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your Bibles and turn with me to James chapter 3 James chapter 3 we're talking about the tongue this wonderful vessel that God has given us this wonderful little member of our body that God has given us and we're going to be talking about the tongue of our body that God has given us it's a tremendous powerful gift James chapter 3 we will finish up verses 8 through 12 today but for context sake let's look at the first 12 verses James says verse 1 not many of you should presume to be teachers my brothers because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly we all stumble in many ways if anyone is never at fault in what he says he is a perfect man able to keep his

whole body in check when we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey we can turn the whole animal or take ships as an example although they are winds they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go likewise the tongue is a small part of the body but it makes great boasts consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark the tongue also is a fire a world of evil among the parts of the body it corrupts the whole person sets the whole course of his life on fire and is itself set on fire by hell all that is set on fire is a fire by hell all kinds of animals birds reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man but no man can tame the tongue it is a restless evil full of deadly

poison with the tongue we praise our father and our lord and father and with it we curse men who have been made in God's likeness out of the same mouth come praise and cursing my brothers this should not be can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring my brothers can a fig tree bear olives or a grape vine bear fruits can a tree bear figs neither can a salt spring produce fresh water God has given each of us a powerful powerful gift by giving us the tongue by giving us the ability to speak the gift of speech let me just take a little aside here and talk about the gifts of the spirit because these are different than the gift that I'm talking about here with the gift of speech

we've talked about this on Wednesday nights too some I don't know how many of you view the gifts of the spirit often just like we talked this morning about Jesus being made sin God laying on him our sin we get a wrong picture of how these things happen and the same thing is true with the gifts of the spirit I don't know how many of you see the gifts of the spirit as being like this is a gift a package a bow and this is the spirit of God giving you this particular gift and you go I wonder what gift I have and a lot of times Christians think well I wonder what gift I have I don't I don't know which gift of the spirit I had I have as though it's some kind of a package that that the Holy

Spirit like Santa Claus has given to you that's a that's a illogical it's a wrong concept of the gifts of the spirit where the gifts of spirit come from from the Holy Spirit who is the third person of the Godhead he is a person he is the giver of the he's the worker literally of the gift he works the gift now who has the Holy Spirit believers if you have received Jesus asked him into your heart been born again been saved been redeemed confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believed in your heart to God raising from the dead if you have whatever vernacular term you want to use for salvation if you have been saved then the Spirit of God resides in you he is the giver of the gifts

how many gifts does the Holy Spirit have all of them right so you have really as a believer all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit all at once it's what he chooses to manifest through you what he chooses to work through you at the time that will be whatever gift he wants to bring forth and he doesn't do that so you feel good or so that you are glorified because you can do this particular gift or whatever it's he uses that at that particular time to minister to the body for God's glory specifically and only so it's whatever good you know you may say well I don't have the gift of tongues it's there it's not there it's just whether or not the Spirit chooses to manifest it through you if that's beneficial

for the body not so you get some Zippo out of it or the or the gift of wisdom or the gift of knowledge or the gift of teaching those things are there it's just whatever the Spirit wants to manifest through you and because of your personality and who you are he usually usually chooses to manifest a certain gift in a certain way because it will work through you the best in the lives of those around you okay now the gift of speech is different from that we've been given the tongue all of us have a tongue some people are making them mute from birth because of some kind of a deformity but for the most part we've all been given the gift of speech the gift of the tongue the ability to speak to other

people and that's a powerful gift it's a very powerful gift and we've been looking at this in in our study in James chapter 3 and James tells us that the workings of faith whether or not we've really been saved whether or not we've really come to that relationship with Christ evidences itself through our speech and so we've we the overall heading of chapter 3 in James is the workings of faith whether or not we've really been saved whether or not we've really come to that relationship with Christ evidences itself through our speech whether or not we've really been saved whether or not we've really come to that relationship with Christ evidences itself through our speech word and truth are teaching us devery

demor-ʰority being a regiment of good and reparation of our trouble and that's what we're all talking about and we got to enter it and we're going to get some reversing !! wear our tongue and the teach all of us have wary are not skewed on the teach all of us have wary are not skewed on the teach all of us have wary are not skewed on the stature our ou-Did not even know that the gidey shitter is still sharp uh what if you want to know it is it's sign and 연습 prisons waiting for it to rehouse and we must have a solution as I see it is whereby we go out of schedule our just rises because not that just hurt people, but to tell people things as far as the Lord is concerned that

