WEBVTT 00:00:00.560 --> 00:00:01.919 Thank you, worship team. 00:00:02.160 --> 00:00:03.680 Appreciate that very much. 00:00:04.160 --> 00:00:08.560 Worship is designed to direct our hearts and our minds Godward. 00:00:09.839 --> 00:00:16.559 The testimonies we heard remind us that God is at work, at work in our midst. 00:00:16.960 --> 00:00:23.519 You know, sometimes we uh we we give announcements about programs and activities that are going on. 00:00:24.239 --> 00:00:33.520 And really what we want to see is that God is alive and well in working in our lives. 00:00:34.240 --> 00:00:44.320 And when we see God at work, in Chris's life, in Julie's life, or whomever, they're just like us. 00:00:44.560 --> 00:00:47.280 They're just like us, imperfect. 00:00:49.439 --> 00:00:53.520 They don't have it all together, but they just want to be used of God. 00:00:53.600 --> 00:00:56.240 And God works, he works through us. 00:00:56.640 --> 00:01:04.319 Now, the reason for sharing the testimonies is not to give the attention on the people, but on God who is at work. 00:01:04.480 --> 00:01:14.159 And when the believer sees God at work in our midst, the heart that is warm towards God wants to be a part of that. 00:01:14.879 --> 00:01:19.599 There's all kinds of ways to get involved in programs and activities. 00:01:19.920 --> 00:01:22.640 But the key is, is God doing something? 00:01:22.799 --> 00:01:38.159 Is he warming your heart to reach out, to touch, to fix a car or whatever it is, and through that connect with people and share the reality of who God is and how he's worked in your life. 00:01:39.200 --> 00:01:40.879 That's what we want to do. 00:01:41.200 --> 00:01:42.319 God is at work. 00:01:42.480 --> 00:01:45.040 Let's don't you just long? 00:01:45.519 --> 00:01:47.280 Don't you just long for that? 00:01:47.760 --> 00:01:51.519 If you don't have that longing, then there's a heart issue. 00:01:51.920 --> 00:01:59.200 And certainly the uh the book of James uh talks a lot about those kinds of things. 00:01:59.439 --> 00:02:03.439 We're continuing this week with our series on the book of James. 00:02:03.920 --> 00:02:08.479 So uh I trust you've still got your Bible open to James chapter 3. 00:02:09.439 --> 00:02:14.800 Um today is Sunday, the 1st of May 2016. 00:02:14.879 --> 00:02:16.319 I'm not sure how that happened. 00:02:16.639 --> 00:02:17.680 2016. 00:02:17.840 --> 00:02:20.000 And this Sunday, God is still on the throne. 00:02:20.240 --> 00:02:21.759 He was all week long. 00:02:22.319 --> 00:02:24.479 He is the week to come, and he is today. 00:02:24.639 --> 00:02:34.800 Now, in a day like today, the sun is shining, the grass has this beautiful, fresh green to it, uh, summer is going to be here one of these days. 00:02:34.960 --> 00:02:36.080 Yes, even here. 00:02:36.560 --> 00:02:42.719 Um, it's not hard to see the goodness of God, and rightfully so. 00:02:43.439 --> 00:02:53.759 As we sang in one of those uh songs, uh, when the darkness comes, uh he is still there, he's still with us, he's still faithful and good. 00:02:54.560 --> 00:02:57.599 To enter into that, we need God's word. 00:02:58.000 --> 00:03:02.000 We need a whole lot of other things, but we don't need anything less than God's word. 00:03:02.319 --> 00:03:05.360 We need the power of the Holy Spirit at work within our lives. 00:03:05.520 --> 00:03:10.800 We need real, meaningful spiritual relationships with other believers. 00:03:11.680 --> 00:03:15.759 There's lots of things we need, but there's nothing less we need. 00:03:16.400 --> 00:03:22.719 Among the things we need, there is nothing less than the word of God that feeds our soul. 00:03:23.039 --> 00:03:25.280 This is our food. 00:03:25.759 --> 00:03:35.520 That's why it's focused on so much in the scriptures itself, the word of God, living and active and powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword. 00:03:35.680 --> 00:03:41.360 And we desperately need it, and that's why we put ourselves under the teaching of God's word. 00:03:41.759 --> 00:03:45.360 It's not the only thing, but we cannot get along without it. 00:03:45.599 --> 00:03:50.080 It is that which feeds our souls. 00:03:50.719 --> 00:03:55.919 Um we looked actually three weeks ago at the beginning of this section. 00:03:56.159 --> 00:04:01.199 Uh after that, we had a baptism service, a powerful way of seeing God at work. 00:04:01.360 --> 00:04:06.879 After that, my dear friend Vic, former pastor of the church, uh, spoke last week. 00:04:06.960 --> 00:04:11.120 And today we're back in the book of James, and we're going to pick up where we left off. 00:04:11.280 --> 00:04:19.360 It's not hard because on this passage, the last time we looked at it, we only, only got to the very first verse. 00:04:19.680 --> 00:04:22.959 And that wasn't because I got lost along the way. 00:04:23.199 --> 00:04:37.199 Uh that very first verse was incredibly significant for us and is the context for what we are looking at now, especially verses 3 through 12. 