In this sermon titled 'The Government of The Tongue', Scott Brown discusses the power and influence of the tongue in shaping the culture of a church. He highlights the importance of using our tongues to glorify God and speak words of life. Brown presents various illustrations, such as the tongue being compared to a fire and an untamable animal, to emphasize the dangers of gossip, slander, and poisonous speech. He calls for a proper government of the tongue and encourages the congregation to refrain from evil speech and cultivate a culture of love and kindness.

Please open your Bibles to James chapter three, James chapter three, And find verse one in James chapter three, verse one. This is the inerrant, all-sufficient, sweeter than honey word of God. Let's read. My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many things.

If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. Indeed, we put bits in horses' mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. Look also at ships, although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so, the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest, a little fire kindles, 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, and it is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil full of 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 does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh. The grass withers, the flower falls, but the word of our God stands forever. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for your word. That enlightens our eyes, that matures us, that corrects us, that encourages us, that helps us along our way. And I pray that you would do such a thing today. Amen. Please be seated.

We are speaking about the government of the tongue, a topical message on this subject. We're giving a series of topical messages kind of to recalibrate. This really, you know, many years ago, I received an email from a friend who was just preaching on gossip in his church and it was about 17 years ago, I don't know if you remember Hurricane Katrina that wiped out the whole southern coast of the United States and he sent me pictures of churches that were wiped out by Katrina. You know one of them, the whole bottom floor had just been washed away and another one he sent two pictures. One was a picture of this beautifully landscaped church.

And then after Katrina, it was just a concrete slab. And he sent another picture of a church that had just been gutted by the wind and the water, the tsunami that washed ashore during Hurricane Katrina. But then he said, these were just the destruction of brick and mortar. But he said the tongue destroys souls. The tongue does greater spiritual damage.

It's one thing to damage the building of a church, but to actually damage the souls of the people in the church is another matter. So we're talking about the government of the tongue. I've entitled this sermon, The Tongue is a Good Gift, and we'll see both sides of the tongue. The government of the tongue is really under a great and wonderful doctrinal category and that is that we are called to glorify God in our bodies. The chief end of man, what is the chief end of man?

Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Amen. And That's what the government of the tongue is really all about that you are not your own and That we have this we have this member of our bodies called the tongue in order to glorify God. It's very interesting. When a person first becomes a Christian, most of the time the first thing that happens is they stop cussing, they stop using profanity.

The use of the tongue is the most obvious problem in their life and so they sort of you know start at the most glaring public thing that that person is involved in and they they they usually stop cussing and and using profanity. If it returns later on in life it all almost always means they're backsliding or maybe it's possibly they had only cleaned the outside of the cup. But God does sanctify the tongues for holiness and but it's interesting there are talking changes when we're converted. In Ephesians chapter 518, it says that when you're filled with the Spirit, something changes in your life. And you begin to speak to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.

Your whole conversation changes when you are converted. You know, there's that song, beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words of life. We just sang that. Wooing us to heaven. Our conversations change when we're converted.

The things we talk about, the way we talk about God, the way we talk about one another, the way we talk to one another. These things, God changes and we become convicted at lying and we end up confessing our sins. I know many young children when they're converted the first thing they do is they go to their parents and they tell them the lies they've been telling them. It's because the Spirit of God convicts the heart. Maybe some of you are like that today And you need to confess your sin to your parents of lying, but sins of slandering and manipulating.

You know, these are the things that God progressively changes over time. And this is the life in the new community. This is the life among the redeemed. The power of sin has been broken. This is the power of the gospel.

And God begins to make changes in your heart and you begin to speak differently as a result. If a person is not speaking differently, then they may not actually have been converted because the power of sin is actually broken and very practical public things change as a result of that. And so Christ died for our sins. He died for the sins of the tongue and As we read the scripture, we know that no one contained the tongue. We'll we'll deal with that later in just a few minutes But all of us are dealing with remaining sin.

You know, I've been, for probably over a decade, I've been writing a book about the government and the tongue. And I can tell you that I've committed every sin that's identified in the book that I'm writing. And so no man can tame the tongue. You know I said that one time in this church, I think it was a Bible study, I can't remember. And one man said, well no man can tame the tongue, but Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, can tame the tongue.

