We've been walking through this wonderfully rich and practical New Testament book of James. It's a book written by the half-brother of Jesus. Often it's likened to the Old Testament book of Proverbs because it is just a wealth of practical insight for our daily lives. And if you've been along for the series, you've seen how Jesus has shown us how to walk through difficult trials and temptations with the type of bold confidence because it's in the midst of those very trials and testings that our faith is produced and we grow to be more and more like Jesus. We've also learned what James says is central to being a true follower of Jesus Christ. And that, of course, is one who not only hears the word, but one who puts it in the practice, one who faithfully lives it out in their daily life. You might be interested to know that some cultural statisticians did some work and discovered that on an average Sunday morning, 55 million Americans will listen to some 400,000 preachers deliver well over 1 billion words. And as one expert said, when it's all said and done, there's a lot more said than done. And I think he's right. James says we need to be a people who not merely hear the word, but we live it out in our daily lives. We become a doer of the word. And then, two weeks ago, we looked at a very convicting passage in chapter two which dealt with this issue of favoritism. And we heard the call of James not to treat people differently on the basis of their social economic standing or their outward appearance or the color of their skin, but to treat all people with dignity and worth and value because they were all made in the image and likeness of God. And so James says straight away, don't show favoritism. And then last week Sandy walked us through this very instructive passage from James 2, 14, to 26, where James shows us what real faith looks like lived out, a faith that is active, alive, a faith that is producing fruit, and a changed life where faith and deeds are working together. And again, these are very practical and helpful areas that we face every day of our lives. And we're going to see this morning as we look to the passage before us. The James pulls our attention to get one more aspect of our lives that must come under the submission and worship of Jesus Christ. And it's all about our words, our speech. The story that CS Lewis told as he was on a holiday, he visited an old Anglican church in the countryside in England. No one was there, so he wandered around for a while and eventually went out to the back of the church where the church had its cemetery. Obviously, it's overgrown and unkempt. But as he wandered through, he came upon a headstone that was a little crooked and badly weathered, but it had this inscription on it. Beneath this stone, a lump of clay lies Arabella Young, who on the 24th of May finally began to hold her tongue. And I think that's getting the ultimate last word, not much she's going to be able to say about that. And though we have no idea who penned those words that we might wonder, we know all too well, all too well, the struggle with our tongues, and what we say. We go through our day and we interact with people, and we come up against pressure, and stresses, fear, failure, disappointment, anger, what I sometimes call a VDP, very draining people, and we come up against people like that, and we say things that hurt them. We say things that we wish we could take back, but we can't, but we can't. Maybe it's a child, maybe it's a good friend, maybe it's a spouse, or a coworker, maybe somebody here at church, maybe somebody in your CU, and friends, what we need to hear this morning with renewed clarity, listen, your words have the power of life and death. Your words have the power to restore or destroy the life of another person, and you must choose, you must choose. James chapter three is all about our words. Before we read our passage to this prayer and ask God the bless to our hearts, the ministry of his word, let's pray. And we come to you this morning acknowledging that we are hungry and in need of bread. And we've wandered through this past week, trying to find something that would satisfy us and we came up far short. Lord, you know what we need? We need a fresh picture of what life can be like when we're living for you. We need your truth to guide us. So we would ask now for you to speak your words of life by your spirit through your word as we your servants listen. Again, our passage, James chapter three, I begin with verse one. Here the word of God. Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man able to keep his whole body in check. When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person. Stets the whole course of his life on fire and is itself set on fire by hell. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man. But no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise in cursing. My brothers this should not be. Can both fresh and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers can't a fig tree bear olives or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water. All men are like grass and all of their glories like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall. But the word of our God stands forever. Amen. I said to the early service, you know this is one of those texts that after studying it I'm real tempted just to stand up here and say, you know, you need to watch your words. Let's close in prayer. It's one of those times. But I won't. I want to begin this morning by having you think for just a moment about how essential your tongue is, how essential your mouth is to communication. Writer and Christian leader Henry Nowen offered these comments about the impact of our speech. He said, without the tongue no mother could sing her baby to sleep at night. No ambassador could adequately represent our nation. No teacher could stretch the minds of students. No attorney could defend truth and justice in court. No pastor could comfort troubled souls. No counselor could offer instructive words of wisdom. No complicated controversial issue could ever be discussed and solved without words. And then it goes on to say this. The sharing of words has quite literally shaped our lives. And I think he's right. And if you haven't known it, if you haven't dawn upon you lately, we love to talk. We're a nation of talkers. Our airwaves are saturated with talk radio and talk TV. There are 75 million cell phone users in the US alone with a number expected to climb to 100 million by 2002. 2003. The average American has 30 conversations a day. You'll spend one fifth of your life talking. In one year, your conversations will fill up the 66 books of 100 pages each book. If you're a man, you speak on average 20,000 words in a day. If you're a woman, 30,000 words a day. No commentary, I'm just giving you the facts right there. It's like the guy who's asked, does it bother you that your wife always has the last word? And he says, no, it doesn't. I'm just glad when she gets to it. Who said? 1975, Tim Harley of Coons Rapids, Minnesota, set the record for non-stop talking. 144 hours. And this record still stands. And even more amazing to me is that it is a record held by a man. And I think what it must be like around his house, as his wife says to him, honey, would you be quiet for just a moment? So I can watch TV. I think that would be interesting. We love to talk. And we make jokes about it about things that we say. But as one writer put it, nothing is opened more wrongly at the wrong time than our mouths. Our mouths get us into a lot of trouble. James has more to say about your words about your mouth than any other writer in the New Testament. Everyone of his chapters in this brief little book has something to say about managing your mouth, about taming your tongue. He says in verse 2, we all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he's perfect. Able to keep his whole body in check. He says, if you can control your mouth, you're perfect. He's not saying here that you're sinless. The word here literally means that you're mature. You're healthy. Last time I went to the doctor, he had me sit down. First thing he said to me, stick out your tongue. It's what doctors are trained to do, I think. Why do they do that? Because by looking at your tongue, they can tell what's going on inside of you. We're going to see this morning that that is not only true physically, but we're going to see that that is even more true spiritually. As your tongue tells a story about what's really going on inside of you. As we walk through this passage, I want us to say three things that James has to say about taming our tongue. And in these three things that he says, he gives us actually six little illustrations to make sure that we're straight away clear on what he's talking about. First thing he says, first reason that we need to tame our tongues, he says, because my tongue directs where I go. Your mouth has tremendous influence and control over your life. Do you realize that? Dallas Wheeler, contemplative writer, said it this way, we shape our words and then our words shape us. James says the tongue though it's small, though it's tiny, don't underestimate its power. Don't think for a moment because it's small that it's insignificant. And then he says in verse three, consider a bit in the horse's mouth, the first illustration that he uses. And I'll just admit right up front that I'm a suburb kid from St. Louis, but I do know a little bit about how to turn a horse. You put a bit into the horse's mouth, the little metal piece that goes over its tongue. You throw about a 95 pound jockey on his back and that little jockey with just a little pressure one way or the other can turn this just two or three thousand pound animal wherever he wants it to go. Usually the horses I get miss that class in school, I usually don't get horses to do that. They miss that. But that's the way it works. James says that's the way your tongue works. It controls the direction of your life. And if I were to ask you for a moment, just to think of a conversation you've had recently, where maybe you said something in the wrong way with the wrong tone, at the wrong time, it may have been just a little phrase. It may have been just one word. And yet that little phrase, that little word, had a tremendous impact on steering the direction of that relationship. You've experienced it. And then he says, consider a ship. I read this week that the QE2, luxury liner QE2, has three acres of recreational space. The anchor is equal to ten cars. And yet this massive vessel is able to be steered through very tumultuous seas and weather, which is a tiny little rudder. That's the picture that James draws as he tells us how our tongues work. They act like a rudder that steers us verse four. They are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. I'm not overstating this. Your tongue is like the steering wheel of your life. It is like a directional system of sorts in your life. It guides your life. It guides your relationship. Your tongue has tremendous power. Secondly, he says, not only does it direct where I go, but my tongue can destroy what I have. It can destroy what I have. He gives another illustration. Imagine he says, it's beautiful forest, large trees, plush foliage, all destroyed overnight because of one careless match. It happened three years ago in Australia. 