“Tongue Tied” || Release What You’re Not in Control Of || Week 3

We are in Week Three of “Release What Your Not In Control Of”! This series talks about our issues with controlling things, or more accurately, my issues with controlling things. I wanted to create a sermon series talking about my control issues and, through scripture and personal testimony, try to help you with your possible control issues. I think God had us cross paths for a reason and I’m glad you’re here. Let’s dive into the word!

Week Three brings us to the writings of Solomon and James, two names that I feel don’t get enough love in the Bible. We see what they have to say about how the tongue and control are combined. Let’s dive into Week Three’s message entitled, “Tongue Tied”.

Proverbs 18:21 says: “The tongue can speak words that bring life or death. Those who love to talk must be ready to accept what it brings.” It reminds us that the greatest harm is in the power of the tongue. Plain and simple, but I want to go deeper! How about you?

Let’s turn to James 3:6-10, which says: “The tongue is like a fire. It is a world of evil among the parts of our body. It spreads its evil through our whole body and starts a fire that influences all of life. It gets this fire from hell. Humans have control over every kind of wild animal, bird, reptile, and fish, and they have controlled all these things. But no one can control the tongue. It is wild and evil, full of deadly poison. We use our tongues to praise our Lord and Father, but then we curse people who were created in God’s likeness. These praises and curses come from the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, this should not happen.” A lot to go through compared to Proverbs 18:21, so let’s unpack so of this.

James compares the tongue to a fire. Our tongue can spread destruction rapidly, those words can permeate and ruin everything around it. Do I need to talk about social media now or do you understand where I’d be going already? I’ll let you decide. All I’m going to say is that social media, or media in general, can be the biggest source of destruction to not only to ourselves but to others cause certain peoples’ tongue runs faster than the Road Runner getting away from Wile E. Coyote. That’s all I’ll say. James says that we can’t control the tongue. Only God, by His power, can do this. Does this sound familiar to you? There’s a big church holiday that’s all about this. It just past us a couple weeks ago! It’s Pentecost. I won’t go into the Acts 2 passage because we can dive down this scripture rabbit hole all day, but it’s a good story about how God, via the Holy Spirit, controls all the apostle’s tongue that they all are communicating to each other in their own language, but can understand each other. James also mentions that we use our tongues to bless God, but curse others. This shows our own inconsistencies, especially because WE DO IT! I’m guilty of it and I’m sure you are too! We are all guilty of losing control of respecting one another and just feel the need/temptation to just cuss someone out either to their face or under their breath. I’m coming after you this week! We are all guilty of it! Keep your control, even to the biggest enemies that are under your skin, because we don’t know what others are going through. It’s often said and believed that bullies will bully someone because of something that they’re dealing with or that they are lashing out because of something they’re going through. Why would we want to add on to that by losing our control at someone else? Even if we feel like they deserve or not, we ARE NOT here to judge. We have one Almighty Judge that does that for us. We are called to love one another as Christ has loved us. To be there for each other. Instead of lashing out at others because WE think that they’re being rude to us when their response may be due to something outside of their control. I’m justifying a negative/harsh response that others may give you, all I’m saying is to regain your composure and control and just be nice. Be nice and respectful to others! That’s it. Let’s dive into another of James’ scriptures. I promise the James 3 section wasn’t planned, but when is a human’s planned followed in comparison of what God has planned!

It’s James 1:19-21 and it says: “My dear brothers and sisters, always be more willing to listen than to speak. Keep control of your anger. Anger does not help you live the way God wants. So get rid of everything evil in your lives – every kind of wrong you do. Be humble and accept God’s teaching that is planted in your hearts. This teaching can save you.” Always be more willing to listen than to speak. What a power word grouping to hear and wish that more people would follow. We need to respond positively to Scripture, and eagerly pursue every opportunity to know God’s word and will better. I’ve spent this time during quarantine to try and dive into the Scripture more and have been so happy with what I’ve learned. One of the best things I’ve done is a class from Classroom.Bible, a class provided by the BibleProject. It’s been an in-depth study on learning how to study the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) in a proper way and WOW, it’s been eye-opening. Even writing these series have been eye-opening. To learn different things about the Scriptures and how it hyperlinks to various sections. I’m getting off-topic. To sum my thoughts: control your time wisely and eagerly dive into Scripture. See what God’s says for you and through you. Let’s define the term “anger” that James uses here. The Greek word that describes a deep, internal resentment and rejection, in this context of God’s word. Anger won’t get us anyway and most of us use our anger improperly. Anger is a good emotion to get us aware of a crazy situation and to try and create solutions to make us less angry. We see and hear of situations going on with the coronavirus pandemic, with the refugee camps before, with the Australia wildfires, and other examples. We can get angry over what’s going on, but what it’s going to do for us unless we work on a way to fix this anger. Otherwise we get angry for the sake of being angry. Control what you get angry over before you run off to social media to express your distaste and anger over quarantine, refugees, rich people, poor people, and more. Think of a solution to fix your anger before anything is said. I tell my youth this: “Criticism without a solution is just complaining.” It’s perfectly fine to be angry and complain about something, but it’s not okay to lose your control over it and do so without thinking. I’m ending my thoughts here.

Was this about control? I hope so! There’s a message in here somewhere and it’s your homework to find it. Join us next week for the halfway point in our series. The scripture for next week is Titus 1:8. Short, sweet, and awesome! See you then!