A Daily Walk

Guest (Male): How often have we said something and then wish we could take it back? Here's Pastor John Randall with a suggestion.

John Randall: If there is ever a moment when you're in that situation and you think I probably shouldn't say it, don't. Just don't. That's a check from the Holy Spirit. That's like, don't do it. And if you sense that, I mean immediately retract, pull back, lock it down. Don't do it and let the Lord just work through it.

But then if you feel like I just have to say this. Do you? Do you have to? Is it necessary? Will tomorrow be different than it is right now? I don't like it when people treat me like that. Neither did Jesus. Neither did Jesus.

Guest (Male): Hello again and welcome to A Daily Walk. Pastor John Randall is in the midst of leading us verse by verse through James. There's probably no muscle that is harder to control than the tongue. We've all experienced saying something that later we wished we hadn't, whether it be a curse word or something that hurt another person a great deal.

It's amazing how such a small part of the body can have such a large impact. No wonder James likens it to a fire. Let's see now how God wants to help us tame the tongue. Here is Pastor John in James chapter three.

John Randall: James says in verse seven concerning the tongue and likening it now, he says, "Every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison." James writes of the possibility of taming different creatures. It's possible to tame creatures.

Going to see SeaWorld in San Diego when we would take our kids there, I was fascinated by what these people were able to do with a whistle. This massive fish comes out of the water, it goes back down, and then they dive in. I remember when we took the kids to SeaWorld and we were there and watching the killer whale come out and a man was surfing on top of it around and it was amazing. They trained it. And then dolphins and all of it. I was pretty blown away by what I would see there. How are they able to train those things?

Man has the ability to do this and can train a killer whale, but man can't tame his own tongue, nor woman for that matter. No man or woman can tame the tongue. It can't be done. People come up with different ways to tame the tongue. I've seen a lot of things over the years. Okay, I'm going to do this when I do that. I'm going to punish myself to tame the tongue. I'm going to get a swear jar and every time I curse, I'm going to put money in it.

Man, you've got a lot of money in there. And then I'm going to go play a round of golf after we're all done with the money that I earned. It's just so strange how people try to tame the tongue and it doesn't work. You might have a lot of change, but it doesn't really change your heart, and that's really where the problem lies. Bite your tongue, hold your tongue, put soap in your mouth. It didn't work. No man can tame the tongue.

James in looking at this, he gives us a paradox concerning the tongue. He says in verse nine, notice this, "With our tongue we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the similitude or the image of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren," he says, "these things ought not to be so. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter water from the same opening?" Hopefully not. No, not naturally. "Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives? No. Or a grapevine bear figs? No. Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh water."

James is looking at this paradox concerning the tongue and just allowing us to see that in one moment we have hands raised, "Bless the Lord, dry bones are rattling." We're just so blessed. "I'm alive, and Jesus is alive, and I'm not worried, and God is faithful, and I've got the victory, and God takes what the enemy intends for evil and turns it around for good." And then you get in your car and you get on the freeway and someone cuts in front of you and you're saying other things that you would never say here.

James is saying it's so inconsistent. Somebody gets in the drive-thru before you and you were there and they how dare you! People get crazy. This inconsistency. In one minute we're just praising God. The next minute we're cursing people. What is wrong with us? What's wrong with me? It's an issue of the heart. The Bible says it's out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.

So when things are coming out of our mouths that are inconsistent with scripture, cursing instead of blessing, profanity instead of praise, something's wrong with the heart. Something needs to change in the heart. Basically what you have there when you think of the words coming out, it's like the bucket has gone down into your heart and what it pulls up and what it dumps out is what's inside. That's a revelation. Sometimes I think we're surprised by the revelation of what we're capable of saying or what we're capable of doing. It surprises us.

James says it's inconsistent. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. It ought not to be so. This is not to condemn any of us, praise God, but it is to challenge us to ask the Holy Spirit to tame our tongue. No man can do it, but God can do it. I can't. There's been plenty of times, more than I would like to admit, that I've had to say I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that, forgive me.

There's been other times when I've thought things that I wanted to say and by the grace of God I didn't, and it was good that I didn't. I waited and didn't say it. There's other times, the garage door was open, and I closed it, and then I drove right through it, and I shouldn't have done that. Wrecked everything. Blessing and praise, it's inconsistent.

The Bible says in Proverbs 18 verse four that the words of a man's mouth are as deep waters and the wellspring of wisdom as a flowing brook. The Bible says that the mouth of a righteous man or woman is a well of life. The law of the wise is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death. Proverbs 13. Again, when it comes to dealing with the tongue, it starts with the Lord dealing with my heart.

In Colossians chapter four and verse six, the Apostle Paul put it this way, "Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one." Are there gracious words that are proceeding out of our mouth or are they critical words? Are we quick to find fault and to criticize and to verbalize that or are we quick to help and encourage and instruct and teach?

In Ephesians 4:29 it says, "Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers." Are there corrupt words coming out of your mouth? So often what goes in will come out. Thus if you find yourself feeding on corrupt words, don't be surprised when they start flowing out of your mouth and you start responding that way.

