Randy Meeks, the horror film fanatic from the movie Scream, declared that “The horror genre was destroyed by sequels.” And while he may have a point (we’re looking at you, Friday the 13th: Jason Takes Manhattan), we beg to differ! Because sometimes a horror movie sequel breaks new territory, pushes its story into uncharted places, and, on rare occasions, is superior to the original. And that’s why this #SpookySZN, we’re creeping into our own scary sequel; once again learning what to do when we find out the movie of our life has become a horror flick. So grab some popcorn, turn off all the lights, and join us as we find out how following Jesus can help us survive the deadly mistakes and wrong turns that have taken the lives of so many others.

Scary movies like Candyman, and spooky urban legends like “Bloody Mary,” suggest that pure evil can be invoked by nothing more than the power of our words. And in a sense, how true that is! Scripture tells us time and time again that the power of life and death is found in the tongue. We can make someone’s day with a small compliment, or we can ignite insecurity with a snarky comment. So how are we using our words? Are we bringing life or death to those around us?

If you would go ahead and turn in your Bibles to James Three, two through 12. James Three,

two through 12. James writes 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 What a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 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, and reptiles, and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind. But no human being contained 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 freshwater and saltwater flow from the same spring. My brothers and sisters can a fig tree bear olives or a grapevine bear fix. Neither can assault spring produce fresh water. Well, hello, Cornerstone I'm super glad to be with you today. My name is Donnie Sanchez. I'm the next gen pastor here at cornerstone. And listen, if you've heard me on the pre in the posts, or you are a student who is a part of Cornerstone youth, then you know, I have three favorite days of the week. And all three are equally my favorite. There's no particular order. And so let me tell them to you in no particular order. The first one is Tuesdays because Tuesdays are when my C group meets. And so if you're a part of my C group, shout out to you, I love you, you're a part of my community like you are my people. So Tuesdays are my favorite days of the week. But also Wednesdays because that's when we have youth night. So if your students shout out to you, you're my people. Like you're awesome. I love you. And then we have Sundays. So if you're here, you're my people shout out to you. I love you deeply. Like you're awesome. So these are my favorite days of the week. So when I say I'm glad to be with you, I genuinely mean it. It's not lip service. I'm not saying oh yeah, glad to be with you. Kind of doesn't like you. But all right. No, I genuinely mean it. I am excited to be with you today. And so that being said, if you've also watched the pre in the previous posts, and you've heard me before like if you're new, or I have not met you yet, listen, I want to meet you, I want to hear your story. I want to hear what God is doing in your life, how you came to Cornerstone how you came to Jesus. And so if I haven't met you yet, I would love to do so after the service whether it's in here in the lobby somewhere else in the church, like literally grab me I want to hear your story. I want to hear what God is doing in you. But if you're with us last week, we began a series titled How to still survive a horror movie. And it's a sequel from last October when we had a series titled How to Survive a horror movie. And in this series, we're exploring a number of horror movie tropes, things that often happen in horror movies across the genre, and how there's actually an ounce of truth in a number of them and that scripture has something to say about a number of them. So if you're with us last week, you heard pastor Jacob talk about the fact that we need to tune up that if you notice in horror movies, the main character is running away from a bad person or a bad thing. They get in their car, they put the key in the ignition and they turn it on nothing or they start driving and inevitably their car breaks down now chances are the main character knew that their car needed a tune-up. They knew they needed a trip to the mechanic and yet they just kick the can down the road they said yeah nothing big is going on in my life like I can get from point A to point B like it's fine it runs it works you know it's not supposed to be like this but it works and it's fine. Nothing is going on until something is going on, which is that horror movie moment. And so are we do the same thing with our faith. We kick the can down the road we know spiritually we are just unhealthy we're emotionally unhealthy. We're in need of reconciled religion. ships with both people and God, but we kick the can down the road because listen, I just started a new job works crazy right now. Listen, the kids have school, they have sports, they have a