Out of our Mouth

Introduction

The old saying, “sticks and stones”

The power of teaching and how the same words can offend or encourage

How we talked about having two ears and one mouth

Body

Read James 3:1-12

James 3:1–12 NKJV

My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.

Talk about the judgment of the teachers

Talk about how the small controls the large

Talk about the problem of boasting and the source it comes from

Talk about a forest fire and the source of a small campfire (begins private, ends public)

Talk about all animals tamed and controlled, but the tongue never has been

Talk about the duplicity of the tongue in blessing and cursing

Talk about the plants and how one cannot produce what’s out of its nature and how salt and fresh must remain separate

Conclusion

Discuss the importance of being all in

Discuss how a little salt contaminates the whole spring

Encourage the church to guard their heart and mind, as they use their tongue and words as a reflection of what exists deep within