. I mean, I in fact, I think I

told you guys before my first date with my wife, I took a

horseback ride. I think that you can tell a lot

about a person when you put them on a horse, but I do, I enjoy

horseback riding. And it's not only you know,

horseback riding is not only therapeutic.

But it's also peaceful to me, you know, be, I mean, you're,

you're out there in the woods. And I always did like Westerns

when I was young, you know, couldn't wait to have a port.

I lived in a project. I used to always tell my mom,

could you, you know, can we get a horse for Christmas?

You know, what in the world was I going to keep a horse in the

projects? But I just wanted a horse, you

know, So on Christmas morning sometime, I would go out back

and look and see if there was a horse tied up out there

somewhere. And of course, it never was.

That was never going to happen. And then I got older and I

started to, I had a relation, you know, a relationship, a

friendship with this, with this guy who had a stable with new

Alexandra was the first time I found out about where New

Alexandra was. And man, he had like about 1213

horses. And, and I would spend a lot of

my days out there and a lot of my weekends, you know, helping

them take, you know, first when I was just out there just riding

and then I started taking rides out for him and just really

getting. Kind of getting into that life,

me and my family, my kids and we kind of got into it and we

started learning a lot about horses.

And I'm so glad that my mother never bought me one because.

Man, it's a ton of work. It's a ton of work.

But I think it's interesting here that James uses that

example when he talks about, because he's now moving into

talking about how the tongue can be used for control.

And, and, and he says that indeed, we put bits in horses

mouths that they may obey us and we turn their whole body.

So if you think about a 14 or 1800 LB animal being under you,

that you're, that you're, you're sitting on top of this animal.

And the only thing that controls this animal is about a, a, a A5

and 1/2 inch bit that's in his mouth that you turn to the left,

to the right, or that you pull down and stop him or whatever

you may do or release. So whatever you do, it's a 5 1/2

inch bit that small controls the direction and controls this

massive animal that is so strong there's no way we could ever be

able to control him without it. You control the mouth.

In other words, what James is saying, if you can control the

mouth, you can control the beast.

If you can control the mouth, you can control the beast.

So James is saying we put these little small bits in the horse's

mouth if we and they control him.

And he also used another example, he said, And, and also

the example of ships, he says although they are large and are

driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder

wherever the pilot goes. So he's basically saying that

you have this, this, this ship who's large, I mean very large.

And it's, and it's very, another very heavy instrument.

And with a small rudder, you can turn these things.

You can direct them, you can guide them, you can steer them.

I learned a little bit about ships.

I, I, I learned that even today they still use rudders on most

size, most large size ships. Now modern technology has

advanced. So they now use something called

the azimuth Azi myth. I don't even know if I'm am I

pronouncing it? Where's where's my brother?

Am I pronouncing it azimuth. OK.

And as in the thruster or pods, a single which is a single

propeller unit. So it's it's like the rudder and

everything together. But typically like your large

ships that has a propeller and it has a separate part that's a

rudder, which actually controls the direction of the ship.

So you got these large warships and these large cargo ships and

they're being guided by a small rudder.

It's amazing. But there's one other thing I

wanted to tell you I want to share with you about the horse.

Even with the bit when you, the more you develop, the more you

develop the relationship with the horse.

The more fellowship you have with this horse, the less

resistance you will. Have in your direction of and

when you're trying to guide them, the less resistance.

And it's just like us, the more we have fellowship with the

Lord, the more we have fellowship with the Holy Spirit,

the less resistance that we give him when He's guiding us.

So he talks about these small things that can be used to turn

and guide and control these large animals and or this large

animal and this large ship. So then in verse 5, he says, so

even, you know, Even so the tongue is a little member and it

boasts great things. And this and this boast here

doesn't mean just not talking about bragging about great

things. What he's saying is that this

small thing, this small a member in our bodies, the tongue, it

says that it is capable of a lot of influence and power and can

do massive things. It can accomplish massive

things. You see people who can speak and

can move crowds. They can move people to tears.

It moves. It can move people to anger.

It can move people to action. It can move people to

compassion, the tongue. And this is one of the things

that we that you know, that we talk about, you know, when we

talk about words or speech, you know, it's not just a matter of

just words spoken, but even words written, words sung.

