Of Tongues and Teachers

LaRue Baptist Church, OH

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Take your Bibles and turn to James chapter 3, the text on our tongue.

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I turn here today rather than the book of Hebrews because frankly this is two reasons.

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This is actually the text I had in the plenary session I had at the conference and I got really excited about it.

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I learned a lot from this and it just was, man

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I just thought I can't pass this up. And the second reason was I saw what the kids were singing and I thought, must be a sign from God.

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Now you know better than that. God's providence worked it out and I thought well,

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I really enjoyed studying and preaching this passage and I just wanted to share it with you.

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James chapter 3 verses 1 through 12, not many of you should become teachers my brothers for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

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For we all stumble in many ways and if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.

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If we put bits into the mouths of horses that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the ships also, though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.

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So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire, and the tongue is a fire.

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The world of unrighteousness, the tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life and set on fire by hell.

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For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creatures can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue.

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It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.

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From the same mouth come blessings and cursings. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

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Does a spring pour forth from the same opening, both fresh and saltwater? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs?

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Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water. Let's pray. God of heaven, right now we ask that you guide our thinking.

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And Lord, guide our thinking to this text. Make this text alive in ways to each person here that they see themselves, they see where they need to change, and they have hope in Jesus.

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I pray that this text would help us so that we would be faithful disciples of the

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Lord Jesus. Help us now as we consider this. Speak to us, we pray.

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In Jesus' name, amen. It's Wednesday night and the congregation is meeting for its annual business affairs.

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Pastor Josh has just presented the budget and just explained some of the proposed increases and he says, any questions for us?

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And sure enough, Jordan jumps up and says, yeah, I have a few questions. And you know,

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Jordan and Josh just, this isn't the first time they've kind of clashed. And he says,

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Jordan says, it seems to me that you're proposing some extravagant expenditures.

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You've got your eye on a new building when renting this space at the school is more than adequate for our needs.

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And you want us to foot the bill for Pastor Caleb to take a counseling class and also to spend more money for him to take some pastoral theology classes online from some seminary.

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All of this takes time and resources from us, the sheep. Now, Pastor Josh has about had it with Jordan and he just loses it.

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And he says, let me ask you, Jordan, are you counting yourself as one of the sheep?

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You know, when I was reading John Calvin the other day, and he says, you know, a lot of the sheep that we have are really not sheep.

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They're bears. Guess which animal comes into my mind when I see you? A snake.

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All right, let's take a poll right now. Okay. How many of you think right now? I want you to raise your hand.

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Let's settle this now, Jordan. How many of you think we're spending too much money? If you do, raise your hand. Now, the whole congregation is, you know, they're all staring at their shoes right now.

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This is really awkward. But you know what? That is the least of their problems.

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Because two men refuse to control their tongues, all kinds of damage will now be inflicted on this congregation.

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There's going to be bitterness. There's going to be a lack of love, even hatred. There's going to be division and strife.

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The pastor has lost a lot of credibility. When Josh steps into the pulpit to minister the word of God, he's going to have a whole lot less credibility.

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Families are going to be torn apart. And one of the worst things is that a tense atmosphere now settles on the congregation, so much so that anybody visiting for the first time can sense it.

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All because two guys couldn't control their tongues or wouldn't control their tongues.

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Now, that's the sort of thing that James envisions here in these 12 verses. Now, James has written a book here on wisdom.

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This is what you call part of the Bible's wisdom literature, because James is essentially writing us to live wisely in our congregations.

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He's writing to disciples of Jesus who have been gathered into congregations, into churches, and he's writing them about the wise way, the right way of living in those congregations.

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Now, in chapter 2, he's just finished talking about the character of true faith for Jesus' disciples.

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And now he switched tracks to come alongside you to give this wise perspective on the nature and the power of speech.

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First two verses. Here's what he says. Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness, for we all stumble in many ways.

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And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he's a perfect man able also to bridle his whole body.

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First thing he says here is don't treat positions of influence lightly. Don't treat positions of influence lightly.

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Now, why does James start here? Why does James start here?

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Obviously, he's talking about the tongues, and it may seem a little bit out of place for him to start with teachers. Why does he start here?

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Because many people aspire to the position of teacher because of the prestige and honor that attaches itself to that function.

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There's a lot of prestige and honor. People look up to pastors and teachers.

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People look up to them. Wow, pastor, that series on marriage was unbelievably, it's transformed the way

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Jill and I respond to each other. It's unbelievable. Thank you. Right? Thanks. Prestige.

