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Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, NC

David Wright

Are You Offended

So it was during his last year in office that Winston Churchill attended a ceremony.

And he was in his upper 70s, his health wasn't good, he had suffered some various mini strokes, and so there was a lot of debate.

Can Winston Churchill continue to be in this position and so it was while he was at this ceremony that there was this whispering going on behind him and he heard the whispering and it went like this, hey that guy up there that's Winston Churchill.

In fact, they say he should step down and leave the running of the nation to a more dynamic, capable man.

When the ceremony was over, Churchill turned to the men and said, I imagine a little bit of a gruff voice, gentlemen they also say he's deaf.

Well I've heard it compared in a children's story to squeezing out a tube of toothpaste.

You can get it out quite easily, but you can't put it back in.

In fact, Proverbs is filled with, this is just a few, whoever guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from troubles.

Do you know people that are shy and do a lot less talking?

Another 1 here, Proverbs 10 verse 19, in the multitude of words, sin is not lacking.

I've heard Pavel Goya call it an inflation of words, but he who restrains his lips is wise." A little more thought before you blurt out what's being thought of.

James chapter 1 verse 26, he says, "'If anyone among you thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is what?

My, oh my, the tongue can get us in such trouble so quickly.

And sometimes we talk about, and James talks about, and we're gonna look here in a minute, about taming the tongue, but the tongue is simply an outlet of what?

And so really what we need is we need a cleansing of our mind and our attitude and our thoughts because if our thoughts are right we won't be saying the wrong things.

But yes this thing called the tongue if you have your Bible I want you to turn to another small book in the New Testament, the book of James, because I want you to see these verses for yourselves because James has a lot to say about the untamable tongue.

So we're in the book of James, towards the end of the New Testament, right after Hebrews.

So if you can find Hebrews you can find James.

Now we're in chapter 3 beginning verse 2 it says, for we all stumble in many things.

If anyone does not stumble in word, he's a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body, or we could say control the whole body.

Indeed, we put bits in horses' mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body.

They are also so large and are driven by fierce winds.

They are turned by a very small rudder, wherever the pilot desires.

Verse 5, even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things.

See how great a forest a little fire kindles.

And verse 6, and the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity.

The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature.

For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea of creature is tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no man can tame the tongue.

It is an unruly evil, fully a deadly poison.

With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the similitude of God.

Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing, my brethren, these things ought not to be so.

Here we have James talking about and using props.

He says, use the brit or the bridle, and how it controls these huge animals.

But if you put that bit in their mouth, you can decide, no, we're going this way.

And you get back to the back, yes, the propeller is still huge, but in proportion to the boat, it's this tiny little thing that just turns a little bit this way, turns a little bit that way, and the whole boat makes a huge change.

I mean, we've had lots of fires in the news.

What is the song, how does it go, that we sing around campfires?

And along with the lashing of the tongue comes all kinds of pride and ego and everything else and it becomes a huge problem.

And what sets our tongues on fire often is because we've been hurt in some way.

Someone has wronged us, they've disrespected us, but for whatever reason we feel bad.

Maybe they've said something that's just absolutely not true.

Do people ever say things that aren't true?

And you say, that's not fair, that never happened.

And we get all uptight and anxious, and we spread slander perhaps about them, and we try and get revenge, and all these other things.

Someone has wronged us, and maybe they legitimately wronged you.

But too often our response is to resort to the tongue.

I didn't want to have to say that and you know when I'm upset because when I get upset I might even use certain words that I don't usually use because I want you to know I'm mad.

Our choice of words and who we tell them to can lead to conflicts and tension and drama, right?

Whether it's personal relationships, whether it's workplace drama, do you have drama at your workplace?

I'll tell you, some of these places, hospitals or whatever, and people are talking about each other and backbiting, and you just kind of get really nervous because you think if they're talking about that way around my coworkers, what are they saying about me when I'm not at work that day?

Whoever's in the room, we're gonna talk about the 1 that's not there.

Social circles, family disputes, online misunderstandings, how about church drama?

Is there ever any church drama, misunderstandings, conflicts within the church?

Thankfully Jesus gave us some counsel that we do well to heed, and I wanna take another look, because we throw this around.

And yes, we know these verses well, but do we know them in the right way, or are we just checking boxes?

Do we wanna really get to the heart, to the spirit of what Jesus is saying, Or are we just saying, okay, fine, I'll do it this way, I'll check this box, but my attitude will still not be right.

I think at the heart of what Jesus is saying is have an attitude of reconciliation.

And if we miss that fundamental point, we might as well throw out all the other details.

Because there is a way to do the right thing wrongly.

We can say perhaps the right things with the wrong attitude with the wrong facial expressions with the wrong tone Your parents ever say that when you're growing up having a conversation with your brothers and sisters Probably is more like an argument and your parents say tone.

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Are You Offended

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