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Phil, pastor of your spirit, and please give us wisdom from the sermon this evening, and we thank you and Jesus and we pray, amen. Man, James chapter number three is this chapter that deals with the issue of the tongue, and the Bible starts out in verse number one and saying, my brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation, for in many things we offend all. Now, when it says we offend all, it's not saying that we offend everyone. We would say this in our modern vernacular is we all offend, like every single one of us offends. He says, be not many masters. In this context, a master is talking about someone who is teaching or guiding other people. Because we shall receive the greater condemnation, it's a big responsibility. And he says, in many things we offend all. Here's the part I want to focus on. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man and able also to bridle the whole body. And so the Bible talks a lot in this chapter about the power of our tongue, and obviously we know that the things that we say have a lot of power to influence other people. But actually if you study this passage, what you'll also find is that the things that we say even have the power to influence ourselves. Look what the Bible says in verse three, behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole body. So the Bible's talking about a bit being put in a horse's mouth being used to steer that horse, okay? And then it says, behold also the ships which though they be so great and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm whithersoever the governor listeth. So again, a gigantic ship can just have a tiny little rudder underneath the ship, and if that rudder turns, even though it's very small in comparison with the size of the ship, that thing will make the ship turn. It'll turn the giant ship. And then the Bible says, even so the tongue is a little member and boasts of great things. But what we need to understand is that just as the bit in the horse's mouth guides the direction of the horse, just as that little rudder can guide the ship in a different direction, the things that we say, our mouth, our tongue, can actually guide our whole body and turn our whole body. What do I mean by that is that the things that we say can often become a self-fulfilling prophecy. So if I say negative things about myself, then I'm probably going to start to fulfill those things in my life. And sometimes if you say negative things about other people, they will start to live up to those negative things that you say about them. If I'm sitting around saying, oh man, I'm a loser, I'm a failure, I'm not good at anything, then you're probably going to continue being a loser and continuing to fail if you say those kind of things as opposed to saying something that's edifying to yourself and others. You know, I remember I heard a sermon a long time ago that was called Say It Until You Believe It. And in the sermon it went back to one of the Psalms where David says, I shall not be greatly moved. And then a few verses later he just says, I shall not be moved. So at first he's saying, well I'm not going to be moved a lot. But then he says, I'm not going to be moved at all, right? Because he's building up his confidence as he talks through these things. And so we need to be careful the words that come out of our mouth because, like I said, they can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. And really just our attitude in general, we should go out, for example, soul winning with an attitude of faith. You know, I don't go out soul winning with this attitude that says, nobody's going to get saved, nobody wants to listen, we're living in the Laodicean church age and great works can't be done for God anymore. You know, churches that talk that way with this Laodicean church age mentality, it often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because they say, oh, it's the Laodicean church age. Their church basically becomes a little Laodicean type church because they talk about how everybody's lukewarm and nobody cares and you can't do anything great for God. Well, you can't with that attitude, but I'd rather have an attitude that says, I can do all things through Christ which strengthened me. Let that become a self-fulfilling prophecy. We need to be careful about what we say to ourselves, what we say in our minds, what we say in our heart, words that come out of our mouth because they have a great influence even on ourself, even on our own mentality as well as on the mentalities of others. And so the Bible says, backing up with that in mind, the Bible says in verse two, for many things we offend all. If any men offend not in word, the same as a perfect man and able also to bridle the whole body. Now, what does that mean when it says if any man offend not in word, the same as a perfect man and able also to bridle the whole body? What the Bible is saying is that this is one of the hardest things about your life to get right, getting your mouth under control, getting your tongue under control. And if you can get your mouth under control, if you actually have your tongue under control, then you have everything else under control because if you've done the hardest thing, then you've done the easier things as well. Also, like I said, if you control the things that you say, that can turn the whole direction of your body anyway. But the Bible says the same as a perfect man and able also to bridle the whole body. That tells me that it's possible for someone to be pretty spiritual in a lot of areas, maybe, uh, you know, doing well in their walk with God and in their growth as a Christian, but this would still be a challenge for them to keep their tongue in control at all times because this is one of the most difficult things to control in our lives according to the Bible. And so it says in verse number five, even so the tongue is a little member and boasts with great things. Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth and the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members that it defile at the whole body and set on fire the course of nature and it is set on fire of health. Now it's interesting how as this chapter goes on, the talk about the tongue just gets more and more negative. Now it's just all negative because when we think about steering a ship, you could steer it somewhere good or you could steer it somewhere bad, right? Same thing with the horse. But it seems like we just get into a really negative discussion about the tongue and I believe the reason why that is is that in many things we offend all. I think the reason why that is is that if any man can control the tongue, he's a perfect man and able also to bridle the whole body because this is something that virtually everyone is going to mess up at some point. So it's very relevant to talk about all the negative things that our tongues can do because virtually everyone is using their tongue for evil at some point, unfortunately. And so that's why it's so negative when it says the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. I mean just imagine this tiny little thing, our mouth, our tongue, our voice, it's like a whole world of iniquity. And the Bible says that the tongue among our members, members means body parts, is such that it defileth the whole body and seteth on fire the course of nature and it is set on fire of hell. Wow, I mean this is some pretty strong language about how much damage we can do with our tongue. And so you see how important it is that we think about what we say. Some people have this attitude of just, well I'm just kind of a no filter kind of a guy or just kind of a no filter kind of a gal and so I just speak my mind. That's just kind of how I am or you know maybe they'll say that there's some nationality or something and hey that's how people of my nationality are, we just say whatever. Well you know what you're basically saying is just I have no character. I don't have any character, I don't have any self-control, I don't have wisdom. That's what you're saying when you say I have no filter, I say whatever comes to mind. Folks we all need to have a filter. And you're like well Pastor Anderson you preach unfiltered. You don't know what's going on in my mind okay because this is heavily filtered with something I'm saying. We all, if we have any character, any wisdom, any Christianity, any godliness have a filter. The Bible says set a watch O Lord on my mouth, keep the door of my lips. I think I quoted that right but the point is that we've got to control the things that come out of our mouth and think before we speak, be swift to hear, slow to speak. Now what does that mean slow to speak, do we just talk slow? Slow to speak means you're doing some thinking, it's not just this meaningless delay before you talk. During that time is when you think about whether that's really what you want to say or not, whether that's really helpful to say that, whether that's edifying or not. We should constantly be censoring ourselves, we should constantly be filtering what comes out of our mouth and we need to make sure that we don't just say everything that comes to mind. You know the Bible says the fool speaketh all his mind. You know the righteous man, the prudent man keeps it until afterward and he thinks before he speaks. And so the Bible says here it seteth on fire the course of nature and what does that mean it seteth on fire the course of nature. That's kind of maybe a difficult statement to understand in our modern vernacular. What does that mean? Well what does the word course mean? How about that? Okay well the word course has to do with running and we still have this a little bit in our language in our modern day because we'll say like hey let it run its course, that needs to run its course right? And if you think about the Spanish word correr, sorry I can't roll my r's, but you know that means to run okay. So it sets on fire the course of nature is that just that little spark that kindles a fire then nature takes over right? And the fire runs its course and it becomes this unstoppable force of nature. And I believe what the Bible is saying here when it says that the tongue sets on fire the course of nature is that once that word leaves your mouth you can't take it back again. Just like once that spark ignites that dry grass and the forest fire begins, oh wait I changed my mind, now it's this force of nature, now it's out of control. One person makes one foolish decision with a cigarette butt or something and they can burn down a whole forest and then it could take literally hundreds of guys coming in with all kinds of equipment and helicopters and gear and they still can't put the thing out. They can still struggle to get the thing under control. And so you can see how the Bible says here it set on fire the course of nature, it's saying that it sets in motion powerful forces that cannot be controlled that will just run their course no longer under your control. And then the Bible says it is set on fire of hell. Now obviously this is not literal, okay, nobody's tongue is literally set on fire of hell. I've heard people sometimes say that it's sinful to ever say the word hell unless you're using it in the most literal context. Well that's kind of funny because this right here is using the word hell in a non-literal context isn't it? Because it's saying that the tongue is set on fire of hell, that's not literal at all. It's just referring to when it says hell there, it's just referring to the idea of wickedness because obviously hell is a place where wicked people go when they die, right? This is the place where sin is punished after we die. So when the Bible says that it is set on fire of hell, it'd be like if someone said, hey, that's as wicked as hell or something like that. They're basically just saying that hell is a place where all of the ungodly and wicked are going to end up someday. Obviously those of us who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ are forgiven of all our sins, so even though we've sinned, we're not going to go there because we have trusted Christ as our savior, but the wicked, the sinful in general go to hell to be punished for their sins. And so the tongue being set on fire of hell, it's basically just saying it's set on fire of wickedness or evil. It's just using the word hell as a stand in for wickedness, evil sin in general. Some people have kind of struggled with that phrase and said like, you know, well, why is it, you know, is hell is not a bad place, you know, because you know, God created hell for his purpose and we're, yeah, but it's still a bad place. You know, he created a rough place for bad people. And so that's what it is. Verse number seven. It says for every kind of beasts and of birds and of serpents and of things in the sea is tamed and have been tamed of mankind, but the tongue can no man tame. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. So he's saying human beings have succeeded at domesticating all kinds of animals, even some of the most ferocious beasts. You could go to the circus. Well, not anymore because I think it's too much cruelty to animals, but you used to be able to go to the circus and see things like elephants and lions and tigers just behaving in a very docile manner, doing whatever people tell them to do. You've got humans who are physically so much weaker, obviously much smarter, just ordering around tigers and lions, making them jump through hula hoops and rings of fire and, you know, stand on a ball or whatever. Who's ever been to an actual circus or amusement park where you saw those type of ferocious beasts doing those type of things? I used to go to Marine World Africa USA in California and see those kind of shows even before they had the roller coasters. It was a long time ago. And so all of these animals have been successfully tamed, but the Bible says the tongue can no man tame. Now I believe that this should be understood humanly speaking when it says the tongue can no man tame. I believe that through the power of the Holy Spirit, we do have the ability to get victory over sin and control our tongue. Obviously we're never going to be sinless in this lifetime because we're not going to be walking in the Spirit all the time, right? The flesh is always there. We're not always going to win that victory. Anybody who tells you that they're sinlessly perfect is a liar. But in general, through the power of the Holy Spirit, with Christ's help, yes, we can overcome particular sins in our life or control our mouths. But in general, humanly speaking, human beings have been better at taming lions and tigers and bears than at taming their own mouths is what the Bible is saying here. The tongue can no man tame. It is an unruly evil, unruly meaning impossible to control, unruly evil, full of deadly poison. The Bible says death and life are in the power of the tongue. Therewith bless we God, even the Father, and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God, out of the same mouth preceded blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. And so the Bible is telling us here that with our mouths we can do tremendous damage to people or we can be a blessing to them. We can help them. Now what does this mean when it says therewith curse we men or out of the same mouth preceded blessing and cursing? Well there are two different ways that we can interpret this and I believe both are valid. Okay, number one, cursing is literally wishing something evil to happen to someone with our words. So if I said, you know, may you rot in hell or that's cursing, I hope the roof of your house falls in on you or may you slip on a banana peel and land on your head or something. Those are all curses because I'm wishing ill or wishing evil upon someone, right? You know, let them melt like a snail, break their teeth, oh God, in their mouths, right? There are a lot of curses in the book of Psalms. Let them go down quick into hell, right? So one definition of curse that's the most literal definition is wishing evil upon someone. So the opposite of that is blessing. So what does it mean to bless someone? Hey, have a great day, right? We all bless people almost every day by saying, have a good day, you have a good one or God bless you, right? When we say that, we're saying that we want something good to happen to them. That's what it means to bless someone. Whereas if we wish evil or harm or something bad to happen to someone, that's cursing them, right? So that's the most literal basic definition of blessing and cursing. But also another thing that we could mean by blessing someone would be not to say that we want something good to happen to them, but to actually cause something good to happen to them, to actually do something good for them, right? So if I, you know, you're out working outside and I show up and give you a cold drink, right? I'm blessing you, not by saying that I want you to have refreshment, but by actually giving you the refreshment, that's another type of blessing, right? Or I could curse someone by actually hurting them, harming them, or doing evil unto them. Then I am cursing them. And so when the Bible says here, there with bless we God, even the father, and there with curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God, out of the same mouth proceeded blessing and cursing my brethren these things not so to be. This could either be saying literal curses to people, but probably is more often and more likely just saying things that are hurtful and harmful and unhelpful to people. You know, where somebody says something to me, it could either be a blessing unto me what they said to me, or it can be a curse, meaning that's the effect that it has on me, right? Because the Bible says that we should speak with our tongue. Those things are good for the use of edifying, right? So our tongue can build people up, or our tongue can tear people down. Our tongue can be helpful or hurtful, and that would be the blessing and the cursing that comes out of our mouth. Now the Bible says here, there with bless we God, even the father, and there with curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. And this calls to mind what we've been seeing