Summary
Guest speaker Joe Wood preaches from James 3:2-6, focusing on the theme of "Taming the Tongue." He emphasizes the power of words and their potential to harm relationships, particularly in marriages and friendships. Wood encourages the congregation to cultivate a consistent prayer life, maintain a watchful eye over their speech, and ensure their hearts are pure to effectively control their tongues. He challenges listeners to reflect on their words and seek God's help in managing their speech for positive impact.
Welcome and Housekeeping
Thank you for listening to Pleasant Grove Baptist Church Sermon Audio. For more information, please visit our website, pgbcronda.com, or visit on all social media platforms. Well, good morning.
It's good to see you all this Lord's Day. I am truly honored to be here with you.
I'm good. I am truly honored to be here with you today. Man, it excites me. I'm going to be honest with you. I love the TVs.
Since I've been here, I've not seen them. I love them. Great job. It looks great. It helps out, I promise you. It's awesome. I love it. I will say this. You're talking about baptism.
So we have church at 10 o'clock at Pleasant Hill. Well, this morning I had the privilege of baptizing four. I do all the baptisms. Pastor Danny, he's got some health conditions, and he don't want to get the baptism. He's scared.
So I do all the baptisms. Well, here's for anyone that has ever done baptisms.
I wear waiters, okay? So we have a white robe that we wear, and all the candidates wear the white robes. So I wear waiters under my, you know, so I don't have to change clothes.
So I've wore them since I went to Pleasant Hill. Well, my waiters this morning are done.
So I get out of the, I baptize the four candidates and get out, and I look down, and I mean, I am soaking wet.
Thank God I live in the parking lot of the church, and thank the Lord y'all don't start till 11, so I can go home and change clothes.
So when you said the baptism, talking about next week, that made me think of my wonderful morning that I had getting all wet, and so now I have to buy new waiters.
So that's great. James chapter 3. James chapter 3, verses 2 through 6. James chapter 3, verses 2 through 6.
I would say I think I counted a privilege that Brother James asked me to be here. I want you to know it has been my privilege and honor to get to know your pastor through the association. I have been,
man, I just, I love your pastor, and I'm just thankful that God sent him to you, and he has sent him to our association.
It has just been a great blessing to get to know him. I count it a privilege and an honor.
I count him as a friend, and I just look forward to growing with him throughout the coming years in ministry. And we're just excited to see what God is doing here at Pleasant Grove. I have been praying for him all week. I've been praying for him and the team.
And, man, I'm just excited for you guys. I really am. And I want you to know that. James chapter 3, verses 2 through 6. If you would, please, let's all stand together in reverence of the reading of God's Word.
The Bible says, For in many things we offend all, if any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.
Behold, we put bits in the horse's mouth, that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole body. Behold also the ships which, though they be so great and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth.
And even so the tongue is a little member, and emboseth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity.
So is the tongue among our members, that it defiled the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire of hell. Pray with me one more time. Father, in Jesus' name, I do thank you, Lord, for the privilege and the opportunity,
Lord, to be in your house this morning. God, I thank you that I'm able to be here today.
Lord, I just counted a privilege to be here today in front of these dear brothers and sisters, God. And Father, I pray now as we open up your word,
God, as we preach your message, God, I pray that you would speak through me, God, what you have impressed upon my heart, God.
Lord, throughout this week, Lord, I have seeked your face, God, and I pray that, Father, you would help me to proclaim your word. And so, God, I pray that, Lord, we take this message, God, we apply it to our lives.
The Challenge of Taming the Tongue
We're challenged by it. We're moved by it. And, Lord, we use it on a day-to-day basis in our lives. It's my prayer. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. You may be seated. The title of today's message is Taming the Tongue. Taming the Tongue.
Now, I want to ask a question. How often do we sit in our homes, our workplaces, or in public wishing we could take back some things that we've said?
