Cartoon from shows a line of pews and a sentence being passed from pew to pew.
1st pew: My ear kind of hurts 2nd pew: The pastor has an earache
3rd pew: The pastor got a hearing aid 4th pew: The pastor is having trouble hearing
5th pew: The pastor got a double earring
6th pew: An old lady with a cane is walking out and says”: That does it, I’m outta here! The pastor’s got a double earring.
When you go to the doctor he will ask you to stick out your tongue. He can learn certain things by just looking at the tongue. The tongue is very revealing.
Justin Martyr said, “By examining the tongue of a patient, physicians find out the diseases of the body. Philosophers find out the diseases of the mind, and Christians find out the diseases of the soul.”
The average person spends one-fifth of his or her life talking?
If all of our words were put into print, the result would be this: a single day’s words would fill a 50-page book, while in a year’s time the average person’s words would fill 132 books of 200 pages each! Among all those words there are bound to be some spoken in anger, carelessness, or haste.
HOW TO BOOKS:ANGER – BAD ATTITUDES – CRITICIZE OTHERS – GOSSIP FOR DUMMIES
1 Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment. Highest calling to a Jew
The reason being, what they say exerts influence over others. Therefore it is important that a teacher of God’s Word be faithful to the Word, influencing people for the good and not to the bad. Barnhouse: If you can be anything else be it.
Actual Tabloid Headlines: 1) World’s oldest woman thrives on lard and booze and probably lives in Vegas. 2) Exorcism cures monstrous zit. 3) Leprechaun ejected by casino. He’s too lucky! 4) Vampire poodles go on a bloody rampage. 5) Lincoln was a woman. Supposed to be reliable?
2 For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well.
3 Now if we put the bits into the horses’ mouths so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well. 4 Look at the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires.
5 So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.
7 For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. 8 But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison.
9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; 10 from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.
11 Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.
2 For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well.
In many ways all of us stumble. We all stumble and fail the Lord in many ways.
By reminding us that we all stumble, he is saying that this includes all believer
a. Spiritual Maturity: he is a perfect man The word “perfect” does not speak of being without
sin or failure. He has just said that we all stumble. The word speaks of spiritual maturity.
He is telling us that our tongue reveals whether we are spiritually mature or not.
Webster defines gossip as a noun and as a verb. As a noun, a gossip is a person who habitually reveals personal or sensational facts. As a verb, gossip is a rumor or report of an intimate nature.
Rick Warren gave a great definition of gossip and how we know when we are gossiping.
“When we are talking about a situation with somebody who is neither part of the problem or part of the solution, then we are probably gossiping.”
R. G. LeTourneau was for many years an outstanding Christian businessman—heading a company that manufactured large earthmoving equipment. He once remarked, “We used to make a scraper known as ‘Model G.’ One day somebody asked our salesman what the ‘G’ stood for. The man, who was pretty quick on the trigger, immediately replied, “I’ll tell you. The ‘G’ stands for gossip because like a talebearer this machine moves a lot of dirt and moves it fast!”
b. Spiritual Mastery able to bridle the whole body as well Someone has said that our bodies can be a wonderful servant but a terrible master. Many people are controlled by what their bodies want and desire. We yield to temptation because we let our bodies (our flesh) rule us.
But a mature person makes their body their servant and refuses to allow it to be their master.
Sunday morning and the clock goes off. The body says, “Stay in bed.”
If you let the body be your master, you will stay in bed and miss Church. On the other hand, if the body is your servant, you will ignore what the body says, get up, and go to Church.
Spiritually immature people let the body tell them what to do.
Spiritually mature people tell the body what they want to do.
James said in 1:19, “ Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.”
1:26, “If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.”
THE POWER OF THE TONGUE
I love you, you’re important to me, thank you so much, how can I repay you, you look really nice today, I like your new haircut, great job, this place wouldn’t be the same without you, I’m proud of you, you are irreplaceable, will you marry, were having a baby
• I hate you, you disgust me, I wish you had never been born, I wish I were dead, you make me sick, I want a divorce, nobody cares about you, ill never speak to you again
THINK ABOUT THE POWER OF WORDS
1. Power to CONTROL: 3 Now if we put the bits into the horses’ mouths so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well. 4 Look at the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. Small in size but large in power
Queen Mary in Southern California. It’s this massive ship. It has three acres of recreational space on it. The anchor of the Queen Mary is the equivalent in weight to ten cars. A massive ocean liner. Yet it’s steered by a small rudder that directs that ship into the wind and waves of the sea.
Hayman Fire that was the largest fire in Colorado history. It literally cost well over 150 million dollars. One hundred homes were destroyed in the midst of this fire that burned through 137,000 acres. It was Terri Bartan, a U.S. Forest Service worker, who plead guilty to starting that fire.
