Extreme
Makeover: Soul Edition, Part 4
Taming
the Tongue, James 3:1-12
Sunday,
March 23rd, 2014-MRWC
We are in week
four of our series called Extreme Makeover: Soul Edition.
Chances are
pretty good that you are at least familiar with the concept of Extreme
Makeover: home edition…
A family member
will write to the producers of the show telling them that their house is in
dire need of repair, and asks them to consider rebuilding their house.
If you are lucky
enough to be chosen for the show, you have the blessing—or curse—of having Ty
Pennington stand outside your house yelling in his blow horn “GOOD MORNING
GRAHAM FAMILY…”
For the next 60
minutes (44 if you take away the commercials) you are treated to the worst
parts of the home, then we get to see a tremendous amount of people willing to
assist in the demolition and construction, and at the end of the show, we are
able to see the small mansion that has been built for the struggling family.
As if all of
this wasn’t enough to bring water to your eyes, most of the time, the
struggling family is informed that they get to live in this new mansion debt
free, as their mortgage has been paid in full.
All of this
takes place, as I said in under an hour. What we don’t see is back-breaking 24
hours a day 7 days a week work that it takes to transform the house from what
it was, to what it is.
Although they’d
never admit to it, the producers of this show are actually telling us something
about spiritual growth as well: it doesn’t happen overnight.
Spiritual
transformation takes time!
Just as one new
house isn’t completed in 24 hours, your life isn't complete in 24 hours either.
Spiritual
Transformation takes time.
ILLUSTRATION- I am not the person I was
when I first gave my heart to the Lord over 25 years ago.
Nor
am I the man I was 15, 10, or even 5 years ago. I am a different person today
because of my relationship with Jesus Christ.
That
being said, I’m still not the man I need to be. God still has work to perform
in my heart and life.
The
truth be told dear friend, God still has work to do in your life.
You may not be what you once were; but you are not who you need to be. God
still has work to do in our lives.
And
this work takes time. Transformation takes time. We will not become the people
God wants us to become in 24 hours… God can do that! But He generally does His
best work in our lives over the course an entire lifetime.
This
is why practicing the spiritual disciplines are so important.
We
must make the time to read God’s word, we must get away in our prayer closet
and pray, and we must not forsake meeting together.
This is why Paul
wrote: “…train
yourself to be godly.
8 “Physical training is good, but training
for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life
to come.” (1Timothy 4:7-8, NLT2)
Working
on our physical bodies is beneficial and promotes a healthy lifestyle, but
working out our spiritual bodies is much better.
This
is why we are spending the month of March in the book of James.
James
pulls no punches when it comes to how followers of Jesus are to live.
He reminds us
that:
Ø Real
disciples of Jesus will rejoice in the midst of trials, because their faith
will be strengthened.
Ø Real
disciples of Jesus not only to listen to the word, but they do what it says,
because “application
makes all the difference”;
Ø Real
disciples of Jesus are not to show favoritism;
Ø Real
disciples of Jesus are to demonstrate their faith by their deeds;
Ø And
real disciples of Jesus are to keep a tight rein on their tongue.
If
you have your Bibles with you, we’re going to be looking at James 3, but before
we get to that, we need to go back and pick up on the two verses that James
writes related to the tongue and speech before chapter 3.
The
first one comes from James 1:19: “Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all
be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.”(NLT2)
And
then jump down to James 1:26: “If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue,
you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless.” (NLT2)
James
leaves these thoughts on the table, until he gets ready to expound on them,
which he does in chapter 3.
It’s in this passage that he reminds
us that: “The
tongue weighs practically nothing, but so few can hold it.”
Let’s
dive into this passage and see what we might learn from it:
“Dear brothers and
sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach
will be judged more strictly.
2 Indeed, we all
make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect
and could also control ourselves in every other way.” (James 3:1-2, NLT2)
James is
speaking directly to Christ followers and reminding them of the huge
responsibility of teachers; how they have the power to shape lives by what they
say; for either good or bad; so the need to be careful in what they say is
extremely important.
James then goes
on to explain: “We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a
small bit in its mouth.
4 And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot
chooses to go, even though the winds are strong.” (James 3:3-4, NLT2)
James explains what he’s talking about by using examples of
something big making something small move…
First he tells us that a large horse can go wherever we want it to
go by the bit that is in its mouth.
Or, James says, a ship can be manoeuvered wherever the pilot wants
to go, even during a severe windstorm, by a small rudder.
“In the same way, the tongue is a small thing
that makes grand speeches. But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire.”