Oftentimes, listen, I will be the first to admit. Now, I want you to understand. Everything that comes out of my mouth in the next however long I preach, I want you to know is hurting me, okay? So, I have been challenged by this message, okay?
So, I'm not saying that I have a perfect mouth. I'm not saying I have a perfect tongue. I'm not saying any of that, okay? So, don't think that I'm being a hypocrite here.
This is just a challenge from God's Word. And so, I want you to understand that what I am saying is for me as well, okay? I've got it twice, okay? I've already heard it.
Now, I'm preaching it to you. So, I'm getting it twice, okay? So, I'm getting a double dose. So, how many times has our mouth or our tongue got us in a lot of trouble? How many times have we hurt someone? One, we love by the words that have come out of our mouth.
Needless to say, we all can sit here and say that there have been times in our lives that we wished that we could take back words that we've said. However, the problem is after we have said it, you can't take it back.
That's the problem that we have in our lives. What comes out of our mouth cannot go right back in, okay?
And so, we understand the tongue is a small part of the body, but it can impact massive amounts.
Now, in our passage of Scripture, in James chapter 3, we see a comparison given here in verses 3 through 5.
The first thing that we see here, we first see that James, the writer of the book, compares a horse's mouth to the tongue. He says in verse 3, Behold, we put bits in the horse's mouth that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole body. Now, what is a bit?
What is he talking about here? It is the part of the bridle which the animal bites.
And you have seen, if you've ever seen a horse in a carriage or anything like that, you understand what I'm talking about. It is what the horse bites down on, and it literally controls the way in which they go.
So, the horse is controlled literally by the tongue. Then it says in another comparison here in verse 4,
then James says, Behold also the ships, which though they be so great and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small hem, with the soever the governor listened it.
So, what does he say here? He says also not only consider the horse's mouth, but also consider the small rudder or the helm that guides a ship. It tells us it even controls the ship through the fierce winds.
Now, what is that? It's a little tiller or a wheel associated with the equipment of steering the ship or a boat. So, something very small controls the entire ship. Something very small in a horse's mouth controls whether it goes.
And the tongue is a small part of our body, but it controls a massive amount of what we do.
And then finally, he gives us one more comparison here in verse 5. He says, Even so the tongue is a little member and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth.
Now, you know, as my dear brother said that I love meteorology. Yes, I do. And part of meteorology that we have to forecast, we don't do it here, thankfully, praise God, is fires. Fires. You understand, out in California especially, they have great fires. There was one called, it was called the campfire.
And it was from Bruet County in California. Now, here's how it started.
If you don't know, California is very dry, okay? It's very dry and it's not like North Carolina, praise God, normally.
Now, I know we had a dry spell in, I believe it was June. And it was, you know, we had some fires. But in Bruet County in California, it started with one down power line.
The Power of Words
And it burned 138,000 acres. Now, as I was studying for this message, I thought, how big is 138,000 acres?
Well, I Googled. You know, Google is always great. I Googled, how big is the state of Rhode Island? Because, you know, Rhode Island is not that big. So I said, well, how big is it? It's only like 640,000 acres. So it would have completed over one-sixth of the entire state of Rhode Island.
138,000 acres. It also destroyed more than 10,000 buildings in this one fire. And also killed 88 people. It was caused by a simple down power line.
But it destroyed a huge amount. James chapter 3, verse 5 in the ESV says, So also the time is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a force is set ablaze by such a small fire. Barnes notes on the New Testament states concerning this passage,
The sense is that a very little fire is sufficient to ignite a large quantity of combustible materials, and that the tongue produces effects similar to that.
A spark will kindle a lofty pile, and a word spoken by the tongue may set a neighborhood or a village in a flame.
End of quote. And I agree with that. Because even though our tongue is probably one of the smallest parts of our body, it can and it will do a lot of damage in many areas.
For example, do you know today that there are many marriages destroyed by the words that come out of our mouth?
Now I do some, as my dear brother was talking about, I have a master's degree in pastoral counseling, and so I try to, I do a lot, I don't do a lot of pastoral counseling, but I do a good amount of pastoral counseling.