choir, they have all these different things. I listen, I know it's important, but I just don't have time. I'll do it later. Nothing really big is going on right now. Until that's just not the case. Until the horror movie moment comes. And our faith isn't strong enough to withstand it. And so it's in the mundanity of life that we seek God and we build our relationship with Jesus so that when that horror movie moment comes because it will, we can withstand it. And so that was last week. And so this week, we are exploring the idea that in horror movies, main characters often need to like seriously watch what they say. You'll notice they'll come across an old book, and they'll open it up and they're like, oh, there's mysterious words on them. Do you know what we should do? read them out loud. And they read them out loud. And then really bad things happen. Bad Things get conjured up, or they hear about words that are not supposed to be said out loud. And then they go, Yeah, but it doesn't really matter. I'll say them out loud anyway, and they do that and really bad things happen. And so that being said, if you're taking notes today, the title of this message is Watch what you say. Watch what you say. In the recent film, Candyman. Artist Anthony McCall McCoy moves to a gentrified neighborhood in Chicago, so he's new to the neighborhood. It's kind of a gentrified neighborhood. So a lot of people are transplants. He doesn't really know the history of the neighborhood until he comes across an old man who tells him this neighborhood legend about the Candyman. And it's this sinister story. And after hearing the origins, he learns a number of things he learns that the Candyman was actually something much more sinister than just the man with bad intentions and that he's connected to something much more sinister than just himself. And that the Candyman can be conjured up if you say his name five times in a mirror. Now Anthony, being an artist, looking to make his mark in the art scene of Chicago, puts together an art piece, of course, not believing this kind of urban legend of the neighborhood kind of thinking it's a Ooh, it adds character to the neighborhood. And so he puts this art piece together where onlookers are encouraged to say Candyman five times in a mirror now, of course, if you know how horror movies go, this goes terribly. There's a host of tragedies since upon being conjured up the Candyman seeks to violently eliminate the person who conjured him up if you know what I mean. Now the story ends sorry to spoil it because it's like a newer movie, it came out in August. So sorry if I'm spoiling it, but it ends with Anthony, actually becoming the Candyman or being connected to what they call the hive of the kingdom. And again, it's kind of abstract, and it's kind of weird, but inevitably, he becomes the Candyman. Now, there's a similar kind of urban legend known as Bloody Mary, you probably remember it from when you were a child, and you had sleepovers. And you did this. Not recommended. But in this urban legend, you conjure up Bloody Mary by going into a dark room, most likely a bathroom where there's a mirror, and you say Her name's mult, say your name multiple times in a mirror. And then she's supposed to show up in the mirror and do really spooky stuff. And it's supposed to scare your friends. Usually, it's just a way that you like to scare other friends. So one friend will go in there, the others will stay out, and then they'll pound on the door right after they do it. But again, don't recommend it. But what both of these stories tell us but along with those stories, where they come across an old book, and they read it aloud, is that there's power in what we say that we can bring about good things or that we can bring about evil, simply with our words. And in many ways, this is true for us as Christians, the words we say, matter. Listen to what Paul writes to the church and emphasis. He says, Does not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs that may benefit those who listen. He then writes in his first letter to the Thessalonians. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up just as in fact you are doing so we know words matter what we say matters. We can build each other up or tear each other down. But what tends to happen is we take these ideas of words having power, and we run them to the extreme, read passages like Proverbs 1821, which says, The tongue has the power of life and death and those who love it will eat its fruits. So we read passages like this with the cultural idea of words having power running in the background of our minds, and we make assumptions. And these assumptions have led some misguided Christians to say that we can see To speak things into existence, that if we want to see something happen in our lives, or in the lives of those we love that we need to declare it over them, declare it over ourselves into create, in other words, speak it into existence, or manifest our future. And those who would hold this also believe, then the flip side that we should not recognize or quote, unquote, receive the possibility of bad news, or the possibility of a bad situation