00:04:37.680 --> 00:04:46.720 So, verse 1, uh, James spoke very directly and pointedly, and James has a way of doing that. 00:04:49.279 --> 00:05:08.240 If you don't get a little uncomfortable with what James is saying, I don't, I'm not trying to make you uncomfortable, but if we're not a little taken aback by what God says to us through the scriptures, then there's a deeper problem. 00:05:09.040 --> 00:05:31.519 Um and last time the focus was really on me and others like me, um, who stand and have the audacity to open their mouths and say, My friends, this is what God has said, this is what it means, and and here's what I think we need to be doing with it. 00:05:32.399 --> 00:05:40.639 And James says, Walt, be careful, be careful, little mouth, what you say. 00:05:40.720 --> 00:05:48.879 And I I took that children's uh song, uh, little children's chorus, be careful, little mouth, what you say. 00:05:49.120 --> 00:05:51.759 There's a savior up above who is looking down with love. 00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:54.399 Oh, be careful, little mouth, what you say. 00:05:54.800 --> 00:06:02.240 And that's a child's song, but what he is talking about is not a childish matter. 00:06:03.199 --> 00:06:11.680 And in the very first verse, he directs it to those who open God's word, and he says, there shouldn't be very many teachers of God's word. 00:06:12.079 --> 00:06:13.600 We saw that several weeks ago. 00:06:13.680 --> 00:06:26.480 It's a rather strange statement, but it was against the backdrop in the largely Jewish churches, the messianic churches, we would say today, that James was writing to. 00:06:39.439 --> 00:07:00.879 It was the most highly exalted position in that community, and it was what young boys aspired to, and the result was that there was a glut of would-be wannabe teachers of God's word who were neither spiritually mature nor rightly motivated, and he says, better fewer than many. 00:07:02.480 --> 00:07:04.160 Better fewer than many. 00:07:04.319 --> 00:07:07.680 Be careful, little mouth, what you say. 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:14.879 And I took the time to expand on that, just that one little verse, really, in part because I needed it. 00:07:15.040 --> 00:07:18.079 I don't know how you needed it, I know I needed it. 00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:31.199 But also, interestingly enough, we are at a particular moment in the history of our church where we are beginning the process of seeking the next man that God will bring along. 00:07:31.439 --> 00:07:33.759 I'm only here for a season. 00:07:35.199 --> 00:07:46.639 And we are just beginning the discovery process, the search and discovery, not search and destroy, search and discovery of who God has for us. 00:07:47.199 --> 00:07:55.839 And the exhortation of James is applicable to me, but it is also applicable to the man who comes. 00:07:56.000 --> 00:08:00.319 And we need to be thinking about what is it that's really needed? 00:08:00.480 --> 00:08:03.519 And it's far more than knowledge and skills. 00:08:03.680 --> 00:08:06.079 At its core, it goes to heart issues. 00:08:06.240 --> 00:08:10.480 This chapter is all about the issues of the heart. 00:08:10.959 --> 00:08:13.600 So I took the time to expand on that. 00:08:13.920 --> 00:08:34.159 We looked very, very briefly at verse 2 in this connection, where he begins to expand on that and moves from the rather narrow focus of the teacher of God's word, and parenthetically that applies not only to the preacher-teacher, it applies to the use of word gifts. 00:08:34.399 --> 00:08:44.879 Among the spiritual gifts, there are a number of what are called word gifts that have to do with speaking and exhortation and prophetic utterance and so forth. 00:08:45.039 --> 00:08:48.879 And these are highly important gifts of God. 00:08:49.360 --> 00:08:52.240 But they're not limited to a paid professional. 00:08:52.399 --> 00:08:58.799 They're applicable to a Sunday school teacher, adult, or children, they're applicable to Iwana workers. 00:08:58.960 --> 00:09:14.639 They ought to be applicable to all of us, whether it's with our children or with our friends, as we have spiritual friendships, that we seek to have an influence for God in the lives of other people and to be influenced by God. 00:09:14.879 --> 00:09:17.039 And the word stands central in this. 00:09:17.200 --> 00:09:25.279 So that first verse applies in general to everyone, but specifically to the formal teacher. 00:09:25.519 --> 00:09:36.159 Now he begins to expand that in verse 2, where he says, For we all, and James is speaking himself, for we all stumble in many ways. 00:09:36.240 --> 00:09:43.279 If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he's a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. 00:09:43.600 --> 00:09:49.919 Just very briefly, when he talks about this, uh he uses the term stumbling. 00:09:50.080 --> 00:09:52.240 We all stumble in many ways. 00:09:52.480 --> 00:09:54.879 The word that is used there is a very interesting one. 00:09:54.960 --> 00:09:58.399 It basically means we get tripped up, we slip, we fall. 00:09:59.120 --> 00:10:05.679 Not all of the sins that we commit are malicious, intentional, deliberate, and conscious. 