And the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of
wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire,
for it is set on fire by hell itself.” (James 3:5-6, NLT2)
Even though the tongue is a small
part of the body, it can cause tremendous damage.
Just as a tiny spark can ruin a huge
forest, one ill-spoken word can ruin someone’s life.
ILLUSTRATION:
My youngest daughter, Erica, has her father’s ability to talk.
There are days that she will talk my ear off. She will talk, and talk,
and talk, and talk… and when I think she’s done talking; she’ll talk some more.
I have figured out that I have to be
very careful in what I say to Erica; I don’t want her not to talk, just to talk
a little less…
So I have to choose my words carefully
because one wrong word could slice her little heart…
(FYI,
still working on this, but "Erica could you tone it down just a bit" seems to be working right now)
We’re very good at taming wildlife, but we’re not doing so well when
it comes to taming our tongue. Look at what James says:
“People can tame
all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, 8 but no one can tame the
tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison.
9 Sometimes it
praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made
in the image of God.
10 And so blessing
and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and
sisters, this is not right!” (James 3:7-10, NLT2)
Sometimes I can
praise God and in the very next breath growl at my wife.
Sometimes I can
praise God in the morning and go home and have roast preacher for lunch.
Sometimes I can
proclaim my allegiance to the King of kings, but still yell at that person who
cut me off in traffic…
How is it that I can praise God
in one breath, but in the very next breath curse the people who have been made
in the image of God?
Because my
tongue “…is restless and evil, full of deadly poison.” (James 3:8, NLT2)
So, what can we do about our wicked tongue? How can we use our
tongues for good and not to destroy people who are made in the image of God?
Well, allow me to let you in on a little secret... Actually James lets
us in on the secret and it’s found in verse 8: “no one can tame the tongue.” (James 3:8, NLT2)
There is no person on planet earth that can help you tame your
tongue. There is no self-help book that you can read that will help you control
your tongue.
But God can!
And it begins with what we put into our minds; for what goes into the mind comes
out in a life.
Hear the words of Jesus: “A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t
produce good fruit.
44 A
tree is identified by its fruit. Figs are never gathered from thornbushes, and
grapes are not picked from bramble bushes.
45 A
good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil
person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart.
What
you say flows from what is in your heart.” (Luke 6:43-45, NLT2)
The
tongue gives voice to what is in the heart; to clean the tongue, we must
cleanse the heart!
James picks up the same train of thought:
“Does
a spring of water bubble out with both fresh water and bitter water?
12
Does a fig tree produce olives, or a grapevine produce figs? No, and you can’t
draw fresh water from a salty spring.” (James 3:11-12, NLT2)
The
tongue gives voice to what is in the heart; to clean the tongue, we must
cleanse the heart!
David prayed: “Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me.”
(Psalm 51:10, NLT2)
In order to ensure that the words we are using are good, we must ask God
to transform our hearts and remove any evil that we may have put
into our lives and replace it with the Good things that should be in our lives.
That’s the first thing we must do, ask God to transform our heart.
The second is equally as challenging: Put your filter on.
ILLUSTRATION- If
you were to come to my house and ask for a glass of water, I would immediately
go to my fridge and take out my Britta Water Pitcher and grab you a Montréal
Canadiens cup and pour you a tall glass of water.
I like using the Britta water
pitcher because it has a water filter in it that— supposedly— gets rid of some
of the junk in the water and makes it nice and pure.
If we are going
to use our tongues for good we must put a filter on.
David wrote in
Psalm 141: “Take
control of what I say, O Lord, and guard my lips.
4 Don’t let me drift toward evil or take part in acts of
wickedness. Don’t let me share in the delicacies of those who do wrong.” (Psalm 141:3-4, NLT2)
Do you need to
install a filter? Do you need to be careful with the words you use? Remember just because we
can say something doesn’t mean we should say something.
Do you need to
replace the evil that’s going in to your heart and coming out of your mouth with
Good things?
The good news of
Jesus is that this is completely possible! But it takes work on our part…
We will not
become better users of our tongue on our own, we need to ask God to cleanse our
heart and insert a filter on our mouths…
So as the band
comes back, if God has been speaking to you, reminding you that your words
haven’t been so sweet as of late, or you need to stop watching R rated movies,
because your speech is R rated, then please take this opportunity to make
things right with God..
You can come to
the alter and someone will pray with you; you can remain where you are and ask
someone to pray for you; but please understand this: you can’t control your
tongue on your own…
You need an
Extreme Makeover, and it begins by praying: “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of
my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.” (Psalm
19:14, NIV)
If God has been
speaking to your heart and you want to come and pray, please do so as we sing….