because we should not speak it into existence. Yet, this is simply just not in congruence with historical Christian teaching, or what we find in Scripture. Rather than being a Christian teaching, it is more closely related to what is known as the new age, religion, or New Age movement, which is a spiritual movement that began in the 1970s. Our words have power, but God is the only one throughout all of Scripture that we see who has the power to speak something into existence. The prime example of this is the opening pages of Scripture when God spoke creation into existence, and he created all that there is. And so we are the created, not the Create tour. And so as humanity made in the image of God, we are to take what God has created, and shape it and mold it and form it to bring about human flourishing and flourishing for the world. But we are never the Creator. God alone is the creator. And so also on top of that, though, he is not our personal Siri, or Alexa, who is bound to do our bidding by what we speak. But that begs the question, though, what does it mean then, for our words, to have power? And if our words have power, I mean, clearly, it's important clearly, what we say is important. Because if we look at James, he's just warning us about having an uncontrolled tongue and all the bad things that can bring about so so what is this all about? What are our words having power about and so while we cannot speak things into existence, we can impact the world around us with our words, we can build up and we can tear down simply by what we say. We can find an example of this by literally simply looking at our own lives. So you looking at your life, me looking at my life, all of us can reflect back on when somebody someone encouraged us with a timely word. A good word that was refreshing to the soul just restores us like a cold glass of water on a hot summer day, that good and timely word. Maybe it made our day or maybe it absolutely changed the trajectory of our lives. But we can most likely also reflect back on something harsh or hurtful that somebody or somebodies has said to us, that ruined our day sparked and amplified, a terrible season of depression, self-doubt, and self-loathing. That idea of the good word, the bad word, building up tearing down, let me give an example. So I grew up in Massillon, Ohio, and we love football if you if you know Maslin, you know that football is absolutely the centerpiece of the city. And so every boy which absolutely did include me, dreams of one day playing for the masculine tigers, that's your goal, the masculine tigers, so when I was a kid, my favorite players were not Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, ladainian Tomlinson, Randy moss, none of those guys. It was Bobby Huth, Brian gamble, Andrew Daly, and I'm sure you don't know who those people are. They're from 2005. State runner-up team. But those were my favorite players because that was the goal. It wasn't to go play college for the Buckeyes, or pro for the browns, it was masculine. And so because of this love for football and competition and masculinity, there can be this tendency to associate one's worth with how one performs on the field. And so this is my reality all throughout my childhood. I played football from first grade all the way through high school until concussions added my time as a mass on Tiger late into my senior year. And while I have wonderful parents who love me deeply and gave me great opportunities, and showed me their love and amazing ways, I associated my worth with how well I played on the field. And although my dad also played at Maslen and was successful there, he did not view me in this way. His love was not contingent on whether I was good at football, or I was good at baseball, which I played at the time. Or if I was good at playing guitar, which I also played at the time. Those are my three things football, baseball, and guitar. And so his love was not contingent on those things. And yet, it was what I thought determined his love. I thought, Man, if I'm good at football, if I play well today, maybe he'll love me more. Or if I play if I pitch really well today, maybe he loved me. More or less if I can show him I can play this song. Maybe he'll love me more. This brings me to the fall of sixth grade. I was 11 years old. And we had not played a good game at all. It was awful. We played a terrible game and we lost to a team from Canton. If you're from Maslen, you know, that's a no, no, you don't lose the can. It's not allowed. It's just not allowed. And so we lost to a team from Canton. And I can distinctly remember after the game, my dad was the head coach of the team. It was my last year of like, not playing for of playing like little league football, so to speak. And so my dad is the head coach, and we're walking with the other coaches, and we're walking out of the stadium, up towards stadium park where we had parked our cars and the coaches start talking. And then one of the coaches is frustrated. He's angry that we lost and he looks at me, and he says, how you played today? Listen,

honestly, maybe just stick to playing guitar. Maybe football's not it.

