Taming the Tongue

 Well, good morning to all of you. So glad to see you here. It's just a wonderful joy to be able to worship together. And I'm so grateful for our worship folks. A lot of these folks, not all of them, but a lot of them were here, like, a really long time last night, leading worship for college and young adult students and stayed forever, and then got up this morning and we're here leading worship for us. And I'm just grateful to God for that. You guys know I'm a big fan of baseball. It's no secret if you've been around here for very long. I have two sons, both of which play college baseball. The oldest one's done, his career's over, but the youngest one followed in. The oldest one's done. Like, his... I don't know why that was funny. Like, everybody finishes, right? Oh, he's still playing. He's 60. He is still playing baseball. No. He's done. The younger one followed in his footsteps and is still playing ball. In fact, he beat Missouri Friday night. Wow. So I'm super proud of him. But this past weekend, we were actually in Athens to see their team. Northern Kentucky University play against the University of Georgia, which is where I went to school, Edie went to school, my parents went to school. Like, all of us. Were all... I was born in Athens in the University of Georgia when my dad was there. Never in my entire living life have I ever cheered against the University of Georgia in any sport for any reason until last weekend. And it wasn't hard because when my boy is on the mound, I don't care who you are, he's coming for you, right? That's kind of how you feel, right? What was interesting is that we're in an SEC stadium at the University of Georgia, right? And they're not fans of Northern Kentucky and they're not fans of the pitcher. Pitchers get a lot of grief. And it was really interesting 'cause our whole family's sitting there in our little section, you know, and we're all, all of us are Georgia fans. We're all Georgia fans. Even my son who's pitching for Northern Kentucky is a big Georgia fan, right? But he's got a job to do. But the people there, they're not so happy about it. And so there's some drunk frat guys that are sitting, you know, back behind us and they start yelling out all kinds of stuff at the players. They're giving them grief everywhere, right? But particularly the pitcher. And they don't just yell general statements at the pitcher, they get specific. They use his name. We can hear from right behind us. "Gillis!" "Gillis!" "You're gonna need to download Google Maps so you can find home play." And those were the nicest of the yips that they were giving out, right? I was fine. I'm laughing about it the whole time. Trace, my older son, he was there supporting his brother, he's cracking up. He's just like, "It's baseball, whatever." My sister, Tanner's aunt, she was not having it. She's standing up, turning around like, "Where's that coming from? Where is that coming from?" The security guard's like, "I'm eyeballing auntie over here because this could be a problem," right? We asked Tanner after the game. We were like, "Did you hear that guy that was yelling your name and all, you know..." He's like, "Oh, yeah, I heard him." And I said, "Did it bother you?" He's like, "Nah, I'm used to it. Like, it's no big deal." And at that point, it's just baseball and it's just silly and all of that stuff. But here's what we realize. Even though in that context, words were just silly, we know that words are not by themselves just silly, right? We know that words are actually quite powerful. In fact, I'm not sure whoever made up the phrase, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me," but they sit on a throne of lies, right? Because truth is, you could break an arm and you go to the hospital and, you know, they get it set back up and they put you in a cast and they send you home. And a couple of weeks later, you cut the cast off, you're good as new, you're just moving on with your life, right? But if you wanna compare hospital beds to therapist couches where words have done significant damage in the lives of people, you start to realize how powerful they are. Most of your memories of hurt in your life have words associated with them that you can recall. You're skinny. You're fat. You're stupid. You're ugly. You're not good enough. We don't want you. We didn't pick you. We don't need you. Why can't you be like someone else? Don't tell me that words are not powerful. They're not just silly. And as we approach the third chapter of the book of James, James knows that full well. James knows that words have significance, and he wants us to understand what it means to put our faith in action even if it, even as it is involved with our very words that I can't seem to get out of my mouth right now. He talks about in this chapter what we say, and really what he's going to talk to us about in James chapter three is a simple truth. And it's this. The tongue is powerful. If there's anything that you're pulling out of James chapter three, I'm summarizing it in a real simple statement, and it's just this, that the tongue is powerful. Now, James is not just talking about the muscle that we have in our mouths, right? And