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00:00 read from her handphone. Nowadays, your Bible is available in so many formats.
00:07 But that was not the case with the first century church. The first century church didn't have the Bible.
00:12 And whatever scripture they had, they were very thankful. In olden days, because there wasn't a Bible, the Bible
00:19 was still being formed. How did people begin to cherish scripture? They did it by memorizing.
00:28 It is something the Jews used to do and you find in the Old Testament. I want to
00:33 start off this morning with a little bit different. This is a verse which I think
00:39 is very important especially for people like me. I'll tell you why later but you can suspect.
00:45 And I want to try to encourage us to memorize scripture which I think is a
00:51 good practice. The kids are doing it so the adults should also learn. Right? So what we're going to do is we're going to
00:56 read this out loud and then after that I'll turn to the next slide
01:03 which is blank and then you're going to say it. Shall we do that? It's good practice, right?
01:10 All right. So let me just get to this. Why don't what we do is I give you a few seconds to try to try to memorize it on
01:16 yourself to get your warm up a little bit. Okay? And then afterwards at a
01:22 count of three, we're going to read this out loud together. Then we're going to go to the next slide and then we'll say
01:30 1, two, three. And then let's see whether your memory cells are working this morning.
01:36 Okay, let's try that. All right, at a goal of one, two, three, everyone should
01:42 be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger. For man's anger does not
01:50 bring about the righteous life that God desires. Okay, then we're going to go to
01:56 the next slide. And then at the count of three, you repeat that. Okay. All right. One, two, three.
02:20 I I don't know whether you get my point.
02:27 I I anyway this just to encourage you all. Scripture has power.
02:34 Scripture has power. And sometimes in the age where we have so many things, we
02:41 forget that power. In the early days, uh the way the church was run, if someone
02:46 came into the church with a letter, the church will be so happy and they'll spend the whole morning reading that
02:52 letter. And you find it in Old Testament with Joshua and everyone else, they will memorize scripture. Why do you think
02:58 when you look at the apostles when they write, they can quote the Old Testament? Because scripture is ingrained in them.
03:05 And that is the word of God. And the word of God has power. And this morning we're really going to look at the power
03:13 of words. Let me just uh go on uh give you an illustration. This is a character
03:20 taken from this book called The Pilgrim's Progress. I wonder how many of you have anyone here read the Pilgrim's
03:25 Progress. One at the back. Anyone here? Two. Wow. We have a few classics. Not
03:31 many. Yeah. Pilgrim's program was written in the 16th centuries and is about two people called Christian and
03:37 Christina who make a journey to a place called the celestial city. It is an
03:42 allegorical story by John Bunan. It's a classic and along the way they meet people and I want to read you a chapter.
03:48 This is taken from the actual illustration of the book. Along the way uh the main character is called
03:53 Faithful. He meets this man and Faithful talks to the man and this what the the go the dialogue goes this way. faithful
03:60 says come on then let us work together walk together so that we can talk of
04:05 things that are helpful and the stranger says that suits me fine I'm glad to meet
04:11 with you those who are interested in the better things of life for tell you the truth there very few of these days who
04:18 want to talk of things of value most of our generation are interested only in the trivial things of no profit this has
04:24 been a heartache to me 16th century it sounds like nowadays faithful reply replies, "Yes, this is indeed
04:31 regrettable. For what in this world is more worthy of a conversations than things of God?" And the stranger
04:37 replies, "If a person that interests in things which is marvelous and enduring, he will discuss things of mysteries of
04:44 life or if he loves to thinks of miracles, where would he find records so trustworthy, so beautiful as related in
04:51 the holy scriptures and faithful now gets really into conversation that's true, but to be benefited by these
04:57 things should be our aim." And the stranger says, "Yes, that's what I say. To talk of these things is most
05:03 profitable. For by so doing a man may get knowledge of many things such as the
05:09 vanity of earthly things and the value of things above. That is general. But to
05:14 be specific by this a man may learn the necessity of the new birth, the
05:20 insufficiency of our works, the need of Christ righteousness. Besides, a man may
05:25 learn what it is to repent, to believe, to pray, to suffer. Also by this you
05:31 might learn that all the great promises and the consolations of the gospels to vindigas us from the truth and to
05:38 instruct the ignorant and faithful after hearing this is so encouraged he says I'm glad to hear you say these things
05:44 and the rest of the conversation goes way the name of this stranger is called talkative
05:52 he talks a lot he talks a lot and at the end of the dialogue quite interesting uh Christian
05:59 comes alongside says faithful and says this about this man called talkative he
06:06 says when he talks of prayer repentance faith he is not talking of his own personal experience but merely repeating
06:13 what he has heard I've been to his home I have observed him both at home and
06:18 abroad I know where I speak his house this guy talkative is as void of Christ
06:26 as the white is of a egg of flavor in his life there's is no sign of prayer or
06:31 repentance. He is the very stain and reproach of Christianity. We all know the name of Christ is scorn in all that
06:37 that know him. Many of the neighbors says a saint abroad a devil a home. His
06:43 family find it so. He's rude uncuff a temple like a basau and a tongue like a scorpion. When he gets angry he can
06:50 curse like a blue streak. Must have some Chinese blood in him.
06:56 What are we talking about today? We talking about words. And here is a guy in the pilgrim's programs called
07:01 talkative who can give you the impression he's a great Christian comes to church on Sunday but at home he's a
07:08 completely different person and his language changes here's another man who also talks a lot and you better be
07:16 careful because he may be an ex president of the United States and I've been following him in quite detail
07:22 because you don't want to slander anyone publicly and he has insulted anyone possible insulted the Mexicans he
07:28 insulted the the Chinese government by saying, you know, next time you come, we just give you a burger. You know, he's
07:33 insulted war prisoners. He's insulted women saying that, you know, abortion, you should go to jail. And, you know,
07:39 one of the most disturbing insults you can get on YouTube. He insulted a a person with a special needs person was a
07:47 reporter. He actually mimicked his whole action. It was really, really degrading.
07:53 And this man is the forerunner of the Republican party. He talks a lot, very powerful. Words
08:01 have power. I'm going to show you another man who also talks a lot, but he's very polite, very knowledgeable.
