Stop Playing with Fire - James 3:5b-12

A message by Tyler Sanborn on James 3:5b-12.

South Valley Student Ministry is a ministry of Compass Bible Church South Valley located in Kuna, ID. 

For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, please visit compassbiblesv.org.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

In 1983, a little over 40 years ago, there was a man named Tim. Tim Leatherman, and he, on a trip, was in a couple different situations where he needed to work on his little fiat sedan, and he also needed to solve a problem that he had at home in the bathroom. And he was thinking of a tool that he could take with him to solve a wide variety of problems. And if you're familiar with the Leatherman tool, this is the man who invented it, Tim Leatherman, Portland, Oregon. Today there's about 40, uh a little more than 30 different uh models. And it's a tool, it's kind of like a Swiss Army knife. You just keep folding out different tool after tool. It fits in your pocket. It's got pliers, it can have screwdrivers, Allen wrenches, scissors, you know what I'm talking about. Your your dad probably has one.

unknown 1:12

No.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Probably not. I was leaning on you, Corbin. Um, so when I was growing up, my dad had one and he kept it in his truck in the in the door. And uh whenever there whenever a tool was needed, it seemed like that leatherman had the tool that we needed. Uh and it wasn't the best tool, it wasn't the most powerful tool, but it had a wide, a wide variety of tools. Now, the the tongue in a similar way can be used in a wide variety of ways. It can be used for for good, but our text and our text last week has shown us that it's capable of destruction. It's capable of harm, it's capable of spreading bitterness, spreading lies, spreading hurt, spreading curses. Now, what what good is a tool if you're not going to use it for good? What good is a tool if you're not gonna use it for good? It's when you weaponize something, it's it leads to problems. And James, as we continue in our study here in chapter three, is going to appeal. He's gonna ask his listeners and he's asking us today, drawn closer again and realize how dangerous, how wild, and how revealing the tongue can be. He's gonna draw our attention to the tongue once again. And while the tongue is about the size of a leatherman tool, I want to challenge you all this evening to consider the ways that you use your words, the ways that you use your tongue. Are you using them to bless people who are made in the image of God? Are you using it to bring harm and curse people? That's my challenge to us today. Let's take a look at our text, James chapter 3, and we'll begin with the second half of verse 5. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire, and the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird and reptile and sea creature that can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water. Fire. It can be used as a great tool for good or a great tool for destruction. Similar to the Leatherman tool. Now in in Idaho, in about just after the turn of the century, 1910, parts of Idaho, western Montana, eastern Washington, and regions of Canada were struck by a massive fire. The season was extremely dry. In total, wildfires burned 4,700 square miles and killed just under 90 people. Entire towns were destroyed, and the Northwest was covered in smoke. Imagine trying to go outside and do anything, and you're just hindered and stifled by smoke. This is an illustration to help us and remember what it is that the tongue is described as in James chapter 3. Now, we look to our words, and we might not think, we might not think that our words are capable of such destruction as you know wiping out a region like 4,700 square miles. That's fairly comparable to the Treasure Valley. That's a very large space. From the foothills all the way over to Fruitland and down to Cuna. This is a very large fire that came through in 1910. And our words have the same destructive power. I want us to see that. I want us to understand what James is saying here. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire. How many of you know who Smoky the Bear is? Just raise your hand. What is Smokey the Bear? What's the tagline?

unknown 6:38

Only you can prevent the fire.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

