So what's one little thing that someone did for you this week that made a big difference in your life? I'm going to give you a second. I want you to think of it. What, what one little thing that, that maybe seemed insignificant that someone did for you this week that made a big difference in your life. You got it. Ok. Mine was melon balls. Yeah. Someone, someone made me melon balls. They didn't just cut up the melons, they made melon balls. And I'm telling you a melon ball tastes better than just a cut up melon. It does if you've been there, you know, it's, it's just a little thing, but it just made a, a big difference in my life. It, it brought some joy in my life. I've always loved the story of, of legendary college basketball coach John Wooden and the attention to the little things that he would focus on because little things matter and the little things that he would focus on would be socks and shoes. He would spend a lot of time talking to his players about socks and shoes. One of those times he was talking to a player and this is what he said about how to put his socks on. Now, pull it up in the back, pull it up real good and real strong. Now, run your hand around the little toe area and make sure there are no wrinkles and then pull it back up. Now, check the heel area because we don't want any sign of a wrinkle about it. The wrinkle will be sure you get blisters and those blisters are going to make you lose playing time. And if you're good enough, your loss of playing time might get me fired. And then he moved over from socks and moved to the shoes and he said this about lacing up the shoe. There's always a danger of becoming untied when you're playing and if they become untied, I may have to take you out of practice and if you miss practice, you're going to miss playing time. And not only that, it's going to irritate me just a little bit too. Someone summarized his thoughts like this. If you don't care for your socks and shoes and your shoelaces, you'll get blisters and mis practice and get hurt and lose games and cost the team a championship. In other words, little things matter, the, the little, the wrinkle in the sock. It, it mattered. He had learned that through experience, through paying attention. It's the little things that matter. We continue our series called Fresh Air where we are looking at the words that are filling up the air around us, not just any words, but maybe most specifically the words that we are filling up the air around us, the words that we are using at home and work and school and church and everywhere else we go and we're going to be pulling up to the words of James three in the Bible and, and James is going to be trying to get us to tie our hearts to an understanding that the little things matter when it comes to the words that we use. The little things matter why, because little things can make a big difference. It's the little things that happen in most of our daily lives that can make some of the biggest difference in how we think and how we act and our attitude. It's the little things that make a big difference in the lives of other people and in our own lives. In fact, it's some of the little things that you say that actually reveal why you exist. It's in the, the little things that we actually discover some of our purpose for being alive. Now, what does that mean? Well, let's see if we can find out together. Our message today is great words. And we're going to be looking in James chapter three and we're going to begin with verse three. James writes. Now, if we put the bits into the horse's mouth so that they will obey us, we direct their whole body as Well, the horse is a strong, powerful majestic animal weighs more than more than £1000 and, and yet it can be led by a little bit. Now, that bit could be something that's just a little bit bigger than a, than a magic marker and positioned in the right place in the horse's mouth. That, that bit can lead and guide and direct and manage that large powerful animal. In fact, without the bit, the horse could wildly move all over the place in all kind of directions every which way but loose and never get to where you're supposed to get or without a bit. The horse could widely move in every direction and just create chaos everywhere the horse goes. Like letting a, a rodeo bull loose in the middle of a best buy store. It's just chaos. It's just crazy, but that small bit can bring powerful control to chaos. Now, I realize that sounds a little bit crazy, but it's true. Little things matter, little things matter and that little bit, it doesn't just control the horse's mouth, it leads and guides and directs and, and manages the horse's whole body that the bit controls everything moves everything. And that horse, that horse wasn't designed just to go sit in a stable somewhere. That horse has, has purpose, that horse is, is designed to be used. And so that little bit helps the horse display power and helps the horse fulfill purpose. And James gives us another picture of power and purpose. Look at verse four, look at the ships too though they are so large and are driven by strong winds. They are nevertheless directed by a very small rudder. Wherever the inclination of the pilot determines. Look, I'm no Ferdinand Magellan, I'm no captain and I'm no Archimedes. So I don't have all of this uh marine and math behind me. But, but generally speaking, if you take a, a large ship that's 12 football fields long and three football fields high that weighs 200,000 tons has 7000 people aboard. That massive ship can be steered by turning something that's underwater behind it. That's about the size of six minivans. I mean, this, this huge massive ship can be moved by something little, a little rudder. It's a little thing on a ship, but it's put in just the right position and from that position, it can lead and guide and manage and direct this powerful vessel. Without that rudder, a ship could go in in all kind of directions and never arrive where it's supposed to arrive or without that rudder, the, the ship could go in a lot of different directions. It could be chaos. It could be crashing into the harbor or crushing ships that are smaller than it is. But in the right place and used correctly, that little rudder can help that powerful ship do exactly what it needs to do just like the little bit in the horse's mouth. The, the little rudder is where it's supposed to be. It's doing what it's supposed to do, it's