08:08 His words are very carefully constructed, and he makes a point not to insult women or to insult the disabled
08:16 or people of different uh faiths. He's very well learned in other faith. And he
08:22 was here recently in Malaysia. And I I actually heard him because I was
08:29 in India years ago and he's got a TV program and he's been around for a long time. It's called Peace TV. I've heard
08:36 him. He speaks very good English and he can memorize scripture. And by the way, he can do better memory verses than you
08:41 guys are. He can really quote scripture. He follows in the footstep of another guy called Ahmed Datad, which is a South
08:48 African preacher. These are guys who really know scripture. And not only scripture, his comparative religion is
08:54 very good. And some of the things he said recently when he was here are very
08:59 disturbing, extremely disturbing. One of the remarks he makes is this is that if you wish a
09:08 Christian merry Christmas, that is wrong
09:13 because you are saying you agree that Jesus was born on December 25th. So
09:19 don't wish a Christian merry Christmas. Can you imagine telling that to our local community?
09:26 Words carry power and people who have the gift of the gap have a very long
09:33 reach of influence. And today very interestingly, James goes specifically
09:40 into this topic. And what's interesting that you may say, oh, you know, maybe this refers to
09:45 people like Arnold, people who talk a lot. You know, I'm not the guy who talks a lot. But you see words is about
09:51 communication and communication can be verbal or nonverbal. And nowadays in this age not like last time where people
09:58 have to memorize scripture you can click open your handphone the Bible comes out there there is a new medium there is
10:03 social media and things go viral and you don't need to be able to talk a
10:09 lot you just can say two words and click and it goes everywhere. So this morning
10:15 scripture is leading us to something very important. It is about the words you and I say and words have power. And
10:25 I pray this morning as we go through scripture that God's word will speak to our words and in humility all of us will
10:32 will learn something. I I think for some reason Peter intentionally gave me this text, you know, he say this guy talks so
10:38 much I let him go and teach about talking, you know. So but I think it's not about whether you have the gift or
10:45 the gap. We all talk. We all email. We all WhatsApp, we all write, we all say
10:50 things. And this morning, God is just asking you and I, have you considered
10:55 these words? They can be very little. So, let's come before God in prayer.
11:01 God, we just uh come before you in humility. We come before you now in u
11:09 just asking that your word that which has power which will go out will not come back void. Oh Lord, as you said in
11:15 Isaiah chapter 55, oh Lord, that the word of God that goes out will not come
11:21 back void. We ask oh Lord that your word becomes our word in this world and this
11:27 generation where people can insult one another very simply or people can stand up there and
11:34 convince other intellectually to say this is the right religion
11:39 and lead many people astray from you. We just need to look at Christianity and
11:45 how we are fractured to see that evidence. And we say this in Jesus name. Amen. Okay. We'll go through the text
11:53 and it's um what we'll do is that let us try to I I would like you all to look at
11:58 scripture today. Like I say, we're talking about words. You we all should not look at what a teacher teaches you.
12:04 You should see what scripture teaches you. And what's interesting here is to try to break how the text becomes one
12:10 hole. Now quite interesting is the first two verses are aiming at teachers
12:15 of the first verse is almost like it's disconnected. The first verse is about teachers. He says not many of you should
12:21 presume to be teachers. Then the rest of it is very obviously about the tongue. So the question is how do you tie verse
12:28 one to the rest of it? And I'd like to propose to you this the way the text is broken because teachers talk the most.
12:35 You can't talk don't be a teacher. That's the function of a teacher. And we know that in fact because he goes down
12:42 later on to verse 13. He talked about who is wise and understanding among you. That's obviously referring to teachers
12:48 again. So words of a teacher, we're going to break that down. Then words and his power in sin. That's the main bulk
12:54 of the text. And words and doublemindedness. That's carries us from 9 to verse 12. And there are a lot of
12:60 rich illustrations in here. Let's look at the first verse. Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my
13:06 brothers, because we know we who teach will be judged more strictly. He uses
13:12 the word we. What is quite interesting here, he doesn't define what is a teacher. Paul does it in the book of
13:19 Corinthians, but is obviously those who have the gift of teaching. Now, when he opens up and says not many of you should
13:25 presume, it obviously means there is a demand for teachers. People want to be
13:30 teachers. And I think during that time when you had rabbis, you know, you had the Jewish culture and James is very
13:36 entrenched in hellistic Jew culture, the rabbi had respect. It's like Chinese culture during the olden days in time of
13:43 the confusious. If you're a scholar, people give you respect. From that he
13:48 gives a general remark. He says uh we all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault at what he says, he is a
13:55 perfect man. Look at that. If we all stumble many ways, if anyone is never at fault at what he says, he's a perfect
14:03 man. And he ties the mouth. If you can control your mouth, you can control the
14:09 rest of your body. That is his treatise for the text. Let us break this down. The words of a teacher influence our
14:16 faith. And that's why he says very clearly here, those who are teachers will be judged more strictly. One
14:21 teacher, just one can influence a multitude. You ask anyone who's not Christian, you know, um you see you're
14:28 Christian, what's the first question they ask you? Are you Catholic or Protestant?
14:33 And if you got a bit more knowledge of of Christianity, the second question he ask you will be or if you talk to a
14:39 Christian now, you say, "Oh, I'm a Christian. I'm from First Baptist Church." He tells you from this other church. Then there'll be a silence. Oh,
14:44 in the next question, are you charismatic or evangelical? Correct or not?
14:50 It's very sad, you know. But all of this comes from teachers. Teachers will tell
14:56 you, "I'm right." You know, uh right now this Sunday morning, uh people from other churches will tell you, "This is
15:02 the right Christianity. You got to speak more in tongues and you have to see more miracles." Another church will say, "No,
15:08 this is more right. You must read the Bible more. This we are more right. We are morally better. We we observe the
15:14 the Sabbath. This is right. Every How do you know you're in the right church anyway? How do you know First Baptist
15:21 Church is the right church? So teaching is critical. People like us
15:26 who stand up here, we better be shaking because we will be judged.
