Just so you know the title of this sermon isn’t about how to discipline my 2 year old grandson Kaden. Even though it’s pretty hard to get a handle on a 2 year old strong willed little boy , it’s even harder to get a handle on something each of us possess that is much, much smaller than a two year old. It only weighs a couple of ounces and helps us taste, talk, and drink. That’s right today we are going to talk about that Tiny Terror called the tongue, that little two ounce muscle that we all possess can cause much more destruction than anything on earth. Words rolling off our tongue can wreak havoc on a person’s emotion and spiritual well-being and as Christians we need to do all we can to keep this Tiny Terror in check.
Let’s look at our text Today: (James 3: 2 – 12) we all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check. When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.
The text today tells us that we all stumble in many different ways and if we can always be perfect in what we say we can keep our whole body in check. Basically what James is saying is that if we can get a handle on one of the smallest parts of our body everything else would be a cakewalk. It seems strange that something that is so small can cause us so much trouble doesn’t it? But James illustrates with something the people are very familiar with, a small bit in a horse’s mouth controls the direction of the Horse and a small Rudder on a sailing ship controls the direction of large ship. I found out while I was taking my part time law enforcement class that you could control a combative person simply with pointing their little finger in the right direction, you would be amazed at how fast I got on the ground and put my hands behind my back when the instructor used me for a demonstration. You see small things can control something much larger.
Think about it, you ever open your mouth and something comes out and you wish you could put it back in? We all have. When the wrong things come out accidently or even directed at someone feelings get hurt, regrets come and the problem is we can’t take it back. You ever been on a Jury or watched a crime show and a witness or lawyer says something about the defendant that isn’t part of the trial and the judge looks at the Jury and says “ignore that last statement it has no bearing on the case”, yeah right, he’s been arrested and brought to trial for the mysteries disappearing of his last 3 wives, I’ll forget I heard that. I’ll just hit the delete button in my brain and it won’t affect my reasoning on this decision. It don’t work that way, once it’s out there that’s all the Jury is going to think about.
Once harsh words or lies or gossip is out it spreads like wildfire and can take on a life of its own leaving untold amounts of destruction in its path. A fire doubles in size every minute that it is kept unchecked gossip and false teaching are no different, think about it; you tell a friend some juicy gossip, now there’s two people that tell a friend, then 4, then 8, then 16, then 32, then 64 well I could go on but you get the picture, it doesn’t take long before the whole town knows and soon after that the whole county. And once it’s out you can’t take it back. O sure wounds heal but they leave scars and sometimes relationships never heal.
Here are some ways that Satan uses our tongue to cause division; Gossiping, putting others down, bragging, misrepresentation, false teaching, exaggeration, complaining, flattering in order to manipulate and just flat out lying. It takes only a few words to destroy a relationship, it takes only a few words to destroy someone’s self-esteem, and a few words is all it takes to hurt some - one.
The same holds true for the opposite effect, a few words can build relationships, encourage others and lift them up out of the muck and the mire of sin. A few words can let someone know that you care and God loves them.
The scripture goes on to say that man has tamed every kind of animal there is but that no one has been able to tame the tongue because it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. Blessing and curses come from the same mouth. We praise God on Sunday and lie and gossip on Monday.
Some may say why bother James says that no one can tame the tongue? Here’s why, because as James has written in the text, “It shouldn’t be this way, fresh water and salt water don’t come from the same spring, a grapevine doesn’t make figs”
As Christians we shouldn’t be letting our tongue control us, we shouldn’t be doing things that tear others down, we shouldn’t be saying things that hurt people emotionally and spiritually, we shouldn’t be praising on Sunday and cursing others on Monday.
We should be trying to control our tongue and use it for lifting others up not to tear them down, we should be using our tongue to pray for those that are persecuting us , we should be using our tongues to build people up for the Kingdom of God.
We may not be able to tame this Tiny Terror but through the Power of Jesus Christ with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our lives we can make progress and we can do better.
Once it comes out we can’t take it back but we can take some preventive measures to keep our tongue in check to keep things from coming out.
Before we say anything we should ask ourselves Is what I want to say ; True ( Without a shadow of a doubt) , Is it necessary ( does it make a difference if I say it at all) Is it Kind. If it doesn’t meet this criteria we should think very carefully before we open our mouth and let our tongue take over.
We may not ever be able to fully control the Tiny Terror that we all possess but with the help of the Holy Spirit we can be assured that we can utilize it to do more good and less harm.