Now as an 11-year-old, whose dream was to be Bobby, who's Brian gamble, Andrew Dalian plays for the Massilon tigers. I mean, that struck deep. The fact that I can tell you this today, the fact that I remember those words, is proof. Listen, I couldn't tell you anything about the game. I when I was writing this and preparing this, I was trying to remember who we played. All I remember, this was a team from Canton, and there were multiple of them. And I have No idea. Couldn't tell you. But I remember that moment. And I remember those words. And what's interesting is, it's not that really big of a deal because I had a successful time at Mass when I was a three-year starter three-year leadman, the whole thing got to do all the fun stuff. It was preparing to play college before my issue with a concussion, so like, by all means, like, really doesn't matter. And yet those words from that coach seem to play in the background of my mind for years to come. Even after I became a Christian, I continued to struggle with seeking to earn my worth. And so that was the bad word, which leads to the good word. A year ago, November 2020. And I was having a conversation with a close friend of mine, his name is Nathan. And I was expressing to him my frustrations about my prayer time. Man, it just felt dry. It felt like God was distant. Like I was in the middle of a desert, nothing was working. I felt like I was getting nowhere. And I began to question whether or not it was because I was doing something wrong in prayer. Was my heart posture wrong? was I saying something wrong? Was I not praying the right thing or praying for the right things? What was I doing? Was there unrepented sin in my life? So I began to examine myself and I couldn't figure it out. I was becoming discouraged, and I didn't know what to do. I was honestly at my wit's end. And this was his response to me. And this was a message he wrote to me, and I still read it today, because it was such a good and timely word. He said, This, stop striving to be loved Donnie, you are loved. It is time to experience it and confront the lies in your mind that the enemy has used to try to get you to earn what Christ died for your inheritance. God has got you, he will continue to show you his love for you. You are his son, he loves you. And I love you. As a short message, there's nothing eloquent or elaborate in there. And yet God uses these words, too, from a close friend to restore my soul. It's like a cold glass of water on a hot summer day. And these words quite honestly changed the trajectory of my prayer life. And listen, I'm sure you can resonate with both the good word and the bad word. by mere experience and the scripture that we looked at, we can see that our words have power, which leads us to the passage in James. And we can now begin to understand why James is so strongly emphasizing the importance of having a tame tongue the importance of watching what we say. And so before we look at this passage, once again, I want to give you the context because for us to understand what any passage of scripture is saying, we need to know its context. This is because a passage of scripture cannot mean something to us that it did not mean to those the author was writing to, the author has intent, and a reason for writing, and a point that he is making. And we should honor that and we should respect that. And so historically, it's been held that James, the brother of Jesus wrote this letter sometime between 40 ad and his martyrdom in around 60 to a D. And he was writing to Jewish Christians who had been dispersed all across the Empire after the martyrdom of Steven, which we can actually find in x seven. And so this letter is meant to encourage and strengthen believers because these believers were scared. They were terrified seeing the stoning of Stephen if that was what happened to him, what's going to happen to them? How do they live now in essential eggs All across the Empire? And so the letter from James is known as a letter that gives exhortations for life and for conduct. And in this letter, James is showing us what it looks like to live as a faithful Christian. And so there are two main threads that he is weaving which lead us to our passage today, there's a lot of stuff going on, towards the end of the letter, we're looking at chapter three, and we have two chapters after that. So there's other stuff going on. But there are two threads that lead us up to our point today. The first is in chapter one, verse 22, in which James calls us to not just be mere hearers of the word. But true Christians are actually doers of the word as well, we hear and then we do, if we just hear and don't do then we're deceiving ourselves. And then the second thread is in 226, in which James tells us that we are not Christians by a mere mental assent to certain ideas, doctrines, or beliefs, but by living out our faith through good works of love. And so with that in mind, we approach our passage today, for today, and so what we're going to do, I know it's a little bit of a long passage, but we're going to read it again, with our new perspective of words having weight in mind. He says 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. 