This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to day three of our look together through James chapter 3
in Daily Drive Time Devotions. We're talking about the power of our tongue, the
power of our speech, the power of our words. Today we look at the first two
principles that James has to share with us that our words have tremendous power
to direct and your words also have tremendous power to destroy.

And understanding both of those truths helps us to have faith, trust in God when
it comes to the way that we speak. All that James is writing is he's writing to
encourage us to realize with my words I need to have faith. It needs to be one
of the areas, one of the arenas of faith in my life where I'm trusting him.

There's a third truth that James hits us with when it comes to words. I talked
yesterday about a couple of pictures that James gives to us. He gives us the
picture of a fire and a rudder and also a spring.

There's one other picture that I'd like to add today. He also gives us the
picture of wild animals. In verses 7 and 8 James says this, "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. " Now we read that. No man can tame
the tongue.

I've talked to a lot of people about this verse and you know what the first
thing we think is? We read James saying no man can tame the tongue and we think
okay so how do I tame it? No man, no woman can tame the tongue.

You cannot and this really bugs us. We want to be able to tame it. We want to be
able to figure this all out.

You can hold your tongue, you can control your tongue, you can mind your tongue,
but you cannot tame your tongue. There's no secret pill or secret verse that
from now on you're always going to say good words automatically. In the end
what's in your heart is always going to leak out into your words.

It is inevitable. So here's the principle behind this one. You can't tame your
tongue, but God can control your tongue.

That's a day to day decision. What cannot be tamed can be reigned. Remember we
talked about the horse, the bit in the horse's mouth on day one.

God can control our tongue if we'll ask him to on a day to day basis. Here's the
encouragement in these verses. Quit trying to tame your tongue.

Quit trying to be perfect by yourself, by your own energy and strength with the
words that you say. It is impossible. In fact the harder you try the worse it's
going to get.

What you do is this. You start working on your heart because that's the source.
That's what's going to leak out into your tongue, your words all the time.

And then you ask God to control your words, what you say. God give me constant
faith in you. Trust in you.

Stop me from saying things I don't need to say. Now if you're like me, this is a
lifetime project. Learning to say the right thing at the right time, to not say
the wrong thing at the wrong time.

It's a lifetime project. I'm still making mistakes on this one every single day,
but I've also seen some growth in my life. And I believe you can too as you
trust God on a daily basis, in fact some of you have.

You trust him on a daily basis not to tame your tongue, but to control your
tongue. And that's a moment by moment decision. What's your tongue like?

It's a rudder. It's a fire. It's like a wild animal.

And then there's a fourth picture that James gives us. It's like a spring.
Listen to what he says in verses 9 to 12.

"With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who've
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 grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring
produce fresh water.

Your tongue directs your life. Your tongue can destroy others. Your tongue can't
be tamed, but it can be controlled by God.

And your tongue also expresses your heart, your character. That's the principle
here. James talks about both praise and cursing coming out of the same mouth.

The truth is, as all of us read this, we've all experienced what James is
talking about here. One moment I'm singing a praise hymn to God in church, and
I'm talking to God and telling him how grateful I am for what he's done in my
life. And I'm talking to others about God.

And then I get in the car on the way home from church and something just doesn't
seem right with my kids or with my wife or with my friend. And all of a sudden,
the words that are coming out of my mouth have nothing to do with what just
happened. How could that be, James is asking?

What he's saying to us here is don't settle for that. Don't think that that's OK
or the way that you want life to be. Recognize that God can begin to work a
difference.

That dissatisfaction that I feel with this happening, that heartbreak that you
feel with this happening. Let that heartbreak lead you to trust God in new ways.
James is also recognizing here that our mouths, our words, just like a spring,
it has to be consistent.

If I think I'm going to be able to praise God at one moment and curse men at the
other moment and that's going to have any impact on people's lives, it is not.
If I go to a spring and I know that 80% of the time I'm going to get fresh water
out of it and 20% of the time the water is going to be foul, I'm not going to
get water out of that spring. If I do, I'm going to check it, check it, and
check it again.

I'm not going to trust it. You want people to trust your words? There needs to
become a consistency to your words.

Not a perfection. None of us are perfect. But a consistency.