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Right? Oh, another couple says, pastor, thank you so much for your counseling. I can't believe how much we've grown.

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We are different people because of you. Everybody likes that. Everybody likes the honor that comes with the position.

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But he says, be careful of your aspirations because there's a stricter judgment that attaches itself to that position.

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There is a stricter judgment, a judgment that's applied to you that's not applied to other people. Now you say, well, that just doesn't seem fair.

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That doesn't seem fair at all. Well, listen, there's a reason for that standard.

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He says, we all stumble. We all stumble. But what happens when a teacher stumbles?

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What happens when a teacher stumbles? Now in verse one, I believe he's still addressing teachers here in verse two, because he says, we who teach in verse one, and then he says, for we all stumble.

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For we, who are the we, the teachers. For we all stumble. So, Pastor Jeff has ministered well at Community Bible Church for many years.

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But then the news breaks. He's had an eight -year affair with a woman in the congregation.

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Now that kind of news does not have the same impact as the President of the

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United States has committed adultery. No, in fact, it's much more explosive than that.

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It's much more explosive than that. Julie, who grew up in the church, now begins to wonder if everything she's learned is nothing but a bunch of fairy tales.

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And Jim and Gail, who lost their baby a year ago, wonder if all of Pastor's tears as he sat with him in that hospital room was nothing but an act.

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And George wonders if he should ever trust a pastor again. Now think about this.

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I've been here for nearly 38 years. If that news would explode here, what kind of an effect do you think it would have?

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Not just here, but in the community. I'm not trying to brag, I'm not saying anything like that, but I think you all know it would have devastating effects, especially for this church.

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Now he says, take into account what happens if he sins by his speech. The effects can actually be magnified.

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Because the sin of a teacher has great ripple effects, the same is true if he sins with his speech.

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There's going to be tons of ripple effects. And you have to keep in mind that a teacher, that speech is how a teacher primarily influences people, right?

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It's what he says that primarily influences people. So as a teacher, you can influence others in the right direction or the wrong direction by what you say.

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You can influence people in the right or the wrong direction by how you say it. Pastor Josh's unbridled tongue has consequences because of what he has said and because of how he said it.

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There's going to be incredible consequences because of that. Instead of responding gently, as in 2

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Timothy 2, he responds harshly. And the things he says are wrong.

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He has not responded in the way that God calls him to, and look at what's going to happen. Now James in these verses also gives us a hint, gives you a hint about the power of the tongue.

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The tongue is such a powerful force that if you control your tongue, you could control everything else.

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Now think about that statement. If you can control your tongue, you can control everything else, control your entire body.

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All right. Wow, that's, that's wild. Well, he says, if you don't sin with your speech, you have reached an incredible level of maturity.

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He says a perfect man. Now I don't think he's talking about completely sinless, but in James, the word perfect means perfect in the sense that nothing is missing.

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Everything's there. All right. Everything is there. And he's saying, this is a perfect man, completely mature, has everything there.

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If you can control your tongue, you're a perfect man. Now remember what Jesus said in the gospel of Mark.

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What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.

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All these evil things come from within and they defile a person. And what

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James says is if you can control your speech, you can also resist the temptation of all these non -speech related sins like lust, theft, idolatry, anger, and greed.

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If you can control your tongue, you can deal with all that other stuff. Now we think that sexual temptation and lust are incredibly powerful temptations, and they are.

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There's no doubt about that. But do you think you can control your tongue for an entire day?

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Think about that. Can you go one day without one word of sin coming out of your mouth?

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You see what he's saying? If you have the ability to bridle your tongue so that every day nothing sinful comes out of your mouth, man, you will have the ability to control yourself and resist all those other temptations.

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You see his point, don't you? Try it for one day. Just carry cards in your pocket.

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And every time you become aware of sinning with your mouth, write it down. Maybe you ought to ask everyone you talk to that day, did

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I ever say anything sinful? Right? Wow, think about that. Now here's our hope.

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There's only one completely sinless person when it comes to speech. You know what his name is? Yeah, you got it.

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Jesus. And aren't you glad that his righteousness is credited to you on the basis of faith just by grasping the

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Lord Jesus by faith. And that's where hope begins. Right? I am counted righteous.

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I am counted righteous. So don't treat positions of influence lightly. Those who occupy such positions can stumble in their speech.

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And that is serious. But you got to know just how serious it is.

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How serious is it? It is serious because of the power that the tongue possesses.

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As James talks about the powerful nature of speech, he broadens your perspective here.