00:10:06.080 --> 00:10:09.759 More of them are than we would hope for. 00:10:09.919 --> 00:10:12.320 But there is just something sometimes we just mess up. 00:10:12.399 --> 00:10:13.360 That's all there is to it. 00:10:13.519 --> 00:10:16.000 Spiritually, we mess up, we'll get tripped up. 00:10:16.480 --> 00:10:19.200 And that's true for all of us. 00:10:19.759 --> 00:10:29.840 So it's he's broadening out not only to the deliberate, but also to just, I'm a I'm just a simple person, you're just a simple person. 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:37.679 We walk around and we get tripped up in an evil and sinful world, and we have evil and sinful hearts that are drawn towards that. 00:10:37.759 --> 00:10:39.600 We just screw up, that's all there is to it. 00:10:39.679 --> 00:10:41.519 That's just part of what happens. 00:10:41.759 --> 00:10:44.480 Now, he says, we all stumble in many ways. 00:10:44.639 --> 00:10:48.960 If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man. 00:10:49.200 --> 00:10:51.200 Well, you need to be careful about this. 00:10:51.360 --> 00:10:59.840 The word perfect here, the way James uses it, both in this section and in others, is not talking about sinless perfection. 00:11:00.080 --> 00:11:07.759 There is no one other than Jesus who does not stumble in sin or deliberate or in undeliberate. 00:11:08.240 --> 00:11:12.879 It's really talking not about sinless perfection, it's talking about maturity. 00:11:13.039 --> 00:11:18.879 The idea is being complete, being spiritually mature. 00:11:20.080 --> 00:11:22.240 That's really the focus here. 00:11:22.320 --> 00:11:25.360 Now it's interesting that James includes himself. 00:11:25.840 --> 00:11:30.960 Um and the context here is words, words, words, words, words. 00:11:31.120 --> 00:11:32.960 Danger, danger, danger. 00:11:33.200 --> 00:11:35.279 Careful little mouth what you say. 00:11:35.440 --> 00:11:38.240 And James includes himself in that. 00:11:39.120 --> 00:11:48.480 And it's very interesting when you read the Gospels, the apostles, oh, the followers of Christ, they said the dumbest things. 00:11:48.879 --> 00:11:58.639 I mean, if you can't read the Gospels and have a sense of humor, uh God does something amazing, and they say, oh, well, let's build a tent or something like that. 00:11:58.960 --> 00:12:00.639 Missing totally what God was doing. 00:12:00.799 --> 00:12:06.159 Of course, Peter, the one who every time he opens his mouth, he inserts his foot. 00:12:06.480 --> 00:12:09.840 And then he opens his mouth again and he changes feet. 00:12:10.639 --> 00:12:11.759 That's just the nature. 00:12:11.919 --> 00:12:15.200 And yet Peter, like James, wrote scripture. 00:12:15.360 --> 00:12:16.240 How does that work? 00:12:16.399 --> 00:12:17.679 We all stumble in many ways. 00:12:17.840 --> 00:12:20.720 James stumbles, so is he stumbling when he's talking to us? 00:12:20.960 --> 00:12:23.200 Well, what about 1 and 2 Peter? 00:12:23.360 --> 00:12:48.080 And we've referred a number of times over the months about this work of God, this miraculous thing that happens, where when the writers of Scripture were writing what ended up being Scripture, they may have had no idea what God was going to do with that writing or that 2,000 years later we'd still be focusing on and analyzing it and applying it to our lives. 00:12:48.320 --> 00:13:08.399 In those cases, in those situations after the fact, we realize God so superintended the process, so led, that the end result is not only the stumbling, fumbling words of James or of Paul or of Peter or of anyone, but are the very words of God. 00:13:08.639 --> 00:13:11.360 God protects their little mouths. 00:13:11.679 --> 00:13:14.320 Interesting, significant. 00:13:14.720 --> 00:13:18.000 You see, God can control our mouths. 00:13:18.080 --> 00:13:19.840 We cannot, but God can. 00:13:20.559 --> 00:13:46.559 And we find that even in the experience of the writers of Scripture, there was a need for this miraculous thing where God works anyway, and the end result is inerrant, true, applicable, exactly what God wanted for the first readers to hear, and exactly what we need today. 00:13:47.440 --> 00:13:51.279 But that's because God is at work. 00:13:51.759 --> 00:14:00.639 So this is a bridge that carries us over, and in verse 2, he says we all stumbled. 00:14:00.720 --> 00:14:03.759 If anyone doesn't stumble, he's a perfect man. 00:14:04.480 --> 00:14:09.440 And this leads us into the passage that we're really interested in looking at this morning. 00:14:09.519 --> 00:14:11.759 And it's a passage of warning. 00:14:14.080 --> 00:14:20.639 The tongue, and I want you to capture this because this lies behind this whole passage. 00:14:20.799 --> 00:14:22.639 The tongue is a tattletale. 00:14:23.039 --> 00:14:28.720 Your tongue is a tattletale that reveals what's on the inside. 00:14:30.879 --> 00:14:40.159 One writer put it far better than I could, and with far fewer words than I would give to it, so let me just read what one of my favorite writers wrote. 00:14:40.399 --> 00:14:44.399 He says, the tongue is you in a unique way. 00:14:45.039 --> 00:14:46.000 Interesting. 