I'm going to invite Vicky up who's going to read scripture for us.
So Vicky's going to read the passage that Corey's going to preach from.
! This is James chapter 3 verses 1 to 12.
Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers,
for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.
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.
If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us,
we guide their whole bodies as well.
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.
So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.
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 among our members, staining the whole body,
setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.
For every kind of beast and bird, of 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.
With it we bless our Lord and Father,
and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.
From the same mouth come blessing and cursing,
my brothers, these things ought not to be so.
Does a spring pour forth from 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.
Well, we read from James, the letter of James,
and this is a passage about speech that Vicki read for us.
So James is writing this letter,
and he is the little brother of Jesus Christ,
biologically the little brother.
And he grew up in the same house as Jesus,
as the Son of God.
And so that has to mean that he would have shared so many meals with Jesus,
and he would have very probably slept in the same room as Jesus,
and shared a room with Jesus.
And that means that James is writing to us
as someone who has heard,
the only person in human history who has spoken perfectly,
who never sinned one time with the way they spoke,
the words that they spoke.
And so he knows what he's talking about
when he writes to us about perfect speech.
The central question of this book,
I've been saying each week is,
what does a person who has faith in Jesus Christ look like
in the way they live?
So what is lived faith?
So James has said many times
that a disciple of Jesus
doesn't just believe certain things,
but their faith is manifest.
They actually act out their faith.
So faith has a tell.
Faith is a lived.
Faith without works is dead faith.
And we've seen so far three things.
This is a summary of all five sermons
we've already had in the book of James
in about 45 seconds.
Three things that James has told us
is the tell of living faith in your life.
Number one, you are a person who can suffer
differently than the way the world suffers.
So you suffer in a way where suffering actually can grow you,
not devastate you, not destroy you.
And the second way he's told us is that
you're a follower of Jesus living out your faith
when you are shaped by the word of God.
So you're ingesting the word of God,
hearing it, and also doing it
to the point where your opinions,
your personal opinions,
become less and less important.
And instead, what the Bible says
is far more important for you.
And then the third way he said
that faith has a tell.
Faith shows up is through good works.
So faith without good works is dead faith.
And so those good works are especially
works of mercy to the afflicted,
to the poor, to the widow,
to the orphan, James says.
Now, in all of that,
he is talking about the wise life,
what it means to live a life of wisdom.
So he mentioned the word wisdom in chapter one.
And we said at the end of chapter one
that he introduces everything he's going to say
in the rest of the book in chapter one.
And so now he's returning to the concept of wisdom
and really just saying,
all I've been talking about in this letter
is how to live a wise life.
And that's the difference between a wise life
and a foolish life.
So I've tried to go out of my way a few times
to say that the letter of James
is not just the Proverbs of the New Testament.
I have preached on James in the past and said that,
and I've realized I don't think that's right.
I think that's wrong.
Instead, James is not aphoristic.
He has one whole argument that he's making.
But it is like Proverbs
in that this is New Testament wisdom literature.
So he's teaching us about what it means
to live the wise life.
Now, in the Bible, there is law in this life.
There are laws, there are laws in our land.
And laws tell you very specifically
things to do and things not to do.
So if you're wondering, should I murder?
There is a law for that in the Bible.
Thou shalt not murder.
It's very clear.
Should I commit adultery?
No, thou shalt not commit adultery.
Should I steal?
No, thou shalt not steal.
That's law.
But wisdom is something beyond law.
So what is wisdom?
Wisdom is how to live life skillfully before God,
living for God into this world
when there are no laws telling you
what to do in every situation.
So the Bible has all sorts of laws,
but then it doesn't tell you who you should marry
or whether you should get married.
It doesn't tell you what job you should take.
It doesn't tell you if you should live in the city
or the suburbs or rural.
The answer is city, by the way.
I'm just kidding.
We love the suburbs and the rural communities.
The Bible doesn't tell you all that.
There's a thousand things you decide all the time,
every day.
What should you eat?
When should you wake up?
