SPEAKER_00: This podcast is the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information in our church, please visit grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to talk to you about the most sinful part of your body.
SPEAKER_00: Open your Bibles, let me tell you all the things you've done wrong since I saw you last.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, the most sinful part of your body.
SPEAKER_00: And while you're fighting there, I'm just going to tell you that the most, without a doubt, the most sinful part of your body, the part that's going to give you the most trouble, is not your eyes, it's not your hands, it's not your feet, it's not your mind, it is your tongue.
SPEAKER_00: And James is going to bear that out.
SPEAKER_00: But while you're finding James chapter 3, let me just kind of give you a frame of reference what the Bible says about the tongue.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll just limit it.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of things it says, like Matthew chapter 12, verse 37, Jesus says, By your words you'll be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs chapter 13, verse 3 says, He that guards his mouth keeps his life, but he that opens wide his lips shall have destruction.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 18, 21 says that death and life are in the power of the tongue.
SPEAKER_00: Death and life.
SPEAKER_00: Keep that in mind today.
SPEAKER_00: We'll come back to that.
SPEAKER_00: Because I don't want you to hear, like, oh, you're preaching about the tongue.
SPEAKER_00: Great.
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad my wife is here.
SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00: Nudge, nudge, baby.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to get to CDs.
SPEAKER_00: You can listen to it every day this week.
SPEAKER_00: Death and life are in the power of the tongue.
SPEAKER_00: Lastly, Proverbs 18, verse 6 and 7 says that a fool's lips, if you have children, memorize this verse.
SPEAKER_00: A fool's lips bring him strife, and his mouth invites a beating.
SPEAKER_00: A fool's mouth is his undoing, and his lips are a snare to his soul.
SPEAKER_00: So clearly, all through the Bible, we're kind of warned.
SPEAKER_00: And we are, if you're a guest today, I'm preaching through the book of James, and we're up to chapter 3, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what James says after he finished chapter 2 by saying, For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
SPEAKER_00: And now James, that he says, faith apart from works is dead.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, hey, listen, by the way, now that I said that, let me say this because one of the greatest expressions of your faith is what you do with your tongue.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 1 of chapter 3, not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.
SPEAKER_00: For we all stumble in many ways, and if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.
SPEAKER_00: If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the ships also, that they are so though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder, wherever the will of the pilot directs.
SPEAKER_00: So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things, how great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire.
SPEAKER_00: And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue.
SPEAKER_00: It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
SPEAKER_00: With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.
SPEAKER_00: From the same mouth come blessing and cursing.
SPEAKER_00: My brothers, these things ought not to be so.
SPEAKER_00: Does a spring pour forth from the same opening, both fresh and salt water?
SPEAKER_00: Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs?
SPEAKER_00: Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.
SPEAKER_00: I want to talk to you about the tongue, and uh just a couple of uh I think the passage breaks into a couple of sections.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, I want to talk to you about the nature of the tongue, and let me just say this while I'm talking in the first half, don't just get despondent and check out like, well, that's me, that's my issue, and I'm boy, I'm just gonna take my whip and because I think the I think the text ends on a good note for us today.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the the first thing that the text points out is he talks about the nature of the tongue.
SPEAKER_00: And James uses three analogies, and from verses two to five, he talks about three different ways to describe the tongue.
SPEAKER_00: He talks about the bit, he talks about the rudder of a ship, and then he talks about fire.
SPEAKER_00: And you say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: Look in in in verse 2, he says, For we all stumble in many ways, and if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he's a perfect man able also to bridle his whole body.
SPEAKER_00: And so he already gives an analogy, kind of talks about a bridle.
SPEAKER_00: Then in verse 3 he says, But if we put bits in the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well.
SPEAKER_00: Now I've told you this before, but let me reiterate, nothing in the Bible is just there for no reason.
SPEAKER_00: So when he talks about these three analogies of the bit and the rudder and the fire, he's saying something to us about the tongue.
SPEAKER_00: Like when he talks about the bit, here's a simple statement James is trying to get about trying to get across.
SPEAKER_00: Our tongue establishes the course for our life.
SPEAKER_00: Your tongue establishes the course for your life.