15:32 And and scripture tells us this in the book of Acts when Paul leaves Ephesus, the first thing Paul tells the adults is
15:39 savage wolves will tear you apart. And the evidence is this. Nowadays you say
15:47 Christian, there are probably thousands of denominations. And let's not talk about the fringe. Recently prince just
15:52 passed away. Do you know what faith prince was? He was a Jehovah's witness. He became a Jehovah witness. Like
15:58 Michael Jackson, they were Jehovah witnesses. I have I met the Jehovah witness in KK and they will tell you
16:04 they're the right Christians. I was in state last week. The Mormon church is there. They will tell you they're the right Christians. So how do you know
16:12 you're the right church? But what's quite interesting is the way James frames it. You see, chapter 3 comes on
16:18 the heels of chapter 2. And chapter 2 is telling you, you know what? Let's not talk about theology. Let's talk about
16:24 your faith and your deeds. And now he's talking about works and words. Works and
16:31 words are tied together. So the first thing is words of a teacher influences our faith. But secondly, it influences
16:39 our works. And we go back to the earlier chapter. It says, "What good is it, my brothers? If a man claims to have faith
16:46 but has no deeds, can such faith save him?" There was a cartoon on the Simpsons and when in that dream Homer
16:53 and March die and they go to heaven. Heaven is split into two parts. Catholic heaven and Protestant heaven. It's
17:01 ironic, isn't it? It shows you what the secular world thinks of Christians. You know, you people are so split.
17:07 It was a satire. It was very tragic. Of course, as you know, America is considered a very Protestant nature, a
17:13 very evangelical nation. Few of the presidents have all been evangelicals. You know, when Mid Romney a Mormon
17:19 decided to run, you see how they worked about it, you know. Uh anyway, the point of the cartoon was quite interesting. He
17:26 went about he made a jab about Christians and in the end it basically said this, doesn't matter whether you're
17:32 Catholic or Protestant, if you are a if you behave this way. That was the point of the cartoon. Who cares?
17:39 And sometime we make fun know we say look at that church they teach prosperity and then your behavior isn't
17:44 any better. Oh look at that church know they teach all these wrong things about tongues and your behavior is not much
17:50 better and that is the point where James is coming at it is about our works. So
17:57 there few things that's coming out of here what we say what we do and what we
18:04 believe. and they should all tie together. And we're going to break that down a little bit. So, here's the first
18:09 point. It really in the end when you get to heaven, there's not going to be a Catholic
18:14 heaven or a Protestant heaven. But I'll tell you, there's not going to be a Baptist heaven either. In the end, when you get up there, I
18:21 mean, really, you think God's going to care whether you're Anglican or or evangelical or or or whatever term you
18:28 want to call it. You may think you are mentally correct, your theology is right. It is the way you live and what
18:36 you say. That's the bottom line. Let's break that down a little bit more.
18:42 And he says something, the words of a teacher that centers on Christ, not man. Further down the text, he say this, who
18:48 is wise and understanding among you, let it show him by his good life, by deeds
18:53 done in humility that comes from wisdom. And this is obviously talking about teachers. And what James is obviously
19:01 saying, you better walk the talk if you're a teacher. It's not how smart you are. It's not how clever uh how much you
19:08 can memorize scripture. It's not how talented you are come up here and talk. It's not how good your communication
19:14 skills are. Is your life. And there are two pre-qualification Jesus gives us.
19:19 One is Matthew. The first is the control over humility. And again, James picks
19:26 that up and he mentions there in verse 13, these done in humility that comes with wisdom. And Jesus says this, the
19:32 teachers of the law, they love the place of honor at the banquetss and the most
19:38 important seats in the synagogue. So what's the first point? The point is that the teacher, any teacher in any
19:44 church, especially if you're a big church, has the temptation of what? The temptation of respect.
19:52 Like you said, one man can influence a lot of people. So when you stand up here, whoever it is, the temptation of
19:58 respect and self glory, your ego is going to get a boost. That's one. And the way to break that out, Jesus gives
20:07 the medicine. Further down, he says, "Nor are you to be called teacher." Now he's talking what we call hyperbol. He
20:13 says, "You have only one teacher, the Christ." So the the way to get past this
20:19 is you know what you call yourself teacher well very good point to Christ
20:25 don't point to yourself because anyone who stands up here who's got a gift of the gap or some stage presence some
20:33 people will say that refers to me I I I don't want to get there but you will point to you so Jesus says you know what
20:40 point to God and to more in particularly point to the gospel
20:46 Now let me just break this down. There were statistics done two years ago on
20:52 pastor salary and size of a church. They are mutually connected. The bigger the
20:59 church is, the higher the paycheck. So what's the temptation? Grow your church.
21:04 The bigger you are, your gaji goes up. And we now have a syndrome. Just go back
21:10 and Google the word celebrity pastor. see how many hits you get or celebrity
21:16 preacher there is a market for this because anyone standing in front of a crowd
21:22 it gets to you so so there's a warning here so James warns you first about humility your good life you got to be
21:29 very careful on this and nowadays it's also the way preachers are dressed you know I mean they look like they got
21:36 image consultants you know seriously I'm not really trying to to you know I You
21:43 shouldn't come out here and dress chevily. You know my wife always say I look like a so this morning she picked up my clothes for me. She say you know
21:49 you know as you know recently some of us have started to try not wearing ties. We say let's see cannot wear tie. Last week
21:55 Mimo okay might have a jacket and jeans. I don't mean legalistic about this. I think you should dress decently. You
22:01 shouldn't bring attention to yourself but look at this gentleman here. I mean look at it look like every way there's a
22:06 wardrobe change you know. So the image now how can you say you are bringing
22:11 attention to Christ when you're so concerned about your hair do your your
22:17 your your your clothing and your stage presence which leads me to the most
22:22 important question. This next question is very important. Uh you must really pay attention to this question. How about FBC?
22:33 By the way, I took pictures of Peter few weeks ago.
22:40 Actually, my wife did. Have you realized he's wearing the same shirt and pants today?
22:46 I mean, you don't realize it. You go fast, you stand up, go, he's wearing the same shirt, same pants. Whatever you say
22:52 about our chairman, you cannot accuse him or try to bring attention to himself. You cannot do that.