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 contained 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 freshwater and saltwater fruit flow from the same spring. My brothers and sisters can a fig tree bear olives or a grapevine bear figs, neither can assault spring produce fresh water. And so in this passage, James helps us understand three things about the tongue, there are three kinds of sections within our passage where he's making his point. And so the first one versus two through six. Now James knew deeply that our words have power, and that what we say matters. Verse verses two through six show us that indeed, our tongue controls our body. Here are the three metaphors, he uses the horse in the bit ship in the rudder, and a spark and the forest fire. So let's look at the horse in the bit first, when training a horse, it's important to put a bit into the horse's mouth so that the rider is able to control where the horse is going. I mean, sure, there are really talented horses, but most horses, you're going to have a bit in its mouth, to guide where it's going. And different riders use different bits for different purposes when training a horse. But without a bit, chances are the horse will be totally out of control. And this likelihood of the rider being knocked off the horse, or the horse going in the wrong direction, it's high. And so the bit, although small, is a vital piece to training and guiding a horse as a writer. And so the same is true with our tongue and our words, if we are to live according to the way of Jesus, or if we're really to be doers of the word and not just mere hearers of the word that includes following Jesus with our mouth with our words. Without a controlled tongue, there's a disaster in our relationships with others, we can't control our tongue. And when we can't control our tongue will inevitably drift off the path of following Jesus which is full of rich relationships and a fulfilling future. All because we failed to in the words of our metaphor, bit, our horse, all because we failed to have a tamed tongue. And so let's look at the ship in the rudder than in the first century, there were great ships that sailed all across the ocean, and all over the Mediterranean Sea to enable trade across the Empire in the world. And although the ships are giant, I mean they have full cruise they have cargo they're, they're carrying big things, and need great winds to move them through the water. It is ultimately the small rudder in the back of the ship that guides the ship where it needs to go. Without the rudder, the ship will be tossed back and forth by the waves and the wind. It'll have no direction and will inevitably either run into another ship and sink the other ship along with itself or it will inevitably run aground and never return. destination, leaving it stranded. So the same is true for us. When we have a controlled tongue, we're able to navigate the seas of life. Despite the wind and the waves, we're able to make it successfully to our destination. But without a controlled tongue, we wound others and take them down with us. As we inevitably sink into being people we never thought we would become in the first place. All because we fail to have a controlled tongue. Or we simply run aground stranded on an island isolated with no one around to help, because we failed to have a rudder for our ship. In other words, controlled tongue. And this brings us to the final metaphor of James' first set of metaphors in this passage, a spark in the forest. So after showing us that the tongue although small, directs our lives and our bodies, James shows us how destructive it can be, when uncontrolled, he's speaking about forest fires, and the United States is no stranger to wildfires, specifically in the state of California. Did you know that in the United States, 85% of wildfires in the past 20 years have been caused by people, sometimes intentionally, but overwhelmingly, it's by accident? All that is needed to start a large wildfire is a spark in the right environment. So this can be produced by an unexpected bonfire, or target shooting in an extremely hot and dry environment, or setting off smoke bombs, like the little ones from the fireworks store. In a hot and dry environment. That's all it takes. It's a small thing, which produces even an even smaller thing, which is the spark, then you have a wildfire that stretches across regions. And so is this not how destructive our words can be? When we fail to have a controlled tongue we often say things that, that are like a spark, which leads to the wildfire of a fight at a family gathering, which then leads to a family splintering, which then leads to broken relationships and broken hearts, all because of a small Spark. Now I understand why James says the tongue corrupts the whole body and sets the whole course of one's life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. Now, this idea, though, isn't new with James James didn't originate this. Listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 1510 and 11. Jesus called the crowd to him and said, Listen, and understand what goes into someone's mouth does not defy them. But what comes out of their mouth. That is what defiles them. He continues his point in 17 through 20 of that same chapter, don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and out of the body. But the things that come out of a person's mouth come from the heart, and knees to file them, fraud of the heart Come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander, these are what defile a person. But eating with unwashed hands does not define them. And so because of the fall of humanity, which we find in Genesis three we have, we've been corrupted with this illness that we could call sin. It's an illness that we all have, and so left to our own devices, we inevitably rebel against God and reject him and his way. But God who's rich in our in his mercy did not leave us to our own devices, He