in the book of 1 John, which talks about how someone who thinks that they love God, but then they don't love their brother. This person is deluded, right? This person's lying to say, I love God, but then they don't actually love their brothers and sisters in Christ. Because the Bible says everyone that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that has begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments. And so we are to be consistent. If we love God, then we should love the people whom God loves, right? So if God loves people, we should love people, right? If God loves his children, we should love God's children. We shouldn't love God or claim to love God and then turn around and not love the people whom God loves. Okay. We should love what God loves. We should hate what God hates. If we truly love God, we're going to love those whom God loves. And so the Bible is saying it's inconsistent for us to bless God by the same token and then turn around and curse men which are made after the similitude of God out of the same mouth proceed of blessing and cursing my brother and these things ought not so to be, right? We should be consistent and we should use our tongue for that which is good to the use of edifying, not being harmful or tearing down God's people or hurting people that we should be helping and blessing and lifting up. So the Bible says in verse 11, does a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries, either a vine figs, so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. And so what the Bible is saying here is that if we are someone who is cursing and harmful toward God's children, then at that point, our love of God is called into question because it can't really be both, just like it said in first John. You know, if we see you acting a certain way toward God's people, we can conclude that you don't love God. Because of the fact that the fountain doesn't send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter, salt water and fresh water, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. And remember, we've been talking about this on Wednesday night in first John, loving God and loving your neighbor are inextricably linked, right? These two things go together. And so the Bible says in verse 12 further, can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries, either a vine figs, so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. Verse 13, who is a wise man and a dude with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and strife in your hearts, lie not, sorry, glory not and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. And so again, we've been talking about the tongue all this time and now we get into the heart and talk about that way because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. The things that we say show what is in our heart. If we're constantly hurting people with our tongues, if we're constantly being rude, being a jerk, being unkind, being unloving, that shows what's going on in our heart versus if we're being a blessing, edifying, helpful, then that shows the good things in our heart. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things, but an evil man out of his evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. And so the Bible says that if we have bitter envying and strife in our hearts, we should not glory or lie against the truth. Don't think that this is a point of pride and do not deceive yourself into thinking that you are a godly and spiritual Christian when you have bitter envying and strife in your heart, which leads to cursings coming out of your mouth. What does it mean to have bitter envying and strife? Well envying is when we look at what someone else has and we wish that we had what they have, right? We want what they have. But often it also refers to wanting to have their position, wanting to be them. And so we look at other people and we don't want them to have success perhaps or we don't want them to do well and we want to have that success, we want to do well, we want to see them fail. Obviously this is a wicked attitude. Bitter envying that wants to put other people down and that wants us to succeed at their expense. And then bitter envying leads to strife, right? And what is strife? Conflict, arguing, fighting with people, drama, causing problems and things like that. This comes through envying. The Bible says only by pride cometh contention and pride and envy go together very well because if you think about it, pride is thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. If we think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, then yeah, we look at other people and say, hey, I should have that success, not them. I should have those possessions, not them. People might look at someone and say, I should have that girlfriend or boyfriend, not them. And this kind of bitter envying leads to strife and conflict among people. And the Bible says this wisdom descended not from above but is earthly, sensual, devilish. It's kind of funny that God calls this mentality a type of wisdom because you know, when you hear the word wisdom, you'd think it's just a positive word, right? But apparently there's a wrong wisdom. And what does the Bible say? The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. So there is a wisdom out there that's not the wisdom of God. It's not the wisdom that comes from above. It's not wisdom from scripture, but it's just sort of a wisdom where worldly people take you aside and say, hey, you know, this is how you live your life. This is what you do. This is what you say. It's listening to the counsel of the ungodly. And it's a wisdom. The world might look at it and say, oh, this is really good advice. This is really smart. But it's not the wisdom that comes from above. It's the wisdom that is of this world that is earthly, sensual, and devilish. I touched on it this morning in my sermon about this sort of trend now of these surrogate male role models that are all over the internet, giving all kinds of advice to young men, and they are telling you how to succeed in our