And oftentimes it is marital counseling. And the very reason why that marriages need marital counseling is because they have problems, right? Well, here's the truth that I can tell you. In my personal experience with marital problems, I can tell you most of the time it is because the words that are coming out of their mouth. It is.
And marriages are being destroyed on a day-to-day basis because the words that are coming out of our mouth. Do you understand that almost 40% of Christian marriages today are ending in divorce?
Did you know that? Studies show, I believe it is 38% of Christian marriages are being destroyed by divorce. 50% of marriages today in our entire world are ending in divorce.
But I want to go back to that 38% of marriages, of Christian marriages are ending in divorce. Why is that? I believe one of the greatest reasons that it is causing the number one, I believe social media is the downfall of Christian marriages.
That's just my opinion and I'm sticking to it. But number two, I believe it is also because of the words that are coming out of our mouths. Listen, we have to tame the tongue.
We have to control our mouth. No matter who you may be, no matter what you may think, the words that come out of your mouth to your spouse will have a lasting impact. I can tell you, men, women remember what you say to them.
I can promise you that. And women, men sometimes remember what you say to them. Okay? So we understand that because of the tongue, marriages are being destroyed. But I must also say children are being disturbed.
Parents, grandparents, what you are saying to your children will have a lasting impact on how they end up.
You know, I remember there a lot when I was teaching. I taught at Northwest High School for two and a half years.
And I saw a lot of kids that had terrible homes. I could see how they had terrible homes because of how they acted at school. And you school teachers can also see that that is what's happening.
And because a lot of times these children don't have any confidence in themselves. These children don't have any, you know, any about them because of what they have heard at home.
Now, listen, we all know. Now, this is just me talking here. We all know that there are parents that are living their dreams and their children. Okay?
That's all there is to it. And I have seen when I was coaching or I have, I like to, I don't know how you guys do like at sporting events. But I love to watch parents. I do. And oftentimes parents are so hard on their children.
And sometimes the children can't even think strength because of what their parents are saying to them.
They're yelling at them so much and they're criticizing them so much that they have zero self-confidence in themselves.
And the very reason why is because the parents are not analyzing, not understanding what they are saying and what the impacts are having on their children. And that is what we're talking about here, how we must stay away from that, how we must restrain from that.
James tells us that the tongue is a very big part of your body and it has lasting implications. It has lasting implications on your marriage. It has lasting implications on your children. It has lasting implications on your friendships.
There have been many friendships destroyed because the words that have come out of our mouths. There's also been reputations ruined.
Gossiping. Now, I'm not going to stay, I'm not going to stay long on this, but gossiping will always, always cause negative.
It will always have a negative impact. Okay. That's all I had to say about that. Injuries caused. Fight started. Families leaving the church. Church.
Because such and such in our church has been talking about me. And guess what happens?
When you talk about them, they hear about it. They don't want to be a part of that. Families will leave the church because of gossiping. Families will leave the church because you're not watching what you're saying. Then finally, church is completely split because of one not taming their tongue.
Steve Bullens, who is, well, he's a retired game warden now. He was my Sunday school teacher for many years.
And he said this, and I've always, I have written this down many times. I have it in my notes in my phone because I try to live by this. But I want you to hear this. If you don't hear anything else that I say today, please listen to me right here, right now.
He said, the tongue can destroy more than a punch, a kick, or a blow to the body. It can bruise a heart forever.
I'm going to say that one more time because I want you to hear it. Please write this down. If you have a pen and paper, write it down. The tongue can destroy more than a punch, a kick, or a blow to the body. It can bruise a heart forever.
You know, if you know Steve Bullens, he is a big, he's a big, you know, manly man. You know, he's very strong or whatever. But he used to say in Sunday school, he'd say, he'd say, boy, he'd say,
guys, I want you to understand something. He says, I can punch you. He says, I can hit you really hard. He said, but I, but he says, that punch will go away. But he says, I can tear you down worse with my mouth than I could ever punch you right in the face.