23:01 Now why why I want to spend few minutes on this at the risk of being chonga. You see
23:08 some people come to a church and they say why is it you don't have a senior pastor
23:13 or they come and tell you what the preaching should be by the senior pastor most of the time. I I like to humbly
23:19 suggest that's not found in scripture. And so for those you be with us a while here's a good time to explain why ABC
23:27 does what it does in this preaching. Who does the preaching? Number one or the teaching the most is by our elder.
23:32 That's biblical is Peter. That's found in 1 Corinthians. He is our elder. Not
23:38 all elders teach. We find that in Timothy and Peter, but some elders are gifted with teaching. That's Peter.
23:45 After that, we have two pastors. Masimo preaches and Mark preaches. We have a missionary David. They're all in
23:52 full-time. Then me and Yian who are at the back. We had a way. Both of us were retired already. both of us are in the
23:57 leadership and we we speak now why why do we have an ensemble of preachers from
24:04 various backgrounds from leoty and clergy I tell you why it keeps us humble
24:12 because you cannot have a superstar in that way because you rotate
24:17 it also safeguards the church because we have seen this in other churches where the preacher becomes so popular people
24:25 flock to the church to hear that preacher and then something happens.
24:30 He could have fallen sick. He could have done something wrong, misplaced money
24:37 and the whole church just implodes. And that's why FBC does what it does with
24:42 teaching. Me, Yidian, David, we are just like you. We stand up here and we share
24:48 and I share with trembling people like Masimo, they share up here because they are clergy. My job is I am
24:56 an architect. I I I think I bleed like all of you. I understand corruption. I
25:02 understand temptations of the flesh. So when I I pray, when I speak, you can
25:07 say, "Look, Arnold's like me. He struggles like me." And then together we
25:13 don't point to the speaker, we point to the gospel. And the gospel will change us.
25:19 That is why we do it. And we pray that you at least take that. But that's how we do teachers in ABC. And please go and
25:26 look at Peter's dressing on the way out. And the second part, here's the key
25:31 point. You want to pick out three key points. The subtlety of sinning with words, the potency of sinning with
25:38 words, and the origin of sinning words. Now, this is quite important. This is the core of the text. And James takes
25:44 this back way at chapter one. He says, "If anyone considers himself religious
25:50 and yet does not keep a tight rain on his tongue, he deceives himself and his
25:56 religion is worthless." Discipline begins with controlling your own words.
26:02 Some Christians, they lead a very moral life and they act like they're very moral and they're very quiet, but
26:09 whenever they open their mouth, the few times they do it, the words are so biting. You know, I I've seen this so
26:15 often in my life. And what James is saying is a very simple treatise. You know, you cannot control your mouth, you
26:21 cannot control the rest of your body. No matter how you appear to be godly
26:26 because it will break. Why? Because the mouth is connected to the heart.
26:32 And at one point, no matter how guarded you are, your mouth will say what the heart is saying. And then we will see
26:39 it. For example, you could be very very righteous, very moral and every time
26:46 everything you come out is always negative. You're always criticizing uh Peter Arnold FBC is like that. It
26:54 obviously means your heart has bitterness and you haven't dealt with that. So James is very right. The
27:01 indicator is the mouth. What comes out from within comes from the mouth. And
27:07 and Jesus says that we're going to pick that up later. Now let's give you a clear example again of my friend here.
27:12 I'm not trying to slander him. At one point if you know this I follow the American primaries with act almost
27:19 religious fanatism. I must admit it. Okay. And of course now he's he's at one
27:25 point uh there was issue of Ted Cruz. Someone posted something about Melanie which is Crew's wife. And our friend
27:31 went ballistic. And what he did he posted this tweet comparing both the wives. It was really underhand you know.
27:37 And so uh uh Anderson confronts him. Cooper Anderson confronts him. I saw the
27:43 whole interview. I mean you can get it on YouTube. And he says, "Why do you do it?" And and Trump says, "Well, Cruz
27:49 started it." He says, "No, Cruz didn't start it. Why do you have to bring the wives in?" "Well, he started it." And the whole thing went it was really very
27:55 childish. And and Cruz and Trump wouldn't back down. At one point Anderson just cut him off and he was all
28:01 over the papers and Anderson said, "You are going to be the president of the
28:06 United States. you're running for that. How can you behave this way?
28:12 And that's the point. The point is that if you do tit for tat in your elections, you know, because the way Cruz was
28:18 saying, well, he started it, so I I reacted. If you can do that, what happens when you become president? So
28:24 the Koreans provoke you and going to do tit for tat then build a wall and kick out all the he made a lot of threats,
28:30 you know. So the point is what you say reflects your heart. So there's a danger
28:35 of this here. Now so the subteness of sinning with sin as one teacher can influence a whole lot
28:43 of people one word can bring in a multitude of sins and that's why James
28:49 says likewise the tongue is a small part of the body but it makes great boast then James gives a few examples and
28:56 we'll break it down and he gives two one in verse three another in verse four
29:01 verse three is about horse meaning the horse is big but a bit which is like a brittle you put in your mouth. A small
29:08 little thing can control a big horse. He gives a even more powerful illustration. He says look at a ship and this is a
29:15 merchant ship. This is the the kind of ship that Paul used in his missionary journey and those time the ship is is
29:22 going by sails you know by the wind and he's saying the rudder is so small the rudder being so tiny can direct the
29:30 ship. Now what's the point? The point is you have a huge object being controlled
29:35 by a small object. Now I I need us to internalize this because all of us know
29:42 that you know we all got problem our tongue. Some of us got verbal diarrhea. Some of us got biting words. Some of us like to make crude jokes. But I think we
29:49 don't take it seriously enough. You see the sense of the tongue is something we sort of say yeah everyone does it so no
29:56 big deal. WhatsApp and send a bad joke over or you know go out there and gossip with somebody. Everyone does it. the
30:01 phone ring, give a white lie, you know, no no big deal. So here, James is telling you the small object controls a
30:07 big object. Let me give you a better illustration. In World War II, there was a ship called the Bismar is a Nazi
30:14 warship. It was so powerful that Hitler said it was unsinkable
30:20 and very famous. He fought against Britain's largest warship called the Hood and sank it. 1,300 people died.