world. They're kind of reacting to feminism and things. And obviously they're going to mix in a little bit of truth with all their garbage because that's what the devil always does, right? The devil is always going to mix in a little bit of truth with his garbage. He's not just going to say, you know, hi, I'm Satan and, and you know, let's go do evil together or something. You know, no, he's going to, he's going to build a fancy church building and call it the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, right? He's going to be transformed into an angel of light. His ministers are going to be transformed the ministers of light. And so obviously the devil is always going to use a little bit of truth or some right things, but he's going to mix in all kinds of lies and garbage and a truth plus a lie is just a lie. Okay. When you, when you mix the truth with lies. And so you've got all these influencers in the manosphere that are giving advice to young men, all kinds of podcasts telling you how to live your life and telling you how to pick up chicks or whatever they're telling you how to do, how to be the alpha male or whatever they're talking about. Here's the first key to becoming the alpha male. If you're asking how to become the alpha male, you're not, and you're not going to be, and you just took one step away from being the alpha male just by asking that question. Actual alpha males don't care about being an alpha male and they think that that's a stupid word. Okay. Anyway, he's the alpha and the omega, you know, that's the only alpha that I'm worried about. But you know, the Bible says here, this wisdom descended not from above, but it's earthly sensual devilish. When you've got a man giving you counsel, giving you advice, giving you life wisdom, and he's laying all this wisdom on you. If it's sensual, if it's earthly, if it's devilish, if it's about envy, if it's about, hey, you can have all this money, hey, you can have all these women, hey, you can do all these. Look, that is not the advice you want to follow. The Bible says blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. You know, yeah, there's counsel out in this world. There's wisdom out in this world. There's all kinds of advice and people that could tell you how to succeed, but they don't even have the same definition of success that the Bible does. And so we need to get on God's program. We need to trust in the Lord with our heart and lean not onto our own understanding or some unsaved dude's understanding. We need to rest on what God has given us in the Bible, the wisdom that is from above, that other wisdom descended not from above, but it's earthly, it's sensual, and it's devilish. What does it mean to be earthly? It only has anything to do with this present world that we live in, right? The Bible says bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come, right? So God's wisdom helps us now and for eternity, whereas the wisdom of this world is earthly. It's of this earth, it's going to perish with this earth. It only helps you in the nasty here and now, and it helps you achieve the wrong goals in many cases because it's not spiritually motivated. So the Bible says it's earthly, it's sensual, right? It's all about just gratifying the desires of your flesh, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. It's devilish. You know, it is of Satan because here's the thing about unsaved people. Unsaved people are fulfilling the will of Satan. Whether they know it or not, whether they're fulfilling it a little bit or a lot, ultimately they're on his program and people who get saved, you know what the Bible calls getting saved? Recovering yourself out of the snare of the devil because you are, in many ways, if you're not saved, you're in many ways in the snare of the devil. You're under his power. The Bible talks about in Ephesians chapter two that we in time past walked according to this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. He's saying, you know, before you were saved, you were on his program and you followed his ways in so many ways. Now you've been saved. Now you're following Christ, or at least you should be. You're supposed to be following Christ. And so we don't want to, as saved Christians, follow the devil's program. We're not on his program anymore, we're on Christ's team, so we don't want to accidentally kick the ball into our own goal. It doesn't happen very often in soccer, I don't think. Does it? Probably super rare among people who know what they're doing, or does it, it happens a lot? Super rare. Foosball happens a lot in air hockey. See I'm not very sophisticated when it comes to team sports, but I'll tell you something I know about is air hockey. That's a sport I can get into. But when you play air hockey, how many times, who here can say, you know what, Pastor, I have hit it into my own goal on air hockey? Pretty much, you're basically saying I've played air hockey before. Because it virtually always happens, you just go, yeah, and it's just like, pshh. Look, you're playing for Christ's team, you don't want to be scoring a point for the devil. But Christians, just like air hockey players all over the world, can sometimes actually score a point for the devil, which is no good. Now if you're not saved, you can't score any points for God, it's impossible for those that are in the flesh to please God. None of your works are meaningful until you're saved. But once you're saved, now you can serve Christ, your works are meaningful, it's possible to please God. But it's also possible if you start listening to the counsel of the ungodly to end up helping the devil through your stupidity, through the dumb things that you say. And let me tell you something, if you sit around listening to ungodly people give you advice, you know what you're going to end up doing? You're going to end up giving that same advice to other people. I mean if I sat and spent hours and hours and hours listening to a bunch of Manosphere, whatever, do you think that stuff's going to come out of my mouth? I mean look, there are certain people on