it is. It's a powerful muscle that we have in our mouths. James is actually talking about our words or our speech. So you could say, words are powerful. Or you could say, our speech is powerful. Or you could say, how we talk is powerful. But James uses the word tongue to kind of encapsulate all of that, so we'll use that word as well. Now, why is James writing about this? As he's walking us through all of these things in the book of James and giving us things that talk about our faith becoming action, why is he writing about the words that we speak? Well, remember James is the oldest of the New Testament books, probably the earliest one that's written, about 45 AD. And so all James has to work with at this point, right? He doesn't have the full writing of all of the apostles at this point. He's got the Old Testament scriptures and he's got the teaching of Jesus. And the Old Testament wisdom writers who are replete with examples of talking about the idea of our tongues and what they do. In fact, the book of James is probably the closest thing we have in the New Testament to a New Testament book of Proverbs, because it's so many useful statements, sometimes very pithy statements that are made by James, that do have an ability to be connected. There is a congruence in them, but we see them all over the place. But I'm sure that James has in the back of his mind a bunch of the Proverbs writers and what they said about language and about the tongue. For instance, in Proverbs chapter 12, it says, "The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing." Or in Proverbs chapter 29, "Do you see someone who speaks in haste? There's more hope for a fool than for them." Do you remember when James started in James chapter one? He said, we should be quick to listen and slow to what? Speak, right? Instead of speaking in haste, he said, "There's more hope for a fool than for those kinds of people." And then Proverbs chapter 18 says, "The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit." You see, these were probably rummaging around in the religious mind of James as he's thinking about what he's going to write to all of these believers that are spread out all over the place. But maybe what was shaping James' thoughts even more was the teaching of Jesus. He was certainly thinking about the proverb writers, and you can see it in what he writes. But he's also thinking about the teaching of Jesus, specifically what Jesus said as recorded in Matthew 12. Jesus said, "Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree recognized by his fruit. You brood to vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you'll be acquitted, and by your words you'll be condemned." See, James knows the tongue's power. He knows that the tongue is powerful. And what he endeavors to do in the beginning of chapter three here is he talks to us about the responsibility we have with the power of the tongue. And then he gives us some images that we can see that illustrate the power of the tongue. But then he talks to us about the vulnerability of the power of the tongue, and then eventually gets to the duplicity of the power of the tongue. And in fact, what I'd like to do is just take those four pieces and unpack them for just a minute as we walk through this text verse by verse. And let's begin with the responsibility of the tongue's power. This is what James says to us in James chapter three, beginning in verse number one. He says, "Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who's never at fault and what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check." So James starts with talking to teachers. Why did he do that? Well, understand the context here for just a minute. James is in Jerusalem. Persecution happened in Jerusalem and the church was dispersed all over the place. Now you've got believers that are gathering in all kinds of different places and all kinds of different spaces, and the church is in need of teachers in all of those places and spaces. But James realizes that now because they don't really have an evaluative tool for some of these teachers, that there are people working their way into teaching that should not be in that place of teaching. And in fact, some of them, he's saying, "You shouldn't try to go after being a teacher, my brothers. Not many of us should do that." Now, James knew that he was in that position, but he said not many of us should do that. Why? Well, first, because motives can get really south in a hurry. Teaching in the ancient culture was a place of honor. People came and they sat and they listened, and it was a place of honor. And maybe there were people that were wanting honor more than they wanted to equip the people of God for what God had called them to do. They wanted personal honor rather than equipping and serving the people of God. So that may be one reason. But the reason that James articulates here is this. "Because if you claim to be a teacher, you're going to be judged more strictly." Listen, why would James say that teachers are going to be judged more strictly? Here's why. Because teachers traffic in words, and the tongue is powerful. See, James wants to make sure that the teachers who are