Only you can prevent forest fires. Well, only you can prevent your tongue from starting a fire. I want us to think about that, and I I would I would argue against it. I would argue against it tonight. How great a forest is set ablaze, how much destruction, how much, how many relationships can be completely and utter utterly ruined and dismembered by our tongues, by the words we choose to say, by the truths we choose to omit, by the lies we say, by the joking and harsh words that we share towards other people, by the gossip we spread, by the put-downs that happen under our breaths. There's great power and great destruction right in our own mouths. I want us to realize that. I want us to see that this evening. It's important for us to consider, again, James is jabbing us last week, jab, jab, jab. This is the uppercut of James's point on taming the tongue. There's a point in time when all of you will be doing your own laundry. I know I've spoken about this before, but there is a point in time when your parents will no longer do your laundry. It might be this week. It might have already happened. But I want us to look here and think how much how much harm can come from just one sentence. One little stain staining the whole body. Imagine going to do some whites or some light-colored laundry. Yes, you should do this. Separate the dark clothes. You have whites like pillowcases, t-shirts, bedding, things like that that are white-colored, lights and darks. Imagine doing a bunch of white t-shirts, pillowcases, all the lighter colored things. And imagine putting some soap in there, some detergent into your washing machine. And instead of just shutting the door and pressing start, closing the lid, you decide I'm just gonna take, oh, you know what else would be helpful for this laundry to get extra clean? I'm just gonna take this little this little cup of coffee and just pour it right in there. And uh let's just get that going. How do you think that's gonna go for your laundry, for your your crispy white t-shirt, your uh your favorite light blue hoodie? What's that gonna do? Just a little bit. I mean, when you fin it, when you fill a tub, uh dishwasher, and when you fill a uh washing machine, there's quite a bit of water in there, gallons and gallons and gallons. It only takes a couple ounces, a couple drops to stain the shirt, a couple ounces to ruin a load of laundry. And then this is this is for us to get our attention here, we we need to see that of the entirety of our body, the tongue is able to stain the whole thing. You can go a full, a full day, a full day of encouraging people, acknowledging people when they're doing well, speaking the truth of God's word. You can be you can be really building up, really edifying people. And it just takes one sentence, one, one put down to kind of offset the entire thing. All the things that have been said, it stains, it stains the entire day. It has a lasting effect. There's a a problem here, and it's in our mouths. We need to take caution. We need to really look at the way that our tongue is is set in our body and and how how difficult it can be sometimes to tame it. How difficult it is. Here, it says, this tongue is setting on fire the entire course of life. The words that you say here and now and the patterns of speech that you are creating will have a lasting effect. They have a lasting effect on the way you communicate with your siblings, with your parents, with your friends. And down the road, this these patterns of speech that you're establishing now can have an adverse or negative effect, a harmful effect, a damaging effect on your work relationships, on your relationships with your future spouse, with your parents. There is great caution for us to take hold of, and we want to be sure that when we're speaking, we remind ourselves that the tongue is a fire and a world of unrighteousness. Now I'm thinking about the chronicles of Narnia or some kind of portal that takes you to somewhere else, right? Like when I was reading this text, I'm thinking, a world, like the tongue is a world. How can a world fit in such a small space? I'm thinking, oh, like I know how. You open a door, you walk through a wardrobe, and all of a sudden you're in a completely different place. You're Narnia. There's the lampstand right over there, there's Mr. Tumnis right over there, there's the witch over