Taming the Untamable Tongue — Shane Idleman

The Tongue as a Measure of Spiritual Maturity

I'm going to talk to you tonight from James chapter 3. So if you have your Bibles, you can turn to James chapter 3. And you know what this topic is about, don't you? The tongue. So the title of the message is Taming the Untameable Tongue.

Does anybody want to do that? Have you mastered this, Larry? You got it? No? Okay. I haven't either, so don't feel bad. It's an interesting topic because taming means to subdue something so it's easier to control.

Like if you tame an animal or you tame a wild horse or something, you're making something easier to control. And the Bible puts it back on us to tame our tongue, this unruly little thing that gets us in all kinds of trouble.

And don't think it doesn't include e-mails and text messaging and now Facebook, the media, and that tongue is what gets us in trouble. This little thing is what we take it from here, from our heart, and we push it out through our mouth.

And that's what James is going to talk about. Chapter 3. My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we will receive a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.

That's interesting because he's saying if you're able to tame the tongue, you're a self-disciplined person. You can tame your whole body. If you're able to tame the tongue, you are a person of self-discipline.

Perfect doesn't mean what we think perfect. It usually means complete, lacking nothing. If you're able to tame that, you're able to tame other issues that go along with character. Verse 3. Indeed, we put bits in horses' mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body.

The Tongue’s Power to Direct and Destroy

Look also at ships. Also they are so large and are driven by fierce winds. They are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so, the tongue is a little member and boasts great things.

See how great a forest a little fire kindles. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire by hell.

He's not mincing any words, is he? He's crystal clear there that the tongue, and you know, marriage problems, where does it start? Issues at church or at work, where does it start? The tongue, because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth is going to speak.

And that's what gets us in trouble. The tongue is what causes wars. The tongue is what's causing a lot of division right now, especially in our nation. But let's go back up to the top. Teachers speak into the lives of others, offering advice, guidance, and direction.

So James is saying, if you want to become a teacher, first I think he's doing two things. He's warning people that you will receive a stricter judgment. If you're going to be a teacher of God's Word, and you're going to proclaim what God's Word says, you're going to be held under a stricter judgment by God, because you're saying, not necessarily thus saith the Lord, but you're saying here's the counsel of God, according to the Bible, this is what we recommend, and you're held to that standard.

But I also believe, let not many of you become teachers, is a lot of people in the church were wanting this position of, I guess, would be prestige. And everybody's wanting to be a teacher. If I could just be a teacher, if I could just, now it's a church, if I could just get my name on the PowerPoint, if I could just sing on the worship team, if I could just be center stage, and that's not, number one, that's not the right type of attitude to have when God calls you to the ministry.

So, so many people that were desiring to teach, he says, hold on, you better be doing it for the right reasons, because you're going to have a stricter judgment upon your life if you say the wrong things.

Elevated position, there are ulterior motives, and false teachers are of this kind, they have ulterior motives, they're going to be held under very strict judgment. Controlling the tongue is a mark of maturity.

Perfect often means complete, which we just talked about. And you'll notice, if you can control your tongue, often, you are fairly mature in the faith. Have you ever noticed this? That those who are not very mature in the faith just like to go crazy with their tongue, or on email, Facebook, wherever, out of the abundance of that heart, the mouth, the speaking.

So a sign of spiritual maturity is what do you do with this? This? It's a sign of maturity with the tongue, and how we treat others. Those in leadership positions can do a lot of harm with the tongue.

And it's not just leadership, because you might think, well, church leadership or whatever, but also in your home, especially fathers. Roberts talks about life and death are in the power of the tongue.

You can literally murder with your mouth, not physically, but you can break a person down so much that they feel worthless, and ashamed, and belittled. And if you've been there, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

That tongue can really lash out, especially if it's little kids. You can really hurt them as they grow older. And that tongue is bringing life. It's hell set on fire. And there are moms that are mean to their kids, or spouses that are mean to each other, and that sets the whole house on fire.

Words of leaders direct the entire church, and I think that's why James is putting a standard on here. Let not many of you be teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. Usually, the leadership of the church will direct the direction of the church.

They'll propel a church into a certain direction, good or bad, indifferent, whatever it is, that leadership will direct the church in being careful in that area. So, I'm sure you want to know more about taming the tongue.