will literally damn them to hell. See, Mormons believe that if you're baptized into the Mormon religion, that you're saved, that you can actually go and seal your marriage in the temple so that when you die, you and your wife are sealed and you'll get to go to a planet somewhere in the universe and populate that planet just like Adam, God, and his celestial wife Eve populated the planet Earth. They're the ones who are up there procreating and every soul that's born comes from Adam, God, and from his wife Eve. Now, many people have embraced that religion and are on their way to hell. And the teachers that espouse that are going to answer for it. But there are those, see,

that let's get a little more practical here in Christianity. We saw in chapter two that there are those who espouse a dead faith, those who teach a dead faith, those who teach a dead faith, and those who teach a dead faith. Those who emphasize specifically doctrine with no application. Those who are big on scripture memory and who are big on knowing the different parts of the word of God without the application of it, without saying, this is how I should then live. That's a dead faith. That'll damn you to

hell. You can know every book in the Bible. You can quote every verse and you'll end up in hell because you've never come into a relationship with the giver of life, with the giver of the word. Also, James in chapter two talked about a demonic faith that has to do with not only knowing the doctrine, but feeling a buzz, knowing the emotional part of it, weeping, crying, experiencing all of the emotion, but it doesn't change your life. He says the demons fear

God and they tremble. They know the doctrine and they tremble at God. They give God all authority and all power. He is God. He is sovereign, but they don't obey him. They don't submit to his sovereignty, to his leadership. Eventually, they're going to be sent to Gehenna as a result of that. But there are those who call themselves part of the faith, part of the church, who base

their relationship on the buzz that they get. How much scripture I know and how much buzz I feel. Rather than on a developing and nurturing relationship with Jesus Christ. And so James says, be careful if you presume to teach people about who God is, because there's a heavy responsibility with that. For the tongue has power. And the first thing we saw is the tongue

has the power to direct. And that's the bit and the rudder. The first two objects that we see here in this section, the bit and the rudder, verses three and four, show us that the tongue has the ability to direct. Now, a bit fits in a horse's mouth. We saw that last time. And it is power at a specific time that controls other power. And a rudder is the same way. A rudder is a small

part of a ship, but it's power applied to that specific area at a specific time that controls a greater power. And our tongues have that ability. It's a small part of our body, one of the smaller parts. But the words that we speak, the things that we say have the ability to direct the lives of others. We can say things that are good and encouraging and build people up.

Or we can say things that are good and encouraging and build people up. Or we can say things that are hurtful and condemning. That happens in families all the time. Husbands and wives can be bitter to one another and say things back and forth that destroys the children. Children can be put upon and condemned. Why don't you do better in school? Why can't you get grades like your brother? Why

can't you play the instrument or sing like your sister? And we use those words to condemn, to direct, and it directs in a negative way. Or we can direct in a positive way with speaking things that are encouraging, uplifting, always seeking to encourage, always seeking to commend rather than to condemn, and help direct that life. Speaking the things of the Word of God, nurturing our families with the Word, and helping direct them along a powerful direction where life is concerned, like a bit and like a rather. Power to direct. But we also have the power to destroy

with our speech, and that's what we got into last time. In verses 5 and 6, we saw the area of the power to destroy as a fire. And we looked at all the different ways that a fire can consume. It starts off as a small spark, and yet can turn into a raging inferno, and just destroy everything in its path. And so to the tongue, he says, is like a fire that's been set on fire from hell, from