And he's, and there's a lot of truth to that. See, what comes out of our mouth, people remember.
You know, there's a, there's a guy in our church, him and his buddy, just a few years back, they, they got in a fight. I mean, they got in a, I mean, a fist fight. Well, guess what?
They've, they've got over it. They've got over it. But oftentimes the words that kind of our, our mouth, people always remember, you know, my wife,
you know, we, we have, now this is a truth. Now, God, God knows this. In 11 years of being together, we have gotten one fight, one fight. And it was over a football game. It really was. It really was.
But she brings that up to me more than anything else that we've ever, that she talks about. Now, we don't talk about all time, obviously.
But it was back when we were dating. But see, she remembers what I said. I wasn't the greatest Christian then.
I mean, I wasn't the greatest, when I said what we got, you know, I was, I was in the flesh. I didn't allow, I allowed the tongue, my mouth, to get in the way of us being happy.
And it tore her apart. You know, some of the things that I said really impacted her. And she remembers that.
And I can promise you, men and women, the words that have hurtful implications, they will remember more than they will remember other things. So, we've seen that the tongue is very powerful.
We've seen the tongue can destroy relationships. We've seen tongue, the tongue can destroy friendships. It can cause fights.
It can, families leaving the church, churches can split. And so, we understand how dangerous the tongue is.
You know, on average, we speak 11 million words per year. Did you know that? 11 million words per year. Now, some of you speak more than that. Okay, I'm going to be honest with you. I'm one of them, okay? But others speak less than that.
But here's the question that we must all ask ourselves today is, how many of those words have hurt someone? How many of those have hurt someone? How many of those are actually words for the kingdom of God?
How many of us are using our words to proclaim the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ? How many of us are using our words to impact the kingdom of God? And so, here's my question for you today.
How do we tame the tongue? How do we do it? Well, James chapter 3 verse 8 tells us this. Look at me in James chapter 3 verse 8.
The Unruliness of the Tongue
But the tongue can no man tame. It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison.
Well, James just gives us the truth here and he tells us, hey, no man can tame the tongue. Well, there's some depressing news. No man can tame the tongue. So if we sit behind our pews today and think that we have control over our tongues, we are deceiving ourselves. Matthew Henry says,
No man can tame the tongue without supernatural grace and assistance.
The apostle does not intend to represent it as a thing impossible, but as a thing extremely difficult, which therefore with great watchfulness and pains and prayer.
And so how do we tame the tongue? It is through three ways. And I want to share them with you very quickly and then I'm done today. Okay? It is through three ways. First, the writer in Psalm tells us it is through a consistent prayer life.
David in Psalm 141 verse 3 says, Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth. Keep the door of my lips. David in Psalm 141 was crying out to the Lord.
This is a psalm of a prayer. He said in verse 2, Let my prayer be set forth before thee as an incense and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. And then he says in verse 3, O Lord, set a watch before my mouth.
Keep the doors of my lips. So David prayed. And so we must do that as well. We must have a consistent prayer life of asking the Lord to do a few things. First, it is to set a guard over our mouths. Lord, please set a guard over my mouth.
Listen, we pray to him because we need to, obviously. But we need to pray for quietness. You know what James chapter 1 verse 19 says?
This is something that I believe that we overlook often. He says in verse 19, Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear. It doesn't say to be swift to speak, does it? He said to be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.
Now the writer here of the book of James tells us that we are to be swift to hear. That means that we are to hear twice and speak once. But often times we hear once, speak twice.
So he tells us we need to be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. Now this is one prayer that I need more of. I need to pray for quietness. My wife will tell you that I need to pray for quietness. I often times don't think before I speak.
Now, some of us, probably all of us are guilty of that.
Praying for Self-Control
We don't think before we speak. And when we do this, this gets us in trouble. So we need to pray for quietness. Secondly, we need to pray for self-control.