When you think about some of the rap music, I used to work with

gang bangers and I used to hear their testimonies and they would

tell me before I would go and do a hit, I would go and drink some

alcohol. I would listen to my favorite

rap artist and that would pump me up enough to go out and do a

hit. We're talking about 1415 year

old kids moved to violence by words.

What does our words move people to we should be careful about?

What it is that we say out of our mouths because it can have.

Power, it can have influence, it can move people to either

compassion or destruction. So then he goes here to verse

verse 6. I'm sorry, let's go to the

bottom of verse 5. He says, see how great a force a

little fire Kindles, and the tongue is a fire, a world of

iniquity. So when you think about a lot of

another, in other words, what he's saying here is that the

tongue, even though it's still small, it can, it can, it can

spark. It can spark a small Just a

small spark from your tongue could cause great disaster,

great destruction, just like a fire.

You know, a match in someone's camp in the forest.

A small match that starts just a little small campfire.

That if out of control, can bring devastation to many, many

miles of forest and homes and lives destroyed in their wake

because of a small spark from a match.

And he's saying, James is saying to us, our tongues can be like

that. And we can start with one person

to say something negative about another person and it can

divide. Eventually it could divide the

whole church. It could bring the church down.

When I was younger I had a friend who one night his, you

know her brother came home from being out late and he decided

that he wanted to boil some hot dogs and go to sleep because

before he was hungry, he was hungry.

So he wanted to just boil some hot dogs and and eat before he

went to bed. Well, while he was waiting for

the hot dogs to to boil, he fell asleep and push the pan begin to

burn. And you know, there, there was a

small fire. And because he was sleep, he

didn't know it. No one else recognized it.

I think he was home by himself. Next thing you know there was,

I'm sorry, he was not home by himself.

There were other people home, but they were all asleep.

Next thing you know, the whole kitchen was on fire.

And then eventually that fire spread.

By the time he woke up, that fire spread and had destroyed

that whole house. So for months a whole family was

homeless, separated and homeless from the spark of 1 pot burning

on the stove. And James is saying, you know

what? Our mouths with just one

negative. Evil word that we speak to

someone about somebody else can cause a major, major fire that

can destroy a church, destroy families.

How many times have we seen families separated, relationship

severed because of something someone said?

Maybe it was said with the purpose of hurting, maybe it was

said out of it was taken out of context.

But something that was spoken and it breaks a relationship

with family where people don't speak for years.

Sometimes they never speak again.

Marriages have been broken because of an outburst, and

someone said something that was so damaging that the other

person just could not forgive it.

Marriages end. So he talks about just how this

tongue can be a world of iniquity.

And then he says the tongue is so set among our members that it

defiles the whole body, and it sets on fire the course of

nature. It defiles the whole body.

A tongue. The words that we speak not only

define, not only our words themselves are defiled, but it

can defile the whole body. We used to hear this saying, and

I'm sure you heard it when you were younger, which says sticks

and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me.

Remember, that was actually like just, you know, quoted like back

in the the 1800s. And the purpose for quoting, I

mean, it had a good intention. I mean, the reason why someone

made this up is because they were trying to help kids.

They were trying to support kids who were being verbally bullied.

So someone said, hey, listen, you know, don't worry about it.

Sticks and stones may hurt, you know, may break your bones, but

words will never hurt you. But that is not true.

That is not true. Words hurt.

I I found a quote and I don't even know who the author of this

is it. It was anonymous, but it says

this. It says the tongue has no bones,

but it's strong enough to break a heart.

So be careful with your words because it can break a heart.

It can be destructive. And the other thing about words,

you know, sometimes, you know, we say something and we want to

turn around and take it back. You know, I'm so sorry I said

that. I didn't mean to say that.

But once it's out us out. Once it's out of South, words

like feathers. They're like feathers you.

Open up a pillowcase and and you got wind blowing and, and and

you release these feathers. You'll never get all those

feathers back. And our words are like that.

We can say things that we can just never take back.

We can never get it back. I found another saying that says

don't mix bad words with your bad mood.

You have many opportunities to change your mood, but you'll

never, ever get the opportunity to change the words that you

spoke. Never Proverbs 1821 says death

and life are in the power of the tongue and those who love it

will eat its fruit. And what that means is that when

you have spoken words to a person, whatever you speak to

them, that's what you're going to reap from them.

The way that you speak to them is the is what you're going to

reap for them. If you speak kindness in life to

them, you're going to get kindness in life back.