Gehenna, from that place of judgment that God is sending the demonic angels and those who refuse to receive his offer of salvation through his son, Jesus Christ. He said that sets on fire the fires of the tongue. And how we can destroy that fire is through the power of the Spirit. Destroy people. You can belittle, and you can condemn, and you can ride people. Do you know

that you will never get somebody to do what they need to do by just out and out telling them over and over and over what to do? I mean, they need to be told. We need to tell each other. That is part of discipling, is telling, relaying, relating the stories of the gospel, the good news. But unless it's followed by an example, it will never get done. That's why in marriage relationships, guys,

it never benefits you to tell your wife to submit unto you as unto the Lord. Wives, it never benefits you to tell your husband, you need to love me and cherish me as Jesus cherished the church, and condemn when we don't do that, because that will not get it done in either direction. It's only as we love one another that way. See, wives, it's only as you take that step and submit unto your husbands as unto the Lord, whether they're living as they should be or not, that will cause them to be convicted. That's

what Peter said about Sarah. Men, it's only as you begin to cherish your wife and love her that she will be brought by God's Spirit into that attitude of submitting unto your authority as she sees the workings of Christ in your life. Rather than complaining at the job because these things are not getting done, and why can't you do these things as you model that behavior before the people that need, this is the way it needs to be done, they'll begin to do it that way. They'll begin to follow you in doing that. If you feel like you don't have any friends, then be a friend. Show, model that

friendship before people so they can see what a friend is supposed to be. A fire destroys, though. We can condemn, we can be critical, we can just consume everything in our path just as a fire destroys everything in its path. And then we'll pick up today in verse 7 with the second half of the power to destroy with the tongue, where James writes, all kinds of animals and birds and reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue. Verse 8, it's a restless evil full of deadly

poison. Now, I want to associate the animals with being poisonous animals, really primarily because of verse 8. He equates it, the animals being tamed with the tongue not being able to be tamed because it's a restless evil full of deadly poison. And if we think of the taming of animals, that's one thing, but you think of taming poisonous animals or animals that can really hurt you, and that's a whole other thing. But James wants us to think about this

idea of the power of the tongue and its ability to destroy and its ability not to be controlled, not to be tamed by us, by man. And so he equates it with animals. He says, all kinds of animals. And when he mentions animals, birds, reptiles, and creatures of the sea, he's hitting every variety in the animal kingdom, in the animal world. Every animal that we know of in the animal kingdom is covered by James. And he says, all kinds of animals have

been tamed. So he wants us to stop and think about that for a minute. Think about the animals and the whole spectrum of the animal world. Think about the creation in the animal kingdom. Think about God's creation and how God has manifested himself through the animal kingdom. If you have the channel, you've seen some pretty awesome things on it, where the animals are concerned. Just maybe

some different animals that you've never seen before. I don't know how you can look at the animal world and think it evolved. I mean, it's bad enough looking at man and thinking we evolved from something stupid from a scientific point of view, from where the evidence is concerned. You can't even look at a cellular structure. You can't even look at one cell that has several

thousand amino combinations that have to be in the right place at the right time for that cell to function and pass information from one cell to another. And you figure we have trillions of cells in our cellular system, and all of those have to be in the right molecular and amino structure to be able to take and do what they're supposed to do, whether it's transferring oxygen, transferring blood, transferring chemicals out of the body or into the body, whatever it is. All of those have to be in the right sequence at the right time or nothing happens. The mathematical possibility for that to happen by chance with one cell is staggering, let alone the trillions of cells that are in the human body. To think about that

happening, it's ridiculous. But then look at the animal kingdom. As you consider the animals, it's amazing. You have to know that God created these things, put them together. They couldn't have just happened by chance. I received some information from the Genesis seminar. And again, be aware of that, that it's happening in April here again in Wichita. We'll have more information out on that

the closer it gets. But I received a little cassette of some songs that are really cool. And one of them is about designed to do what it's supposed to do. And it's about the platypus. I don't know if you even have any idea what a platypus is. It lives in Australia. A platypus is kind of a combination of a lot of things. It's like God had a whole family of animals,

a whole bunch of fun putting this one together. Because it's, I mean, he's got fur on him, kind of like an otter or a beaver. He's got a beaver-type tail, but he has webbed feet. He has a beak like a duck. He has spurs on the back of his legs like a rooster. He has sonar. He navigates by sonar like a bat. Looks like a mammal, but he lays eggs. He's poisonous, and yet he nurses his

young, nurses its young, produces milk to nurse its young, along with the poison in its system. Now, any one of those things, you think about the systems that would have to be together. I mean, it had to be spontaneously generated because none of that would fall together on its own over the course of time. Considering God's creation is awesome. Consider the vastness of it and

how many things are big, like killer whales, or vicious, like alligators and crocodiles, or awesome, like in the bird kingdom, the eagles and the hawks and the falcons. Some things that are repulsive to me, like boa constrictors and tarantulas and rats. And yet all of those have been trained. All of those have been trained. All of those have been trained. All of those have been