30:27 This ship was impregnatable. very very powerful. You couldn't fight it. You know, it could go on the sea and
30:34 fight any other destroyers and nobody came near it. It was, you know, German technology. It was so powerful. But at
30:40 one point, the Bismar was sunk. Now, how did they sink the bismar? Impregnatable,
30:48 huge battleship, still as thick as anything. The British realized one
30:54 thing, you can't fight this guy head on. And so, they use torpedo ships. And you know what the torpedo ships were aiming
30:60 for? Take a guess. They were aiming for the rudder. And you read the history. What they did
31:05 was the the British torpedo ships will just keep hitting torpedoes. Once you hit the rudder, you know what happens to
31:11 the ship? The ship can't move. The ship went around in circles. When you go around in circles, you are easy picking.
31:17 And then over time, they kept just whacking the ship. And finally, the ship sank. Out of this the very famous saying
31:26 loose lips might sink ships comes from this. I mean some of you must heard this
31:31 term right? It came from this. So what you say can sink a ship.
31:39 Don't underestimate the extent of the damage you can do with your thumb
31:46 or something you send by email or a tweet or a WhatsApp.
31:54 Let's give a few illustrations of it because it is so subtle you don't pick it up. And here's the most obvious area
32:01 we don't realize. No, because we all very churchy paper. You know where's the most subtle area at home?
32:09 at home. Uh Winston Churchill, I'm going to all talk about leaders today, you know, because they they influence us.
32:16 His father was Lord Randph Churchill. And when Winston Churchill graduated
32:21 from military school, the father sent him this letter. It's in his autobiography.
32:27 This is from the dad, you know. Do not think I'm going to take the trouble writing to you long letters after every
32:34 failure you commit and undergo after he graduated from military school. You know why? The father was unhappy. He didn't
32:40 make it to the top honors. I no longer attach the slightest weight to anything you may say about your own
32:46 achievements and exploits. If you cannot prevent yourself from leading the idle useless unprofitable life you had during
32:54 your school days and later months, you will become a mere social waste, one of
32:59 hundreds of the public school failures and you will degenerate into a shabby,
33:04 unhappy and futile existence. If that is so, you have to bear all the blame for
33:10 such misfortunes yourself. And I think Winston Churchill never forgave or forgot this. you you go read his
33:16 autobiography and you know what's the most unkind part of the letter? He wrote
33:21 a long letter at the end. You know, he signed it off. You see, if you write something like that in the end, you say, "Your dad still loves you very much."
33:27 And you know, whatever I say, I know it's harsh, son, but I do it for your own good. You qualify. You know what he wrote in the end? Mom loves you.
33:35 Yeah. I You go read it. Your mother loves you. You know what he's trying to say, right? I don't give a about you.
33:41 You know, no, you see the thing is, and as far he's concerned, probably the best probably think I'm trying to toughen you
33:47 up. So here's something to all of us because a lot of here are are in our 50s. We are we are aging church and we
33:54 got children and I just want to give something in love to you. When you go back and what you say to your kids
34:00 think again. Think again. Yes, there's a place to be hard. There's a place to be
34:05 soft. There's a place to be p. But little things like this children will remember, you know, and they'll keep to
34:12 heart and years later you'll come out. But you and I, you don't realize it.
34:22 You know, Chinese have a saying, you know, it applies the most to kids,
34:27 you know, uh, meaning only you can say, I can't say. So, here's the first ch, the subtlety of the th and here's the
34:35 thing. I I I Googled up the sins of the words in the Bible. There's a whole lot of it. And this is directly to the
34:41 thong, you know, direct. You go indirect. Everything you name it has it. You see we have a default mode default
34:50 and and on top of that you might understand me and you have different sensitivities. I give you example me and
34:55 Peter we are very brash. So my character if let's just say Richard offense me I just go to Richard
35:02 I'll go and taro him you know but thankfully Richard's a lawyer he can take it. Okay lawyers are lawyers.
35:10 Imagine Richard is an older woman who's very fragile. I go and taro Richard no
35:16 he'll get offended because because communication is both verbal and non-verbal and it's it's got a lot of
35:22 nuances in it. So you never know. You see? So you cannot say you don't you
35:29 don't you're not guilty of this. You can go out there and just say hey you know I
35:34 heard about this and it goes out. Your your son could come back and tell you about the results and you just make a
35:40 passing remark. It gets hurt. Or a friend tries to uh do something to tell
35:46 you hey no this is great and you just you just cut that person down. Or you go to office and the the receptionist and
35:53 you're cut to the receptionist and you say well you're Christian now okay like very ex
35:58 but the little little things go a long way and it's our default mode so the next thing he goes about is about this
36:06 that in the end the problem with Christians goes down to one thing we are fake
36:12 we are fake he's going to go there in detail you praise God you say hallelujah and then you have a different
36:18 personality you are fake And so Jesus warns us, I tell you this,
36:23 you must give an account on judgment day of every
36:28 idle word you say. You come to church. Hey brother Anna, how are you? Hey, I will pray for you. Then Monday you go
36:34 and taro everybody. So that's the point of the text. So the subtlety of it and
36:40 then after that he talks about the potency of it, the extent of it. It's like social media. one person goes to
36:46 many people and it goes around and he uses a very strong term. He say the tongue also is a fire a world of evil
36:54 among the parts of the body it corrupts the whole person. Now listen to the language. It's very strong. You know,
36:59 you see he's talking about spiraling. In fact, number one, the tongue spreads. Everyone knows that like gossip, right?
37:06 You say something, it goes out. But it not only goes out, it corrupts yourself.
37:11 You become what you say. I mean, if a person is always saying bitter words, he becomes bitter.
37:17 If a person becoming who always uh critical, he becomes critical. You
37:22 become what you say. You're always making crude jokes, you become crude. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole
37:29 course of his life on fire and itself set on fire by hell. I I give you a simple example in my line. In my line,
37:35 corruption is number one. You notice one thing about Christians. You can never get Christians to talk about this one.