These are questions of wisdom, not of law.
And so James is here trying to say
that a Christian is seeking,
walking the path of becoming a more and more wise person
by becoming what?
A doer of the word, ingesting the word
so that it pours out of you in your decision-making.
You live instinctively wise.
Now of all the domains of wisdom that there can be,
and there are so many,
speech, language is the final frontier.
And what I mean by that is that
words are the hardest, James is saying,
to get control of.
Now we don't think that way intuitively,
but it is true.
It's so easy to control our bodies from violence.
Most of us do not struggle walking around in the city,
getting frustrated and punching people in the face.
We don't struggle with that.
We don't.
We can actually restrain ourselves physically in so many ways,
but boy, is it hard to restrain your words.
And even in a moment where that colleague,
that friend, that person, that neighbor is saying that to you,
and you just want to tell them what you think about them,
you want to turn around with an insult,
maybe in the moment you hold it in,
but the domain of speech goes so deep that we know we don't just have words existing externally,
externally, spoken, out loud.
We have this whole invisible domain of speech,
the internal dialogue.
And in the internal dialogue,
we might be withholding what we really think about somebody in their face,
but boy, is it raging on the inside.
Internally.
See, the domain of speech is internal and external,
and what tends to happen is that the external leaks what's really going on in the internal eventually.
Words are the final frontier.
They're so hard to get a hold of.
They're really the last domain of wisdom James is telling us here.
Jesus said it so plainly,
out of the heart, the mouth speaks.
And so words are the premier revelation of what's true about our hearts.
And James comes and says something very plain to us today,
and that's that our hearts are disordered as sinners,
therefore our speech patterns are disordered.
So let's think about two things.
We're going to spend,
we're going to look at speech in James twice,
and today is,
we're going to see the power,
the potential of speech.
That's what James talks about in these 12 verses,
and then the real source of that power.
And then next time when we come back,
we'll get into some real practicals about how to grow as wise speakers,
but that's not for today.
Today,
the potential and the power of speech,
and the source of the power of speech,
because that's what these 12 verses are really about.
So let's look at it together.
First,
the power of speech.
Now we children learn,
we maybe teach,
I don't know,
we children learn,
the famous rhyme,
sticks and stones may break my bones,
but words will never hurt me.
And it's probably been said a million times
that whoever originally wrote that
was somebody that was deeply hurt by words,
and doing anything they could
to conjure a defense mechanism,
a coping mechanism,
a strategy on the playground somewhere.
We know it's not true.
Sticks and stones can break our bones.
Far worse than physical pain
is pain that can come through words.
Far deeper.
The soul is so much harder to heal than the body.
And so words have a power
that sticks and stones do not have.
Now James tells us that in four images
at the heart of this passage.
So you'll see the first image,
he's trying to teach us that in verse three.
So if you look with me at verse three,
if we put bits into the mouths of horses
so that they obey us,
we guide their whole bodies as well.
As much as it's true that out of the heart,
the mouth speaks,
James uses an illustration here to say,
from the mouth,
the heart is formed.
And so when you put a bit,
a little metal bit into the mouth of a horse,
you have this tiny little instrument
that can steer a massive horse around.
In the same way,
the tongue, he says, is very small,
but it has the power to form you
and to form other people.
It's got great power.
So if you are constantly speaking words of bitterness,
you become a bitter person more and more.
If you speak words of rage,
you become an angry person more and more.
If you speak words of encouragement and gratitude to people,
you become a grateful person
and an encourager more and more.
You see, it's so small,
yet it has such power of formation.
The second image is in verse four.
So he keeps going.
These are just going to build on each other.
Look at the ships also,
though they are so large
and are driven by strong winds,
they are guided by a very small rudder
where the pilot directs.
Same exact idea.
The tongue is so small,
yet he's escalating the image
because a big seaship is a lot bigger than a horse.
So he's saying,
not only do the words have a great power to form you,
but words have such a power to form the world,
to shape the world,
like a little bitty rudder that moves the Titanic.