We need to pray for self-control. God put a guard over my mouth that I would not say anything that would be detrimental to you, that would be detrimental to my marriage,
Lord, that would be detrimental to my friends, that would be detrimental to what people think of me, my testimony. So we need to pray for self-control. We need to pray for quietness.
And finally, also we need to pray consistently for the Lord to keep the doors of our lips under control. See, when we don't consistently pray is when we begin to lose our tongue. When we are not praying every day, when we're not consistently having that prayer life,
that we would ask the Lord to keep the door of our lips under control is when we begin to lose our tongue.
That's when we begin to lose our self-control of our tongue. You and I know that as you walk closer to the Lord, what comes out of your mouth will be, it seems to me,
will be more like Christ. But when we're walking a guilty distance, when we're walking away from the Lord, is when we don't have a, when we lose our self-control of our tongue.
What does that mean? We begin to curse. We begin to sin with our mouths. Just this past week, I was sitting at a, I play basketball about three or four times a week at 6 a.m. at Elkin Recreation Center.
We play from 6 to 7.15 in the mornings. And we were actually having a gospel conversation with this individual that obviously is not saved.
And he has a background as a Jehovah Witness. And so we're talking to him. He's been completely out of church and even left the Jehovah Witness faith.
He just don't believe in anything. And so we're talking about Jesus. We're talking about the gospel with him. And one of my dear brothers were sitting beside him. And he says, Now listen, he says, Now, I understand that I'm a sinner.
And listen, he says, The one thing that I struggle with is I struggle with my mouth.
He says, Yes, I don't have control over it. He says, Yes, some things come out of my mouth. And he was just confessing to us that he needed help with his mouth and how he didn't have control over it. And all of us can be honest with ourselves.
We truly don't have control over our mouths because when we are trying, striving to control our mouths by ourselves, we can't do it because that's when the devil will throw us.
He will throw things into us and he will cause us to say things that we never would if we are under the umbrella of the Holy Spirit of God.
And so we are not living with Jesus when we're not praying.
We don't have control of our tongues. That's when we begin to curse. That's when we begin to sin with our mouths. And that's when we begin to hurt those that are around us, closest to us, with the words that come out of our mouth. So, how do we tame the tongue?
It's through a consistent prayer life. First. Secondly, how do we tame the tongue? It's through a watchful eye. You say, What do you mean? I mean, we must watch for those around us.
We must watch for those that will tempt us into saying things. Now, you and I know there are people in your life that aggravate the snot out of you. Let's be honest with you. There are people that will make you say things. Now, here's one that I was thinking about today.
Navigating Difficult Conversations
Yes, we have a very important couple months coming up. Okay? Let's just be honest. Yes, we know the election of 2024 is upon us. And there are people in our groups that don't agree with what we agree with. There are Democrats that can't stand Republicans.
And there are Republicans that can't stand Democrats. And then there's independents who can't stand Republicans or Democrats. I guess. I don't know. I'm just picking about that. But, you and I know. And there is one, and I have one that's in my, in people that I get around with a lot.
There's one that I, it just burns me. What he, what he has to say. It just, oh my goodness, it irks me so bad. And I want to say stuff back to him so bad. I mean, I, I just wish you would understand what, how he bulls, he just bulls, oh, he gets under my skin.
And I have to pray every day. I literally have to pray every day. Lord, keep me from saying something that will destroy our friendship. I have to.
Because, without saying that, I promise you, I would say what I want to say. And it wouldn't be good. Okay?
I'm just going to tell it like it is. It wouldn't be good, and it would destroy our friendship. But, that's what we must do. We, and listen, to be honest with you, I strive my best to not even get around him right now. Because, he just irks me so bad.
And so, we understand that we got to be a watchful eye. If we know someone, we'll tear us down. If we know someone, one, will make us, will cause us to say things, we don't need to even be around them right now. Or, anytime. You say, brother, or sister, whatever it may be,
listen, I love you, but I just can't talk to you right now. That's what we need to do.