tamed by man. Maybe you've seen Siegfried and Roy before, and they're white tigers. Those things are awesome, tamed by man. And you stop and you consider that, and you think about the awesomeness of God's creation and how man's been able to work with and tame things from every part of it. But then James says, yet no man can tame the tongue. No man can tame the tongue. And he says it's like

a poison. It's like a poison. Now, there are some animals in the animal kingdom that are poisonous, like the platypus. Now, I don't really have a fear of being bit by a platypus. But in Kansas, there are greater opportunities to be bit by things like a brown recluse spider. Most of us have them around. Everybody should own one. When I first joined the police department,

the sergeant on my shift was investigating a crime scene, and it was a pretty run-down area that he was in. And unbeknownst to him, a brown recluse crawled up inside of his pant leg and bit him on the inside of the thigh. Now, he felt something, but he didn't know what it was until later on, he noticed the flesh starting to turn brown. He went to the doctor, and they said, that's a recluse spider bite, and they need to be treated.

He had to fillet it all open and cut the skin away that was dying there and on some of the tissue, kind of a gross kind of thing. But poisons like that are subtle like that. They kind of work their way in, and then it takes a while, usually, and then all of a sudden it manifests itself with an impairment like the flesh begins to die, or you die, one or the other. And the tongue is related to that because it's a poison. It's so easy for us to inject things into our conversations with

others. That's just a little poison. Think back during the week, this past week, how many things did you happen to say? In conversation, that you said with the idea in mind that you wanted somebody to have the same negative attitude with you towards this other person, or that you wanted to just kind of say something that would hurt somebody down the road. Now, maybe that didn't bother you at all,

but it did me this week. I had to go to a brother and confess and repent before him because I had said something to him. I just injected something in a conversation, and the Lord, because of this study, just went zip. Why did I even say that? Listen to the benefit of either the brother or I or what I had shared. It was nothing more than to just inject some poison. How easy that can happen. James said it's so easy that we can tame

animals. We can tame animals from every segment of the animal kingdom, he says here, but no man can tame the tongue. No man can tame the tongue. Now, notice by him saying that, he's not saying that the tongue cannot be tamed. He didn't say that. He says no man can tame the tongue. The only way that the tongue is tamed is by the power of God residing within us. Now, it can be there in

the person of the Holy Spirit, but we have to draw close to the Lord and let him fill us. That's why Paul says in Ephesians to keep on being filled by the Spirit because it's so easy as Christians to just not draw near to the Lord, and that's what Satan wants to get us to do is just be so occupied with everything else that we're not drawing close to God, and we like that charcoal that's pulled away from the flame will eventually flicker and die. That's why it's so necessary. That's why I emphasized that at the beginning of the study. It's so necessary for us to be with the Lord,

to be drawing near to the Lord because we've got a place to be with the Lord. We've got to be poisoned here that even as Christians, even as a pastor, we can inject into conversation little things that seek to poison people towards other people. You realize the first recorded sin, and I mentioned this, I guess, a couple weeks ago. The first recorded sin in the Bible dealt with the tongue. You say, well, wait a minute. No, it was Eve taking the fruit. Well, yeah, but let's go

back just a hair before that. It was actually a conversation between Eve and the serpent, and the serpent said, yea, hath God said, and the woman's involved in a conversation with the serpent. Actually, a kind of a confrontive argument, and she gives in, and she presents the fruit to Adam, and Adam eats the fruit, and then God comes, and what does Adam say when he's confronted? We mentioned this a couple weeks ago, and all I said was, it's the woman, Lord, but actually in Genesis 3.12, the literal statement is, it's the woman you gave me. I didn't ask. I was content. I had

all these animals around. But you gave me the woman, and so it was blaming God, pointing the finger at God, and saying, you're the one. The untamed tongue does that. Doesn't it? I mean, when we swear, that's what we're doing, blaming God, or asking God to damn something because we're ticked off at it. Blaming God or calling on God to do something that he has

no intention of doing. But it's exciting because the first recorded miracle when the church was born at Pentecost was the tamed tongue as the upper room was filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, and what did those people do in the upper room? They began to praise God and declare his wondrous works in many languages. You ever wondered why that happened? I mean, take some time as you're

