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Nobleton Community Church
29084 Sentinel Street PO Box 224
Nobleton, Florida 34661
Rev. Paul V. Lehmann, Pastor
813-389-8683
Nobletoncommunitychurch.org
info@nobletoncommunitychurch.org
OUR VISION IS:
To experience SPIRIT-FILLED WORSHIP AND PRAYER
To be involved in EVANGELISM, DISCIPLINING AND TRAINING PEOPLE
To use our SPIRITUAL GIFTS
To SERVE AND REACH PEOPLE FOR CHRIST, BOTH
“ACROSS THE STREET AND ACROSS THE WORLD”
Nobleton Community Church
Date October 12, 2025
Text: James 3:1-12
Pastor Paul Lehmann
There’s a story about the famous 19th-century preacher Henry Beecher. One Sunday, he ascended the great pulpit of Boston’s Plymouth Congregational Church, and there he found a note waiting for him. Beecher glances at the note, then announces. “I received a letter from one of you this morning. It states quite simply, “Fool.” Bleecher paused, then grinned and said, “I often receive from people who ‘forget’ to sign their names, but this is the first time someone has signed their name and forgotten to write the letter.” Beecher, quick on his feet, found a snappy comeback, but even for him, probably the criticism must have stung. There’s such a thing as constructive criticism offered in love, of course—courteous words of correction from a teacher, pastor, or coach, or spouse or friend, sincerely intended to build up. But there is also that other sort of criticism, the kind that tears down, that gouges, that destroys.
Some of you may remember, on December 6, 2011, when actor Alec Baldwin was booted off an American Airlines flight out of LAX for failure to comply with airline regulations, particularly the one that requires you to turn off your cell phone once the cabin doors are closed. Now you’d think that someone as worldly and well-traveled as Baldwin would know this rule, which he did, or that a violation of that rule would surely have to involve some kind of urgent phone call that had to be handled right then, which it didn’t. What caused Baldwin to be put off the flight was over a game called “Words With Friends.” This is another social media app. that connects networks of online friends. Like Facebook and Twitter. This game is for the purpose of chatting with one another while you play a word game kind of like Scrabble on steroids, and the premise is a lot like those old school games of playing chess by mail, except this is instant of course, thanks to the internet. It’s supposed to be a friendly game that uses words as a means of bringing people together. The irony of the Baldwin incident, however, is that while he was continuing to share congenial words with friends on the phone, he was using quite different words with the flight attendants who were just trying to do their jobs. He later tweeted (on Twitter) that American Airlines is “where retired Catholic school gym teachers from the 1950s find jobs as flight attendants, and those attendants, “walk the aisles of an airplane with a whistle around their neck and a clipboard in their hands, and they have made flying, a Greyhound bus experience.” Those may have been among the more cordial words he said, according to American airlines, Baldwin was “extremely rude” to the flight crew, calling them “inappropriate names” and using “offensive language”—not friendly words, a theme suggested by the very app. He was enjoying, and later, by his own admission, he was addicted to.
This account seems to be typical of a trap that many of us fall into in this age of technology and instant gratification. We tend to use words one way for certain people and situations, and then haul out a whole different vocabulary and attitude for others.
For the last few weeks, we have been looking at many scripture passages that talk about unity and love, and victory. About the attitudes we should have towards each other in the body of Christ. Today, we want to look at a scripture portion that we have touched on before, which talks about the tongue.
James identified the problem with words in this famous passage about the tongue in chapter 3, verses 1-12, which Val read this morning. We might, in fact, think of James as a kind of the original writer on the rules of using words with friends and everyone else. For James, those who are in the game of using words had better be sure to use them wisely.
James first warns those who aspire to become teachers that they will be judged more strictly. But then the admonition includes all of us. We should all strive for the perfect word choice that becomes a “bridle” for controlling the kind of loose and destructive talk that can inevitably leak out and cause destruction (verse 2).
It is like a bit in the mouth of a horse. A controlled tongue can guide a person’s whole “body” in what he says and does (verse 3). What you say and what you don’t say are both important. Proper speech is not only saying the right words at the right time, but it is also controlling your desire to say what you shouldn’t.
Examples of an untamed tongue include gossiping, putting others down by destructive criticism, bragging, manipulation, false teaching, exaggerating, complaining, flattering, and lying. Before you speak, ask, “Is what I want to say true? Is it necessary? Is it kind?
The metaphors used here were very familiar when James wrote, and are still familiar to us today. The relatively tiny rudder of a very large ship has as much to do with where the ship goes, according to the “will of the captain, as does the wind that drives the sails of a sailboat (verse 4). Like this rudder, the words we use have the ability to steer us toward safety or disaster (verse 5). Even a small word, ill spoken and timed, can set a whole forest fire of disaster in motion.