SPEAKER_00: That's why he's talking about, you know, bridling the tongue.
SPEAKER_00: He said, We put bits in the horse's mouth so that they will obey us.
SPEAKER_00: You say, Well, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: You don't understand that unless you've been on the back of a horse that did not have a bit in his mouth and realized you have no control over him.
SPEAKER_00: Case in point, I grew up in a small town, was not a believer in high school, and so there's not a lot to do in my town, so we had to kind of come up with fun.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things we would do is we would get a bunch of firewood, go out on someone's property.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't have to own the property, we just kind of knew this is so-and-so's farm, he doesn't care.
SPEAKER_00: We pile the wood up in the middle of the pasture, light a fire, about eight feet tall pile of wood, set it on fire, and then people would back their trucks up where they would serve malted beverages out of the back of the truck, out of these big silver barrel things with hoses coming out of them.
SPEAKER_00: You've been there too, okay.
SPEAKER_00: And so we would be there, and then we would be there, and then we take the girls home and come back because you had to turn in the big silver barrels the next day to get your deposit back, and so you had to drain those things.
SPEAKER_00: It was bad, bad stewardship of your money not to drain them.
SPEAKER_00: You with me?
SPEAKER_00: And so it's about 1.15 in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: We're on someone's property and they didn't care.
SPEAKER_00: It was a small town.
SPEAKER_00: We either knew them or were related somehow.
SPEAKER_00: And somebody looks up in a drunken stupor and says, Hey, there's horses over there.
SPEAKER_00: Not a good idea.
SPEAKER_00: Because men love to compete, and when men are a little bit inebriated, they love to compete even more.
SPEAKER_00: And so somebody says, I'm gonna ride one of them horses.
SPEAKER_00: And so one drunk redneck takes off, and if you had a ticket booth, you could have sold tickets.
SPEAKER_00: Because he walks over and he's kind of, I'm like, what are you, like the horse whisperer?
SPEAKER_00: And the horse comes running up to him, and we were like, he might be.
SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden, my buddy Woody reached up and grabbed a mane handful of mane and slung his leg up over the horse, and all of a sudden that horse took off like he was shot out of a cannon.
SPEAKER_00: And then we realized what Woody realized, he had no control.
SPEAKER_00: Because you see, the bridle is that leather strap that attaches to the end of the bit.
SPEAKER_00: The bit, it's got it's not just like a straight thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's got like a little curve in the middle.
SPEAKER_00: When you pull on it, it gets on the tongue of the horse.
SPEAKER_00: That's how you control him.
SPEAKER_00: It is painful.
SPEAKER_00: But you don't have the bit in the horse's mouth.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot control where his body goes.
SPEAKER_00: That's what James is saying.
SPEAKER_00: That's why he's saying the tongue establishes the course of the direction of your life.
SPEAKER_00: He says in verse 3, if we put bits into the mouths of the horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well.
SPEAKER_00: If you can get control of your tongue, you can kind of set the direction for the rest of your body as well.
SPEAKER_00: Because we realize that night that when you get on the back of the horse and you kind of kick the horse and go, Yeah, that horse knows one thing.
SPEAKER_00: Go.
SPEAKER_00: And you have no power.
SPEAKER_00: It does not feel the bit in its mouth, but the horse has a plan.
SPEAKER_00: Because we're out there and the big bonfires have been burning and it's about burned down, but he's beyond the pale.
SPEAKER_00: But we can see that there's a trees everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: And when you live on a farm, what you do is you trim the branches up to where you can get around them with a tractor and a bush hog.
SPEAKER_00: So the limbs are about six feet off the ground.
SPEAKER_00: If you're sitting on the back of a horse and you got it by the mane and you're looking back at your friends, you're about seven and a half feet off the ground, maybe eight.
SPEAKER_00: Out of the darkness, we heard, ugh.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought it cut him in half.
SPEAKER_00: The trillium hit him right here.
SPEAKER_00: And you would think we like load him up and take him to the hospital and never do that again.
SPEAKER_00: Oh no.
SPEAKER_00: Other horses begin running up, and people are like, I can ride that.
SPEAKER_00: Because men love to compete and say, look what I can do that you can't.
