The Power of Your Tongue

[music and singing] You're all I've ever needed. You're all [music] I [singing] want. Help [music] me know you are near. [music] Before a second song will be singing, he is exalted. this song. [music] [music] [music] He is [music] exalted. The king is exalted [singing] on high. I will [music] praise him. He is [singing] exalted forever. Exalted and I will [music and singing] praise his name. He [music and singing] is the Lord forever. His truth shall reign. Heaven [music] and earth. Rejoice in his holy [music and singing] name. He is exalted. The king is [singing] exalted on earth. [music] He is exalted. [singing] The king is exalted on high. I will praise [singing] him. He is [music] exalted forever. exalted [singing] and I will praise [music] his name. He [music and singing] is the Lord forever his truth shall reign. Heaven [music] [singing] and earth rejoice in his holy name. He is [music and singing] exalted. The King is exalted on high. [music] He is [singing] the Lord forever. [music] His truth shall reign. Heaven [music] and earth. Rejoice [singing] in his holy name. [music] He is [singing] exalted. The King is exalted on [music] earth. He is exalted. [music] The king is exalted on high. [music] Praise God. Praise the Lord, brothers and sisters, for this morning that we can all be here together. And uh some of us that have been here before like Allan, welcome back. Uh because you've been gone for a while and I just appreciate that you're back also. And then some guests here, welcome. I'm going to be doing our Bible reading for this morning. And I want to open up to um to Psalms 50, page 8:15. And for many of you, it's going to be the Bibles in the Pews. And that's going to be in Psalms 50, page 8:15. And I'll give you guys a little bit of time to open up to that. And this Psalms is very interesting because it talks about how God is the righteous judge and how he calls us uh for us to give our hearts to him because at the time a lot of people were sacrificing animals to him. And it came to a point where those uh that sacrificing was empty and they would just sacrifice animals. And he's like, "Look, I don't need your guys' animals. I just need your heart. I need the true sacrifice. And he talks about that in this psalm. And we could start reading it right here in verse one. And it says here, "The mighty one, God, the Lord, has spoken and called the earth from the rising of the sun to its going down. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God will shine forth. Our God shall come and shall not keep silent. A fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very temptuous all around him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people. Gather my saints together to me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. Let the heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge. Hear, oh my people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against you. I am God your God. I will not rebuke you for your sacrifices or your burnt offerings which are continually before me. I will not take a bull from your house, nor goats out of your folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the mountains and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I will not tell you, for the world is mine, and all its fullness. Will I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God thanksgiving and pay your vows to the most high. Call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you and you shall glorify me. But to the wicked, God says, "What right have you to declare my statutes? Or take my covenant in your mouth. Seeing you hate instruction and cast my words behind you. When you saw a thief, you consented with him and have been a partaker with adulterers. You give your mouth to evil and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother. You slander your own mother's son. These things you have done and I kept silent. You thought that I was altogether like you. But I will rebuke you and set them in order before your eyes. Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver. Whoever offers praise glorifies me and to him who orders his conduct. All right. I will show the salvation of God. Praise God. And now we'll have Pastor Tim come up and say a couple announcements and then he will say a word for us right after. God bless. Praise God. Church, uh this morning we will be listening to a sermon and yes, it's me preaching. Um, but let's take these few minutes to meet and greet and then we'll get into the book of James. The book of James. Uh, the Wi-Fi is down. There's going to be no cool music uh when we're meeting and greeting each other, but um let's take these few minutes just to get to know. Amen. baby. Hello. I know. I'm back. Are you having a baby? It's been a while since I've been here. Okay, let's have our seat. And um let's open up to James chapter 3. We haven't been in the book of James already for a year and I thought maybe we should revisit it cuz we were going through the book of James. But now I felt like our topics that we do have, they're very important. So as you well know, we do switch things up. Robert, maybe put on the mic because I will be moving and these mics won't catch me. Can somebody give us the number for the Bibles in the pews? 1746. Please open up to 1746. 1746. James chapter 3. Okay, I'll be reading from verses one all the way to 12. Chapter 3, James. My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall 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 brittle the whole body. Indeed, we put bits in horses mouths. We put bits in horses mouths that they may obey us and return their whole body. Look also at ships. Although 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 word of iniquity. The tongue is said. Okay. Okay. Let's um [snorts] do uh verse six again. