Real Faith for Real Life: James Three
Scott Bayles, pastor
Blooming Grove Christian Church: 10/14/2012
How many of you have ever said something and, the moment the words left your mouth, you knew you shouldn’t have said it? If I had a nickel for every time I said something stupid… well, a nickel isn’t worth a lot so I’d probably have $300-$400.
It reminds me of this story about three preachers from the same town but different churches who went out on a fishing trip together. Having spent the wholes day together on the middle of the lake, they started confiding in each other, and confessing their sins to one another. The first preacher started talking. “You know what my big sin is? My big sin is drinking. I know that it is wrong but I still do it.” The second preacher open up, “My big sin is gambling. I went to Las Vegas last year and lost thousands of dollars.” The third preacher started talking, “Guys I guess that I should have gone first.” The other two preachers looked puzzled and asked why. “My big sin is gossiping.”
Every day, you and I speak thousands of words. Studies show that we speak an average of 16,000 words per day. Some are carefully planned and selected; others are spoken impulsively. Some are spoken quietly; others are spoken with more volume. Some of our words are spoken with the desire to help and encourage; some with the motivation to hurt, belittle and retaliate. However, most of our words are spoken with little, if any, thought about how they will affect others.
A couple weeks ago we started this series through the book of James, which is all about real faith for real life. One of the primary messages of James is that real faith will affect every aspect of your life—the things you do, the things you feel, the things you think, and especially the things you say. Listen to what James has to say at the beginning of chapter three: “We all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a mature man who is also able to control his whole body” (James 3:2 HCSB).
It’s embarrassing to stumble, isn’t it? But we all do it. We all make mistakes. And we all stumble in what we say. We let the wrong words fall from our mouths. What James is saying, is that our tongue is a sort of thermometer for our faith. It reveals our spiritual temperature. When our speech is full of truth and grace and gratitude and kindness and goodness and gentleness, it reveals the strength of our faith at work in our hearts. But when our speech is full of negativity and gossip and lying and venom, it reveals the weakness of our faith.
According to James, our words are very powerful. In fact, throughout this chapter James uses six word-pictures to illustrate the power of our words. We can put these six pictures into three meaningful categories that reveal the three powers of the tongue.
• THE POWER TO DIRECT
First, James says that the tongue has the power to direct. Here’s what he says, “We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go, even though the winds are strong. In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches” (James 1:3-5 NLT).
Isn’t that the truth? I like what someone once said: “Talk is cheap because the supply always exceeds the demand.” The point James makes with these illustrations, though, is—just like we use a bit to direct a horse or rudder to direct a ship, our words have the power to influence and affect the course of our lives and the lives of others. The things you say can steer someone’s life in the right direction or the wrong direction.
I know a wonderful sister in Christ who, when she was just a little girl, overheard someone flippantly comment, “She couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket.” And to this day, she won’t sing out loud in church. That comment affected and directed her life.
On the other hand, all throughout my childhood, my mom always told me, “You’re going to do great things.” I don’t know if I’ve lived up that. In fact, there were times when those words were a burden to me. But, my mom’s constant reassurance and faith in me has dramatically influence the direction of my life.
The things you say are influencing the people around you, even when you don’t know it. I heard about this little boy who was leaving church one Sunday morning when he slipped a dollar bill into the pastor’s hand. The pastor looked at him confused and asked him, “What’s that for?” The little boy looked up at him and said, “Cuz I felt sorry for you and want to help you out.” That confused him even more, so he asked, “Why do you feel you need to help me out?” Then the boy said, “Cuz my daddy says you’re the poorest preacher he’s ever heard.”
People are listening. And they might not be getting the right message. As Solomon once said, “The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences” (Proverbs 18:21 NLT). Never underestimate the power of your words to affect people’s lives. Jesus spoke to the woman at the well and changed her life forever. Peter preached on Pentecost and 3,000 souls came to Christ. Your words really do have the power to direct.
• THE POWER TO DESTROY
Your words also have the power to destroy. That’s what James tells us next. And he illustrates this truth with two different word pictures. First he compares our tongues to a fire. He says, “A tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. And the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire” (James 3:5-6 NLT).
When I was attending college in Tennessee, one summer these reports came over all the local news stations about a fire in West Tennessee. It was a brushfire that blazed through acres and acres of land. It left several square miles of blackened earth. Not only was the face of nature scared, but millions of dollars of valuable timber and pasture had been wiped out. After investigation, authorities determined that the cause of the fire was somebody’s lit cigarette. I’m sure they never imagined how destructive it could be when they flicked it out the window of their moving vehicle.
