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00:00:00 good morning church uh today's scripture reading is taken from the book of James chapter 3: 1 to 5 I'll be reading from the NIV version not many of you should become teachers my fellow Believers because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly we all stumble in many ways anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect able to keep their whole body in check when we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us we can turn the whole animal or take ships as an example although they are so large and
00:00:41 are driven by strong winds they are steered by a very small Rudder wherever the pilot wants to go likewise the tongue is a small part of the body but it makes great boasts consider what a great Forest is set on fire by a small spot this is the word of the Lord thank you well good morning church morning good to see everybody I got a couple announcements before we move on to the sermon um some dates to keep in mind on the 24th of September there will be a zoom meeting to approve some new um leaders in our assembly of leaders and
00:01:27 introduce to you the church plan for upgrade of the facilities so before you jump the gun this is going to be a meeting where we will share with you what the leadership has in plan so that we can all be at one mind there also be a small constitutional amendment to allow voting via social media the tentative uh general meeting would be on the 29th of October where we will have the Constitutional amendment to allow online social media voting as well as Financial reports election office bearers this date is tentative because
00:02:01 we're waiting for the Auditors to complete their work all right for more details just uh approach any of your uh deacons or Elders okay now um next week Dr Lim kahui will be here to speak to us on giving you this mountain I will continue on part two of my sermon and uh Arnold Lim Elder Arnold will be preaching on living out the gospel home and at work so let's start with the word of prayer father Lord we come before you this morning we bow before you we worship you we honor you and we bring your word before us this day we ask that
00:02:43 this word will percolate through our lives and change the way we think and the way we act and more importantly the way we speak we ask for jesus' sake amen right so today's sermon is so long that I have to break in two parts so I'm following Arnold Li's lead so everything we break into two so I can speak slower hopefully uh and cover more material so this five verses uh Speech and spirituality you know words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity and uh if you look in the Bible there's so many words there
00:03:19 lips mouth tongue cry the whole Bible is full of references to words Abraham Joshua herel which is a rabbi very famous Rabbi from the United States say speech has power words do not fade what starts out as a sound ends in the D that's why words are so powerful uh the Greek philosopher uh Plato said uh that wise men talk because they have something to say fools because they have some to they have to say something Abraham Lincoln said better to remain silent than be thought of a fool that to speak and remove all doubt so
00:03:57 hopefully there will be no doubt after this now James is a very practical book where just going through B book of James and it links up what we say uh with what we are so James chapter 1 ver 26 says uh if anyone thinks is religious or spiritual and does not Bridal his tongue deceives his heart his person's religion worthless so the the mark of true spirituality is how you speak how you act religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father father is this to visit orphans and widows in their Affliction and personal
00:04:34 Holiness to keep yourself oneself unstained from the world so these are the marks of spirituality and James writes to mature his audience chapter 2 the chapter before this he tells us faith is authenticated by action and it shows you Abraham his faith whatever he said he trusted God he was able to trust God all the way up to offering his son ra was able to trust God as well from two spec opposite poles of the spectrum of society by pushing the uh authorities in the wrong direction and protecting
00:05:10 the 12 Spies so faith that works lastly to to Today Chapter 3 is about faith and words how words actually matter and there are six points here from the 12 verses the sins of speech will be judged sins of speech will be a a universal problem speech has an out size impact on our lives speech has danger of great evil sins of speech are Beyond self-control SP speech can only be transformed by a change of a heart and so basically we're going to cover the first three points first with the first five verses first of all the sins of
00:05:46 speech will be judged not many of you should become teachers and my brothers you know that we who teach will be judge with great greater strictness for we all stumble in many ways and anyone does not stumble in what he says he's a perfect man able to Bridle his whole body most important message to today is that we need to be careful in how we speak because the sins of speech will be judged now primarily the ones who are at risk are people like me Arnold or Yan whoever steps up here and talks and that's a very grave