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is 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. For every kind of beast and bird of reptile and creature of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison. with with it we bless our God and Father and with it we curse men who have been made in the image of God and likeness. Out of the same mouth proceed blessings and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Does the spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives? Or a grave vine bear figs? Thus, no spring yields, both salt water and fresh. And over here, we see that pastor James, we talked about this before a while back, he's the halfbrother of Jesus, and he's telling to his church members about the untameable tongue. [sighs] What we see here is that pastor James he splits this in about four ways. He for he he first talks about the tongue. He gives examples. He shows the the deadliness of it and he shows the hypocrisy of it. But I want to go back to to verse one and I will just kind of go over this quickly because that is not the topic for today. The topic for today is the power of your tongue. Let not many of you become teachers knowing that we will receive a stricter judgment. Let not many of you become teachers. What we will notice is that even if we are not teachers in school or teachers in class or teachers at the church, we are teachers at home. We are teachers with our friends. Whatever we say that comes out of our mouth is all knowledge. Could be bad or good. In verse two it says, "For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man." And over here the perfect word, it actually means mature. He's a mature man. The person that is able to control his tongue, control his speech, he's a mature man. But but once again we read in verse one, let not many of you be teachers. And sometimes when we are around friends, family, we are afraid to speak the truth. But friends, we have to understand that we need to be more afraid before God than before man. Because if we are afraid of man's opinions, we will speak things that do not please the Lord. But if we speak the truth that pleases the Lord, it will not always please men. That's why Pastor James tells us later on that there cannot be fresh and salt water from one stream. It's one or the other. So we have to make the decision in life. Who do we want to obey and please? Is that man or is that God? Verses three and below. That's where we are going to start this topic. Indeed, we put bits in horses mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. Look also at ships, although they are so large and are driven by a fe 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. So, I posted I made a a picture so we can all understand what our is. What's wrong with this mic? A different one. [clears throat] Let's do blue. My second favorite color. Um, so this is a rudder. That one thing that that moves like left and right. And look at the ship that it is guiding. And over here, even though they didn't have these kind of ships back in the day, but we can see how such a small rudder guides the course, the destination of this ship. And over here, Pastor James is giving us an illustration. The small thing in our life which is our tongue. It guides the course to our destination in life. It sets the path to our future. Whatever comes out of our mouth and if we are not able to tame it, it guides us into the wrong direction to where we get ourselves in trouble. And how many times has it guided us into that direction? Myself, many times my tongue guided me in directions I didn't want to go. But later, do you regret some things that you say? In Psalm 34, it says, actually in Matthew 12:36, "And I tell you this, you must give an account on judgment day for every idle word you speak." Matthew 12:36. You can write that down in your notes. And I tell you this, you must give an account on judgment day for every idle word you speak. Did you know that 30 to 40% of murders happen because of an argument? 30 to 40%. Somebody didn't agree with you. Somebody didn't like your point of view. Maybe you hurt somebody's feelings. And there are people out there, they don't care about the law. They care about themselves. And we are putting at risk ourselves when we speak evil to somebody that that we might not know what's going on in their heart. Also, the recent Pew research shows that roughly 33 to f to 40% a little more than one and third one out of three people Marriages end up in divorce because of arguments. It all started with an argument. Those shoes, you shouldn't wear those shoes, but I like them. Well, they don't look good on you. They don't. [snorts] It's as silly as that. Of course, some some like not all of them start with the shoes, but it's as silly as that. Whatever comes out of our mouth can make us or break us. That's why it says, "And I tell you this, you must give an account on judgment day for every idle word that you speak." James also he sets this example in verse in verse five and six. 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 of fire, a world of iniquity. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. We know that all big fires start from small. All big fires start from small. But what does a fire do? The fire, it destroys, it burns, it kills. That's what a fire does. And our tongue can destroy a relationship, can kill a friendship or a marriage, can also destroy careers. Uh there was this um like one news person, I don't know you call them news host or news anchor, but they said something that that wasn't on the script. And guess what? A few weeks later, they're not there anymore. And how often do we see that they said something, it came out of their mouth. And and there are times where people bring up what you said or what someone said 10, 20, 30 years ago and count that against you. Count that against me. Friends, once words leave our mouth, they are forever in the air. You can apologize. You can make it right. But once those words come out of our mouth, they are forever in the air and they are forever in people's hearts. People do forgive, but then when you touch them again, they they remember what you said that one time. Therefore, we ought to watch what we say. And over here, we see when Pastor James is explaining this, he's not necessarily explaining how it hurts others. He's explaining how it hurts us when we speak. How it hurts us. When we speak good, how is good for us. when we speak bad, how is bad for us? And I want to actually point out a few things that our tongue can actually damage our way, our path, to a better future, to a better life, to a holier life, and to a loving relationship with God. The first one I put down was curse words. Curse words. Everybody knows what curse words is, right? Bad words. But look, the the actual name for it is not bad words or cuss words. The main word for these words is curse words. So what's the first word in the curse words? It's curse. Curse. Every time we speak, we say curse words, that curse is actually coming upon us. We are speaking curses upon us. And it doesn't matter how rich, how poor you are, but you could see people who constantly swear, who constantly use curse words in their language. They are angry. They're not free. They they have um I would say evil intentions. They're bringing curses upon themselves, not knowing like even if they say that against someone else, but every time we say a curse word, that curse falls upon our heads. And I've seen uh well, obviously there's the internet, there's YouTube, and there's these very successful people that talk about uh how they got in life. And like every other word or like one word, a sentence, it's a curse word. Yeah, they're successful. But when you look in their eyes, you could see that something is not right. They are not free. Therefore, friends, it's there's always time to change. There's always room to repent to change. And there's always time to repent. If we have that that tongue that speaks curse words, may we repent. May we ask God, forgive me, Lord. Remove all those curses from my life that I can be set free from that tongue that swears evil. Ephesians 4:2 or 4:29, "Don't use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them." The second one is boasting. We see that this tongue that Pastor James uh speaks about, it boasts. It's a boasting tongue. It's all about me. It's it's my feelings, my emotions, my success, my family, my career. Like I like how uh there's this one pastor, his name is Derek Prince, and he said uh these words. He said the the lovers of thy selves uh when they stand before God, Lord, bless me, bless my wife, bless my kids, just us four and no more. It's all about me. Bless me. bless my family, bless this, bless that. And then when we see blessings, when we see, you know, maybe some success in our lives, instead of giving the glory to God, knowing that we came into this world with nothing, we came naked like Job was saying, I came naked into this world and naked will I leave. I brought nothing into this world. There's nothing to boast. is because of the grace of God do we have what we have. And maybe we don't have a lot of finances, but we have health. It's because of God we have health. And maybe we don't have this, but we have that. Like I just heard today uh one person say, "Hey, uh, Pastor Tim, I got a bicycle." They're happy. People are happy. Amen. They got a bicycle. That's wonderful. Friends, if we keep on boasting about my knowledge, how smart I am, how many degrees I have, but not give the glory to God. Our tongue is spewing evil before our Lord because we brought nothing into this world. zero. Once again, it's because of the grace of God, his love, his mercy that was shown towards us sinners. Sinners, not deserving, only deserving punishment and judgment and death. But because of his grace and mercy, he showed his love. And as a father, he takes care of us. So boast in him. If you're smart, boast that God gave you that knowledge. If you're wealthy, boast that God gave you that. If you're healthy, boast that God gave you health. If you have anything, boast and say, "Lord, I only boast in you because you are my father that provides." If I had a meal this morning, may we boast in the Lord that he takes care of us. Never boast in your accomplishments. Never boast in your in your knowledge or your health or how strong you are. Because if you read the book of Job, how in such a short period of time, it was all taken away. It was all taken away. But see, Job, he understood. He understood it was God who gave me all this. Therefore, he wasn't Yeah, he was sad, but not so sad that he was lost in despair. No, he trusted in the Lord even more. Therefore, friends, boast in the Lord. Proverbs 27:2, "Let another praise you and not your own mouth, a stranger and not your own lips." Jeremiah 9:23 and 24. Thus says the Lord, "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man boast in his might. Let not the rich man boast in his riches. But let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord. For in these things I delight. Job 1:21. Naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. May the May the name of the Lord be blessed and praised. Only the foolish boast in their accomplishments because those accomplishments can be taken away the next day. The third one, know when to comfort and when to rebuke. Know when to