there, right? You you're tracking with me. You're tracking with me. Think about how much how much potential, how much space, how much is inside the words that we speak? How much, how much power is in there? How much how much can be done with a single sentence, with a single conversation? There's a lot of harm that can be done, a lot of lasting damage that can follow you for a long time in your life. And what do we do? When we're ever trying to make a change, we're trying to correct a behavior, we're trying to do something that we know is good for us by abstaining from it. The best thing to do is not think to yourself, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this. Because all you're gonna think about is just doing the thing that you're trying not to do. If you're focused on uh not speeding, you you want you want to think about what to do. You want to think about what the rules are, what the regulations are, and you have to be aware of like what is your foot doing. Not don't speed, don't speed, don't speed while you're not looking at the the speedometer, now while you're not looking at the speed limits, while you're while you're not aware of the cars around you. You need to be aware. You need to be mindful, you need to be thinking about what God says about the tongue and what to do with it. It's not about what not to do, it's rather what to do. What do we do? Let's write this down for point number one. When speaking about the tongue, when thinking about our words and how we should use them, fill your mind with God's word. Fill your mind with God's word. If you're struggling with what not to say, fill your mind with what to say. Don't think about how can I not do, how can I not put down people. Think about how can I encourage people. If you're thinking about, how do I not like talk behind people's back? Go talk to them face to face and tell them what you're thinking. Very simple. Very simple. Speak the truth. Do it lovingly, do it kindly, do it respectfully. These are these are the encouragements that we have. We need to purify our speech with the guidance and through God's very word. Psalm 119, verses 33 to 36 says this Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, and I will keep it to the end. Give me understanding that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart. Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it. Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain. Oftentimes when we're speaking, we're looking to gain something out of it. Whether it's the approval of someone else, whether it's a laugh from a friend, whether it's extra time in front of the TV. Did you did you do your chores? Uh yeah. Because you don't want the show to end. You don't want to walk away from the thing that you're currently doing, that you're doing that you prefer, right? So you say, you kinda. Tell the whole truth. Tell the whole truth. It's it's so much better for you to follow God's plan and God's design, his design for our words. Tell the truth. Do it lovingly. Do it face to face with people. Encourage them. Build them up. If you're struggling with lying, if you're struggling with telling part of the truth, find ways to go above and beyond and give them the details of the truth. Exercise your speech in a way that honors that honors God. We need to create in this group, we need to create a higher awareness of the impact of our words. We need to be practicing encouragement. We need to be practicing prayer with one another. And we need to do it with great care and great caution because our words have immense power. They have the potential for so much, so much damage. And if you if you think about conflict in relationships, it takes so much more time to rebuild a damaged relationship than to maintain one that's already doing well. It takes a lot of time to build back trust. If you've ever lied to your parents, it it takes quite a bit longer for you to build back that trust than it took for you to tell that one half-truth or lie to them. It takes time. It takes a lot of time. The most common injury when I was doing some homework here, uh, speaking of damaging relationships, thinking about injuries. When we're using dangerous tools, what do we do? What do we do? If you're trying to learn a new skill that involves a dangerous tool that has the potential for great harm, what do we do before we start using it?