We all know how fast forest fires spread, as happened in California in January of this year, which destroyed 17,000 homes and killed 30 people, and burned 1 million acres. There were reports of how helpless firefighters felt when they couldn’t really stop the fires, and they couldn’t even control them. Our tongues are like that, because they corrupt the whole person and spread to those around us. The uncontrolled tongue can do terrible damage. Satan uses the tongue to divide people and pit them against one another. Idle and hateful words are damaging because they spread destruction quickly, just like a forest fire, and no one can stop the results once they are spoken. This is especially true of things that are posted on social media platforms on the internet.
We are more concerned this morning, though, with words that are spoken face to face. We dare not be careless with what we say, things we can apologize for later, because even if we do, the scars remain. A few words spoken on anger can destroy a relationship that took years to build. Before you speak, remember that words are like fire; you can neither control nor reverse the damage they can do.
We‘ve been in situations where a simple yes or no, or the mere compliance with a request, would have prevented a whole string of other disasters. Whether we’re trying to assert our “rights” or trying to impress others, we get into trouble when our words aren’t friendly and our speech isn’t tightly controlled. When a string of expletives comes out, and we say things we know in our heart that we shouldn’t say. Too often, it also affects our actions.
Now of course, controlling this isn’t easy to do. James makes it clear that the tongue isn’t like an animal that can be tamed by humans. Instead, it’s untamable; a “restless evil filled with deadly poison. (verses 7-8).
Such a statement would seem to provide us with an excuse for the dumb things we say. Whether we’re in an airplane seat like Baldwin or in an office, or a meeting, or in a store, or at church, or at home with family, we know that there are times when things just come out of us, maybe not swearing, but in the form of words that don’t seem so friendly. But James won’t let us get away with that kind of thinking. Indeed, the only way to control the tongue is to monitor what’s happening inside us on a deeper level. James says, for example, that with our tongues we both “praise our Lord and Father and curse those who have been made in God’s likeness.” Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing—-THIS SHOULD NOT BE. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? Can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? James is saying there is something unnatural about this. It is as unnatural as for a stream to gush out both fresh and salt water, or as for a bush to bear opposite kinds of fruit. Unnatural and wrong such things may be, but they are nonetheless tragically common when it comes to the words our tongues speak.
This is why Paul says in Romans 12:1-2 that we are to present our bodies (this includes our tongue) as a living sacrifice to God, which is our reasonable service or worship to Him. And we shouldn’t conform to this world. That is, the world’s way of living —“don’t let the world push you into its mold!”
When we say two different things from the same tongue—praising the Lord on Sunday, and cussing someone out on Monday, shows that we are “double-minded.” This is what James is talking about back in chapter one, verses 6-8. He says that when we face trials, we should ask for wisdom. The problem is that sometimes we ask the Lord to help us, but we don’t really believe. He says, “You doubt, and when you do, you are like a boat tossed back and forth on the waves of the sea. This double-mindedness separates people from God. When we are double-minded or, perhaps worse, singularly-minded in our own selfish ways, we have a tendency to dehumanize people and see ourselves as always being in a game in which we have to be the winner. If you believe you deserve more than others and are superior to them, you will treat them with contempt.
There’s an old adage that says, if you really want to know about a person’s character, watch how that person treats the waiter at a restaurant. Does he treat this person as a person, or merely as a servant? Kind words aren’t meant only for friends. We’re to offer them to everyone because they, like us, are made in god’s image. You can’t praise God and curse his image at the same time.
The truth is that if we want to have any control over the tongue, we need to pay attention to our inner lives from which either blessing or cursing can come forth. Does the inner spring in our lives gush with both fresh and bitter water? ( Verse 11.)
If we’re going to be the kind of people who use words wisely, then we’ve got to first cultivate an inner life that sees everyone as a friend created in god’s image. We need a vision of life that doesn’t put us at the center of the universe, but rather centers on God and God’s purposes for us. The God who spoke the word of creation and sent the Word (Jesus), his own Son, to become flesh, urges us to choose the kind of words that reflect Jesus’ character, life, and love.
In a world where it seems we use cell phones for everything but actually talking to one another, may we recapture the art of using words in a way that reflects the character of the God who dwells in us. That is, if you have received Jesus into your life. If you have asked Him to come in and allowed His Holy Spirit to control your whole life, including your tongue and the way you speak, He is the one who will give you victory over your tongue, because He is the one who will be speaking through you.