So your words have great power, great potential.
He keeps going the third,
and I think probably the most important
is in verse five and six.
He makes the point in verse five.
So the tongue is small,
but it boasts of great things.
It has so much potential, so much power.
But then here's the third illustration he gives us.
How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire.
Now in Scotland,
I meant to look this up and I forgot,
but I'm not sure all the rules of making fires
out in the highlands.
But I know that if you go walk in the highlands,
if you go walk Monroe's,
you get very cold.
And you know the power of a great fire.
You're walking, you're freezing,
you're hungry, it's dark.
You put a great campfire and you sustain it.
You put it where it's supposed to be.
You surround it with rocks
and it feeds you when you're hungry.
It gives you light in the midst of darkness.
It heats you when you're freezing cold.
It's a wonderful instrument,
an instrument of life.
James says the tongue can be a campfire,
an instrument of life,
giving life in all the right places it needs.
But he says,
when you do not tend to that fire
in dry conditions,
it gets out of control
and it burns down the forest
and then it burns down the city
and then it burns down the nation
and becomes a national fire.
He's saying that your speech has such power
to give life and to burn down a nation.
And he's probably taking this straight out of Proverbs 18.21.
So this is where James is the New Testament Proverbs.
The tongue, the writer of Proverbs says,
has the power of life and death.
And that's exactly what James is saying here.
Now there's one more,
the fourth and final image.
And just notice as we read it,
the escalation of the verdict.
He hasn't given us a clear verdict yet.
He's only talked about how much potential our speech has.
But in verse seven and eight,
he gets to the verdict.
Every kind of beast and bird,
every reptile,
every sea creature can be tamed
and has been tamed by humanity.
But no human being can tame the tongue.
It's a restless evil full of deadly poison.
Now, he said,
your speech has such great potential.
It's like a fire.
It's like a rudder on a mighty ship.
It's like a bit in a horse's mouth.
You can form people.
You can turn nations.
You can do all sorts of things.
But then he gets to the point,
the verdict.
And he says,
we have gone out
and we have tamed every type of animal there is,
including reptiles.
I didn't really know you could tame all the reptiles,
but it says here,
you can tame all the reptiles.
We've tamed snakes.
You can charm a snake,
a poisonous snake,
and get it to stop spitting its venom.
But he said that the tongue cannot be tamed.
Here's the verdict.
He says,
no human being can tame the poison of the tongue of speech.
And what is he doing there?
He's thinking back to the Old Testament
and he's quoting,
he's summarizing Genesis 1 to 3.
Because in the beginning,
God made humanity in his image and said,
I give you dominion over the birds and the fish
and the reptiles and all the animals.
And he said,
we've done that.
We've been able to tame all the beasts.
But the one beast that captured us was our speech.
And remember,
the serpent himself came into the garden
and by speech,
he questions God's speech.
By speech,
he said,
you can't really trust what God says.
And Adam and Eve fell for that.
They believed that.
And it's by speech,
by the speech of the serpent,
that we became serpent-like speakers.
He's saying,
you can tame snakes,
but you cannot tame the snake of your speech.
It spits poison.
It's like a viper.
So that's James' mighty verdict.
The power of speech,
the potential of speech,
and yet the instrument of fire,
of destruction that human beings have created from speech.
Now,
let's prove it for a second.
How do wars start?
Wars don't begin with violence.
Wars begin with words.
Wars begin with propaganda and lies.
And how do relationships break?
Relationships break through a long history of words,
ill-spoken,
through words that diminished the other,
that dismissed them,
that betrayed them.
That hurt them,
that wounded them in a way that they couldn't heal.
How do companies collapse?
Companies collapse internally through a culture of gossip,
through a culture of not telling the truth,
of infighting,
of rumor,
of deceit.
How do friendships break?
How do churches split?
How do denominations get started?
Quite often through gossip and deceit
and words that wound
and words that break relationships.
Violence can break the body,
but words destroy souls
and it is far harder to heal from that
than from the violence
or sticks and stones that hurt the body.