unknown 17:14

We get safety, get dangerous.

SPEAKER_00 17:17

You get you get studied up. You learn how to safely, how to properly use the tool as it was intended. Table saws are extremely dangerous. They have incredible ability to cut straight lines and help build really cool stuff. But if you're not using a table saw properly, if you're not careful, if you're not cautious, your hand can touch the blade. And some of you guys might be thinking, well, but yeah, what about saw stop? Well, there's ways to protect yourself. Yes, there are there are safer tools and there are manuals that help us to use these tools in a safer way, but we we need oftentimes to see these tools being exercised. If you've ever looked at someone older than yourself and you admire the way that they speak, and you admire the way that people respond to them, it's it's probably because they're encouraging, they're wise, they're slow to slow to speak and quick to listen. We need to be learning, you students need to be learning from your leaders, from your parents, the people who are more mature, we need to be watching them. We need to be asking them questions. How do I, how do I navigate this situation? How do I, when there's conflict with me and my friends, I don't want to hurt them. I want to preserve this relationship. How do I how do I do this? I don't want them to feel this way. I don't want them to think this of me. What can I do? We need wise counsel. We need people who have been there and done that to help counsel and guide us through the difficult situations regarding our tongue. Because like like a table saw, our tongue is able to do great good, but also can cause great, great harm. What are the what are the some of the causes that often destroy relationships? Well, oftentimes it comes down to communication. Whether we're misunderstanding things and assuming things, we're not asking follow-up questions, we're just thinking that we know what's going on. We are arguing, we're seeking conflict, we're ignoring opportunities to clarify, we're ignoring opportunities to dialogue and listen more. These often leave us feeling frustrated. And when we're not walking in the Spirit, when we're not trusting God to help guide and lead our emotions, our emotions can inform our words in really destructive ways. When trust is broken, it makes it makes speaking harder sometimes. Sometimes when I was younger, I would feel like I would need to like just not say anything at all, then to be misunderstood. I was feeling inadequate and insecure about the way that I was speaking or what people would think of me, so therefore I spoke less when I should have been communicating more and asking questions. I want to encourage you all this evening to be thinking about ways that you can grow in the way that you're communicating, advocating, the way that you're seeking wisdom and counsel from people who are more mature than you. And don't shy away from resolving conflict. Don't use your words in a positive way to be a part of reconciliation, to remedy hurt. It's okay to say, that was my fault, I was wrong. How can I be better next time? How can I be more thoughtful, more kind, more loving next time we get into the situation? Lean into the process of of healing and mending relationships, and you can do that primarily with your words. You can do that with your words. Start there. Start by praying to God, asking for his help, asking for courage sometimes. The hardest step's often the first step, right? It's often the hardest part is just getting the ball rolling. And then once the ball is rolling, okay, this is easy. We can we can continue in this conversation for a while, but sometimes our nerves and our fear get in the way of us having that conversation that we need to have. What advice would the world give us concerning words and hurt and conflict and damage done when we do sin, when we do fail with our words? What would the world say to us? Here are some things that I've heard. Just try a little harder, or maybe give it some time. Well, they'll get over it eventually. That's not on you. That's them, that's their problem. That sounds like a sounds like a them problem. That's not on you. Just live your truth. Facts don't care about your feelings. As long as you're authentic, you're fine. Just do whatever you need to do. These are some things that are unkind, unloving, insensitive, and are hurtful towards people. And it stems from pride and a lack of love for people around us. All these, all these thoughts are sayings that you might subscribe to that the world might provide for you, miss the fruits of the Spirit. They lack self-control. They allow you to lean into the thoughts that would create the me monster that my coach once said. It's all about me, me, me, me, me, me. How can I get mine? Don't be a me monster. Let your words be used for good. Don't make it all about you. It's okay to admit and godly to admit your fault and your sin when you're wrong. Submit to the word of God and trust that God's word is going to lie, uh, gonna lead you and guide you through tough situations, through really difficult, sinful situations that oftentimes that we start and that we create for ourselves. We can't do it on our own. Let's write this down for point number two. Let's keep it simple this evening. Ask God for help. Ask Him for help. You have some conflict with your parents, you have conflict with your siblings, you have conflict with friends. You said some things that you wish you could take back. You need to go to someone and ask for forgiveness. You need to go to someone and thank you.