00:14:46.480 --> 00:14:49.919 Chris, the tongue is you in a unique way. 00:14:50.240 --> 00:14:51.679 Picking on Chris this morning. 00:14:51.919 --> 00:14:55.200 Jason, the tongue reveals who you really are. 00:14:55.360 --> 00:14:58.799 Walt, the tongue is you in a unique way. 00:14:58.879 --> 00:15:04.000 It is a tattletale that tells on the heart and discloses the real person. 00:15:04.320 --> 00:15:06.159 A frightening thought. 00:15:07.519 --> 00:15:08.879 A frightening thought. 00:15:09.200 --> 00:15:16.080 What we say reveals something about us, about what's going on on the inside. 00:15:16.720 --> 00:15:22.240 Not only that, but the misuse of the tongue is perhaps the easiest way to sin. 00:15:23.360 --> 00:15:24.240 Interesting. 00:15:25.360 --> 00:15:31.279 There are some sins that an individual may not be able to commit simply because he doesn't have opportunity. 00:15:31.679 --> 00:15:37.440 Not that we don't seek out opportunities, but there's a lot of sins that we could commit that we may not have opportunity. 00:15:38.960 --> 00:15:42.159 But there are no limits to what one can say. 00:15:43.120 --> 00:15:48.240 There's no built-in restrictions to what can come out of our mouth. 00:15:48.399 --> 00:15:50.799 Oh, be careful, little mouth, what you say. 00:15:50.960 --> 00:15:55.279 There's no internal governor that controls that. 00:15:55.440 --> 00:16:00.720 It's a flaming fire, a raging forest fire, and all the things that he'll be talking about. 00:16:00.879 --> 00:16:06.480 And so this writer says, in scripture, the tongue is described variously. 00:16:06.799 --> 00:16:10.480 Listen, the tongue is described as wicked. 00:16:11.200 --> 00:16:34.480 Your tongue, my tongue, deceitful, perverse, filthy, corrupt, flattering, slanderous, gossiping, blasphemous, foolish, boasting, complaining, cursing, contentious, sensual, and vile. 00:16:34.639 --> 00:16:48.559 And that's only a partial list of the way the scriptures describe this little flab of flesh, this little two-ounce muscle surrounded with mucous membrane that wags all the time. 00:16:48.799 --> 00:16:53.360 The way it's described in Scripture is most sobering. 00:16:53.840 --> 00:17:01.759 And he says, No wonder God put the tongue in a cage behind the teeth, walled in by the mouth. 00:17:02.480 --> 00:17:03.440 Interesting. 00:17:05.039 --> 00:17:08.000 The tongue is a litmus test. 00:17:09.279 --> 00:17:13.599 It lets us see things that are going on within. 00:17:14.319 --> 00:17:22.880 And the reality or the lack of reality of God working in our lives is revealed in part by what you say. 00:17:23.599 --> 00:17:27.359 It's the real you in a given sense. 00:17:28.319 --> 00:17:32.480 It lets us know whether, now, we know we're not perfect. 00:17:32.640 --> 00:17:42.480 We all stumble in many ways, but is your tongue simply an expression of the old life and the old you? 00:17:42.720 --> 00:17:44.160 Is it just a natural thing? 00:17:44.240 --> 00:17:50.640 Or is God doing something in your life that among other things transforms your speech? 00:17:50.799 --> 00:17:53.759 And I don't just mean it cleans up a potty mouth. 00:17:54.319 --> 00:17:55.839 That's a good thing to have happen. 00:17:56.000 --> 00:17:59.279 But there's something far more profound than that. 00:17:59.599 --> 00:18:07.920 Where because we change on the inside, then we begin to use our mouths in different ways. 00:18:08.240 --> 00:18:14.000 Ways that bless and build up rather than tear down. 00:18:14.880 --> 00:18:24.880 You see, we underestimate the importance of speech, of what we say, of the words that flow upon the whole line right here. 00:18:26.079 --> 00:18:28.240 We underestimate the power of heaven. 00:18:29.440 --> 00:18:35.759 Jesus said, out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. 00:18:37.359 --> 00:18:40.319 Warning, warning, warning. 00:18:41.440 --> 00:18:44.160 Well, let's uh let's move on. 00:18:44.960 --> 00:18:48.640 Um let's look at verses three through six first. 00:18:49.039 --> 00:19:03.359 If we put bits, James chapter three, verse three, if we put bits, like a bit and a bridle, a bit into the mouth of horses, so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. 00:19:04.960 --> 00:19:07.519 Verse 4, look at ships. 00:19:08.079 --> 00:19:16.319 Though they are so large and driven by strong winds, they're guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 00:19:16.480 --> 00:19:20.640 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts great things. 00:19:20.799 --> 00:19:25.119 How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire. 00:19:25.359 --> 00:19:29.279 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. 00:19:29.519 --> 00:19:39.279 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 itself. 00:19:39.680 --> 00:19:42.960 These are strong descriptions of a reality. 00:19:44.000 --> 00:19:47.839 Oh, be careful, little mouth, what you say. 00:19:49.119 --> 00:19:56.799 It is deceptively small and surprisingly dangerous. 00:19:57.839 --> 00:20:08.000 And James uses such practical, simple illustrations that we cannot miss and must not miss the significance of. 00:20:08.480 --> 00:20:17.920 A simple fact, though small in size, our tongues exert a disproportionately great influence. 