Let me take this even further.
The philosophers of the 20th century
very hopefully helped us understand
that all of our life is mediated through words.
The power of words,
it's so deep.
All of life is mediated to us through words.
You don't,
when you walk into St. Columbus,
this building on a Sunday morning,
you don't just see metal and cloth.
You see chairs
and you don't even have to think about it.
You don't come into this building
and see data of different bits
and atoms and particles of wood.
No,
you see a church,
you see a building,
you see beauty.
You interpret it immediately.
You don't have to be told.
You know what you see,
right?
Because all of our experience
is mediated through words.
God has given us this gift of language
by which we interpret all reality.
We never see anything
or think anything
outside of the vehicle
and medium of language.
The power of speech,
it's the very thing
by which we interpret
all of our reality
and it's got great power
to give life
or to take it away.
We possess something more powerful
with more potential
to give life
and more danger
than we ever think about
in our daily ability
to communicate.
Now,
he gives us
the very clear diagnosis.
I already mentioned it
in verse 8.
Nobody can tame the tongue.
He says it in verse 2.
If you look back with me
at verse 2
before we move on
to the final point,
we all stumble in many ways
and if anyone
does not stumble
in what they say,
it's a perfect person.
So he says,
we all stumble
in so many ways
and if you are able
to be a perfect speaker,
you would therefore
be a perfect human being.
You see,
speech is the final frontier.
It's the great test
of sin
and he's given us
such a clear diagnosis.
Is there anybody here today
who has not wounded
another with their words?
Is there anybody here today
who has not flattered
in order to receive it back?
Is there anybody here today
who doesn't slip in
the humble brag
at the end
of their conversations,
trying to turn
the conversation back?
Do any of us here
not struggle
with sinful speech?
And James says,
no, no, not one.
There is none righteous.
Paul's simple idea.
There's none righteous.
No, not one.
We are broken speakers.
We speak sin,
sins of speech
all the time.
That's his clear diagnosis
and what he calls,
what he says about
that diagnosis
is so clear in verse 6.
He calls
our sinful speech
hellfire.
So the word
in verse 6,
the tongue is a fire,
a world of unrighteousness.
The tongue is set
among our members,
standing the whole body,
setting on fire
the entire course of life
and set on fire
by hell.
That's the word
Gehenna
that Jesus uses
in the gospel.
He says,
our speech
is so serpent-like
it's been set on fire
by Gehenna.
Now what does he mean
by that?
Gehenna,
hell,
it was a physical place
in Jerusalem.
It was a dump
outside the city
and Jesus uses it
metaphorically
to point to
ultimate destruction
and in that dump
there would be
fires burning
perpetually
to get rid
of all the rubbish
that is heaped
up in the city.
It stinks.
It's nasty.
It's vile.
And he's saying
from the time
of Genesis 3
our sinful speech
has been set on fire
so that we spit out
words like rubbish heaps.
Our tongues are on fire
in the sense that
it's like refuse burning
quite often,
all the time.
He's saying
that's what's going on
in the human heart
and it's coming out
in our disordered speech.
He's so serious about it.
That's why
in verse 1 and 2
he says
not many of you
should become teachers.
He means in the church
because you will be judged
for your speech.
And so if speech
has such power,
such ability,
such potential,
it is a dangerous thing
he's saying
to get up front
and preach.
And so he's talking
to people like me
and others.
He's saying
if you are speaking
far more
and you have the power
to get people
to listen to you,
your speech
has far more power
to bring life,
but yes,
but to also bring death.
And so it's a great warning
about the reality
of speech
that comes out
of the human heart.
John Webster
was a late theologian
in St. Andrews
who died a few years ago.
His son actually
used to be a member
of this church.
And John Webster
throughout his career
in theology
wrote on speech
quite often.
And he wrote
a couple famous articles
that are all titled
The Sins of Speech
in different publications.
Let me summarize
to you what he says
about the power
of our speech
and your speech.