reading scripture and go, why did he do that? Why did they do it that way? This upper room, and they've been praying, and they're waiting for the power on high, which Jesus said would come so that they could be what? Witnesses, right? Okay. They're sitting there praying. All of a sudden, sound is of a rushing mighty wind fills the upper room, and all of a sudden, little tongues of flame sit over

the heads of each of the disciples. Now, I don't know about you, but if that happened to me, I'd be going, wow, you know? Like, way cool, man. This is awesome. And then it fills them, and they begin to praise God and declare his wondrous works in various languages. Now, why, if it were me, I would fill that room with these tongues of fire, and then I'd have

explosive light shows come flying out the window, you know, and smoke. We'd have some flash pods, and smoke could fire off here and there around, you know, and the people would come, and then you could just tell them about the work, right? Why did God do it this way with the anointing of the Spirit and the speaking, declaring the praises of God and his awesomeness in the different languages? Because the first sin involved an untamed tongue, a tongue that was self-directed, that was self-seeking, that sought to glorify itself, that sought to benefit itself. And the

first miracle with the birth of the church, with the indwelling Holy Spirit, with the tongue that was controlled by the power of God, was to declare the praises and the awesomeness of the glory of God. You see, no man contained the tongue, but God can. The indwelling power of the Holy Spirit contained the tongue. The tongue has the power to direct. The tongue has the power to destroy.

And thirdly here, we find that the tongue has the power to dispense. The tongue has the power to dispense either good or evil. He says, with the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth comes praise and cursing. My brother, this should not be. We have the power to dispense either good or evil.

It says here that we either, with it we either praise our Lord and Father. Now, why did he say that? Another question. Why did he say that? Why didn't he say, with it we praise God and with it we curse men? Why did he say, with it we praise our Lord and Father? What does it mean when we read the word Lord in scripture? What does that connote? What does that indicate? We say Jesus is Lord. What do we mean? We mean he's absolute sovereign. We mean

he's not only the director of our life, but he is the one to whom we submit. He is the one we want to please. He is the one we desire to obey. He is in control. I am not. He is Lord. I am not. He's directing my life. I am not. He is directing my life. I am not. He is directing my life. I am not. I want to do what he wants me to do, not what I want to do, or I am Lord. So if Jesus is Lord,

then I am his servant, and I will seek to be obedient to him, or I won't call him Lord. And that's in essence what he says in his word, is why do you call me Lord? And then do what you want to do. But it says here, with our tongue we bless or praise our Lord. So we acknowledge him as sovereign, as ruler, as authority over my life, as the one to whom I answer, as the one

to whom I want to please, as the one to whom I want to submit, and Father. Now Father indicates a more intimate term from scripture. Abba, my dear Father, my dear close one, the one who I want to come and crawl upon your lap and just feel that embrace of your arms, feel that protection, feel that warmth, feel that security. That's the idea of Father there. So Lord and Father,

with our tongue we bless and praise our Lord and our Father, and with it we curse men who are what? It says, likeness of God. Well, we just said we praise God who is Lord and Father. What about the men who are made in the likeness of our Lord and Father? That's initially what he means here. We're made in God's likeness. It means from the same spirit, from the same essence that he's imparted to us.

We're made in his likeness. It means we're made with parts of his eternalness and parts of his quality and part of his character is in each and every one of us. So how can we curse each other and love God? And that's exactly what John says in his first epistle in chapter four, when he says, how can you say you love God, who you can't see when you don't love your brother, who you can't. And the answer that's

demanded is you can't. It doesn't work. This is a moral incongruity. There's a word, remember geometry and angles. You have congruent angles. Those are angles that are the same kind of angles. They fit on top of one another. They're congruent. They work together. They're a little thing with a little tilde over the top. They're not congruent. It means they don't fit. They don't work together.