00:20:19.359 --> 00:20:24.799 Just to help you help this penetrate a little bit, you probably can't read that. 00:20:24.960 --> 00:20:31.920 This is from the Message New Testament, kind of a contemporary translation slash paraphrase. 00:20:32.160 --> 00:20:37.200 Let me just read, just listen to verses three through six in the message. 00:20:37.440 --> 00:20:40.960 A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. 00:20:41.200 --> 00:20:49.119 A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. 00:20:49.440 --> 00:20:58.559 A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish anything or destroy it. 00:20:58.880 --> 00:21:02.240 It only takes a spark, remember, to set a forest fire. 00:21:02.400 --> 00:21:07.759 A careless or wrongly placed words out of your mouth and out of my mouth can do that. 00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:22.000 By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, and set the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke, with it smoke right from the pit of hell. 00:21:22.480 --> 00:21:33.599 See, this is what James is wanting to get across for us to really stop and think about what the little thing is and what it does. 00:21:35.039 --> 00:21:42.799 So let's look first at the power of words being underestimated. 00:21:43.039 --> 00:21:45.759 Verses 3 through first part of 5. 00:21:45.920 --> 00:21:50.880 If we put bits in the mouth of horses so they obey us, they guide their whole horse's body. 00:21:51.039 --> 00:21:59.599 Look at ships, so they're so large and are driven by storm, they're guided by a very small rudder wherever the captain directs, so also the tongue. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:03.759 Is a small member, yet it boasts great things. 00:22:04.559 --> 00:22:08.880 Power quite out of proportion to size. 00:22:09.920 --> 00:22:16.960 So he uses illustrations that were very common in their world, very understandable, very relatable. 00:22:17.119 --> 00:22:18.240 He talks about a horse. 00:22:18.400 --> 00:22:22.960 Now, when you think of a horse, I don't know what kind of a horse you think about, but he's not talking. 00:22:23.519 --> 00:22:33.119 The people in biblical times, where in the sections of the Mideast to whom this was written, they knew about horses. 00:22:33.200 --> 00:22:35.039 There weren't a lot of horses around. 00:22:35.200 --> 00:22:46.240 But the horses they saw, this was not a gentle chestnut mare eating a sugar cube out of some young girl's hand. 00:22:46.480 --> 00:22:49.039 That's not the kind of horses they knew about. 00:22:49.359 --> 00:22:51.920 These horses were war horses. 00:22:52.079 --> 00:22:54.799 They were huge, powerful steeds. 00:22:54.960 --> 00:22:56.640 They were girded in armor. 00:22:56.799 --> 00:22:58.319 The horses were armed. 00:22:58.640 --> 00:23:08.319 A horse was a battle tool, was an instrument, was a was a weapon. 00:23:10.079 --> 00:23:11.440 Unexpected. 00:23:12.079 --> 00:23:17.279 Control the bit and bridle, and thereby control the tongue. 00:23:17.519 --> 00:23:21.440 What he's saying is, you have control over a war machine. 00:23:22.000 --> 00:23:22.319 Okay? 00:23:22.960 --> 00:23:25.599 That's what would come to their minds. 00:23:25.920 --> 00:23:26.640 A ship. 00:23:26.880 --> 00:23:40.240 Ships in the New Testament were not as large as the ships that we know, but they weren't necessarily just little small rowboats or a little sailing vessel that would have trouble tacking against the wind on the Sea of Galilee. 00:23:40.640 --> 00:23:49.599 In Acts chapter 27, Paul is on a ship, and there were 276 people on that ship. 00:23:49.680 --> 00:23:51.599 This was not just a small little rowboat. 00:23:51.680 --> 00:23:57.920 They weren't as big as what we have now, but they were big and they were controlled by this tiny little rudder. 00:23:59.200 --> 00:24:05.599 And the direction was set by something so small and so influential. 00:24:07.839 --> 00:24:10.000 The point is clear. 00:24:10.960 --> 00:24:17.759 The influence of this small thing is way out of proportion to its diminutive size. 00:24:18.400 --> 00:24:22.880 The influence of this little thing is way out of proportion to the other. 00:24:24.960 --> 00:24:35.279 What you say, what comes out of your mouth, has an influence that is far greater than we often imagine. 00:24:35.920 --> 00:24:38.480 It is no small matter. 00:24:39.839 --> 00:24:46.079 Talk words throughout the book of Proverbs, talked over and over and over again. 00:24:46.319 --> 00:24:52.799 James, kind of a New Testament wisdom literature, talks about words over and over again. 00:24:53.759 --> 00:25:04.960 Verses 5b and 6, the second half of verse 5 and 6 talks about the unintended consequences that words can have that we often underestimate. 00:25:05.279 --> 00:25:11.039 So he goes on and he says, How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire. 00:25:11.279 --> 00:25:14.400 The tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. 