SPEAKER_00: And so one by one, one guy got on one, it wasn't even a horse, it was a mule.
SPEAKER_00: He's kicking that thing and it ain't moving.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I'd get off that one.
SPEAKER_00: And about that time, the mule knew what to do.
SPEAKER_00: That mule wared up, and that guy went flying.
SPEAKER_00: I saw his boots up in the air, and I was like, Oh wow, it's Tim McGraw.
SPEAKER_00: I went skydiving.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the deal: when you don't have a bit in the mouth, you cannot control the body of the animal.
SPEAKER_00: How do you expect to control the direction and the course of your life, of your physical body?
SPEAKER_00: James says, hey, it all starts with you getting control of your tongue.
SPEAKER_00: The second analogy he uses is that of a rudder.
SPEAKER_00: Look if you would at verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: He says, look at the ships also.
SPEAKER_00: Translation, as if that's not enough.
SPEAKER_00: Look at these ships also.
SPEAKER_00: Though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they're guided by a very small rudder.
SPEAKER_00: Wherever the will of the pilot directs.
SPEAKER_00: The rudder tells us this simple statement about our tongue.
SPEAKER_00: I'm responsible for my tongue.
SPEAKER_00: It's that little part that says he acknowledges there are external forces.
SPEAKER_00: It's guided by these, I mean, it's it got these strong winds, James says.
SPEAKER_00: He says, look at the ships also, that they are so large that are driven by strong winds, they're guided by a very small rudder.
SPEAKER_00: And then this seven words, wherever the will of the pilot directs.
SPEAKER_00: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: We talk about our tongue like it's something we don't have control over.
SPEAKER_00: It's like this external reality.
SPEAKER_00: Like recently, a uh a person in this church that uh that used to go here, doesn't go here anymore, sent out some emails that weren't true and said things to me that weren't true, and and things, and I just kind of said, I need to I need to call you on this.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't true, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And you and I both know that.
SPEAKER_00: And the person wrote back and said, Oh, well, you know, I have a problem with my tongue.
SPEAKER_00: It's been my struggle my entire life, and anybody that knows me knows about my tongue.
SPEAKER_00: And I just wrote back, the issue is deeper than your tongue.
SPEAKER_00: And why has not anybody told you this your entire life?
SPEAKER_00: Why does everybody who knows you know you have a problem with your tongue and hasn't said anything to you?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, I just want to say again, as a person that loves you and cares about you, the issue is deeper than your tongue.
SPEAKER_00: If you wrote back and said, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: If you're in James, turn to the left to the gospel of Luke.
SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter 6.
SPEAKER_00: I'll start reading in verse 43 of Luke's gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter 6.
SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter 6, verse 43.
SPEAKER_00: You feel how quiet it is in here?
SPEAKER_00: Tell her like, I'm glad my wife is here.
SPEAKER_00: She needs this, Pastor.
SPEAKER_00: Me too.
SPEAKER_00: My wife asked me last night, what are you preaching on?
SPEAKER_00: I said, the tongue, make sure you're in there.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, my wife's constant thing to me is I just don't want to be behind you in the line.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're wondering what line, the Bible says you're gonna give an account for every careless word.
SPEAKER_00: And every once in a while, people come on my TV and they make me say things.
SPEAKER_00: It's all their fault.
SPEAKER_00: It's not me.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's a reason your tongue is walled in behind teeth and sealed off by lips, and it still manages to get out.
SPEAKER_00: I see people on TV and I like these people on Wall Street.
SPEAKER_00: Whoo! Let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_00: Just because you want to protest and go down there and camp out and they put a microphone in your face and they say, What are you protesting?
SPEAKER_00: Well, they have all the money.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, if you started the company and you had all the risk, you get to keep the money.
SPEAKER_00: You ain't got to just give it to some idiot that says, Hey, I got a pup tent and a pair of skinny jeans.
SPEAKER_00: See, let me just say this.
SPEAKER_00: Talking about the tongue, the Bible's got a bigger agenda than be nice.
SPEAKER_00: Say nice things.
SPEAKER_00: No, speak the truth.
