James 3:1-12 | Words

Good morning. My name is Nathan Copeland. I'm privileged to serve as one of the pastors here at Arrow Heights Baptist Church. If I haven't met you yet, I'd love to do so maybe after the service. For now, let's open up our Bibles to James, chapter 3.

James, chapter 3. Today we continue this study of this great epistle. We're going to be looking at James 3, verses 1 to 12. As we've seen throughout our study of James, it is a practical manual of Christian living, living in light of the wisdom of Christ that He is for us. And sometimes kind of that straightforward style that James has, that practical approach sometimes, I think, can maybe mask a little bit the deep spiritual, theological truth that James is working with.

And as James is working into us through this practical letter this morning, as we think about James 3, I really think he's wielding a very, I would say, subtle but sharp knife, wanting to dissect our hearts, wanting to cut away the foolishness of our words that so often destroys relationships and destroys lives. Just as Jesus reminds us, our words flow from our hearts. Our words are never just about our words. They're about who we are at the very core of our being. If we listen carefully here, I think James can heal us.

James can save us. Let's look at James, chapter 3, verses 1 through 12.

The Bible says, "Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the ships also.

"Though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder, wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire. And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life.

"And set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature can be tamed, has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.

"From the same mouth come blessing and cursing, my brothers. These things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water."

Let's pray together.

Lord, as we approach Your Word now, we just want to confess this is Your Word. So as we think about it, as we reflect on it together, I pray that it would come to shape our words and even my words right now. As we submit to Your Word, as we sit under its authority, we know it's authoritative because You are Lord.

We know Your Word is clear because You are a very good teacher. Your Word is trustworthy because You are trustworthy. We confess Your Word is sufficient because You give us everything we need to trust You, to live, to please You. So, Father, help us, we pray, by Your Spirit. Lead us to Christ, in His name. Amen.

Well, we live in what has been called the communication age, which I suppose is right, because if you just think about it for a moment, we're always communicating. Even when we sleep, our communication devices continue to just whir on and on and receive and give communication. If you look at the statistics of our communication, it's a bit staggering. We've known for a very long time that the average person speaks around 10,000 words a day. But in recent years, with the advent of, for example, the smartphone, we text even more words.

We have email constantly available to us. We have all types of messaging apps. We communicate with all kinds of people, whether it be relationally or at work. We have social media, obviously. It's estimated that these days we produce not just 10,000 words a day, but closer to 12, 13, maybe 15,000 words every day on average, which is staggering, especially in light of what we just read.

Proverbs 10:19: "When words are many, sin is unavoidable." Yeah, we're communicating more than ever. That's not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it can be a wonderful thing, but it can also be a dangerous thing. Our problems of communication are not getting any easier in the communication age.

So for thousands of years, I think probably lots of preachers have titled sermons something like "Watch Your Mouth." Now we have to title sermons like "Watch Your Mouth, Watch Your Keyboard, Watch Your iPad, Watch Your Thumbs, Watch Your Words."

So we need more than ever, I think, the wisdom offered in this passage. And here James takes us into the heart of communication, warning us about how deadly words can be, but also pointing to the life-giving power of words if our words reflect the Word of God, if our words are spoken trusting the living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ.

I think James wants us to watch our words for three main reasons. And I have three Ps, in case you're wondering. You can write these down and separate them out on your page.

First, we must watch our words because our words are problematic. Our words are problematic.

Look at verse 1. Interesting way to start this discussion. Verse 1: "Not many of you should become teachers, my

brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness."

James wants us to stop and consider the weightiness of our words, the seriousness of our words, how problematic our words can be.

And he starts by saying you should not necessarily pursue, at least not many of you pursue, the office of teaching in the church. Well, why would he say that? I think the answer is pretty clear here. It's because teachers speak a lot of words, and their words carry particular weight as they teach others.

Things get even more concerning in verse 2 when he tells us, "We all stumble in many ways."