comfort and when to rebuke. I want to share with you a story. It's um it was a man his name is um like Naser an Indian man but he was a very smart kid very talented kid and his father was very successful and Naser he really loved his father. He would do anything for for his father. He would lay down his life for his father. But every time Naser he would tell his father, "Dad, I did this. I did that." His father would be eh not impressed. And then he went off to to uh the university. The first year he got straight A's. He got straight A's his first year. And he said, "This is it. My father's going to be proud of me. Finally, I'm going to make him proud." And he calls his father and he says, "Father, I got straight A's. Father, please tell me that you're proud of me. Father, please say something. And then he hears the voice says, "Son, uh, let me call you back. I'm busy." I'm busy was the single sentence that changed this young man's life. He started drinking, started doing drugs, hanging out with the wrong crowd, and his friends said, "Ner, why why are you throwing your life away like this? you have you have a bright future. And he says, "Why why should I care? The only man that I loved and cared for doesn't care about any of these things." Then one night they rushed him to the hospital. They find drug overdose. And as his friend rushes to see him, he enters the room and he just sees on the screen, beep beep beep. The doctors run in. They're they're trying to save him, but it was too late. Nera passed away. The power of words, friends. Words can give a life or they can take it. How many wars have started because of words? Because of commands, because of ambitions, people dying for somebody's ambitions. They send them out. Go. These people are bad. They're they're horrible. They do this. They do that. People believe those words and then they go and die for somebody that lied to them. How many relationships have been broken because someone said something that hurt? Friends, are we the ones who are spitting out the words that are breeding the hairs of others to the grave? Or are we speaking life? Or are we speaking life? How many lives have been ruined because somebody gave the wrong advice? The the father, the mother, the friend, the teacher gave the wrong advice. Words have power. like a little fire. It can destroy everything. It can destroy everything. Psalm 14:13, "Set a guard over my mouth, Lord. Keep watch over the door of my lips." Proverbs 15:2, "The tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly, but the mouth of fools pours forth foolishness." Over here we see in James verse 8, but no man can tame the tongue. No man can tame the tongue. We can try to tame it. We can try to tame it for one day, one week. But we see here the psalmist say, "Set a guard over my mouth, Lord." Friends, for us to have blessings, to speak blessings, to rebuke when needed, to lift up when needed. We need God to guide our tongue, to guide our mouth. Whatever comes out of our lips, we need the Holy Spirit to guide it. Set a guard over my mouth, Lord. Keep watch over the door of my lips. The Psalmist didn't say, "Set a guard over my mouth, me or I need to set a guard over my mouth." Just this morning, I I came into uh before we went and uh picked up the people, I came into the gym and there were people there and I just said something so dumb. And I'm like, [sighs] "Forgive me, God." Right there. Conviction. Why did you say that? Why' you say that? And I'm like, I'm preaching this morning on guarding the tongue and I come and I say something dumb. Friends, when we grow deeper in Christ, our mouth starts to change. Our words began to bring blessings. They start bringing life into people. Not breaking of relationships or friendships or family because I said something dumb. No, there is times where we do where we do say something truthful and it does hurt. But that truth will actually will will actually bring change in that man's or woman's life. And I've seen that many times where somebody said the truth and those per and that person went out mad and bitter, but later on they said, "Wow, those words really helped me." Your words have the power to heal or to destroy. Your words can build someone up or break someone down. Your words can give someone life or bring their hairs to the grave. Your tongue sets the course of your life. What course will that be? What course will that be? Let's pray. Lord God, we are so thankful God for this uh place in the Bible, Lord God, to guard our tongues, Lord God. But over here, Pastor James, he says, "No man can tame the tongue, Lord God. Only you can tame it, Lord Jesus." God. And we just God ask for the power of the Holy Spirit to help us, Lord. Tame the tongue. Tame our tongues, Lord God. Because everything that comes out when we have an evil heart just evil. Lord Jesus, I pray God may this message, may this seed fall into our hearts, Lord God, that this week we remember what we say and what effect does it have. May we be wise because the wisdom comes from the fear of the Lord. God, that's the beginning of wisdom. And may we seek you Lord daily in our life so that everything that comes out of our mouth brings blessings to you and to others in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. And for our last song we'll be singing Power in the Blood. [music] Would you [music] be free from the [singing] burdens of sin? There's power in the blood. Power [music and singing] in the blood. Would your evil a victory [singing] win? There's wonderful [music] power in the blood. There is power, [music] power power, wonder working power in the blood of the lamb. There [music] is power power, wonder working power in the precious blood of [music and singing] the lamb. Would you