SPEAKER_00: I said to this person, hey, it it's deeper than that.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I referenced.
SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter 6, verse 43, for no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit.
SPEAKER_00: For each tree is known by its own fruit.
SPEAKER_00: For figs are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush.
SPEAKER_00: The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good.
SPEAKER_00: And the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks.
SPEAKER_00: See, the issue, when I said to my friend, it's deeper than that, it's my point is that it's not your tongue, it's your heart.
SPEAKER_00: See, there is no if you believe the Bible, there is no such thing as a slip of the tongue, there's just a revelation of the heart.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus said, the good person out of the good treasure.
SPEAKER_00: Now stop just for a second.
SPEAKER_00: See, this is not a negative sermon today.
SPEAKER_00: See, there's good treasure in you, and you bring good.
SPEAKER_00: If doing good or speaking good is an outer body experience for you, you got even deeper issues.
SPEAKER_00: But the evil person out of the evil treasure, they speak out of that place.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because out of the mouth comes the confines of the heart.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to listen, if you want to know what's in someone's heart, listen to them talk.
SPEAKER_00: And James says, hey, by the way, the rudder reminds us that you're responsible for your tongue.
SPEAKER_00: It's not this external thing you have no control over.
SPEAKER_00: Well, everybody knows how I am.
SPEAKER_00: I just, no, no, repent.
SPEAKER_00: Stop that.
SPEAKER_00: That's not okay.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because wherever, let me just read it again from James 3.
SPEAKER_00: Wherever the will of the Pilate directs.
SPEAKER_00: Third picture that Luke uses is that of fire.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Verse 5, so also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things, how great a force is set ablaze by such a small fire.
SPEAKER_00: And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind.
SPEAKER_00: But you'll never go to the zoo and see a tongue on display.
SPEAKER_00: It's untamable.
SPEAKER_00: No human being can tame the tongue.
SPEAKER_00: It's a restless evil full of deadly poison.
SPEAKER_00: James uses the analogy of fire to remind us simply that my tongue has the power to destroy.
SPEAKER_00: My tongue has a power to destroy.
SPEAKER_00: If I'm not careful, I can burn down a conversation just like that.
SPEAKER_00: Now, we should understand something about that because we've had a little wildfire issue here in Texas this summer.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've forgotten already, but let me just, I brought a couple pictures to kind of demonstrate the reality of what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_00: When you meet somebody for lunch at Cafe Express over here where they have the nice little salad, I mean the little bar where you get the long breadsticks, and then you can go get some of the black currant tea, which is really yummy, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what black currant is, but I feel healthier when I drink it.
SPEAKER_00: I just do.
SPEAKER_00: But you can get that, and you can order a nice Greek salad with a grilled chicken breast and sit down with one of your church friends, and this is what it looks like when you get up.
SPEAKER_00: Because your tongue, the whole world can be set on fire by this little bitty spark that sounds like this.
SPEAKER_00: Did you hear about so-and-so?
SPEAKER_00: And the reason I talk about Cafe Express is not because I'm down on Cafe Express.
SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, I love I love me some Cafe Express.
SPEAKER_00: I met somebody for lunch there not long ago.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm sitting there in one of the booths, they have these booths, they're kind of like a little V, they're kind of big and kind of plush and comfy.
SPEAKER_00: I like to sit back on them and pretend like I'm a mob boss and I'm ordering a hit on somebody.
SPEAKER_00: But none of you, of course.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, uh I'm sitting there and right over there is a table of four people, and they are going to town on somebody who's not there.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought about this picture.
SPEAKER_00: Because James uses the analogy of fire to remind us that my tongue has the power to destroy.
SPEAKER_00: And also, by the way, it's not confined to that.
SPEAKER_00: And this next picture will remind you if you're not careful, this is why James says the whole world is set on fire.
SPEAKER_00: The entire course of life is set and is set on fire by hell.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not careful, beloved, you go through life making excuses for the fact that you don't watch your tongue.
SPEAKER_00: This is what you'll look back and see.
SPEAKER_00: Or this is what God will look back and see, but it doesn't have to be that way.
SPEAKER_00: See, that's the nature of the tongue.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, I want to close this morning by talking to you about the use of your tongue.