There's a little thing with a little tilde over the top and a slice through it. They're not congruent. They're incongruent. They will not fit. You can't put the two together. You can't put the two angles together. That's exactly what James is saying about us. If with our mouth, we seek to praise our Lord and father, and at the same time, curse, condemn men made in his likeness. We can't

do that. It's incongruent. It's inconsistent. It shows that you have a heart that's in trouble. If we can do that, there's a heart problem. And the heart problem when that happens is we're not close to the Lord. We're not drawing near. Either we're not saved or we've strayed. Because if I'm drawing close to him and he's drawing close to me, I will be filled with his spirit. And Ephesians

and Colossians both say that that results in singing songs of praise in our hearts. So it gets a constant awareness of praise. It's a Pentecost experience. It's praising and declaring the works of God. If I'm filled with the spirit, he's in control. He's Lord. He's my father. And you say, man, that takes some effort. I don't read anywhere in here where it says it's going to be a

just a real easy job. Paul says, I press on. I labor. I agonize. So I reach towards the mark. I put behind me the things that are past and I press. I pursue. I agonize towards that. That's it. It's a struggle. Absolutely. It's a struggle. And you're fighting an enemy who wants to consume you, who wants to destroy you. And he knows the one way to do it that's real easy. Just keep you away from him.

Keep you away from him. You'll look like the world, act like the world, talk like the world. And he went and you'll be a coal that's flickering. That's why I said at the beginning, if you're not any time with the Lord at all, I didn't say you had to spend an hour a day. I didn't put any time limits on it. If you're not spending any time with the Lord at all during the day, you're dead.

You're dead meat. You're exactly where Satan wants you to be. And you will be dispensing the cursings, the things of the world, rather than dispensing the good that God desires for us to dispense. And he gives us two examples here quickly. Let me go through these two examples. Two examples from nature. Again, nature is his creation. It cannot lie. Nature doesn't do the

stuff with us. It doesn't do the stuff with us. It doesn't do the stuff with us. It doesn't do the Do you realize there's no homosexuality in nature? You realize that? God created everything to reproduce after its kind. And it does that. But let's look. He gives us two examples from nature. The first example is water here. Let's look at water. Can both fresh water and salt

water or bitter water flow from the same spring? Now, fresh water is something that's necessary for us for daily life. Now, we in America are so spoiled because we take that for granted. You can walk out those doors and down the hall and you have multiple fountains. You can, push a button and drink water from. Do you realize that most of the world cannot do that?

Most of the rest of the world. You need to drive down. If you can't go overseas, you need to at least go down across the border into Mexico sometime. Want a good vacation? Go to Mexico. If you can afford to go overseas, you need to go overseas. Well, the minute we landed in Africa, we knew we were in trouble. I mean, you don't have drinking fountains. You are fortunate

to have bottled water and you want to pray. We got all of our bottled water and got it all together and we rationed it out and we made sure that we had enough bottled water because you can't drink the water over there. We take fresh water for granted. We don't have bottled water over there. But we need water every day. Fresh water. You need water to irrigate with. You need water to

cook with. You need water to wash with. It's so refreshing to wash in clean, fresh water. You've been working real hard. You've been out in the yard or you're at work and you're doing all this stuff. You guys that do this physical labor and you come home and you're a sweaty, stinky, greasy mess. And at first you want to walk in and just let that water just flow. And it's just so

refreshing. You're refreshed with fresh water because it's a cleansing. It's a purifying that happens. That's the labor that's outside the temple. That's between the brazen altar of sacrifice and the end of the day. That's the labor that's outside the temple. That's between the entrance to the inner part of the holy place. There was a big labor, a wash basin because the

priests would sacrifice all the animals and they were covered with the blood of the animal which represented sin. Then they had to go into the temple. What did they have to do? They had to go to the labor. They had to wash up. They had to get clean. And that represented redemption and the word of God refreshing and washing over before they went in. We'll have to do a study in the

tabernacle. It's awesome to see the elements of the tabernacle and what they represent. You read about all the different 50 little silver rings across the top of a brass pole that's set in a gold base or a gold pole is set in a brass base. Why is it that way? Why didn't they just make a gold pole and a gold base and gold over it? That's a whole nother study. But that's

what the labor was for, was to wash, to refresh, to cleanse. Fresh water is a necessary part of our daily life. And the word of God has a whole lot to say about fresh water of the tongue, the refreshing of the tongue. Proverbs 18, 4, the words of a man's mouth are deep waters, but the fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook. We're in the time tunnel. Proverbs 10, chapter 10,

11 says the mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life. The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life. If you have been around someone who loves the Lord, just being in their presence and they don't have to be hyped or anything. They just talk about the Lord and you know they're in that relationship with him. It's refreshing to be around them, isn't it? You know those people.