00:25:14.559 --> 00:25:26.160 The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and is set on fire by hell itself. 00:25:28.960 --> 00:25:32.480 These are powerful, powerful words. 00:25:32.640 --> 00:25:42.240 The picture of a spark setting ablaze on fire, or uh setting a forest fire ablaze. 00:25:42.640 --> 00:25:45.519 I have a real good friend who lives in Colorado Springs. 00:25:45.759 --> 00:25:55.440 2012, Waldo Canyon Fire destroyed his house and 346 houses in the outskirts of Colorado Springs. 00:25:55.839 --> 00:26:00.160 In the National Forest, four and a half miles away, there was a little spark. 00:26:00.720 --> 00:26:03.440 They found that it was not set by anyone. 00:26:03.519 --> 00:26:09.359 It was just a natural, spontaneous spark, very dry conditions, a little spark of wind. 00:26:09.519 --> 00:26:15.200 The wind got stronger, the wind blew, and the wind blew destruction. 00:26:15.519 --> 00:26:22.640 It came up over the front range, from that valley, over this hill where my friend's house was. 00:26:22.799 --> 00:26:25.920 I've stayed there many times, and you look up and there's this beautiful hill. 00:26:26.079 --> 00:26:32.319 When they looked up, there was nothing but a wall of flame that came, and nothing could stand in its way. 00:26:32.480 --> 00:26:33.200 They ran. 00:26:33.440 --> 00:26:35.599 Their house was leveled. 00:26:36.240 --> 00:26:43.119 The car in their garage was melted down to a lump of clay, and there was no stopping it. 00:26:43.200 --> 00:26:48.400 The firefighters were there and they could do a few things around the edges, but there was no stopping it. 00:26:48.799 --> 00:26:51.759 Powerful and destructive. 00:26:53.119 --> 00:26:56.720 Once it began, it simply ran its course. 00:26:57.359 --> 00:27:04.640 The problem with our words is that once they're uttered, there's no pulling them back. 00:27:05.119 --> 00:27:05.839 There really isn't. 00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:12.880 There wasn't in James' Day, and boy, with the internet, there is no pulling back. 00:27:13.279 --> 00:27:16.319 Be careful, little mouth, what you post on Facebook. 00:27:16.480 --> 00:27:20.480 It will live with you and follow you, young people, around. 00:27:20.960 --> 00:27:32.960 What might seem fun and funny and cute now could be I've known people in another church where I served, where there was a campaign out to destroy this person. 00:27:33.519 --> 00:27:43.119 I got phone calls with innuendo and false accusations, and two lives were destroyed by malicious speech. 00:27:43.279 --> 00:27:43.920 Destroyed. 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:46.079 The man is in prison today. 00:27:47.359 --> 00:27:50.400 Be careful, little mouth, what you speak. 00:27:50.720 --> 00:27:54.079 The unintended consequences. 00:27:55.039 --> 00:28:01.279 I want to read you something that is just too powerful to pass on, to pass up in this connection. 00:28:01.440 --> 00:28:04.799 The unintended consequences of our speech. 00:28:05.039 --> 00:28:11.119 It's something that Paul Harvey did one of his the rest of the story about. 00:28:11.279 --> 00:28:12.240 You remember Paul Harvey? 00:28:12.319 --> 00:28:13.839 Who remembers Paul Harvey? 00:28:14.079 --> 00:28:18.000 A powerful communicator, and what he said was absolutely true. 00:28:18.240 --> 00:28:22.160 This one is right out of the Book of James, as it were. 00:28:23.039 --> 00:28:32.720 In 1899, four newspaper reporters from Denver, Colorado, set out to tear down the Great Wall of China. 00:28:32.960 --> 00:28:36.240 And they almost literally succeeded. 00:28:36.720 --> 00:28:42.079 The four met by chance one Saturday night in a Denver Railway depot. 00:28:42.400 --> 00:28:46.400 Al Stevens, Jack Tournay, John Lewis, and Hal Wilshire. 00:28:46.559 --> 00:28:51.680 They represented the four Denver papers, The Post, The Time, The Republican, and the Rocky Mountain News. 00:28:51.839 --> 00:29:00.000 Each had been sent there by his representative newspaper to dig up a story, any story, for the Sunday edition. 00:29:00.400 --> 00:29:08.880 And so the reporters were at the railway station hoping to snag a visiting celebrity or someone that they could happen across and interview. 00:29:09.039 --> 00:29:11.839 None arrived by train that night. 00:29:12.079 --> 00:29:14.799 The reporters started commissarating. 00:29:15.119 --> 00:29:18.240 For them, no news was bad news. 00:29:18.480 --> 00:29:20.240 So they had to make it up. 00:29:20.799 --> 00:29:24.640 They were facing empty-handed return trips to their city desks. 00:29:24.880 --> 00:29:30.640 Al declared that he was going to make up a story and hand it in, and the other three just laughed. 00:29:31.359 --> 00:29:35.759 Someone suggested they walk over to the Oxford Hotel and have a beer, and they did. 00:29:36.000 --> 00:29:39.279 Jack said he liked Al's idea about faking a story. 00:29:39.440 --> 00:29:44.240 Why didn't each of them fake a story, turn it in, and get off the hook? 00:29:44.559 --> 00:29:47.359 John said Jack was thinking far too small. 