Sermon Tone Analysis

Taming the Tongue

Intro

James 3:1-12

Pray

One of the most prevalent axioms of our faith doesn’t come directly from this text today, but our text does, at least for me, bring it to mind.

And that is this text.

Out of the abundance of our hearts our mouth speaks.

It’s true too.

You don’t need the Bible, you don’t even need faith to tell you its true.

You just need to live for a littel bit, and you will know that this truth is absolute.

I mean, you can fake almost anything for a while, but eventually, your words, either in private or public, will expose what was in your heart the whole time.

You see, words are the result of our thoughts.

That is what Jesus is getting at.

But they are also the guide for other thoughts.

When James says that our tongues, or our words, are like the rudder on a boat, such a small part of a large vessel, but the very thing that guides it, we need to pay attention!

We need to pay attention, because our tongues, our words, guide our lives, whether we acknowledge that or not.

One of the most prevalant axioms of our faith doesn’t come from this text today, but this text does, at least for me, bring it to mind.

Input becomes Output

What do I mean by that?

Well, basically, whatever we put in to ourselves, will eventually be the very things that come out.

So if you think good thoughts and read good words, then you will say and do good things.

But James takes a view that serves as complimentary to Jesus’ words here.

He is looking at it from a human point of view, and trying to show us the real challenge that we face!

You see, when most people hear that out of the abundance of our hearts our mouths speaks, we naturally respond, almost universally, in one way.

We stop talking.

We do! Listen this is something we have heard our whole lives!

If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all!

If there is nothing good in you just clam up!

That adage comes from this idea!

If bad words come from someone with a bad heart, then the best way to show the world you have a good heart is to have good words!

So if you have bad words, it is best that you don’t say them!

So whatever we put in to our lives, will eventually come out, Jesus says.

If we are good, then good will come out.

If bad, bad.

By the way, now is a good time to mention that if you think you are good, that Jesus Himself asked why the rich young ruler called him good.

No, we are human, and therefore, we tend to settle towards the “not so good” side of the spectrum by and large.

Now I’m not saying that we are bad, rather, that we tend to think bad thoughts, especially about other people, right?

And not only bad thoughts, but just wrong thoughts.

Humans tend to want to have an established opinion immediately after finding out about whatever situation they might be in…or whatever situation others might be in.

Have you heard about...

Y’all, know what I’m talking about.

And listen, I don’t mean to go to meddling, but this is a real problem for Christians, and it effects everyone!

Have you heard about Juanita?

It’s a shame, I know.

Oh but did you hear about Arlo?

Oh I can’t believe it!

That’s us right?

We gossip.

We talk about other people.

We take what little we know and project it out into their entire lives!

But we don’t do it in public, because we don’t want people to think we are bad.

So we convince ourselves that if we do it in private, its okay.

At least there, no one will know that we don’t like that fella, or don’t approve of this or that.

There in the secret meetings between friends we can expose all of those things we disagree with, but would never want the world to know about.

That output - words from an otherwise kind and loving soul offered to someone in private - it may seem innocent.

It may seem harmless.

But it can and will set your world, and maybe this whole world, on fire.

It can set things on fire, because our words, the output of our hearts, can become the input for our hearts, and the hearts of others as well.

So not only does input become output, but our output becomes our input.

Output becomes Input

It doesn’t take much to prove this point either.

If in life, you find yourself in a string of bad luck, and you start saying things like, “Nothing ever goes my way,” you will find that everything starts falling apart!

But it really isn’t falling apart any more than it ever was before, you just happen to notice it since you are expecting it to happen!

So the output becomes the input, and then becomes a self fulfilling prophecy!

And our words said to each other, even those said in private are no different!

If all our output is bitterness, or anger, or judgement, or gossip, or back room deals, or whatever made up reality we push ourselves to believe, then our thoughts will tend toward those same ends!

And the more we guide our thoughts with our tongues the more we will become those very things!

We will become bitter and angry.

Nothing anyone does will ever be good enough.

Or the things they do will always be questioned by us.

We find evil in everything.

And to be honest, we become the very source of that evil instead of its cure.

Basically, if we allow our tongues to follow the nature of the human heart, we will find that we will begin to fuel our lives on the misery and pain of others.

We will look to failure.

We will anticipate ill motives.

We will seek to appease our own needs before ever even thinking of doing something for anyone else regardless of recompence.

We turn our hearts away from God and towards ourselves.

And when that happens, church, no matter how much light and love we think we are putting in our souls - whether through preaching, reading our bibles, praying; whatever - no matter how much of that you do, you can’t cram enough of it in there to change.

I mean, there isn’t even room!

No we have to let go of our pathological need for control and hand that rudder to God!

We have to hold our tongue!

We have place the bit in our own mouths and trust God to guide our words and ultimately our thoughts so that our hearts can be filled by Him alone!

And when our hearts are filled with Him, we won’t even want to think the worst of people, because God Himself doesn’t!

Listen, if God thought the worst of us, He would have never sent His Son!

Why on earth would He send such a precious gift to people you can’t stand or don’t respect?

No God sent us that gift because He thinks the best of us!

And when we allow Him to guide our thoughts AND our words, we will begin to think the best of this world, its people, and even our own situations too!

Memorialday

In a way, that is what this national holiday is all about.

Today we remember those who died for us.

In our place.

Those who, through no fault of their own, and through no intent of their own, were thrown into the fire of war.

A world of unrighteousness.

Those who could have easily looked for the worst in the situation and given up, but who chose to instead allow God to guide them through the fire.

That fire, started by the tongues of men, burns with no care for class or position, or good and evil.

No, what war teaches us is that once that fire is lit, it can only be put out with blood, and the fire doesn’t care if that blood is innocent, good, or evil.

That is, in fact, the entire problem with war.

a.

I say that, because the holiday we celebrate this weekend, Memorial Day, is a day that demands honesty.

…we commemorate the lives offered in sacrifice to this nation, and this world; and because of that sacrifice, the sacrifice of those who walked in our place, we owe them at least a little honesty.