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Because everyone has the ability of speech. This powerful instrument is not limited to teachers, is it?

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So he's warning teachers and he's saying, look at the power of the tongue, but he broadens our perspective here because everybody has a tongue.

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So everybody's capable of what he's now going to describe. And the next thing he says to you is don't ignore the power of the tongue.

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Don't ignore the power of the tongue, verses three through eight. If we put bits into the mouths of horses that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well.

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Look at the ships also, though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder, wherever the will of the pilot directs.

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So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a force to set ablaze by such a small fire.

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And the tongue is a fire, the world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life and set on fire by hell for every kind of beast and bird of reptile and sea creature can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind.

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But no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, evil, full of deadly poison.

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Don't ignore the power of the tongue. When it comes to the tongue, don't be naive.

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Don't be naive. We are so naive about the power of the tongue, so much so that we learned a few phrases when we were kids, right?

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Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. Right? Or how about this one?

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Oh yeah? Yeah? I'm rubber and you're glue. Whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you.

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Right? You remember that? Yeah, words, they can't do anything. They can't do anything, but that's not true.

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According to James, words may not bounce off of you. And in fact, those words can hurdle through the congregation, bringing incredible destruction in its wake.

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We are so naive. We don't, we don't notice the power of the tongue. Now he says the tongue seems like such a small thing, but that small instrument possess a power that far exceeds its size, that far exceeds its size.

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You put a small bit into a horse's mouth and you can guide him in any direction you want. Now when our

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Lydia was in high school, and Lydia has never been a very big creature, but when she was in high school, she got a good job with bear.

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Some of you remember bear, okay? He is the guy that up the road that trained horses and Lydia got a job with him training horses and she fell in love with one horse whose name was red.

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Red was a humongous beast of a horse. I mean, he was huge.

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I remember riding him one time and thinking, why do people like this? I'm straddling.

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My legs are spread apart farther than they should. My knees are turned in. This is absolute torture.

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I just rode him down to the Mosier's house one day and I thought, why do people love this?

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I mean, he was big and she was small, but she could direct that beast anywhere she wanted because she had a bit in his mouth.

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She could do it not by sheer strength on her part, but by that bit. He says, look at ships.

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Ships are huge and they have a small rudder and they can be driven by powerful winds and that ship may displace thousands of tons of water and it may be driven by gale force winds, but the pilot only needs to turn the rudder a bit and the ship heads in the direction he wants it.

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He's saying speech, your tongue is a powerful, powerful instrument. Consider this, it's 1940 and the

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Nazis have gobbled up all of Western Europe, all the way to the coast of France and there's only one little bit of water that separates the

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Nazis from total conquest of England and that's the English Channel. They're just a few miles away now and it looks like everything is lost.

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You know, the British government was talking about what kind of terms of peace can we make and Winston Churchill, right, stood in the

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House of Commons with these words, we shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France.

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We shall fight on the seas and oceans. We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air.

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We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches.

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We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills.

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We shall never surrender. And by those words, he roused an entire nation to a level of courage and determination that they thwarted the forces of evil just by his speech.

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By mere words, he rallied the British nation to that level of courage. Consider then the power of your words as a teacher, as a counselor, as a friend, as a parent.

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Consider that. Consider how powerful your words are. Are your words in line with the content and the tenor of scripture?

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What do you say to the friend who remarks, oh, it's nothing. I didn't mean anything by that.

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Really. But look at the destructive power what you just said has.

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But then he even says, notice the tongue's evil bent. It can even boast about the great effects of its power.

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It'll even boast about it, right? Even the good that you do with your tongue, you want to use that tongue to boast.

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Someone tells you how wonderful you are because of what you told them in counseling, and so you're tempted to go home and tell your wife ever so subtly, hey, you wouldn't believe what the

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Jones said to me tonight. Oh, really? What did they say? Right?

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The tongue has done great things. But then it has to boast about it.

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That's the bent. That's what happens. He says the tongue seems like a small thing, but that small instrument possesses an incredible destructive power.

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He goes on to say, right? He talks about a forest and the world of unrighteousness, all these things.

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Listen to what he says. It possesses an incredible destructive power.

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How can it possess such power? Well, the first thing, one thing he says is it's set on fire by hell.

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Here's a reference to the place of ultimate judgment for Satan and his demons and all the wicked.

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And our writer, I think, indicates that the power of the tongue comes from Satan.

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This destructive power comes from Satan, the great agent of destruction. Your tongue can be the tool of Satan.

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Your unguarded speech opens the door to the devil to begin his demolition project.