But if you speak evil to them, eventually you will turn this

person who may have been sweet at one time, but now you've made

them defensive and and now they've become more harsh

because of our tongues. But the good thing about our

tongues is that we can confess our weaknesses concerning our

speech, and we can ask for forgiveness from the Lord.

And the Lord over time works on hearts.

So yeah, I may have hurt you. I may have said something to you

that you may find hard to get over.

But the Lord, if he, when he doesn't work in me, he can do a

work in you too, and begin to soften your heart, just like He

softens my heart. And then it says here, the

tongue is so set among our members that defiles the whole

body and sets on fire the core and set on fire the course of

nature, or the the will of nature sets on fire the will of

nature. Our path is set by our tongues,

our, our, our, our, our, our will of our, the will of our

life is directed by our tongues. And the one thing we have to

understand is that without God doing a work in our hearts, we

can leave one place. That has become a problem

because of words that we spoke, because of things that we may

have said. But if, unless God doesn't work

in our hearts, we can go somewhere else.

We can change jobs, we can change locations.

We can do all kinds of things. But unless God does a work in

our hearts, we just take that same tongue with us and it

becomes a problem someplace else.

Our ungodly speech comes from an ungodly source.

Our uncontrolled tongue defiles or corrupts every part of us.

Matthew 1511 says not what goes in to the mouth defiles a man,

but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.

So he says it defiles the whole body and sets on on fire the

course of nature or the will of life, and it is set on fire by

hell. So what he's saying here is that

all of this, this, this evil speaking, it comes from

someplace and we know that it doesn't come from the Lord, it

comes from hell. It comes from the evil one.

It's being fueled by the evil 1 So it's almost like we, we, we,

we know if we're constantly spewing out evil things and

we're, and if we're we're listening to somebody that's

constantly spewing out evil things, we have to understand

that's not coming from the Lord. We got to know the source.

We got to understand the source. It's not coming from the Lord.

It's coming from an evil place. And then in verse 7, verse 70

says every kind of beast and bird of reptile creatures and of

the sea is tamed by the tongue. I mean, it's tamed and has been

tamed by mankind, but no one can tame the tongue.

It's an unruly evil full of deadly poison.

So this tongue, you know, he's now talking about Genesis, how

he puts, he puts us, he put man over and made him dominion over

all the, the beast of the field. And also talks about that in

Psalm 8 as well. You know, when he says that he's

put all things under his feet, meaning under the feet of man.

And, and, and we have the dominance over the beast of the

other fields and the birds of the air and the, and the fish

that are in the sea. We have dominance over these

things. And, and it's amazing how we can

see throughout life that man has been able to tame almost

everything. I mean the most ferocious, the

most, the largest and the most dangerous animals.

We can go to different zoos, I mean not zoos, but the circuses

and to different shows. And we can see these man eating

beasts, you know, under the control of another man, of a

man. And they can control these

things. They can train these things.

I'm not saying they can domesticate them, but they can

train them. They can somewhat tame them.

But James said no one can tame the tongue.

No one can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil.

The only thing that can tame our tongues is the Holy Spirit is

the Holy Spirit. Jesus said that the words that I

speak, they are spirit, they are life.

The words that I speak, the law of the Lord is perfect.

It converts the soul. The Holy Spirit is the only one

that can control our tongues and it is like a poison, you know

it. It can strike and do damage like

poison and spread just that fast, just like poison.

And it can poison an entire community.

It can poison an entire group of people and cause them to all

have the same negative concept about a different point.

We see it now all the time when people come up and speak about

political things. They can say one thing and they

can have an impact and and and people will will will have a

negative a negative perception things because of things that

people speak. One of the things that I think

is really an issue and and then the church, you know, when when

James talked about everybody shouldn't be be teachers.

Anytime a teacher of the word of God begins to call sin.

OK, that's a major problem because people here, a pastor

say that this sin is OK and they leave their feeling that their

sin is OK. I'm sorry.

I don't care what Bible you look in, at least if it's the Holy

Bible. You will never see where it's OK

to be a homosexual. You will never see where it's OK

to fornicate. You will never see where it's

OK. To commit sexual immorality,

you'll never see that. It's not OK to be an adulteress.

It's not OK. You'll never see that.

So it's the it's the word of God and we have to stand on that.