SPEAKER_00: That's what James talks about in verses 9 to 12.
SPEAKER_00: Are you still with me?
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 9, what he says.
SPEAKER_00: He says, with it we bless.
SPEAKER_00: He says, you know, uh, verse 9, with it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.
SPEAKER_00: From the same mouth comes blessing and cursing.
SPEAKER_00: Now, by the way, when he says cursing, he's not talking about profanity.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are like, Whew, thank God.
SPEAKER_00: That's next Sunday, okay?
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm just kidding.
SPEAKER_00: He says we bless our Lord and Father.
SPEAKER_00: That blesses the Greek word eulageo.
SPEAKER_00: It means to speak well of.
SPEAKER_00: It means that you wish to prosper.
SPEAKER_00: And when he says we curse people, that means to doom or to wish evil on.
SPEAKER_00: That means that you sit around and you talk about people that aren't there in a way that you wish ill of them.
SPEAKER_00: And that's rain, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: That's our rain-making, rain-sending God.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: It's October.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody told you it was gonna start raining in October.
SPEAKER_00: I don't remember who that was.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying.
SPEAKER_00: God is faithful.
SPEAKER_00: Talked to a lady yesterday at the farmer's market.
SPEAKER_00: We have a farmer's market here in Sugarland.
SPEAKER_00: Every Saturday from 9 to 1 at the sugar meal.
SPEAKER_00: Talked to a lady yesterday from Round Rock, bought me some Round Rock honey.
SPEAKER_00: If you've never had Round Rock honey, friend, you haven't lived yet.
SPEAKER_00: Whew! That'll make your mother-in-law sweet right there.
SPEAKER_00: And this lady said, No comments, please.
SPEAKER_00: This lady said, Well, pray for us because we need some rain.
SPEAKER_00: If we don't get rain, we're gonna close the doors.
SPEAKER_00: And I just smiled inside and was like, Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna get some rain, all right.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, back to the Bible, huh?
SPEAKER_00: Y'all are like, don't let us out now, it's raining.
SPEAKER_00: It says, With it, we bless our Lord and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.
SPEAKER_00: And then verse 10, he gives these three impossible possibilities.
SPEAKER_00: He says, From the same mouth come blessing and cursing.
SPEAKER_00: My brothers, these things ought not to be so.
SPEAKER_00: Does a spring pour forth from the same opening, both fresh and salt water?
SPEAKER_00: Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs, neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.
SPEAKER_00: What is he saying?
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, hey, not you stink and you should feel bad.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, hey, your mouth is a well of fresh water.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, hey, your mouth is a vine.
SPEAKER_00: It's not gonna produce figs.
SPEAKER_00: He's coming along and saying, hey, your mouth is a spring.
SPEAKER_00: It's an opening of fresh water.
SPEAKER_00: It's not, it's a grapevine.
SPEAKER_00: People don't come looking for figs on this.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, it's fresh, it's not salt water.
SPEAKER_00: He says, hey, this is a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: This is a good ending.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to leave and go, golly, I stink.
SPEAKER_00: I know I got to get a handle on this.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy when you talk about the nature of the tongue.
SPEAKER_00: Don't leave today thinking about what the tongue is by nature, because by nature it is like a bit in a horse's mouth, and it's like the rudder of a ship.
SPEAKER_00: And it is like fire.
SPEAKER_00: It can, I mean, you should hear talking heads playing in the background.
SPEAKER_00: Talking heads, anybody burning down the house?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: All you hippies.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to end this morning talking about not what the tongue is by nature, because we've all blown it.
SPEAKER_00: We've all walked out of, we've said things.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, I don't mean just as strangers.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's not okay, men, that we you're nice to everybody else and you come home and you're a jerk to your wife.
SPEAKER_00: It's not okay.
SPEAKER_00: It's not okay that you're nice to everybody at work because they pay your salary, and then you come home and yell at your kids.
SPEAKER_00: It's not okay.
SPEAKER_00: Not okay.
SPEAKER_00: You can't bless everybody else and come home and curse your family.
SPEAKER_00: It's not okay, students, when your parents tell you no when they've always said yes, then you go text your friends, I hate my parents.
