June 1, 2025 • 38 mins
We live in an age of endless conversation. Tweets, posts, podcasts, news, and nonstop commentary flood our senses every day. But amid all the noise, how often do we pause to consider the power of the words we ourselves speak?
In this compelling message titled Taming the Tongue, guest speaker Dr. Clem Ferris walks us through James chapter 3 to help us understand the immense spiritual weight carried by our speech. Clem unpacks vivid imagery—bits in horses’ mouths, rudders steering massive ships, and the spark of a fire spreading uncontrollably—to show how the smallest part of our body can determine the course of our lives.
James doesn’t hold back. He says the tongue is “a restless evil, full of deadly poison,” and “set on fire by hell.” That’s intense. But Clem helps us see the real issue: the tongue itself has no ears—our heart does. And it’s what fills the heart that shapes the words that flow from our mouths.
The breakthrough comes not through external behavior tweaks, but through internal transformation. Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” When our hearts are shaped by God’s Word, our words begin to reflect His character—words of life, truth, peace, and healing.
Clem ties this truth to Pentecost Sunday, reminding us that God’s first act in empowering the early church was to cleanse and commission their speech. The “tongues of fire” didn’t burn with destruction—they blazed with holy purpose. God wants to do the same with us today. The very mouths once used for gossip, sarcasm, or complaint can now be tools for encouragement and bold proclamation.
We also look to Jesus, who “opened not His mouth” even under accusation, choosing silent obedience to bear our sin. His restraint paved the way for our restoration. Now we’re invited to speak with a new voice—shaped not by the world, but by heaven.
You may not be able to stop the noise of culture, but you can decide what words will come from your lips. Let God’s Word dwell in your heart richly and speak life into your world.
We are Trinity Community Church in Knoxville, Tennessee.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Clem Ferris (00:03):
Good to see all your smiling faces.
Happy June, happy PentecostSunday.
Let's go, let's bring the firetoday.
Best way to do that get in theWord right.
So we have, you have Bibles,you have screens, you have
whatever.
We have this.
So we're going to get intosomething I think is really
important in this day and thishour, and it's our words.
We live in a world of words andthey're flying everywhere.
(00:26):
There's like no restraintanymore.
So I want to talk to you thismorning out of James 3, on
taming the tongue and harnessinghow to harness the power of our
words.
There was a foreigner that cameto America and he was learning
English and it's not an easylanguage, as we know, and a
friend was helping him and youknow, giving him some
(00:47):
corrections here and there andeverything.
And he goes.
I know, I know I said some ofthe problems I have with English
.
Some of the words, they're sovague-y sometimes and he goes no
, no, it's not vague-y, it'svague.
Okay, all right, sorry, that'sthe problem.
See, I try new words and thenmy tongue-y-wee it gets all
twisted and he goes no, no, it'snot tongue-y-wee, it's tongue,
it's not vague-y-wee, it's vague, it's not tongue-y-wee, it's
(01:09):
tongue.
You got it.
He goes I got it.
I got it, we don't have to argabout it.
So that's English, right?
We don't have to arg about it,if you dare.
James, chapter 3.
James, chapter 3.
James starts out by saying notmany of you should become
(01:31):
teachers, my brothers, for youknow that we who teach will be
judged with greater strictness.
For the record, I have thebiggest risk this morning.
I'm trying to teach this andit's like we're all in this
together.
That's the point James makes inverse 2.
We all stumble in many ways.
We all stumble in many ways.
He's including himself, and ifanyone does not stumble into
(01:53):
what he says, that's our tongue.
He's a perfect man, mature.
See, learning how to harnessthe power of your words is how
we progress into Christ-likematurity.
It's a mark of maturity andhere's the best part Once you
get on that road, you're able tobridle your whole body.
Do you realize your tongue isconnected to your toes and your
(02:17):
arms and everything else?
You can bridle your whole bodyif you can bridle the tongue.
Thanks a lot, james.
What's that mean?
Be a learner first Before youtry to teach this stuff.
Be a learner first, and I lovethis personal confession.
We all stumble.
In many ways.
I think he's probably reflecting, maybe, on his childhood,
looking back.
How many know James was thehalf-brother of Jesus?
(02:38):
Yeah, lived with Jesus samehouse, maybe they shared a
bedroom.
How many shared a bedroom witha sibling with Jesus?
Same house?
Maybe they shared a bedroom?
How many shared a bedroom witha sibling?
We'll have a healing lineafterwards 14 years with my
brother it was torture.
No, it wasn't.
I was bigger, stronger andolder and more handsome, but
anyway, yeah, maybe Jesus shareda bedroom with James.
(03:03):
And can you imagine James wakingup and looking over and there's
Jesus' bed already made.
He's out, he's already haddevotions, he is a devotion.
He made breakfast for thefamily and he's in the woodshop
making furniture and it's onlysix o'clock in the morning.
He looks over and he probablyat some point in life, he
probably just went up to Jesusone time and says you just think
you're perfect, don't you?
And probably said I am, anyway.
(03:24):
So, yeah, he probably said somesnide things.
Maybe you know a little digwith a sibling every now and
then.
Maybe he just said some snidecomments, you know.
But yet he watched his ownbrother grow, he watched his
maturity, he watched how hehandled words and I think it's
fascinating that Paul brings usout in 1 Corinthians 15.
(03:45):
You don't have to go there, butit says that you know when
Jesus.
He was raised from the dead.
But before he ascended it sayshe appeared to Cephas, to the 12
.
He appeared to more than 500brothers at one time verse 7,
and then he appeared to James.
Isn't that cool.
He made a personal appearanceto his brother James, and then
(04:05):
the rest of the apostles, andprobably wanted to give him a
little assurance of the pardonfor those nasty things he said.
He said hey brother, rememberall those things.
I just took them all to thecross.
Come on somebody.
We're good, we're good, yeah.
(04:29):
So James gets into this rigorousanalysis.
I call him Dr James.
When I get into James 3, it'slike he becomes Dr James.
It's like stick out your tongue, say ah, we're going to have a
little analysis.
And he begins to use imagerybecause he says whoever can
control the tongue can controlhimself.
And it's not just by gettingthe right words and all these
things, it's not just by ourspeech, but sometimes by our
(04:52):
lack of speech.
Come on somebody.
My great-grandfather came fromNorthern Ireland and passed on a
witty little saying to mygrandfather, my father who
passed it on to us and we heardit many times, but it was this
witty saying that it's better tobe silent and thought a fool
than to speak and remove alldoubt.
(05:12):
Sometimes it's better just tobe silent.
So controlling our words is notjust getting the right words at
the right time, but it'ssometimes just saying I don't
have to say anything right now.
When do we remain silent?
Proverbs 21, 23,.
Whoever keeps his mouth and histongue keeps himself out of
trouble.
Come on, young people, writethat down.
(05:33):
How do I keep myself out oftrouble?
It starts here.
So James gives the overture inchapter one.
One verse out of James 1, 26,kind of paints the overture of
the symphony of this teaching onthe tongue and everything else
in there he goes if anyonethinks he's religious and does
not bridle his tongue butdeceives his heart, this
(05:55):
person's religion is worthless.
Oh my gosh.
How do you measure yourreligious activity?
What's the dashboard of yourreligious life?
Church attendance, tithing,giving small groups, you know
what?
How do you measure yourreligious life?
Whatever you do to say I'm afour out of five, or whatever
(06:16):
scale you use to measure yourreligion?
He says if you think you'rereligious in any way, shape or
form, but you can't bridle yourtongue, that religious practice
is empty, worthless.
Wow thanks, james.
Tell us another way.
He gets more ruthless.
So just buckle up, okay, but itwill get better at the end, I
promise.
Here's what we're doing.
(06:38):
James brings us into this starkrealization of just how powerful
our words are and literally howevil the tongue is.
And so we cry out for help.
This is a cry for help for allof us.
We all stumble.
James is crying out on his ownbehalf too.
We all stumble.
So he says.
We all are asking God to helpus.
Right, say help.
That's the best prayer you'llever pray.
(06:59):
Help, help me, lord.
So God, help us.
What by grace?
To say the right thing at theright time to the right person,
in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Right, not in our own cognition, but this is a magnificent
grace.
When you can learn to harnessyour words, when you can begin
to tame your tongue, that's amagnificent grace, and people
(07:19):
will know it.
They'll know you by your fruits.
Know it.
They'll know you by your fruits.
So here we go.
Buckle up, james 3.
Here we go, Verse 3.