He says that one
of the realities
of what makes
our language
so powerful
is what he calls
its irrevocability.
Irrevocability.
The inability
to bring it back
once it's spoken.
So this is what he says.
Words have a generative
power that cannot
be undone.
They set up meaning
in the world
a real relation
between a speaker
and a hearer
that cannot be erased.
You can recant
your words.
You can apologize
for your words.
You can repair
based on what you've said
but you cannot unsay
what you've said.
And this is what he writes.
The person who called you
stupid that day
is always the person
who called you stupid
that day.
That room is always
the room where that person
called you that.
And here is the asymmetry
that makes this
so devastating.
It takes years
to build a reputation.
It takes seconds
to ruin someone's reputation.
You can destroy
a person
with a single sentence
in only a moment.
The irrevocability
of words.
James calls it
hellfire.
You'll remember
last semester
we worked through
the book of Daniel.
And in Daniel chapter 4
there's this great moment
that illustrates
this truth.
And it's
when King Nebuchadnezzar
the great king
the mighty king
of Babylon
he walks out
onto his balcony
and he looks out
at the greatest empire
the world has ever seen
the hanging gardens
of Babylon
in fact
he was probably
looking at
and he says this
is this not Babylon
the great
which I myself
have built
as a royal residence
by my mighty power
for the glory
of my majesty.
And then the text
says this
while the words
were still
in his mouth
he had barely
breathed them out.
While the words
were still in his mouth
the sound still
in the air
he was driven
from human society
to live as a beast
he ate grass
like an ox
and he grew feathers
like a bird.
Now what do we mean
Nebuchadnezzar
is the great illustration
that we were made
to be speakers
that give life
but the more
and more
we speak words
of hellfire
we destroy
with our words
the more and more
we become beast-like.
In other words
we're being told here
that beastly speech
dehumanizes us.
Secondly, finally
why?
The source
of the power
of speech.
Now the question
that James then
deals with
at the end
verse 9 to 12
is why have we
come to possess
such great power?
And so if you look
down at 9 to 12
especially 9
he says
with it
we bless our Lord
and Father
with our speech
and with it
we curse people
who are made
in the likeness
of God.
He is taking us
again back
to Genesis 1
with our words
we bless God
we worship God
with our words
we curse people
and then he said
who were made
in the likeness
of God.
So there he's
quoting from
Genesis 1 26
where we learn
that every single
person has been
made in the image
of God
and the likeness
of God
and he's thinking
along the lens
the logic of
Genesis 1 to 3
and he's saying
that you were made
to basically do
two things
with your speech
one bless God
worship God
and bless people
to praise
to affirm
to encourage
creatures
people
other people
made in the likeness
of God
but he says
what we actually do
is we will
come to church
and he says
bless God
worship God
and then turn
and curse people
gossip about them
speak poorly of them
behind their backs
and then he goes on
and gives you
more images
can salt water
and fresh water
come from the same source
can a fig tree
produce grapes
and what is he doing
he's saying
no
it's contradictory
contradictory
what's contradictory
that you were made
in the image of God
to be a speaker
like God
and so we'll worship
God with our lips
but then gossip
about people
behind their back
and he's saying
that is salt water
and fresh water
coming out of the same source
and it can't work
you can't be a fig tree
producing grapes
and figs at the same time
and he's saying
we are walking
contradictions
because of our sin
that we will worship
yet curse people
simultaneously
and he's pointing us
to this
where do we get
such power
where does
what is the ground
of the power
of human speech
human words
and it's this
we were made
like God
we were made
in his image
we were made
as speakers
and God
is a speaker
he's the divine
communicator
God
we see from Genesis 1
is the great speaker
so how does he create
he says
let there be light
he speaks words
and the world
comes about
and so
he's saying
the great power
of our speech
comes from the fact
that God
is the divine speaker
the ultimate speaker
and he has given us
the gift
of being like him
and so
the more and more
we use our words
to encourage
to build people up
to affirm
to tell people
that we love them
to speak the truth
