Words Matter

Faith Works (James)  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  28:09
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NOTE:
This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.
Engagement
There was a man who worked in the produce section of a local grocery store. One day, a woman came in and asked if she could buy half a head of lettuce…
Well, it had been one of those days, and before he could think, the man replied, “Half a head?! Are you serious?! God grows these in whole heads, and that’s how we sell them!”
The lady responded, “You mean after all these years of shopping here, you won’t sell me half-a-head of lettuce?!
Look,” he said, “If you like I’ll ask the manager.”
Of course.” She responded.
So, the man marched away to find the manager, and when he found him, he said, “You won’t believe this, but there’s a lame-brained idiot of a lady back there who wants to know if she can buy half-a head of lettuce.” As he was talking, he noticed the manager subtly trying to stop his outburst…The crazed employee turned around to see the lady standing behind him. Apparently she had followed him to find the manager.
Without skipping a beat, the employee said, “And… this nice lady was wondering if she could buy the other half!”
Later that day, the manager cornered the young man, and said, “That was the finest example of thinking on your feet I've ever seen! Where’d you learn to do that?” The man replied, “Well… I grew up in Grand Rapids, and if you know anything about Grand Rapids, you know it’s well-known for its great hockey teams and its ugly women...”
“Hey,” the manager interrupted, “My wife’s from Grand Rapids!” The employee quickly responded, “And which hockey team did your wife play for?”
As we’re going to see today, our words have a lot of power. They have the power to get us in to trouble and to get us out of trouble. They have the power to destroy and the power to build up.
Tension
Our words matter - they matter a lot. In fact, as we’re going to see this morning, they are an important measure of just how spiritually mature we are.
Truth
The letter than James wrote to his fellow Jewish Christians was written to help disciples of Jesus mature in their faith. And in each section of his letter he not only gives some practical advice about how to grow in spiritual maturity, he also gives us some indicators that help us determine our level of maturity. If you open up your Bibles to the book of James, I’ll walk you through the ones we’ve seen so far:
The first indicator is found in chapter 1, verse 2-12: A mature disciple remains steadfast in trials.
The second indicator is found in chapter 1, verses 13-18: A mature disciple is triumphant over temptation.
The third indicator is found in the last part of chapter 1: A mature disciple has more than good intentions and does the word of God.
The fourth indicator is found in the beginning of chapter 2: A mature disciple loves everyone equally.
Finally, last week we saw the fifth indicator at the end of chapter 2: A mature disciple demonstrates faith by his or her works.
So it shouldn’t be any surprise that the passage we’re going to look at today contains another indicator of our spiritual maturity - but it’s probably not one that most of us would usually think of unless I’d already talked about the importance of our words:

A mature disciple uses words to build up, not to destroy

Go ahead and turn in your Bibles to James chapter 3 and follow along as I begin reading in verse 1:
James 3:1–12 ESV
1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. 2 For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. 3 If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. 4 Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.
Before we jump into the text, let me point out that what we’re going to learn from this passage applies to all forms of personal communication - including a lot of them that didn’t exist in James’ day. That includes emails, texts, online chat and messaging and social media. So when we’re talking about our tongue this morning, just remember that these principles apply to more than just our verbal communication.
James begins this section with the same structure that we have seen throughout his letter. Although it is difficult to see in many of our English translations, verse 1 is a strong command that warns that not many of his readers should become teachers. James is following up here with the command that we saw back in chapter 1 when he instructed his audience to be “slow to speak”. As we saw when we examined that command, James used that phrase in connection with handling the Word of God and the point he was making is that anyone who would desire to teach God’s Word should do that only after careful consideration, because God is going to hold to a very high standard those who claim to be proclaiming His Word. As I shared before, this is a very sobering command for me and I keep it in mind every week when I get up here to teach.
But immediately after he gives that command, James makes it really clear that he recognizes that he is just as likely as any of his readers to demonstrate spiritual immaturity with his words. In verse 2 he includes himself when he writes “we all stumble...” So if there are any of you here this morning who think this passage doesn’t apply to you or that you don’t have a problem with your tongue, I sincerely doubt that your spiritual maturity exceeds that of James. All of us, not just those of us who teach, are going to be judged for our words.
Beginning in verse 3, James gives us six illustrations to show the power of the tongue. These illustrations fall into three groups:

MY WORDS HAVE THE POWER TO:

Direct (vs. 1-4)
James begins with two illustrations that describe the ability of our words to direct. Both the bit in the mouth of a horse and the rudder on a large ship are used to harness and direct the power of something much larger.
A small bit in the mouth of a half ton horse allows a 120 pound jockey to control the direction of a powerful racehorse. And a comparatively small rudder can control the direction of a large ship.
Although our words may seem small, they have tremendous power to direct the lives of others. With our words, we can direct people into truth or into falsehood. We can direct them into righteousness or into wickedness. We can direct them into life or into death. We can direct them into edification or into destruction.
That leads us into the second two pictures which reveal that our words have the power to…
Destroy (vs. 5-8)
The next two illustrations – fire and wild animals – picture the ability of our words to destroy.
I remember driving by Pusch Ridge on the morning of June 6, 2020 and seeing the very small wildfire that had been started the night before by lightning. It wasn’t burning much at all and I figured it would be put out pretty quickly. But by the time the Bighorn Fire was finally contained almost 2 months later, it had burned almost 120,000 acres.
That is certainly an appropriate picture of the damage that our words can cause. One carelessly spoken word has the potential to do far-reaching and long-lasting damage in the lives of others. James pictures just how damaging our words can be when he describes them as staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life. Every area of our lives is subject to the damage that can be caused by our words.
The second picture James uses to illustrate the power of words to destroy is wild animals, particularly those which are full of deadly poison. Here in the desert we are surrounded by poisonous snakes, reptiles, insects and spiders, so we take the appropriate precautions to avoid being bitten or stung by those creatures. But unfortunately, it’s not nearly as easy to avoid the sting of poisonous words.
Many of us grew up being taught the words of this children’s nursery rhyme:
Sticks and stones will break my bones
But words will never harm me.
While the intent behind those words – teaching us to avoid retaliation when someone speaks a harmful word against us – is laudable, most of us quickly discovered the fallacy of that saying. Words can indeed harm us. In many cases they inflict as much or even more harm than any physical abuse that we might suffer.
Once a lie is told, we can’t transform it into truth. Once a reputation has been destroyed, it often can’t be mended. Once a relationship has been destroyed, it’s hard to put it back together. Because of destructive words families have been broken apart, churches and ministries have been ruined and whole nations have gone to war – all as a result of destructive words.
But fortunately, our words can also have a positive effect on the lives of others. James concludes this section with two final pictures that show that our words also have the power to…
Delight (vs. 9-12)
The final two illustrations – a spring and a tree– both picture the positive impact our words can have in the lives of others. In the 21st century, where every house has running water and we can get whatever food we want at the grocery store, it’s hard for us to understand the significance of these two items in the culture of the first century.
We all know that water is necessary to sustain life and there is certainly nothing more satisfying and refreshing as a cold drink of water when we’re hot and thirsty. But in James’ day, that kind of cold, refreshing water didn’t come from a faucet or a drinking fountain or a bottle that we pull out of our refrigerator – it came from a fresh water spring. That is why most of the towns and villages of that day sprang up where there was a sufficient supply of that kind of life-giving water.
Trees were similarly important in that culture. In addition to providing fruit to eat, trees served to keep the soil from eroding and they supplied shade to bring relief from the scorching sun.
Our words have the potential to produce that same kind of refreshment, relief, and delight in the lives of the people God brings into our lives. So since I am confident that all of us want to speak words that do that, let’s close by talking about some practical ideas we can draw from this passage.
Application