But if you hear but if they hear that from the pulpit because of

the authority that a teacher has it can cause people to be

stumbled. Let's go on verse 9 says with it

we bless our our father and with it we curse men who have been

made in the similitude of God out of the same mouth proceed

blessing and cursing my brother. These things are not to be so I

I love the fact that James is saying here that you bless the

Creator, you worship God, you praise him with your lips, you

exalt him, you, you, you do all these things with your lips and

you and and you worship and praise him.

But then out of the same mouth you can turn from him, and out

of your same mouth you'll curse. Your brother or sister.

You'll speak harsh to or about your brother and sister after

worshipping the God. Not only do you worship the

creator and then you curse his creation and he says this should

not be so. This should not be so.

We can't that that that cannot happen.

It's not it's, it's, it's like, it's, it's like Jesus said when

he said your, your lips worship me, but your heart is far from

me. That's not the heart of the Lord

to do that. And then he makes this and we're

going to kind of bring this to an end.

Praise and worship team. You can come forward in verse

11. He says, does a spring send

forth freshwater and bitter out of the same opening?

Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives or grapevines or

Grapevine bear figs? Thus, no spring yields both salt

water and freshwater. The Lord is, you know, James is

saying here that there's no way that righteousness and

unrighteousness should be coming out of the same source.

It doesn't come out of the same source.

It just doesn't. It just doesn't.

We, you know, when, when you, when you know freshwater and

I've, you know, I've traveled, I'm sure many of you have

traveled and been to many things.

You've seen many scenic things, but I don't think there's ever a

time when I've ever seen a freshwater and bitter water come

out of the same source. I've never seen that.

And if I'm at home, if I'm at home, if I turn my water faucet

on and there's freshwater or there's good tasting water that

comes out. And then the next time I turn on

and it's bitter water that comes out, I'm calling the plumber

because something's wrong. There's something wrong with the

source. There's something wrong with

what's, you know, with the source.

I turn the water on. It's nice and clear.

I cut off. I cut it on again.

It's brown. Yeah.

I'm calling the plumber. I'm calling the plumber.

So we, if we speak words of life, if we speak words of

gentleness and, and words of love and words of kindness and

goodness and the next thing out of our mouths, and it's a habit,

we're doing this on a regular basis.

Next thing out of our mouths, we're speaking harsh words,

we're cursing against our brothers and sisters or we're

we're we're we're, we're, you know, we're we're gossiping,

slandering our brothers and sisters.

Then something is wrong and it's wrong.

There's something wrong with the source.

There's something wrong with my heart.

I need to go to the I need to call Jesus because there's

something wrong with my heart. James is saying here, and this

is a very, very important passage, passage of Scripture.

And this is something I had to repent of when I was studying

this time and time again because even suddenly our words that we

say can be a problem and can hurt someone.

And like we say, you can never get those words back.

Be careful what you say in front of your children.

Watch what you say in front of your children.

Watch how you speak to them. There are things that your kids

hear. You think they're not even

paying attention, and they'll remember for the rest of their

lives. I promise you they will watch.

Who you talk about in front of your kids because you may know

or be able to process those things, but your kids can't.

They start treating people differently based on

conversations they have heard. Be careful what we say in front

of our kids. When we talk about being careful

about our speech. One of the things that we

neglect to practice, that we neglect to do sometimes, is to

practice the holiness of silence, the beauty of silence,

this beauty in silence, being silent.

If you remember Jesus, when he was being threatened, when he

was being verbally abused by his enemies, he would just be

silent. When Pontius Pilate was

questioning him and was saying all these different things about

him, he would just be silent. And let us not forget King

Hezekiah back in Second Kings 18 and 19 when the Assyrian army

came upon him and they and, and, and they started to threaten

Judah. They started to threaten them

and talk about what they're going to do and how, you know,

we took other people's nations. We took other people's land and,

and their gods couldn't do anything about what makes you

think your God is going to do anything about it?

Oh, he could have just ran off. They could have just ran off at

the mouth and just jumped off and just talked about.

He was silent, and he gave commandment to his staff to be.

Silent. To just be quiet.

And they took it before the Lord, and the Lord dealt with

them. I'm saying that sometimes we can

just be silent when we feel that we're offended, when we feel

that we've been done wrong, when we feel that we've been verbally

attacked, when we. Feel that we have the right to

strike out. Sometimes it just be silent.

Allow the Lord to deal with it. Allow the Lord to speak to your

heart. Allow the Lord to tell you what

to say. Be slow to be quick to hear.

Be slow to speak and to be slow to wrath.

