How to Stop a Fire

Text: James 3:1-12

Focus: The tongue

Function: To get people to say nice things to each other all the time.

Form: Expository

Intro:

I gotta tell you, I am happy to be preaching this passage of scripture. In case you are visiting, I am going through the book of James, and this scripture comes up in the text today.

Sometimes, you can tell if a Church is having problems based on whether or not you hear a sermon on this text.

Look at this part of the text: (SHOW) A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it!

The tongue can certainly destroy about anything it sets its fire to.

On the other hand, the tongue can be one of most powerful forces for blessing and encouraging I have ever seen.

I am so happy that I don’t have to be preaching on this text because it seems to me that you are all living by these wonderful principles of being a blessing, instead of a problem, with your tongues.

I don’t have to preach this sermon because we are having problems. I am happy that I get the chance to remind you of what your parents tried to teach you.

I am happy that we can look at God’s word as a way to help us live better lives.

Last week we looked at the danger of showing favoritism to the rich.

Next week we will look at the danger of Jealousy. The week after that we will look at the danger of Riches, but today we are looking at the danger of the tongue.

We are going to learn about the tongue by studying three main areas from this scripture:

We will learn that (SHOW)

1. Controlling the tongue is a priority.

2. Complete control is impossible.

3. God gives us the power to control it.

(SHOW) Controlling the tongue is a priority.

•  (SHOW) ^5-6It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell.
• The fact is: too many people are destroyed by the tongue
• In Romans 1, we read this list of damning sins that talk about how the world has gone wrong and chased after immorality.
• Homosexuality is mentioned in there and sometimes people say: “See, here is proof of how bad others are.”
• But in that same list, gossip is mentioned.
• And, I submit, it has been the bane of the Church
• I don’t understand the intolerance about other sins when gossips are tolerated.
• Why point out one and exclude the other?
• That doesn’t justify either sin, because sin is sin and sin is why Jesus died for us.
• So instead of talking about justifying one sin over the other, let us just let it “hang right there” that it is a serious offense against God.
• AMEN?
• With the tongue, we say the wrong thing at the wrong time. Out of the abundance of the heart, the Bible say, a person speaks.
• We say those things we wish we had never said when we are at a point of anger, or when we feel cornered.
• With the tongue, Joseph Goebbels created the Pollock Joke and the Germans didn’t feel so bad when they committed terrible sins against Poland during the Second World War.
• With the tongue, racism kept itself alive for generation after generation.
• With the tongue, good people have been falsely accused and wicked people have been praised.
• From the tongue, we heard the words: “Give me liberty or give me death!”
• From the tongue generals inspire men to fight and kill or die, rarely for good, mostly for evil.
• The pen truly is mightier than the sword.
• But more than anything, the problem with the tongue is gossip.
• So, what is gossip?
  • (SHOW) Gossip is any story, true or untrue that sensationalizes another person.
  • Gossip can be true, but it is still sinful.
  • I have had people tell me that if the gossip is true, that it isn’t gossip.
  • But gossip can be true, half-true or a downright lie.
  • Most of the time, it is half-true. The gossip is a perceived intent about an action. And the intent is construed as being evil, or scandalous.
  • People can be terrible hurt by misperceptions.
  • Did you hear about a man who joined a church in a small town and was doing work across the street from a notorious tavern?
  • A gossip from the church saw his truck parked at the tavern and rumored around that he was an alcoholic.
  • He confronted her and she justified herself by quoting the scripture “avoid the appearance of evil.” And she said: “it was an easy mistake to make.”
  • So, he parked his truck in front of her house overnight!
• Do you want to spot a gossip?
• (SHOW) Ask the person: “can I quote you?”
• If the answer is no, then they have just gossiped.
• Look at the first few verses from out text: (SHOW) ^1-2Don't be in any rush to become a teacher, my friends. Teaching is highly responsible work. Teachers are held to the strictest standards. And none of us is perfectly qualified. We get it wrong nearly every time we open our mouths. If you could find someone whose speech was perfectly true, you'd have a perfect person, in perfect control of life.
• There was only one perfect person.
• And He is in the room, but I can guarantee you that it isn’t you.
• Don’t raise your hands, but how many of you have been hurt by gossip?
• In Ecclesiastes 7, Solomon gave some wise advice about the pain of gossip when he said, (SHOW) “Don’t get to upset when you hear that someone has spoken badly about you, for you too have spoken badly about others.”
• You have been hurt by other people’s tongues You too have hurt other people with your tongue.
• Let us face it; a scandalous story has a sinful appeal to us. It seems harmless to repeat it since we are not the ones who were doing it.
• I submit that the temptation to repeat a scandal is an indication of our lust for sin.
• Gossip is almost a form of Vicarious sinning.
• Remember in one sense the theme of James is “Don’t be naughty. Be Nice!”
• Gossip appeals to that naughty side of us.
• Being nice means we don’t spread that gossip.