37:42 But they will come to church and say hallelujah. And few weeks ago, I spoke to a brother, Christian brother. He admitted to me, he
37:49 paid $60,000 to get his approval right at the top of DBKO. Now the point is this because you can't
37:56 say it. You notice the sin of the tongue covers every other sin. So you have to hide it. So you use lingo to to hide it.
38:03 You know then you say I didn't quite really do it. I passed it to someone do it. Come on BS you did it. You see
38:09 there's a link and then because of that your life goes on a certain part because you cannot admit you gave it. You start
38:15 to become duplicative about this. That means your mind become split. Then
38:20 afterwards you become a hypocrite because it sets the course of your life and then you tell yourself you know what
38:26 but I come to church I'm so active in church yes but that salvation by works you you're not dealing with this the
38:31 very least is talk about it you see the sins of the tongue would direct your life like a rudder and you see this in
38:39 so many other areas I'll give a few example this is one of the most famous lies of
38:45 the 20th century we all know that right and I saw this I was I was young that and I told myself here's the president
38:52 of the United States coming right at the front of of the TV and you know lying
38:58 point blank and what happens after that people make remarks the point is this you know if the president of the United
39:06 States can lie point blank in front of TV so convincingly you know what he's
39:11 trying to tell you about the average guy go and lia spreads around because he's the most
39:17 powerful person on and he lied very convincingly. So it spreads. So here's another one.
39:25 Again we talking about precedents nowadays. And on the eve of the war he uses one
39:31 word. You know I I you can again get this in YouTube. What's the word he used? Crusade.
39:38 Just one word. based on the back of that one word. Everything you see now from from
39:45 al-Qaeda to ISIL is based on this one word. The Americans are on a crusade
39:53 and lives lost in Syria and Iraq, Americans, Yazidis are all based on this
39:60 one word. So be very careful of the things you say at home, at work, they
40:06 spread. Number two, you think it doesn't mean anything. It means a lot and it
40:12 goes around. And the worst effect of it is church. And I want to say something.
40:18 You see the way James does the language, he's talking about the body. The tongue
40:23 is attached to the body. He will go later on to chapter 4 and he will now talk about the body as the church. You
40:30 know, Jesus likes to do double talk. You see? And why do churches split? people
40:36 talk and I want to say one thing at this point of the history of first baptist
40:42 church we are now according to Peter in our golden years really we are we had peace for a while
40:49 we haven't had fights the church is growing and I want to implore all of us to maintain that
40:56 you know and and you have issues do it in the right channels uh you can go out there and make a
41:02 remark and you never realize how it goes out I'll give you example People like me either we been talking a
41:08 long time. We all become very thick skin. I'll tell you one thing as a speaker. No matter what you say, people will complain. The number one complaint
41:14 about an Lim is that this fellow very crude like to tell jokes. But that's me and I I listen to it sometime. I I edit
41:21 my jokes. But you cannot tell me not to tell jokes. I think it's not I think scripture doesn't say that. Okay. It
41:27 doesn't say that. Hh. That's who I am. I you know. But some people you see you see the way our makeup is because we're
41:32 made so differently. Some people know no you know like for example some people say you know speakers must always wear a tie you know I don't wearing a tie so
41:40 but some some of us have we own you know we because we all different so sometime ago for example if I'm going to speak
41:47 very carefully you don't like what anolim says you can do one thing and you can post what you don't like on Facebook
41:55 you can do that and it has happened to me I'm quite I'm quite famous you know for wrong reasons this fellow said this
42:02 And I there was one posting on Facebook about me. He used this term, you know, but and I was speaking about Leah
42:08 Rachel. It was on Facebook, you know, and you know, he used this word about, you know, and the language is so crude.
42:15 No, actually I was reading from the Hebrew. The Hebrew was exactly that language. Unless you're telling the
42:20 Hebrew were crude and and I actually stole it from Tim Keller. Unless you're saying Tim Keller is also crude, you see. But you see, that's not the point.
42:27 The point is if you have a problem with what I say, what is the right channel to do?
42:34 Talk to me. You cannot drop me an email. You cannot talk to Peter. But when you drop it on Facebook, it
42:40 reflects on yourself. You see, I I anyway that individual is no longer here, I believe. But here's the point
42:45 with us. With us, we we are we are not careful. You see, we we say something out there and they become very
42:51 destructive. So, I want to plead with all of us. We are one body. There are places to air
42:58 your grievances. Number two, because we're all different, we are not going to make everyone happy. Think of the body
43:03 and think of how your words can affect that body. And then he goes to the end of it and this is important. He says
43:09 this, the tongue is also the fire. We just did it. The last word is in itself
43:15 set on fire by hell. Oh, that's a very
43:20 heavy word. So what is he trying to say? He's saying at the end every word you say behind it, who is behind it is the
43:27 devil. How did the devil cause sin to enter the world? He went to Eve and whispered to Eve.
43:35 So when you get out there, you see certain things and there's a chain reaction. Be very careful because the devil could be just all around and
43:42 pushing us into disunityity. And we of course saw how Hitler in his own words and his own rhetoric caused millions to
43:48 die. But I want you to pick up this point. is a very important point because if the devil is behind man's words, how
43:56 then do you counter the words of the devil? I want you to take on that. We we'll go to that later. And then we end
44:02 this section about double-mindedness. He says, "Without tongue, we praise our Lord and father with it we curse men who
44:09 have been made in God's likeness." Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. And then he uses a few
44:15 examples. All agriculture can fresh air and salt water flow from the same spring. Can a fig tree bass olives? A
44:21 grape vine best figs? Can salt spring produces fresh water? We we don't quite
44:27 get that because we're not in that culture. But he's just talking about incompatibility.
44:32 And again, it goes back to this guy called talkative and what he said. He's a saint abroad, a devil at home. Now,
44:40 what's the most obvious? The most obvious is us. what you say after you leave this and
44:47 you we don't need to wait till Monday you know I I I cannot I say in love I
44:52 I've heard sometimes no you know and I'm not trying to judge people you can go right out to globe cafe out garden cafe
44:59 out of there and then the language will start already don't need to wait the Monday oh hallelujah oh lord savior no go out
45:07 there this fellow like that the clock only 15 minutes go out there the the
45:13 machine guns come already at all. No need to wait the Monday. You see, you see it goes on the mind. Now, now that's
45:20 important because he's saying the issue now is about the mind.
