Sermon Tone Analysis

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:

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