Facebook, you can tell that they're just filling their minds with this junk because they're just constantly saying these really hateful things toward women or they're just, and look, I'm no feminist by any stretch of the imagination. I've never been accused of being a feminist. But the thing is, at the same time though, it's real, the hatred for women that a lot of these guys have and it's sinful, it's wicked, it's ungodly. And there is this spirit of hatred toward women that you see. And when you see this pouring forth, you can tell what these guys are listening to. They didn't dream this up on their own. It's because they're filling their minds with all of this worldly advice and it's going to come out, we're going to repeat the thing. We cannot but speak the things that we've seen and heard the Bible says. And so this wisdom is earthly, sensual, and devilish if it's based on envy and strife. And so therefore we don't want to have it be a part of our life because we don't want to score a point for the devil in the air hockey game of life. But the Bible says in verse 16, for where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. These are sins, envy and strife that beget other sins. It says in verse number 17, but the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. And so the Bible says here that the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable. Now God wants us to be peaceable. He wants the words that come out of our mouth to be peaceable. He wants to speak peace, to speak things that are good for the use of edifying, to be helpful, to be a blessing, to be someone that builds others up instead of tearing them down. And so when the Bible says that the wisdom that comes from above is peaceable, that is second only to being pure. First pure, then peaceable. What does that mean? We don't believe as Christians in peace at all costs. We don't just believe, hey, the only thing that matters is just being peaceable and getting along with everybody. No, because you know what, there are times when we need to fight. There are times when we need to go to war. There are times when battle is appropriate. Why? For purity's sake. First pure, then peaceable. So it's not about just peace at all costs, but the Bible says as much as is possible, as much as lies within us, we should seek to dwell peaceably with all men. So if we can stay pure, if we can keep the purity of our doctrine and the integrity of our character and do right once we've made sure that we're not compromising on any moral issues or getting involved in anything sinful or wrong, well then the next thing that we should worry about is getting along with people. So I'm not going to change who I am in order to get along with people. And when I say I'm not going to change who I am, I'm talking about my identity as a born again independent fundamental Baptist Christian. That's what I mean. Obviously I will change the way I am to get along with people. If it's my sinful flesh that's getting in the way, then yeah, I'm going to change who I am to get along with people. But I'm saying who I really am is a Baptist preacher. Who I really am is a born again child of God, a Bible believing Christian. That's my most important identity. And I'm not going to change that or compromise that in order to get along with people. Do I want to get along with people? Yes. You know, you think about a guy like David, David was quite a warrior, wasn't he? In fact, he was a little bit too much of a warrior. You know, he was a little bit of a bloody man and so, you know, because he had shed so much blood, God said, you're not going to build the temple, your son's going to build the temple. And you know, he was definitely a warrior, definitely a fighter, definitely a militant man. In the book of Psalms, he even said, I'm for peace, but when I speak there for war, okay, you know, we should be for peace. We should try to speak peaceably and seek peace with all men, not at the expense of purity, godliness, righteousness, holiness. But once we take care of that most important prerequisite, then it's time to seek peace. Then it's time to get along with people. And you know what? I can function in this world among the unsaved, amongst the liberals of this world, and I'm able to get along and be peaceable with them in the course of my daily life. And you say, well, that's easy for you, pastor, because you are a pastor. But long before I was a pastor, I was still living the Christian life. And even after I was a pastor, I was still working a secular job for many, many years. And for many, many years, I worked a secular job. And I dealt with all kinds of unsaved people, including atheists and Jews and yes, co workers as customers, right? I mean, we have to function in this world and deal with people. And let me tell you something, if you can't function in this world, if you can't go to your secular job and stay pure, but also be peaceable. You know, you're not doing Christianity right. You're wrong. Okay. And, you know, I've known people over the years that are too holy for any secular employment. They can't hold down a secular job because they're too righteous. They're just too holy. And so they cannot, you know, they're like God, the Father, they're pure eyes than to behold evil, and can't not look on iniquity. They're just so righteous and so holy that they cannot, and that was a joke, of course, they cannot actually just function amongst worldly people or unsaved people. But you know what, that is a character flaw that they have. Because God expects us to live in this world, to be in the world, but not of the world. And it's amazing how lots of godly Christians pull this off all the time. And they're a godly Christian. They don't compromise their morals or beliefs, but yet they go to work every day. They go to school, they go wherever, and they actually can function in this world. And here's the thing about that is that, you know, I, as a pastor, I would never want to hire someone for my staff who can't succeed at a secular job, who can't succeed at a worldly job. Because here's the thing, if they're