The Power of Words – (James 3:1-12) Pastors Notes

The Power of Words

If I asked you to name weapons you might say something like  guns, fighter jets and of course nuclear missiles. But the greatest weapon is the tongue. with the tongue we can sing beautiful music and teach valuable lessons, We can preach God’s Word. and with that same tongue we can promote lies and slander and spread deadly propaganda.  Right Now we are living in a time where words without knowledge or wisdom are bringing destruction in our world

Right now in the U.K. there is no such thing as free speech. 12,000 people have been arrested in the past year for posting something on social media. over 4000 are currently in jail. And they are currently considering a law that would ban preaching the bible in public, handing out Bibles or praying over people in public. They think that policing speech is going to work out for them but its driving their country towards civil war.

Everybody is aware of the power of words but they make the mistake of thinking they can tame the tongues of others without taming their own and that is where the mistake is made. its not about taming someone else’s speech or censoring someone else. its about dealing with what comes out of your own mouth. and this is where we see our scripture today addressing the issue.

(1) Dear brothers and sisters,  not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly. (2) Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way. (3) We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. (4) And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go, even though the winds are strong. (5) In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches.

But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. (6) And the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself.  (7) People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, (8) but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison. (9) Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God.

(10) And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right! (11) Does a spring of water bubble out with both fresh water and bitter water? (12) Does a fig tree produce olives, or a grapevine produce figs? No, and you can’t draw fresh water from a salty spring.
James 3:1-12 – NLT

1. Be careful with what you hear– If you want to be an authority on something or at least talk smart about it. take the time to read books.  It is truly shocking to see how many people are so quick to base their entire belief about an individual or movement based on 30 second video clips. Not only that but you have actual Pastors in the pulpit repeating lies that come from some of these videos. This is why James says not many should be teachers. just because someone has a lot of followers does not make them an authority on the Bible. Pastors, we know we will be judged more strictly so we are careful in our study and our teaching. reading hundreds of books and putting thousands of hours into study and prayer that we would bring the right words on Sunday morning. We aren’t doing that for clicks but to see people saved. so be careful what you listen to.  .,

2. Out of the heart the mouth speaks- have you ever said “oh I didn’t mean that” when in your frustration you said somethings carelessly? Why does this happen? Well it seems that we are living in a time were people want to “get it all out”, “Let the whole world know how they feel”  and for some reason some people want to put their whole meltdown on video for the world to see. and while a cathartic venting of words might unburden us it can burden someone else.

this is why the whole “turn down the rhetoric thing doesn’t work” People are only saying with their mouths what is already in their hearts. We are so shocked with the hate that is coming out of these peoples mouths but look at what Jesus said.

(21) For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, (22) adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. (23) All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.” 
Mark 7:21-23 – NLT

So if we want to control what come out of our mouths we need to carefully consider what is in our hearts. if we are easily offended and holding on to bitterness, if we are envious of others than were always concerned about not letting that slip out. but eventually it will verbally or in a text its going to leak out. Likewise if we fill our hearts with love and thankfulness and God’s Word than what comes out will be more encouraging and we aren’t always going to be worried about saying the wrong thing. You don’t have to worry about saying the wrong thing when your heart is filled with the right things.

3. Navigating our lives and those we influence–Life is more than just avoiding saying the wrong things, its about saying the right things as well. though the tongue can set our whole lives on fire and burn everything down. It can also be like a rudder guiding a ship in the right direction navigating the waters of life regardless of the storms that come. How do we do that. We encourage one another. we share the gospel, we speak the truth, as long as we have breath we take every opportunity