A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. 3  Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. 2  For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. 3  If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. 4  Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 5  So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! 6  And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. 7  For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed ...

Click here to listen to this sermon. “The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary” (Isaiah 50:4). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Many philosophers have said many things about holding your tongue and watching what you say. Among my favorites is Thumper: “If you can’t say some’tin nice… don’t say nothin’ at all.” Then there’s: “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak up and remove all doubt.” (Variously attributed to Mark Twain, Abraham Lincoln, and Samuel Johnson). And finally: “That mouth of yours is going to get you in big trouble some day!” (Spoken by countless mothers and fathers throughout history). Controlling the tongue is neither simple nor easy. It is not simply a peripheral issue on the edges of Christian life, but it is the key to controlling the whole self. Someone who is careful with their words and has learned to exercise self...

Click here to listen to this sermon. “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body” (James 3:1-2). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! There once was a man who, while listening to a sermon in church was convicted of his sin, and he set out to do better. “I have sinned against [God] in thought, word, and deed,” he’d said week after week, but this day he especially sensed it was true. He reasoned that his evil thoughts often caught him off guard and might be difficult to change. His evil actions, he decided, were often a product of his thoughts and words. So he would first focus on his words; his words were more likely something he could change. If he could catch himself before he said something he’d regret, he would also have more ...