If we put bits into the mouthsof horses so that they obey us.
We can guide their whole bodiesas well.
Look at the ships also.
Though they're so large and aredriven by strong winds, they're
(07:42):
guided by a very small rudder.
Wherever the will of the pilotdirects, so also the tongue.
It's a small member, but itboasts of great things.
James is using imagery now tohelp us A bridle for the horse,
a rudder for the ship.
Talk about this, because itdescribes first of all how our
(08:06):
words affect us personally, butthen it describes how our words
affect our circumstances.
Something very small controlssomething much larger Horses,
ships.
And the main difference betweena horse and a ship.
Ah, the horse has a will of itsown, doesn't it?
(08:28):
Like you, the horse is a livingbeing, ship, isn't so?
The ship would kind of describeour circumstances.
It's affected by the pilot.
I have a question for you thismorning which can you turn more
quickly, a horse or a ship?
A horse, of course, any, mr Edfans, you're old, okay, if you
(08:54):
remember, mr Ed, you're old likeme, okay, yeah, the horse, of
course.
Yeah, you can turn it on a dime, which means what Us with a
human will, like the horse, wecan control it quickly, which
means what we can repent likethat.
You can be quick to repent.
I'm sorry, I was wrong, pleaseforgive me.
You can humbly turn your lifewith words, a ship not.
(09:17):
So Takes a lot longer to turn aship around, which means what
Takes a lot longer to turn yourcircumstances around.
But here's the good news If youkeep speaking in the right
direction, you can slowly turnyour circumstances like a great
ship.
You have to keep speaking intoyour world, because James goes
(09:39):
on to say it's not just abouthorses and ships.
He says the fruit of that ismassive destruction.
It's a weapon of massdestruction.
Right in your mouth.
The pictures are rolling.
He goes on to say verse five.
So also the tongue.
It's a small member, but itboasts of great things.
Watch this now how great aforest is set ablaze by a small
(10:01):
fire.
There was a reveal party out inCalifornia not too long ago.
Did a little reveal party, youknow?
A little spark Set the lawn onfire, set the neighbors on fire.
It set over 40,000 acres onfire.
It took two months to put thefire out.
You'll sing that little songdifferently.
(10:23):
It only takes a spark.
No, we won't sing that anymore.
It's powerful.
That's what song?
Differently, it only takes aspark.
No, we won't sing that anymore.
It's powerful, that's whatJames said.
It only takes a spark ofdestruction to destroy an entire
forest.
And he says this in verse six.
Buckle up, this is tough.
Here we go and the tongue is afire.
He said he didn't say it's kindof like a fire.
He said no, it is a fire.
Your tongue is a fire.
(10:44):
You got a fire in your mouth.
You're a fire-breathingChristian.
The tongue is a fire.
Watch this next phrase.
I'm going to unpack this.
It's a world of unrighteousness.
What do you mean?
It's a world of unrighteousness.
The word world is the Greekword cosmos.
It doesn't mean earth or aglobe or dirt.
The cosmos is an ordered systemthat you and I live in.
(11:08):
God so loved the cosmos.
God so loved the system thathumans were trapped in that he
sent his son into it to take allthe punishment of the way we
act.
It's a world of unrighteousness, an ordered system ruled by
Satan.
Don't forget he's the God ofthis cosmos.
Y'all aren't shouting very much, but you will by the time we
(11:30):
get to the end of this.
It's kind of like the gospel.
You got to know how bad it isbefore you know how good it is
right.
You got to know how bad you arewhen you realize how good the
gospel is.
The world's system it's theworld stage is where life is
played out in the world.
(11:51):
We're in the world but we'renot of it.
But the only way Satan can bethe God of this world and have
any influence in this world, heneeds words.
He needs words to controlhumans and influence humans.
And guess what?
He wants?
Your words.
He wants to influence yourwords.
He wants you to get to alignyour words with his words,
because he doesn't have a humantongue but you do.
(12:16):
The tongue, our tongue, is partof an invisible, ordered system
and Satan wants to use it.
So he goes on to say the tongueis a fire, it's a world, it's
part of a world system.
Of what Unrighteousness it'sset among our members.
Watch now he's looking at thebody.
It's set amongst our members,staining the whole body, setting
(12:39):
on fire the course of life andin the Greek, this idea of the
course of life.
In the Greek it would be thewheel of becoming.
Get the picture of a wheel,troxos in the Greek, of a wheel
moving on a circular track, Kindof the moral axis that our
lives are turning on all thetime and your tongue sets the
wheel in motion.
(13:00):
Come on, get that picture.
Your words drive the wheel.
Your words determine your wheelof becoming.
What you are becoming isdetermined by what you say.
The tongue is a fire, a worldof unrighteousness.
It's set among our members likea wheel staining the whole body
, setting on fire the entirewheel of becoming cycle of
(13:20):
existence.
Watch this it's set on fire byhell, not matches or a lighter.
The source of this world ofunrighteousness, the source of
this destructive power of ourown tongue, the fire in your
mouth.
The source is hell itself.
These are strong words, but wegot to come to a reality.
It's like why does it hurt sobad when someone says this?
(13:42):
Because the source is thedemonic.
The source is the devil himself.
He has to find a human to hurtanother human with in the course
of a whole life, your cycle ofexistence.
Your words move the wheel ofwhat you're becoming.
(14:05):
That's how you got saved.
You got saved because you useddifferent words, words you've
never used before.
Lord, forgive me, I believe yourose from the dead.
Those words change the wheel ofwhat you are now becoming
Proverbs 18.21,.
(14:26):
You know it well, life and deathare in the power of the tongue.
You go from death to life byyour words.
So with our tongues, you see,we affect the invisible world
that you can't see.
So with our tongues, you see,we affect the invisible world
that you can't see, which thenaffects the natural world that
we all can see and live in.
The bit in the horse's mouthcan't see it, but it affects the
(14:49):
direction of the horse.
The rudder on the ship?
You can't see it.
It's below the surface of thewater, but it affects the
direction of the ship.
According to the pilot.
Whatever's in the invisibleworld come on controls the
visible world.
That's why words are sopowerful.
That's why our life is socomplicated now, because we have
this thing called the WorldWide Web.
(15:10):
We have an invisible web ofwords flying 24-7.
There's words everywhere.
They're on your screens,they're in your ears.
There are words everywhere.
And the devil's screens?
They're in your ears.
There are words everywhere andthe devil's trying to control.
He's called the prince of thepower of the air.
The spirit world alwayscontrols the visible world.
That's why prayer is soimportant, folks, come on.
(15:32):
That's why your prayers areimportant.
Your vocal prayers are reallyimportant.
I'm all for silent prayers andthere's time silent prayers.
But I'm going to tell yousomething there's time for vocal
declaring prayers, governmentalprayers, because what you pray
in the spirit realm becomesmanifest in the natural realm.
(15:52):
That's why prophecy is sopowerful, because God uses words
to direct our lives, to speakinto us, to change us, to set
that wheel in motion.
Where you didn't have any planat all, god will change course
on you sometimes because heknows the destiny of your life.
Prayer is powerful, spokenprayer is powerful.
(16:13):
I got a prophecy for you.
Okay, go ahead.
No, it's just, I'm going tokeep it to myself.
I'll just think it.
You ever been to a prayermeeting?
You go.
Anybody have any other requests?
Yes, what Silent request.
Really, do you know?
We forget this one little wordin the Lord's teaching in Luke
11.
They said Lord, teach us topray, like John taught his
(16:36):
disciples.
Okay, when you pray, say.
When you pray he didn't saythink when you pray.
Say, it means break silence, itmeans use words.
When you pray, say our Fatherwho art in heaven, hallowed be
your name.
And suddenly the devil goesthere.
They go again.
Dang, I mean.
The devil hears, I mean, but hecan't use the words that he
(16:59):
wants to use unless he can finda cooperative vessel.
So when you pray, say becauseyour tongues speak invisible
words but they can change thecycle of existence in things.
James goes on.
Now we're getting into tamingthe tongue.
He's like I just want you toknow how bad it really is.
It's bad, say it's bad, don'tlook at anybody, look down and
(17:22):
go.
It's really bad.
But every kind of beast andbird verse 7, reptile sea
creature can be tamed.
That's the good news we'regetting.
See, it's getting betteralready.
You can tame all these animalsand they have been tamed by
mankind.
Anybody ever been to SeaWorld?
Seaworld, you got the orcaright.
(17:48):
Shamu, it would barely fit inthis room.