That's the blessing that's here. You might even just ponder for a minute. There are a lot of people here. Think of the sins of the tongue that were committed just in this congregation collectively over the last seven days since we were together. How many sins of the tongue?

Oh, let me count the ways. You know, we stumble in many ways, but if we could count, if we could do a word count of the unprofitable words or the idle words or the slanderous ungodly words of hatred or condemnation that we've spoken, it would probably be more than we would want to know. And the Word of God actually acknowledges that but calls his people higher, progressively higher in their lives. Also we could calculate the cumulative blessings of the words that have been spoken. I expect it would be a massive load of blessings that have been spoken.

Many words of life have been spoken in this congregation over the last week. Words that really you couldn't have spoken unless God had taken hold of your heart. But He did. And you were able to speak words of love and kindness, you know to your to your friends and to your children to your spouses to your co-workers and You you you were kind toward them You know one of the things that I remember about my dad, he was a kind man. What a wonderful thing to be a kind man or a kind woman speaking, you know, words of life.

And we know that we're not always that way. I want to make two points this morning. You see them in your outline. The first point is the tongue is a good and powerful gift. I'd like to talk about that.

And then I'd like to talk about the tongue is also a trouble maker. Tongue is a trouble maker. You know I had a young man tell me this last week that he had judged that 90% of his spankings as a boy were because of something that he said. I thought that was very interesting. John Calvin said, no part of man does more harm.

Isaiah realized and understood the problem when he said, Woe is me, for I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips." And then the Lord cleansed his tongue. And that's where the cleansing comes. It's from the government of the Lord. And so on the one hand in a church you'll have sweet kindred spirits where there's their words of love. But then also you'll find that there are kindred critical spirits.

And they gather together with their kindred and they and they cultivate a critical spirit. And so we need to understand just how wonderful and just how dangerous this member is called the tongue. We learn that every good gift comes from above and I think that that a well-governed tongue is one of those good gifts. And Peter tells the church in 1 Peter 4, he says, As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God." And so you have this picture here that Peter draws where you We are ministers and we are stewards of the grace of God.

And we steward the grace of God through our tongues, through the things that we say. So we have this stewardship together with God with our tongues and these oracles the terminology in first Peter 4 the oracles of God these are literally the pronouncements of God the biblical sayings of the biblical truth the biblical promises that these are the oracles of God that we mediate to one another through this member. And so we in the church, we wanna be like David who said, "'Let the words of my mouth "'and the meditations of my heart "'be acceptable in your sight. "'Oh Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.'" In the church, the mouth of the righteous is a well of life that's Proverbs 10.1. In the church you have a gentle answer that turns away wrath.

That's Proverbs 15.1. In the church, you have a people who keep their tongue from evil and their lips from speaking deceit. That's Psalm 34, 13. In the church, the heart of the righteous studies how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours forth evil. Proverbs 15, 28.

In the church, do you see a man hasty in his words? There's more hope for a fool than for him in Proverbs 29 20. In James 1 26, if any if anyone among you thinks he's religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless. But all of these things speak about a church culture because the words that the people speak in the church shape the culture of that church. And you have a culture in a holy church where the people are speaking words of life.

You have a culture in a holy church where gossip is being expunged from the language of the people. In the culture of a holy church, there's no lying. There's a genuineness and a truthfulness. And we actually, instead of hiding, we confess our sins one to another. And we don't lie to one another, but we're people of the truth.

You know, over the years, I've encountered people who say, I don't go to church because it's full of gossippers. That's hypocrisy. Because they go to work, and the corporate world is so full of gossip and slander, it really is not funny. It's worse. It's way, way, way worse than any church.

Go to the internet. Go to Twitter. Go to Facebook. I mean, people still use Twitter and Facebook even though it's just full of slander and the people say I don't go to church because There are so many gossippers. They just might as well leave every institution and they might as well just leave all interaction with public you know communication platforms because the gossip there is far far worse than it is in the church because in a true church it's it's very constrained it's not like a corporation it's the It's the best culture in the world when it comes to the government of the tongue, when you have a church that really desires to walk with God.