Kind of the irony of that was not lost on me this week. Here I am teaching, and James says, "You're going to

stumble." We all stumble in what we say, so it makes sense. Not many of us should pursue this office of teaching. We're going to inevitably sometimes be cloudy in our explanation of God's Word.

Sometimes our emphasis is not going to be exactly right. Certainly the witness of our lives will not always match up with the witness of our mouths. And for these shortcomings, James says, we teachers will be judged with greater strictness.

The role of teacher is a privilege. It is not a right.

And it is, in fact, a heavy responsibility not to be entered into lightly. I remember Dr. Voddie Baucham once talked about—he was a president of a seminary just before he recently passed away—but he talked about how too many churches often send too many young men to seminary.

He described it like this: If you're in a church and there's a young man and he shows real interest in the Bible, one of the first questions is, "Oh, have you thought about going to seminary?"

Baucham's point is everybody should be interested in the Bible. Just because you're interested in the Bible does not mean you need to go to seminary. It certainly does not mean you need to be a pastor or a teacher in God's church. The call to vocational ministry must be discerned very carefully.

In fact, it's a process. It involves an inward call. That is, the Spirit of God just will not let you go. You have this burning in your bones that Jeremiah talked about.

Just this week—and he was not being boastful at all—but Austin said something that really struck me.

He said, "You know, yeah, I could have done various things in life, but I really, really wanted to serve the church. And the Lord led me to go into ministry."

That desire to serve the church, not to seek accolades for yourself, that's part of that inward call. There's also an outward call. It's a process that you need the church, you need other people affirming you, encouraging you, speaking into your life.

Again, James' point: this is not to be entered into lightly, and not many should pursue the calling of teaching in the church.

I think these opening verses ought to alter the way we view teachers here at Arrow Heights. If you are a teacher from the nursery all the way up to preaching in the pulpit, all kinds of small groups, all kinds of counseling that we do to one another, for one another—as we think about that, we should redouble our efforts, I think, to be accurate in our understanding of the Word.

Paul talks about watching your life and your doctrine. They go hand in hand, don't they?

It is a high calling to be a teacher. So apply yourself diligently to the text. Apply the text diligently to yourself.

For those who are not teachers, I just ask you, please pray. Please pray for those who are called to the work of teaching the Word.

Again, there's so many different opportunities we have here, so many different people involved on one level or another teaching the Word. Pray for them. Pray that they study hard, that they humbly study God's Word, submitting to its authority. Pray that each week they would taste and see that the Lord is good, that He reveals Himself in His perfect Word.

Even those who are not called out, I think, specifically to teach here should still consider carefully what James is saying. Even you non-teachers should guard your words because your words, too, may incur God's judgment.

I think there are three reasons why he's not just talking to teachers here.

First of all, the context, verse 2: "We all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is mature."

Like Paul writing the so-called pastoral epistles, James is taking a moment here to speak to teachers, but I think he expects everyone will be listening in. This is not just for teachers. This is for all of us. All of our words can be problematic.

Another reason: Jesus said in Matthew 12—He says to everyone, not just teachers—"I tell you, on the day of judgment, people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."

Another reason why there's a sense in which every Christian is called to be a teacher. Again, on some level.

You think about, for example, Romans 15. Not just teachers. Paul says to the whole church, "I'm convinced that you are full of goodness, filled with knowledge, able to admonish one another."

You think about the writer to the Hebrews. He rebukes his readers because by this time they ought to be teachers.

Just think about the Great Commission. The Great Commission to make disciples, "teaching them to obey all that I've commanded you." That's not just for pastors. That's for the church. That's for all of us.

So again, as Christians, we have been given the Spirit of God. We've been given the Word of God. So we've been given everything we need to evangelize lost people that we know, to edify the saints, to build one another up with the Word of God.

And yet our words are so often used not to build people up. So often our words are problematic in that they are used for selfish reasons. They're used to tear other people down.

And Scripture is very honest about this, very direct. You just look at all the different ways the Word of God talks about our problematic words. Here's just a few themes in Scripture: grumbling, crude joking, boasting, rash speech, harsh speech, slander, gossip, insults, flattery, lying, deceiving, blasphemy, taking the name of the Lord in vain.

