Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Focus Statement
The tongue is a powerful instrument,
and how it can be used to cut down and destroy or it can be used to heal and build up.
But there is an instrument even sharper than the sword that is our tongue,
and through the grace of God it can help us to control it.
Point of Relation
Let me tell you a quick story.
It’s of something I am not very proud of to this day.
We’ve all had those moments where we’ve done or said something that we later came to really regret.
Well, I am certainly not impervious to sin and a wicked tongue.
So, back when I was a teenager…probably about 17 years old…I was dating this girl and overtime, I just wanted out of relationship...
We were in different places mentally and emotionally at the time…and though I cared for her as a friend, I just wasn’t feeling it romantically, if that makes sense.
Ah…the years of High School dating and the drama that usually entails.
Anyway, I decided to do the right thing and let this person know how I felt, honestly and delicately, and then I would call off the relationship.
Well, it didn’t work that way.
The person obviously felt differently than I did, and didn’t want to break up.
So…of course…drama unfolded in our conversation.
Eventually, frustrated with me and trying to get me to change my heart and mind, she said, “if you break up with me I’m going to kill myself”
Well, that angered me…because it was clearly a move to manipulate me…to tug at my heartstrings and feel guilty for calling off the relationships...
or at least that is how perceived it in the moment.
Maybe it wasn’t how I perceived it...
It’s funny how we always start off with the perception that our OWN perceptions are CORRECT.
We never pause to wonder or question why someone says something or behaves a certain way...
I could have responded in anyway to her.
I could have asked her why she would even say that…or I could have still broke off the relationship while offering her support and help...
Or maybe I could have just said, “look, I am sorry you feel that way, but it’s over.”
NOPE!
My response to her: “Good!
I’ll get you the gun!” and I hung up the phone!
[long pause]
My friends were there…we all laughed about it…
and I justified it on the principal that she was trying to guilt me and manipulate me…
and that she would never actually commit suicide anyway.
But how did I actually know that she wouldn’t...and what if she had?!?!?!
What if the next day, or a few weeks down the road, she turned up dead?
Then what?
How would my words have felt then?
How much more ashamed I would have been?
Could I have lived the rest of my life with those words?
This person thankfully never did follow through with , who knows, she could be watching this now or someday down the road...
As we are connected on Facebook and…in fact…this week, in remembering this moment in my life, I personally reached out to her to apologize for those words…ALL THESE YEARS LATER!
Because it does no good if I am apologetically talking about it here and haven’t reconciled with the person I hurt!
By the way, in case this story hasn’t made you realize this, I am not ALWAYS a “nice” person…
I mean, I am by nature a nice, easy-going, fun-loving person...
anyone who knows me gets that...
But, I am not perfect and, as such, sometimes I am not “NICE”
Sometime situations call me to NOT be nice and those times are often necessary and out of my control...
Other times though, I am just a Jerkus Giganticus Maximus!
And the truth is…so are you!
All of us can be jerks.
We may not want to admit it or like to hear it…but it is the truth!
Things to Consider
We all have used words that have been more harmful than good.
Destructive words can flow so easily when we have lost our tempers
or are caught up in moments of ego and/or selfishness.
Yet, at what cost do our words come?
What Scripture Says
If there is one thing that the Bible is consistent on regarding sin and evil,
the tongue is often the first instrument to wield it and what an awfully destructive instrument it can be.
Humans, sinful as we are, can absolutely cut people down and destroy them with their words.
The truth is, the tongue is the most destructive tool we have as human beings.
Sure, real swords destroy physical life.
They can maim and kill.
However, once dead, there is nothing more a sword can do to you.
The tongue on the other hand,
it delivers wounds that can poison hearts and souls…
wounds that last an entire lifetime or more!
How could words wound longer than a life time?
Because our words can lead someone not just into psychological and emotional peril,
but spiritual peril as well.
That is why the early church focused so much on right doctrine and the proper Christology,
or how we understand who Jesus is in relation to God.
Getting these words right are SO VERY IMPORTANT
because we are dealing in ETERNAL matters!
Amen?!?!?
So, yeah…the Bible is clear that the tongue is,
more times than not, a wicked, evil, vile, venomous weapon that,
when recklessly wielded,
can literally kill people on the deepest of levels.
The Psalmist’s description of the tongue is just that, a deadly weapon.
He wrote in verses 3-5 of people,
“sharpen[ing] their tongues like swords and aim[ing] their bitter words like arrows.
They shoot from ambush at the innocent, attacking suddenly and fearlessly.
They encourage each other to do evil and plan how to set their traps in secret.”
He wrote that such people taunt God
by thinking that no one notices their wicked ways, but God notices.
In verses 7-8, he also wrote “But God himself will shoot them with his arrows, suddenly striking them down.
Their own tongues will ruin them, and all who see them will shake their heads in scorn.”
We also know what James thought of the tongue from our previous worship series, Living Faith.
He called the tongue a “flame of fire” and a “world of wickedness”.
So, it is pretty clear that the tongue is a nasty little organ.
With that said, if wielded properly, the tongue can also produce much good.
People can be built up, encouraged and given renewed life through words that come off the tongue.
The question is, how to we control that little wagging tool in our mouth?
The answer is in our Scripture in Hebrews today.
The answer is THE WORD OF GOD.
First off, the Word of God is the Bible.
If we read, Scripture we will come face-to-face with out sins.
It’s impossible not to, for the Bible is a mirror of our sinfulness.
It commands us to see ourselves in the light that God sees us.
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