600 miles were destroyed in a night. A house's livestock farms because of one careless match. James says, that's the picture of what your tongue can do. It can destroy just like that. A careless camper can destroy an entire national forest overnight. A careless word can destroy a relationship overnight. And I can only wonder how many people because of a careless word have destroyed a marriage or a destroyed friendship or have destroyed the unity of the church. Or have destroyed a reputation or career or the reputation or the hopes and dreams of another because of what they said. You see, fire like words when they're under control provides tremendous warmth and light, but fire like words when they're not under control can devastating consequences. Wise King Solomon says, the tongue has the power of life and death. So James says in chapter 6. He says, it sets the whole course of your life on fire and is itself set on fire by hell. And when he says that it sets the whole course of your life, he's saying that your words serve as a type of chain reaction of the way that they direct and cause your life to play out. This actually happened right outside of New York. It was a metro north railroad last year, harmless little tree squirrel walking along on a power cable near the tracks. Because of the presence of the squirrel caused a power surge that went through the cable, which in turn loosened the brackets on the pole, causing that particular cable to hang down by the ground far enough that when a train came by, it pulled that cable and the entire transformer right off the pole. 47,000,000 commuters were stranded in Manhattan because this one goofy little squirrel decided to take a stroll one day. And James says, this is a picture. This is exactly what your tongue can do. You can say something that you didn't think would hurt another person, but it did. And you can't take it back. I'm just going to be honest with you this morning and acknowledge that I am there. I was reminded of that principle in a fresh light this past week. I was having a conversation with an African-American man who's a friend. It's a brother in Christ. It's involved in ministry here in our city. We're actually standing in line to place our lunch orders. And as we talked, I mentioned something that hurt him, but I didn't know it. We got our orders. We went to our seats. We were both meeting with different people. But when I got up to leave, I noticed that he was walking toward me. And he pulled me aside. He says, Rocky, can I talk to you? He says, you know, what you said a few moments ago. And then he recounted for me what I had said. He said they really hurt me. Reminded me how much prejudice there still is in our hearts. It reminded me how hard we need to work to act as real brothers. As I listened to those words, I was broken. I was so saddened that because of my ignorance, because of my lack of sensitivity, I put one more scar on the soul of a man who's had far too many scars placed on that soul in the course of his lifetime. And I apologized and we had some very tender, thoughtful healing words to share. But friends, as I drove back to the church, back to my office to work on this message about my words, my words. I just wanted to crawl under my desk and hide. And of course, this all comes in the context of James saying that teachers will be judged more strictly. And for a guy who sort of makes his living with words, let me tell you this has been a sobering week for me. What about you? What are your words do to people? James says you've got to learn to tame your tongue because it can direct your life. It can destroy what you have. It can cause you to lose a close cherished relationship with a friend of spouse, a child, a coworker. It's like a fire that destroys. And then James goes on to use yet another illustration this time he talks about a zoo. All kinds of animals have been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue. It's impossible. He said only God can do that. He said it's restless, full of deadly poison. The imagery here is about a cage lion that is in the cage, but liable to break out at any moment and is constantly a factor, always a risk. That's the picture that he draws in describing what your tongue is like. And then he uses this word, it's restless, full of deadly poison literally in the Greek snake venom. It's powerful. So friends, make no mistake about it this morning. The words that flow from your lips can bring about a verbal homicide that you don't even realize. You're not even aware of where you can murder somebody's reputation. You can murder their self-esteem. You can murder their hopes by what you say. It's like a wild animal in a cage, always dangerous, very restless, liable to break out at any moment. That's your tongue. That's the truth. So as you need to be aware, your tongue can direct where you go, it can destroy what you have. And then 30 says your tongue also displays who you are. It tells the real story about your character, about who you are on the inside. I think we need to be honest and just acknowledge this morning that that may be the scariest thing of all about our tongues because it uncovers what's really going on in our hearts. He says a couple things. First, he says with our tongues were inconsistent in our speech. Verse 9, he says with the tongue, we praise our Lord and Father and with the same tongue. We curse man who are made in God's likeness from the same mouth come praise and cursing. Your mouth, my mouth, they've been given to us by God to give him praise. That's what our lips are to be used for. David says in Psalm 34, I will extol the Lord at all times. His praise will always be on my lips. And on that morning like today, we sing these majestic hymns. We read responsibly through Psalm 46. We have a time of corporate confession where we acknowledge our sin and our need of God's grace. We sing this marvelous hymn. Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe and yet before we even get to our car before we even get out of this room. We're saying things that are critical and unloving and hurtful. One minute we're praising God the next minute we're in our car fighting all the way home about what we're going to have for lunch today. And James basically says, hello, shouldn't be that way. And we need to understand here that when James talks about cursing, he doesn't necessarily mean just profanity. He's speaking about anytime where you'll call down another person, where you'll be critical in harsh. That's what another person anytime you're not blessing them. That's what he's talking about. There's one reason that so deadly is simply because it's inconsistent that praises and cursing would come out of the same mouth. But there's another thing. He says, with our tongue, we praise our Lord and Father with it. We curse men and here's the phrase who have been made in God's likeness. That's huge. And so God says when you use your mouth to curse another person, don't think for a moment that you're cursing some insignificant inanimate object. Now, you were cursing somebody who was made in my image. You're cursing somebody who's been custom designed by me. Ultimately, who you're really cursing is me. Parents, you've experienced this. Maybe your child, your son, your daughter comes home from school and they're tears and sorrow because somebody said something to them that was ugly. Maybe because they thought they were being funny or they just were a bully, but they offered words. They said words to your son or daughter. They really hurt them deeply. Here's the question. Do you remember how that made you feel as a parent? Well, I do. You know, in my mind, I'm plotting my revenge against this little brat who would dare say something about one of my little babies. How dare they? I'm here to tell you that doesn't compare. Doesn't compare to the pain that we inflict on the heart of God when we use our lips, our lips that were given to us. To offer him praise, but are then used to curse or to call down or to criticize somebody that he has made to be like him in his own image, somebody that he loves and cherishes. James said, that shouldn't be. And as we pull this together, I want you to now listen very closely because James takes it one level deeper. He takes it one level deeper and he digs down to the real issue. The real issue of this problem with our tongues, he forms it in two questions. He says you have to consider the source. First he says, can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers can a fig tree bear olives or a grapevine bear figs. Here's the point. General principle of nature. Whatever is in the well comes out of the well. Whatever is in the tree comes out of the fruit of the tree. An apple is not going to bear a bear cherries. It's not going to happen. Now see friends, the real problem, the real problem is not in my tongue. The real problem is my heart. Maybe you've heard this excuse. Somebody said something that was mean or hurtful. And they say something like this. I don't know what got into me. That is so unlike me. So out of character for me. I have no idea where that came from. James says don't kid yourself. I think exactly where it came from. It came from in here. And that's the real problem is that when our speech is hurtful and hateful is coming from a heart that is fouled up. All our mouth does is reveal within our hearts. It says you don't have a spring that one minute gives salt water the next minute gets fresh water. It's inconsistent. What's in the well comes out of the well. Jesus put it this way for out of the overflow of the heart. The mouth speaks. So Jesus explained the Freudian slip long before old Freud was ever around. He did. And that's what makes it so dangerous. My tongue displays who I am. Direct where I go. It can destroy what I have. And it displays who I am. It displays my character. It explains what's really true of me on the inside. So if you have a tongue that's harsh more than likely it flows from an angry heart. A person with a negative tongue probably has a real fearful heart. Person with an over active tongue probably has an unsettled heart. Person with a boasting tongue probably has a real insecure heart. Person with filthy tongue has an impure heart. Somebody who's critical all the time probably has a real bitter heart. What do you do? What do you really do to tame your tongue in a couple minutes that we have left. I'm going to give you three things. I'm just going to mention these to you. Here's the first one. You've got to get a new heart. You need a heart transplant. You need a new heart. The prophet Ezekiel put it this way in Ezekiel 