They're massive, right.
But man can go out in the ocean, capture an orca, bring it to
SeaWorld and charge money forpeople to look at it.
That is so big and that's it.
We can do that.
We can tame every kind of beastand wild animal.
But he says no human being cantame the tongue.
We're all in this together.
I don't know what thatscripture is.
I'll just quote it from my ownmemory Misery loves company.
(18:11):
What's that verse, neil Miseryloves what.
We're all in this together.
Why?
Because no human can tame thetongue.
It's a restless evil.
Watch this, full of deadlypoison.
Think, james, could you lightenup?
You're killing us.
He goes.
That's my point, try to killthis thing.
It's full of deadly poison.
(18:33):
And I think James uses seven andeight.
He takes us all the way back toGenesis for a minute.
7 and 8, he takes us all theway back to Genesis for a minute
.
In Genesis 1, we're told totake dominion right Over the
fish of the sea and all theanimals right, take dominion
over every creature.
And James says this has beendone, this taming has been done,
subdued by man.
(18:53):
We've learned how to do that.
And then man falls in Genesis 3, and James is reminding us of
something more wild than thewildest of beasts that cannot be
tamed by man the tongue.
Because when we fell, we becamecursed.
When we fell, our tongue gotinfected with deadly poison.
(19:15):
He says with deadly poison.
He says Wow.
And so therefore it takes morethan natural ability to tame
this wild beast in our mouth.
Right, oh, your flesh can do agood job.
For a while I've had good days,well, partial days, well, I've
had an hour or two, usually whenI'm sleeping, my tongue's okay.
I mean, we all can whiteknuckle it.
(19:37):
We can all sit there and lookat somebody and go.
I just want to say something sobad right now, but I'm just you
just flesh it out, like whenyou walk away and we, we have
all these little self-help tips.
They can work, even forChristians.
They can born again people.
But every now and then, spiritfilled tongue talking to people,
something comes out and you gowhere did that come from?
Wow, I can't believe that justcame out.
(19:58):
What do we do?
Here's the good news.
You ready for good news.
Y'all look so sad.
Happy June, happy.
Listen here's.
And you know this.
But now we're going to walk youthrough this.
The only thing that can subduethe tongue is the knowledge of
God's word.
You have to.
This is a battle of words,everybody.
It's our words aligning withthe right source.
(20:23):
This is the wisdom we're toldto ask for in James 1.
If any of you lack wisdom, like, how do we do this?
How do you tame the humantongue?
He goes.
You better ask for wisdombecause it doesn't come from
down here, it comes from up here.
This kind of wisdom comes fromabove.
James says and it's theknowledge of the word of God.
First get knowledge of it DidGod really say that, yeah?
(20:44):
And then the application ofthat knowledge in our lives.
And it can take a lifetime.
I'm not sugarcoating this.
I'm not saying you knowAbracadabra, we're going to have
a prayer line up here andyou'll all have your tongues
tamed as you walk out the door.
Pick up your tongue tamer onthe way out.
It's like it's not that easy.
I wish it was.
But the longer you walk withthe Lord, the longer you take in
his word, it just becomes alittle easier.
(21:07):
And a little easier why?
Because you strengthen thevoice of the spirit in you.
Because he's only going to talkJesus, he's only going to talk
Bible to you and he will correctyou and he will say things.
And we have to be quick to hearand slow to speak.
And I get this little voiceevery now and then it's just
louder and clearer and I knowthis.
The Holy Spirit speaks in short, pithy little statements.
(21:30):
He's not long-winded, he justlike corrects quickly.
One time I'm walking down to myoffice it's in our basement.
I was walking down, I'd justdone something stupid.
Am I alone in the room.
I'd just done something.
Come on, men, help At least themen.
I know the women don't do that,but men we do stupid things
sometimes and I'm kind ofscolding myself as I'm going
down.
I said you're such an idiot andjust like that.
(21:51):
I heard I don't call you that.
It was that quick and that notharsh, but very like I don't
call you that.
I looked around and it couldn'tbe my wife.
I'm like what was that voice?
And it was right inside, soquick and so sure, like I don't
call you that.
It's like wow, we need thatquick course correction of the
(22:11):
rudder.
You know the bit in my ownmouth.
I don't call you that.
Don't say that about yourselfbecause I don't call you that.
Again, I talked about my Irishcharacters on my mother's side.
I'm only second generationIrish from the Northern Ireland
and my mother was one of ninekids and they immigrated over in
the late 1800s, early 1900s andmy grandfather was a dairy
(22:36):
farmer and you know busy andnine kids and everything, and
how many of the nine kids?
Somebody's bound to act up atleast once.
Right, so there was disciplinein the house.
There were staunchPresbyterians from the north of
Ireland and my mother would sayyou know, when one of us got in
trouble and we had to getdisciplined, we all wanted our
dad to spank us because ourmother wouldn't spank us, but
(22:58):
she gave us a tongue lashing.
She called it a tongue lashing.
She goes, and it would last fordays.
We're like, can we just go getspanked real quick and get this
over with?
And on, and on, and on and on.
It's like how about?
Be quick to speak?
Okay, be quick to hear, slow tospeak?
(23:19):
But the Holy Spirit is quick tospeak and he's shortened to the
point and you get more familiarwith that voice the more you
walk with him, the more you soakin his word.
And then when you get thatthought like I'm such an idiot,
and he just counters it with theword of God, I don't call you
that.
Read your Bible, ferris.
That's not in there.
So this leads up to the greatrevelation of the day.
(23:40):
You ready for the greatrevelation of the day this is it
, june 1st is to change yourlife.
Great revelation of the day.
You ready.
Your tongue has no ears.
Wasn't that profound?
Wasn't that deep?
I know some of you right nowyou're looking it up on Google
Like is that true, honey?
I don't know.
Our tongue doesn't have ears.
(24:02):
How do you train a tongue, howdo you train anything that won't
listen to you?
But I got good news your heartdoes.
The tongue has no ears, butyour heart does, and what I want
to put together this morning isthat amazing connection between
your heart and your tongue.
It's a divine connection.
(24:23):
Luke said out of the abundanceof the heart the mouth speaks.
See, there's the connection ofthe heart and the mouth, because
as the heart hears over andover good sermons from your guys
here and teachings and yourfavorite podcasts, whatever, as
you continue to hear with yourspiritual heart and the word of
God then begins to do atransformation of your heart
(24:46):
first, and it's a transformedheart that produces a
transformed tongue.
It's a process.
Everybody and all the mothersand fathers you know from a
little age, you're constantly.
You're correcting words, aren'tyou?
Don't say that.
I mean it's this constantreorganizing of our words.
I love the psalmist prayer,psalm 19.
(25:06):
I quote it often At the veryend of that verse 14, it says
Let the words of my mouth andthe meditations of my heart see
how they're connected beacceptable in your sight, o Lord
, my strength and my redeemerDivine connection of the heart
and the tongue, because thetongue's only as good as the
heart that directs it, thehorse's rider, the ship's
(25:27):
captain.
And yet, as we're on thisjourney, we have to be quite
aware of our inconsistencies.
But don't let that get you down.
We're all in training but weare inconsistent.
Just face it.
James goes, you think you'redoing okay, here's your tip.
But let me just remind you,with it we bless our Lord and
(25:49):
our Father and with it we cursepeople who are made in the
likeness of God.
Just like that.
Come in.
Like we did, sing worship songsHallelujah, that was a great
song, wasn't it?
Worshiping God, his name.
Oh, we just love you, lordJesus.
And we get out in the parkinglot What'd you think of that
guy's sermon?
I don't know, it was kind oflong.
I think, I don't know, beforeyou get out of the parking lot
(26:11):
yapping away about what theydidn't like, I think that went a
little too long.
We're so quick to beinconsistent, right?
James is kind of bringing thiscontradiction.
He talks about it reallythroughout his whole epistle.
This ought not to be.
So is what he says.
He gets a little stern becausehe's talking to the family.
(26:34):
Now he's saying my brothers,adelphois, brothers and sisters.
This shouldn't be so.
In some sense, we're monitoringour words together in community,
your TCC, your community ofbelievers, of brothers and
sisters, and you know what?
You have the divine privilegeof listening to how other people
(26:54):
are talking to each other.
Come on, moms and dads, youdon't talk to your sister that
way.
We correct right in the face wedon't treat our family members
that way.
Don't talk to you.
Go apologize to your sister forwhat you just said.
Right, and we have to gently beable to help people with their
words in the body in ourcommunity.