be free from your passion and pride? [music] There's power in the [singing] blood. Power in the blood. Come for a cleansing [music] to Calvary's [singing] night time. There's wonderful power in the blood. There is power [music] power wonder working power in the blood. In the blood [singing] of the lamb of the lamb. There is power [music] power. Wonder working power [singing] in the precious blood of the lamb. [music] Would you be wider? Much wider than snow. [music] There's power in the [singing] blood. Power in the blood. Since days [music and singing] are lost in its lifegiving flow. There's wonderful power in the blood. There is power, [music] wonder working [singing] power in the blood. [music] In the blood of the lamb of the lamb. [singing] There is power, wonder working power in the precious [music and singing] blood of the lamb. Would you [music] do service for Jesus your king? There's power in [singing] the blood. Power in the blood. Would [music] you live daily his praises to sing? There's wonderful [music and singing] power in the blood. There is power [singing] power wonder [music] working power in the blood of the lamb of the lamb. [music] There is [singing] power power wonder working power in the precious blood of [music] the lamb. There is power wonder [music] working [singing] power in the blood of the lamb. There [music and singing] is power, power power, wonder working power in [music] the precious [singing] blood of the lamb. Praise God. Friends, our service has come to the end. There is power in the blood. And if if we need a cleansing of our mouth, if we need a cleansing of our tongue, just know that there is power in the blood of the lamb. He died for our sins. He died for your and my sins. He is ready to cleanse you, to wash you clean, to remove those curses how we uh talked about and heard, and to guide your life like that rudder into a destination that pleases and honors the Lord and will bring blessings to your life. Uh just a few announcements. So, we're going to be uh this Tuesday. It's uh we're preparing dinner at the interfaith sanctuary. So, if you want to come and help, please sign up. This time, um the meal is going to be a little bit more prepared beforehand. So, we don't need to be there that early. Maybe around 3:00 is fine. Uh we have two hours to prepare. Also, um we are soon going to be moving to that place. Last time I forgot to announce, but uh when I said we're going to be doing service from 9:30 to 10:30, that's because uh the the meet and greet breakfast part will be actually before. So, it will be at 9:00. So from 9 to 9:25ish we'll have breakfast uh just you know hang out and then service will begin. So just keep that in mind. Um also our Bible reading is it going to be here? Yeah, it's going to be in the gym which is nicer because there's no stairs. I thought you said another church. Yeah. No. Uh we're going to be moving there closer to the end of August. Maybe the first week of September. We'll just see how everything comes along. And um yeah, so we'll be moving there. But uh Bible reading. Yeah, Bible reading. We have Tuesdays at 9:00. It's at the Disciples Coffee Shop. If you guys need to know where that is, just let me know. It's by the fairgrounds. Also, there's Bible studies Tuesday at 6:00 with a prayer for our community. So I invite everybody to come and also service on Sundays. There's something I'm forgetting. Uh oh yeah. Yeah. So Daniel and Erica uh we congratulate you. Uh they have been married for 41 years. It was their anniversary, right? 41. Okay. 41 years. 41 years. So we congratulate you after service. Our church has prepared something for you guys if uh Kayla is here. Yeah, Kayla is here. Everything good. Yeah. Okay, cool. So, like everybody will come after service and congratulate them. 41 blessed years. And speaking on that, uh next week we will have communion. So, let's prepare our hearts for that. And the week after that, we'll have a topic on marriage. on marriage and we would like to have Erica and Daniel as one of the speakers there as well. So, so 41 years that's not a simple task but uh it's for sure a blessing actually it is a it depends it depends every marriage depends but um amen it's for sure a blessing okay does anybody have any needs or thankfulnesses yes Alan I do need a need I church. Yeah. [clears throat] Praise God. Yeah. Okay. So, so brother Allan, he's actually staying at this like rehab for his knee and um they're having some complications. So, yes, uh we've been reading the Bible together and stuff which was a blessing, but he's here. So, thank God for that. Um anybody else? If not, let's pray. Lord God, uh yeah. everything. So, uh, what's the baby's name? Jordan. Jordan. Okay, we'll pray for Jordan. Lord God, we thank you, Lord, that that we could come before you with our needs and our thankfulnesses. Lord God, we praise you and we honor you, God. Like how we just uh sang the song, in the blood there is power in the blood of the lamb. Lord God, Lord God, your blood has power to heal, to change, to restore, to forgive, Lord, we are so thankful for your sacrifice on the cross and your love towards us, Lord God. Lord, we also pray for these needs, for brother Allen. Lord, may you heal his knee, Lord. God, we pray for healing upon him in the name of Jesus Christ. May may your blood, Lord God, uh, come over his knee and it like and may it be fully restored, Lord Jesus. We also pray for for Anna's baby, Lord God. May may you just resolve this issue. You know how to resolve it the best way. May everyone be happy, Lord, and bless the situation. Uh, in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sinned against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. for your kingdom, your power, and glory