Because in the church, people have the Holy Spirit, the spirit of love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control and that shapes the culture of a church and so it really it really matters how people talk with one another in the church. We have guidelines for how to talk. Beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful Words of life, words of life and beauty. These are the words of the Church of Jesus Christ. It's like it can be a little piece of heaven when the Holy Spirit fills the hearts of those who are in the Church.

I mean, even on the Lord's day, the Lord designed a day of delight and how did he do it? Well, the first part of it is that there shouldn't be any work to be done on the Lord's day. But then in Isaiah 58, we learn something so interesting, and I hope you hear this. God designed a day to alter your speech, to change, to have an entire day where you're self-consciously attempting to talk differently. And we learned that in Isaiah 58, 13.

He says, if you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, it's a holy day, it's a day like no other day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and you shall honor him, and you shall honor him not doing your own ways or speaking your own words not your own ways not your own words so when we gather together there's this different world we're not speaking our own words We're speaking the words of God to one another. We're speaking words of truth and love. And we're talking differently. We're speaking to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord. It's a holy day, it's a day like no other day.

And he says, not speaking your own words. And then he continues, you shall delight yourself in the Lord and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth. This is the altered conversation that God designs for his church. It's the culture of a true church where people speak to one another in a different way. And the truth is this.

And the truth is this, whoever controls the language controls the culture of a church. And the words always reveal a worldview. The words actually control the worldview, and the worldview shapes the words. So The words are so important. And so God wants to shape the way that we talk together in the Church of Jesus Christ.

And all our life long, He's working in us to change us progressively, because it doesn't happen all at once. Yes, we do stop cussing at the beginning, but then we find that the sins of our tongue are far deeper than that. It was way worse than we thought. We thought we could just quit using profanity and everything would be fine. But then we discovered by the illumination of the Holy Spirit and the reading of the Word of God that our problem was actually deeper than that.

It's with our tongues that we love one another, John 13, 34. It's with our tongues that we live in harmony with one another, Romans 12, 16. It's with our tongues that we live in harmony with one another, Romans 12, 16. It's with our tongues that we instruct one another, Romans 15, 14. It's with our tongues that we greet one another in Romans 16, 16.

It's with our tongues that we stop passing judgment on one another, Romans 14, 3. It's with our tongues that we accept one another, Romans 15, 7. It's with our tongues that we do not bite and devour one another. Galatians 5 15, it's with our tongues that we are kind and compassionate with one another. So the tongue is a good gift, it's a good powerful gift isn't it?

God has given us these members in our bodies that we might glorify God and enjoy Him forever. And also, by extension of our glorifying God and enjoying him, we cause the same with those who hear us. And they know what it's like to glorify God and enjoy Him forever through the words of our mouths. So that's the way God designed a, the culture of a church. You know, why are we here in this text to shape the culture of this church, that the word of God would be the primary shaper of the culture of this church on how we relate to one another in his glorious precious church that he shed his blood for.

Well, the tongue is a good gift, and it's a powerful gift, but it's also a troublemaker. It's a troublemaker. And so turn to James chapter three, you'll just see how much trouble this troublemaker makes in James chapter three. Now, in the context, it's interesting, I'm just gonna deal with the first 12 verses here, but James goes on and he talks about how where the troubles come from in the church and you'll read words after this text you'll read words like self-seeking and where do fights and wars come from you know there You have heavenly wisdom and demonic wisdom. You have all kinds of things that enter in envy particularly is one of the great troublemakers in the Church of Jesus Christ and so you have You have this whole context that starts here in James chapter three, but he goes on in chapter four as well.

You remember Hudson Taylor who founded China Inland Mission? Well after he died, his successor, D.E. Host, he was responsible for over a thousand missionaries all over China and he was he reflected on what caused all the trouble in the churches in China. He says this, looking back over these 50 years, I really think that if I were asked to mention one thing that has done more harm and occasioned more sorrow and division in God's work than anything else, I should say, tail-bearing. Tail-bearing among the Christian churches in China.