and love
in the right context
the more and more
we are imaging God
into the world
the more and more
we are being like God
and becoming like God
the more and more
we use words
to defame
destroy
gossip
insult
rage
the less and less
we are like God
and the less and less
we image God
we
why
the story of Nebuchadnezzar
becoming a beast
why did that happen to him
he's a walking illustration
in history
of using the tongue
the great instrument
the greatest
clearest
reality
of what it means
to be made in God's image
the more we use it beastly
the more beast like
we become
and so
we were made to be
speakers like God
is what we're being told
how does God give life
now you come
today to church
you're listening
maybe
to a sermon right now
how does God give life
we're told in the Bible
that God gives life
in three ways
and they're all
through
word
so the Bible says
that God gives life
through
the word preached
through the word
of the gospel
being told
the word
of the gospel
being told
you see
we take life away
with our words
with disordered hearts
but God reorders
through the word
through the word preached
through the word taught
that's called
the preached word
the second way
is through the
inscripturated word
the Bible
the threefold form
of the word
the preached word
the inscripturated word
that God gives life
through the words
of the Bible
by the Holy Spirit
and the third
and the most ultimate
form of the word
the eternal word himself
so don't miss that
when Jesus Christ
came to earth
what was he called
the word
made flesh
God's speech
made visible
into this world
Jesus Christ
is divine speech
he is the speech
of God the Father
sent into this world
see God
what does
James say
he says
no human
can tame the tongue
but he
leaves one thing
silent
no human
can tame the tongue
but God can
so God
can fix our speech
God can heal
our speech
God can forgive
our speech
God can reorder
our speech
and he does it
through the preached word
the inscripturated word
but ultimately
through the eternal word
himself
Jesus Christ
now that means that
when Jesus came
into this world
in the incarnation
that was a pronouncement
of verdict
over us human beings
as speakers
Jesus Christ
was born
the son of God
the word
became human
to first pronounce
a verdict
over our sinful speech
and you can hear that
in Matthew 12
36
and this is a
devastating moment
in the gospels
he says
I tell you
on the day of judgment
people will give account
for every careless word
they have ever spoken
for by your words
you will be justified
and by your words
you will be condemned
I don't know
if you've ever had
the experience
of sending a text message
I know you've had
that experience
sending a text message
to a friend
and you accidentally
sent it to the person
you were talking about
the few times
that that's happened
in our lives
that is one of the most
devastating moments
talk about the
irrevocability
of words
there's nothing
you want more
than to be able
to dive into
the digital world
and grab that text
and bring it back
but you can't
and typically
that does often
produce a great wound
between you
and whoever
you sent that message to
do you have
sins of speech
in your life
in your background
in your past
Jesus Christ comes
in the incarnation
in his very presence
is a verdict
that we are not
the speakers
God made us to be
have we created wounds
have we never asked
for forgiveness
for something we said
at that time
to that person
or are we coming today
carrying those wounds
because of things
that people have said
to us
undoubtedly
everyone in this room
will have a wound
that someone has said
to them at one time
that they've never
really gotten past
we are wounders
and wounded people
when it comes to
words
and Jesus comes
and says
you will be judged
for every careless word
you ever spoke
how
and there's one
of two ways
either to stand
before God
and have an account
of every careless word
truly taken
set out loud
like a tape recorder
being replayed
at the end of your life
or another way
and that's this
that Jesus Christ
the word himself
the divine speech
of God
who came in the middle
of history
he was treated
as less than human
because of our
dehumanizing speech
now he says
he
Isaiah 53
tells us
he was one
from whom
we had to turn
our faces away
when he was on the cross
he became beastly
not because he deserved it
but because we do
Jesus Christ
the word of God
who had total fellowship
with his father
who had never heard
a single moment
of silence
from his father
at the cross
he said
my God