00:06:25 responsibility but James expands it he says we all stumble in many ways anyone who does not stumble but he says he's a perfect man any perfect man here none so the the warning is to everybody especially teachers you see the teachers in those days were the superstars they're like the Justin beaver all right everybody looks up to them they're called Rabbi they have great social rank you're talking about next to the politicians is basically teachers nobody else there are no singers in those days all right so you
00:06:57 look at how Jesus uh talked about these teachers they do all their deeds to be seen by others they make their filteries abroad and their fringes long they love the place of honor at Feast at the best seats in the synagogue and greetings in the marketplace and are called Rabbi by others so everybody looks up at them in fact they said that if your parents are captured by enemies and held for ransom Duty dictates the person should rescue the rabbi first parents second that's how highly they were taught of and so
00:07:30 therefore people wanted to be teachers but teachers are judged on their product we are word Smith so therefore we are judged on our words we we Potter then we are judged on our pots but we use words right so the responsibility teacher is the truth of the word not personal opinions all right by the Holy Spirit guiding us and also by the evidence of the word the way your life is actually lived and what you say reflects what what happens comes from the heart Jesus says you Brut of vipers how can you
00:08:05 speak good when you're evil for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks the good person out of his good treasure brings forth good the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil I tell you on the day of judgment people will give account of every careless word they speak remember every careless word for by your words you'll be justified and by your words you will be condemned that is the spiritual link between what you say and what you are that's why Jesus said I said do you everyone who is
00:08:37 angry with his brother will be liable for judgment whoever insults his brother will be liable to the counsel whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire that's how important words are if you look at Paul's farewell speech to the Ephesian Elders therefore I testify to you this day I'm innocent of the blood of all for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God so Paul's will be judged and what he will be judged is on whether he preached the whole Council of God and he warns them
00:09:09 after my departure Fierce wolves will come in amongst you not sparing the flock and from among your own s will arise men speaking Twisted things to draw the disciples away after them so this is the enemy the enemy always comes from within not without two Peter also warns us false prophets will arous from the people just as there will be false teachers among you who secretly bring in destructive heresies even denying the master who brought them bringing upon themselves Swift destruction and many
00:09:38 will follow their sensuality and because of them the truth the way of truth will be blasphemed and in they greed they will exploit with false words the condemnation from long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep these are serious warnings and yet today we can see so many out doing this distorting the Bible Paul warns that if you are I'm astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel not that there's another one but there are some
00:10:11 who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ this famous preacher says if we worship a poor savior we'll always be poor but if we worship a savior who we know to be rich and prosperous we will be changed to reflect that see it sounds so logical doesn't it absolutely logical but when you look at scripture we says for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sake he became poor you see I mean that's how you just twist it around and teachers are responsible for that and they will get
00:10:46 judgment there two kinds of judgment that we will face one the final judgment salvation and then the Judgment of Believers and what James is talking about here is not the final Judgment of salvation but the Judgment of Believers so it will be either stricter judgment greater condemnation or greater danger of judgment so 1 Corin chapter 3 if the work that he has built on the foundation survives he will receive a reward if that work is burnt up he will suffer loss though he himself will be saved and
00:11:15 only true fire all right and the rest of the Book of James talks about speaking 119 be slow to speak slow to anger chapter two so speak and act as though who are to be judged under the law of Liberty do not speak evil chapter four chapter 5 above all my brothers do not swear either by Heaven Earth let your yes be yes and no be no so the whole focus on the things that we say so judgment sins of speech will be judged be careful of what we say the second thing is the sins of speech are a universal problem it affects everybody
00:11:58 and here is James writing which means he's not perfect James himself has sins of speech as well Genesis chapter 3 starts off with the serpent say you will not die that's a sin of the tongue Isaiah when he sees the vision of God so woe is me I am lost I have a man of unclean lips and I dwell the midst of people of unclean lips Romans chapter 3 that throat is an oven grave he describes people they use their tongues to deceive the Venom ass is under their T lips their mouth is full of curses and bitterness tongues are dangerous and