But the opposite is also true. In Titus chapter two verse eight, it says, "Sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you." And so here the exhortation for us is although we can't tame it, there's inconsistency, there's problems, there's potential for great danger and harm right here, the Holy Spirit is capable and able to do in us what we cannot do ourselves if we will yield to him.

And when you fail at that and when you're critical or you snap or you blow up or you curse, repent to God and to the person. Just keep short accounts. Just do it immediately. I'm sorry. That was wrong. I shouldn't have said that, forgive me. Catch yourself. Allow and the Spirit of God will catch you and he'll remind you. One of the things that will stand in the way of that kind of a quick response is pride.

Pride is ugly. It stands as an affront to God's holiness and who he is and his person. Pride hinders repentance. I have to humble myself and I don't like to humble myself naturally. But if I want to be like Jesus, then I want to humble myself personally. It's something he does. I want to humble myself in the sight of the Lord. He gives grace to the humble, he resists the proud.

When we are arrogant, when we are prideful, when we're standing in that position, unwilling to bend regardless of anything, then we're on the opposite side of God and we are being resisted. But when we humble ourselves and we admit to the Lord that was wrong, that was not Jesus, what I just said was not the Lord, help me Lord and I repent of that, then he will change, he will change us and change our speech.

Something that stood out to me tonight that I want to mention to you, here in verse 11, "Does a spring send forth fresh water and this word, bitter, from the same opening?" Now, obviously the answer to that question should be no, it doesn't send out both. But sometimes in our lives with our tongue, it does. So how do we deal with it?

There is an Old Testament passage that I find extremely encouraging and insightful concerning this, and it's found in the book of Exodus chapter 15. So take your Bible, turn to the Old Testament for a moment. I want to give you an Old Testament illustration. Exodus 15. Second book of the Bible. Exodus 15 and I'm going to draw your attention to verses 22 through 27.

But let me set the tone for you what was happening here in Exodus. At this point the nation of Israel had come out of bondage. They just crossed the Red Sea. Everybody is excited. In fact, there's a whole worship service going on, ladies are coming out with tambourines. I mean things are exciting. They're singing songs about "God's going to reign forever, our God is so good, he's great, yay!" Praise is proceeding out of their mouth. They are so blessed.

The Egyptians are done, we're out of here, wilderness, God is good, we're no longer slaves, he's so faithful, I love God. But then you come to verse 22. "So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea and they went out into the wilderness of Shur and they went three days into the wilderness and found no water." Oh trial, here it is. Wow, God's so good, he's so faithful, here's a trial. No water. Now what?

Well, verse 23 says, "Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore they called the name of it Marah," which means bitter. Imagine three days no water. You're dying of thirst. You're in the wilderness. There's no water. Finally you look, there's water. "I found water, it's over here!" And you take a drink and it's undrinkable. It's bitter, it's Marah, you can't drink it. It's not satisfying.

So what do you do? Well, you do what they did, you complain. It says in verse 24 the people complained against Moses, "What shall we drink?" Oh God's so good, where's my tambourine? Hey God's awesome, isn't God good? Yeah! Where's the water? This is ridiculous, you brought us out to kill us! I mean they just, boy, wow, what a turn of events.

So what does Moses do? Well, I think it's wise what he did. Verse 25, he cried out to the Lord and the Lord, I love this, the Lord showed him a tree. And when he cast the tree into the waters, the waters were made sweet. Therefore he made a statute and ordinance for them and there he tested them. That is the Lord tested them and said, "If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and you do what is right in his sight, give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases on you which I've brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord who heals you."

And then they came to Elim where there were 12 wells of water and 70 palm trees and they camped there by the waters. What was this? This was a test. This was a test. One minute praising God, "He's so faithful, I love God, he's awesome." Next minute we're in need. What's going to happen? They start complaining and the water was bitter, but the people were bitter too. And it was coming out of their mouth, this bitterness.

But what Moses does, first cries out to God, takes a tree, throws it into the water and miraculously the tree hits the water and it becomes drinkable. The water that was bitter becomes sweet because of the tree. I want to encourage us as believers tonight, if you're near bitter waters, throw in the tree. Throw in the tree of Calvary, friend. Bring Jesus into the mix. Bring Jesus into the situation. Cry out to God, ask him to change your bitter words into sweet words.

Ask the Lord to tame the tongue. And what happens is God tests them there and then notice what he does. The next step, he brings them to 12 wells of water and 70 palm trees and they're camping by water. Oh, if they just would have trusted God, they would have made it through there. But God was faithful, but they had to throw in the tree.

And maybe you're a very bitter person and it shows. And it just comes out. And for most of us, the challenge is not often when we're with God's people. "Praise the Lord, Hallelujah. You need prayer? I'll pray for you. God is good all the time. All the time God's good, yeah!" He's good. And then you go home. Or we go home. And there is where Christianity is real. It's reality.

