The No Spin Zone
James 3:1-18
September 29, 2024
Tell me which of these was not a tabloid headline - - - -
A headless body was found in a topless bar.
A werewolf was captured in London.
A bat child was found in a cave.
An alien Bible was found and they worship Oprah!
Computer virus spreads to humans.
Which one is false? Actually, I was messing with you, they were all headlines in various tabloids.
We’ve seen headlines like this at the store when you’re waiting in line. Stories about Elvis sightings, aliens, or talking whales. One of them used to be the Cubs win the world series.
In 2002, The World News Weekly had a headline that said “Lincoln was a woman.” And there was a picture . . . .
There it is! Then it asks, “Was John Wilkes Booth her jilted lover?” Seriously?
We live in a culture that’s inundated with lots of dirty laundry. Words are flying all over the place. People talking about other people. Hearsay, rumors, gossiping and slander. It’s hard to know what’s true and what’s not.
Have you ever wondered in the midst of a conversation, “Am I gossiping right now?” It can be a real challenge. It’s hard to nail gossip down and determine when you’re doing it.
Pastor Rick Warren gave a great definition of gossip. He said - - - -
“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.”
That’s a pretty narrow definition. And it takes away all of the fun.
I think we can go overboard on some of this as well. If there’s a work situation and you need to talk to a supervisor about a situation, is that gossip? I don’t think so, unless you add additional details that aren’t germane to the conversation. Because the goal of the discussion should be to find a resolution.
The question is - - - - what’s our motivation in the things that we share?
We can get in a lot of trouble with our words.
We’re in a series called The No Spin Zone. As we look at the book of James, James instructs us on how to live in a way which glorifies God. It’s straight talk from James. No editing, no spin.
And, James has more to say about the tongue than any other writer in the New Testament. In James 3, he wrote - - - -
3 If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well.
4 Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds,
they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.
5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.
That last verse is really striking, isn’t it? The tongue is small, yet, it acts as if it’s larger than life. We’ve all said things, that no sooner than they came out, we wish we could have taken them back. But we can’t. The same is true with a quick, nasty email or text message.
It’s interesting that when you go to the doctor, they ask you to stick out your tongue. Your tongue reveals something about what’s going on inside of you. Our words demonstrate our thoughts and reveals our character.
First of all, James tells us you have this huge 2-3000 pound beautiful, muscular horse. You put this small bit in their mouth, and you have the ability to control the horse.
James says that’s what the tongue is like. You have this little bitty muscle that has a huge impact on our lives. It can make or break you. It can open doors or close doors. It can help or hurt people.
James then compares the tongue to a ship. These massive ships which weigh thousands and thousands of pounds are guided by a much smaller rudder.
James says the same is true for our tongue. It will direct your life.
James goes on and is so direct with his words - - - -
5 How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!
6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness.
The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.
7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind,
8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
Talk about NO SPIN? That’s James giving it to us straight, no holds barred truth about the tongue.
I don’t like hearing that. But you know what? I need to hear it and so do you. As harsh as James is, doesn’t this ring true in our lives? The tongue can be a restless evil. It can be a deadly poison. It can destroy lives.
Think about the bullying that happens and how it affects us when we’re the victim. Words that are used to hurt us and damage us. How many kids have been so severely impacted that they’ve committed suicide or hurt others.
James is reminding us, all it takes is a spark. Think about how dry it was only a week ago. One match could set a field on fire.
Man has been able to tame animals, reptiles, birds, and all these different things but no man has been able to tame the tongue. He calls our tongue “a restless evil.”
It’s deeper meaning is unstable or unsettled. It means at anytime it could let loose. It’s unpredictable. You never know what the tongue is going to do. It’s like a poison, like the venom of a deadly snake. Just say the word gossip - - - -
Gossssssssssssip. It’s venomous. It’s deadly and poisonous. It hurts and damages people. The tongue can pierce others.
James says our words point to something deeper within us - -
9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.
10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. Brethren, these things ought not to be so. - James 3:9-10
That’s convicting, isn’t it? We come in here and praise and worship God . . . . then we walk out the doors and say . . . “I can’t believe what he / she was wearing.” We can add to it, but you get the point.
To curse somebody doesn’t mean you say a curse word. It’s actually a lot deeper than that. You could curse someone by saying, “You’re good for nothing. You’re a horrible person. You’re worthless.”
When we say those things we’re cursing the very people that are made in God’s likeness. James saying this shouldn’t be.
We all wrestle with this. I wrestle with it. I’m not standing up here like I have it all together. I struggle with it too.