18. Read yourselves of all the offenses you've committed and get a new heart and a new spirit. General conventional wisdom of the day painting the pump won't make any difference in the world if there's poison in the well. Trying to clean up the externals and just trying to be nicer and talk sweeter and say more glowing things to another person. Not be as critical. It won't make any difference in the world. It won't. You need a new heart. You need God to do surgery in your heart. It may be like David the Psalmist. You need to be willing to pray God. Would you create a me a clean heart? Would you renew a right spirit in me? You see it works the other way too because a person who was always encouraging. Attends to have a real joyful heart and a person who speaks gently. Attends to have real loving heart and a person who speaks truthfully has an honest heart. That's how it works. What's in the well comes out and maybe what you need this morning is a little heart transplant from God. Here's the second thing. You need to pray every day. You need to pray every day because will power won't work. James says man can tame all sorts of animals but he'll never tame the tongue. You'll never tame your tongue. You can try real hard and be real diligent. You can psych yourself up. I'm going to talk nice today and say sweet things. Then I'll get you maybe to your driveway. For some of you really you won't be on the floor. Your feet will not be on the floor before you lose that battle. You need God's help and of course the great news is when we come and ask the Lord for his help. He is gracious to open up his gates and allow his supernatural power to flow our way. Maybe for you this verse will help some 141 verse 3. Set a guard over my mouth. Oh Lord keep watch over the door of my lips. Some of you might want to write that down for your spouse and put it right there on the mirror where they get ready in the morning. Lord put a guard over my mouth. Keep watch over my lips. Don't let me be critical today. We need a new heart. We need God's power and here's the last thing. You need to think before you speak. It's pretty simple. Think before you speak. One comment here to put it this way. Engage your mind before you put your mouth in gear. I like that one. Engage your mind before you put your mouth in gear. We looked at this verse a few weeks ago in our study in James. James 119. Every one of you should be quick to listen. Slow to speak and slow to become angry. There's a design there. There's a natural progression because if you're quick to listen, you'll be slow to speak. And if you're slow to speak, you'll be slow to become angry to say angry, hurtful words. And it may be that this will be helpful for you. This is not original with me. Take the word think before you speak. Think first of all, the T is a truthful. H is it helpful? I is it inspirational? N is it necessary? K is it kind? It is a truthful, helpful, inspirational, necessary or kind? If not, be quiet. Don't say anything. You got to think before you speak. Now we close. I just want to ask the question again. What does your tongue say about you? What does it reveal? About your heart? About your character? What direction? What course is your tongue setting for your life? It may be that today, sometime this afternoon, some of us may need to have a conversation with another person because we have hurt them with our words. We've said things that have been cutting. We've been short. We've been critical. We've been cold. And we need to go to that person and ask for their forgiveness. And we need to ask them to pray and to be patient as God does His work. But you need to hear this one more time. Your words have the power of life and death. Your words have the power to restore or destroy the life of another person. And you must choose. You must choose. No one can do that for you. We're going to close in prayer in just a moment. But before we do, I'm just going to ask that we be still because I know in a room this size, there are some of you who are listening to my voice right now, maybe in the overflow room. Who don't know Jesus savingly. There's no way for you to have fresh water flowing from your lips unless you have the fresh work of God taking place in your life. And maybe what you need to do this morning is to reach out for the first time and receive the grace and forgiveness that God extends to you and the person of His Son Jesus. For you, maybe that's the most important thing you would take away from the messes today. And for others of you, maybe you just need to confess that your speech and your speech, you tend to be critical. You tend to cut down rather than build up. You tend to gossip rather than to be quiet. And you need God to set a guard around your lips. I'm going to ask that we just pause for a moment and pray and ask God's Holy Spirit to do a work in us. Let's just be quiet for a moment. God, would you be willing to create in us a clean heart, renew a right spirit in us. We long to have the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts to be acceptable to you. And this can only happen as we surrender our lives to you and give you control. And so this morning we acknowledge before you how much we need your help, set a guard over our lips so that the words that we speak really will build others up according to their needs. Whatever heart surgery you need to do this morning, God do it. Do it. We thank you for your word. Please continue to speak to us through it this week. Pray in Jesus' name.