45:26 You see, we can turn this whole sermon into a moral sermon to say, hey, you know, you be very careful what you say.
45:32 Hello, you don't need to be Christian to tell you that. You can learn that in your moral class
45:38 in school. We all know we should be polite and kind and tell the truth and
45:44 deny la da la da the problem is we don't know how to do it correct or not. So I
45:50 want to tell go us into how we do it. Okay instead of starting off telling you know hey you guys got to tell the truth.
45:56 No you guys got to encourage one another. Yeah we all know but we can't do it how. So he tells you the issues in
46:01 the mind. So now let's break down and tell you how to do it. And I want to give you four points. Fix your heart
46:09 then only fix your words. If you can't fix your hearts, you won't fix your words.
46:15 There's a connection there because double-mindedness means you are split in thinking because he says it in James,
46:21 James chapter one, the man is doubleminded. He he has a trial but he doesn't depend on God. Chapter two says
46:28 the same thing. No, you know he's doubleminded. I wish you well. You're you're not you're you're not doing you're you're poor. I wish you well.
46:33 He's double-minded. No, it comes from the heart. Number two, live out grace,
46:38 speak out grace. That is works, that is words. Then only we go into the actual
46:44 discipline of the mouth. Practice wisdom, your words, we speak life. Now the first two is your foundation. You
46:50 don't get your first two out. This becomes a moral class. You don't need it won't become a Christian sermon. Now
46:56 let's look at that. Okay? And Matthew say this. And Jesus says the things that
47:02 come out the mouth come from the heart.
47:08 No matter how your PR is, it will come out when you are vulnerable. And James
47:14 says that too. What causes fights and quarrels? Notice quarrels is a sin of the mouth. Don't they come from what?
47:22 Your desires. That's your heart. Because you see it's like that. You have a faith. It goes into a thought. It comes
47:29 out in an emotion then your behavior and then it affects your relationship. The thing that ties all of it is your words.
47:35 So fix your heart. Uh simple example
47:41 and honest example not everyone likes an Lim. Fair.
47:47 Analy doesn't like everyone. Fair right? I'm supposed to love
47:52 everyone. Not supposed to like everyone. the personality thing because some people don't like Anna Lim and Anna Lim
47:59 doesn't like everyone. If I meet that person, I either smell the airon when I
48:05 walk by or I say hi and I like that. Now, why is
48:12 that so? Because the danger after go there is to badmouth that person. Now, here's here's
48:18 what he's trying to say. Why must you fix your heart? Because the heart is self-centered.
48:24 I I spoke with a brother some time ago and I said which I I I mean I didn't like I'm going to use the word I didn't
48:31 like. I said you know you have said a lot of things among me which is not right. Well what's the first thing he
48:36 does? He defends it. No I never I I've never said no. Then he goes into a long barrage of how I offended him. Now you
48:43 pause and think about that. Isn't that like most of us? We are very quick to realize how people have offended us but
48:50 very slow to realize how we offend other people. So uh a simple thing is that I could go
48:56 up to Richard and say Richard you do this well after Richard don't talk to me again for the rest of the year.
49:02 You see you notice how the words come from the heart. Now what what is the point? The first thing God is telling us
49:09 your heart must be broken. If your heart is not broken and you don't realize you're a sinner, you
49:14 you're not going to get out of this and and later on Jesus talks out of the heart comes all these sinful things. So
49:22 the heart must be broken. And that's why teaching starts on this. We're all sinners. So I want to ask you all go
49:28 home, pause and before you go into a long list of how everybody has offended you, ask yourself how you have offended
49:35 a lot of people with your words especially and then ask for forgiveness
49:40 because that's very hard to do. Why do you think I'm sorry is the hardest word for Chinese to come up? We're very quick
49:47 to look at how other people offended us, not us. So you start by fixing your heart. Now because we are all made
49:53 differently, the next thing is you got to use this word. is called grace. Now look at what Paul says. It is grace you
49:59 have been saved. We all know this verse through faith. This not for yourself the gift of God. But look what's interesting. Nobody works so that no one
50:06 can boast. You notice what that that's a sin of the tongue. You know the first thing the sin of the tongue that mean if
50:11 you have no grace you your tongue will sin. Now why is that so? Because the fact is
50:18 you and I can never resolve everything. In the end that brother I needed to have grace. He needed to have grace. And for
50:25 a lot of us because we all human and we offend each other. You put so many people into a church like that. Some
50:31 people are thick skinned. Some people are sensitive. Some people got certain background. You expect everyone to get on. Hello. Maybe in heaven. Not here. So
50:40 you need to have grace. You need to have a few words which should be anchoring our our conversations. You know what's
50:46 the most important word? The word I am sorry. And that's a word which very few people
50:52 use. You cannot say the word then let it go. Second thing, grace tells you you
50:58 have a language of affirmation and statistics show you the the power of praise with staff or the npali or
51:06 everything. And and I want to really encourage us on that. Unless you're embedded in your heart of that you need
51:12 to repent your sins if it doesn't come out in grace you don't leave grace you
51:18 won't speak grace. Then we go there garden cafe the first thing say this stupid sermon really one
51:24 kind one sorry a very strong word but you will because it's default position
51:30 oh you know I heard Peter and Richard they take money from the church you know they did by the way but
51:37 how come the quite s like that why we pay $5 for this what kind of food is this what kind of church is this hey
51:44 today no power failure but how come I think so three times of power failure never fix what kind of church leadership
51:50 It was so hot that day, you know. True or not?
51:56 But you see, it comes out because it's default. But why? Because the heart
52:01 isn't welling up with gratitude. The heart isn't welling up with unity.
52:07 So it comes out and and the way you do it, you know who the best person to check this, go and ask your wife because
52:12 you tell you, I never say I never say no. You say, oh 10 words you say eight of them are bad words and all negative.