Confession, Accountability, and Bringing Sin into the Light

First step, you have to admit that there's a problem, right? We don't want to admit that there's a problem, but there is a problem. Gossip, lying, embellishing, slander, angry words, mean words, all of these are things that are not pleasing to God.

So the first step in order to tame this tongue is to admit, I have a problem with my tongue. What's interesting, when you bring something out into the open, when you bring sin to the light, it loses its power.

Sin loves to grow in darkness, and I often think of a cockroach. You ever turn on the lights and you see those things run sometimes? Out in the garage or outside or whatever, maybe in your house? But you turn on the light and they run, and that's what sin, sin's the same way.

If you expose it and say, okay, I have to work on this area, help me, you tell somebody, there's accountability there. Now, accountability in and of itself doesn't do anything, because you can just go right around the accountability, but it adds an extra level of protection because you're confessing it before others.

There's power in that. Sin loses its grip. It starts losing that grip. You confess it and you begin to work on this area. And I would suggest that most of the marriage counseling that we've seen over the years, that I'm sure you've done before, you look at most of the marriage problems that we are seeing, it's because of the tongue.

Angry outbursts, belittling, controlling, all these things that go with the tongue. So here's what I try to do. Here's biblical precepts for this. To tame the untameable tongue, which I believe it is tameable, through the power of the Holy Spirit working in your life.

Responding Rather Than Reacting

First thing, remember this. This will help in a lot of different areas. Respond to someone, don't react. Boy, that's hard, isn't it? Because somebody hits you, you want to hit them back. They hit you with harsh words, you want to hit them back with harsh words.

So usually what I try to do, and it happens a lot in email, maybe I'll share this Sunday, but a popular author just came out in support of gay marriage. And I wrote an article, and it's on the Christian Post and Charisma News, and a lot of different organizations are picking it up.

And I wish I could tell you that all the comments were positive. But they are not positive. And you get emails and you see comments on Facebook threads, and I want to react. And I want to react, but I haven't yet.

I haven't responded either. But it's hard, you have to fight that, because they're so misled. The battle really isn't over that, it's over this. That's what this is really about. If this is true, if this is inerrant, if this is God's Word, then there's no question.

There's no question at all. But when it comes to, well, that really didn't say this. I mean, it says not to eat shrimp, too. Shellfish. I mean, it can't be. And that's where the whole fight is over. And I get things like that.

And so do you. Somebody says something, you want to react and react. And so part of maturity is responding. So when your spouse says something you don't want to hear instead of reacting, take a walk. That's usually when I go check the mail.

Or take out the trash. This is the real service, Wednesday, right? You're going to be real here. But Morgan does it as well. We don't have this perfect household, there's difficulties. The kids sometimes, it's very challenging.

And the best thing to do is to respond. And that sometimes involves changing your atmosphere, changing what you're doing. I went into my office and just put on worship music. Or take a drive and change that so I can respond.

Have I done that successfully? No, I have not. But that's the biblical principle, is to respond in love and not react. Here's another thing. When I react, usually there's an apology that will follow. But when I respond, there's no apologies needed.

That's a big difference. Also, the New Testament. Believe it or not, the New Testament encourages us to err on the side of grace. So if we're going to err on anything, we're not supposed to err on the side of judgment.

And judging and being critical all the time. We're to err on the side of grace. Because our human nature is to go this way. So to err on the side of grace and allowing things to just... Listen, so many people offended me over the last few years that I just have to let a lot of that go.

Same with you, I'm sure. Erring on the side of grace. Not having to get the last word in and challenge everything. So as you're responding, as you're just going to err on the side of grace, another thing is to hear both sides.

Hearing Both Sides Before Answering

Hear both sides. Try to understand what a person is saying. Let them understand what you're saying. Or if it comes to saying something about others, hear both sides of the equation. Proverbs says to hear both sides.

And whoever answers a matter before hearing both sides is a fool. And you know what often changes, doesn't it? You'll hear one side and you'll get all fired up. I'm fired up. And then you hear this side and you're like, wait a minute.