spread out among them all understand this full well and that they may be judged strictly. We need to remember this as well in our day and age, because while it may have been relatively easy for a teacher to worm their way in and claim to be a teacher in the early church in some of these places that were kind of spread out all over the place, I actually think it's easier today for that to occur. And the reason that I say that is because if you've got a Facebook page or a YouTube channel, you can just get on there and claim to be whoever you want. And if you've got, you know, if you're on X, which is formerly Twitter, or you're on Instagram, you can post what you want, you can say what you want. And it's almost a self ordination of, "Everybody, listen to me." Okay. So if that's what's happening, listen very carefully to me. Listen. If that's what's happening, then you better understand something if you're going to endeavor to do that. You will be judged more strictly. Because if you're gonna traffic in words, you need to understand that the tongue is really powerful and there is a responsibility that we embrace. And James isn't just talking to teachers, because in verse two he says, "We all stumble in many ways." "Anyone who's never at fault in what they say is mature, complete, or perfect." So he's taking it beyond teachers and he's talking about all of us at this point, right? And he's saying, "Hey, you better watch what you say. There is a responsibility with the tongues power." We all know, don't we, that there are times where we have let something come out of our mouth and we just tried to do this, and you can't. There's no getting it back. You cannot unscramble that egg. Once it leaves your mouth, it is over and done, right? I mean, Lewis Carroll, when he was writing "Through the Looking-glass," many of you have read that, right? He put these words in the mouth of the Red Queen. Listen. "When once you've said a thing, that fixes it, and you must take the consequences." When once you've said a thing, that's it. And you must take the consequences. There is a responsibility James is talking to us about, about the tongue's power. But secondly, he then gives us some images of the tongue's power. He walks this out just a little bit and gives us some images of the tongue's power. Let me tell you what those images are. Here's the first one, bits for horses. This is the first image that he gives us about the power of the tongue. Look in verse number three. He says, "When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal." Now, I don't know if you're an expert in equestrian or you're an expert horse rider like myself. I've been on a horse a few times, right? I've, you know, just done that little trot, and it's terrible for the back. It's just like, like this, right? But I finally got to where I just cut it loose one time. I was like, "Let's giddy up. Let's just straight giddy up, horse." And I don't remember the name of the horse, but we took off. And it was like being on a wave. It was really cool, but I started thinking to myself, this horse is very, very powerful. This is a strong animal. I don't even know if he knows I'm on his back. Until I turned that bit that's in his mouth, and he turned the direction I wanted him to go. And then I pulled back, and that horse began to stop, and I'm controlling the whole animal by what is in the mouth of that animal. It was a remarkable thing. James says, "That's what the tongue is like." And then he gives us a second image, and it's ship rudders. Notice what he says in verses four and five. He says, "Or take ships as an example. Although they're so large and are driven by strong winds, they're 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." You see, what's interesting here is that James is now picturing a massive, multi-ton vessel that underneath it has a rudder, and that rudder is now guiding this particular vessel wherever it needs to go, even in the midst of turbulent or stormy waters. It's a remarkable picture. And he says, "The tongue is like that." Now understand this. When we see these images that a bit in the mouth of a horse and a rudder on a big ship, these don't have a mind of their own. There's a rider on the horse that is controlling it, and there's a pilot that's on the ship, or a captain that's on the ship that's controlling the rudder. So the question really becomes, what is animating the bit and what is animating the rudder? What is in control of those things? Because they are small, but they're powerful to change and to shape. James I think, is also reminding those who claim to be teachers that you can have an inordinate influence on people because of your tongue. That you might be just one person, but that one person speaking to large amounts of people can have an influence and can guide that group of people in a direction that they want to go. Now, if that is a godly direction, well, then, thank God. But if it's not, it is destructive. And James is reminding us of that. And so he gives us these first two images, bits in the mouth of horses and ship rudders. But he gives us a third image, and this one is a little more sinister. It's the image of fire. Notice what he