00:29:47.519 --> 00:29:50.079 Four half-to-bake stories don't cut it. 00:29:50.240 --> 00:29:53.920 What they needed was a real whopper they all could use. 00:29:54.640 --> 00:29:56.240 Another round of beers. 00:29:56.480 --> 00:30:07.119 A phony domestic story would be too easy to check upon, so they began discussing foreign angles of a story that would be difficult for others to verify or deny. 00:30:07.519 --> 00:30:10.079 And that is the rest of the story. 00:30:10.319 --> 00:30:11.839 China was distant. 00:30:12.079 --> 00:30:13.279 Everyone agreed on that. 00:30:13.440 --> 00:30:14.640 It was distant enough. 00:30:14.799 --> 00:30:16.720 They would write about China. 00:30:17.039 --> 00:30:21.440 John leaned forward, gesturing dramatically in the dim light of the bar room. 00:30:21.599 --> 00:30:23.680 Try this one on, he said. 00:30:24.079 --> 00:30:28.960 Group of American engineers stopping over in Denver en route to China. 00:30:29.119 --> 00:30:37.519 The Chinese government is making plans to demolish the China Wall, the Great Wall, and our engineers are bidding on the job. 00:30:37.920 --> 00:30:39.680 Harold was skeptical. 00:30:39.920 --> 00:30:43.839 Why would the Chinese want to destroy the Great Wall of China? 00:30:44.160 --> 00:30:52.079 John thought for a moment, well, they're tearing down the ancient boundary to symbolize international goodwill and to welcome foreign travel. 00:30:52.400 --> 00:30:54.000 Another round of beer. 00:30:54.240 --> 00:31:00.000 By 11 p.m., the four reporters had worked out all the details of a preposterous story. 00:31:00.240 --> 00:31:08.319 After leaving the Oxford Bar, they would go over to the Windsor Hotel, they would sign four fictitious names into the hotel registry. 00:31:08.559 --> 00:31:22.640 They would instruct the desk clerk to tell anyone who asked that four New Yorkers had arrived that evening and had been interviewed by these reporters and then had left early the next morning for California, obviously on their way to China. 00:31:22.880 --> 00:31:28.720 The Denver newspapers carried the story, all four of them, front page. 00:31:29.119 --> 00:31:37.440 In fact, the Times headline that Sunday read, Great Wall of China doomed! Peking seeks world trade. 00:31:37.680 --> 00:31:44.960 Of course, the story was a phony, a ludicrous fabrication concocted by four capricious newsmen in a hotel bar. 00:31:45.440 --> 00:31:48.559 But their story was taken seriously. 00:31:48.799 --> 00:31:57.200 It was picked up and expanded by the papers on the East Coast and ultimately by newspapers around the world. 00:31:57.440 --> 00:32:09.039 When the Chinese themselves learned that Americans were sending a demolition crew to tear down their national monument, most were indignant, but some were enraged. 00:32:09.359 --> 00:32:22.240 Particularly incensed were members of a secret society, a vocal group, a volatile group of Chinese patriots who were already wary of foreign intervention. 00:32:22.640 --> 00:32:32.480 They, inspired by the story, exploded, rampaged against the foreign embassies in Peking, and slaughtered hundreds of missionaries. 00:32:32.720 --> 00:32:40.960 In two months, 12,000 troops from six countries joined forces, invaded China with a purpose of protecting their own countrymen. 00:32:41.200 --> 00:32:54.960 The bloodshed that followed, sparked by a journalistic hoax invented in a bar room in Denver, became the hot international conflagration known as the Boxer Rebellion. 00:32:55.039 --> 00:32:57.440 And that is absolutely true. 00:32:57.759 --> 00:33:09.839 The Boxer Rebellion ultimately involved 55,000 troops, 51 warships from eight different countries, including America. 00:33:11.039 --> 00:33:14.960 It engaged 150,000 Chinese troops. 00:33:15.119 --> 00:33:33.839 Tens of thousands of Christians died, both Chinese nationals and missionaries, killing, plundering, looting, raping, a tenderbox set ablaze by a few idle, misplaced words. 00:33:35.359 --> 00:33:37.680 Now that's an extreme case. 00:33:38.799 --> 00:33:42.000 But it proves the point very well that it truly happened. 00:33:42.880 --> 00:33:47.680 Oh, be careful with a little mouth at what you say. 00:33:49.039 --> 00:33:50.880 Be careful at what you say. 00:33:51.039 --> 00:33:53.279 It can haunt you the rest of your life. 00:33:53.440 --> 00:33:58.640 It can have influence on people in situations that you may not intend. 00:33:58.880 --> 00:34:00.640 It can be terribly destructive. 00:34:00.799 --> 00:34:10.159 It can destroy people, it can destroy reputations, it can destroy churches, it can lead to bloodshed, murder, rape, and so forth. 00:34:10.480 --> 00:34:13.039 That is not an exaggeration. 00:34:13.360 --> 00:34:24.000 We underestimate the often unintended consequences of what comes out of our mouths. 00:34:24.800 --> 00:34:37.360 Verses 7 and 8 goes on for every kind of beast, of bird, of reptile, of sea creature can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. 00:34:37.519 --> 00:34:41.360 It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. 00:34:42.960 --> 00:34:52.159 Now, what he's saying here is you look around the animal world, and he uses four categories of animals, same four groupings that are found two places in Genesis. 