Good morning again, welcome to Church of the Advent.
My name is Jeff, I'm one of the pastors here.
A warm welcome to you, especially if you're new
or this is your first time joining us.
We'd love to meet you after the service
and get to know more about you and hear more of your story.
So please come say hello after the service.
In the summer and fall of last year, 2023,
during the Writers Guild strike in the entertainment industry,
five of the late night TV show hosts,
Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers,
John Oliver, and Stephen Colbert,
these five TV show hosts got together and started a podcast.
Maybe a few of you may have heard of it.
The podcast is called Strike Force Five.
The idea is that while their shows were off the air
due to the industry strike,
that they would get together and do a show
and talk and produce some content.
And then they would donate all the proceeds
from the sponsors of the podcast
to people who worked on their show
and were out of work because of the strike.
And it was a cool idea.
And this past week, I started listening to it
and I started listening to the first episode.
And interestingly enough, in part of the first episode,
these five late night TV show hosts
started talking about,
I just came up in conversation,
what they wanted to be when they were kids,
what they wanted to be when they grew up,
when they were kids.
And interestingly enough,
four of the five hosts said that when they were kids,
they had the thought about someday
working in a church as pastors or priests.
I've actually heard Jimmy Fallon on a number of occasions
actually tell a story about how he,
for a while as a kid,
thought about being a priest.
John Oliver, who's British,
who grew up in the UK,
said that he told his dad one day
that he wanted to be a vicar.
And John Oliver's dad said to him,
no, you don't.
You just want people to listen to you.
And I think that's pretty appropriate
given what he does for his vocation today.
This is an interesting data point,
I think for a lot of reasons,
that four out of five late night TV talk shows,
all at one point when growing up,
thought about going into ordained ministry.
That's pretty fascinating.
In many ways, being a pastor or priest
is very far, very different
from being a late night talk show host.
But there's at least one thing
that they have in common.
And what they both have in common
is they both involve a lot of speaking.
They both involve a lot of talking.
And if I had to guess,
I would guess that these talk show hosts,
very on in their life,
understood something at a very young age.
They understood something
about the power of words,
about the ability for words
to influence and shape people
in the world around them.
The power of words
is what our New Testament passage,
James chapter three,
is about this morning.
In this passage,
James is talking about
about the power of the tongue,
the power of speech,
the power of words,
and also the need for the tongue,
the need for our words
to be mastered and tamed and healed.
And so that's what we're gonna look at this morning.
We're gonna look at the power of the tongue
and the healing of the tongue.
The power of the tongue
and the healing of the tongue.
In the first several verses
here in James chapter three,
in verses three through six,
James gives us a series of illustrations
to talk about the power of the tongue.
So in verse three,
he compares the tongue
to the power of a bit over a horse.
A bit is that piece of metal
that is put into the horse's mouth
and attached to the reins
so the rider can direct the horse.
In verse three, he says,
if we put bits into the mouths of horses
so that they obey us,
we guide their whole bodies as well.
In verse four,
he compares the tongue
to the power of a rudder over a ship.
Verse four, he says,
look at the ships also.
Though they are so large
and driven by strong winds,
they are guided by a very small rudder
wherever the will of the pilot directs.
And then in verses five and six,
James compares the tongue
to the power of a small fire over a forest.
He says,
how great a forest is set ablaze
by such a small fire.
And the tongue is a fire,
a world of unrighteousness.
The tongue is set up among our members,
stating the whole body,
setting on fire the entire course of life
and set on fire by hell.
Strong words.
All three illustrations hang together
in what James says in verse five.
So also,
the tongue is a small member
and yet,
it boasts of great things.
Although the tongue is a small thing,
it has a powerful effect in the world.
It has a powerful effect on our lives
and in the lives of others.
You can accomplish a lot of good things
if you channel the power of a horse.
If you,
you can travel long distances,
you can plow a field,
but you can also use a horse to trample somebody.
You can accomplish a lot of good things
if you channel the power of a ship.
You can cross oceans.
You can transport goods and grow an economy.
You can also run a ship aground.
You can accomplish a lot of great things
if you channel the power of a small fire.
You can bring warmth on a cold day.
You can cook a meal,
but you can also set a forest on fire.
Our words are the same way.
They can be used to bring life
and flourishing into the world.
They can be used to build someone up,
to encourage them,
honor them,
comfort them.
They can be used to teach a congregation
or a small group or a class
in the truth of God's word.