SPEAKER_00: Not okay.
SPEAKER_00: You're burning down the house you're you're trying to live in.
SPEAKER_00: See, there's a difference in what the tongue is by nature and what it can be because of grace.
SPEAKER_00: You say, Well, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: I started off with some verses this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I want to end with some verses, and I'll give you three questions I want you to in the name of application.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to think about.
SPEAKER_00: First passage I want you to hear.
SPEAKER_00: Don't turn there.
SPEAKER_00: It's Proverbs 26 20.
SPEAKER_00: It says, For lack of wood, the fire goes out.
SPEAKER_00: And where there's no whisper, quarreling ceases.
SPEAKER_00: For lack of wood.
SPEAKER_00: Lack of wood, the fire goes out.
SPEAKER_00: And when there's no whispers, quarreling ceases.
SPEAKER_00: The great Los Angeles Times sports writer Jim Murray said of Willie Mays's glove.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Willie Mays' glove is where triples go to die.
SPEAKER_00: Would you be willing this week to be the person whose mouth is where rumor goes to die?
SPEAKER_00: See, no one's exempt from the temptation of the tongue.
SPEAKER_00: Our Attorney General, Eric Holder, is probably gonna lose his job because something he said that wasn't true.
SPEAKER_00: And they've now proven that it wasn't true.
SPEAKER_00: And the great country music icon Hank Williams Jr.
SPEAKER_00: has already lost his job because he couldn't control his tongue.
SPEAKER_00: And would you be willing, and would I be willing this week just to be the person that when someone says something, that your ears is where it just goes to die.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 37, 30 says, the mouth of the righteous utter wisdom, and his tongue speaks justice.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 12, 17 to 19 says, Whoever speaks the truth gives honest evidence, but a false witness utters deceit.
SPEAKER_00: There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts.
SPEAKER_00: But the tongue of the wise brings healing.
SPEAKER_00: Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Second question I want to give you to think about this week is simply this.
SPEAKER_00: Would you be willing to be the person who speaks healing into situations?
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says the tongue of the wise brings healing.
SPEAKER_00: If you ever had a bad day and you thought this is a person I can call, and they're not going to fix everything, but somehow they're going to make me feel better about it.
SPEAKER_00: That's what happens when the tongue of the wise brings healing.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Peter 3, verse 8 to 12, Peter says, Finally, all of you have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.
SPEAKER_00: Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless.
SPEAKER_00: For to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.
SPEAKER_00: For whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.
SPEAKER_00: Let him turn away from evil and do good.
SPEAKER_00: Let him seek peace and pursue it.
SPEAKER_00: For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.
SPEAKER_00: It's that little phrase in there.
SPEAKER_00: Let him turn away from evil and do good.
SPEAKER_00: Would you be willing this week to do good every time you find the opportunity?
SPEAKER_00: Just to do good.
SPEAKER_00: It is doing good.
SPEAKER_00: Last week I wasn't with you.
SPEAKER_00: I had to go to New Mexico and speak to the heatherans at a men's retreat.
SPEAKER_00: And uh we I was in Glorieta, which is just north of Santa Fe, and between Santa Fe and Glorieta, it's a little dive on the side of the road that my wife found for me called Harry's Roadhouse Cafe.
SPEAKER_00: It's all organic, certified green.
SPEAKER_00: We walk in, there's Gene Hackman by the cash register.
SPEAKER_00: You ever try to say, there's like 81 men at this men's retreat, and half of them were there because I talked about the restaurant.
SPEAKER_00: You ever try to say to a bunch of men, hey, there's Gene Hackman, don't make a scene.
SPEAKER_00: Where?
SPEAKER_00: That was subtle.
SPEAKER_00: Redneck.
SPEAKER_00: Why don't you just go over and get his autograph?
SPEAKER_00: Really?
SPEAKER_00: No, how about leave him alone?
SPEAKER_00: How many meals do you think he's eaten?
SPEAKER_00: Somebody goes, Well, I've never seen him before.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: So we're sitting there.
SPEAKER_00: Well, on I I ate their Friday, I ate their Saturday lunch, and I ate their Sunday breakfast because I want to support, I'm trying to jumpstart the local economy.
