Well as we finish up this series on the seven things that God don’t like hopefully we have learned a little about ourselves & some ways to avoid falling into the traps of the devil.
Today we will look at the last few things that God don’t like; now these three things are sins that are very easy for us to fall into. Why? I don’t know, but it seems that Lying, giving a false witness, and stirring up conflict is a norm in today’s world.
All you have to do is look around and you’ll see these things in your workplace, homes, schools and churches. And what’s the common denominator for all of these, our tongues, that tiny terror that we try so hard to control but a lot of times fail, let’s look at our text this morning.
James 3:2 we all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.
Basically if you can keep your tongue in check you should never sin you would be perfect. Why would he say this? Let’s read a little further and I think we can understand a little more about that tiny terror we call the tongue and why it gets us in so much trouble.
When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4 Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5 Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
7 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.
Basically the three things we are looking at today those three sins are perpetrated by our tongue, by putting our mouths in gear while our brain is in neutral.
How many of you have ever said something and wish you hadn’t? We all have and that’s what James is talking about, we just can’t seem to tame our tongues
But today we are going to look at these three things God don’t like and then try and find some ways to get that tiny terror we call the tongue in check.
Let’s start with lying, lying is simply not telling the truth, or attempting to deceive. It’s funny that we have categorized lies. We have those little white lies we use so as not to hurt others feelings, (does this dress make me look fat?), tall tales that we use to embellish stories that we tell (Why else would men sit around drinking coffee other than to try and outdo each other), then just an outright bald face lie that we use to do harm to others.
The text in Proverbs doesn’t distinguish these as God liking some and not liking others it simply says God doesn’t like a lying tongue.
Now we on the other hand try and justify lies by saying that they are ok as long as we aren’t intentionally trying to deceive someone or causing harm to others. Let me tell you it’s a good thing we believe in grace. Because we all fall into that little white lie trap at some time or another.
I’m gonna go ahead and confess to you right here today, I have exaggerated a story or two in my life and may do it again, but I don’t mean harm and it’s mostly about things that don’t even matter.
Becky gets on me pretty hard when I start telling stories about my childhood and will look at me with a strange look and tell me God don’t like lying , but the truth is most of those stories are true even if they sound like a tall tale, or at least that’s how I remember them.
But she’s right and I work every day to control what comes out of my mouth and try and do better, but it’s hard to do when you have a fictional book of tall tales in your head just waiting to be told, maybe some of us just need to start with a disclaimer sometimes, the thing I am about to tell you is mostly true but has a fictional side to it to make the story sound better.
We all stumble in many ways and lying is easy to stumble into.
What about gossip spreading a false witness? This hurts, gossip can cut a person to the bone people have committed suicide and even murder over gossip.
Gossip is defined as idle talk or rumors.
Gossip is so easy to get caught up in.
We all know how gossip works; Let me tell you what Sally told me about Sue but you can’t tell anyone else. Then it gets passed on, and on, and in the end it’s been added to and changed around so much it is nothing like what anyone said much less like what happened. And the sad thing is usually we only spread the bad stuff the scandalous stuff the stuff that really hurts others.
When you check out at the grocery store look at the papers and magazines, they are full of gossip and rumors and we don’t know if it’s true or not.
Rumors and gossip are abundant in our workplaces and churches. People will spread rumors to make others look bad and they look good, and we do not need to be a part of anything like that. It causes too much harm to others.
Fireman are the worst Gossip and rumor spreaders there are, it’s true ,, they have too much idle time between fires and it gives them a lot of time to spread rumors and gossip. We called it the grapevine but the truth is it was very undependable. So I always tried to nip it in the bud. If I heard a rumor I picked up the phone and called the person the rumor was about and asked if it was true. Most times it wasn’t and once you went directly to the person that was the topic of conversation the rumor was over.
We must do all we can to avoid Gossip and rumors they can be especially harmful to others.
And what about this last one Sowing discord among brothers? We call it stirring the pot, doing things that can escalate a situation, or cause confusion.
All I can say is this I used to be the world’s best pot stirrer I used a boat paddle to stir stuff up. Why did I do it? I don’t know, but it was sort of like a game I would stir things up and see just how far I could push things. Even things that had died down I would stir the pot a little to get them started up again.
I realize now what was amusing and fun to me wasn’t fun for the people involved and I try my best not to do any pot stirring anymore. But it was a hard habit to break.
People who sow discord are alive and well in our workplaces and in our churches.
Proverbs tells us God don’t like people who do this, but sometimes it’s hard not to.
People sow discord for much reason, some do it to take the focus off of them, some do it in order to get their way and bring about change that is favorable to them.
All of these things Lying, gossiping, stirring the pot are detrimental to churches, and families and God doesn’t like them. They are put in place by Satan and they cause disunity in the church, divorces in families, stress in our workplaces and yes sometimes even death.
So what do we need to do? We need to learn and control our Tongue and stop doing those things.
Have you ever heard the old saying “don’t just stand there say something” Change it around to “Don’t just say something stand there”
• Put your brain in gear before opening mouth
• Think before you speak (will God approve of what I’m about to say?)
• Don’t spread gossip ( Just tell people I don’t want to hear it)
• Even if what you are about to say is the truth sometimes it’s better to say nothing ( Keep your 2 cents in your pocket)
• Think about how the other person may feel
• Ask yourself what would Jesus say?
Look getting our tongue in check is hard and no man can do it. We all stumble but we can do better.
We must let Jesus Christ bridle our tongue and guide our words and actions; we must let the Holy Spirit fill our hearts so that everything we say will be pleasing to God.
We are all very susceptible to the three things we talked about today and we need to strive to eliminate them from our lives. If God don’t like them we don’t need them.
You can’t do it alone let but through the grace afforded us through Jesus Christ you can do it with His help.
Let Go and Let God.