You didn't tell me this and this and this. That changes things, doesn't it? And you start to see things different when you hear both sides. And then that way, once you hear both sides, your tongue with your words are measured.

They're calculated. You've sought wisdom and you know what's going on. Another point. Remember that Satan loves anger and division. He thrives in it. I often wonder how much division does he actually bring into the church and how much is self-created.

Because he's working. A church like this, too, he wants us to divide and get angry over non-essential issues that aren't essential to anything. And bring division in there. And start to bring disunity instead of unity.

Start to bring division. And then what happens with your tongue when there's division? Nobody knows, right? Come on. It gets going. That untameable tongue starts saying things it shouldn't say. That's where we start to belittle or gossip or slander or bring division.

And always remember this. You can encourage division or you can quench it by the words we say. What do we do with our tongue? I already mentioned this. Facebook, texting, and emails reflect your tongue.

Renewing the Mind to Transform Speech

And as we all know, the mind controls the tongue. Be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. You're changing your mind. And it does work. The Word of God is as sure as it is written.

It works if you meditate on it and you look to it. You can change your thoughts which change your tongue. Many of you know if you've had an anger problem in your past and you've been able to conquer that.

How have you been able to conquer that? Through taming the mind which then tames the tongue. That's really anger. At the root of anger often is pride or not getting my way or selfishness. You ever see a little kid get angry?

Why do they get angry? It's time to do your homework. It's time to go. It's time to go to bed. No, that's not yours. No, you can't have that candy. Why, why, why? Anger, anger, anger, anger. So anger is often why we go off on people.

And why the tongue is hurting and damaging people because we're angry. So if we can transform our thoughts and harness anger then we'll have much better control over our words. And always remember words cannot be erased.

Wouldn't you rather just not say anything? Because once you say it that can't be erased. And to encourage you, I just talked with somebody recently who is very depressed at the words he said. And what it's doing to his marriage and can't get those words back.

But although they cannot be erased you can quench, you can quench that fire. You've started a fire with your tongue. You can quench that fire even though you can't erase it. You can go and now rebuild and build that person back up.

And there's something, I don't remember who came up with it, but about emotional deposits. You know if you're making more withdrawals into somebody's emotional bank account you're not going in a good direction.

You have to make more deposits into that emotional bank account. You have to invest in them, invest in them. So if you say something that maybe is difficult they're more willing to take it unless you're always withdrawing.

And always pulling out things that aren't healthy and always putting a person down. You wonder why they're not happy in marriage. You wonder why we're seeing what we're seeing because it's a constant drain on the person.

See how great a forest a little fire kindles. What he's saying, many of you know I got back from Hume Lake and that fire up there last year was, I could not believe how large it was. All the mountaintops it took and all the valleys it was just, it was black.

But how did that start? Lightning hit one little area in a valley, just a little, the brush was so thick and same thing with the tongue. It starts that little fire going and it fuels that fire and it's hard to kindle it.

Human Willpower Cannot Tame the Tongue

So that's what he says about the tongue and then he goes into verse 7. For every kind of beast and bird and reptile and creature of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no one can tame the tongue.

It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison. And I think the point he's making there is self-discipline isn't enough. Willpower isn't enough and I kind of laugh sometimes when I talk to people and go I just got to try better.

I just got to try better. No, you've got to change your heart. As the heart changes, as the well that everything springs out of changes, your words change. See it's the well. I've got a river of living water flowing out of me or I've got just a cesspool coming out.

You've got to change that living water to change the tongue. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father and with it we curse men who have been made in the image of God.

Out of the same mouth proceed blessings and cursings. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. So James, obviously this was a problem in the early church, wasn't it? Did you ever read the Bible and go wow that sounds real familiar?

That was 2 ,000 years ago. See nothing has changed and the reason James is confronting this is obviously it was acceptable or people weren't being challenged. They were cursing their fellow believers and then they were praising God.

They were cursing at their spouse, they were praising God. And he's saying you can't have both of those things going on. One or the other will prevail. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening?

No. What he's asking, it's a rhetorical question. Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives or a grape vine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh. So it has to be the right spring because no spring can yield both.

You're either going to yield salt water or you're going to yield fresh water. And it's really about the battle within. Rather than excusing our actions, James says that we should not allow this contradiction.