00:12:39 it's not only confined to teachers he says we we all stumble every single person if anyone does not St stumble what he says he's a perfect man able to Bridle his whole body the story was told of three Ministers of God's word who got together one day to talk about life's challenges Roman Catholic priest a Lutheran Minister and a Baptist Minister the Catholic priest started to share you know my biggest problem uh is actually uh uh you know I like alcohol so half the week I'm drunk and I'm so scared I don't tell anybody that the
00:13:19 bishop will find out and I will lose my Parish then they said okay no problem you share with us this is accountability M um then the Lutheran Minister said look you think that is better every week they give offering I take 10% I'm so scared that the police come they'll find out something missing and then I'm going to get caught as well then he comes to the Baptist now Baptist is quite sinless isn't it so he come to the Baptist and say hey what about you they said no I don't want to share nothing to share I'm I'm pretty good
00:13:51 fellow what we shared out to you our greatest evil and then you say nothing okay I tell you my my greatest challenge in life you know my biggest weakness life I like to gossip and I can't wait to tell everybody about you too the S of tongue is so common all right you can see all the politicians with the hot mic moment remember when the mic is on you didn't know be careful when you're preaching and uh this is Jeffy Reverend Jeffy Jackson a famous American politician and Pastor also and he was talking about Obama Senator Bama
00:14:28 has been talking down to black people on this faith base I want to cut his nuts off imagine it up you had to cut his nuts off and he's not even a urologist ah Jac Shirak criticizes England you know and he says the only thing they have ever done for European agriculture is M cow disease you can't trust people who have such bad Cuisine and look at Peter look at him uh uh Matthew 16 who do you say I am Simon Peter replied you are Christ son of the Living God bless blessed are you Simon bonah flesh and blood has not re has not
00:15:02 revealed this to you but my father who is in heaven then you turn around and then he rebukes Jesus say oh you won't die and then Jesus turn to him and rebuked Peter says Get Behind Me Satan one minute the Holy Spirit tells him another minute Satan tells him same mouth comes out too since in the mouth very common and Peter is a chap who basically has a lot of foot in mouth disease right and when Jesus washing his feet uh uh before Jesus was before he was crucified and he say he'll be taken away Peter
00:15:40 stood up and said though they all fall away because of you I will never fall away and three times he denied Christ when Jesus was washing his feet right he said to Jesus Oh don't don't don't wash my feet and he just say if I don't wash your feet then you will have no part in me and just said okay you wash the feet my hands my head you see is a foot and mouth disease in fact there are 90 Proverbs about speech all right in the Bible so which means it is so important and so common Rabbi uh Joseph tuskin says if you can cannot go
00:16:17 for 24 hours without drinking liquor you are addicted to alcohol if you cannot go for 24 hours without smoking you addicted to detine if you cannot go for 24 hours without saying unkind words to about others that you've lost control over your tongue which is very true isn't it all right and it happens to women and men Studies have shown we speak about 16,000 words a day women and men similar don't blame the the ladies so since of speech are a universal problem sin of speech have an outsized impact in our lives it is so
00:16:54 impactful I cannot understate what speech can do to us if we put bits in the mouth of horses so they obey us we guide their whole bodies as well look at the ships although they're so large and driven by strong winds they're Guided by very small Rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs so also the tongue is a small member yet the boast of great things so what he's saying is that however big your super tanker is or strong your hes they're all controlled by this all you have to do is just say say two words I
00:17:31 do and your whole life changes isn't it whole life you know the second most important I do you can say in your entire life cancer free and your life is changed guilty and not guilty your life is changed death and life are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat its fruits that's what Proverbs say and it's true isn't it some uh Gary Chapman who wrote about the different kinds of love language of love actually says words are like bullets or seeds you either take a bullet and shoot
00:18:06 someone down or it becomes a seed that grows up and blesses other people and we are capable of either bullets or seeds numbers say if a man vows a vow to the Lord and swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge he shall not break his word he shall do according to all that proceeds from his mouth the Bible is very very serious about what you say and yet one day if you look at that judge jeat he says he was going to defeat the amonites and he made a vow jaab made a vow to the Lord and said if you give the ammonites into my hands and