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Now, Josh and Jordan are going to find that out. They've just opened the door for Satan to get in and start his demolition project within that congregation.

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He says it is the world of unrighteousness. You've noticed I've read it as the world of unrighteousness, and I don't know why it's translated this way, because the definite article is there.

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It says the tongue is the world of unrighteousness. I like what Richard Plummer writes at this point.

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He says, all of the various dimensions of sinfulness we find in this rebellious world find expression in the human tongue.

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Every sinful human tongue is a mini drama, if observed long enough, expresses the countless unrighteous stories lived out in this fallen world.

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All the wickedness, rebellion, and filth of this present age finds expression through the tongue, every bit of it.

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He says it's a restless evil. It just seems like it keeps churning, keeps wanting to do more.

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It's a deadly poison. It's a deadly poison. Put poison out to kill the rats that invade your house.

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They eat a little bit of it and they're dead. The tongue is like administering that poison that can kill. And then he says, not only this is why it's so destructive, look at the destruction it visits on us.

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This tiny instrument can destroy everything in its wake. It can destroy everything in its wake.

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On the other side of the equation now, consider the speech of Adolf Hitler, the same period of time.

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By his words, he mobilized a demoralized people to conquest.

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And by those same words, he brought unheralded destruction and death on millions of people by his words.

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You see? Put it on a smaller scale now. Right? I don't think the words

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I say here, I doubt that they'll ever launch people into conquest and destruction. But the words that we use can destroy at this scale of a whole congregation if we're not careful.

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It has powerful destructive, it has incredible destructive powers. But notice, it doesn't just affect others, it defiles you.

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He uses the term stains the whole body or defiles the whole body. He's talking about the person, not just the flesh of you, the whole person.

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The sin is not limited to just one part of your existence, it affects all of your existence. Sinful speech leads to countless wicked acts that produce within you, that stain you with regret, with guilt, and even, and even can affect you physically.

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Can it not? He says here, setting on fire the entire course of life, the tongue can destroy entire lives.

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Think about that. A flirtatious remark leads to betrayal, and then a wife without a life companion, and children with anger and resentment and fear.

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All because of a flirtatious remark. You know, as a pastor, I've had 38 years, you have lots of funerals.

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And as the pastor of Leroux Baptist Church, which for many years was a relatively young church, now is a, still has lots of young in it, but more old.

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But for many, many years, most of the funerals I had were not of people from this church. The Stoffchecks and I kind of have a, don't let this out, maybe

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I shouldn't say it. We kind of have an agreement, if he gets an unchurched family, he calls me.

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And I have seen more than I'd like to say, being in that room right before viewing hours, when the family's just there, and you got one part of the family at this end of the room, and one part of the family on that end of the room.

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And they're not talking to each other, and they're shooting daggers at each other with their faces.

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They're ignoring each other, all because one sister made some comment 20 years ago.

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And now, there they are, even at the death of dad, they can't talk, they can't stand each other.

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All because of that one comment. About one brother -in -law. Right? It destroys entire lives.

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He says, the tongue seems like a small thing, but that small instrument possesses intractable power, that is, it's impossible to restrain it.

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You want to see how powerful man is? Go visit the zoo. That's what he's saying. Man has domesticated, all kinds of, and controlled, just about every beast or creature on the earth.

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Go to the zoo. Right? Listen, if you'd walk into the jungle with those same animals, you wouldn't last a day.

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Right? Some snake would bite you and you'd die, or some great cat would jump out of a tree and kill you and maul you, or a bear would maul you, or something.

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But you go to the zoo and they're all under control there, right? He says, look, the tongue is so powerful that no one can tame it.

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You can cage and saddle about anything else, but your tongue, that's another story altogether. Now, do you think

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James exaggerates here? Let me say it again. Try to be sinless in your speech for one day, and tell me he's exaggerating.

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He's not exaggerating, is he? In light of that, what do we need?

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What do we need? Sunday. Okay, I want you to get the picture.

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The ACBC conference was held at Bellevue Baptist Church. It's one of the flagship churches in the

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Southern Baptist Convention. And the reason why we were there is because this thing is big enough to hold us all and has enough rooms we can do all our breakout sessions.

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I mean, this church is gigantic. I mean, it's beyond gigantic, right?

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A couple of years ago, we had the conference there, and boy, I hope this doesn't get back to Bellevue, but a couple of years ago,

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Emma went to the conference at Bellevue, and we walked into that church, and she looks around and says,

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Dad, is this a church or an airport terminal? I mean, it's gigantic, but just up the road, a few blocks, is a little church called

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Trinity Reformed Baptist Church. It's a fire church. So I thought, Sunday, I'm going to go to a fire church.