It just takes a spark and then it gets out of control. James says the same is true for our tongue.
You can make a statement or a comment and then things begin to get out of control.
Tongues direct our lives. They control the direction in which we are traveling. That’s power!
Our words have a tremendous impact both on ourselves and on the others.
They can encourage or discourage, heal or hurt. Whoever said, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" must have been deaf.
What causes people to speak out of turn?
1. Nature - Our sinful nature is to do exactly these kinds of things and to inflict hurt on other people. The measure of holiness is to not speak evil and not to return evil for evil.
2. Nurture - Some of us had poor examples modeled for us growing up and we are a product of a bad environment.
3. Negative spirit - There are people who see nothing good in the world and they want to share that fact with every person that they come in contact with
4. Newness in Christ - Some people have never matured in their walk with Christ. I don’t care if you’ve been saved for thirty years or thirty minutes, we all need to strive for maturity in our faith.
2. Power to CORRUPT 5 So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.
a. James tells us that the tongue is like a fire that consumes everything in its path.
Just as great forests are destroyed by the careless toss of a match, so out tongues can
destroy lives as well. Life’s Work/Testimony
b. The usage of the word “world” suggests the vastness and variety of the tongues evil.
Whereas the tongue can help in many ways, it can also hurt in many ways.
It can be like a world of iniquity. It can be used in many evil and sinful ways.
c. Hell is behind all the tongues attempt to destroy
Chicago fire of 1871. The fire reportedly began when a cow kicked over a lantern in Mrs. O’Leary’s barn. The fire that started in O’Leary’s barn turned into one of the most terrible disasters in the history of United States?
Started on a warm, dry Sunday evening and their neighbors tried to put it out themselves.
But after about ten minutes had gone by someone finally ran for the nearest alarm box, about three blocks away, and called the fire department.
It took several more minutes for the horse-drawn fire equipment to arrive, and by then a swift wind had begun to blow, causing the fire to spread.
The damage was unbelievable. More than 300 people lost their lives and 18,000 buildings were destroyed. One whole section of the city, four miles long and a mile wide, was completely flattened.
THE NATURE OF THE TONGUE:
Winston Churchill and a woman named Lady Astor both disliked each other.
Because of their social standing, they often found themselves together at various events.
On one occasion they were seated next to each other.
Lady Astor said to Churchill, “Sir, if you were my husband, I would put poison in your coffee..”
Churchill replied, “Lady, if you were my wife, I would gladly drink it.”
1. The Most Untamed Thing On Earth; 7 For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles
and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. 8 But no one
can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison.
In 1887 the coffin of Abraham Lincoln was pried open to determine if it contained his body.
What makes that act so remarkable is the fact that Lincoln’s body had rested in that coffin for 22 years. Yet, even more amazing is that 14 years later a rumor circulated again that Lincoln’s coffin was actually empty.
The furor so gripped the land that the only way to silence it was to dig up the coffin--again. This was done and the rumor silenced when a handful of witnesses viewed the lifeless body of Lincoln.
How do we put a stop to gossip?
The Greek word there is literally snake venom. Gossssssssssssip.
Like snake venom it’s deadly and poisonous. Secret/slow/sudden
Restless Evil - BULL IN MANNFORD: There is an old saying that applies to situations like the one I found myself in. "It is the unwatched bull that gores you."
When you live on a farm or a ranch, make sure you know where the bull is at all times.
Proverbs 21:23 says, He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity.
Mountain climbers will tell you that it only takes a whisper to start and avalanche.
One word can smear a character and destroy the usefulness of a person’s life.
THE POTENTIAL OF THE TONGUE: 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; 10 from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.
We come to church and we praise our God. We say, “God, You are good and we love You.
We are so grateful for who You are. You are amazing.”
Then on the way home in our car we say, “I can’t believe that *&*% cut me off!”
To curse somebody doesn’t mean you say a curse word. It’s a lot deeper than that.
You could curse someone by saying, “You’re good for nothing.” “You’re worthless.”
When we say those things we are cursing the very people that are made in God’s likeness.
“Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing, my brothers this should not be.”
11 Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh. Matthew 12:34: "For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks."
In 1899 four newspaper reporters from Denver, Colorado met by chance in a Denver railway station. Al Stevens, Jack Tournay, John Lewis, and Hal Wilshare. They represented the four Denver newspapers: the Post, the Times, the Republican, and the Rocky Mountain News.
Each had been sent by their respective newspaper to dig up a story for the Sunday editions. All four were facing empty-handed return trips to their editors.
Al said he was going to make up a story and turn it in. The other three laughed.