Verses 1 and 2 talk about how true it is that none of us have mastered the tongue.

That is the second point:

(SHOW) Complete Control of the tongue is impossible.

• There are a lot of things that I have said that I have regretted later.
• Once a word comes out of your mouth, it is out there forever.
• You can say: “I take it back” but the fact that it was said still creates the elephant in the room.
• Although there are many times I regret what I said, there are 5 times in my life that I would give about anything to be able to go back in time and reverse what I said.
• There may be more, a lot more, or there may be less, a lot less for you.
• Those are the moments where we have the biggest regrets.
• In one of those occasions, it wasn’t that I said anything bad; it was just that I didn’t say anything good when someone I loved dearly needed it.
• That person has forgiven me, but it is really hard for us to forgive ourselves.
• Forgive yourself
• (SHOW) Practice forgiveness for the words that are said.
• You will not achieve mastery in this.
• Don’t stop trying to control the tongue.
  • Kathy had a co-worker who just blurted out whatever she thought regardless of the consequences of her words.
  • One day Kathy took offense at her comment.
  • She looked at Kathy and justified herself: Didn’t anyone tell you that I am forward in my speech?”
  • Finally Kathy she said, “Well if we are going to be forward, it is too bad those same people who excused your behavior didn’t tell you that it isn’t forward, it is obnoxious. There is no excuse for rudeness.”
• You may think that Kathy should have controlled her tongue at that time.
• But she said the right thing to that woman.
• I point this out because the important thing to remember is that: (SHOW) Even though we will never master the tongue, that doesn’t give us an excuse to stop trying.

And finally, the text says that the tongue is like a forest fire. One small spark can cause a huge amount of damage. A small rudder can control a huge ship. A small bit in the mouth of a horse can control the direction of a huge warhorse.

I like that fire image because water can quench a wood fire.

And the Holy Spirit is likened to a fresh flowing stream of water.

The third thing to remember is this:

(SHOW) The Holy Spirit is there to help us!

• A true sign of Spiritual maturity:
• When you succeed in controlling the tongue, you are being spiritually mature.
• Here is the thing about gossip.
• Those who were the worst gossips were also considered the more spiritual person by others.
• I call that an upside-down understanding of holiness. (Remember, James is a book about holiness?)
• They could point out, in the most pious ways the faults of others so that they could look good in comparison.
• But in order to do it, they had to carry on in one of the worse sins. Gossip.
• (SHOW) Controlling the tongue is a sign of spiritual maturity.
• So, think about that fire:
• What fuel do you pour on it?
• He says that the fire started by the tongue is a fire straight from the pit of hell.
• It is Satanic.
• When we gossip, we are throwing gasoline on that fire and making it worse.
• How do you stop a fire? Well, unless it is chemical, you put water on it.
• You do not put another combustible on it to make it bigger.
• (SHOW) Gossip is the fuel of Hell
• When we sin with the tongue, including gossip, we partake in Satan’s kingdom.
• So, what option do we have?
• The fuel of Heaven
  • The water of the Holy Spirit
  • (SHOW) The Holy Spirit is the fuel from heaven.
• How does the Holy Spirit work?
• He tells us not to spread those words.
• Remember the first passage in James that we looked at: “Listen much, speak little and don’t become angry.”
• We can only accomplish that in the power of the Holy Spirit.
• I know this, when I am upset by someone’s actions and I am tempted to tell the story to others, if I find myself in prayer, fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit, then my heart always changes toward other people. My heart changes even toward those that I might think are my enemy.
  • A co-worker who criticizes you.
  • A school-mate you are in competition with.
  • An ex-spouse.
• God loves that person.

And the Holy Spirit is given to us when we enter into a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

We do that by faith. We do that by choice. We do that by deciding to make Him the God of our lives instead of ourselves.

When God is in control, they the love that God has for that person comes out of our mouth.

The Holy Spirit is sent to us to give us control.