And I know, that may sound bad, that may, whatever, but it's what we need to do, because, our testimony is more important to us, as a follower of Christ. So, we must watch for those, that will tempt us to say things,
we must watch for those, that will make us angry, and saying things,
and we must watch for places, that may cause us to sin. We must stray away from places, that have caused us to sin.
We must stray away from places, that will cause us to sin. And finally, we must keep an eye, for the people around us, and the condition they are in. Listen, I love to joke around.
If you've ever been around me, you understand, I love picking, I love joking, but I can promise you,
sometimes that gets me in trouble. You say, what do you mean?
I'm a coach, and I love to joke, and pick, and whatever, but I can promise you, sometimes my girls get mad at me, because I'll pick with them, or say something to them, because they've had a bad day. And so, that's one of the things, that I'm working on.
You've got to watch, and see how people, you can see, by the way that people, conduct themselves, and by the way they're walking, and the way they're talking, or not doing it at all.
You can understand how, you know, what comes out of your mouth, you may not mean it, you may not mean anything by it, but because of, things that have happened, in their day,
they don't need you to pick, they don't need you, to say anything to them, they just need you, to just listen to them, or whatever.
So, we need to have a watchful eye. We must examine, the state of mind, that someone is in.
You know, like I said, they could have had, the very worst day, and they're just very sensitive. And finally, we need to have a watchful eye, on what we see, or hear. Do you understand, that we must keep a watchful eye, of what we see? We need to watch, what we read.
That's what I'm talking about, social media. You need to watch, what you read. Because it will, what you read, what you see, will come down, into your heart. We need to watch, what we see on the news. Do you understand, that all news, is not right? Did you know that?
Have you ever heard, of fake news? We live in a society, of fake news. Okay? So we need to watch, what we see on the news.
We need to watch, what we see in the movies. I want you to understand, rated R movies, are not good for Christians. That's all there is to it. Unfortunately, PG-13 movies now, are not even good, for Christians.
And we need to watch, what we're watching. We need to watch, we need to keep, keep a watchful eye, on what we hear. We need to watch, and stray, from what we hear, from our friends, what we hear at work, and what we hear, in public.
We need to keep, a watchful eye, away from those. And because, what we hear, is what we're going to say. That's all there is to it. So, we've seen, how do we tame the tongue? It's through a, consistent prayer life.
How do we tame the tongue? It's through a watchful eye. And then finally, how do we tame the tongue? It is through a pure, pure heart.
The Heart's Influence on Speech
Go with me to Matthew 15, 18. And I'm going to close, right here. Matthew 15, 18. The Bible says, if I can get there myself. Matthew 15, 18 says,
but those, this is Jesus talking here, letters of red. But those things, which proceed out of the mouth, come forth, from the heart, and they defile, the man.
Do you understand, that we have a heart, of a viper? Matthew 12, 34, and 35 says, O generation, O generation of vipers, how can ye be in evil, speak good things?
For out of the abundance, of the heart, the mouth speaketh. Verse 35 says, A good man, out of the good treasure, of the heart, bringeth forth good things. And an evil man, out of evil treasure, bringeth forth evil things.
So we have a heart, of a viper, that means a heart, of meanness, a heart, of a vicious thought.
We have a heart, of an evil man, heart with a peculiar, modus, self-centered heart.
But one, that names the name of Christ, that had been saved, also has a heart, of a good man. That is a heart, that is like Jesus, a pure heart, and a clean heart. And the Bible says here, in Matthew 15, 18,
that our heart defiles, all that we are, a lot that we are. So a man's word, exposes his true nature, which is like, beneath the surface.
If he is a sincere, and a godly man, those are the words, that will come out. If he is a self-centered man, he will be self-centered, with his words. If he has hate, in his heart, that will be what, comes out of his mouth. A man's word, exposes his motives.