There's lots of ways we can use words
to bring life to other people,
but can also have the opposite effect.
Our words can be used to harm
and to hurt others as well.
Not to build somebody up,
but to tear them down.
Not to encourage somebody,
but to discourage somebody.
Not to honor somebody,
but to dishonor them.
Not to heal,
but to destroy.
And this is why James
has an incredibly sober tone
in this passage,
and his words are full of warning
and caution about our speech.
If our words are not harnessed
and controlled,
they can be like a fire
that can set our relationships
and our families
and our workplace
and our churches ablaze.
And so because the tongue
has such great power,
we all need to master it.
We all need to have
self-discipline over it.
Now notice,
in verse one,
that James says,
one of the first applications
given the power of the tongue
is to teachers and pastors
in the church.
In verse one,
he says,
not many of you
should become teachers,
my brothers,
for you know that we who teach
will be judged
with greater strictness.
He's not talking about
the ultimate day of judgment,
but he's referring to the fact
that those who teach
and lead in the church
will one day have to give
an account to God
for whether they were faithful
to teach sound doctrine
and shepherd those
under their care faithfully.
Listen to the words
of Hebrews chapter 13,
verse 17.
Obey your leaders
and submit to them,
for they are keeping watch
over your souls
as those who will have
to give an account,
as those who will have
to give an account.
And so how does this relate
to what James is saying
in this passage
about the power of the tongue?
Well, as those in authority,
the words of pastors
and teachers
and leaders
have a powerful impact
on the lives of others,
on the lives of those
they lead.
Not only are teachers
in the church
called to rightly handle
the word of God,
they are also called
to live up to that teaching
with their lives.
This is why Jesus
so many times
in the gospel
has strong words
for the Pharisees,
the scribes
and the Pharisees
who take great pride
in their knowledge
and their teaching
and yet don't follow through,
who don't live up
to that in practice.
And those who teach,
those who lead,
are especially prone
to sins of the tongue
because they spend
so much time talking.
My professor
from Covenant Seminary,
Dr. Dan Doriani,
a New Testament professor,
puts it this way.
He says,
teachers are especially vulnerable
to failures of speech
because their role demands
that they speak so much.
More words
mean more errors.
As we grow accustomed
to public speaking,
we can become careless.
When asked to offer an opinion,
we tend to comply
even if we don't have
the qualifications
or expertise.
Humor
can be a dangerous gift.
It pleases the crowd,
but can easily wound
or mislead.
Too many laughs
come at someone else's expense.
More words
mean more errors.
The encouragement
to exercise caution
over the tongue
and self-discipline
with our words
is first and foremost
directed at people like me,
at leaders and teachers
and pastors in the church.
But it also
applies to everyone.
If you notice
what comes next
in verse two,
James says,
for we all stumble
in many ways.
And if anyone
does not stumble
in what he says,
he is a perfect man,
able also to bridle
his whole body.
Listen,
do you want to live
a life of
self-mastery?
Do you want to live
a life of discipline
in various areas
of your life?
Do you want to be
a more disciplined person?
Learn to come
control your tongue.
James says,
if you can control
your tongue,
you can control
your whole life.
If you can master
your words,
you can master
your whole life.
Why?
Because the tongue
has incredible power.
It's like a bit
in a horse's mouth.
It's like the rudder
of a ship.
It's like a small spark
in a forest.
It can do amazing good.
It can also do great harm.
And therefore,
it's absolutely critical
that we master our tongue,
that we practice
self-discipline
over our words,
that we become aware
of our worst
and most common
tendencies and impulses,
our particular
sins of speech.
Given how powerful
the tongue is,
where and when
do you need
to speak less?
Where do you need
to practice
more restraint
and self-discipline
with your words?
We would all do well
to apply James'
encouragement
two chapters earlier
in James 1,
verse 19.
Let everyone
be quick to listen,
slow to speak,
and slow to become angry.
Where do you need
to speak less?
But also,
given the power
of the tongue,
we could also ask
the flip side question.
Given the power
of the tongue,
where do you need
to speak more?
Where do you need
to speak more
with words of life
and hope
and encouragement
and comfort?
Where are you
holding back?
Who in your life
today or this week
needs to receive
an encouraging note
or email
or text from you?
How can you
blow wind
into somebody's sails
through your words?
Now, having said all that,
if we just stop there,
in verse 6,
we would miss
something really important
because we would miss
what James shows us next,
the connection
between the tongue
and the heart.
