JAMES 3:1-12 “From the heart, the mouth speaks”

MPS

PRAYER:

MPT:

Our tongue is the smallest yet the most destructive and unruly of all our members. Allowing Jesus to rule over our words, is allowing Jesus to rule our lives.

A Controlled tongue is a controlled life

Our words are wild

From the mouth, the heart speaks

Intro:

Hello

Faith Works

Practical wisdom and living the christian life

Oneness, completeness, integrity

Tongue, words, speech

Consider how man words we have for types of speech:

Gossip, complaining, cursing, brashness, crudeness, lies, hypocrisy, flattering,

“From the heart, the mouth speaks”

Control your tongue, Control your life

[READ v1-2]

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers,

for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

Teacher, preachers, pastors

honorable and good to want to become a teacher of the word

But dangerous.

God calls men to become pastors in all kinds of ways:

We each have a story, and in just about everyone of them there is a years long inner struggle within a man. Two fronts colliding at once:

-a longing to serve as God’s mouthpiece. What a glorious honor!

-and a drowning fear and insecurity of saying, Who am I? How dare I pretend to be worthy!

-Isaiah and the coals purifying his lips

“Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”..angel, coal, mouth “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

“Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me

Teaching is honorable. Pastoring God’s flock is one of the greatest privileges there is, along with being a husband, or a parent.

Specifically James is talking about pastors, but there are other realms of teaching that you may be involved in- especially if you are a parent, you have kids.

You are their primary teacher and pastor. So listen up.

Teachers are held to a higher standard- “Woe is me!”

“Do as I say, not as I do”

- doesn’t fly in God’s kingdom

Because God hates hypocrisy

He also hates deception- which is easy to do from a position of authority

Education and discipleship and parenting- all realms of teaching, are precious to God.

The teacher, Jesus christ says, “do as I do.”

Never asks us to do something he hasn’t already done.

to humble ourselves: he did it

“pick up your cross and follow me.”

To count others as more important than ourselves: he did it

To forgive an enemy: he did it and does it many times over

To keep silent, to pray, to bless. He did it.

we learn from him.

he always goes first. He is the most excellent and perfect teacher.

Hold your teachers to a high standard, but only Jesus as the perfect teacher

Your pastors need to be held to a high standard.

and your pastors need a lot of grace from you. (Coals)

We are just men.

Thank you for following us as you follow Jesus

Thank you for trusting us but ultimately, trust Jesus.

As we teach and lead, our only goal is to point you to follow Jesus.

His words over ours

his leadership over ours

His friendship over ours

We all stumble in many many ways

[V2]

stumble, trip, sin.

Everyone of us

In all kinds of ways.

If:then statement

“If anyone does not stumble in what he says…”

In what he says

His speech

his words

“…He is a perfect man and able to bridle his whole body also”

Bridle- control. Like with an animal.

If your lips are under control, your life is under control

The rodeo is coming up real soon. I’m not a huge fan, but I do like the bull riding. That stuff is crazy. I remember hearing a Pro bull rider say, “If you can ride a bull for 8 seconds, you can do anything.”

If you control your tongue, then you control your whole life.

-Just like with a horse [V3]

3 If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well.

-Just like with a ship [V4-5]

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

-Who controls your tongue? Who pilots it?

If you can control your tongue, you control your life.

-How is it that our tongue controls our life?

It is like a wildfire or like a wild beast.

Out of your control, causing harm and damage and death to you and around you.

Pt 2: Our words are wild

[READ v6-8a]

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.

Out of our control. ]

wild beast or a wildfire

1. wild fire

Story of Ryan and I with magnifying glass in California Parking Lot

California. PG&E. Sparks turn into hundred of thousands of acres burnt, tens of thousands of homes lost, lives destroyed, And the smoke visible and palatable across the nation.

world of unrighteousness

-Accusing

-belittling

-cursing

-Discouraging

-Explicit talk

-Flattering

-Gossiping

-Lying

-mocking

-Slandering

-ETC

Staining the body

-Like branding the body with an ugly scar

-We are the body of christ. And not only are our own lives stained before God because of what our hearts express through our words,

-But we stain the image of God’s people before the eyes of those watching

-When you complain as a christian- people don;t see a good and faithful Father, they see a distant, indifferent and unkind God

-When you are short in your speech or overly direct, people do not have an encounter with a kind, compassionate God who is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

-When your mouth is filled with crude speech, people do not see a Holy, righteous, Good and perfect God. But a defiled and degraded one.

-When you flatter, they see a God who plays favorites

-When your a hypocrite, they see a false religion

-What we say, stains the image of Christ to the public eye

Burning the path before us

-And it destroys your own life

-How many people nowadays get in trouble for something they said years ago?

-How many marriages or other relationships suffer from words spoken a decade ago?

-How much have we each crippled ourselves by the things we say?

-Words shape worlds” - Jackie Hill-Perry

-how have your words scorched your life?

-I have a critic in my head, I can be very hard on myself and very demeaning

-I often times tell myself I’m stupid or curse myself.

-This voice burns my everyday experience if I let it.

Set on Fire by Hell (v6d)

a Living hell

Words are like a wildfire, scorching our own lives and others.

And words are a wild beast, that no person can control.

1. wild beast (V7-8a)

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.

You can ride a bull for 8 seconds, but you can’t actually ride a bull.

We ride horse because they can be tamed, we even ride ostriches in Virginia City

But we don’t race bulls, no cowboy ever rode a bull to work

Its a wild beast

And so are our tongues

We think we have everything under control,

So are our hearts

“for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks”

Bad news church: Our words are a world of destruction, a fire we set ablaze and that has gone out of control.

3. From the heart, the mouth speaks

[V8b-12]

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.

From the spring comes the pond

and from our hearts speaks the mouth

Spiritual Schizophrenia

Serpent

poison

Forked tongue

Bless and Curse God

Bless and curse God’s image

Spring that bubble both fresh and salt water?

Fig tree that produces olives?

The human heart is the wellspring of life

Proverbs 4:23 “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”

Luke 6:44-45

“For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, 44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. 45 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks

Bad news:

We are spiritually schizophrenic

Our mouths betray us

Our hearts are corrupt

We are not in control of our sin, but rather it runs a muck and burns and scars all areas of our lives

We need to be purified

We need to be guided

Gospel:

“If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.”

Jesus is the only man who did not stumble in what he said, nor did.

And he can bridle us, his body. He can domesticate our wild hearts, our wild and untamed mouths and flesh. He can tame any sin we are struggling with today.

He can put a shock collar on your gossipy lips

He can fence in

He can put your rage in a cage