Sermon Tone Analysis

If your tongue has ever gotten you into trouble… Raise your hand!

— Turn to your neighbor and say: “I’m not surprised!”

We’re not surprised, are we?

It happens to all of us!

— We have ALL had the experience of saying something, and then wishing we hadn’t said it!

— “Putting our foot in our mouth!”

There was a man who worked in the produce section of a local grocery store.

One day, a woman came in and asked if she could buy half a head of lettuce…

Well, it had been one of those days, and before he could think, the man replied, “Half a head?! Are you serious?! God grows these in whole heads, and that’s how we sell them!”

The lady responded, “You mean after all these years of shopping here, you won’t sell me half-a-head of lettuce?!”

“Look,” he said, “If you like I’ll ask the manager.”

“Of course.”

She responded.

So, the man marched away to find the manager, and when he found him, he said, “You won’t believe this, but there’s a lame-brained idiot of a lady back there who wants to know if she can buy half-a head of lettuce.”

As he was talking, he noticed the manager subtly trying to stop his outburst…

The crazed employee turned around to see the lady standing behind him… unbeknown to him, she had followed him to find the manager.

Without skipping a beat, the employee said, “And… this nice lady was wondering if she could buy the other half!”

Later that day, the manager cornered the young man, and said, “That was the finest example of thinking on your feet i’ve ever seen!

Where’d you learn to do that?”

The man replied, “Well… I grew up in Grand Rapids, and if you know anything about Grand Rapids, you know it’s well-known for its great hockey teams and its ugly women...”

“Hey,” the manager interrupted, “My wife’s from Grand Rapids!”

The employee quickly responded, “And which hockey team did your wife play for?”

(LOL!)

Oh… How our tongues get us into trouble!!!

“THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK!”

Everyday we speak thousands of words.

That is a lot of opportunity to say the wrong thing…

The words we speak effect the world around us.

What we say… How we say it… matters!

— Words have lasting results!

The words we speak can give life, hope, and love…

Or… they can bring death, division, and destruction.

There is a story told of a woman from a small indian village, who maliciously gossiped about another lady and her family in the village…

One day she found out that she had been wrong… So, she went to the village’s “wise man” and asked, “How do I take all the wrong that I’ve done?”

The Wise man told her: “Go home and kill your chickens… pluck them… and put them in a bag.

On your way back, scatter all the feathers on the road...”

so, the woman did as she was told… When she got back to the wise man, he told her, “Now, go back and pick up all the feathers that you scattered.”

The woman was astonished… “By now the wind has carried the feathers through out the village and beyond!”

The Wise Man responded, “So it is with your careless words… They are like the feathers, scattered in the wind.

You cannot retrieve them.”

Let me tell you — Once the Words have left your mouth… It is too late!!!

In other words… Engage your mind before you engage your mouth!

— Don’t let what you say be the result of anger… When we are angry, we say things we know we shouldn’t say…

WATCH YOUR WORDS!

The tongue is a dangerous thing!

We are looking at “A Faith That Works”…

— Faith That Works is

James 1:27 (NRSV)

27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Taming the tongue AND watching our words is VITAL to our walks as Christians!

The tongue holds the power of “Life” and “Death”… over our Faith!

— The tongue can “overrule” an otherwise Godly life.

James tells us that a mature Christian “Has Power over the Tongue.”

Why is this important?

Why do we need to watch what we say?

Why is controlling our tongue so important?

The tongue is a small, but powerful thing!

— It sets the direction of our life...

Words have a tremendous influence and control over our lives.

Let me ask you — Where are you headed in life?

Where will you be ten years from now?

— Look at your conversations… What do you talk about most?

You see… We shape our words, then our words shape us!

What you spend the most time talking about NOW, will determine where — and WHO — you will be in the future.

James says… the tongue is a tiny thing…

Here’s the thing — because it is small… because it is tiny… we think that it is insignificant!

But… it has tremendous power!

Your tongue controls the direction of your life, wherever you go… a little bit of a word — or a phrase — can influence the total direction of your life.

WHY?

Because it influences your thoughts!

Your words have power… They have the power to direct your path towards Christ, or away from Him…

And… They have the power to direct people to Jesus or away from Him as well!

Our words can destroy us and others!

It only takes a spark to get a fire going.... Think about that…

James says your tongue can destroy like that… You can loose it all… Just like a careless camper can destroy an entire Forest overnight, a Careless Word can DESTROY a life overnight!

Gossip is like FIRE!

— It spreads quickly and it wreaks havoc wherever it goes!

How many people have destroyed their marriage… their career… their reputation… the reputation of another… their church… their friendships… because of a careless word?!?!

The tongue not only has the power to direct your life, but it will destroy what you have if you do not control it!

— Let me tell you — It’s not just verbal!

— (Cell phones) — How easy is it to send a quick text?

To respond to that FaceBook meme?

without even thinking it through first!

— There is ZERO accountability on the internet… and text!

What we TEXT… how we respond on Social Media… is just as important as the words we speak!

GOOD NEWS!!!!!

You GET to live with the consequences of everything you say!

Words can create a chain reaction.

You can say something that you didn’t mean to have any harm, but … it can have devastating effects That Are Beyond Your Control!

— — You come home from work… you’re tired… grumpy… You yell at your wife… She yells at the oldest kid… The oldest kid yells at the baby sister… Baby sister kicks the dog… The dog bites the cat… The cat scratches the baby… The baby bites the head off the Barbie Doll....

— Wouldn’t it have been a whole lot simpler if dad had just bitten the head off the Barbie himself?!

Chain reaction — the course of hell…

James 3:6 (NRSV)

6 And the tongue is a fire.

The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell.

— A couple comes for marriage counselling… “I said this, then she said this, then I said this…” Then what happened?

“All hell broke loose!”

Our words can cause “all hell to break loose.”

James says, “You’ve got to learn to manage your mouth!”… not because just because it can direct where you go, but… it can destroy what you have!

Paul is saying… when we use words to tear people down, rather then building them up, we are grieving the Holy Spirit.