If you're going
to master your tongue,
you need self-discipline,
but self-discipline alone
isn't all you need.
You need to address
actually what's going
underneath,
what's going on
underneath at the heart level
because the tongue
is connected
connected to the heart.
And that's what James
looks at next
in the next five verses.
And so we want to look
at the healing
of the tongue.
The healing of the tongue.
Next in verse 7,
James continues
with these words.
He says,
for every kind
of beast and bird,
a reptile and sea creature
can be tamed
and has been tamed
by mankind,
but no human being
can tame the tongue.
It is a restless evil
full of deadly poison.
You would think
that wild animals
would be way more difficult
to tame
than something like
our tongues.
But James says,
we've tamed every wild animal
and yet no one
can tame the tongue.
Why?
Because the tongue
is connected to the heart.
Because it's a restless evil.
It's full of deadly poison.
What does he mean?
Well, he tells us
in verses 9 and 10,
with it,
we bless our Lord and Father
and with it,
we curse people
who are made
in the likeness of God.
For with the same mouth
come both blessing
and cursing.
When it comes to our words,
there's this deadly irony
that we can bless God
with our mouths,
that we can pray to him
with our lips,
we can sing to him
in worship,
and yet with the same mouth,
we can slander
other people's reputation,
we can tear
other people's down,
we can spread
false information,
ruin other people's reputation.
And James says,
when we're doing this,
what we're doing
is we're actually cursing
other people.
We are cursing,
we are bringing a curse
onto someone
who is made
in the image
and the likeness of God.
And when we curse
someone made
in the image of God,
we are also cursing
God himself.
When is a time recently
when you said something
that you shouldn't have,
where you regretted it later?
Maybe it was gossip,
maybe it was boasting,
maybe it was
slightly distorting
the truth
to make yourself
look better,
maybe it was criticism
that wasn't completely fair
that hurt somebody.
And what these verses
in James
would lead us
to ask is this,
what was in your heart
that caused you
to say that?
Was it anger?
Was it bitterness?
Was it jealousy?
Insecurity?
Pride?
Fear?
See, when anger
or bitterness
or insecurity
or fear
become words,
especially words
that harm other people,
what we're doing
is that we are trying
to resolve
what's in our hearts.
We're trying to resolve
our own negative feelings
by transferring them
onto somebody else.
I feel angry
so I'm gonna talk
negatively about somebody else
so I can feel better,
so I can feel less angry.
I feel insecure
and therefore
I'm going to
tear someone else down
so I can build myself up.
What we are doing
is we are seeking
our own healing
by cursing other people,
people made in the image
of God.
And this is a deadly cycle
that all of us
perpetuate to some degree.
It's a cycle
that James says
can spread like wildfire
and destroy relationships
and workplaces
and communities
and churches.
Verse 11,
James continues
the connection
between the tongue
and the heart.
He says,
does a spring
pour forth
the same opening
both fresh
and salt water?
Can a fig tree,
my brothers,
bear olives
or a grapevine
produce figs?
Neither can a salt pond
yield
fresh water.
If you're paying attention,
you notice
that there's echoes
of Jesus' words
in Matthew 12
where Jesus says
to the Pharisees
that a tree
is known
by its fruit.
For out of the abundance
of the heart,
out of the abundance
of the heart,
the mouth speaks.
And this is the thrust
of what James
is getting at.
He's getting at the heart
just as a fresh spring,
water spring
can only bring forth
fresh water
just as a fig tree
can only produce figs.
So our words
reveal who we truly are.
Our words reveal
what's truly
in our hearts.
You wanna know
who you truly are?
This afternoon,
hit record
on your smartphone
and just leave it on
all week.
And let it record
everything you say.
And then after a week,
play it back.
That's what's in your heart.
That's who you truly are.
Years ago,
Pastor Jack Miller,
who also taught
at Westminster Seminary
for another years,
created and taught
a class called Sonship.
And it's a class
that maybe a few of you
have heard of.
It's a wonderful class.
And one of the points
of this class
called Sonship
is to help people
understand
that how we grow
as Christians
is that we have
to understand
the gospel more deeply.
That the same gospel
that saves us
is also the same gospel
that transforms us.
And if we want to grow,
we have to continue
to understand
the greater depths
of the gospel.