00:34:52.320 --> 00:34:55.519 This was just a way of thinking the whole animal world. 00:34:55.679 --> 00:35:03.119 And he looks at the animal world and he said, Man has the ability to tame just about any animal that they want. 00:35:03.280 --> 00:35:09.280 We can domesticate the animals, and James says, but you can't domesticate your tongue. 00:35:09.440 --> 00:35:10.800 You can't do that. 00:35:11.039 --> 00:35:16.320 You don't, we don't have the power in ourselves to tame the tongue. 00:35:17.840 --> 00:35:21.599 This is serious, powerful stuff. 00:35:26.880 --> 00:35:32.000 With the image of the bit in the bridle, there's obviously someone who controls it. 00:35:33.119 --> 00:35:38.800 The rider and the helbsman are there, but they're not mentioned in the picture of the spark. 00:35:38.880 --> 00:35:41.519 There's typically someone who ignites it. 00:35:41.599 --> 00:35:48.079 But the question in now is who is it who can control this? 00:35:48.480 --> 00:35:53.440 Who acts in such a way to control the dangers involved? 00:35:54.400 --> 00:35:59.599 And he says, no man can control the tongue. 00:36:00.400 --> 00:36:04.480 Now that thought needs to be examined pretty carefully. 00:36:05.039 --> 00:36:08.480 Look at exactly at what is said in verse 8. 00:36:09.360 --> 00:36:13.360 No human being can tame the tongue. 00:36:13.679 --> 00:36:14.719 And that is true. 00:36:17.280 --> 00:36:26.639 You can modify your behavior a little bit, but unless there is a change from within, because the tongue always reflects what is within. 00:36:26.960 --> 00:36:29.360 And we can't change our own nature. 00:36:29.679 --> 00:36:33.119 No human being can do that. 00:36:35.039 --> 00:36:38.960 The correct observation is there is someone who can do that. 00:36:39.039 --> 00:36:41.519 That's a someone with a capital S, that's God. 00:36:41.760 --> 00:37:04.880 Augustine said 13 or 17 centuries ago, whatever it was, he said very clearly that he does not say, speaking of James, he does not say that no one can tame the tongue, but that no one among men, none of us, can tame it. 00:37:05.679 --> 00:37:15.039 So that when it is tamed, we confess that this is brought about by the compassion, the help, and the grace of God. 00:37:15.760 --> 00:37:31.840 If we're ever to be protected from the dangerous words within that sometimes are ill-meant and oftentimes are simply ill-used and goes way beyond what we ever intended, we need help. 00:37:32.000 --> 00:37:36.559 That help is not within us, that help is outside of us. 00:37:36.719 --> 00:37:42.639 That help is God who works on our behalf. 00:37:45.280 --> 00:37:48.559 Final thoughts here, verses 9 to 12. 00:37:49.119 --> 00:37:56.159 The tongue, we already called it a tattletale, it reveals what's within. 00:37:56.239 --> 00:38:01.599 And what's within us, the Bible describes as a divided heart. 00:38:01.920 --> 00:38:09.840 We have an existential schizophrenia, which just basically means we're all messed up inside. 00:38:10.079 --> 00:38:11.280 We're conflicted. 00:38:11.679 --> 00:38:17.360 We have inclinations that pull us in all kinds of different directions. 00:38:17.920 --> 00:38:21.519 And if you can't identify with this, you don't know yourself very well. 00:38:21.840 --> 00:38:24.639 But hang out a bit with James, he'll help you. 00:38:27.280 --> 00:38:28.000 We're torn. 00:38:29.039 --> 00:38:31.360 We're torn within, conflicting. 00:38:31.599 --> 00:38:37.440 I don't want to use, I don't intentionally want to use my mouth for destructive purposes, but it happened. 00:38:38.719 --> 00:38:41.199 I don't want to set a forest fire. 00:38:41.519 --> 00:38:44.320 I don't want to steer a ship into destruction. 00:38:45.039 --> 00:38:47.599 But those kinds of things happen among us, don't they? 00:38:47.840 --> 00:38:49.199 Don't they with you? 00:38:49.840 --> 00:38:56.000 If you don't sense this conflict, this tension within, then truly you don't know yourself very well. 00:38:56.400 --> 00:39:01.440 But let the word of God reveal what is inside. 00:39:02.639 --> 00:39:08.079 So, verses nine and ten, uh, he says, this really must not be. 00:39:08.239 --> 00:39:13.119 This is absolutely not uh appropriate. 00:39:13.920 --> 00:39:23.440 Verse 9, he says, with our tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 00:39:23.679 --> 00:39:26.559 From the same mouth comes blessing and cursing. 00:39:26.800 --> 00:39:30.000 My brothers, these things ought not be. 00:39:30.239 --> 00:39:31.360 This shouldn't be. 00:39:31.519 --> 00:39:33.039 And what's he describing? 00:39:33.280 --> 00:39:40.159 He's talking about the fact that God has given us the gift of speech, unlike the rest of the animal world. 00:39:40.239 --> 00:39:44.559 There's communication, low-level communication, but not the gift of speech. 00:39:44.719 --> 00:39:50.239 Why do you suppose God gave mankind the ability to speak words? 00:39:52.320 --> 00:40:02.960 Well, we find when we look in the scriptures that we are intended with our lips to praise God, to bring glory to God, to exalt God, to direct other people to God. 00:40:03.119 --> 00:40:14.079