We could just go on and on.

There are many ways that our words can become problematic. Those are just sins of commission. There are many sins of omission, things that we fail to do with our words that the Bible calls us to do.

You think, for example, of building others up, edifying one another, encouraging, honoring, loving, praying, helping, admonishing, counseling, sympathizing, showing compassion, demonstrating tenderness.

I mean, there's all kinds of ways we are called to use our words that we often fail to do.

Yes, James' warning about our words applies to all of us. Our words can often be problematic.

Here's the second main point. We need to watch our words because our words are powerful. Our words are powerful.

James highlights both the power for good and the power for evil that our words carry.

He starts more on the positive side. Look at the end of verse 2 through the middle of verse 5. I'm not sure which monk broke up the—anyway.

"For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he's a perfect man, able to bridle his whole body. If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the ships also. Though they are so large and driven by strong winds, they're guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things."

James says our words do not just determine how things go for us on Judgment Day. James says our words determine how things will go for us every day.

That's the power of our words.

He gives some vivid word pictures here. Obviously the first one there is describing a horse. And I couldn't help but go back to our time in Kentucky. Derby Day, Derby Week, I don't know, Derby Month.

It was a big deal there. People wear their hats to church, and we had little kids at that time. We'd kind of gather around the TV and watch the Kentucky Derby because it was such a big deal, and it was over like that. Like five hours' worth of coverage, like an eight-second race, whatever.

But it was always striking just how powerful these horses are. They would do these whole segments on these racehorses. I mean, they're like 1,200 pounds of muscle, these majestic creatures.

And then they give a little time to the jockeys. And these are little bitty guys. I mean, maybe 100 pounds. Some of these guys, like 4 foot 9, you know, and yet they are in complete control of these massive, amazing, majestic creatures.

How?

Because of the bit in the mouth.

In the mouth. That's quite remarkable.

And James says, you see that? That is your life. That is what your life is like. Your course is largely determined by which direction you pull your mouth.

Your relationships are guided by the words you speak, the tone of your family, the vibe of your small group at church, the atmosphere of your workplace. They are all set by your mouth, by the words that you speak.

Now, don't misunderstand me. I think it's necessary to say the Apostle James is not advocating some kind of name-it, claim-it prosperity theology, where you are a little god and you can kind of create your own reality and speak worlds into existence.

He's not saying that.

He's not at all with the kind of self-help gurus who say, "You are the change you've been looking for. Just manifest your destiny by speaking it."

He's not saying that. That is silly.

Maybe you've heard some of that type of teaching. It's dangerous. There are various ways that modern-day therapists, that prosperity preachers, twist this idea that our words are powerful. Nevertheless, our words are powerful.

Listen, only God is sovereign. God alone controls the destiny of every man. The one and only Creator. God is uniquely and exclusively able to speak worlds into existence. By His powerful Word, He alone sustains the universe. By His powerful Word, He is unique and alone in that.

But the amazing thing is, the speaking God created us in His image to speak, to communicate, to communicate with words. Lots of words. Maybe as many as 15,000 words per day.

So our words matter. They're a big deal.

Our words are created by God and for God. And so He commands us to be careful how we use our words because of how powerful they are.

If you don't believe me yet, just look at James' next illustration, verse 4. Look at the ships, also controlled by a very small rudder.

James was a Jew. The Jews were not typically seafaring people, so they weren't in all these ships that could just traverse the seas. So it makes sense that he would use this illustration.

But the point is the same. Your words are powerful. You direct the tongue, you direct the course of your life.

During World War II, the Germans had this great battleship called the Bismarck. And they thought nothing will

be able to defeat this mighty battleship. But it was only out for a few months because this little bitty prop plane—I forget what the prop plane is called—but it dropped this torpedo in the water, and it hit in just the right spot to damage the rudder.

And this mighty feat of engineering, this great battleship, basically could just kind of go in circles. And it got sunk, as you can imagine.