If we are sincere, or have ulterior motives. Movies, where people have said something, and don't mean to,
they show, what they mean. So pure, or impure thoughts, or dirty, or clear, clean thoughts, is what comes, out of your mouth. So if your heart is pure, you have pure words. If your heart is dirty,
those are the words, that will come out of your mouth. Dirty words, will come out of your mouth. So what do we have to do? We have to clean up our hearts. How do we clean up our heart? It is through, prayer.
It is through, reading God's word. It is through, a watchful eye. It is through, a consistent prayer life. And as our heart is pure, as our heart is clean,
that will be what, comes out of our mouth. So my question to you is, if you are struggling, with your words, it is time for you, to examine your heart, and ask Jesus, to show you, the motives of your heart.
I want to ask the question, do you need to repair, a relationship today, because of the words, out of your mouth? You say, well,
you know, the person could come talk to me, and you know, you say, that I have offended them. But let's be honest. Who is willing, to come talk to someone, that's already hurt you before?
I want to ask you a question, is it pride that is getting in your way? Is it selfishness that is getting in your way?
Are you like me and say, I need help with my mouth? The voice of my mouth is not like it should.
And we're not praying enough, we're not keeping a watchful eye enough, we're not keeping a clean heart enough, to where it needs to be. If we're honest with ourselves, I believe that one of the, you know, we can, you know,
Christians oftentimes say, well, you know, I'm walking, you know, I'm walking close to the Lord. Well, you may be, but we can always strive to do better. There's always a part of us, that needs improvement.
It may not be your mouth. You may have the cleanest mouth ever. You may, you may not struggle with your mouth. You may not struggle with anger, anything like that. But I promise you, there's a sin that you struggle with.
And I don't know what yours is. Mine is different than yours. But Psalm 1914 is my, is my scripture that I go to every day.
It says, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight. Oh Lord, my rock, my strength, and my redeemer.
And I challenge you to take this passage of scripture to understand that the words out of your mouth
Invitation to Reflect and Repair
are what people think of you. Yes, actions say a lot, but oftentimes, unfortunately, the words that come out of our mouth, people remember more.
So my, my challenge to you today, and this, we're going to have, we're going to have a time to come and, and have an altar call. You may need to just come and pray, Lord, help my mouth. Lord, help me to tame the tongue.
Lord, I'm not where I need to be with you. And I know that my mouth is not where it needs to be with you. Lord, forgive me and help me to tame the tongue. But I promise you, you need the Lord's help every day. Not just today, but every day.
And so, may you as well go to Psalm 19, 14 and say, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight.
Oh Lord, my strength, and my redeemer. May we pray. Father, in Jesus' name,
oh God, I pray that as we have looked at the passage of scripture, how we understand that the words that come out of our mouth have a huge impact on who we are. The words that come out of our mouth, Lord, controls what we think, what we say, what we do.
So Lord, may we understand that the words that come out of our mouth be acceptable in your sight. Oh God, I pray that Lord,
that in this invitation, God, we may just need to just come and say, Lord, I need your help. God, there may be a family here that
they came to church today madder than a bullet one another. They were arguing, they were bickering, and Lord, they may just want to come down and just ask for forgiveness today.
There may be a person here that has a friend that they're on the outs on because they got in an argument, Lord. Lord, I pray they would make things right.
God, there may just be a Christian today that knows that they're not where they need to be. You know, they come to church on Sundays, but on Monday through Friday, they're acting completely different. They're saying things that are dirty. They're saying things that are not Christ-like.
And Lord, they may just need to ask for forgiveness and help today. And Lord, I know the devil's going to say, well, if you go down to that altar, people are going to think that you, you know, you're the problem.
Well, Lord, if we're all honest with ourselves, God, we all could do a little better as we think about how we conduct ourselves on a day-to-day basis. Lord, I say,
I confess to you that Lord, I need help. And I bet every one of us could say the same. We all need your help more and more. So Lord, bless this invitation, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
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