00:18:44 whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the ammonites shall be the Lords and I will offer it for burnt offering very boastful isn't it if you just give me this Victory whoever comes and say hello to to me when I come back there will be burnt offering and the trouble is Big Fat Mouth his daughter came out first the first person the Greet him when he came back after the defeat of the ammonites was his daughter and this part is controversial we maybe he did
00:19:15 maybe he didn't there's some theological issues but he wound up offering his daughter as a burnt offering which he should not have do not rashly say things you know words are very powerful there's a study in 2018 uh that looked at a group of people of which they've got two eyes right one right and one left and one eye they would flash a picture and another eye they would flash some patterns of picture kangaroo pumpkin or chair on the other eye they would flash continuous squiggly lines and you can find when you
00:19:52 do that when you actually show one eye squiggly lines or the other eye they show the pumpkin they saw nothing they actually saw nothing is suppressed because this moving squiggly lines on one eye overcomes and suppresses the other but when they hear the word and if the word corresponds to the to the image then they will actually see if you say pumpkin they will actually see pumpkin and the conclusion of was in the case of vision what we consciously perceive seems to be deeply shaped by our knowledge and expectation and those
00:20:29 expectation can be altered by a single word a single word determines what you actually see that's why words are so powerful words determine perception words create reality words are remembered words make a difference you can tell your son you got your a big nose and for whole life he'll be trying to cover his nose because it impacts you it creates that in fact uh uh uh Morgan Blake writes I am more deadly than the screaming shell from the Hower I I win without killing I tear down homes break hearts and wreck lives I travel in the
00:21:11 wings of the wind no innocence is strong enough to intimidate me no Purity is pure enough to Dawn me I have no regard for the truth no respect for justice no mercy for the defenses my victims are as numerous as the Sands of the sea and often as innocent I never forget seldom forgive and my name is gossip put your hands up anybody here who has never gossiped that's how dangerous and pernicious this is that world famous psycho analyst Sigman Freud said words have magical power they can bring either the greatest
00:21:49 happiness or the deepest despair they can transfer Knowledge from teacher to student words enable the orators sway his audience and dictate his decisions words are capable arousing the strongest emotions and prompting all action as a study also shown of uh cyclist and they had half the cyclist just go into the race and the other half cyclist had a motivational selft talk the given words to speak and you found that the ones who had the motivational selft talk actually did better than the ones who didn't have
00:22:21 it so words can actually change your perception and your reality when I climb up my stairs in my Hospital recently you know what they did every flight of stairs they put two flights of stairs per day reduces your weight to at least 2.7 kilogram per year I think there's no data to show that right but they still put it up there 15 minutes of climbing stairs is equivalent to 30 minutes of running hey climbing stairs often faster they're waiting for the elevator or stair climbing can save you up to 15 minutes a day so they put all
00:22:56 these things guess what climbing stairs comes towards your 30 minutes of daily physical exercise right so what the understanding is that words change your perception and helps you why why is it so difficult for dap and barisan am know to be in the same party together and zahid actually said because Dr M indoctrinated the entire amno and many of the the malays in the kampong to hate dap and because of what he has actually said over the years the enmity persists even to this day when they're in the same party but you can
00:23:37 use words for good John F Kennedy ask not what your country can do for you ask what you can do for your country or I have a dream Martin Luther King or tear this war down this wall down by Ronald Reagan or more importantly Winston Churchill when time when Britain was almost invaded by Nazi J Germany he stood up and said we shall not flag or fail we should go to the end we shall fight in France we shall fight on the Seas and the oceans we fight with growing confidence it goes on so words are so powerful they can change they if
00:24:11 you have words and consistent positive thoughts and speech we can change our self perception because whatever thoughts come out okay you can actually clothe then your words and the words bounce back because you hear your own words they actually reinforce your thought thoughts all right so we can decide which thoughts do you want to clothe with your words so if you direct your heart towards good and you starve the evil you clothe your good thoughts with words and you reject your bad thoughts and
00:24:45 basically if you got bad thoughts they will have power over you your good thoughts and you actually verbalize them they will actually influence your perception and don't forget the word that you say will come and bite you as Dr m is being investigated for the words he said recently now there's a Word of Faith heresy that's here I want to clarify as well now this is a heresy that's come up in many of the churches and they're saying that your words that you say are so powerful that they can actually