And sadly, that's a picture of many lives, many families, even many churches with so much potential in so many areas. Faulty words can stop us in our tracks, can bring us down to destruction.

James sums up his point in verse 5: "The tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things."

Watch your words.

They are powerful.

Now, I know that what I'm saying right now, some people go, "Yeah, yeah, okay. Some people's words are powerful. Me, I talk about sports, I talk about the weather. I just interact with a few people. My words are not that big a deal."

Maybe the president, maybe some important people, like some lawyers or some generals or some politicians, I don't know, some business people, they speak important words. My words are small, insignificant.

Brothers and sisters, that makes sense what you're saying, but it's just wrong. It doesn't make sense biblically.

Those good mornings before breakfast, those moments just in the car driving to school, that text after lunch, "Are you doing okay? How are things?" Right? Those bedtime devotions.

Those are the words that James is talking about. Those are the words that God cares about. Those are the words that God uses.

Those are the words God uses to build others up, to help us understand more, to help lead us toward His truth, His goodness, His beauty.

There may be a few moments in your life when you speak words that really do change the course of your family's history, but most of the words you speak are everyday words.

And James will not let us go. He says they matter. They're powerful.

Watch them.

Well, we can be encouraged by the power of words to bring about good, but also words can bring about evil. He employs some more vivid imagery here, the end of verse 5 through verse 6:

"How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire. The tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell."

So he compares the tongue to a fire that is handled carelessly, that has the power to set a whole forest aflame.

And you could think of somebody maybe just taking a cigarette from their lips and just sort of casually flinging it.

You think, well, it's just—it's just an ember. You know, it's not a big deal.

Or maybe it's just one branch that's on fire. You know, just one branch.

Maybe it's a whole tree that's on fire. I mean, there's lots of trees in the forest, right? It's not that big a deal.

Well, it is a big deal because the whole forest can come down and many people can be put in danger.

So when you hear the slightest echo of evil coming out of your mouth, watch out.

Do not play with that critical spirit that you have. Don't let that go on, that crude joke that you're just waiting to tell. Don't just leave it aside.

You think about the sarcasm that many of us employ. Be careful.

Stop the sarcasm before it's too late.

We must be careful with our words. Our words carry tremendous power.

Proverbs 18:21: "Death and life are in the power of the tongue."

And by the way, that's not an exaggeration. You could ask the parents of McKenna Brown or the family of Emily Popolo, or the loved ones of Julian Peralta or Nate Bronstein or David Molak or Rebecca Sedwick.

Ask the parents of all these young people who just in recent years, recent weeks even, have lost their lives to suicide because they were bullied online by people's words.

And what's interesting is sometimes these people aren't even real people. They're impersonators. They're just pranksters. They're even AI chatbots.

But words are so powerful, they can bring destruction.

We must watch our words because, by God's design, our words are powerful.

Here's the last thing.

Watch your words because your words are proof of our desperate need for the Gospel. Proof of our desperate need for the Gospel.

James, starting there in verse 8—let's start in verse 7:

"Every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father. With it we curse people made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing, my brothers. These things ought not to be so."

And as we read this, we might be feeling kind of discouraged, like, "James, you're telling me to watch my mouth, and now you're telling me I just can't do it. I can't tame the tongue. I'm going to fail."

And I think James would look at us and say, "Correct."

This is the place to start.

This is the place at this point, recognizing that we cannot do this in our own strength, getting to the point of desperation where we give up superficial solutions.

"Oh, I'll just do it better next time. I really will."

Or just ignoring the danger and saying, "It's not that big a deal. It wasn't that bad."

We need to get to the point where we are recognizing the depth of our need.

James drives us to the only lasting solution to our speech problems, and that is a heart transformed by the Gospel, transformed by Jesus Christ and by the Word of God itself.

We cannot change our own hearts. And that's where our words come from. They come from our hearts.