And of course we know that that's not isolated to the churches in China. And so you have one of the smallest members of the human body that does so much harm in a church. And James gives us these very graphic terms. Go ahead and turn to James chapter three. And he gives one illustration after another, and I want us to just sort of saturate in them for a few minutes here to understand the tongue, what kind of trouble this troublemaker makes in our lives.

And the first illustration, well, we'll begin in, he gives various illustrations, a rider and a horse, a captain of a ship, and a fire, untamable animals, He gives all these illustrations, but he starts like this in verse 1. There's a warning, my brethren let not many of you become teachers knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. Now This is actually a terrifying verse for a person like myself. That there's actually a stricter judgment. And I find myself using the wrong words all the time.

But this is the danger that one is in when they use a lot of words. And then, but then he doesn't leave it there he says for we all stumble in many things if anyone does not stumble in word he is a perfect man able also to bridle the whole body. There's there's much we could say about this verse. We all stumble in many things and we all stumble in the tongue. Here's one thing I think we should recognize in this church particularly.

People are gonna stumble with their tongues with you. And what are you gonna do about it? They will. They might say something insensitive. They actually might say something wrong.

What are you gonna do? They might say something insulting. And what are you gonna do about it? Here's what James would want us to think. We all stumble in many things.

We all stumble. Let's don't be so proud and be so hard on the person who stumbles in their words. You know, it's important, it's important to recognize that we all stumble in many ways. You know, Solomon in Ecclesiastes, he talks about the person who's being slandered by his servant. And he says, and do not take to heart everything people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you.

For many times, you also in your own heart has known that even you have cursed others. Ecclesiastes 721. We all stumble in many ways and if someone if someone has slandered us or anything like that, then we should recognize we've done the same thing and not be so proud about it and not be so hurt over it because like James says, for we all stumble in many things. Have mercy on one another. And then the first illustration is the rider that controls the horse.

If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. Indeed, we put bits in horses mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body." That's verses two and three. And the point here is that the tongue needs constraint. The tongue needs a bridle to keep it going in the right direction. And like horses, with a bridle, We can't go anywhere we want.

We should only go, and we will only go where the rider wants us to go. You know, the horse is a very powerful animal. It can weigh a thousand pounds. It can run a quarter of a mile in 25 seconds, but you can put a bit in a horse's mouth and an 85 pound little girl can control that horse if she has the right disposition. In other words, this untamable tongue with the right bit can be controlled.

By the way, I understand that the younger the horse, the stiffer the bit that's needed. I remember many years ago I heard Ray Steadman say, young people shoot from the lip. Well, it isn't just relegated to young people. The second illustration is from seafaring, a Look also at ships. Although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires.

So now, before you had a horse and a rider and a bridle, now you have a ship and a captain and a rudder. And this means that the tongue is the chief directional power in your life. Your tongue is like a rudder. It always takes you in a direction. We should always be careful with what we say because Our tongues take us in a direction.

They also take other people in a direction as well. And the tongue needs to be turned by the captain at the rudder. And so the captains that leave the tiller have a rudder that just goes wherever. But God designed the tongue to take you in a particular direction. The third illustration is a comparison, the small and the large.

The tongue is a small part of the body, But then he says, but it talks big and has a big impact even though the tongue is a little member and boast of great things See how great a forest a little fire Kindle so you have small this idea. It's small but it has a dramatic a dramatic impact You know the tongue of a whale weighs about 6,000 pounds. But The tongue of a male is about 70 grams. And the tongue of a female is about 60 grams. It's more nimble.

It moves faster. The size bears no resemblance to the activity. But the idea is, the tongue is small in comparison to the rest of the body, but it boasts of great things. And the fourth illustration is that it's a fire. It's a fire that burns.

This is one of the most terrifying illustrations. See how great a force a little fire kindles 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 and is set on fire by hell. So the tongue is a fire, you know, in the same way that Hurricane Katrina tore up all those churches, the tongue can burn a church to the ground and doesn't take very many. Churches are always vulnerable to the fire of the tongue.