And it's so easy.
There's scandals ab and they'reeverywhere and they're all over
(27:15):
the internet.
And our pastor said to ourstaff just recently.
He said stop watching thescandalous YouTube videos about
other churches and other leaders.
Stop it, stop looking at thatstuff.
All it does is feed the wronginformation.
Sometimes you've got to saydon't listen to that, don't talk
that way, don't talk that wayabout your brother.
Don't listen to that, don'ttalk that way, don't talk that
(27:36):
way about your brother, don'ttalk your way about your sister
in the family or in Christ.
This ought not to be.
James said.
He's addressing the carnalityright, he's addressing the what.
I want you to becomespiritually mature, and this
will stop you every time.
Your religion will be empty ifyou don't get this going in your
life.
So it's only possible throughthe power of the word and the
(28:02):
Holy Spirit.
And aren't you glad the fire inyour mouth is set on fire by
hell itself.
But I got good news you caneither have a tongue that's set
on fire of hell or you can havea tongue that's set on fire by
heaven.
How many know?
We got a heavenly fire too.
Come on, it's Pentecost Sunday,somebody.
It's Pentecost Sunday.
On the day of Pentecost Acts,chapter 2,.
What's the first thing that Godwent after?
(28:23):
The tongue of the human that noone could tame.
But on the day of Pentecost,the Holy Spirit came down and
tongues of fire rested uponthose 120, and he says I'm going
to start reversing the curse inyour mouth.
I'm going to do something aboutthe fire in your mouth.
I'm going to turn it from ahellish fire to a holy fire.
And you got to say God, empowermy words by the Holy Spirit,
(28:44):
speaking by the Spirit.
All the gifts of the Spiritoperate by one thing the Holy
Spirit.
And when Paul introduces 1Corinthians 12, he talks about
those that speak by the Spirit.
That's how he marks somebody.
That's spiritual.
What your speech?
Speaking by the Spirit, allthose gifts are activated by
words.
Prophecy starts it off.
(29:05):
Then you can move into word ofknowledge, word of wisdom.
Do they need healing?
All because of the word flow,spiritual words.
Even Proverbs 15, verse 4, Ilove this.
It says a gentle or wholesome,literally a healing tongue is a
tree of life, but perversenessin it breaks the spirit.
(29:27):
Your tongue can actually bringhealing to somebody.
It starts with words.
Yeah, you pray, yeah, you layhands on people, but you know
what?
You have a fountain of life inyour mouth and it comes from
here, where the Spirit, as Jesustalked about, out of your
innermost being will flow riversof living water.
This he said of the Spirit.
The tongue of the wise bringshealing.
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Proverbs 12 says and these arethe good uses of the tongue that
we have to remind ourselveswhat it's for.
We want to get to the pointthat you use your tongue to
glorify Jesus and let the wordof God dwell in you so richly
that you cannot speak with anyother accent.
(30:12):
Y'all have an accent.
I live in North Carolina, asyou can tell from my accent.
Y'all have an accent.
I live in North Carolina, asyou can tell from my accent.
I love accents.
I do.
It's such a great conversationstarter.
Somebody's speaking, he's going.
Hey, love your accent.
Where are you from, man?
(30:32):
You got instant conversation.
I want to know.
Jesus spoke with an accent.
Where do you get your accentfrom your home?
Come on, somebody.
It's where you grew up.
It's the culture you wereshaped in.
Jesus spoke with the accent ofheaven, because that's where
he's from.
There was a Christian doctorcoming out of an intense surgery
(30:52):
and he's walking down the halljust kind of giving a little
praise to God, and he's justactually speaking in tongues.
And a colleague came up behindhim kind of like taps him and
goes.
Excuse me, he goes.
What language is that?
He goes the language of myhomeland.
That's what we speak at home.
Come on somebody.
God wants to change your accentto speak like Jesus.
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When people come into Trinitythey'll go.
Those people speak with anaccent and ain't Tennessee
either.
Come on, like Derek, we'll giveyou Tennessee elocution
lectures by Derek.
It's not the Tennessee accent.
They're going to notice theaccent of heaven in your mouth.
It's like they're kind fruit ofthe spirit gentle.
They're going to notice thedifference.
(31:33):
You don't react.
We need that.
I'm going to finish somethingout of the Old Testament, in
Isaiah, chapter 50.
And here's the thing too, Ilearned you can't outthink the
devil, but you can outspeak him.
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Come on, somebody, write thatdown.
If you're going to get anythingtoday, that's absolutely worth
it all.
Yeah, you can't outthink thedevil, but you can outspeak him
every time it is written.
That's all Jesus did.
He didn't try to outthink him,he just outspoke him.
Come on, isaiah learned.
Okay, he had to learn how to usehis tongue as a prophet.
And he says this chapter 50,verse four, he says the Lord has
(32:21):
given me the tongue of one whois taught.
How many know your tongue canbe taught, but remember, it has
no ears.
So you have to teach your heartso it can teach your tongue
that I might learn how tosustain those who are weary.
That means weary from battle.
Listen, there's people all overthis Knoxville area.
They're so weary from battlebecause they're in a battle of
words they don't know how tofight, they're just victims.
And you can come with a tongueof one who's been taught and
(32:45):
speak into their life in theirweariness.
That's a word of edification,that's a word of exhortation and
comfort that we all should bedoing to sustain those who are
weary.
How does he do it?
He awakens my ear to hear, asthose who have been taught.
He says now he's teaching mytongue.
He says how does he do it?
He awakens my ear to hear myinner ear.
He awakens it to hear, as thosewho are taught.
So he goes on to say thisIsaiah 53, we're going to close
(33:13):
with this.
Isaiah 53, we're going to closewith this.
Jesus was oppressed, he wasafflicted.
He was oppressed and afflicted.
What do you do when you'reoppressed and afflicted, falsely
accused?
What rises up in you?
Words?
(33:33):
Oh, you can't wait.
I'm giving you a piece of mymind.
Yet he was oppressed andafflicted and he opened, not his
mouth.
Wow, could have, should have.
We think.
Well, that would have been me.
(33:55):
I would have called down angels, like the disciples, take his
ear off.
No, here's my question.
To leave this morning.
Why was Jesus silent?
Why did he hold his tongue?
Friends, he was silent becauseof every word, by nature, that
(34:19):
has proceeded out of your mouthand my mouth, which would have
been adequate reason for him todamn us for all eternity.
That's why he was silent.
For you, for me, because of mywords, because of your words,
(34:41):
because we've cursed him and hisimage.
He came into the world to bearthe judgment of the sins of our
tongues.
That's why he stood silent thatday.
And we're all here going, mm-hmm, this hurts so good.
We all wish we could just dobetter.
You can't do better without theHoly Spirit, and that's what
(35:04):
we're here for.
It's Pentecost Sunday.
God sent the Holy Spirit tohelp us tame our tongues right,
and so we follow the example ofJesus.
But here's the thing he's yourSavior first, then he's your
example.
Come on, somebody needs to graspthat this morning.
Jesus Christ is your Saviorfirst.
(35:25):
He saves you by the words ofyour mouth.
I believe he died and rose.
God raised him from the deadand I believe he saved me.
It's that simple, it's words.
But he's your savior first, andthen he's our example for how
we can do it in the image ofChrist.
So we come conscious thismorning.
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That's all.
This message is to awaken ourconscious, because the world is
going crazy and I know you wereall in a battle of words.
The words are flying everywhere.
We have to harness the power ofour words.
You can't harness otherpeople's words.
You wish you could.
You've tried to.
You've put those posts onsocial media and nobody says, oh
(36:07):
, thank you so much for youropinion.
I've changed my life now.
Know what they do, delete,unfriend, go away.
No, it doesn't work that way.
It starts here.
So we are like the publican andthe sinner and we just come
humbly and say God, be mercifulto me, a sinner, would you stand
with me?
I want to pray with us.
We're all in this together,right, we all stumble in many
(36:29):
ways.
But now you're aware, and nowyou come into your small group
and house church meetings alittle different.
You're a little more awake andconscious of and like with me.
That little voice will go.
I don't say that.
I don't know how many timesI've just heard these words
don't say anything.
I mean Holy Spirit probablyshould just say shut up.
But he's a little more polite.
He just says don't speak.
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And I hear it a lot, but it'sloud and clear now like it never
was before.
I've just become so much moreaware when I shouldn't say
anything.
So we pray that same prayer.