00:25:21 change reality he says the faith fors release by speaking words if he only believes in his words as God believes in his that means if God speaks something he believes in it it happens and I've seen patients of mine who've got cancer and they've learned this word of faith they say I don't have cancer doctor you're wrong that's not how words work words cannot change they can change perception that we have seen they can increase confidence they can cause blessing but they cannot change reality and a lot of
00:25:57 this words of Faith heresy is used to change a reality so that you can actually be more prosperous that's not how words work so the sins of speech will be judged sins of speech will a universal problem sins of speech have an outsized impact on our lives very important so the tongue is small member and yet it boasts of great things Jeremiah says thus says the Lord let not the wise men boast in his wisdom let not the Mighty Man boast in his might let not the rich man boast in his riches but let him who
00:26:38 boast boast in this that he understands and knows me that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love Justice and righteousness on Earth and for in these things I Delight declares the Lord that's what our mouths should be saying this morning we whatever you need to boast you may be rich you drive your Lamborghini or your Ferrari whatever that's not for you to boast in because uh how clever you are but you need to be able to boast in the Lord but the trouble is as Isaiah found out whoo is me I'm lost I'm a man of
00:27:18 unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of people unclean lips so my eyes have seen the king the Lord of host and one of the sah flew to me having his in his hand a burning cold he had taken from the tongs from The Altar and he touched my lips and said behold this has touched your lips your guilt is taken away your sin is atone for we are all this morning a people of unclean lips there is not a single soul alive here who has not sinned and they say wo but the beautiful thing about Isaiah and for us
00:27:54 this morning is that the sarapin comes and it takes a call and it puts on his tongue and it says your sin has been atoned for and that sin was atoned for 2,000 years ago when Jesus came on the cross and died and that so transforms our lives that Paul says far be it for me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world that is the game changer so how does that influence our life that influences our lives in so far as whatever you see when
00:28:37 we boast what is the boast I will tell you if you ever watch rugby you've got the All Blacks what do the All Blacks do before they they play they stand in a row and they do the hakah the D up and down then they stick why do they do that because that is actually a war dance a war dance is a boast so that they would intimidate their enemies that is what they they they rely on their ferocity they rely on their skill they rely on their strength and their Fame and that's what they base their life and their game on you know as
00:29:17 Christians far be it for me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which the world has been crucified to me and I in the world you know what that means it doesn't mean you go out there to tomorrow afterwards you going to stand in the road and say ah Jesus Christ died for me and everywhere that's good too all right you want to do that but more importantly that cross the death on the cross becomes the basis of how you feel good about yourself you wake up in the morning why do you feel
00:29:44 good about yourself well because today uh I got uh uh I'm going to take I'm going to take the keys for my new condominium I feel really good or you wake up today oh my share market went down I feel really bad what he's saying is that I will only boast in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ so by which the world has been crucified to me and I to which means whatever happens tomorrow good bad and ugly it's crucified crucified said dead and I will base how I feel how I work how I walk my attitude on what he has
00:30:23 done and I will actually verbalize that that is how we should live because we are a people of unclean lips so we need to know what we put our confidence on 2 Corinthians 1:12 this is what how he applies it and Paul says for our boast is this the testimony of our conscience that we behave in the world with Simplicity and godly sincerity not by Earthly wisdom by grace of God and supremely towards you you know we can use our tongues in so many ways the story was told of a man who got the gift of the Gap he happened to work in a
00:31:07 departmental store Market store or something 7-Eleven where they were selling vegetables and as he was doing that a little old lady came up to him and say look um I'm looking for half a head of letters I mean we sell half a head of letters so he goes up to his manager and he tells you know I got this stupid over ding bat of a woman who wants half a head of lettuce and he suddenly turn around and realized oh the old woman is behind him you see and then suddenly he said oh but can this very nice lady have the
