Sermon Tone Analysis

*Beware of the Tongue*

Preacher James C. Orchard

Tuesday , May 29, 2007

/James 3:1-12/

/ /

*Topic:* Teachers take caution with your words

*What is the desired result:* That the listener will respect the power of the tongue when one is teaching.

*Intro*

The tongue is part of some famous times

 

            *Abraham Lincoln*,

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and  edicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

*Neil Armstrong *

That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

*Dr.

King*

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live   out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

And not so famous times

 

            *Adolph Hitler *

It was the first time that television was used to broadcast a sporting event.

"Christianity is a rebellion against natural law, a protest against nature.

Taken to its logical extreme, Christianity would mean the systematic cultivation of the human failure."

*Madalyn Murray O'Hare,*

"An Atheist seeks to know himself then and his fellow rather than to know a god.

An Atheist understands that a hospital must be built instead of a church.

An Atheist knows that a deed must be done instead of a prayer said.

An Atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death.

*How about personally *

           

The first word spoken by your child

The first time you said I love you

The day you said I do

            Or

The time you lost your cool with your spouse

Words let slip at a co-worker

 

This passage is James writing about the nature of the tongue

Last time speaking to you

Graduating from seminary

Graduating to the next chapter.

*I.

*

*Teacher and anyone who is In the position to inform or influence*

/Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.

2 We all stumble in many ways.

If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.

/

/ /

                        *I came across this story*

      *H**enrietta Mears* is undoubtedly the greatest Christian education genius of our time.

As Christian ed director of Hollywood Presbyterian Church during the 1940s and 1950s she built the Sunday school to the then unheard of proportions of 4,000.

At the end of her life Teacher, as she was affectionately called, could count no less than 400 young people who went into Christian service under her direct influence.

Thumbing through her biography I noted photographs of seminarians who came through her college department, including such later notables as Richard Halverson, chaplain of the United States Senate, and several prominent pastors and theologians.

She took young Billy Graham under her wing, and also Bill Bright, who would go on to found Campus Crusade for Christ.

She was a woman of immense personal influence.

In contrast a teacher named

 

* Jim Jones*.

Images of the rotting bodies of hundreds of people in the infamous Jonestown massacre — an unforgettable testimony of the influence of a teacher for evil.

We must realize what power teachers have at crucial times in tender lives — to crush the bloom or make it eternally flower!

Teacher is an important office

Up there with apostles and prophets

/2 Tim.

//4:16// says,/

/ “Watch how you live and what you teach...because if you do these things you will save the people who listen to you.”/

1 Co 12:28.

/And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers,/

*II*

*The tongue controls *

/3 When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal.

4 Or take ships as an example.

Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go.

/

 

Rider and bit can make horse act unnaturally

 

Small rudder at the whim of the pilot can make big changes with small movement

 

Personal experience Math class

 

*III*

*The tongue destroys *

/5 Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts.

Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.

6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body.

It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

/

 

*Gossip.

*

* *

Gossip often veils itself in acceptable conventions such as

"Have you heard. . .

?"

or

"Did you know. . .

?"

or

"They tell me . . ."

or

"Keep this to yourself, but . . ."

or

"I don't believe it's true, but I heard that . . ."

or

"I wouldn't tell you, except that I know it will go no further."

Of course, the most infamous such rationalization in Christian circles is,

 

 "I am telling you this so you can pray."

*Innuendo*

A cousin of gossip

example

Consider the ship's first mate who after a drunken binge was written up by the captain on the ship's log: "mate drunk today."

The mate's revenge?

Some months later he wrote on his own entry, "captain sober today."

So it goes with the word unsaid, the awkward silence

* *

*Flattery.*

Gossip is saying behind a person's back what you would never say to his or her face; flattery is saying to a person's face what you would never say behind his or her back.

The Scriptures warn us repeatedly against flatterers, for they are destructive people who carry a legion of unwholesome motives.

Psalm 12:2

/They //// speak ////falsehood to one another;/