God, be merciful to me a sinnerwith our lips, but I thank you
that Jesus came and was silentin order that he might bear the
(37:13):
penalty of all the misuse of mytongue.
Isn't that refreshing.
The penalty for the misuses ofour words and our tongue has
been paid by Jesus.
He's taking care of it, okay.
And knowing that, then we canworship with all of our heart
these songs we can worship.
And I think of Charles Wesleywho, back in the 1700s, penned
(37:37):
the opening stanza of this greathymn, and I think he was
thinking about his own tongue.
I think he was thinking aboutoh, jesus paid the penalty for
the misuse of human tongues.
And then I think he got aglimpse of heaven and said oh,
the day will come when, oh when,a thousand tongues will sing
right, my great Redeemer'spraise, the glories of my God
(37:58):
and King, the triumphs of hisgrace.
Thousands and thousands oftongues will sing in unison,
redeemed for the glory of theKing.
Can you say amen to that?
Amen.
Good to see all your smiling faces.
Happy June, happy PentecostSunday.
Let's go, let's bring the firetoday.
Best way to do that get in theWord right.
So we have, you have Bibles,you have screens, you have
whatever.
We have this.
So we're going to get intosomething I think is really
important in this day and thishour, and it's our words.
We live in a world of words andthey're flying everywhere.
(00:26):
There's like no restraintanymore.
So I want to talk to you thismorning out of James 3, on
taming the tongue and harnessinghow to harness the power of our
words.
There was a foreigner that cameto America and he was learning
English and it's not an easylanguage, as we know, and a
friend was helping him and youknow, giving him some
(00:47):
corrections here and there andeverything.
And he goes.
I know, I know I said some ofthe problems I have with English
.
Some of the words, they're sovague-y sometimes and he goes no
, no, it's not vague-y, it'svague.
Okay, all right, sorry, that'sthe problem.
See, I try new words and thenmy tongue-y-wee it gets all
twisted and he goes no, no, it'snot tongue-y-wee, it's tongue,
it's not vague-y-wee, it's vague, it's not tongue-y-wee, it's
(01:09):
tongue.
You got it.
He goes I got it.
I got it, we don't have to argabout it.
So that's English, right?
We don't have to arg about it,if you dare.
James, chapter 3.
James, chapter 3.
James starts out by saying notmany of you should become
(01:31):
teachers, my brothers, for youknow that we who teach will be
judged with greater strictness.
For the record, I have thebiggest risk this morning.
I'm trying to teach this andit's like we're all in this
together.
That's the point James makes inverse 2.
We all stumble in many ways.
We all stumble in many ways.
He's including himself, and ifanyone does not stumble into
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what he says, that's our tongue.
He's a perfect man, mature.
See, learning how to harnessthe power of your words is how
we progress into Christ-likematurity.
It's a mark of maturity andhere's the best part Once you
get on that road, you're able tobridle your whole body.
Do you realize your tongue isconnected to your toes and your
(02:17):
arms and everything else?
You can bridle your whole bodyif you can bridle the tongue.
Thanks a lot, james.
What's that mean?
Be a learner first Before youtry to teach this stuff.
Be a learner first, and I lovethis personal confession.
We all stumble.
In many ways.
I think he's probably reflecting, maybe, on his childhood,
looking back.
How many know James was thehalf-brother of Jesus?
(02:38):
Yeah, lived with Jesus samehouse, maybe they shared a
bedroom.
How many shared a bedroom witha sibling with Jesus?
Same house?
Maybe they shared a bedroom?
How many shared a bedroom witha sibling?
We'll have a healing lineafterwards 14 years with my
brother it was torture.
No, it wasn't.
I was bigger, stronger andolder and more handsome, but
anyway, yeah, maybe Jesus shareda bedroom with James.
(03:03):
And can you imagine James wakingup and looking over and there's
Jesus' bed already made.
He's out, he's already haddevotions, he is a devotion.
He made breakfast for thefamily and he's in the woodshop
making furniture and it's onlysix o'clock in the morning.
He looks over and he probablyat some point in life, he
probably just went up to Jesusone time and says you just think
you're perfect, don't you?
And probably said I am, anyway.
(03:24):
So, yeah, he probably said somesnide things.
Maybe you know a little digwith a sibling every now and
then.
Maybe he just said some snidecomments, you know.
But yet he watched his ownbrother grow, he watched his
maturity, he watched how hehandled words and I think it's
fascinating that Paul brings usout in 1 Corinthians 15.
(03:45):
You don't have to go there, butit says that you know when
Jesus.
He was raised from the dead.
But before he ascended it sayshe appeared to Cephas, to the 12
.
He appeared to more than 500brothers at one time verse 7,
and then he appeared to James.
Isn't that cool.
He made a personal appearanceto his brother James, and then
(04:05):
the rest of the apostles, andprobably wanted to give him a
little assurance of the pardonfor those nasty things he said.
He said hey brother, rememberall those things.
I just took them all to thecross.
Come on somebody.
We're good, we're good, yeah.
(04:29):
So James gets into this rigorousanalysis.
I call him Dr James.
When I get into James 3, it'slike he becomes Dr James.
It's like stick out your tongue, say ah, we're going to have a
little analysis.
And he begins to use imagerybecause he says whoever can
control the tongue can controlhimself.
And it's not just by gettingthe right words and all these
things, it's not just by ourspeech, but sometimes by our
(04:52):
lack of speech.
Come on somebody.
My great-grandfather came fromNorthern Ireland and passed on a
witty little saying to mygrandfather, my father who
passed it on to us and we heardit many times, but it was this
witty saying that it's better tobe silent and thought a fool
than to speak and remove alldoubt.
(05:12):
Sometimes it's better just tobe silent.
So controlling our words is notjust getting the right words at
the right time, but it'ssometimes just saying I don't
have to say anything right now.
When do we remain silent?
Proverbs 21, 23,.
Whoever keeps his mouth and histongue keeps himself out of
trouble.
Come on, young people, writethat down.
(05:33):
How do I keep myself out oftrouble?
It starts here.
So James gives the overture inchapter one.
One verse out of James 1, 26,kind of paints the overture of
the symphony of this teaching onthe tongue and everything else
in there he goes if anyonethinks he's religious and does
not bridle his tongue butdeceives his heart, this
(05:55):
person's religion is worthless.
Oh my gosh.
How do you measure yourreligious activity?
What's the dashboard of yourreligious life?
Church attendance, tithing,giving small groups, you know
what?
How do you measure yourreligious life?
Whatever you do to say I'm afour out of five, or whatever
(06:16):
scale you use to measure yourreligion?
He says if you think you'rereligious in any way, shape or
form, but you can't bridle yourtongue, that religious practice
is empty, worthless.
Wow thanks, james.
Tell us another way.
He gets more ruthless.
So just buckle up, okay, but itwill get better at the end, I
promise.
Here's what we're doing.
(06:38):
James brings us into this starkrealization of just how powerful
our words are and literally howevil the tongue is.
And so we cry out for help.
This is a cry for help for allof us.
We all stumble.
James is crying out on his ownbehalf too.
We all stumble.
So he says.
We all are asking God to helpus.
Right, say help.
That's the best prayer you'llever pray.
(06:59):
Help, help me, lord.
So God, help us.
What by grace?
To say the right thing at theright time to the right person,
in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Right, not in our own cognition, but this is a magnificent
grace.
When you can learn to harnessyour words, when you can begin
to tame your tongue, that's amagnificent grace, and people
(07:19):
will know it.
They'll know you by your fruits.
Know it.
They'll know you by your fruits.
So here we go.
Buckle up, james 3.
Here we go, Verse 3.
If we put bits into the mouthsof horses so that they obey us.
We can guide their whole bodiesas well.
Look at the ships also.
Though they're so large and aredriven by strong winds, they're
(07:42):
guided by a very small rudder.
Wherever the will of the pilotdirects, so also the tongue.
It's a small member, but itboasts of great things.
James is using imagery now tohelp us A bridle for the horse,
a rudder for the ship.
Talk about this, because itdescribes first of all how our
(08:06):
words affect us personally, butthen it describes how our words
affect our circumstances.
Something very small controlssomething much larger Horses,
ships.
And the main difference betweena horse and a ship.
Ah, the horse has a will of itsown, doesn't it?
(08:28):
Like you, the horse is a livingbeing, ship, isn't so?
The ship would kind of describeour circumstances.
It's affected by the pilot.
I have a question for you thismorning which can you turn more
quickly, a horse or a ship?