too holy for that secular place of employment, I have a feeling eventually they're going to get too holy for me and my staff as well. Because we don't necessarily walk on water. You know what I mean? And it's like, you know, people, maybe the problem with these people is that they just don't know how to get along, period. Maybe it's not that they're too, oh, it just dawned on me. Maybe they're not too righteous. Maybe they're not too holy. In fact, it turns out maybe they just don't know how to get along with people. Maybe they're just not peaceable. But yet all kinds of godly Christians every day go to their secular job and succeed as electricians, plumbers, carpenters, computer programmers, etc. They go out there and they do their job of landscaping. They do their jobs, whether it's in customer service, whether it's in management, whatever it is, construction, engineering, whatever it is, they find a way to function in this world. You know, a lot of my pastor friends have secular jobs. Like I said, I had a secular job for the first, what, seven, eight years of being the pastor here. And you know, I functioned. I dealt with it. I figured it out. And I wasn't just constantly running into this conflict of, I can't be a Christian and do my job at the same time, I can't do it. It just seemed like it just worked out the vast majority of the time. You know why? Because I was trying to make it work. Because I was putting forth the effort to be peaceable. Pure, purity is number one. I'm not going to compromise my beliefs in order to be peaceable. But after purity, boom, peaceable, gentle, right, gentle. And this is the problem. If we go into this world being super abrasive with the ungodly of this world, with the unsaved of this world, well, then we're not going to be able to be peaceable, are we? We've got to be gentle and not abrasive, okay? We've got to use wisdom and try to make the effort to get along with people. And look, there's some stupid people out there. Okay, there's a lot of them, right? But you know what? I'm constantly saying when people say and do stupid things and even say and do a lot of wicked things, I'm constantly just thinking to myself, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. You know what I mean? People don't know better a lot of times and you know, it is what it is. I mean, this is the world that we live in and a lot of these idiots that we're around. Well, guess what? They could get saved and then they could be a recipient of the wisdom of God and they can someday be a righteous, godly Christian and God loves them and Jesus died for them. So instead of just calling them an idiot, why don't you love them, get along, be cool. The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated. What's the opposite of being easy to be entreated? The opposite of being easy to be entreated is to be implacable, right? To be implacable where no one can talk you down. No one can talk you out of anything or satisfy you. You just decide that you've got it in for somebody and you're just not going to stop until you've punished them or gotten what you want or whatever. No, we, you know, we need to be easy to be entreated, meaning people ask us to give them a break. We give them a break, right? It's easy to talk us into showing mercy or showing love or being kind or giving people what they want. Again, not at the expense of purity, but after purity then comes peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy, right? We just talked about that with easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now here's the thing. The Bible says that we should do good unto all men, especially unto those that be of the household of faith. But see, I think that that could be twisted or misunderstood. I don't believe that the Bible is saying there that we would give special preference or special treatment to those that are of the household of faith. I think it's just saying that we owe it to people. You know, we should do good unto all men, but man, especially do good unto the household of faith. It's like, dude, you especially should be, but it's not saying like, oh, well, you know, I have the option between these two people. I'm just always going to go with the Christian cause here's, maybe I'm not expressing myself very well. We don't want to become like the Mormons, okay, where we basically, we hire a bunch of little Mormon missionary punks and then they get all of the promotions and they get paid more. I mean, and then, you know, other people are doing better work and they're getting paid less cause they're not Mormon, you know, or, or, or the Mormon judges that are going to rule in favor of other Mormons or whatever. You know, we don't want to be this good old boy club, like the Freemasons or the Jews or the Mormons. That sounds like a three point outline. Let me write that down for a future sermon. The title of my sermon is Jews, Freemasons and Mormons. Okay. That's coming to a pulpit near you. But the thing is, you know, we don't, I don't think that that's a righteous attitude. A good old boy mentality of, well, I'm going to do everything for my fellow Christians and just kind of burn everybody else because you know what? We're supposed to be honest and walk honestly toward them that are without and to also do good unto those that are outside of the faith as well. Obviously we do owe even more allegiance to our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, but should we unfairly prefer them? No, I think we should prefer them as far as our social life. You know, we're going to obviously build our social life around God's people and have fellowship with God's people. But when it comes to being fair, being just, what does the Bible say without partiality? And what does that mean? It means that we are just and we aren't partial toward any group of people, but that the people who are doing the best job, you know, they get rewarded, right? And we treat people based upon their performance, not based upon they're in our club or they're not in our club. So I think there's a fine line there because obviously, yeah, we