We're born into this world with all these desires just swirling around in us. Whatever idol comes along, our hearts are ready to reach out and seize it, to bow down to it, and to slash and dash anyone who gets between us and our god.

And because it's impolite and inconvenient to use literal swords, sometimes we slash and dash with our words.

To give up these idols to serve the living and true God, we must have a radical reorientation of our hearts. And there is only one power in the universe that can remove a spiritually dead heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh that loves and honors the Lord Jesus.

And that is the Gospel.

The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation.

Jesus alone can do this.

And this is what James is getting at.

In verses 11 and 12, he asks these rhetorical questions:

"Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water?"

No.

"Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs?"

Well, no.

"Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water."

And we're kind of left going, "Okay."

That's what James is doing.

He is pushing us to examine our hearts, where our words come from.

Paul Tripp said you don't first fix communication problems and word problems horizontally. They first must be fixed vertically.

God must intervene.

We must look to the Lord in faith. We must look to the Lord in prayer.

So how do we do that? Right? How do we look to the Lord?

How does that help us?

How does that help us when the kids refuse to do what they're told to do and we're about to lose it on them? It could happen.

How does it help when our spouse tears us down in front of others and we're wounded?

How does it help to pray, to read the Bible, when our parents are being obnoxious and we feel like they're just pulling us away from what we really want?

Well, briefly, let me give you three perspectives from James to give us real hope for communication.

First, when you look back at communication struggles, remember hell has been defeated.

Looking back, maybe something you said years ago, maybe 20, 30, I don't know, 50 years ago, still haunts you.

Something you wish you could take back.

Maybe looking back to just this morning, you still feel just ashamed of something you said, even on the way to church.

When you look back, remember hell has been defeated.

James says in verse 6 our tongues are set on fire by hell.

Acknowledge that about your words. Don't run from the demonic evil of your words, but remember Jesus went to the cross to defeat evil, to defeat hell, to defeat Satan, to defeat sin.

That's why He died on the cross.

He took the hell that you deserve so that you, with all your petty, stupid, evil words, your evil sin, so that you can be totally forgiven, so that you can be cleansed by His blood.

Praise God.

No matter what words you have spoken, no matter what hell you have unleashed in life, in relationships, there is forgiveness, there is cleansing, there is hope when you call out to Jesus.

And I'll just say, maybe there's someone here, you've never done that before. You kind of know a little bit about Jesus. You think Jesus might be okay. It might be a good thing to go to church. But you've never really admitted how evil your sin is, how wicked it is, and you've never let it go so that you can just embrace Jesus and take hold of the promise that He gives.

Do that today.

I encourage you today, repent. Turn away from sin. Turn to Jesus.

You don't have to be trapped in sin and guilt anymore. Jesus came to defeat sin, to take your guilt, to take your shame.

Right now He offers you forgiveness through His blood.

But even if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus, even if you've been trying to follow Jesus for years, it's still true what James says: "We all stumble in many ways."

He says, so don't pretend that you're without sin. Don't deceive yourself in that way. Don't try to clean yourself up.

Go to Jesus for cleansing.

Go to Jesus again and again this afternoon, and again at dinnertime, and again tomorrow morning.

Just go to Jesus again and again and again.

He wants to take your shame. He alone can cleanse you of that.

Trust Him.

Go to Him and remember who He is and remember what He has done, the lengths He went to to save you from sin.

Second, when you look ahead to communication problems, know that perfection is in your future.

Perfection is in your future.

James says in verse 2, "If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man."

Can I tell you who the perfect man is?

Jesus.

He never stumbled in what He said, not even one time.

And the Bible says He is the firstfruits of many brothers.

Romans 8:29: "For those whom God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers."

Did you hear that?

God has a purpose in salvation. It is to save you and conform you to the image of Jesus Christ.

And that is a perfect image.

Praise God.

He has begun this work. He will complete it at the day of Christ Jesus.

And when you believe that promise, you can't help but do something different. You can't help but be changed, even if just the beginnings of change at the fundamental level of the heart.

When you believe that Jesus gives you that promise and that hope and that future, it's like a little child who looks forward to being a grown-up.