Sometimes the greatest struggle comes at home. Maybe it’s been a tough day at work or school and you come home and someone just looks at you the wrong way, or makes a joke you don’t like . . . . AND BOOM! Your tongue takes off before you can even give it a thought.
Have you ever been there? You really aren’t sure how it happened, but it did, and now it’s time to clean up the mess . . . . and that takes a bit of time.
And if it happens again and again, then we know there’s a problem and the ask for forgiveness isn’t as powerful, because everyone knows it’s going to happen again.
James says to watch our tongue because we are made in the likeness of God. We’re valuable, everyone is in God’s kingdom. So watch your tongue!
So, for the final few minutes let’s talk about how we can do that! How do we watch our tongue, or bite our tongue, before it bites someone we love?
If you’re one of those folks who tends to gossip and you know it. And more often than not, we do know it. The question to ask yourself is why! Why do I do this?
Gossip is usually meant to bring someone down. Why is that? Are we feeling threatened, or want to look superior to someone else. Maybe we’re feeling insecure, so we slam someone.
Maybe part of that solution is to recognize and believe ---- God loves me as much as any other person in this world. I don’t have to make myself look better than someone else. I’m already great in God’s eyes.
Sometimes when we’re overly critical about someone, it’s simply because we see the same weaknesses in ourselves. It becomes easy to criticize others for the very same things we don’t like about ourselves. Those irritants which are so easy to see in others, but not in ourselves.
If you noticed, James says ---- people have tried to tame the tongue and have failed, and that will happen, because we’re doing it on our own power.
So, the next thing we can do is ask God for help. James doesn’t say God can’t help us tame the tongue. In our own power and our own strength we won’t be able to do it. But with God’s power and God’s strength we can work at taming the tongue.
In Psalm 141, David says this - - - -
3 Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips! - Psalm 141:3
What if that became a regular prayer for us. Maybe a small note card reminding us to watch our tongues. O Lord, set a guard over my mouth, keep my lips closed unless it’s edifying you!
Imagine what could happen. Ask for God’s help.
Maybe the plan should be the opposite of using our tongue for evil, or as a deadly poison. Can we use our tongues to speak life and encourage one another.
The writer of Hebrews tells us - - - -
13 Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today,’ - Heb 3:13
Paul adds - - - -
11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up. - 1 Thessalonians 5:11
These are great reminders for us to be encouragers.
Author Ken Blanchard, who wrote the classic book, The One Minute Manager, told the story about doing a seminar with Barbara Glands for a large grocery store chain with 1000's of employees.
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, “I’m 19 years old. I have Downs Syndrome and work as a bagger at the 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 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’s encouraging. If I can’t find one, I make it up. We type it and print them, and then Johnny signs each one of them.
Then he puts the quote of the day, the encouraging word, in the last sack. He tells the customer “I put something very special for you in this sack. I hope it will brighten your day.” Johnny does this every day.
A period of time later, the manager of the same grocery store called her. He said, “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, but not many people were in those lines.
The line where Johnny was bagging went all the way back to the frozen food section.” True story! 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 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.’”
The manager 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.”
He concluded saying, “there are a lot of important people at that grocery store, but I’m telling you the most important person is Johnny, the bagger.”
Isn’t that amazing? He’s speaking words of life and words of life can change a culture. It can change a group of people. Friends, if it can happen at a grocery store it can happen in a church. This is a place where we speak words of life to one another.
We’re 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 share words of life.”
It’s a hard world, isn’t it? You have enough words of anguish, anxiety, pain, and death in our culture. It’s all around us. You have employees who can cut you down to subatomic particles with their tongue.
But when we walk in these doors we encourage one another. We speak words of life. It means when we know someone is hurting, we surround them with love and grace and compassion. We offer the love of Jesus. We extend His power and strength through encouragement and love.
When life doesn’t make sense, we still recognize God is good. He loves you and care for you. We let one another know, we’re going to walk this road together. We speak words of life into one another.
We remind one another . . . . “You’re a child of the King. You are good enough. In fact, you are enough!! You are worthy. You can do this.”
We speak words of life.
Friends, our world is so starving for encouragement that people will line up at a grocery store. Think about how beautiful and how tragic that is that they’ll go there every single day so they can get a word of encouragement.
What kind of power and influence we can have in this valley if all of us said, “We’re going to encourage one another.”
Even today as you leave this place as you see somebody you know or somebody you have encountered, just encourage them.
Speak words of life, we all need it.