So the church was allowing this contradiction in their life. And James is saying don't allow this anymore. You have to take a stand. And what I hear often for people excuse their tongue or anger is they say I'm German.

I'm Irish. I'm Cuban. I'm Italian. Well, is there a nationality that doesn't lose their temper? And people say it's an excuse. I'm just passionate. I'm just opinionated. You don't understand me. And say no, no, you've got a mean tongue.

You've got an unruly tongue that needs repentance. And so you excuse I'm going through a lot or I'm taking time off to do this. And I've been through this and I'm going through that. That's why I'm doing this.

It doesn't matter. We're able still, Paul says, or Peter says, James says, golly. You've got James, Paul, I'm working on acts today too with Peter being filled with the Spirit and in front of the religious leaders who are putting them in jail.

And I've got that and then this comes up. So James, I'm sure Peter and Paul would say that too. But he's saying here you can't make excuses. That's what they're doing. The blessings, they're at church, blessings are coming out and the cursings are coming out.

And he's saying that ought not be. Because really when that's happening is you can walk a fine line of being a hypocrite or walking that fine line of not being filled with the Spirit and you're playing church.

Now we all cross that line. We all make mistakes. But the person filled with the Spirit of God is quick to get back on track. They're quick to repent and repair that damage that they did. And then James exposes where evil words come from.

The Wisdom from Above

Verse 13, Who is wise and understanding among you? So he's asking you. Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth.

This wisdom does not descend from above, but it is earthly, sensual, and demonic. Wow. He's saying if there's bitter envy and self-seeking in our hearts, we do not boast. What we're doing is we're lying against the truth.

This wisdom, which is not wisdom, this foolishness, descends from earthly and sensual and demonic influence. Where there is envy and self-seeking, confusion and every evil thing are there. Envy is like, I sure wish.

I sure wish I had a family like they have and kids like they have. And you start to envy and get jealous and get upset. And these things are demonic. It's not wise to do that. But wisdom that is from above, from God, is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.

Now, I had to fill in my name in that blank there. Shane is peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy, without partiality, not judging, without hypocrisy. How are you doing on that list? Now, the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

He's basically saying, is what I've been saying all along, is his lifestyle or our lifestyle must match our faith. Our lifestyle must match our faith. And I picked out something from P .H. Davids. He's a commentator on the Epistle of James.

He said the problem is that zeal, you know, being zeal is zealous. You're energetic. You're passionate. It can be a good thing, it can be a bad thing. He said the problem is that zeal, passion, can easily become blind fanaticism, bitter strife or a disguised form of rivalry and thus jealousy.

The person sees himself as jealous for the truth, but God and others see the bitterness, rigidity and personal pride, which are far from the truth. So he's saying just because a person is zealous and passionate for something doesn't mean that they are seeking God's heart.

They're jealous. They're envious if they're not practicing what James just said, practicing the truth. And we are called, it's interesting because people say that on Facebook and different places, especially today, people are saying about the article that we're not supposed to judge.

Judge not, love your brother. Judge not, love your brother. But we are called to be fruit inspectors, and we are called to judge and discern things. Jesus says remove the plank from your eye, and then you can see better to remove the speck from your brother.

So once you get your heart right, you're able to judge and discern. John says we're to discern all things. We're to be fruit inspectors using wisdom. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy, and good fruits.

Purity, Peace, and Refusing to Negotiate Truth

So let's talk about that first one before I conclude. Purity leads to clean hands in the Bible. Genesis 25 is a good reference. When a person is pure, they have clean hands and a pure heart. They haven't lifted up their soul to an idol.

Their hands are pure. There's innocence there, Psalms 26. You have this idea of purity, a little child. We talk about purity often, the pure years, and the purity you see there. Back when Miley Cyrus was at Disneyland, right?

Eight years old, now a big difference. What happened? That purity is gone. The innocence has been gone. But we're supposed to have that purity and that innocence. And actually in Amos 4, 6, an empty stomach is related to purity.

And if you read that context there, Amos is talking to the people and calling a sacred assembly and getting them back on track and having an empty stomach, being fasting before God, being broken before the Lord, and not letting King's stomach dominate and just having an innocence there and a purity there as you seek God and not taking up lustful desires.