says in verses five and six. "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." Of all the pictures that James could use, this would be a picture that would strike fear in the ancient world. They didn't have the same levels of technology that we had. They didn't have sprinkler systems set up in their houses or in their places of worship in case a fire broke out. Most of their places were made of wood. And if fire catches on, it can burn down the entire village with just one spark. The truth is, we see that truth, and we know that to be true in real life. Anyway, I was reading from a couple of years ago, in California, there was a couple that was having a gender reveal party, and they decided that they were gonna light off a smoke bomb. It was small. And the smoke bomb would go, poof, like this, right? And it would either be blue or it would be pink, right? Hey, everybody, this is, you know what the baby's gonna be, right? And they did that, and it caught fire. And this little small smoke bomb ended up creating a fire that lasted for two months and burned thousands and thousands of acres from just that one spark, right? And he says, "This is what the tongue is actually like. It's like a fire." And he actually refers to it as a world of evil. Can you imagine that? That just from this little muscle in our mouth comes gossip and lies and slander and pride and quarrels and cursing. All of these things come, and it means that this tongue that we have is an image of power, but it can be used for good or it can be used for evil, depending on what is animating the tongue. That's why after he talks about these images, James then helps us to see how the tongue is vulnerable. The vulnerability of the tongue's power. And we would do well to pay attention to this. In fact, let me offer you just a handful of vulnerabilities of the tongue. Here's the first, is that it corrupts and consumes. I'm gonna show you what I mean in the text itself. I want you to look with me in verse number six. It says, "The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one's life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell." Now, listen, James is using words to talk about words. And James' words, he's not mincing any when he talks about them. He's just straight giving us the truth. What he's telling us here in this verse is that there's a corrupting power of the tongue and there's a consuming power of the tongue when it is in fact set on fire by hell. It's a corruption, much like cancer in the body. Cancer by itself is awful. But one of the great evils of cancer is that it doesn't just stay in one place. It reproduces in other parts of the body, corrupting other places in the body. James says, "That's what the tongue does. The tongue just doesn't have this corruption in and of itself, it actually reproduces itself." And then he says, "It has the capacity to set the whole course of your life on fire." What strong words. Paul has told us many times over in the New Testament that we are to be a people who control our bodies, right? James is even more specific. He refers to a body part. And he says, "What needs to be controlled is that one muscle in your mouth." He's talking about our speech. Why? Because our speech and our hearts are connected. Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. Or the mouth speaks what the heart is full of, Jesus said. And James knows how powerful this is. He knows how powerful what we say actually is and how it corrupts and it consumes. And so we've gotta be people that control the tongue. But he says that it's animated by hell itself. Isn't that a strong word? He says, the tongue is animated by hell itself. Set on fire by hell. Here's what you need to understand. Listen, the vulnerability of our tongues and our speech and what we say is this. Satan wants to set your speech on fire because his great desire is for destruction and division and disharmony and hurt. He comes to steal and kill and destroy. And he often does that through words. You know the power of a corrupt tongue. I think it was Mark Twain that said, "A lie can go around the world two times before the truth can get its shoes on." We know the power of a corrupted and a consumed tongue. Anything that we say that is inconsistent with the truth and the grace of Jesus Christ means that we've got a tongue that's been set on fire by hell itself. In fact, do you remember when Jesus was at Caesarea Philippi? And while he was there, he started telling his disciples that he was gonna be crucified, that he was going to be scoured, that he was going to die. Peter pulled him aside and rebuked Jesus. Do you want that on your spiritual resume? Rebuker of Jesus. He pulls Jesus aside and rebukes Jesus and saying, "Stop it with all of this, you know, death talk and all that. That's not what you need to do." And Jesus says, "Get behind me." "What?" "Get behind me, Satan." He was not saying that Peter was Satan. He was acknowledging that Peter's tongue had been set on fire by Satan himself because he was thinking of the things of men and the things of the world rather than the things of God. You see, the vulnerability of our tongues is that they are corrupted and they