That we may say
we believe in the gospel,
that we're a sinner
saved by grace,
but in practice,
there's actually
lots of ways
in which we actually
don't believe
and live out the gospel.
And so one of the exercises
of the Sonship class
is called the tongue test.
The tongue test.
And Jack Miller
would encourage people
to do these six things
over the course of a week.
He would tell the class,
number one,
for a week,
do not complain
or grumble.
Number two,
do not boast
about anything at all.
Number three,
do not gossip
or repeat bad information
about somebody else.
Number four,
do not run somebody down
even a little bit.
Number five,
do not defend
or excuse yourself
no matter what.
Number six,
do always affirm
other people.
Now how many of us
think we could
pull that off this week?
I think I'd probably
fall short.
I think the reason why
if all of us
went home
and tried that this week
is we'd quickly find
it to be very difficult
is because there are
places in our hearts
that haven't been
formed yet
by the gospel.
The person who's able
to do all of these things
has a heart
that truly believes
the gospel deep down.
In Jesus,
they know they're so secure
they know they don't
need to defend themselves.
In Jesus,
they know that
they are already loved
and that's where
they get their identity
and so they don't need
to tear others down
in order to feel good
about themselves.
In Jesus,
they see
that the gospel
has humbled them
so much
that not only
should they not
boast,
but they can't boast.
see the ultimate
way
to heal your heart
and as a result
to use your words
to heal other people
is through worship.
It's through worship.
It's in seeing
the beauty
of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ
is
the living
word of God.
He is the very
speech
of the living God.
He is full of grace
and full of truth.
His words
always and only
healed people.
He always blessed
people who cursed him.
He always prayed
for people
who hated him
and more than that,
the one
who never
cursed anyone
became a curse.
He became a curse
and that's what
happened on the cross.
That's what Galatians
chapter 3
verse 13
says that on the cross
Jesus Christ
became a curse
for us
in our place
and it's because
Jesus became
a curse for us
that we are healed,
that we're forgiven,
that we're accepted,
that we're loved
and because of what
he did for us,
because he became
a curse
for us,
we can see
that our hearts
will never be healed
by cursing other people.
our hearts
will never be healed
by transferring
our anger,
our bitterness,
our jealousy,
our insecurity
onto somebody else.
Healing will never
happen that way.
Why?
Because taking
on a curse
is only something
that the perfect
word of God
could do.
It's only something
that Jesus Christ
could do.
He's the only one
who could take on
the curse
for our sin
and at the same time
bring healing
to the world.
And that is the beauty
of what he did
and that is why
he deserves our worship
and that is what
will truly heal
our hearts.
When that starts
to sink in,
it humbles us
because we realize
that we can't boast
about anything.
It makes us secure
and we realize
we don't need
to defend ourselves.
We don't need
to transfer our anger
or our insecurity
onto somebody else
because we know
that we're loved.
And because we know
we're loved,
we don't need
to tear others down,
to build ourselves up.
And when that starts
to change your heart,
when that starts
to change you,
that is what will lead you
to have mastery
over your tongue.
that is what will lead you
to have discipline
over your words.
It's the power
of the gospel.
It's the power
to heal the heart.
It's the power
to tame the tongue.
Listen,
do you want
to change the world?
Do you want
to change the world?
Practice these
six things
for one week.
Don't complain
or grumble.
Don't boast
about anything at all.
Don't gossip
or repeat
bad information
about somebody else.
Do not run
somebody down
even a little bit.
Don't defend
or excuse yourself
no matter what.
And do always
affirm other people.
And when you fall short,
and you will fall short,
let it lead you
to examine
what's in your heart,
what's going on
in your heart.
Let it lead you
to examine
how your tongue
is truly connected
to what is going
on underneath.
And as you
examine your heart
and bring your heart
before God,
let it lead you
to worship Jesus,
the true
and perfect
word of God.
Let's pray.
Father in heaven,
we praise you
and thank you
that you
are the word of God
who came down
from heaven
to bring healing
to the world
by becoming a curse
for us.
And Lord,
I pray that
you would do
your work in us
to heal
the places
in our hearts
where there's anger
or bitterness
or insecurity
or pride
or jealousy,
Lord.
And I pray,
Lord,
that would bring forth
fresh spring water
that out of the abundance
of our hearts
our mouths would speak
and that we,
through our words,
would bring life
and encouragement
and hope
and healing
to a lost
and broken world.
And we pray this
in the name of the Father
and the Son
and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.