Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
0.14UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.11UNLIKELY
Fear
0.14UNLIKELY
Joy
0.59LIKELY
Sadness
0.55LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.63LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.01UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.93LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.67LIKELY
Extraversion
0.31UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.6LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.64LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Introduction
On a windswept hill in an old English churchyard stands a slate tombstone.
Beneath This Stone, a Lump of Clay, Lies Arabella Young, Who, on the Twenty-fourth of May, Began to Hold Her Tongue.
How would you like to be known as the person who finally held your tongue on the day you died.
But although that might not be your epitaph, in many ways this is true for every person here.
I think this is a point that James makes very clear in his epistle.
John Calvin “There is nothing more slippery or loose than the tongue.”
Bobby went to the village priest and asked the priest what to do.
The priest instructed him to take a bag full of feathers, perhaps a pillow, and go through the village and place a feather on every doorstep throughout the village.
He did so, and returned to the priest to find out what he should do next.
The priest sent Bobby home, but told him that when he woke up in the morning he needed to take his empty pillow case and go pick up all the feathers from every doorstep.
But he couldn’t find any because over the night the wind had blown them all away.
He returned to the priest to share his frustration in his failure.
The priest replied, “It’s the same way with your careless words.
Once you speak them you can’t take them back.
You can ask forgiveness for the pain you have caused, but you cannot take your words back because they have already done damage.”
How many times have you wished that you could take back something that you said?
James deals with this issue in James chapter 3 where we will be spending our time this morning.
James begins the chapter by showing how serious a problem the tongue really can be.
What do all these things have in common?
They are all often deadly diseases caused by something so small you can’t see it with the naked eye.
James is writing to the twelve tribes who are scattered abroad—the Hebrew Christians and is dealing with multiple issues that they are having.
In the end of , James talks about the problem between faith and works.
You aren’t saved by what you do, but through faith in Jesus Christ.
But that faith is demonstrated by the works you do.
And in , he moves to a specific work that can be especially obvious to yourself and all around you.
You will be held accountable for what you say.
A teacher is someone whose job is to instruct or teach someone.
There is a prestige associated with being a teacher.
People follow the example of their teachers and the words of the teacher impacts their students for the rest of their lives.
This goes both ways for good or for evil.
Because of the influence their words can have on so many more people, teachers have a greater responsibility not only for their own conduct but for their influence on others.
Don’t be a teacher unless God has called you.
If you do it for selfish reasons, you will have big problems.
1. Trouble with the Tongue
James goes on to say
We all stumble and sin.
If you don’t stumble in what you say, you are perfect.
Indicator of you real spiritual condition.
Reminds me of
If you don’t control your tongue, your religion is worthless?
That’s pretty strong.
A big responsibility and a big problem, but how do we take care of the trouble?
The Problem
1.
To tame the tongue, you must recognize the power of the tongue.
It is powerful.
1. Bits in horses’ mouths
Small part with power
Bits in horses’ mouths
2. Rudder on a ship
The focus here shouldn’t be placed on the control factor as much as the influence.
Don’t underestimate the power of the tongue.
2. To tame the tongue, you must recognize that human power can do nothing to tame it.
It is hard to control
The tongue is naturally wicked.
2. Source of the Trouble
1. Fire
Illustrations:
Great fire of 1858 in Chicago was caused, they say, by a cow knocking over a lantern in barn.
Camp fire
The deadliest and most destructive wildfire in CA happened last year (2018).
It was caused by a small fire started by a downed power line.
(i) Camp Fire, the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in CA, was caused by a small fire started by a downed power line.
It was caused by a small fire started by a downed power line.
(ii) Within 6 hours, the fire had almost entirely destroyed the towns of Concow and Paradise.
57 casualities and 95% of the buildings destroyed.
Within 6 hours, the fire had almost entirely destroyed the towns of Concow and Paradise.
57 casualities and 95% of the buildings destroyed.
(iii) Contained 17 days later: burned over 150,000 acres (size of entire city of Chicago), killed 83 people, and destroyed over 19,000 structures.
Contained 17 days later: burned over 150,000 acres (size of entire city of Chicago), killed 83 people, and destroyed over 19,000 structures.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Fire_(2018)
(iv) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Fire_(2018)
Verse 6:
Verse 6: Two active verbs and one passive verb.
All present tense so not something that has happened in the past.
Tongue is doing two things and one thing is being done to the tongue in the present.
"defiles the whole body”
“whole body” not just part; wide-reaching
End of talking about the New Jerusalem “there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles”
“Course of life” — literally means “wheel of birth or existence”.
Scholars don’t really know what this phrase means.
James likes to use illustrations.
Perhaps he is illustrating how if a wooden wheel catches on fire at the axle, the entire wheel will soon be on fire as it travels up the spokes.
“set on fire by hell”
The word translated here as hell is Gehenna.
Gehenna became associated with the final destruction of wickedness by fire because of an actual place—the valley of Hinnum which is what Gehinnom means in Hebrew.
In Bible times, the valley of Gehenna was where the backslidden Jews offered their children to Molech by burning them as a sacrifice ().
Also the place where all the garbage and impure stuff was thrown and burned.
The fact, also, that the city’s offal was collected there may have helped to render the name synonymous with extreme defilement.
Geerhardus Vos, “Gehenna,” ed.
James Orr et al., The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (Chicago: The Howard-Severance Company, 1915), 1183.
Hell is the place where all evil and wickedness, everything worthy of destruction, will eventually be destroyed.
The origin of the world of unrighteousness that comes from out of the mouth through the tongue is evilness, wickedness, etc.
Most Christians are horrified by child-molesters, murder, robbery, and other big sins.
But how many of us are ok with a little gossip here and there, maybe a little white lie or half truth, hurtful sarcastic statements, or other tongue sins.
Summary
What you say can defile your entire being.
What you say can destroy your entire existence.
The evil things you say come from the source of all wickedness.
Or perhaps under the control of Satan.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9