can consume other parts of our lives. But there's another vulnerability that we need to remember. The tongue is untamable. You're like, "Is there good news coming at any point?" Yep, stay with me. The tongue is untamable. Listen to the words that James writes in James 3:7-8. "All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue." Man, I was reading that and I was thinking to myself, man, I have seen dolphins jump through hoops on command, balance balls on their snout. I have seen dogs that have been trained to go and fetch the paper for their owner. I have seen monkeys juggling. It's true. You can look it up. Google it. Monkeys juggling. I've seen horses that were wild that have been broken. I've seen elephants that can perform tricks on command with pulling a leg up or making their snout do whatever. James says, "All of that may be true, but no human being can tame the tongue." We know this. But then he also says, "The reason the tongue's vulnerable is because it's a restless evil." In fact, listen to what he says in verse eight. "It's a restless evil." Literally what he says. Now, what is the picture of restless evil? Watch. It's the picture, it's like a word picture of an animal that is waiting for the cage to open so that it can create havoc. It's evil on go. It's a restless evil, he says, of our tongues. I read a terribly tragic story about a man named Al Abell who lived in Illinois and was a keeper of animals on his property, mostly exotic animals. He had one lion that he kept on his property, in a cage, that he had named Simba, and that he concluded that he and Simba were good friends. But one day in the cage cleaning, he left the cage unlocked. And Simba escaped and did what you thought a lion might do. It was a tragic, tragic story. And James is giving us that kind of picture because James is also reminded, by the way, of the wisdom writers, the writer of Proverbs. Chapter 21 says this, "Those who guard their mouths and their tongues keep themselves from calamity." He's almost saying our tongues need to be locked down because when we cut that cage open and loose, our tongues become a restless evil looking to wreak havoc somewhere. But then he says, "The tongue's vulnerable because it's a deadly poison." This is what it says in verse eight. It's full of deadly poison, right? This is literally what he is saying. It's a restless evil that's full of deadly poison. Let me just ask you this question. Those of you who've had kids, you've raised kids, or maybe you've got grandkids that come over to the house or whatever, or you've been a kid or you're human or you're breathing oxygen. So, it's all of us. Nobody leaves poison household products in cabinets or shelves that their little children can gain access to. Nobody does that. They don't say, "Oh, yeah, go get a little snack over there." "Get some of your fruit juice and then drink some bleach." Nobody does that. You know why? It's poison. And we wanna make sure that we keep poison away from that which it can poison. Yet, we will cut loose this tongue and allow it to drip poison all over people. We need to start viewing what we do and understanding the responsibility that comes with it because our tongues are vulnerable to being set on fire by the destruction of hell. So James is reminding us how vulnerable our tongues are to corruption, to deceit, to destruction. He reminds us as well that the enemy of our soul, Satan himself, is walking around with a torch, seeing if he gets a willing participant who he can just light their mouths on fire so that their destruction can run rampant. This is what the enemy of our souls is looking to do. So there's a responsibility that we have with the tongue's power. And then he illustrates it by showing us some pictures or some images of the tongue's power. And then he reminds us, "Hey, the tongue is vulnerable and it's a very powerful tool. And the words we say, they're very vulnerable to being corrupted and deceitful and destructive." But then finally he talks about the duplicity of the tongue's power. What do I mean by the duplicity of the tongue's power? That means to be, to double talk, to be deceptive or deceitful and to talk doubly about something. Look what it says in verse number nine. James says, "With the tongue, we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings who've been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can assault spring produce fresh water." As I showed you earlier, this is calling upon some of the imagery from what Jesus taught earlier that we saw in Matthew chapter number 12. And I think we do ourselves a favor to be reminded that we should be really concerned of showing up on a Sunday morning and praising the Lord, Christ be magnified, and then going to lunch and poor mouthing people in our world. These things should not be. Or we have a tendency to maybe, maybe we do our daily reading and we read a little bit of the word in the morning, and then we open up our phones and we start commenting and dehumanizing people and degrading people all of a sudden. And maybe this passage for our purposes shouldn't just be called the taming the tongue passage, it should also be called the taming the thumbs