And then the fifth illustration is an untamable animal. For every kind of beast and bird of reptile and creature of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no man can tame the tongue." And what he's saying here is that wild animals can be tamed, but the tongue can't be tamed. Even the way that a wild animal, you know, you can make an elephant dance, you can make an a whale jump through hoops, you know, you can make a dog shake hands and things like that. But the truth, you can actually see a deadly Cobra Cobra kiss a woman but you always have to know these are wild animals And the world is full of people who are training tigers and they're dead now Because they're wild because you can't trust them you know the The greatest the animal that causes the most deaths in America is the dog. Even dogs are wild animals, as trainable as they are.

So that's the illustration that he's making. The tongue is like an untamable animal, it's like a wild animal. And then the next he turns toward, toxology, he, it's a deadly poison. It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison. Toxology addresses the nature and effects and the detection of poisons that run through your body.

And he's saying, you know, like poison, speech can be toxic, like just like poison. It's like a murder weapon. Poison is one of the most helpful murder weapons that people use. And it gets into your bloodstream. But the tongue is like deadly poison.

These aren't really very flattering are they? But this language is here to help us understand what we're dealing with. And then the next is, it's a hypocrite, it's a hypocrite. 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." So this just speaks to the depth of our problem. You know, we're raising our hands, praising God, and then and then speaking evil. Within an hour or two. Or thinking evil thoughts. And then the eighth or the next illustration is the spring.

Verse 11, does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter? And so he's talking about the, I think the well spring of life from the heart, you know, brings forth either sweet water or bitter water. And then the next illustration is the fig tree. Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives or grapevine bear figs? This is a big reality shake up here, you know, these, you know, these, what is he talking about?

He's saying that an entity's true nature is demonstrated by what it produces. What comes out of a spring reveals its source. So these are the problems of the tongue. The tongue is a troublemaker. And of course, you know, the sins of the tongue are flattery, lying, idle chatter, speaking evil, blasphemy, taking the Lord's name in vain, sowing discord among brethren.

There are different ways that the tongue is a deadly poison. In Proverbs 20 verse 19, he who goes about as a tale bearer reveals secrets, therefore do not associate with one who flatters with his lips. And you know a gossip is a person who reveals personal and sensational facts, sometimes even true, rumors of intimate nature that are harmful to that person. And A person might say, well, it's not slander because it's true. No.

No. The Greek word here in this term is gossip. It's the same word for whispering. And it's to misrepresent and to damage another person's reputation. And the word tail bearer is often translated blasphemer or to speak translated blasphemer or to speak against.

And that's what we're talking about here. Slander. You know, often People think wrongly about slander. For example, they think that they can sit around the dinner table and slander people. Husbands and wives might in their bedrooms think that it's lawful for them to slander one another just because it's just this personal relationship.

And that's just not true. Slander is slander. We can poison one another against one another even when we're alone with our best friend or with our spouse or around the dinner table. Parents need to be very careful when they're sitting around the dinner table. That's not a slander, you know, that's not a culpability free zone for slander.

And you can create a family culture of slander and in speaking evil of people. Maybe that's happened in your family but it's just correctable And you just need to repent and even repent to your children if that's what you've been doing The problem with with slander is communicated in Proverbs 26 Or says where there is no wood, the fire goes out. Where there is no tail bearer, strife ceases. As charcoal is to the burning coals, and wood to the fire, so is a contentious man to kindle strife. The words of a tale bearer are like tasty trifles.

They go down into the inmost body. Fervent lips with a wicked heart are like earthenware covered with silver dross. That means that if you've heard slander or gossip, it's gone down into your innermost being. It's a poison in your soul and you'll never be the same once you hear it. You'll never think about that person again the same way once you've heard slander toward that person.

And that's one thing, one reason it makes it so dangerous is because there's actually permanent defilement. It's like a tasty trifle that goes down into the innermost being and it changes you. It changes your attitude toward a person that might actually destroy love. The slanderer is a love destroying person who multiplies his love destruction through his words that go down into the innermost being like dainty morsels. People use it often very bad excuses for gossip.

Well, I was only seeking counsel. I have a prayer request. I was just bearing my burden. I had godly sorrow. I was only sharing my concern about so-and-so.