unknown 23:43

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 23:43

You might even need to be confronting someone, like, hey, like the way that you're speaking to me, like it made me feel this way. I'm not sure what you meant by that. Can you help me understand? Sometimes even that question can be very hard. Creating putting yourself in a situation and creating an opportunity for you to be understood and to and to smooth things over, sometimes that will put you in a position to get hurt again. And we need courage, we need boldness from the Lord. We need to ask for help. No, we we can't please and obey God with our tongues unless He helps us. If you try to do it in your own strength, you will utterly fail. You will utterly fail. And if you for some reason do succeed, you're not, it's gonna be, it's gonna be difficult not to take the credit for yourself. Philippians 2, verse 13 says this. For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. If we're striving to obey God, we need to be reminded that when we're seeking to obey him, it pleases God to hear us asking for help. That's a good thing for us. And our ego and our pride might think, but it was less about you. You didn't you didn't really work on it. It was it was God. Yeah, you're right. You're right. Admitting that it's only God that can help us do pleasing things to Him is where we need to live. That's a mindset and a headspace that we need to operate in. God, I need your help every day. God, my tendency and my natural position is to use my words for harm. My words are so destructive. God, I need your help. Let my words be a balm, let my words be an uplifting, encouraging, encouraging people to love and follow the Lord more and more and more. Proverbs 3, verses 5 through 8 says this trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and a refreshment to your bones. Our own understanding will lead us to crash and burn in the ditch. We need God's help. We need to be submitting ourselves to the Lord, not being wise in our own eyes, not coming up with a new way to communicate. We need to trust that God's way is the best. We don't need to reinvent the wheel here. Stop trusting in broken methods to tame the tongue. To tame the tongue. Now, when I was reading this text, and we're looking at taming birds, beasts, reptiles, sea creatures, all these things can be tamed by mankind. I'm thinking about man's dominion over creation. I'm thinking, for whatever reason, I'm thinking about dolphins, I'm thinking about Komodo dragons, I'm thinking about the different things that you might find in a zoo. Beasts and birds, sea creatures. All these things have been tamed by man, but not the tongue. Not the tongue. We need God's help. We need God's help to tame our tongues. We cannot do it in and of ourselves. We will fail. And this imagery here, it's a restless evil. A lot of us need rest today. We're a little bit sleep deprived. The chaos and the destruction and the evil that's in the tongue, no days off, no vacations. It's always ready to strike, always ready to go, and it's full of deadly poison. This is the potential that our tongues have for doing great harm. Great harm. Now, I'm not sure about you all this evening, but when I find myself saying one thing and doing the opposite, I get, I feel really nasty inside. I feel gross. I feel gross inside. And when we look to the works that our tongue can do, we look to verse 9. With our tongue, we can bless our Lord and Father, and with it, we can curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth comes blessing and cursing. And I love how James puts it, my brothers, these things ought not to be so. He's speaking to fellow believers. He's speaking to people in a church setting. Guys, let's knock this off. This is not okay. This is not good. My brothers, these are people of the same faith, people of the same eternal inheritance, people that love the Lord Jesus Christ. Let not these evil things be coming from our mouths. These do not honor the Lord. These don't make God smile. This doesn't please the Lord. We need to do better. We need to do something different. Stop tearing each other down. Stop talking behind each other's back to their face. Oh, you look, you look so good today. I love how you picked out your outfit. You walk away. Can you believe what they were wearing today? Oh my goodness. We got to be thinking about people like they are created in the image of God, which we all are. All human beings are created in the image of God. And when we're putting down image bearers of God, this grieves his heart. This is a grievous sin. When we are tearing down, as brothers and Christs, but brothers and sisters in Christ, we're tearing each other down and building each other up. This this hypocrisy, this inconsistency is awful. James is saying, My brothers, these things ought not to be so. We shouldn't be doing these things. He's acknowledging it, and he's saying, let's not do this anymore. Let's let's end it now. Let's make a commitment to one another to stop tearing each other down, stop cursing each other behind people's backs, and with the same mouths building people up. How many of you have tasted salt water before? On purpose. Like you're like, oof, this is I'm I'm parched. I'm gonna drink some salt water. Not not many. You gotta be in a desperate situation to be drinking salt water. You gotta be in a desperate spot. Now when when a river, when there's fresh water approaching a body of salt water, this area is called like brackish water, where there's a mixture of fresh and salt. Now that's just creating an image an image for us to consider. And this this last section of our text today is going to draw our attention to the logic of the heart. It's going to draw our attention to the heart, and we really need to see this. Verse 11 says this. Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives? No. Can a grapevine produce figs? No. Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water. You're not going to go to a miry bog that's super salty and bitter tasting and expect to get fresh water. And you're not going to go to a freshwater, a mountain spring here in Idaho and expect to get ocean water. You're not going to get it. You're not going to go to a grapevine and pull off figs, and you're not going to go, you're not, you're not going to go to a fig tree and look for some olives for your salad. You're just not going to do it. You're not. And why is he bringing our attention to these three things? He's trying to speak and trying to get us to evaluate our hearts. So out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So if you have a wicked heart, you're not going to be speaking blessings on people, encouragements to people. You're not going to be looking to speak God-honoring words when you have a wicked heart. And he's drawing our attention. If you're in Christ, if you're saved, if you have God's Spirit dwelling inside of you, what's up with all this slander? What's up with all this hatred? What's up with all these cursings that are leaving your mouth? Why is that? He's asking his readers, if you're following Christ, why are these awful things leaving your mouth? How can it be? How is that? How can a salty bog, a salty pond, give us fresh water? How could a fig tree give you olives? It can't. Let's write this down for point number three. Search the source of your words. Look at your heart. Where are these blessings and cursings come from? You're not going to speak perfectly. You're not going to never ever sin with your mouth once you become saved. We fall short with our mouth. We fall short. It happens. We say we're going to do something and that doesn't happen. We lied. We don't tell the whole truth because we're concerned about what people think of us. It happens. I'm not trying to say that to justify it. I'm just saying you're going to do this imperfectly. You're going to do this imperfectly, but again, we need to continue, like point number two says, we need to go to God and ask for help. We need God's help. Stop trusting broken methods. Stop trying to do it in your own strength, Christian. Trust in the power and the wisdom and the guidance that God provides. In John chapter 15, we see some more imagery of agriculture. Jesus is saying, I'm the vine. I'm the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. Listen and listen into this next next part. For apart from me, you can do nothing. You cannot follow and please God outside of him. You can't. You need God's spirit. We need the word of God to inform and lead us. We can't do anything good. We cannot use our tongue and our mouth in a way that is honoring to God outside of God's power. You can't. We need to abide. We need to go to the source. We need to think, yeah, I keep doing it my way, and it doesn't work out. I need to do this God's way. I need to consider what God is asking and guiding me and commanding me to do. And go and do it. And say, God, I if this is hard, I need help. I can't do it on my own. That's a great place to be dependent before God. We need to look to the scriptures. We need to look to the book of James as there's just, it feels like this the do's and don'ts list, but James is giving us great insights as to what is going on in our hearts, what is going on in our minds, the immense danger that is just right in between, right in between our teeth. This tongue is dangerous. It's a world of unrighteousness. Now, if you're thinking like, well, how can I say anything? Like, is is one like the word the is that gonna disqualify me? Is that how can I speak in a way that's pleasing to God? Think about what you're choosing to speak about. Think about why you're choosing to speak about it. Think about how that's going to honor God or not. We want to be building people up. We want to be encouraging people. We don't want to be talking behind backs. We don't want to be back talking our parents. We don't want to be mumbling under our breath when we don't want to do something. The attitude of our heart is going to inform our words. It's going to inform what we say, how we say it. And we want to be consistent. We don't want to be hypocrites. We don't want to say, yeah, I follow Jesus and when parents aren't around or authorities aren't around, and it's just our peers were speaking away. That's not honoring to God. We want to be consistent. You're going to be imperfect. That's for sure. But we need to be falling forward and uh continuing just to confess our need for God's help. That's a good place to be. That's a great place to be. Let's pray. God, we admit, we admit this evening that we need your help. We struggle with the words we choose to use. God, we oftentimes have really poor and bitter and sour and just awful attitudes, and those attitudes that come from our heart, they can they can do great damage. God, we need your help to repair relationships. We need your help to have the courage to confess when we're wrong. God, help us to use our words in a way that would be pleasing to you. God, help us to be uplifting. Help us to use our words in a way that would be a refreshment to other people, that would point people to you, towards the good news of the gospel. God, help us to see the danger that lies in our mouths. Help us to be cautious. Help us to be on guard and help us to be seeking wisdom all the time and asking for help when we're in tough situations. We don't know what words to share. God, we confess that to you tonight. And God, we're we're so we're so thankful that you hear us. Um we're not we're not sending words into an empty void. God, you hear us. You know our hearts. God, we need your help. Please help us. Um we trust you to do to do that in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.