You just like to be with them because God just kind of oozes out of them. It's refreshing. It is refreshing. It's like a fountain of refreshing. You know those two that when you're around, all they do is gripe and complain and they got to complain about this and complain about that. Nothing's right. It wears you out. You haven't done anything, you know, but just being around that just wears you out.

Water cleanses and refreshes. I normally have you turn there, but for the sake of time, just in Ephesians chapter 5, verse 25, it talks about the areas of, well, actually back in verse 18, it talks about being filled with the Spirit. Don't be drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Be being filled with the Spirit. Speaking to yourselves in psalms

and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Husbands or wives, submit yourselves unto your husbands as unto the Lord. Husbands, love your wives. Verse 25, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Now, that's what I used to remember all of what I used to remember about husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the

church and gave himself for her. I need to sacrifice myself. I need to die to myself for my wife, but there's a comma there. Gave himself up for her, comma, cleansing her with the washing of the water of the word. We are cleansed as the church, not only by the Spirit, but by the Holy Spirit. The fact that Jesus died for us, but as we take in his word, it cleanses us. It's a water of

refreshing that strengthens us and cleanses us. Now, husbands, there's a practical application of that too with us to our wives. You want to refresh your marriage, and I want it, and I'm going to try. Then wash your wives with your words, and specifically the word of God. But I don't mean you go have a Bible study with your wife specifically, or that you walk in and say,

hello, dear, hast thou been? Blessed and refreshed, you know. But speak to her the kindness and the mercy and the grace that God has bestowed upon us. Speak that to your wife. Refresh her with the words of encouragement. I don't want to show hands. How many wives feel refreshed this week? Because their husbands have just lovingly spoken words of refreshing to them this week. We have that opportunity to dispense

the words and refresh each other. It's what refreshes a marriage is those words of refreshing. Paul says in Romans chapter 15, verse 32, he wanted the church of Rome to pray for him that God might bless his time, that he could come to be with them, and that they could joy together and be refreshed. He wanted to be refreshed by the things they had to share with him as well. Now, James says here in James chapter 3, can fresh water and

salt water or bitter water flow from the same spring? It's a rhetorical question. No, it can't. Nature shows us so. You don't go see old faithful, the geyser that builds up all that sulfur and all the gas down there and blows up 45 minutes and all the salt. It's a rhetorical question. It's a rhetorical question. It stinks. Sulfur water blowing out of there. Then you come back and in 45 minutes,

you got a drinking glass and you're ready because it's going to blow out nice, fresh water, pure water. It comes right out from the tap. It doesn't work that way. It doesn't happen in nature. Water not controlled can bring death and can bring destruction. You got floods that happen when water's out of control. You've got poison wells that happen when water is out of control. A

fountain or spring cannot bring two different kinds of water forth. It's water out of control and it's deadly. And James says, this can't happen. It doesn't happen in nature. If it's happening with us, with our tongues, then there's an inconsistency and the inconsistency is because of our heart relationship with the Lord. We've drifted. We've put some distance between us and the Lord. He says, let me give

you one more example real quick. Verse 12. My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives or a grape vine bear figs? Again, a rhetorical question though, but you see, you can read over that so fast and not think about the concept of it and miss what he, the emphasis of what he's talking about. Can, can this fig tree bring forth olives? Can this bring forth what it's designed to do?

Can it bring forth something other than what it's designed to bring forth? No, it can't. Let's think about trees for a minute. Trees provide shade. Trees provide protection against erosion on a land. Trees provide fruit. Now you'd have to be from the Middle East to really get the impact of anything in the Bible that talks about trees. But if you go to Israel, you find out, or any of

the Middle Eastern country, it's scarce. Trees are scarce. Matter of fact, when, when Palestine was Palestine back before 1948, it was desert. There was nothing there except a few Bedouins. When Israel took it over in 1948, they came in. And one of the first things they did was they began to plant stuff. They irrigated and they planted trees. They planted orchards of orange, orange

orchards and apple orchards. They planted all kinds of different, uh, uh, just regular trees to where you go through there now. And there are sections of, of Israel that look like Southern California or that look like Florida. They're just groves of oranges. We drove down through a mountainous area and there were trees. We drove down to a mountainous area and there were trees.

