Tony Evans - Why Should We Watch Our Mouths
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Summary
In this sermon on controlling the tongue from James 3, the preacher warns that our words can either bring heavenly life and blessing or hellish destruction and pain, reflecting whose influence—heaven or hell—controls our speech. He calls believers to let the Holy Spirit govern their hearts and lips, speaking truth in love, seasoning words with grace, expressing gratitude instead of grumbling, and apologizing for harmful speech to bring healing. Ultimately, mastering the tongue is the master switch that allows God to work freely in every other area of life, honoring His image in all people and countering a mean, destructive culture with godly, edifying communication.
A World of Destructive Words
We live in a world where they don’t care about the pain; they don’t care about the destruction that their words can bring and are bringing. All we need to do is recognize the dignity of God that He has placed in every human being, regardless of the color of their skin. All we need to do is go back to the Word of God so the world can see that God holds us in high esteem by what we say, as well as by what we do.
Praying for Guarded Speech
David says, «Look, put a guard over my mouth, God,» regarding what I say in my mouth and pray (in Psalm 141, verse 3). And then he says in Psalm 19, verse 14, «Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable unto you.» In other words, are you happy with what I’m getting ready to say? He wants us to ask, «Make God happy in your speech, make God happy in your talk, make God happy in your communication!» Let your tongue be used by heaven and not by hell because both of them are after the tongue in our mouths, after the control of our speech. Both Heaven and Hell want to control the tongue; that is one way to influence life. If Hell can get a hold of the tongue, it can direct life to be hellish. If Heaven can get a hold of the tongue, it can direct life to be heavenly.
Hellish Speech vs Heavenly Speech
So, the reason we have a lot of hellish lives is that we have a lot of hellish speech. The reason why some have heavenly lives is that they have heavenly speech. So, what you want the Holy Spirit to do is to govern and guide your heart so that it will show up in your lips, so that there will be life of the Lord on our lips. Ask the Lord to invite Him to control your speech by adjusting your heart so that you edify. The Bible says to «season your words with salt,» which means to put a little flavor on them. In other words, if you need to say something negative, if you need to say something that’s the truth and the person needs to know it, put a little salt on it so it has some taste. Not everything is going to have hot sauce or Tabasco on it; you can put a little salt on it, some seasoning on it, because you’re not trying to burn; you’re trying to help and correct. But you also want to speak the truth in love. You don’t want to skip the truth and act like nothing is wrong when something needs to be corrected, but you can still do it to build up and not to destroy.
A Culture of Destruction
Too many men, too many women, too many boys, too many girls, and we live in a culture of destruction—both in what we say and what we text, designed to bring harm and hurt. Some of us need to get off social media if we don’t know how to talk because all we’re doing is making Jesus look bad. At least if you’re going to be on there, don’t tell anybody you love Jesus because duplicitous speech ought not to be— you shouldn’t be praising God one minute and cursing the next. That’s a contradiction of your faith. Out of a fountain, fresh water and bitter water shouldn’t come.
The Danger of Normalized Harm
Now, I know none of us is perfect on this issue; we all stumble in many ways, but he’s talking about what has become normalized in our lives—how we normally hurt people, tear people down, are unkind, complain when we ought to be grateful. There are many things to complain about, but if you look and see how good God has been to us, there’s a whole bunch to be grateful for. How much Thanksgiving is there? How much gratitude is there? One of the things God condemns, as Israel was leaving Egypt and going to the promised land, is that they always kept grumbling. He’s going to talk about that later in the Book of James—they always kept complaining. They were never grateful; they were never thankful. «I wish this, I wish that, I wish God didn’t do this, God didn’t do that.» They missed sight of what all God had done—from where they started to where they were and where they were going. That’s why He says, «In everything, give thanks, ” because you can give thanks not for everything, but you can give thanks in the midst of everything.
Speaking Blessing and Healing
The thing you can thank God for is where you believe He’s taking you, that you haven’t gotten to yet, so there’s always a reason to use your tongue as a place of blessing and not a place of cursing. When we begin to change our speech because we want God to change our heart, we redirect our lives and cancel damage that was done. How much healing could occur if you simply went to a person where you used your tongue to damage and said, „I’m sorry for what I said, I apologize for how I said it, and I want to speak life into this situation, ” in order that we may heal wounds that may have been broken? You can save families with that kind of speech, you can save histories with that kind of speech, and you can rebuild forces.
Now, it takes eleven years for a forest to start rebuilding; it’s thirty years before it’s totally rebuilt, but you’ve got to start somewhere. You’ve got to put an acorn in the ground, and that can start with speech that is designed to build and not destroy. So, James’ challenge is: Don’t look at the tongue as just a little wiggling thing in your mouth; look at it as a spiritual tool that can take you to the next spiritual level and can bring God more involved in your life.
The Master Switch: Controlling the Tongue
Let me put it this way: When God sees that He can control your tongue, He doesn’t mind dealing with other things in your life because you hit the master switch. But when God sees He can’t even get your tongue straight, all that other stuff that’s wrong and you’re asking Him to fix it, help it, change it, reverse it, He’s not going to touch that. He knows that once you get in touch, you’re just going to find another element to let out of your mouth, something that is not consistent with His will.
Recognizing God’s Image in Others
We live in a mean world right now. We live in a world where people will hurt you with their mouth and other things. We live in a world where they don’t care about the pain, they don’t care about the animals, they don’t care about the destruction that their words can bring and are bringing. But those of us who know Jesus Christ, those of us who care about our love for the Lord, those of us who recognize the dignity of the image of God in every human being, we don’t need a racial seminar; all we need to do is recognize the dignity of God that He has placed in every human being, regardless of the color of their skin. We don’t need to spend all this time on stuff; all we need to do is go back to the Word of God and apply the Word of God coming out of our mouths in our relationship with one another and the world at large so the world can see that God holds us in high esteem by what we say as well as by what we do.
The Cranes and the Eagles Illustration
In the Taurus Mountains in Turkey, there are cranes; these cranes make a crackling sound as they fly. The problem is, eagles hear them crackling because it’s by their nature to crackle. As they’re flying, the eagles pick up the sound and attack because the eagles know that when that sound comes, they’re fresh bait. So, the cranes, knowing this, will pick up a rock and put it in their mouths. They’ll put a rock in their mouths and in their babies’ mouths so that when they’re flying, you can’t hear the crackling because they’ve got the rock in their mouths. They know that there’s something out there that wants to destroy them. Because they know there’s something out there that wants to destroy them, they control their mouths so that they’re not bait for the enemy. There’s an enemy out there that wants to destroy you, and it’s listening for what comes out of your mouth.
We hear His anti- God sentiment when He hears Christians go off because He’s heard what comes out of your mouth. But if you get the Holy Spirit to put a rock inside your mouth to control your speech so that the enemy can’t control you, then God’s angels can redirect you, can guide you because your speech is consistent with God. So, I want you to get rid of all anger and start speaking truth, speaking kindness, speaking love, speaking generosity, speaking healing, speaking help, speaking encouragement so that God is free to work in your life.
Closing Challenge
Now, I want you to stand to your feet; I want to hear you.
See, none of you should have done that. I just preached a whole sermon telling you not to do that, and that’s what the devil is going to do when you leave here. He’s going to say, „Cuss and fuss,“ and you’re going to obey him. God is saying, „Don’t open your mouth unless I’m speaking through you.“ Let’s honor God with our lives.