One suggested they walk over to the Oxford Hotel and have a beer. They did and during their time together, Jack said he liked Al’s idea about faking a story. They all decided to come up with a story that would really get people’s attention. They decided that a story from foreign angles would be harder to verify, so they decided to do a story about China. John said, “Try this one on: Group of American engineers, stopping over in Denver en route to China. The Chinese government is making plans to demolish the Great Wall; our engineers are bidding on the job.” Harold was a bit skeptical. Why destroy the Great Wall of China? John thought for a moment. “They are tearing down the ancient boundary to welcome foreign trade.”
By 11:00 P.M. the four reporters had worked the details of their story.
The Denver newspapers ran the story. Front page. The Times headline read, “Great Chinese Wall Doomed! Peking Seeks World Trade.” Their story was picked up and expanded by newspapers throughout the U.S. and then by newspapers abroad.
When the Chinese learned the Americans were sending a demolition crew to tear down their national monument they were outraged. Particularly upset, were the members of a secret society, a volatile group of Chinese patriots who were already wary of foreign intervention.
Inspired by the story they exploded, rampaged against the foreign embassies in Peking, and slaughtered hundreds of missionaries.
In two months, 12,000 troops from six countries joined forces, invaded China with the purpose of protecting their own countrymen. The bloodshed that followed, sparked by a journalistic hoax invented in a Denver barroom, became the white-hot conflagration known as the Boxer Rebellion.
verse 8, “But the tongue no man can tame.” He is not saying the tongue cannot be tamed.
He described someone with a tamed tongue in verse 2. He is saying is that man cannot tame the tongue himself. The Lord must help him.
As one grows spiritually, by the help of the Lord, they learn to control their tongue.
How do we put a stop to gossip?
1. Stop listening: If you are listening to gossip, you are part of the problem. If someone comes to you and starts being negative saying things about other people. Be polite but simply say you don’t want to hear it. Nothing shuts down gossip faster than not having a listening ear.
2. Stop the cycle: If someone is going around talking about someone else, get the person being talked about and try to solve the problem. Gossip will never stop until the problems start being solved.
3. Start confronting: When people are spreading stories and gossip confront them in a loving but firm manner.
4. Think before you speak
T--Is it true? H--Is it helpful? I--Is it inspiring? N--Is it necessary? K--Is it kind?
Ken Blanchart and Barbara Glands did some training with three thousand front-line workers at grocery stores and retail outlets across the country. They talked about the power of words and how what you say really does make a difference in people’s lives.
A month later, Barbara said she got a call from a guy named Johnny, who was at the training. Johnny told her early on, “I’m nineteen years old. I have Downs Syndrome. I work as a bagger at a grocery store.” He said, “I went back to the store and I didn’t know how to apply your statements. I liked your talk but I didn’t know what to do with it. I went home and talked with my dad and got an idea. My dad and I sat down at the computer and everyday we come up with a statement that is affirming of people, that’s encouraging. If I can’t find one in a little quote book, I’ll make it up. We’ll type it up six different times on the computer. I print off fifty sheets and cut all of them.”
So he has three hundred of these quotes. Then, every night, Johnny signs each one of them personally. Then the next day at the grocery store he puts this stack right by where he bags the groceries. He gets everyone’s groceries bagged up. Then on the last sack he puts the quote of the day, the encouraging word, in the sack. He makes sure he looks them in the eye and says, “I put something very special for you in this sack. I hope it will brighten your day.”
He’ll take them out to their car and help them load up. Johnny does this every single day.
Barbara said after about a month she got a phone call from the manager of that grocery store. He said, “Barbara I can’t believe it. Something really amazing is beginning to happen. I was walking around the store and I noticed while we had lots of checkers at the checkout line, there was no one there but maybe one or two people. The line where Johnny was doing bagging went all the way back to the frozen food section.”
He said, “I would tell them over the intercom that there were other lines you could move over to. We would walk down the line and tell people there were other lines open. People would just look at us and say, ‘No, we’ll wait because we want Johnny’s encouraging word for the day.’
One woman came by and grabbed the supervisor. She said, ‘I used to only come to the grocery store once a week or once every other week. Now I come by almost every day. I buy something just so I can get Johnny’s encouraging word for the day.’”
About a month later, the store manager called Barbara and said, “It’s changing our entire culture of our store. Even in the floral department when a flower was broken they used to just throw it away. Now they walk out into the lines, on their own initiative, they pin it onto elderly women or young girls. They brighten their day.”
There are a lot of people at that grocery store but the most important person is Johnny, the bagger. He’s speaking words of life and words of life can change a culture. If it can happen at a grocery store it can happen in a church.
This is a place where we should speak words of life to one another.
We are to be a community that says, “We’re not going to gossip. We’re not going to share hearsay. We’re not going to engage in this deadly poison that can destroy lives, family, and people. We’re not going to spread those stories. We’re not going to hear them or pass them on. We’re going to put a stop to them. We’re going to share words of life.”