00:31:46 other half isn't that he he pivots so fast isn't it that's what we do that's how we do we don't conduct ourselves we conduct our eles because our basis our our confidence ourselves how clever you are how many things you say to cover your backside as it were Paul is saying our boast is this the testimony of conscious we behave in the world with Simplicity and godly sincerity that whatever we say is the truth it's and whatever we act out is also the truth what you see is what you get and that is our boast you know why
00:32:27 because we are people unclean lips you could and sco Peter because he he he lied or did all stupid thing I say yes thank you very much I I'm guilty but my boast my confidence is that Christ has died for me and my sins have been atoned it's no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me so with that in our hearts shall we go forward and continue to live live with Godly sincerity placing our focus and our trust on God and what he has done for us alone let's pray father Lord we just thank you for your
00:33:10 word and we commit all ourselves into your hands the things that we say that they will be commensurate with the things that we do that what we see is what we say is what we do that we will live and host with the testimony of conscience with Simplicity and godly sincerity that your name be glorified we ask for Jesus sake amen church let us rise [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] come people of the r is and King who Delight to bring him praise come all and tune your hearts to sing to the morning star of
00:34:40 Praise from the shifting Shadows of the earth we will lift our eyes to him where steady arms of Mercy reach to together children in Rejoice Rejoice let every Tong Rejoice one heart one voice oh Church of Christ [Music] Rejoice is joy is Morning Sun and those sweeping through the night Come Those who tell our battles one and those strugling of light for his proect love will never change and his Mer's never SE follow us through all our days the Rejoice Rejoice let every song with joy one heart one voice for Church of
00:36:09 [Music] Christ and old young and old from every land and and wom of the F Come Those with full or empty hands find The Riches of his gra over all the world his people s to show we he them trise through every AG of God all in all rej re Joy let everyy one heart for Church of Christ Rejoice let's sing rej Rejoice Rejoice let every time rej my heart for for Church of Christ rejo [Music] [Music] so can be seated we come to a Time where we celebrate the Lord's Supper remember the sarapin who came and when Isaiah said we are people
00:38:08 of unclean lips the coold touched his tongue and he says the sins are atoned for that is what we're going to celebrate right now 1 Corinthians chapter 11 for I received from the Lord what I delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread when he had given thanks he broke it let's prepare the element and spend a few minutes after you've torn the polythene off from your element too much sound you know and let's as the music plays spend the time reflect ing what it
00:38:59 means to be a people of unclean lips think back into all the rash words we he spoken especially to our spouses who are the closest to us or our children when we are in anger or irritation and we lashed out to them because they were disturbing us or even our wives when we let them down or we defend ourselves we're to so quick to say those things that hurt and they remember those words we can't take once a word comes out you can't take it back it's there forever percolates to the minds of our loved ones undermines their confidence
00:39:49 saps their energy and whatever we say it doesn't come back but there's one thing at the foot of the cross whatever word you have said whatever action you have done we have a savior who came and was impaled upon the cross at the end of that time before he died he said these words it is finished and so as we look at the bread this morning we can declare oh Lord it is finished this bread this body has paid for my sin so as we take the bread because this morning the sermon is about what what you say so I want you to say after
00:41:02 me it is finished and it we take it together ready it is finished the cup represents his blood spilled on this altar this not only is finished more importantly we have the victory you know whenever you go for any dinners especially wedding dinners they have the Yum sing in it what is the Yum s about the yams say is a victory cry among the Chinese culture and when we take it we declare Victory and there's no greater Victory than the victory one on the cross so this morning as we take this emblem of the
00:42:07 victory we are many most of us are Chinese so all that we say yam Singh okay y sing glory to God for those of you who are not Chinese I'm sorry but you can learn I was at my son's wedding and I found quite a few Aussies who know how to say yam sing quite loudly there so just praise the Lord let's end with a word of prayer father Lord we just thank you we have Victory we have the beginnings of a change in our lives that we can be more like you and so Lord May the God of Peace is brought again from the dead our lord Jesus the great
00:43:03 Shepherd of the Sheep by the blood of the Eternal Covenant equip you with every good everything good that you may do his will working in us that is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and ever amen you are dismissed and if any of you would like to have us pray with you uh we'll be quite happy to do so or the elders and pastors will be up here thank you see you next week