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Just a little church. I mean, the whole, it was just in a strip mall, right?

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And the pastor, Pastor Randy McClendon, was preaching out of Acts 20. It was the 10th anniversary of him being there.

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They had a big shindig, and so he was preaching about what pastors were all about. And he was preaching from Acts 20, and he said that the message of the

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Apostle Paul was repentance towards God and belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's the answer for this tongue.

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There's the answer for this tongue. Progress begins with repentance. You want to control your tongue?

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Then learn to repent when you use your tongue the wrong way. Be quick to repent.

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Repentance. And then, belief in the Lord Jesus. Faith in the Lord Jesus. You need to believe that He will indeed forgive you.

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He will forgive you. He gave His life to forgive you. Believe that His death has conquered the ruling power of sin.

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That you can say no to sin and yes to God. Believe that obedience to Jesus brings an abundant life contrary to the promises my desires make me at that moment.

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Listen, whenever you're tempted to sin, you are at the crossroads of faith. Either you believe what

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Jesus says, the thief comes to kill, steal, and destroy. But I have come that you may have life and life to the full.

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Or you're going to believe what your desires are telling you right now. Unleash your tongue.

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If you don't, He'll get away with it. You need to cut them down to size. And if you do, you'll be the victor and you will feel better.

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You've got two competing voices. Which one are you going to believe? Are you going to believe

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Jesus who promises abundant life? Or your desires that say, cut him down, take him out, and it'll be better.

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Which one are you going to believe? You've got to have faith in the Lord Jesus. And you have to believe that through the

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Holy Spirit, He will give you grace in order to fight it. That's where we need to be.

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So what do you say to your friends? What do you say to your children? And by the way, you know, as I said this the other day,

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I said, what do you say to your counselees? And remember, everyone is a counselor.

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You are counseling every day. You are telling people. You're giving them advice. What do you tell people then?

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Your friends. Well, you need to remind them they're responsible for what they say.

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Don't let that, I really didn't mean it, bye. That's not true.

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Remind them that they cannot ignore the incredible power they wield with their tongue. They need to be reminded of that.

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They need to be reminded that without Jesus, they cannot glorify God in their speech. So don't ignore the power of the tongue.

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Here's the last thing he says. Don't make excuses. Don't make excuses. Verses 9 through 12.

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With it, our tongue, we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.

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From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. These things ought not to be so.

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Does a spring pour forth from the same opening, both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs?

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Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water. You know what? He says don't make excuses.

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Don't make excuses. We can so deceive ourselves. You praise God with your tongues in worship, right?

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I love you, Lord, and I lift my voice. To worship you,

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O my soul, rejoice. Forty -five minutes later, you're in the car saying, Can you believe

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Dorothy? Can you believe her? I can't believe what she said in the Sunday school meeting.

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I mean, she about dictated what we're going to eat, and where we're going to eat, and what time the Sunday school picnic's going to be.

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I can't believe it. So at one point, we're praising God. Forty -five minutes later, what are we doing? We're slashing, slashing, and cutting someone that we saw in worship that day, if not more than one, right?

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He says, wait a minute. Wait a minute. How can you praise God and then start shooting his image bearer, right?

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How can you do that? What you've got to see, what you have to see, is that what you think about God, what you think about God becomes clear in the way that you speak about and to his image bearers.

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You get it? If we're in the image of God, and you start shooting those bullets at an image bearer, that says something of your view of God.

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Now, when I was a freshman in high school, I'm sorry, freshman in college, I just got on campus, and just getting to know the guys in my dorm, in my unit.

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One was Dwight. Dwight and I both played football in high school, but Dwight really was a football player.

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I remember one time we were kind of wrestling around. I remember grabbing his, right here, his biceps, and it was like two steel balls.

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And I'm thinking, well, Dwight had a girlfriend at home, and he had a picture of her, and he put it on his desk, and it was like a shrine.

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I mean, it was ridiculous how he treated that picture. And I remember being with some of the guys one day.

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Dwight was in my room. I remember being with some of the guys one day, and I was in front of that picture, right?

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And I was genuflecting in front of it, and doing all kinds of things. It was, it was,

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I was just mocking that picture. And Dwight walked in the room, and he goes, hey, what's going on here?

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And I thought, I'm dead. He was really mad. Now, why was he mad?