I was only speaking the truth. There are all kinds of excuses people give for slandering other people. It's easy to justify it. In Romans 16, 17, he says, "'I urge you to note those who cause divisions who use smooth words and flattering speech and who deceive hearts. In 1 Corinthians 5 11, it says, do not keep company with anyone named a brother who is a reviler.

In Titus 3 10, he says, reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition. So it's very serious sin in the church. There's an old story that I heard a long time ago. It's a common story. Maybe you've already heard it.

But in an eastern land, this woman, She repeated a bit of gossip that she heard to her neighbor. And it didn't take very long and the story spread throughout the whole village and everybody knew the story. And of course the person who was slandered was very hurt by it. But when the lady who was responsible for spreading the slander learned that it was a rumor and that it wasn't true, she was mortified. So she went to an old wise man in the city to ask him how she could repair the damage.

And so he listened to her and and he said, woman go to the marketplace and and buy a fowl and have it killed and then on your way pluck its feathers one by one and drop it along the path on your way home and so It was a very strange thing and she did it anyway. And the next day, she went back to the man and said, now what should I do? And he said, go back and collect all the feathers. And so she went back and the wind had blown them all away, except three. And so she brought the three feathers and returned to him.

And the old wise man, he said, it's easy to drop them, but it's impossible to get them back. Likewise, it doesn't take much to spread false rumors, but you can never completely undo the wrong. That's the danger of the dainty morsels that go down into the soul. Solomon said, a false witness shall perish, but the wise will be blessed. So I know this is very serious, very sobering to think about, isn't it?

Based particularly on the, that the tongue is such a good and powerful gift. But what, you But what could disrupt this church? I doubt that this church would be destroyed over a matter of sound doctrine. It does happen, but that's normally not what causes divisions in churches. The elders in this church are constitutionally bound to uphold the doctrine that's in the 1689 Baptist Confession.

The doctrine of the church really is unassailable in that sense. But if our church is disrupted, it'll mostly, most likely be lack of love fueled by the tongue. And that's how the devil harms churches. And it usually starts with somebody who gets offended and they can't forgive, and then it smolders for a while and then they find their sounding boards and to spread their dissatisfaction it becomes a campaign and they and then people quit thinking the best of one another. And then there's distrust, and then there's dissatisfaction, and then there's envy and jealousy and strife and every evil thing.

You know, if the devil would disrupt this church, it would probably be over lack of love somewhere along the line and the lack of a proper government of the church. So beware. Your church could be set on fire by hell, like James says. Beware your family. Beware your company could be set on fire by the exact same things.

But God has given us these members for a blessing. And I'm grateful, I'm grateful to be in a church where people speak words of life to one another. I really am. We're not giving this message to correct a big massive firestorm of slander. I don't see it.

I don't think it's happening here. Maybe it is I don't know it But we're giving this message really just as a reminder Many years ago. We said we were gonna give a sermon once a year on gossip, but we hardly ever did it So we're doing it now after several years. But the tongue shapes the culture of a church and so we have a blessing today to shape a beautiful culture of the kingdom of heaven here in this church right today as we break up and and enjoy one another. 1st Peter 3 8 finally all of you be of one mind having compassion for one another love as brothers be tender-hearted and courteous not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.

For he who would love life and see good days let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit let him turn away from evil and do good Let him seek peace and pursue it. This is the glory of a church dedicated to the glory of God, where the chief end is to glorify God with the tongue and every other member of the body and enjoy him forever so that all the people of God in this wilderness wasteland would find some enjoyment in this world through the blessed conversation of his people when they come together. Would you pray with me? Lord, we thank you for this wonderful gift of the tongue. We realize we've stumbled in many ways, all of us, and we do need your forgiveness.

But we thank you for the opportunity that we have every day and even today. Not doing our own ways or seeking our own speaking our own words but delighting ourselves in the Lord so that we might ride on the high hills of the earth Lord I pray you bless this congregation that you would continue to sanctify the motions of our tongues. Lord, help us to make progress. Help us to be better in the days to come by the power of your Holy Spirit. Amen.

Spirit. Amen. Just take a moment to