Consistent gentleness, consistent peace, consistent encouragement to your words.
James is saying here don't settle for some good words to balance out the bad
words and think that's good enough. That is not the way of Christ.

That may be the way of business. That is not the way of Christ. Because unless
our words are consistent, they lose their internal impact on people's lives.

One taste of poisonous water could ruin your day, could destroy your life, and
one word can ruin another person's life. So what do you do? What do you do when
you speak what James calls here poisonous words?

Because we all do. When you do that, you say the truth and you ask for
forgiveness. When you say the wrong thing, you go back and you say, "Hey, I said
the wrong thing.

" You say the truth. You don't pretend it never happened. You don't try to say
enough good things to make up for the bad thing.

I don't know why we do that. We do all the time. We say something that's
terrible to someone, and then we try to heap encouragement on them, never
recognizing, never having the humility to say, "You know what?

What I said before, it was wrong, and I'm sorry. I'm sorry. " So you say the
truth, and then you do what I just said.

You ask for forgiveness. Forgive me for saying that. I'm trying to get better at
that.

Here's the principle with this one. Your tongue is a spring. The source of your
words is your heart.

Jesus talked about this in Matthew 15, 18. The things that come out of your
mouth come from the heart. That's what Jesus said.

If my tongue is inconsistent, that means that something is wrong with my heart,
and my heart is inconsistent. So where do I work? I don't work on shutting off
the spring where it's spouting out.

I work at the source. I work on my heart. And I say, "God, would you change my
heart?

Make me more like you. " Someone on our research team, as they were reading
through these verses, was reminded that Pastor Rick Warren one time said
something about how we should think before we speak. And they asked, "Could you
remind us of what that was?

" And I'm glad to. T-H-I-N-K, using that as an acrostic, "How can I think before
I speak? " T stands for, "Is it truthful?

" Before you say something, ask yourself, "Is it the truth? " H stands for, "Is
it helpful? " Or is it just going to harm the other person?

If it's going to harm, don't say it. If it's helpful, say it. These are five
things to think about before you say it.

And if they don't fit one of these five things, then don't say it. Is it
truthful? Is it helpful?

Is it inspirational? That's what I stands for. Does it build people's lives up?

Does it encourage people? Or does it tear down? And is it necessary?

If it's not necessary, then don't say it. We say so many things that just aren't
necessary. Some things aren't necessarily wrong.

They're just not necessary. So you don't need to say it. And K stands for, "Is
it kind?

" Is this a kind word that I'm saying? Is it said in gentleness and kindness?
You think before you speak.

You reflect before you react. And as you think before you speak, you say, "God,
would you impact my heart so that I could speak the things into this world that
lead people to you, that lead people to faith, that lead people to hope? " Now,
when we talk about talking, this is an area where we all struggle.

And you could go down a path of guilt real quickly. You could begin to think
thoughts about yourself, what a terrible person you are because of the things
that you've said. But that's not going to make a difference either.

If you know you've said something wrong to someone, it needs to be made right,
go make it right. Satan would love for you just to feel guilty in your own mind
and never make it right with the other person. No, you make it right.

You say the truth and you ask for forgiveness. And then you ask God for the
strength to speak the truth in daily life. Let's ask him for strength right now
together as we pray.

God, as I said yesterday in our prayer, every one of us struggles in this area.
And I pray that, I pray first of all, that we bring our sins to you and ask for
forgiveness. Those times when we've said things just out of selfishness, just
out of irritation, just out of wanting to get our way.

And we may have acted like it was even a holy spiritual thing to say, but the
truth of the matter is our heart was selfish. God forgive us when we do that.
And as you forgive us, I pray you'd give us the humility to go to others, to
tell the truth, to say we were wrong, to ask for forgiveness.

And then God, I pray you'd give us the faith, the faith to speak words that
build others up. It is so tempting to try to take a shortcut and use anger or
harsh words to get our way more quickly. God, give us the faith to trust in you.

You've told us to speak the kinds of words that build people up, that lead
people to you. Help us to speak those kinds of words today, we pray. In your
name, amen.

Be sure to join us tomorrow. We're going to change subjects. James, at the end
of this chapter, begins to talk about true wisdom and how it can be found in our
lives.

We'll see you tomorrow.