I don't know about you, but I know that.

I can be prone to reacting. And responding with my mouth in

ways that I shouldn't. And it doesn't have to be foul

language. But you know when your heart,

when you're saying something condescending to somebody, you

know in your heart when you're being what we call passive

aggressive and our response to people.

And I know that over the years, I myself have said things to

people that hurt them, just as people have said things to me

that has hurt me. And today I want to go to the

source that can help my heart. And I'm asking you if you would

join me, if that's you, If that's you, would you meet me

here? So we together can go before

their Lord Jesus Christ, the source that He can talk and deal

with our hearts so that we don't have to speak in ways that would

be detrimental. We don't have speaking ways that

are ungodly. We don't have to speak in ways

that hurt people. Lord, I've done that before, and

I don't want to do that anymore. Will anybody join me here?

You can come on up. Come on up.

I'm going to come down here with you.

Hey, man, we can all need to go to the source, the source of our

hearts. Anybody else?

We'll wait for you. Anybody else want to come?

Anybody else want to come? Jesus hears us.

He responds to us. He can touch our hearts.

Not man, not friends. He can touch our hearts.

Anybody else? You're welcome to come up even

as we're praying. Let's let's grab hands.

Let's come in agreement with him this morning, Father, we're

coming because we realize our weaknesses.

We realize our frailties. We realize.

That when we're not under control of the Holy Spirit, that

we are out of control. And when we're out of control,

we become under the control of an evil source.

We become under the control of the world.

We become under the control of our flesh.

We become under the control of demonic influence.

Father, we're asking you this morning as we come humble before

you, Lord. Lord, please forgive us of

things that we have spoken, things that we have said that

has come out of a hard heart, that has come out of an angry

heart, maybe even a hateful hearted times.

Father, we ask that you would forgive us of the times that we

weaponized our tongues and slandered or gossiped or said

something in in response, Lord, because we know that it will

hurt them worse than what they just hurt us.

Father, we pray today, Lord, as we come before you as a unit in

unity. Father, we together or saying

that we have sinned and have come short of your glory.

Father, we ask that you forgive us, that you will wash us, that

you will cleanse us, that you will purify our hearts and

purify our tongues, 'cause us, O God, to be a a a a a, a spring

of life to people. Cause us to be a spring that

speaks kindness and love and faithfulness.

Cause us to be a spring that brings joy to people and that

seeks peace. Lord and, and, and, and have

self-control. Father God, we're coming to you,

the only true source for true life.

You are the way, You are the truth, and you are the life.

Lord, open our hearts today, forgive us of our sins, and we

repent, and we ask that you give us the power to turn.

Away from them, Lord, that our words would be words of life.

We ask these things during the name of our Savior and our Lord.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Amen. The Lord bless y'all.

Amen. I guess we should do communion,

shouldn't we? I am so sorry.

I am so sorry Clark is back there holding his communion

peace like one of Louis. Where you going?

Is it any wonder that the very one that would talk to us today

about speech is the one who came into nothing and he spoke and

said let there be light, and there was light ever since he

spoke? And there were stars in the sky,

there were a moon and sun. And he spoke and it was

vegetation and there was water that's separated from the land.

He spoke. And there was a development of

animals, fishes in the sea and birds of the sky, and four

footed beast that walked along the earth.

He spoke, the Bible says, by the word of his mouth, the word of

his mouth. He held up everything.

And the Bible also says that he put his word above his name.

So would it be any doubt that he has an interest in US speaking

things that are pure, things that are good, things that are

honest, lovely? And not only did he do it from

heaven, but then he sent his Son, Jesus Christ, who gave us

the example of one who spoke love and life in unity,

righteousness, goodness, and showed us the way of faith.

And for that He died for us because of our sins.

Father, we thank you that you loved us enough to be our

sacrifice. And this morning, Father, as we

look back on that day in which you were betrayed, and you took

bread, and after you gave thanks, you broke it.

And you said, take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you.

Eat this in remembrance of me, the same manner you also took

the cup. And after you suck, you said,

this cup is the new covenant in my blood.

And he shed His blood for all of us, and also for those who are

to come. And His blood is just as

evicacious today as it was 2000 years ago.

It still cleanses us from all sin.

You said drink this and as often as you drink it, drinking in

remembrance of me, for as often as you eat this bread and drink

this cup. You do show the Lord's death

till we come. Amen.