Where Do You Swim? Series

MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK SERIES

WHERE DO YOU SWIM?

JAMES 3:1-12

#JAMESatCCC

INTRODUCTION

You know, I really hate preaching on things that I need sermons on. It makes me feel more like a hypocrite than I already feel most of the time. As Christians, we have a high bar set by Jesus Christ as the target for our lives. My favorite writer in Scripture is the Apostle John and he says, “Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God” (3 John 1:11). Paul tells the Corinthians “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (I Corinthians 11:1). The example and the good that we are to make patterns for our lives is expressed in God’s Word and made flesh by Jesus Christ. It is the pursuit of good that should define us as Christians.

Today we are talking about the human tongue. It is part of us that is also called as Christians to a high standard and where I feel that I personally fail daily. I know I fail daily. We use our tongue for many things. We use them to eat ice cream and give icy words. It is the source of bad breath and bad words. We use them to taste sweetness and whisper sweet nothings. A blue whale’s tongue weighs as much as a truck and many times the words that we use weigh even heavier on the hearts of the people we speak them to or can be used to lift such weight off of them. The Bible has many verses about the tongue. Just the word “tongue” is mentioned over 140 times, but it is the times in James 3 that we are interested in this morning.

READ JAMES 3:1-12 (NIV)

Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. 2 We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check. 3 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 person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. 7 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, 8 but no man 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 men, who have been made in God's likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. 11 Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12 My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

READ JAMES 3:1-12 (MSG)

1-2Don't be in any rush to become a teacher, my friends. Teaching is highly responsible work. Teachers are held to the strictest standards. And none of us is perfectly qualified. We get it wrong nearly every time we open our mouths. If you could find someone whose speech was perfectly true, you'd have a perfect person, in perfect control of life. 3-5A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it! 5-6It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell. 7-10This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can't tame a tongue—it's never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth! 10-12My friends, this can't go on. A spring doesn't gush fresh water one day and brackish the next, does it? Apple trees don't bear strawberries, do they? Raspberry bushes don't bear apples, do they? You're not going to dip into a polluted mud hole and get a cup of clear, cool water, are you?