52:18 Here's the thing. Track how many negative words come out of you. Go ask your wives or your best friends. You
52:24 will not know you know a majority of the words that come out always critical. Your heart needs to be fixed. Brother or
52:31 sister out of that then we practice wisdom. And here's one very simple one
52:38 which is very common they use. They call the word think. Is it true? T H is it
52:44 helpful? I is it inspiring? And is it necessary? K, is it kind? Let the word
52:51 of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom. And as you sing psalms and is
52:59 interesting, gratitude and this is where we go into the actual application. And here's one very simple thing, one thing
53:05 I learned, especially people like me. Sometimes the sound of silence is the
53:10 best sound. So people honor him sometime just don't say anything.
53:18 So I learned sometimes when I'm not sure don't say I I tell you what I learn to do nowadays and it's very simple my own
53:23 practice I learned to pray very often before I try to open my mouth because I really got verbal diarrhea. So I do it
53:29 on the way to meetings. I go on my car I'm a meeting with uh and I try learn
53:35 not to over talk not to say the wrong things. uh whenever you open up your WhatsApp and you're in a chat group and
53:41 you pray that whatever you say you know and and all of us are in chat groups and a lot of us are non-Christian chat
53:47 groups uh so and they you know sometimes the jokes go quite bad then you get caught up in it so prayer does a lot of
53:55 things so uh I'm in one secular chat group so I decided this morning there
54:01 was an opening so I sent something out and they're all non-Christians I said pray for this country if not pray for
54:06 your children and after that you will get a response
54:12 and you see you must understand it's a spiritual thing going on you know and little little things like this do a lot
54:18 of things another Christian very antagonistic he he he had a he had an angoplas and I said I'll pray for you
54:25 and he sent me back thank you honor you see you don't realize it but bad words
54:32 go a long way good words also go a long Okay, go up to someone uh whom you know
54:39 who heard who shared with you a while ago. Meet him again and you say, "Hey, u
54:46 how's it going?" You don't think that word will not go a long way because it shows you remember just three lines, you
54:53 know, little little gestures because the word has power
54:59 and no one's asking you to be a missionary to stand up here to preach. But every day you have opportunity,
55:05 words and works. I want to end in a short while because what I'm trying to tell you is that this is the medium of
55:11 Christianity. And when people see us, they need to see two things. They need to see our lives and they need to see
55:18 what we say. And you don't every day have to go out there and preach John 3:16. A few words
55:25 of encouragement, a few words of affirmation. Don't always come and criticize the
55:31 preachers. Sometime come and thank the preacher. Not me. I'm not saying that. But some people they take their role in
55:37 life to criticize everyone else. Thank Peter. It's a thankless job to be an elder. Thank Richard. You don't think
55:44 they won't appreciate it. How many of you have thank the elders?
55:49 Oh, the silence is deafening. You see little little things. And this is why I want to end with this part. You
55:57 have to speak lies because words kill. This is what James is saying. Death and
56:03 life are in the power of tongue. Proverbs 16. And James, that's why it
56:09 says the words, the tongue is set on fire by hell. You can kill with that.
56:14 And because of that, Jesus says this, the opposite. And here's the final part. And I want I want to ask the worship
56:20 team to come up now. He says, "The word I have spoken to you are spirit and they
56:28 are life." If the devil is using words to destroy, we then use the words of God
56:37 to claim life. And he says in the Psalms, he put a new song in my mouth, a
56:43 hymn of praise to our God. And when we speak that out, what Isaiah 55 says, the
56:50 word of God will not come back void. Many will see and fear and put their
56:57 trust in God. That's Isaiah 55:11. It doesn't reply just to speakers but to
57:03 me and you. And that is why before we just give you this ending
57:09 again, I gave the memory verse.
57:14 So we're going to try it one more time. Softer.
57:20 I I give you example for myself. I talk a lot and I I have a softer habit of bragging. My memory verse is this. This
57:26 is Jeremiah 29. Let him let not the wise man boast of his wisdom. Let not the
57:33 rich man boast of his riches. Let not the strong man boast of his strength. This is for me. But let him boast boast
57:41 of this that he knows and understands me. That's my memory verse. For I am the
57:48 Lord who exercises judgment, mercy, and righteousness throughout the lands. And
57:53 in these things I delight, says the Lord. Why? Because every day when I say that, I
57:59 don't go out there and try to promote myself so much. Because the word of God has power. If you're going through a
58:06 difficult time and you're struggling, you claim the psalmist and says, "I the
58:13 Lord is my shepherd." Though you walk through the valley of
58:18 the shadow of death, you shall fear no evil. His rod and his path, they comfort
58:24 you. You see the word of the Lord has power and if we don't make a habit of
58:30 memorizing scripture and speaking out that the heart will not be renewed.
58:37 So I want you all to try to get into this habit. I I am not very good at memorizing thing. Try once a month
58:43 memorize a few verses. Speak it out. You will find your life will change and your
58:48 words will change. So I'm going to end with this again. We're going to try it one more round.
58:54 Take your time, look at it, and then we're going to switch it off. And then
58:60 you're going to tell me this. So, Howard, when you're ready, we switch this off. Huh? Okay. Oh, sorry. Uh,
59:06 Winin, if you're ready, everybody. All right. We almost there, right? All right. Let's cut this off.
59:14 Okay. At a count of three, why don't we stand? No handphones by the side. Truth is
59:21 important. Okay. All right. One, two, three.
59:43 better Lord we just come before you now oh Lord
59:48 on this very practical lesson about the thong
59:55 and we ask oh Lord before we just go and says yeah we all know we got to speak nice words and kind words let us fix our
60:02 hearts for a person who's grateful and happy in the Lord says good things. He
60:08 doesn't say bitter things. He doesn't say critical things. A person whose heart is right with you and broken in
60:14 you speaks grace. He lives grace. He speaks forgiveness.
60:20 He speaks reconciliation. He speaks affirmation.
60:26 And these words go a long way. Teach us to speak life as we struggle through
60:32 that. And we can claim the promises of scripture. Oh Lord, that the word of Lord that goes out will not come back
60:39 void. And we say this in Jesus name. Amen. We're going to sing this song. Uh is a
