Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
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Tone of specific sentences
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Tonight I want to talk to you about a monster.
A husband and wife were discussing the pastor’s sermon on the way home one Sunday.
This particular man was known to talk way too much and the pastor’s sermon convicted him about his bad habit.
When he told his wife about his feelings, she asked, “Well, what are you going to do about it?”
“Well,” he replied, “I guess what I need to do is to go up front and lay my tongue on the altar.”
The wife was quiet for a moment, then she said, “Sweetheart, I’m not sure our old altar was built sturdy enough to hold a monster like that!”
Tonight I want us to talk about the monster in your mouth—your tongue.
I call our tongues monsters because of the way the Bible speaks in *James 3:1-12*.
This is a warning passage, meant to flash in our minds like a sign on the road that says DANGER: SLIPPERY AHEAD.
The warning is not meant to keep us from talking, but it is meant to warn us to watch our words, because they are powerful, they can be destructive and twisted.
James warns us of the danger of a mouth not controlled by the Holy Spirit./
/Read with me in *v.
1-5* and let’s see how you and I can beware the monster in our mouth.
*PRAYER*
Apparently the folks in James’ day struggled the same as we do to muzzle our mouths.
A quick glance through the epistle reveals how often he hits on the subject:
*Jas 1:19* /So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath…/
*Jas 1:26* /If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless./
*Jas 4:11* /Do not speak evil of one another, brethren…/
*Jas 5:9* /Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned…/
It’s a little comforting to know other Christians share this struggle.
But it also makes the warnings here all the more urgent: /beware the monster in your mouth.
/ He outlines 3 dangers:
*1. **The monster in your mouth is small, but powerful.
(v.
1-5a)*
Some of the most dangerous monsters in the world are also the smallest—some of them so
small you can’t even see them.
A virus so tiny it takes a powerful microscope to see can put you in the bed, or cripple your health, or even kill you.
In the same way, your tongue is a small but powerful member of your body.
The Bible says
*Pr 18:21* /Death and life are in the power of the tongue…/
That sounds pretty powerful to me!
This is why James stresses the reality that /your tongue is small, but powerful./
He fleshes out this idea in several ways.
He begins with a warning to those who teach in the church in *vs.
1-2*.
He’s not trying to discourage you from being a teacher, but he is stressing the fact that a teacher~/preacher’s words carry a lot of impact.
You influence a few people in a private conversation, but a teacher~/preacher influences a larger group when he speaks to them.
No matter how small your words seem to you, they are like stones ripple out into a larger influence.
God holds the teacher~/accountable for their words.
This doesn’t mean God demands perfection.
James admits we all get tripped up in many areas, but our goal is to become a person who /….does not stumble in word….a
perfect /[mature]/ man, able also to bridle the whole body.
/(*v.
2*).
He gives us three images to help us nail down this concept.
First in *vs.
3* is the image of a bit in a horses’ mouth.
John Macarthur writes:
This illustration is particularly appropriate, because the bit lies on top of a horse’s tongue, and when attached to the bridle and reins, it is possible for the rider…to easily make the horse obey.
Even gentle horses, which have been ridden for many years, are not controllable without *bits* in their *mouths.*[i]
The teacher~/preacher has to learn to control the small, but powerful monster in their mouth.
Secondly, in *vs.
4* is the image of a rudder of a ship.
The boats of James’ day were nowhere near as large as the ones of our day, and yet the rudder which controlled them was very small compared the rest of the vessel.
This tiny rudder had the power to turn the biggest boat in any direction.
The teacher~/preacher has to control the direction in which the small, but powerful monster in their mouth leads others.
/The monster in your mouth is small, but very powerful.
/Warren Wiersbe writes:
Never underestimate the power of speech.
A judge says a few words, and a man’s life is saved or condemned.
A doctor speaks a few words, and a patient either rejoices ecstatically or gives up in despair…I am told that for every word in Adolph Hitler’s book /Mein Kampf/, 125 persons lost their lives in World War II.
[ii]
/Never underestimate the small, but powerful monster in your mouth./
James goes on to give us a second warning:
*2. **The monster in your mouth is destructive and wild.
(v.
5b-8)*
Some of you may have read the story of the famous naturalist and grizzly bear lover Timothy Treadwell.
For 13 years, Treadwell camped in several Alaskan parks but Katmai National Park was a favorite, crawling and walking up close to bears and filming them.
Often attempting to touch both cubs and adults, he would also try to communicate with them through various means.
He seemed to believe he had a special relationship with the animals.
But in October 2003, he and his girlfriend, camped near a group of bears, were killed and partially eaten by one of the grizzlies.
At some point Timothy Treadwell lost sight of the fact that these weren’t teddy bears, they were wild grizzlies, monsters who can and will kill you.
James warns us not to forget how destructive and wild the monster in your mouth is.
Again, he uses images to get his point across.
In *vs.
5b-6* He pictures the tongue as a spark that ignites a forest fire.
Where I come from, in GA, there are a lot of pine trees.
Some folks grow pine trees to supply the nearby paper mills, so you can imagine how thickly they are planted together.
During one especially dry season, there were a lot of fires near us, and many houses—including our own---were often in danger.
Some of those fires were almost impossible to stop, once they got going.
How did they begin?
With just a spark.
James says the monster in your mouth is as destructive as that fire.
He goes so far as to say in *vs.
6* the monster in your mouth …/is set on fire by hell! /Our words are one of Satan’s favorite tools to do his work.
He loves to use careless words to destroy families, friendships, reputations—even churches.
It only takes one wrong word, said to the wrong person, at the wrong time, and you’re looking at destruction that may never be undone.
In *vs.
7-8* James pictures the tongue as a wild animal that cannot be tamed.
His list is not literal; he’s not saying there are /no /animals that can’t be tamed.
He’s making a comparison: you can tame almost all animals, but no human being can fully tame their tongue.
It can get loose from you, if it is not reined in.
I found this out in a rather humorous way a few years ago when I went to the dentist and they had to work on my some of my back teeth.
I don’t do dentists very well, and so I get a little nervous sitting in that chair, waiting to be picked on, scraped, or drilled.
My nerves show up the worst when they ask me to hold my tongue still.
I couldn’t do it!
You should have seen the dentist and his assistant, trying to hold down my tongue, while I helplessly sat there consumed with embarrassment.
I literally couldn’t tame my tongue.
You need help taming the monster in your mouth, too.
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