Message Notes
Taming My Tongue | July 24, 2022
Pastor Ray Parascando
About James & Today’s Passage:
+ Written from Jerusalem, primarily to Jewish believers
+ Connections to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount
+ Practical teachings on wisdom, faith, relationships, & tongue.
1 My tongue reveals the
James 3:1-2a / ESV, “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. 2 For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man…”
The tongue reveals:
— A boastful tongue reveals self centeredness*
— A critical tongue reveals unhappiness / guilt
— A discouraging tongue reveals fear
— A harsh tongue reveals unjust anger
— A lying tongue reveals an agenda
— A negative tongue reveals discontentment
— A judgmental tongue reveals pridefulness
— A profane tongue reveals low standards
— A resentful tongue reveals bitterness
– A self deprecating tongue reveals insecurity
— A hurtful tongue reveals immaturity
— A chronically sick tongue reveals lostness
Luke 6:45 / ESV, “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”
+Get my heart right with God
2 My tongue
James 3:2b-8 / ESV, “…able also to bridle his whole body. 3 If we put
bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. 4 Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”
— The tongue can direct where I am going
— The tongue can destroy what I have
Psalm 141:3 / ESV, “Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips!”
- Seek God and search the Scriptures
3 My tongues provides me an opportunity to
James 3:9-12 / ESV, “ With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.’”
Colossians 4:6 / ESV, “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.”
+Develop a Tongue Standard that says, “Be honoring to God and helpful to others.”