SPEAKER_00: Saturday afternoon, I'm sitting there at lunch and they have indoor seating, they have out in the garden seating.
SPEAKER_00: They have this little terrace, and you can have a little round table with an umbrella.
SPEAKER_00: If you go at night, they got lights on the trees, very romantic.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm sitting out there, being the band, like five guys with swirly haircuts and skinny jeans, and I'm like, I'm not very cool.
SPEAKER_00: And our waitress walks up, and her eyes were just so heavy, and I was just like, mm-hmm, okay.
SPEAKER_00: Well, here we go.
SPEAKER_00: And we sit there and we get to talking and talking and talking and talking, and she's kind of coming going, Y'all need anything else?
SPEAKER_00: I said, by the way, you're gonna get a big fat tip off this table.
SPEAKER_00: Because we've been here long enough to seat two or three parties, so we're gonna give you two or three parties worth of a tip.
SPEAKER_00: She goes, How do you know?
SPEAKER_00: I said, Because I'm gonna get the pen.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: That means I'm gonna be the guy filling out the credit card receipt.
SPEAKER_00: It's not my credit card, but these guys are talking about social justice and their passion for social justice.
SPEAKER_00: Let's let's practice a little wealth redistribution right here.
SPEAKER_00: You're all for that until it involves your money.
SPEAKER_00: So when the card came, I got the receipt.
SPEAKER_00: She's down there and I said, By the way, I said, I told you we're gonna bless you, right?
SPEAKER_00: She goes, I don't know what that means.
SPEAKER_00: You realize there's people in the world that have no idea what it means to be blessed, don't you?
SPEAKER_00: So I wrote down there what the tip was gonna be.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Is that enough?
SPEAKER_00: And she went, Oh my gosh, we could add more.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Hey, by the way, since we're talking, her name's Esther, by the way, pray for her.
SPEAKER_00: She's divorced, got three kids.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Is the husband still in the picture?
SPEAKER_00: Did he pay child support?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, man, pay your child support.
SPEAKER_00: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_00: How sorry you have to be to leave a wife and three kids.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, not that I know anything about that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I grew up with a dad that didn't pay child support.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, really?
SPEAKER_00: So I just said, hey, we'll add some more to this.
SPEAKER_00: Because our dad's in the cattle business.
SPEAKER_00: If we need something, he sells cows and sends us the money.
SPEAKER_00: She said, Where do you get this money?
SPEAKER_00: Oh man, I go to a church and people got money just hanging off of them, okay?
SPEAKER_00: People from other tables are getting up and coming over, some guy with a glass of wine.
SPEAKER_00: I want to go to this church and I don't even believe in God.
SPEAKER_00: Get back to your table, Otis the Drunk from Andy Griffin.
SPEAKER_00: Do you have any needs in your life that you can't meet?
SPEAKER_00: Because I got the pen.
SPEAKER_00: And I will put a beat down on that need right now in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: All of a sudden, the lead singer from the band starts crying.
SPEAKER_00: Ain't no crying in Harry.
SPEAKER_00: What do you cry about?
SPEAKER_00: That's Jesus right there.
SPEAKER_00: What's your credit card?
SPEAKER_00: I don't care.
SPEAKER_00: I thought it was yours.
SPEAKER_00: Relax it is, you tight wad.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's for being generous until they say, You want to pay?
SPEAKER_00: So I looked there and I said, Hey, Esther, here's the blessing.
SPEAKER_00: The blessing is not, I want you to take your kids out to eat, by the way, I want you to take them to Walmart and buy them some junk, some stuff to play with two times, and then they won't ever touch it again.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care.
SPEAKER_00: But you sit them down tonight on the bed and before you go to bed, you look them all in the face and you say, God's for us.
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna make it through this.
SPEAKER_00: And Esther starts tearing up.
SPEAKER_00: The bass player's like, that's awesome, man.
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00: So we visit a little bit more, we get ready to go, and all the Esther and all the waitresses are standing there and the little waitress nook, and they're all like waving, and one of them's like, Hey, next time you come in, I'm Kathy sat in my section.
