“Sparking a Raging Fire” – FBC Morning Light

Well, a good Friday morning to you. I hope you've had a good week thus far, and looking forward to a good weekend, gathering together with God's people this coming Lord's Day, and taking advantage of the opportunity to worship the Lord, to hear from the Lord through His Word and the preaching of His Word, the teaching of His Word.

We're meeting Sunday morning at 9 .30 for our Bible study times for all ages, and then at 10 .30 the morning worship service we gather together. And this particular Lord's Day, we're not having a Sunday evening service per se, but instead the Young Married Single Adult group is meeting together Sunday evening, and we're encouraging everybody else to meet in homes for just a time of fellowship, some devotions, and maybe refreshments and so forth.

James 3 and the Power of the Tongue

But just a good opportunity to get to know one another and to fellowship around the things of the Lord. Today, in our Bible reading, we're in Ezekiel 11 -12 and James 3. As I was reading James 3, I reflected on a little experience I had this past summer.

I tried to hike the long trail in Vermont, got flooded out from that, but one of the hikes we did after we had to leave the trail because of the flooding was we climbed up, hiked up Camel's Hump. It's I think the second or third highest mountain in Vermont.

You get up to the top of Camel's Hump and it has beautiful 360-degree views. Normally, you can look west and you can see Lake Champlain to the west and the Adirondack Mountains beyond the lake. You can look east and you can see mountains in New Hampshire north to Mount Mansfield and so forth.

But when we got to the peak, the summit of Camel's Hump, we couldn't see those things, hardly at all, not at all in some cases. It's because of the forest fires that were going on up in Canada. The smoke had traveled down and brought a haze with it to the sky, a yellow haze, and it really obscured the view.

Forest fires, how do those things start? How do those things start? You have to think about that. All the forest fires I've heard of when they've been able to pinpoint a cause have really been due to one of two general things, either human involvement, either purposeful or inadvertent, most of the time inadvertent, or a natural cause like a lightning strike.

Think about those things. This person just inadvertently without thinking, driving down the road, throws a cigarette butt out the window, not realizing what's going to happen when that ember hits the tinder in the side of the road.

And before you know it, you've got a forest fire. Or they build a fire and they build it too big and inadvertently sparks fly off of that fire. Shouldn't have built it in the first place. Sparks fly off and land in the dry tinder and before you know it, you've got a forest fire.

That human inadvertent activity, sometimes human beings have deliberately started fires because they wanted to cause a forest fire. That's another thing altogether, isn't it? But then most of the time, from my understanding, those forest fires are caused by random lightning strikes.

A very fierce, obviously powerful strike of lightning causes a tree to catch flames and then it spreads, and you've got a forest fire. Apply all of that to what James says in James chapter 3, as we have read this chapter today in verses 5 and following.

He says,. Even so, the tongue is a little member, and boasts great things. But see how great a forest a little fire kindles. He's getting at it there. See how big of a forest fire just a little spark can kindle?

He says,. 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 it sets on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire by hell.

The tongue is an extremely powerful little instrument in our bodies, isn't it? I have to think about the power of the tongue, reflecting on my 43 years of ministry in local churches, and I can honestly say, I'm trying to think off the top of my head how many different churches I've served in.

I've been in this one for 21 years, thank the Lord. But anyway, that's neither here nor there. The point is that in the churches where I've served, almost every time there's been a significant conflict, it's been rooted in the tongue.

Not rooted in doctrine, like somebody's preaching heresy or teaching heresy, no, but rooted in the tongue, what somebody has said. Think about those causes of forest fires. Sometimes the fire starts because somebody says something inadvertently.

They haven't really thought about it, they don't intend to cause problems, but the way this oftentimes works is through the telephone lines, or we don't have telephone lines much anymore, but through the telephone lines.

Somebody gets hurt by somebody else in a church, and so they call their friend and say, oh, so-and-so hurt me, and so-and-so did thus and so, and then the friend goes and tells their friend, and before you know it, you've got this firestorm raging because somebody said something they didn't need to say.

Inadvertent. Sometimes there have been people who have tried to start forest fires deliberately. They have deliberately said things that they knew were hurtful, they knew they were going to cause a conflict, and they wanted to.

That's an altogether different matter than the first, isn't it? Then there are some people who have caused a forest fire by their lightning strike. They're angry, they're bitter, and they go into some kind of a tirade about something or someone or some issue, and before you know it, they've got the whole church stirred up, causing a forest fire.

Oh, how great a matter a little fire can kindle. Oh, indeed, and the tongue, the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. How vital it is that we learn to control our tongue. James earlier talks about putting bits in horses' mouths that they may obey us, and oh, that we could do that with our tongue.

He talks about the ship, that it's turned with a very small rudder, and oh, that we could so control our tongues that they would be directed in just the right way all the time. This is a great challenge, isn't it?

We are all fallen creatures, and we're so prone to use our tongues in ways that can be harmful. Oh, may the Lord grant us grace to use our tongues well. Our Heavenly Father, we pray that from this challenge today, we wouldn't be guilty of starting any forest fires.

Instead, we'd be helpful in keeping them out. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, listen, have a good rest of your Friday, and hope you have a wonderful weekend, especially gathering together with God's people on the Lord's Day.

Good day.