why are you silent
why have you forsaken me
he heard divine silence
he heard
the sound of silence
the sound of hell itself
in that moment
because of our
evil speech
Jesus Christ
was bitten
by that ultimate serpent
the great venom
the cup of poison
that our speech
has poured
and filled
he drank it for us
see
when he says
in Matthew 12
on that day
you will be judged
for every careless word
you can be judged
in him
for every careless word
you've ever spoken
meaning
you can be forgiven today
for every word
that should have never
been said
that you said
I know
I need that
and I think
every single one
of us needs it
to be forgiven
by Jesus Christ
for every single
careless word
we've ever spoken
look that's not all
that's not all
I'll finish with this
the resurrection
of Jesus
says even more
than that
the cross
says you can be
forgiven
for every careless
word you've ever spoken
but the resurrection
what does it say
in the moment
of the resurrection
Jesus Christ
is vindicated
when he comes
out of the grave
God the father
says this is
my beloved son
with whom I'm
well pleased
he cannot stay dead
he is my son
and when you're
with him
when you are
walking with him
he says the very
same thing to you
it's not just that
you need words
of forgiveness
many of us today
especially
also need
words of healing
because maybe
we've never been
told in the right
ways that we're loved
maybe we've never
been affirmed
maybe we went
through a childhood
and didn't get
what we needed
and you see
the gospel says
that in the resurrection
when you're with
Jesus
God the father
looks to you
and says
you are my
beloved son
you are my
beloved daughter
I can heal
the wounds
from all the
sinful speech
you've ever
received
today
in this moment
you've got to see
that your words
are on record
before the throne
of God above
that they are
irrevocable
that we will be
judged for them
but when you
turn to Christ
those words
have been judged
past present
and future
in Jesus
judgment
and that means
you're forgiven
you can be healed
you can be restored
there's a judge
there is a judge
in the middle
of history
who took
your judgment
who took
the mockery
who took
the screams
who took
the cries
who took
us shouting
crucify him
we used our
words
to crucify
him
so that he
could say
to you today
you are my
beloved
you are forgiven
your words
can be healed
let me ask you
as we finish
what sins
of speech
do you need
to mortify
in your life
based on the gospel
based on the fact
that you really
can be forgiven
and your speech
can be healed
the wounds
can be healed
what sins
of speech
this week
before we come
back to it again
do you need
to mortify
is it lies
gossip
flattery
defamation
blasphemy
ridicule
omission
false promises
manipulation
intimidation
cruelty
the silent
treatment
self-deprecation
boasting
that's just a short
list of the many
and we'll look
at more next time
but what sins
of speech
do we need
to mortify
what
who
do we need
to ask forgiveness
of
who do we need
to extend
forgiveness
with our words
to
in what way
can we become
people who
give life
with our speech
encourage
tell people
that we love
them
give them
affirmation
come today
to god
as we pray
now
in prayer
and repent
of your sins
of speech
this week
turn to the
lord again
know that
jesus christ
really has
dealt with
all of it
and provides
every resource
we need
to heal
and to grow
as speakers
let us pray
father
we do come
now
and take up
just that
prayer
we are
sinners
that set
hellfire
with our
speech
quite often
and so
we confess
to you
even this
week
all the
ways
we have
spoken
carelessly
we have
many of us
will have
struggled
in different
ways
we struggle
with gossip
we have
struggled
with defamation
we have
struggled
with lies
small lies
maybe big
lies
lord maybe
somebody here
today is living
through a long
lie
some of us
come
having never
asked forgiveness
today for
something we said
that really hurt
another
the list
feels pretty
endless
we come today
lord and bow
our hearts
before you
and look
again to
our savior
jesus christ
the man
who died
on the cross
who took
the poison
of the cup
of our
bitter speech
so that we
might hear
the pronouncement
beloved son
beloved daughter
so lord
we
there are people
in this room
today who
have never
heard that
before
we need
to hear
it
come lord
jesus
give us
new hearts
change us
heal us
fix the
wounds we've
created
and teach us
to be new
speakers
lord may we
be people
who are
growing
into
speakers
who use
our words
as instruments
of life
and we pray
all this
now
in jesus
name
amen