SPEAKER_00: I got your card, Kathy.
SPEAKER_00: It'll be a while.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for sharing.
SPEAKER_00: Walk out, and the guys were like, Man, man, man, get to the camp that night.
SPEAKER_00: And you know how musicians are, they can't keep their mouth shut.
SPEAKER_00: They told all the guys at the retreat, you should have been at lunch today.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know how much it was, but I mean, that woman cried when she saw him, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00: One of the guys says, Man, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_00: I said, What if we're all supposed to be a blessing like that?
SPEAKER_00: Not just the blessing is not finances.
SPEAKER_00: The blessing is being intentional, being in the moment.
SPEAKER_00: And the power of life and death is in your tongue.
SPEAKER_00: And would you be willing this week to use your tongue to speak life into death situations?
SPEAKER_00: I told them in the first service.
SPEAKER_00: I was in the convenience store the other day, and a guy was buying cigarettes.
SPEAKER_00: And apparently there's certain kinds of cigarettes, and you got to get the certain guys like, I want Marlboro lights and a crush-proof box and big R541 and Pom and I'm like, what are you buying cigarettes for your whole workplace?
SPEAKER_00: And the poor guy behind the counter was pulling down and he got the wrong kind, the guy pushed him back and said, No, I went the 100s.
SPEAKER_00: Because clearly you haven't had enough nicotine in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and and so I was just kind of standing there holding my diet seven up, just kind of thinking, God, if I hit him in the back of the head with this, is this a sin?
SPEAKER_00: I thought that.
SPEAKER_00: Pray for me.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, What?
SPEAKER_00: And clear as a bell, he's like, this is where your power of life and death is in your tongue.
SPEAKER_00: And so I said, when I got up there, I said, Man, I said, tell me, tell me about you.
SPEAKER_00: What all did you do to come to this country?
SPEAKER_00: And in two minutes, this man just said, Oh.
SPEAKER_00: You talk telling me all the stuff he did and that how 80% of the money he makes he sends back because he wants to get his mom and dad and his brothers and sisters to come to America.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, How do you, when you tell them about America, how do you describe it?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I tell them it's better than Disneyland.
SPEAKER_00: See, when you grew up here, you just start taking it for granted.
SPEAKER_00: You focus on what's wrong with it.
SPEAKER_00: Talk to somebody who saved everything they ever had to get here and work at a convenience store.
SPEAKER_00: You think the guy's a CEO of Fortune 500 company?
SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking, you're selling beer and lottery tickets to a bunch of cracker rednecks.
SPEAKER_00: That was the greatest thing in the world.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I tell my family all the time, I do not have words to tell you how great this country is.
SPEAKER_00: See, when y'all talk, I was talking about the power of life and death is in the tongue.
SPEAKER_00: You thought I was talking about me.
SPEAKER_00: No, he is the one.
SPEAKER_00: I walked away going, wow.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And so this week you'll have situations at work, at home, in the neighborhood to release the power of life out of your tongue.
SPEAKER_00: To people who've had death spoken over them.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Faithful King, we're reminded today that you've got this.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing that is outside of the realm of your control or your sovereignty and your influence, be it the weather or our tongue.
SPEAKER_00: You have dominion over both, and you've given us dominion over our tongue.
SPEAKER_00: We just need to exercise it.
SPEAKER_00: So, Lord, our prayer today is that you would beat our tongues in the plowshares and use our words to cultivate life in our family and in those we come into contact with.
SPEAKER_00: And let it rain.
SPEAKER_00: Just let it rain.
SPEAKER_00: Just come on a little harder.
SPEAKER_00: Just let it rain.
SPEAKER_00: That's who you are.
SPEAKER_00: Your provider, Jehovah Jireh, the Lord our God who provides.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, we uh we're reminded that today's a great day to take a nap.
SPEAKER_00: And napping is a way of saying, God, you're in charge, and we're not.
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna rest.
SPEAKER_00: For that we're grateful.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone said, hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_00: Your great God has so much faith in you, He has given you the capacity to bless.
SPEAKER_00: And He commands you to do it.
SPEAKER_00: So depart now and lose the power of life which is in your tongue upon this world that knows little about it.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.