passage. Because it's all coming from our hearts and its speech. I wonder how many of us, if we were given a spiritual X-ray on our tongues, would be able to see that they're forked. They're duplicitous. With the same mouth that we praise God with, we run down people in his image. And he says, "Salt springs and fresh springs don't coexist." It's a pollution. It's a duplicity. The tongue is powerful, but it is in danger of being set on fire by hell and in danger of learning the language of hell as its native dialect. So what do we do? You've been waiting on that. Jerry, what do we do? Because James has already told us that the tongue is untamable. So I'm sitting here thinking to myself, "Okay, I'm hearing the warning, but I'd also like to hear the hope." Is there any hope? Yes. And it's in the same verse where he tells us that the tongue is untamable. Watch it. Verse number eight, "But no human being can tame the tongue." Nobody that is born to a normal earthly mom and dad has the power or the resources to actually tame the human tongue. But there is somebody who can. See, friends, listen carefully. Don't miss this part. Our God is a God who speaks. He uses his mouth. At the beginning of everything, when nothing existed, it only took a word from God to establish the creation of the universe. And more specifically, the Apostle John calling upon the creation narrative reminds us that God has spoken very tangibly to us that God's speech has been seen in a person. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God, and the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory of the one and only son that comes from the Father full of grace and truth. You see, now we have the word made flesh, the Lord Jesus. And this word made flesh. God's very speech to us comes face to face when he begins his ministry with the originator of the language of hell, the one who wants to set everything on fire. And what the author of the language of hell, Satan himself, does in the wilderness is he tempts the Lord Jesus towards sin because Satan desired to light the course of the Messiah's life on fire. But the Son of God responded to the sinful temptations of the enemy with the pure word of God in every single instance. You see, as Jesus later told his disciples in John chapter six, "The spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you, they are full of the spirit and full of life." That's why when Jesus is at the grave site of his friend, Lazarus, in Bethany, and everyone is weeping and despairing and despondent, Jesus in one word says, "Lazarus, come forth," and he does. Because his words are full of the spirit and life and power. It's why when the centurion came to Jesus and said, "My servant is paralyzed." And Jesus says, "Do you want me to go to your servant?" And he says, "No need. I am a man who has authority. And all the people under me, when I tell them to go, they go, and to do this, and they do that. I don't have you. I don't even deserve to have you come under my roof, Jesus. But if you say the word, my servant will be healed." And Jesus said, "Go to them. It's done." This, friends, this is why we can trust Jesus to help us with our tongues. This is why we can't tame our own tongues, but we have someone who can because Jesus is the only person to ever tame the tongue and to never utter a wasted sinful word. That's why we can rely on what he said. He's given us his word. And you know what? Listen to this. His word is a bit in our mouths. He is the one that is animating that and he can lead us wherever he wants us to go. His spirit that amplifies his word is a rudder under the ship of our lives, so that as we trust him, he will lead us through every stormy sea, even in the midst of turbulent times, and lead us to walk out the beauty of the will of God for his glory. Only he can produce good fruit. We can't do that on our own. Only he can do it. Only he can bring fresh water from our souls that come out of our mouths. Jesus can be trusted to do this as we come to him, listen to this, with empty hands and empty mouths, and we let him fill them. And he's given us the power to access these resources of God. And do you know what? He gave us opportunity for that power even when our lives were consumed by the fire of hell and deserving of the judgment of hell 'cause at the cross, Jesus took all of our careless, sinful words like they were his own. Our backbiting words, our jealous words, our angry words, our lustful words, our lying words, our manipulative words, our greedy words, our prideful words, our slanderous words, our rebellious words, our insensitive words, our cursing words, our gossiping words. Jesus took them all upon himself as if he had said them and bore the weight of the condemnation and wrath that was associated with them and shed his blood for us. But as the writer of Hebrews tells us, "His blood spoke a better word." Words of forgiveness, words of healing, words of love, words of no condemnation, words of hope, words of a future, words of power to live life for his glory right now. Jesus took our words of death and gave us back the word of life. The script that the enemy had written for humanity can be shredded because