HOW TO SPEAK WORDS THAT DELIGHT

Let God tame my tongue
James makes a very interesting observation at the beginning of verse 8 when he writes that no human being can tame the tongue.Notice, that he does not say that the tongue can’t be tamed. He just says that no human being is capable is doing that. So the obvious implication is that only God is able to tame my tongue.
Before I became a disciple of Jesus I occasionally used some language that is certainly not fitting for one of His children. And as you can imagine, once I put my faith in Jesus, I didn’t immediately quit using that language altogether. In fact, even today when I hit my finger with a hammer or hit a bad golf shot, I’m still temped to say something I shouldn’t.
But because I have the Holy Spirit dwelling permanently in my life I now have the power to make sure those words don’t come out of my mouth. But I have to allow Him to tame my tongue by submitting it to His control. So one of my prayers that I pray frequently is to ask the Holy Spirit to take control of what I say.
Check my heart
If any of us have chest pain or other symptoms of a heart attack, we immediately go to the doctor and get a heart checkup because those symptoms indicate that we might have a problem with our heart.
James says that we need to do the very same thing when we speak words that curse and harm those who have been made in the likeness of God because those are symptoms that indicate we might have a heart problem. So we need to get a spiritual heart checkup.
I think James may have very well been thinking of these words of Jesus:
Matthew 15:18 ESV
18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.
Both James and Jesus were making the same point – if the words coming out of your mouth are evil, it is because there is something wrong with your heart. If our heart is right with God, then it will produce words that are consistent with our faith. But if there is a problem in our heart, then it will be manifest in the words that we speak. And when that happens, we need to make an honest evaluation of our hearts.
T.H.I.N.K. before I speak
I don’t know who originally came up with this acronym - it probably wasn’t James. But I think it is certainly consistent with what James is teaching here. And, as I pointed out earlier, this applies not only to what we say, but what we write in our emails and texts and what we post on social media.
I’ll give you the entire acronym first and then I’ll make a few comments.
Is it...
True?
Helpful?
Inspiring?
Necessary?
Kind?
Before I say, write or post something I need to take a moment to consider this checklist. If it’s a written response of some kind, like an email or text or social media post, I’ve found it’s helpful to go ahead and write down what I want to say. Then, if time permits, I let it sit for 24 hours and then come back and apply this checklist. Much of the time, by then I’ve already decided that I don’t need to respond at all But if it is appropriate to send out that communication, I need to evaluate it with this checklist before I do that.
When it comes to my verbal communication, I probably won’t be able to take that much time, so I may have to quickly to go through the list in my mind. But perhaps if I still have doubts about what I’m about to say, I ought to just not say anything rather than taking the risk that my words will hurt rather than help, tear down rather than build up.
As we close I want to take a few minutes to reinforce this principle by showing you how each of these five elements are completely biblical. I’m just going to share the Scriptures, which speak for themselves.
True
Ephesians 4:25 ESV
25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
Proverbs 14:25 ESV
25 A truthful witness saves lives, but one who breathes out lies is deceitful.
Helpful
Ephesians 4:29 ESV
29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
1 Corinthians 10:23 ESV
23 “All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up.
1 Thessalonians 5:11 ESV
11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.
Inspiring
Hebrews 10:25 ESV
25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
1 Thessalonians 4:18 ESV
18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Necessary
Proverbs 17:27 ESV
27 Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.
Proverbs 21:23 ESV
23 Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble.
Proverbs 29:20 ESV
20 Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him.
Proverbs 17:28 ESV
28 Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.
Kind
Proverbs 16:24 ESV
24 Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.
Proverbs 15:1 ESV
1 A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
Ephesians 4:32 ESV
32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Action
We’ve learned this morning that...

A mature disciple uses words to build up, not to destroy

If others were to make an evaluation of your spiritual maturity based on the words that you say, write, and post, what kind of assessment do you think they would make? I think that’s a sobering question for all of us to ponder, not just those of us who teach.
So I want to encourage all of us to be intentional this week and make a conscious effort to think carefully about our words and consider how they impact us individually and as a body and how they might impact our ability to impact our community for the kingdom of Jesus.
Inspiration
Our words are important - far more important than we might think. I’m going to close this morning by letting Jesus speak directly to you about your words. I’m convinced that James may have very well had these words in mind when he wrote the section of his letter that we’ve looked at this morning:
Matthew 12:33–37 ESV
33 “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. 36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
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