But our words can be just as destructive in a person’s life. Sometimes it’s the little things we say that hurt the most. Calloused insults and careless gossip can break people’s spirits, ruin reputations, or instill hate and bitterness. When I was growing up, there was a saying that my mom taught me: “Sticks and stones can break my bones but words will never hurt me.” How many of you remember that saying? How many know that saying is wrong? Words do hurt, don’t they? And sometimes they can have lasting effects.
That’s what James points out with his next illustration. He says, “People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison” (James 3:7-8 NLT).
Several years ago, I saw this special on Animal Planet, about people who have been bitten by wild animals. One of the stories they told was of a man who had been a snake handler for a number of years. He was particularly famous for handling cobras, one of the most venomous snakes on earth. One day, after a demonstration, the handler went to place a six-foot cobra back into its holding bin. Before he could get the lid closed the cobra snapped at him tagging him on the stomach. The contact lasted less than a second, but that was long enough for the snake to inject its venom. Several hours went by while the handler was being transported to the hospital and awaited the anti-venom. He survived the attack. But over the course of a few hours the venom from the cobra had eaten away at his flesh, leaving a soft-ball sized hole in the middle of his stomach. At the end of the segment, they showed him lying on the couch with his soda can sitting in the hole.
That’s what cruel and critical comments are like—they sting and they just eat away at you! And if they’re repeated often enough, they can burn a hole in your heart. Do you ever use words like those? Does your sarcasm bite like a serpent? Does your cynicism sink its fangs into your prey? Do you inject the poison of criticism into your spouse? Into your kids? Into your family? Into your friends? Into your church?
Do you spout hurtful comments in the car on the way to church and they sing praises to God? Friend, these things ought not be this way. And that’s the last message James has for us on the subject.
• THE POWER TO DELIGHT
In addition to the power to direct, and destroy, our words also have the power to delight and that’s how we ought to use them. Here are the last two illustrations James uses and his final thoughts on the matter: “We use our tongues to praise our Lord and Father, but then we curse people, whom God made like himself. Praises and curses come from the same mouth! My brothers and sisters, this should not happen. Do good and bad water flow from the same spring? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree make olives, or can a grapevine make figs? No!” (James 3:9-12 NCV).
The final two images that James uses are a fountain and a fig tree. A fountain ought to be a source of cool, refreshing water. Thirsty people with parched throats ought to be able to come to the well and drink deeply and walk away rejuvenated. When a hungry person finds a fig tree, they ought to be able to eat the fruit of its branches and be nourished. That’s what our words ought to be like for the people we talk to.
When thirsty souls with dehydrated hearts come to you, they ought to be able to soak in your words and be refreshed and encouraged by them. Your lips ought to bear the fruit of God’s Spirit so that people around you can be spiritually nourished and feed. Like the Bible says, “The lips of the righteous feed many” (Proverbs 10:21 NASB).
You know a lot of us are concerned about what we eat. We count calories and carbs. We watch our sodium intake. We avoid trans-fat and high-fructose corn-syrup. And it’s good to eat healthy, but we ought to be so much more concerned with what comes out of our mouths, then what goes into them. Jesus said, “What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them” (Matthew 15:11 NIV).
Jesus later explained that comment when he said, “The things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart” (Matthew 15:18 NIV). This is why your tongue is the thermometer of your faith. Whatever is in your heart will eventually come out of your mouth. If you are filled with anger, bitterness, hatred, jealousy, or ugliness, it will show up in your words. But if your heart is filled with God’s Spirit, then the fruit of your lips will be love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And that is what this world needs. That’s what your wife and children need. That’s what your co-workers need. That’s what your neighbor needs.
When your tongue starts building people up instead of tearing them down—when the fruit of God’s Spirit falls from your lips—then your family and everyone else around you will be nourished and encouraged by that fruit. People will be able to draw closer to God and experience his grace because of the love, joy and peace that you speak into their lives.
Conclusion:
When you’ve got real faith for real life, it will show up in the way you talk. Our words are powerful. On any given day, you and I will speak thousands of them. And the words we speak will have the power to direct, the power to destroy and the power to delight. What will your words do today?
When your heart is filled with the Holy Spirit, then you won’t have to worry about destroying people with your words. When you speak to people with gentleness and respect, you can direct them toward a deeper and more meaningful relationship with God. When you speak the truth in love, you can nourish people’s spirits and delight their souls.
Invitation:
I want to encourage you this week to watch your words carefully. Pay close attention to things you are speaking into other people’s lives. Ask God to help you. Ask him to fill you with his Spirit. If you’d like some to pray with you or the church to pray for you, come talk to me—you can call me at home, or just come now while we stand and sing.