sent His Son Jesus, who is both fully God and full man. And because of his perfect life, his death, and his resurrection, were actually given a new life, a restored relationship with God, when we follow him. In essence, you could say that our spiritual life was given a cold glass of water on a hot day. But after experiencing redemption, in Christ, we often feel that temptation to go back to the old way of living. And when we do, when we go back to that old way of living, it's as if like, our heart is just corrupted all over again. And then we realize the predicament that we're in, following Jesus is this constant, being restored, and then going back being restored, and then going back, which is why every act of sin flows from the heart to our tongue, which is what Jesus was getting at. And so we could say many, if not all acts of sin, begin with a word. many, if not all, acts of sin, simply begin with a word. And so when our tongue is uncontrolled, it's dangerous to ourselves, is dangerous to those around us. And often to the those, we love, most, those closest to us. And so we've learned that our tongue directs our lives in our bodies and that when it's controlled, it guides us where we need to go and it's an amazing tool, and it's awesome but uncontrolled, it's destructive to those around us and to ourselves. This brings us to the second section, the second section out of three, which is verses seven and eight. So it's a controlled tongue, something that is good. What can we do to tame our tongue? Or can we even tame our tongue? What are we supposed to do? So this is the topic of verses seven and eight. And it's also Kind of the pivot point of the whole passage, it's kind of the point that change changes the tide or kind of amplifies everything. And on the surface, it seems that the answer to our question, what can we do to tame our tongue is bleak and discouraging. But it's actually pointing to something rather than someone much greater. So in verse seven, James makes the observation that progressively humanity is taming all kinds of animals. progressively, humanity has been able to tame and subdue creation and bring about human flourishing. We've been able to build cities, societies, we've been able to do farming and, and domesticating of animals, it's, it's it, there are amazing things that no human being contained the tongue, we can tame animals, we can tame certain parts of creation, but we cannot tame our very own tongue. No matter what you do, or what I do, it is impossible. no effort of techniques or practices, or whatever the next self-help person tells you that you can do. It's impossible. At some point or another, a spark comes out, which starts a wildfire. Again, on the surface. This seems discouraging, but let's lean in and listen to what James is saying. Let's listen closely. When we read this passage, while keeping the rest of the letter, and the rest of our spiritual life in mind. And home Jay James is writing about,

we realize that these two verses are screaming a deep truth at us. So let's look at verse eight, together slowly, no human being contains the tongue is the restless evil, full of deadly poison, no human, contain the tongue. Do you hear it?

The deep truth that is screaming at us in this verse, The Taming of the tongue is only accomplished by submitting ourselves to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and is only accomplished by then allowing the Holy Spirit to transform our hearts, and to transform our lives and make us whole. When we submit all of our life to Christ, he transforms our hearts and tames our tongues. This happens as we continually seek Him in our everyday life, not just on Sundays, but in our everyday life. And so it won't simply happen by you, or I raising our hand at an altar call saying that we want God to move that we want him to do amazing things that we want him to transform our lives. That's a great start. But it won't happen by that. It won't happen by checking off a list of doctrines, beliefs about who God is, those are all amazing. And they're important. But that's not how our lives are going to be transformed. And it won't even happen by simply sitting in a seat on Sunday at church. It just won't happen that way. Remember what James says in 226, which is one of the threads that he's weaving up to this point, which says, as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. The Taming of our tongue takes place by seeking God with our whole selves, our whole lives, not withholding anything. all bets are off no sacred cows in our life, following Jesus with everything. So James follows up verse eight. We're gonna make a jump here. All right, are you guys ready? We're gonna make a jump. So following up verse eight, we're left with this tension. Can no human be contained the tongue? What do we do? And it says, if he's answering this tension that we feel from verse eight, in chapter four, if we cannot tame the tongue, what are we supposed to do? So jump ahead to James four, seven through 12. He says, submit yourselves then to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded, grieve, mourn, and well. Change your laughter to morning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will lift you up. Brothers and sisters do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister judges them, or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one lawgiver and judge, the one who is able to save and destroy, but you Who are you to judge your neighbor. So trouble takes place when we simply give our mental assent of ideas to Jesus, but not our