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Was I tearing up that picture? Was I lighting that picture? No, but what

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I was doing to that picture communicated disrespect and mockery of his girlfriend.

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It was saying something about her, right? That's why he was mad.

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That's why he was mad. And so, that's what James is saying here. See, the way you treat an image bearer reveals what you think of God.

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And he says to us, he says to us, from the same mouth comes blessing and cursing.

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What hypocrisy. What perversity. And we're not even aware of our hypocrisy.

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And he wants us to be aware of it. He says, these things ought not to be. This kind of hypocrisy should have no place in our congregations.

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But, instead of heating the admonition, what do we do? We minimize the problem.

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We say things like, oh, I really didn't mean that. Or, what's the big deal?

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I was only joking. Or, come on. She's just sensitive.

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I can say, I don't think so, and she'll start bawling. Right? And he says, this is what he says, stop making excuses.

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Those destructive words flow from your heart. Those destructive words come from who you are.

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At that moment. A spring cannot produce both fresh, sweet water and then salty water.

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That's not possible. When I was a kid, we would ride our bikes and we'd go down this little road called

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Ainsworth Road, and on that road was a spring. And, I mean, you know, even when I was a kid, back in the golden days of the 60s, right, even in those days, you knew better than just, you know, you wouldn't go out here and just scoop up some of the ciota and start drinking it.

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Well, this was a spring that was really pure water. And we'd stop there as we were riding our bikes somewhere and we would get, actually, be able to just get really good water from that spring.

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And every time we stopped there, guess what? We got fresh water. Fresh, sweet water. There was never a chance of us getting a mouthful of salty stuff.

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It wasn't going to happen because it wasn't that kind of a spring. He says, look around at the fruit trees.

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You don't walk up to a sweet fig tree and find one of those bitter olives popped out on the branch.

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Doesn't happen, does it? That's a fig tree. You don't go to a grapevine in order to get a nice, juicy grape and instead find a sweet, grainy fruit called a fig.

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Why? Because a fig tree's a fig tree, a grapevine's a grapevine. They produce what they are.

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And he says a salty pond won't produce sweet water, fresh water.

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What is he saying? He's saying if angry, destructive, hurtful words come spilling out of your mouth, it's because you have an angry heart that wants to destroy someone, that has a desire to hurt someone.

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That's what he's saying. That's who you are at that moment. I didn't mean that.

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Yes, you did mean that. I hope after today, none of you ever say that again.

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I was just angry, I didn't mean that. No. You meant exactly what you said.

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You can't have a, at that moment, a fresh spring of a heart that suddenly produces salt water.

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That's who you are at that moment. That's who you are. So stop making excuses for your speech.

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Do this instead. Do this instead. Expose your heart by consistent exposure to the word of God.

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We heard it this morning in the New Testament reading. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he'll be blessed in his doing.

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Look in the mirror of the word. It'll reveal what you are. That's where you start.

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That's where you start. Consistent exposure to the word of God will expose your heart. And he implies it here as well.

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Act according to your identity in Jesus. You need to be thinking, I am a son of God, or a daughter of God.

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I am one of the redeemed. God has set me apart, and I am holy.

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Now do what you are. Become what you are. Remember those things and respond accordingly.

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He says in chapter one, verse 25, persevere in it. Keep at it. And lastly, look to Jesus for forgiveness and help, and he will open the floodgates of grace to help you when you are tempted.

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So listen. Listen now. Don't make excuses. Don't make excuses. Some of you here this morning are teachers, and most of you, all of you, are counselors.

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You all are. Pay attention to your speech because you occupy a place of tremendous influence.

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And you who are in positions of authority who speak the word of God, you of all people must recognize the power of the tongue because you use it a lot.

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All of you must grasp the incredible power of the tongue and what it can do. So let me, as I'm closing, suggest to you a bit of homework to do.

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All right? Note the times you become aware of the speech you used. Note those times.

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Carry the cards with you. Just note those times. If you can, note the effects of any unguarded words.

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And then repent quickly. Repent quickly to God and to the recipient of your words.

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Ask the Spirit to make you aware of your words and the grace to put to death the words and your hypocrisy.

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Start becoming who you are and always run to Jesus for help. May God help us all as we seek to grow.

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May God make us aware of our words and our speech. May God help us to become more holy as we speak as we are.

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Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you for exposing our hearts that we might see.

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What motivates our speech. Thank you for talking about our speech and revealing to us the power that we possess in our speech.

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Help us to change. And help us to change by the power of Jesus for the glory of Jesus.