And what do they do?

They play grown-up. They act grown-up.

Same way, the believer who looks forward to being mature in Christ will act more mature.

That's part of what the Apostle John meant.

1 John 3: "Beloved, we are God's children now. And what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure."

I like what C.S. Lewis said. This is good pretending.

There is a way of kind of bad pretending where you escape from reality. That's hypocrisy.

It's pretending to be something you're not.

But there's a good pretending, a growing up into reality. And that's imitation.

It's a pretending to be something that you are not yet, but you will be.

So be the most Jesus-y version of yourself now.

When you look ahead to communication problems, know perfection is in your future.

Finally, when we look to the present—I mean after church, I mean this afternoon, I mean again tomorrow morning when things are hectic, when communication problems will arise, I promise—confess that no man can tame the tongue, but God can.

James 3:8 says very literally, "No one among men is able to tame the tongue."

No one among men.

That means you can't do it. It means your friends can't do it. It means whatever books you read—

But God can.

And God speaks and acts powerfully in and through His Word.

The Bible is the primary means God uses to change our hearts.

James says in chapter 1, verse 18, God brought us forth by the Word of truth.

In other words, God made us new creatures. He gave us a new nature. We are new people because of the work of the Word.

We heard the Word. We understood it. We were changed by it.

And as we begin the Christian life, so we continue the Christian life by faith. The righteous shall live by faith.

If you want a change of speech, you got to have a change of heart.

And to have a change of heart, you got to have a change of mind. You got to read God's Word.

It's through thinking God's thoughts after Him that we come to see the truth and love of Christ, the One who is the truth, the One who shows us God's love.

Dr. Sinclair Ferguson, who has a really good Scottish accent, by the way, he said, "The most important single aid to my ability to use my tongue for the glory of Jesus is allowing the Word of God to dwell in me so richly that I cannot speak with any other accent."

On our own, we're powerless.

We need the Gospel to watch our mouths and our thumbs and our keyboards and everything else in a consistent way.

And God's Word is powerful to help us do that.

Let us fill our hearts and minds with Scripture in such a way that when we open our mouths, people around us hear a distinctively biblical, Christ-honoring accent.

A few months ago, my dad had surgery on his vocal cords, and he was supposed to stay completely silent for like three weeks.

And I say "supposed to" because he found it very, very difficult.

He said sometimes the thoughts, the conversation going on in his mind, would just—oop—come out, and that he kind of gave up after about a week or so.

But he's doing fine.

We are created to communicate. We are created to speak words.

Not only is it difficult to go silent, it's not what we're made to do.

We are made to speak the truth in love.

Often our words are problematic, but they are very powerful.

And our words are proof that we desperately need the Gospel of Jesus to save us, to cleanse us, to bring us hope.

And praise God, there is hope available for us and our words in the written Word of God and in the living Word of God, our Savior, the Lord Jesus.

May God open our eyes to see Him, open our ears to hear Him, open our minds to learn from Him, open our

mouths to speak to Him and to speak of Him.

May God open our hearts to love the Lord Jesus and desire to please Him above all.

Let's pray.

Lord, we come to You this morning in prayer, just praising You for the gift of words, the gift of communication. We know that You have spoken, and by Your Word the world has come into existence. It is by Your powerful Word that You sustain us and by Your Word that You have graciously saved us.

So we praise You today.

We know that You've designed us to speak words.

So we confess, Lord, we need Your help.

God, please forgive us for careless words, hurtful words. Lord, turn our hearts to stop being so selfish. We pray to stop using our words for our purposes and help us to use our words for Your purposes.

We pray, change our hearts to love Jesus and to love more like Him and to speak more like Him.

Father, we thank You for this church and thank You for the ways that You use Your people to help build us up and encourage us.

God, may we be a church that speaks the truth in love.

And even now, Lord, we pray that our hearts and voices will be lifted up to praise You, to respond to Your Word in faith, and may You receive all glory in Christ.

Amen.