do prefer God's people as far as socially, as far as in our recreation, but that's because that's not a right and wrong issue. But I'm talking about we don't want to be like corrupt judges, corrupt businesses where they just do everything for the Mormons and basically they feel like it's okay to rip off everybody else. And you know, you know, look, I've been ripped off by the Mormons a few times. You live here long enough and you interact in business. Who here has been ripped off by Mormon businesses? You know? Yeah, several of us. You know, I had this Mormon business and I was nothing but nice to these guys. And I was working with these guys and we teamed up, we formed a coalition because I was doing fire alarms. We were doing fire extinguishers and we worked together and they ended up ripping me off for around $4,000. You know, they didn't pay me and I, you know, they were, they were months and months behind on paying me. I called them up and I said, hey, look, you know, I was real nice about it. I just said, you know, I, I'm checking on this because you know, it's been six months and I haven't been paid. And in my business, usually three months was normal. So it was 90 days was typical. So it wasn't crazy or anything. And the guy just flat out told me, he said, look, we're having cashflow problems. We don't have the money. And I said, look, I understand. No problem. I just want to make sure I'm eventually going to get paid. So you know, why don't you just make payments or just, you know, send it when you can. I'm not in a mad rush to get the money. I'm not in a big hurry. I just want to make sure that I get paid. I don't want this to be forgotten about, you know, cause I did all this work. I installed all this equipment. I want to get paid. Oh yeah. I want to pay you this and that. And then, you know, months and months and months go by. The guy just stops answering the phone to me, stops answering my emails. Then finally he just sends me this letter in the mail explaining how, oh, I didn't do the work the right way. So that's why he's not paying. After he'd already told me that the reason he wasn't paying is because he didn't have the money. Of course the work was, was completely fine, but here's how he was able to put this letter together is that the customer that I was working for was also owned by Mormons. And so he and the customer conspired together. They took a bunch of pictures of stuff that I didn't even install, that I didn't even touch or see, and they just put together this whole case about why I shouldn't get paid. Send me that in the mail, basically just daring me, hey, have fun trying to collect this because they'll take, you know, if I take them to court, they'll just collude together and pull the wool over some judges eyes or something. It'll be so confusing and you know, we'll end up just wasting more time and money, you know, and, and, and thankfully I have the serenity to accept the things I can't change. I just said, okay, I'm never going to see, I got the letter in the mail and just said stinking Mormons, you know, and just, and just basically just realized I'm never going to get paid. And I just went on with my life and part of the way that I had peace as a business owner was I just realized there's a certain percentage of people that are never going to pay. And I just kind of built that in as a business expense and then I could just sleep at night and be cool. It didn't bother me because I'm just like, certain people aren't going to pay and God's not going to bless that, but it is what it is, whatever. But that's what I'm talking about. You know, Mormons colluding together and they've got each other's back and you know, we don't want to be that way as God's people. Yeah, we want to do good unto each other, but you know, we want to do good to them out there too, don't we? And we don't want to do anything by partiality. We should be fair and unbiased in our dealings and do nothing by partiality. So the Bible says the wisdom that's from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy. And of course we all know what hypocrisy is. It's when you say one thing and do another. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. And so all that to say this, our tongues have a lot of power, right? The tongue is a little member, but it boasts great things and it could set a forest fire of evil, it is set on fire of hell, it sets on fire the course of nature, it is untamed in the vast majority of people, we've got to be careful to put a filter on it, set a watch over our mouth, be careful what we say, make sure that we're saying things that are helpful and edifying and blessing other people, not cursing and harmful and doing ill to other people. And we should go through life trying to get along and a big part of that involves controlling our mouth because what's going to cause us to enter into conflict with others more than saying something stupid? And you know, sometimes you can just spit something out without thinking in a matter of a second and just do irreparable damage to family relationships, business relationships, you can just say the wrong thing, blurt something out and it's like, that relationship's over, that girlfriend is going bye-bye, that boyfriend's gone forever, you know, because you just said something stupid. Get your mouth under control, be slow to speak, think about what you say and you know, here's a tip too, a lot of garbage coming in is going to translate to garbage coming out of your mouth, so make sure that you have wholesome things coming in and that you walk with God so that you can have that wisdom that's from above that can help you to know what is appropriate to say, what is appropriate not to say, let's have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, thank you for this great chapter and Lord help us all to bridle our tongues and help us also to be careful what we say, even to ourselves because it can often be a self-fulfilling prophecy, Lord, help us to say things that are edifying to ourselves and others and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.