A horse, of course, any, mr Edfans, you're old, okay, if you
(08:54):
remember, mr Ed, you're old likeme, okay, yeah, the horse, of
course.
Yeah, you can turn it on a dime, which means what Us with a
human will, like the horse, wecan control it quickly, which
means what we can repent likethat.
You can be quick to repent.
I'm sorry, I was wrong, pleaseforgive me.
You can humbly turn your lifewith words, a ship not.
(09:17):
So Takes a lot longer to turn aship around, which means what
Takes a lot longer to turn yourcircumstances around.
But here's the good news If youkeep speaking in the right
direction, you can slowly turnyour circumstances like a great
ship.
You have to keep speaking intoyour world, because James goes
(09:39):
on to say it's not just abouthorses and ships.
He says the fruit of that ismassive destruction.
It's a weapon of massdestruction.
Right in your mouth.
The pictures are rolling.
He goes on to say verse five.
So also the tongue.
It's a small member, but itboasts of great things.
Watch this now how great aforest is set ablaze by a small
(10:01):
fire.
There was a reveal party out inCalifornia not too long ago.
Did a little reveal party, youknow?
A little spark Set the lawn onfire, set the neighbors on fire.
It set over 40,000 acres onfire.
It took two months to put thefire out.
You'll sing that little songdifferently.
(10:23):
It only takes a spark.
No, we won't sing that anymore.
It's powerful.
That's what song?
Differently, it only takes aspark.
No, we won't sing that anymore.
It's powerful, that's whatJames said.
It only takes a spark ofdestruction to destroy an entire
forest.
And he says this in verse six.
Buckle up, this is tough.
Here we go and the tongue is afire.
He said he didn't say it's kindof like a fire.
He said no, it is a fire.
Your tongue is a fire.
(10:44):
You got a fire in your mouth.
You're a fire-breathingChristian.
The tongue is a fire.
Watch this next phrase.
I'm going to unpack this.
It's a world of unrighteousness.
What do you mean?
It's a world of unrighteousness.
The word world is the Greekword cosmos.
It doesn't mean earth or aglobe or dirt.
The cosmos is an ordered systemthat you and I live in.
(11:08):
God so loved the cosmos.
God so loved the system thathumans were trapped in that he
sent his son into it to take allthe punishment of the way we
act.
It's a world of unrighteousness, an ordered system ruled by
Satan.
Don't forget he's the God ofthis cosmos.
Y'all aren't shouting very much, but you will by the time we
(11:30):
get to the end of this.
It's kind of like the gospel.
You got to know how bad it isbefore you know how good it is
right.
You got to know how bad you arewhen you realize how good the
gospel is.
The world's system it's theworld stage is where life is
played out in the world.
(11:51):
We're in the world but we'renot of it.
But the only way Satan can bethe God of this world and have
any influence in this world, heneeds words.
He needs words to controlhumans and influence humans.
And guess what?
He wants?
Your words.
He wants to influence yourwords.
He wants you to get to alignyour words with his words,
because he doesn't have a humantongue but you do.
(12:16):
The tongue, our tongue, is partof an invisible, ordered system
and Satan wants to use it.
So he goes on to say the tongueis a fire, it's a world, it's
part of a world system.
Of what Unrighteousness it'sset among our members.
Watch now he's looking at thebody.
It's set amongst our members,staining the whole body, setting
(12:39):
on fire the course of life andin the Greek, this idea of the
course of life.
In the Greek it would be thewheel of becoming.
Get the picture of a wheel,troxos in the Greek, of a wheel
moving on a circular track, Kindof the moral axis that our
lives are turning on all thetime and your tongue sets the
wheel in motion.
(13:00):
Come on, get that picture.
Your words drive the wheel.
Your words determine your wheelof becoming.
What you are becoming isdetermined by what you say.
The tongue is a fire, a worldof unrighteousness.
It's set among our members likea wheel staining the whole body
, setting on fire the entirewheel of becoming cycle of
(13:20):
existence.
Watch this it's set on fire byhell, not matches or a lighter.
The source of this world ofunrighteousness, the source of
this destructive power of ourown tongue, the fire in your
mouth.
The source is hell itself.
These are strong words, but wegot to come to a reality.
It's like why does it hurt sobad when someone says this?
(13:42):
Because the source is thedemonic.
The source is the devil himself.
He has to find a human to hurtanother human with in the course
of a whole life, your cycle ofexistence.
Your words move the wheel ofwhat you're becoming.
(14:05):
That's how you got saved.
You got saved because you useddifferent words, words you've
never used before.
Lord, forgive me, I believe yourose from the dead.
Those words change the wheel ofwhat you are now becoming
Proverbs 18.21,.
(14:26):
You know it well, life and deathare in the power of the tongue.
You go from death to life byyour words.
So with our tongues, you see,we affect the invisible world
that you can't see.
So with our tongues, you see,we affect the invisible world
that you can't see, which thenaffects the natural world that
we all can see and live in.
The bit in the horse's mouthcan't see it, but it affects the
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direction of the horse.
The rudder on the ship?
You can't see it.
It's below the surface of thewater, but it affects the
direction of the ship.
According to the pilot.
Whatever's in the invisibleworld come on controls the
visible world.
That's why words are sopowerful.
That's why our life is socomplicated now, because we have
this thing called the WorldWide Web.
(15:10):
We have an invisible web ofwords flying 24-7.
There's words everywhere.
They're on your screens,they're in your ears.
There are words everywhere.
And the devil's screens?
They're in your ears.
There are words everywhere andthe devil's trying to control.
He's called the prince of thepower of the air.
The spirit world alwayscontrols the visible world.
That's why prayer is soimportant, folks, come on.
(15:32):
That's why your prayers areimportant.
Your vocal prayers are reallyimportant.
I'm all for silent prayers andthere's time silent prayers.
But I'm going to tell yousomething there's time for vocal
declaring prayers, governmentalprayers, because what you pray
in the spirit realm becomesmanifest in the natural realm.
(15:52):
That's why prophecy is sopowerful, because God uses words
to direct our lives, to speakinto us, to change us, to set
that wheel in motion.
Where you didn't have any planat all, god will change course
on you sometimes because heknows the destiny of your life.
Prayer is powerful, spokenprayer is powerful.
(16:13):
I got a prophecy for you.
Okay, go ahead.
No, it's just, I'm going tokeep it to myself.
I'll just think it.
You ever been to a prayermeeting?
You go.
Anybody have any other requests?
Yes, what Silent request.
Really, do you know?
We forget this one little wordin the Lord's teaching in Luke
11.
They said Lord, teach us topray, like John taught his
(16:36):
disciples.
Okay, when you pray, say.
When you pray he didn't saythink when you pray.
Say, it means break silence, itmeans use words.
When you pray, say our Fatherwho art in heaven, hallowed be
your name.
And suddenly the devil goesthere.
They go again.
Dang, I mean.
The devil hears, I mean, but hecan't use the words that he
(16:59):
wants to use unless he can finda cooperative vessel.
So when you pray, say becauseyour tongues speak invisible
words but they can change thecycle of existence in things.
James goes on.
Now we're getting into tamingthe tongue.
He's like I just want you toknow how bad it really is.
It's bad, say it's bad, don'tlook at anybody, look down and
(17:22):
go.
It's really bad.
But every kind of beast andbird verse 7, reptile sea
creature can be tamed.
That's the good news we'regetting.
See, it's getting betteralready.
You can tame all these animalsand they have been tamed by
mankind.
Anybody ever been to SeaWorld?
Seaworld, you got the orcaright.
(17:48):
Shamu, it would barely fit inthis room.
They're massive, right.
But man can go out in the ocean, capture an orca, bring it to
SeaWorld and charge money forpeople to look at it.
That is so big and that's it.
We can do that.
We can tame every kind of beastand wild animal.
But he says no human being cantame the tongue.
We're all in this together.
I don't know what thatscripture is.
I'll just quote it from my ownmemory Misery loves company.
(18:11):
What's that verse, neil Miseryloves what.
We're all in this together.
Why?
Because no human can tame thetongue.
It's a restless evil.
Watch this, full of deadlypoison.
Think, james, could you lightenup?
You're killing us.
He goes.
That's my point, try to killthis thing.
It's full of deadly poison.
(18:33):
And I think James uses seven andeight.
He takes us all the way back toGenesis for a minute.
7 and 8, he takes us all theway back to Genesis for a minute
.
In Genesis 1, we're told totake dominion right Over the
fish of the sea and all theanimals right, take dominion
over every creature.