Purity is related to guiltless, blameless, or innocent behavior. So as Christians, we're supposed to have this wise as a serpent, and it's hard for me, men, type A personalities, to have this wise as a serpent yet gentle as a dove.

Just gentle and guiltless and peaceable and pure and just loving and almost gullible, even though that's not the right word, but this Reagan, trust but verify. You know, Ronald Reagan, for some of you.

I wish he was running again, right? Oh, here I go again. I'm just going to come back. I'm coming back, Larry. Goodness gracious. Peaceable. Purity, peaceable. This is interesting about being a peacemaker.

A .W. Tozer said, We are called to be peacemakers but not religious negotiators. So you never negotiate the truth in order to be a peacemaker. In order to have peace with someone, have peace with someone, then you can't necessarily always be on the same page.

So that's why Paul says, As much as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all men. And I had a lady a while back ask me about, I don't know what group she was with, but I spoke at a pastor's conference.

And she talked about being Catholics and Protestants coming together more on different issues. And I was trying to explain, trying to find that balance. You know, come together on abortion or come together for voting for the right person.

And why can't it just all come together as peace? And I tried to explain that doctrinal challenges, the doctrinal issues, that what, say, Roman Catholicism believes and what Protestantism, you can't, I can go to lunch with the priest, but I couldn't worship with the priest.

It's a different, it just, so as much as I want to be peaceable with them, I can't come alongside and walk the same doctrinal path because there are so many differences that it would take me an hour to try to talk about those differences.

So when it comes to worshiping God and being on the same page on theological issues, there are areas where you can't necessarily find that middle ground. Because being unified with God sometimes means you're not going to be unified with others.

Especially in this whole debate about gay marriage and transgender and all this. I can be loving, so can you. I can be full of peace, so can you. But when you say, you know, I just don't agree with that.

Well, that's narrow-minded, that's bigoted. You're not seeking peace. Yeah, well, I'm seeking peace with God and His Word, and then you have to line up with that. We have this concept that peace, maybe it started back in the 60s.

That you just, you know, it's just all come together and put everything aside and that's good. But when it comes to worship issues, when it comes to truth issues, it's hard to live at peace with all people.

Because when you're adhering to God's Word, many people will not be able to follow along with that. So that's why Tozer said, we are to be peacemakers but not negotiators. We don't negotiate the truth.

See, it actually would be impossible. Why can't Mormons and Jehovah Witness and you guys all just come together and be peaceful? Well, because we disagree on very foundational points that if you come together, then now you give certain organizations credit and it's almost you are encouraging or validating what they believe.

And that's where the danger is. And you try to find that balance. Again, I could go to lunch with a Mormon, but you couldn't worship because it's a different God. It's a different Jesus. We will never be at peace.

That's why world peace is a concept that can never happen. We pray for it. We pray for the peace of Jerusalem. But how can you get ISIS to come together with America? How can you get Muslim nations to come together with Roman Catholic nations and all these?

Because see how it doesn't work that way. So that's why Paul says, as much as it depends upon up to you, live at peace with all people. So we can disagree but still be hospitable. And everything he just said was perfect.

But the wisdom that is from is there's a pureness, there's an innocence. I'm a peacemaker. I'm gentle. I'm willing to yield. I'm full of mercy, good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy. No, I'm not.

I was just saying that. I'm a work in progress too. The peace one is interesting because this gay marriage thing I think is going to be the heel on which a lot of people die. And I think it's going to be where the big falling away comes from because they are departing from what God's Word says.

And it's hard to be united in this area if we're divided on a foundational truth. And this author, she's a female, very well known, said that we need to come alongside of the LGBT community and help them parent.

And they're brothers and sisters in the Lord and help them, you know, they're believers. They can have a holy union. The Bible is two people love each other then they're allowed to do that. And they came to that conclusion by reading all the scriptures dealing with that issue.

And I read all the scriptures dealing with that issue and I came to a complete different conclusion. And that's why, so how can we be at peace? How is that possible? Both, one would have to concede. One would have to say, okay, I'm wrong.

God's Word says this or it doesn't say this. And you concede to that. So that's, peace does not involve conceding because here's the thing. Unity, unity first and foremost is unity with God. Unity with the Holy Spirit, unity with truth, unity of faith, that's unity.

