Sermon Tone Analysis

Real Control!

James 3:1-12

Series on James “Get Real”

Welcome once again to Baptist Fellowship.

If this is your first time here let me just thank you for choosing to worship with us this morning.

We are continuing our study on the book of James this morning and we are looking at James chapter 3 vs.

1-12.

Title of this morning message if you are taking notes, is Real Control.

We are going to look at what James tells us is one of the most powerful things in the entire world; one of the most difficult things to control.

Something that if we let it, will completely control us instead!

We are going to look at the tongue.

Any one here ever play the quiet game?

You know, when you are a long trip, and you are fighting and fussing with your sibling and your parents say ok its time for the quiet game.

Let’s see who can go the longest without making a single sound!

So, you sit in complete boredom until your little sister can’t take it anymore and lets out a stream of pinned up vocabulary that breaks the silence.

And you shout YOU LOSE.

And your parents are just thankful for those 30 seconds of peace they bought.

The bummer about that game is that there are no prizes!

One of the things that we are going to see today in our study is that silence can bring good things into our lives.

Henri Nouwen, in his book The Way of the Heart writes, "Recently I was driving through Los Angeles, and suddenly had the strange sensation of driving through a huge dictionary.

Wherever I looked there were words trying to take my eyes from the road.

They said, ‘Use me, take me, buy me, drink me, smell me, touch me, kiss me, sleep with me.’

In such a world who can maintain respect for words?"

Words are powerful.

We are quick to realize how powerful they are when they are spoken to us, but we often fail to see how powerful our words are when spoken to others.

As children when someone was making fun of us, we would shout, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”

But this is not true.

Words are destructive.

Words kill, words can certainly break us.

Words can stick to our backs like Velcro for many years.

John Eldredge in his book “Wild at Heart” tells the story of Dave.

“Dave remembers the day the wound came.

His parents were having an argument in the kitchen, and his father was verbally abusing his mother.

Dave took his mom’s side, and his father exploded.

“I don’t remember all that was said, but I do remember his last words: ‘You are such a mam’s boy,’ he yelled at me.

Then he walked out… those words fell like a final blow, a death sentence.”

Words Matter

There have been many times I have surrendered to various ministries, only to have well-meaning Christians allow their tongues to become devices of discouragement by giving their opinions about what I should or should not do without their praying about what they were saying.

Words matter.

When my girls were little, I remember this spending quite a bit of time in front of the mirror.

They would sit there and look at themselves.

They would practice putting on makeup.

They would borrow their mothers supplies… And more than once I would be asked the question, daddy, how do I look?

They were asking, “am I beautiful?”

And they were and they are.

But they needed to hear it!

We all need to hear positive words, encouraging words.

Words Matter.

Wives want to hear that they are appreciated and loved.

Words Matter.

Husbands want to hear that they are respected and successful.

Words Matter.

Let’s look at our text.

Open your Bibles to James chapter 3. Remember that James is a book written to Christians who were not living like Christians.

We have seen how to live out a living faith, how to make it through trials and temptations, how to deal with our anger, and how to accept everyone equally.

Now James is going to discuss how we use our words.

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

For we all stumble in many ways.

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

James begins by speaking to the leaders and teachers of the church and community.

This is an uncomfortable couple of verses for anyone who is a teacher of God’s word.

James is saying that it is great to teach if you have the gift, but teaching is not about showing off to people how smart you are.

He is telling us and the people in Jerusalem that the way some of us use words is really an issue of pride.

This can also be taken as a warning for anyone who teaches or communicates at any level.

Communicators are much more susceptible to judgment because they engage in the single activity that is the hardest to keep away from sin.

Our speech.

I believe that the reason James starts with the leaders or the teachers of the church is because the attitudes and culture of a church come from the top down.

It is really a simple leadership principle.

If there are problems in a church, look to the leadership, the pastors, the deacons, the Sunday school teachers.

The problems will usually stem from there.

If you are in leadership, this should cause you to think.

Not everyone is called to lead, but those who do, God expects more from them.

Most people in churches today believe that leaders and teachers have a singular job to do.

To feed their church, to make sure that they get their weekly spiritual fill.

This is because of what Jesus told Peter in John chapter 21.

He told him to feed his sheep.

So, for hundreds of years people have taken that to mean that a pastor’s job was to feed people, and that people or church members had very little responsibility to feed themselves.

Now this makes sense on the surface, but let’s look a little closer and ask ourselves, “have you ever seen a shepherd feeding a sheep?”

Well, have you?

Of course not.

A shepherd’s job is to find good food for a sheep and to lead them to it.

Here is how I see my role as main communicator of this church body.

On Sundays, I want to create a hunger in you and to show you where spiritual food is.

It is your job to eat it, but I am responsible for helping you find it.

I will hand you a napkin, a fork, a knife, even a plate, and a big ole juicy steak and say dig in.

But I cannot nor should I feed it to you, that is your job.

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

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.

So also, the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.

How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!

James then moves onto some colorful use of different images that were common in his day.

Bits in horses’ mouths, rudders on sailing ships and sparks!

Think about moving a horse.

How a small piece of metal in its mouth will allow you to steer and direct an animal that outweighs you by hundreds of pounds.

Kind of like a steering wheel today.

That little wheel in your truck allows you to steer that half ton vehicle.

James is trying to show us that the tongue has the same kind of influence.

Even though it is a small thing its power greatly outweighs its size.

One of the things I believe that James is teaching us is that our words have a great impact on our spiritual lives.

Words Reveal a Person’s Spiritual Condition

Words show us what is inside a person.