And James says this has beendone, this taming has been done,
subdued by man.
(18:53):
We've learned how to do that.
And then man falls in Genesis 3, and James is reminding us of
something more wild than thewildest of beasts that cannot be
tamed by man the tongue.
Because when we fell, we becamecursed.
When we fell, our tongue gotinfected with deadly poison.
(19:15):
He says with deadly poison.
He says Wow.
And so therefore it takes morethan natural ability to tame
this wild beast in our mouth.
Right, oh, your flesh can do agood job.
For a while I've had good days,well, partial days, well, I've
had an hour or two, usually whenI'm sleeping, my tongue's okay.
I mean, we all can whiteknuckle it.
(19:37):
We can all sit there and lookat somebody and go.
I just want to say something sobad right now, but I'm just you
just flesh it out, like whenyou walk away and we, we have
all these little self-help tips.
They can work, even forChristians.
They can born again people.
But every now and then, spiritfilled tongue talking to people,
something comes out and you gowhere did that come from?
Wow, I can't believe that justcame out.
(19:58):
What do we do?
Here's the good news.
You ready for good news.
Y'all look so sad.
Happy June, happy.
Listen here's.
And you know this.
But now we're going to walk youthrough this.
The only thing that can subduethe tongue is the knowledge of
God's word.
You have to.
This is a battle of words,everybody.
It's our words aligning withthe right source.
(20:23):
This is the wisdom we're toldto ask for in James 1.
If any of you lack wisdom, like, how do we do this?
How do you tame the humantongue?
He goes.
You better ask for wisdombecause it doesn't come from
down here, it comes from up here.
This kind of wisdom comes fromabove.
James says and it's theknowledge of the word of God.
First get knowledge of it DidGod really say that, yeah?
(20:44):
And then the application ofthat knowledge in our lives.
And it can take a lifetime.
I'm not sugarcoating this.
I'm not saying you knowAbracadabra, we're going to have
a prayer line up here andyou'll all have your tongues
tamed as you walk out the door.
Pick up your tongue tamer onthe way out.
It's like it's not that easy.
I wish it was.
But the longer you walk withthe Lord, the longer you take in
his word, it just becomes alittle easier.
(21:07):
And a little easier why?
Because you strengthen thevoice of the spirit in you.
Because he's only going to talkJesus, he's only going to talk
Bible to you and he will correctyou and he will say things.
And we have to be quick to hearand slow to speak.
And I get this little voiceevery now and then it's just
louder and clearer and I knowthis.
The Holy Spirit speaks in short, pithy little statements.
(21:30):
He's not long-winded, he justlike corrects quickly.
One time I'm walking down to myoffice it's in our basement.
I was walking down, I'd justdone something stupid.
Am I alone in the room.
I'd just done something.
Come on, men, help At least themen.
I know the women don't do that,but men we do stupid things
sometimes and I'm kind ofscolding myself as I'm going
down.
I said you're such an idiot andjust like that.
(21:51):
I heard I don't call you that.
It was that quick and that notharsh, but very like I don't
call you that.
I looked around and it couldn'tbe my wife.
I'm like what was that voice?
And it was right inside, soquick and so sure, like I don't
call you that.
It's like wow, we need thatquick course correction of the
(22:11):
rudder.
You know the bit in my ownmouth.
I don't call you that.
Don't say that about yourselfbecause I don't call you that.
Again, I talked about my Irishcharacters on my mother's side.
I'm only second generationIrish from the Northern Ireland
and my mother was one of ninekids and they immigrated over in
the late 1800s, early 1900s andmy grandfather was a dairy
(22:36):
farmer and you know busy andnine kids and everything, and
how many of the nine kids?
Somebody's bound to act up atleast once.
Right, so there was disciplinein the house.
There were staunchPresbyterians from the north of
Ireland and my mother would sayyou know, when one of us got in
trouble and we had to getdisciplined, we all wanted our
dad to spank us because ourmother wouldn't spank us, but
(22:58):
she gave us a tongue lashing.
She called it a tongue lashing.
She goes, and it would last fordays.
We're like, can we just go getspanked real quick and get this
over with?
And on, and on, and on and on.
It's like how about?
Be quick to speak?
Okay, be quick to hear, slow tospeak?
(23:19):
But the Holy Spirit is quick tospeak and he's shortened to the
point and you get more familiarwith that voice the more you
walk with him, the more you soakin his word.
And then when you get thatthought like I'm such an idiot,
and he just counters it with theword of God, I don't call you
that.
Read your Bible, ferris.
That's not in there.
So this leads up to the greatrevelation of the day.
(23:40):
You ready for the greatrevelation of the day this is it
, june 1st is to change yourlife.
Great revelation of the day.
You ready.
Your tongue has no ears.
Wasn't that profound?
Wasn't that deep?
I know some of you right nowyou're looking it up on Google
Like is that true, honey?
I don't know.
Our tongue doesn't have ears.
(24:02):
How do you train a tongue, howdo you train anything that won't
listen to you?
But I got good news your heartdoes.
The tongue has no ears, butyour heart does, and what I want
to put together this morning isthat amazing connection between
your heart and your tongue.
It's a divine connection.
(24:23):
Luke said out of the abundanceof the heart the mouth speaks.
See, there's the connection ofthe heart and the mouth, because
as the heart hears over andover good sermons from your guys
here and teachings and yourfavorite podcasts, whatever, as
you continue to hear with yourspiritual heart and the word of
God then begins to do atransformation of your heart
(24:46):
first, and it's a transformedheart that produces a
transformed tongue.
It's a process.
Everybody and all the mothersand fathers you know from a
little age, you're constantly.
You're correcting words, aren'tyou?
Don't say that.
I mean it's this constantreorganizing of our words.
I love the psalmist prayer,psalm 19.
(25:06):
I quote it often At the veryend of that verse 14, it says
Let the words of my mouth andthe meditations of my heart see
how they're connected beacceptable in your sight, o Lord
, my strength and my redeemerDivine connection of the heart
and the tongue, because thetongue's only as good as the
heart that directs it, thehorse's rider, the ship's
(25:27):
captain.
And yet, as we're on thisjourney, we have to be quite
aware of our inconsistencies.
But don't let that get you down.
We're all in training but weare inconsistent.
Just face it.
James goes, you think you'redoing okay, here's your tip.
But let me just remind you,with it we bless our Lord and
(25:49):
our Father and with it we cursepeople who are made in the
likeness of God.
Just like that.
Come in.
Like we did, sing worship songsHallelujah, that was a great
song, wasn't it?
Worshiping God, his name.
Oh, we just love you, lordJesus.
And we get out in the parkinglot What'd you think of that
guy's sermon?
I don't know, it was kind oflong.
I think, I don't know, beforeyou get out of the parking lot
(26:11):
yapping away about what theydidn't like, I think that went a
little too long.
We're so quick to beinconsistent, right?
James is kind of bringing thiscontradiction.
He talks about it reallythroughout his whole epistle.
This ought not to be.
So is what he says.
He gets a little stern becausehe's talking to the family.
(26:34):
Now he's saying my brothers,adelphois, brothers and sisters.
This shouldn't be so.
In some sense, we're monitoringour words together in community,
your TCC, your community ofbelievers, of brothers and
sisters, and you know what?
You have the divine privilegeof listening to how other people
(26:54):
are talking to each other.
Come on, moms and dads, youdon't talk to your sister that
way.
We correct right in the face wedon't treat our family members
that way.
Don't talk to you.
Go apologize to your sister forwhat you just said.
Right, and we have to gently beable to help people with their
words in the body in ourcommunity.
And it's so easy.
There's scandals ab and they'reeverywhere and they're all over
(27:15):
the internet.
And our pastor said to ourstaff just recently.
He said stop watching thescandalous YouTube videos about
other churches and other leaders.
Stop it, stop looking at thatstuff.
All it does is feed the wronginformation.
Sometimes you've got to saydon't listen to that, don't talk
that way, don't talk that wayabout your brother.
Don't listen to that, don'ttalk that way, don't talk that
(27:36):
way about your brother, don'ttalk your way about your sister
in the family or in Christ.
This ought not to be.
James said.
He's addressing the carnalityright, he's addressing the what.
I want you to becomespiritually mature, and this
will stop you every time.
Your religion will be empty ifyou don't get this going in your
life.
So it's only possible throughthe power of the word and the
(28:02):
Holy Spirit.
And aren't you glad the fire inyour mouth is set on fire by
hell itself.