lives. And this is what James then jumping back to in chapter three. We're going to look at that final section. So jumping back to chapter three. This is what James explores in that final section of our passage today. Where he says 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 freshwater and saltwater flow from the same spring. My brothers and sisters can a fig tree bear all lives or grapevine bear figs. Neither can assault spring produce fresh water. So it's impossible for these things that he lists to both come from the same place or it ought not to happen. blessing and cursing, fresh and bitter water, figs, and olives. For these things to come from the same places is disordered. It's a distortion of God's intention for his creation. In other words, it's hypocrisy. we distort God's intention for our lives and for humanity, when we give our mental assent to ideas, doctrines, and beliefs, but withhold the rest of our lives and ultimately, our tongue from God. And so when we give our mental assent to ideas, doctrines, and beliefs, but do not give our actual selves to God, we end up being hypocrites, people who say that we believe one thing, but one look at our lives. And it's clear that we don't actually believe what we say we do. And it should not be this way. And we've all been here, blessing and cursing. I know I've been there. And I know that you've been there. But why should it not be this way? Well, because in Christ, we've been born again, you remember that new life that we talked about, when we follow Jesus, our old self is gone, our old way of living is gone. And our new life has come. We're no longer enemies of God, but we are now sons and daughters of God. And so as followers of Jesus, we are actually to be conduits of God's grace in the world, we are supposed to be spreading God's grace, or in other words, good, a good word, we're supposed to be spreading that good word to the world. And so as followers of Jesus being the conduits of grace, we, not the building, or the church, are right. And so think of the church then as a collection of little pockets of the kingdom of God, or heaven on earth. Right. So it's these outposts of the kingdom, all over our city, all over our state, all over the country, and all over the world, speaking a good word. And so to do this, we must do three things, day in and day out,

day in and day out, we must die, deny, and follow. When we said yes to Jesus in His way, we died to our old way of living, we left that behind, there is no having new life and holding on to your old life as well, you must leave it behind. And so when we said yes to Jesus, we left that old way of living, to put on a new way of living. We also left our old way of speaking. As we explored a minute ago, we must consciously die to ourselves our old way of living, every day, not withholding any aspect of ourselves from God, seeking the face of Jesus day in and day out. We must then deny ourselves, deny our selfish passions, our selfish desires, in order that we can be more and more conformed to the image of Christ. we deny what we want in order to put on Christ and His way. we deny ourselves the perceived right to speak to others the way we think that they deserve. And we speak to them in the way that Christ spoke to us. When we were at our lowest moment. When we begin to follow Jesus, we put down our perceived right, to condemn others, we put down our perceived right to give other people what we think they deserve. For, as James stated in James four, we do not judge, we're not the lawgiver. Now, what do we do? We love others as Christ has loved us. We speak to others as Christ spoke to us at our lowest, we speak a good word. Then we follow, we follow the crucified Messiah who sacrificially gave himself for us. Do you want to know what the will of God for your life is and how you're supposed to live? Look at Jesus. How do we how did he live, full of self-giving self-sacrificial love? And so as followers of Jesus, we choose every day to die, deny and follow Jesus. This won't get worldly accolades. Though, you may not become the most popular person in your school, or in your line of work. This may not make you the most successful person in your school or your workplace. But you'll be more like Jesus, who spoke a good word to you and to me, which actually transformed our lives. And at the end of the day, isn't that we want to be more like Jesus to speak a good word to others who may be in need. And if so, we must die. Deny and follow Jesus. so that we may in the words of author Robert Mulholland be conformed to the image of Christ for the sake of others. In doing this, our tongues will inevitably be tamed by our loving Lord and Savior, so that we can speak that good word. So let's not fall into that inevitable trap of horror movies where untamed tongues cause tragedy. stead let us die, deny, and follow Jesus, so that we may be able to share the news about our Lord Jesus with a good word to others. We pray with me.

Lord Jesus, we give our full selves to you today. Maybe some of us here have never done that before, or we did and we drifted off of the path at some point. But today we come back. You don't shame us. You do not condemn us. You welcome us with open arms. What an opportunity it is to turn back to you, our loving Lord who loves us so dearly. We pray that you would continue continually make us more like you. transform us by your spirits so that our tongue may be tamed and that we can speak that good word to those who may be in need. Please be with us this week as we go, and we do that very thing. Amen.