Robert Morris - Amazing Facts

Pastor Robert continues the series Words: Life or Death with a message on the power of the tongue. Every time we speak, we’re either producing life (God) or death (Satan).

In James 3:1–12, we learn four amazing facts about the tongue:

The tongue is disproportionately powerful. Like a bit in a horse’s mouth, the tongue is a small part of the body, yet it controls the strength and direction of our whole life! Like a small rudder on a large ship, our tongue determines whether we remain standing during life’s storms as well as how we navigate the good times. And like a small spark that can start a large forest fire, our careless words can destroy ourselves and others (James 3:3–5).

The tongue is inherently evil. We are born with a sinful tongue. This is proven by the fact that we don’t have to teach our children to be rude and hurtful; we have to teach them to be kind and loving. Our natural tendency is to speak evil unless we change the default setting of our tongue (James 3:6, 8).

The tongue is humanly untamable. No one is able to tame their tongue (James 3:7–8). Only God, the one who made our tongue, can tame it (Exodus 4:10–12). When our tongue is out of control, we agree with Satan and can destroy ourselves and others. When we submit our tongue to the Holy Spirit, He teaches us what to say. This is how we learn to speak life.

The tongue is contrastingly productive. The tongue can produce good and bad; life and death. It doesn’t please God when we praise Him and then curse people with our mouth. The good news is our tongue can produce good fruit when we bless our marriage, finances, job, our children, our friends, etc.