we've got a new speech writer. Our tongues... As the writer of Proverbs says, "Our tongues are the pens of a ready writer." We now have Jesus who is animating our very words, so now like springs of pure water, we can speak life instead of death, we can speak hope instead of despair, we can speak the language of heaven instead of the dialect of hell. The tongue is powerful. But thanks be to God that Jesus gives our tongues power to repent, power to agree with him, and so that all of our lives and our words can be submitted to the lordship of Jesus. And, friends, we might as well do that right now before it's too late. Because I promise you this, a day is coming when the very speech God, the word made flesh himself, will return to this world and he will defeat his enemies with the sharp sword of his mouth, the purity and truth of the words he speaks. And then as Paul tells us, "At the name of Jesus, every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth," and every what? "Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." So you might want to settle that now before it's too late because every tongue, even every tongue that's been set on fire by hell will recognize that's the king. Every single one. The tongue is powerful. So how are you using yours? Maybe I'd ask you this a little differently. Who is animating yours? Who is empowering your tongue? Because James reminds us that there are only two options. Either we will speak the language of hell or we will speak the words of life given to us by the spirit of God because of the work of the Son of God. Let's bow together for prayer. The spirit of God through James has given us all a corrective word this morning, me and you. None of us are outside the scope of the word. We are all under the word. And we must submit to the word if we want to have our lives shaped into the image of Jesus. For some of us, that means that we have never yet put our faith and our trust in Christ. We've never actually confessed him as Lord and Savior with our mouths and surrendered our very lives to him. We can't save ourselves. We can't work our way to him. It is only by grace we've been saved through faith. It's not of ourselves, it's the gift of God. It's not of works so that none of us can boast. We can't talk our way in. We can only in dependence and on the mercy of what God has done for us and Jesus Christ dying in our place, taking upon himself the wrath and condemnation of God and us putting our faith in the triumphant resurrected Christ who has died for us, that we can be reconciled to the Father. And if you've never come to a place where you have done that, then when I say amen in just a moment, there'll be some people standing right down front who would love to take a moment, pray with you about what it means to surrender your life to Jesus. But I would say this to many of us as well. One of the great things that we can do as a result of this message is to repent. Repentance is not a bad word. Remember, sin is the poison, repentance is the medicine. We have the opportunity to turn away from our sin and turn to Jesus and find his forgiveness, his grace, his love, his help, his power, his strength, his affirmation. But maybe many of us have allowed our words to be poisoned, to be corrupted, to be consuming of our very lives. I talked to a woman just after our first worship gathering who said, "God spoke to me so clearly about the way I've spoken to my adult children. And I texted them right as the service ended, and I confessed to them what I had done. I sought their forgiveness." Thank God. That's what God calls us to. Who's animating your speech? 'Cause there's only two options, James says. Maybe you need to spend some time just sitting where you are and take some time to do business with God. You can do that. If you wanna talk with maybe a man or woman who's down front, down here and maybe have them pray with you, you can do that. Maybe you want somebody to pray with you that's nearby you. You can do that. You do as the Lord leads, but listen to his voice. Father, I thank you for your word even when the words that we read are strident, are direct, are piercing. 'Cause we know, God, that by your spirit, you are doing that for our good and for your glory. 'Cause you desire for us to be a people of pure speech who speak the language of heaven, as opposed to people who have tongues that have vulnerably been lit on fire by the enemy from hell. Lord, we don't want to do destruction with our tongues. We want to speak life and grace and hope and healing and truth in every way. Would you help us? Because only you can. We cannot do it. We confess to you, Lord. I confess, I cannot tame my own tongue, we cannot tame our own tongues, but you can. May the bit of your word be in our mouths. May the propelling of your spirit be the rudder that guides our lives. And may you fill our mouths with praises of you that we might glorify you among a world that is stumbling around in darkness and communicating to one another in the language of hell. Help us to show the world a different language from a different kingdom because we love the one and only true king. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.