And then if others can come alongside of you and be united, that's where we're united. But the different religious groups out there aren't united with God. They don't have that unity so I can't be united with them.

So that's why there's the big disunity out there. So there's a difference between being a peaceable person. We can all do that because that's just a matter of our attitudes. And being gentle and listening to others and wanting to show the side of Christianity that many people don't understand.

And I was actually, Helen, you're here? Yeah, you and Gary. She actually encouraged me a few, I think last year, to get in touch with Antelope Valley Free Thinkers. It's a big atheist group. And I emailed the founder and he said, oh yeah, we'd love to have you at our next event.

We'll talk about it this week. We'll let you know, Q &A. And I said, yeah, I'd love to go and just answer questions. I'm not going to be in attack mode. You'd be amazed at what they think Christians are.

Just go and 20 maybe atheists there and talk and share and listen. See, I can be very peaceable. Very peaceable. But you think I'm going to maybe switch my view? I mean, it's not going to happen. But these guys just have this view of Christianity as Bible thumpers always against something.

So if I can go and explain how God changed my heart and what God's doing in my life and why do Christians this and they're hypocrites? Yeah, because here's why. Here's our sinful, fallen nature is still a part of me.

And here's why I need Christ. And you can explain and break it down and listen and understand and leave their shaking hands. Peaceable. But guess what? A lot of us aren't on the same page. That's what he's saying here.

You can be a very peaceable, nice person. And I've not always done well in this area. I've upset people before by quoting Scripture and getting upset at them when I should have been, uh-oh, what's the next one?

Gentleness and Willingness to Yield

Gentle and willing to yield. Willing to yield. I heard something. It might have been Chuck Smith who said this many years ago. Randy, if you remember. Blessed are the flexible. Blessed are the flexible.

And then I added something like, for they shall not easily be broken. It's this branch that's flexible. And willing to yield is this sense you have an agenda, you have your day going, but you're willing to yield.

Your kids need you. Your spouse needs you. Something breaks down. A flat tire. Whatever it is, there's this willingness to yield. So you're gentle. You're understanding. Your willingness to yield has everything to do with self-righteousness and pride.

A person has their agenda, their way. They want to get things done. I've got things to do. They're not willing to yield. So James says here, true religion. You're a gentle person and you're willing to yield.

Yield doesn't mean, oh, you're right. I'm wrong on these issues. Yielding, well, imagine a stop sign. You're going up to it. You're both tied at the stop sign. Go ahead. I'm yielding. I'll allow you to go.

How about if we try that at our homes? Yield. Go ahead. I don't need to get the last word. I don't need to be right. Boy, there's a lot of people shaking heads Wednesday on this one. Maybe I should camp out here for a minute.

But in all fun aside, guys, these are characteristics that God has to do. You can't just wake up and possess these characteristics. You have to be broken before the Lord and say, God, I need to be gentle with my children.

I need to be more willing to yield. Why am I so argumentative? I want to seek peace. I want to be this pure, innocent person who's just trust but verifies. And, God, I want these characteristics, and I'm humbly submitting my life to you so that you can give me those.

Applying James’s Wisdom to Everyday Speech

So tie it in with taming the untameable tongue. Does your tongue reflect this? See, we can act a certain way, but does my tongue reflect me being peaceable? Does my tongue reflect me being gentle and willing to yield?

Willing to yield with the tongue simply means not getting the last word in or not popping off. You know what that means? Attack mode. And so the tongue has this gentle, peace-filled purity to it that, if you look at the life of Christ, that's exactly what he did.

I mean, he spoke like no other man. He had great authority. He denounced sin. He cleaned out the temple. He spoke righteously and with righteous indignation and anger at times, but he had all these characteristics.

So I think for tonight, it would be a good time during worship just to get our hearts right in this area with the tongue. And how are we doing with the tongue? And am I not peaceable? Am I not gentle?

Am I not willing to yield? Is it all about me? That's a good point on willing to yield. Is it all about me? Am I way what I want, what I'm going to get? And that's not biblical. I mean, it's not according to what James is writing here, but also it's going to dictate how you speak to others.