But I got good news you caneither have a tongue that's set
on fire of hell or you can havea tongue that's set on fire by
heaven.
How many know?
We got a heavenly fire too.
Come on, it's Pentecost Sunday,somebody.
It's Pentecost Sunday.
On the day of Pentecost Acts,chapter 2,.
What's the first thing that Godwent after?
(28:23):
The tongue of the human that noone could tame.
But on the day of Pentecost,the Holy Spirit came down and
tongues of fire rested uponthose 120, and he says I'm going
to start reversing the curse inyour mouth.
I'm going to do something aboutthe fire in your mouth.
I'm going to turn it from ahellish fire to a holy fire.
And you got to say God, empowermy words by the Holy Spirit,
(28:44):
speaking by the Spirit.
All the gifts of the Spiritoperate by one thing the Holy
Spirit.
And when Paul introduces 1Corinthians 12, he talks about
those that speak by the Spirit.
That's how he marks somebody.
That's spiritual.
What your speech?
Speaking by the Spirit, allthose gifts are activated by
words.
Prophecy starts it off.
(29:05):
Then you can move into word ofknowledge, word of wisdom.
Do they need healing?
All because of the word flow,spiritual words.
Even Proverbs 15, verse 4, Ilove this.
It says a gentle or wholesome,literally a healing tongue is a
tree of life, but perversenessin it breaks the spirit.
(29:27):
Your tongue can actually bringhealing to somebody.
It starts with words.
Yeah, you pray, yeah, you layhands on people, but you know
what?
You have a fountain of life inyour mouth and it comes from
here, where the Spirit, as Jesustalked about, out of your
innermost being will flow riversof living water.
This he said of the Spirit.
The tongue of the wise bringshealing.
(29:49):
Proverbs 12 says and these arethe good uses of the tongue that
we have to remind ourselveswhat it's for.
We want to get to the pointthat you use your tongue to
glorify Jesus and let the wordof God dwell in you so richly
that you cannot speak with anyother accent.
(30:12):
Y'all have an accent.
I live in North Carolina, asyou can tell from my accent.
Y'all have an accent.
I live in North Carolina, asyou can tell from my accent.
I love accents.
I do.
It's such a great conversationstarter.
Somebody's speaking, he's going.
Hey, love your accent.
Where are you from, man?
(30:32):
You got instant conversation.
I want to know.
Jesus spoke with an accent.
Where do you get your accentfrom your home?
Come on, somebody.
It's where you grew up.
It's the culture you wereshaped in.
Jesus spoke with the accent ofheaven, because that's where
he's from.
There was a Christian doctorcoming out of an intense surgery
(30:52):
and he's walking down the halljust kind of giving a little
praise to God, and he's justactually speaking in tongues.
And a colleague came up behindhim kind of like taps him and
goes.
Excuse me, he goes.
What language is that?
He goes the language of myhomeland.
That's what we speak at home.
Come on somebody.
God wants to change your accentto speak like Jesus.
(31:12):
When people come into Trinitythey'll go.
Those people speak with anaccent and ain't Tennessee
either.
Come on, like Derek, we'll giveyou Tennessee elocution
lectures by Derek.
It's not the Tennessee accent.
They're going to notice theaccent of heaven in your mouth.
It's like they're kind fruit ofthe spirit gentle.
They're going to notice thedifference.
(31:33):
You don't react.
We need that.
I'm going to finish somethingout of the Old Testament, in
Isaiah, chapter 50.
And here's the thing too, Ilearned you can't outthink the
devil, but you can outspeak him.
(31:53):
Come on, somebody, write thatdown.
If you're going to get anythingtoday, that's absolutely worth
it all.
Yeah, you can't outthink thedevil, but you can outspeak him
every time it is written.
That's all Jesus did.
He didn't try to outthink him,he just outspoke him.
Come on, isaiah learned.
Okay, he had to learn how to usehis tongue as a prophet.
And he says this chapter 50,verse four, he says the Lord has
(32:21):
given me the tongue of one whois taught.
How many know your tongue canbe taught, but remember, it has
no ears.
So you have to teach your heartso it can teach your tongue
that I might learn how tosustain those who are weary.
That means weary from battle.
Listen, there's people all overthis Knoxville area.
They're so weary from battlebecause they're in a battle of
words they don't know how tofight, they're just victims.
And you can come with a tongueof one who's been taught and
(32:45):
speak into their life in theirweariness.
That's a word of edification,that's a word of exhortation and
comfort that we all should bedoing to sustain those who are
weary.
How does he do it?
He awakens my ear to hear, asthose who have been taught.
He says now he's teaching mytongue.
He says how does he do it?
He awakens my ear to hear myinner ear.
He awakens it to hear, as thosewho are taught.
So he goes on to say thisIsaiah 53, we're going to close
(33:13):
with this.
Isaiah 53, we're going to closewith this.
Jesus was oppressed, he wasafflicted.
He was oppressed and afflicted.
What do you do when you'reoppressed and afflicted, falsely
accused?
What rises up in you?
Words?
(33:33):
Oh, you can't wait.
I'm giving you a piece of mymind.
Yet he was oppressed andafflicted and he opened, not his
mouth.
Wow, could have, should have.
We think.
Well, that would have been me.
(33:55):
I would have called down angels, like the disciples, take his
ear off.
No, here's my question.
To leave this morning.
Why was Jesus silent?
Why did he hold his tongue?
Friends, he was silent becauseof every word, by nature, that
(34:19):
has proceeded out of your mouthand my mouth, which would have
been adequate reason for him todamn us for all eternity.
That's why he was silent.
For you, for me, because of mywords, because of your words,
(34:41):
because we've cursed him and hisimage.
He came into the world to bearthe judgment of the sins of our
tongues.
That's why he stood silent thatday.
And we're all here going, mm-hmm, this hurts so good.
We all wish we could just dobetter.
You can't do better without theHoly Spirit, and that's what
(35:04):
we're here for.
It's Pentecost Sunday.
God sent the Holy Spirit tohelp us tame our tongues right,
and so we follow the example ofJesus.
But here's the thing he's yourSavior first, then he's your
example.
Come on, somebody needs to graspthat this morning.
Jesus Christ is your Saviorfirst.
(35:25):
He saves you by the words ofyour mouth.
I believe he died and rose.
God raised him from the deadand I believe he saved me.
It's that simple, it's words.
But he's your savior first, andthen he's our example for how
we can do it in the image ofChrist.
So we come conscious thismorning.
(35:47):
That's all.
This message is to awaken ourconscious, because the world is
going crazy and I know you wereall in a battle of words.
The words are flying everywhere.
We have to harness the power ofour words.
You can't harness otherpeople's words.
You wish you could.
You've tried to.
You've put those posts onsocial media and nobody says, oh
(36:07):
, thank you so much for youropinion.
I've changed my life now.
Know what they do, delete,unfriend, go away.
No, it doesn't work that way.
It starts here.
So we are like the publican andthe sinner and we just come
humbly and say God, be mercifulto me, a sinner, would you stand
with me?
I want to pray with us.
We're all in this together,right, we all stumble in many
(36:29):
ways.
But now you're aware, and nowyou come into your small group
and house church meetings alittle different.
You're a little more awake andconscious of and like with me.
That little voice will go.
I don't say that.
I don't know how many timesI've just heard these words
don't say anything.
I mean Holy Spirit probablyshould just say shut up.
But he's a little more polite.
He just says don't speak.
(36:53):
And I hear it a lot, but it'sloud and clear now like it never
was before.
I've just become so much moreaware when I shouldn't say
anything.
So we pray that same prayer.
God, be merciful to me a sinnerwith our lips, but I thank you
that Jesus came and was silentin order that he might bear the
(37:13):
penalty of all the misuse of mytongue.
Isn't that refreshing.
The penalty for the misuses ofour words and our tongue has
been paid by Jesus.
He's taking care of it, okay.
And knowing that, then we canworship with all of our heart
these songs we can worship.
And I think of Charles Wesleywho, back in the 1700s, penned
(37:37):
the opening stanza of this greathymn, and I think he was
thinking about his own tongue.
I think he was thinking aboutoh, jesus paid the penalty for
the misuse of human tongues.
And then I think he got aglimpse of heaven and said oh,
the day will come when, oh when,a thousand tongues will sing
right, my great Redeemer'spraise, the glories of my God
(37:58):
and King, the triumphs of hisgrace.
Thousands and thousands oftongues will sing in unison,
redeemed for the glory of theKing.
Can you say amen to that?
Amen.
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