What is it like? What are you like when you're home? Don't look at your spouse next to you and make sure they're not looking up here. You know, it's like but let's face it, we're all the same. We all have challenges. We all say things we shouldn't say. So I need the Lord to change the atmosphere of my heart which in turn will change the atmosphere in my home. I need the Lord to, as the psalmist said, put a guard over my lips. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Most High.

I can't change or tame my tongue. God's doing it. He's doing it. And I wish I could say it was overnight. But for a lot of us it's over time. It's still going. It's still a process. I'm still surprised sometimes. Things that I've thought over the last eight months concerning situations that have been going on, like whoa, hey Jesus, take that thought captive. That is wrong.

You see what's happening and there's a righteous anger but there's a fine line between righteous anger and vengeance is his, not mine. It sets in and it's so easy to give way to that and just to respond or I should say react instead of respond thoughtfully and think this out before you say it. Stop and ask the Lord. Lord, put a guard over my lips.

And if there is ever a moment when you're in that situation and you think I probably shouldn't say it, don't. Just don't. That's a check from the Holy Spirit. That's like, don't do it. And if you sense that, I mean immediately retract, pull back, lock it down. Don't do it and let the Lord just work through it.

But then if you feel like I just have to say this. Do you? Do you have to? Is it necessary? Will tomorrow be different than it is right now? I don't like it when people treat me like that. Neither did Jesus. Neither did Jesus. And so often God allows me to be put into a situation where I'm tested. Will I respond in bitterness or will I remember the tree? Will I remember Jesus hanging there? Will I remember people reviling him, blaspheming him? And his response, "Father forgive them, they don't know what they're doing."

There's a lot of people today walking around just like we used to that they have no idea what they're doing or where they're going. And they don't know Jesus and they don't walk in light, they walk in darkness. So that's how people who live in darkness live. The same way we lived before we were in the light. And sometimes we're "I can't believe they're like that! How can you not believe they're like that?" That's how you were. Did you forget what Jesus saved you out of and how he changed your mouth? You were that profane individual. You were the one that had the potty mouth. You were the one that used to tell the terrible nasty jokes and everybody thought it was, that was you.

But God changed you. We can't tame the tongue but thankfully the Holy Spirit can and so all of us as I look around the room tonight I see movement. It's interesting body language. But I know what it's about because I do the same thing. And as I read this I find myself convicted, not condemned, but conviction.

And guys the difference between condemnation and conviction is that condemnation drives me away from the throne of grace. Condemns me. But the conviction of the Holy Spirit draws me to grace, draws me to repent, causes me to humble myself and just surrender and submit to the Lord. And that is when the change will begin within the heart.

So if the Holy Spirit spoke to you tonight, if you've just been kind of letting things fly, kind of gone back into saying things that you shouldn't say, maybe you've been incited by and sometimes we want to say "well if they hadn't said that then I wouldn't have said this." I've used that one. That one never works. God doesn't accept that. He doesn't hold me responsible for what they said, he holds me responsible for what I say. Do I let them incite me or do I just want to be those times to be quiet? There's a time to speak and there's a time not to speak. And so may God help us.

Guest (Male): This is A Daily Walk with Pastor John Randall, who today continued our study of James. Would you like to hear the message again? Just go to adailywalk.org or look for us wherever you get your podcasts. Another convenient way to listen to Pastor John is through our mobile app. Be among the thousands that are being encouraged in their daily walk by downloading that today. Find our app by searching for Calvary South OC.

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We'd also like to encourage you to start watching A Daily Walk Devotional. Grab your Bible and join Pastor John for an encouraging daily devotional each day at adailywalk.org. Here is Pastor John to wrap things up with a word of prayer.

John Randall: Father, we pray tonight. Lord, this area of our lives. Lord, you know us better than we know ourselves. You know every word. Lord, you said that we're going to give an account of every word. I think of Isaiah, Lord, as he saw you high and lifted up. Lord, your word says that he recognized himself in light of you and that he was undone.

And then it says that you took a coal from the altar and you touched his lips and you purified his speech. He, Lord, he confessed, "I dwell among a people of unclean lips." And Lord, he was unclean himself, but you took that coal from the altar, that purifying fire and you cleansed his speech. Lord, in a very real way this evening, we would ask that your Holy Spirit would do that very same thing with us.

Lord, in marriages where there has been conflict, words spoken that need to be repented of, God I pray you'd bring reconciliation tonight, tonight Lord. Where there has been parents and children who have been at odds and Lord, in trying to instruct there has been harsh words spoken, not in the spirit but in the flesh. Lord, I pray you bring humility and healing there. Friendships, Lord, just different things and all, you know all the context, whether we feel justified in the flesh or not Lord, there is no justification for sin and so God we just humble ourselves before you in light of Isaiah. Lord purify us so that we could say, "Here am I, send me." Forgive us Lord. Let the words of our mouth, meditation of our heart be pleasing to you tonight. Start with us. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Guest (Male): There is much more to come in the book of James, so be sure to join us next time here on A Daily Walk. This program is brought to you by Calvary South OC and made possible through your generous support.