We thought we were in Washington State or Oregon. The forests were just thick. All of them planted by hand. Matter of fact, we had an opportunity while we were there on our tour to go as busloads and we could buy little trees. And you go down and you go down to this area where they're planting trees along the hillsides here and you plant a little tree and they put your name on it so that

in 50 years you can come back and here's this forest, you know, there's my tree. But they're planting the trees because the trees were scarce and they were a, uh, a very worthy commodity. They needed the trees. And that's a picture here. As far as we think of the trees producing the fruit that's necessary for our sustenance. Our words are like refreshing fruit. Proverbs 10, 21 says the lips of the righteous feed many. The

lips of the righteous feed many. Again, just like the waters of refreshing. How many times have you been, uh, under the gun? You've been pressured in certain situations and you're around another brother or sister in the Lord and they just take time and maybe they share some nuggets from the word or pray with you and you feel refreshed. You feel like you've eaten. You've feasted. That's

how others feel when we share God's word with them. That's why it's such a blessing to be able to do that. To share God's word with people. The tree's root system is the most important part of the tree. If the tree has shallow roots, the storms come and it'll blow the tree over. But just as Colossians 2 verses 6 and 7 says, so then just as you receive Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live

in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught and overflowing with thankfulness. Psalm 1 talks about the, the good, man whose roots go down deep, deep into the, into the streams of refreshing, deep into the word of God, deep into that relationship with the Lord. That's a good tree. That's a strong tree. That's a healthy tree. It involves spending time with Jesus, seeking out that refreshing with the

Lord, just like the tree that puts down its roots. Let me ask you something. Where, where's your life been rooted this week? Where have your roots traveled this week? 20 hours of TV or 20 hours of refreshing with the Lord. What's your root system picked up? You see, that'll be reflected in your language. That'll be reflected in your speech. That'll be reflected in

the attitudes that are expressed on your tongue. We become like what we're around. What kind of water are you dispensing? Or is it sweet water, refreshing water that people, they, they just want to be around you because you're speaking that refreshing that comes from the Lord? Or is it bitter water? You're there around you and all they hear is complain, complain, complain. What

kind of water, what kind of fruit are you dispensing? You can't, you can't bring forth both good and evil. You can't bring forth the refreshing from the Lord and the bitter fruit from over here. You can't bring forth the fountain of water to refresh and the bitter water. You can't. It's impossible. It's a moral incongruity. It doesn't fit. It reflects a heart that is not drawing close to the Lord. And God's calling us to do that.

This week, you and I have a fresh week. We have the power to direct this week. You will come in contact with people in your daily endeavors that you will be able to direct. You will be able to direct, either to direct them towards the things of the Lord or to direct them right into the pit. You'll have the power to destroy. You will have the power to just take someone and chew them up,

to consume them, to destroy their life. You'll have the power to dispense. The power either to dispense a bitter fruit, a condemning water, or a refreshing. Refreshing water is a fountain. Refreshing fruit. You have the opportunity for that this week. And for that, you will give an account to God. Let's stand together. The times are so hot right now. The season is so

hot. The electricity is so intense with what God is doing. The power of God moving. Hearts are open. Lives are being touched. It's not a time. It's not a season to sleep. It's not a season to slack. You're going to miss some powerful things that God is doing. And he wants to do them through us. That's what's amazing. That's what amazes me all the time. He wants to use us. I can see

Billy Grant, but he wants to use us. David said in Psalm 19, Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. Father, may that be so with each one of us. You have given us such an awesome, awesome tool, an awesome power in our speech, in our time. With it, we have the power to direct lives, either to direct them and point them to you and encourage them in that route or

to direct them into destruction. With it, we have the power to either encourage or to destroy, to consume as a fire. With it, we have the power to dispense either fresh water and fresh fruit that's encouraging and uplifting and helps sustains life or to dispense bitterness and condemning. Father, may we see the awesome gift that you've given us and realize that the fruit comes from our spending time with you. May the

words of our lips and the meditations of our hearts, Lord, be acceptable in your sight. For you are our strength. You're our rock and our redeemer. We give you praise this morning. In Jesus' name, amen.