helping the ship fulfill its purpose because see, the ship is not designed to sit in the harbor and do nothing. The ship is designed to sail and so that rudder, it, it helps the ship fulfill its purpose and, and display its power. But then James says there's something even more powerful than a large horse or a large ship, something more powerful and has just as much, if not more purpose. Look what he says in verse five. So also the tongue is a small part of the body and yet it boasts of great thanks. The tongue is about two ounces of muscle in our mouth. That's, that's not very big, right? Two ounces just, just a little bit of muscle, but that little bit of muscle just like the little bit for the horse, just like the little rudder for the ship. It can lead and manage and direct and guide your entire life. That tongue is positioned in your mouth in just the right place. So that either strikes the roof of the mouth or strikes the teeth and it produces the words that come out of your mouth. And so that little bit of muscle called the tongue can direct your whole life used incorrectly. The tongue can send you wildly in a lot of different directions and you may never get where you need to get or likewise used incorrectly. The tongue can wildly create a lot of chaos in your life. Chaos that, that takes over chaos that, that creates so much turmoil in your life. It's, it's hard to turn around but use correctly, use correctly that that little two ounces of muscle can help your words bring purpose and bring power into your life. In other words, the tongue is designed to be used. So how are you using your tongue? What kind of words are you speaking? Look, none of us are perfect, but just generally speaking, just let's look back over the last week. What kind of words have you been saying to your spouse or your parents or your kids to people at work? Uh people in traffic, uh people wherever you are. What, what kind of words have you been using? What kind of words have you been speaking? What kind of words have you been singing? What kind of words have you been texting? What kind of words have you been writing or emailing or, or posting? What, what kind of words I mean? No pun intended, actually lots of pun intended. No horsing around. What exactly is the air like around your life? What are the words filling up the air around your life? What are people hearing from you? Are the words that are coming out of your mouth? A blessing or a blemish? Are they seasoning or are they spoiling? Are they improving or are they impairing? Are they helping or are they harming? Are they doing? What, what words really should do, advancing things or are they aggravating things or annoying or angering your tongue is just a little bit of muscle in your mouth, but it's designed to be used. So how are we using our tongue? Are we using our tongue to, to form words for good or for evil, For praising or for complaining, for encouraging or for criticizing? What kind of words are we filling the air up with? Someone may throw their hands up in the air and go well, who can do this? Who who can live up to this man? My my mouth gets me in trouble all the time. I might as well just not say anything anytime, anywhere. Well, clearly, there are times to be quiet and there are times to be silent. Uh as someone has said in life in our lifetime, we will have many opportunities to keep our mouth shut and we should take advantage of all of them. But the reality is there are also times that we're supposed to speak. See, our tongues are designed by God to be used. They're designed to be used to create words. What kind of words about 3002 years ago, King David was writing a song about God and this is what he wrote. Psalm 1 45 verse 10. All your works will give thanks to you Lord. Since the dawning of creation, all of creation has been praising and thanking God. All of creation right now is praising and thanking God forever and ever and ever, all of creation will be praising and thanking God from the crashing sounds of the majestic waves off the coast of Tasmania to the never ending light of the summer sun in Norway, to the feel of the grassy meadows in Austria and the mountains to the brilliant colors of the Mandarin fish. All of creation in some way, shape or form is thanking and praising and blessing God and not just all of creation in general. Look what David says next in verse 10 and your Godly ones will bless you. Followers of the, of the one true God. They will bless God, they will praise God, they will worship God. They will thank God. It's, it's part of what we are and what we do as followers of the one true God. And how do we praise Him? David goes on verse 11. They will speak of the glory of your kingdom and talk of your might to make known to the sons of mankind, your mighty acts and the glory of the Majesty of your kingdom. What kind of kingdom are we talking about here? David tells us verse 13, your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and your Dominion endures throughout all generations. The God that we're singing to today. The, the God that the choir sang about changing us. This God His Dominion endures forever. His kingdom is ever lasting. There, there is no other God that gets to say that and back it up our God. His Dominion is forever our God. His kingdom is everlasting and dear Christian that matters. That's, that's not just something for a sermon. That's not just something for a hymn. That's not just something for a choir song. It's not just something for a, you know, a cross stitch pillow on your sofa, God's Dominion and His kingdom being forever. It matters right now in our lives. It matters no matter what we are going through. And just a reminder, your favorite presidential candidate, his Dominion, her Dominion is not forever. Their kingdom is not everlasting God and God alone will be on the throne of the universe forever and ever and ever. So we saddle up to him now, first and most above all men, above all women, above all things. Our God has Dominion, our God has an everlasting kingdom and that matters. And David says all of creation is singing that they're speaking that and so are the ones who follow after God. So dear Christian. Are we singing and saying that outside of this room? Do we speak and text and email and post as people who follow a God whose Dominion is forever and whose kingdom is everlasting. It may sound like a little thing, but little things matter all of creation is, is praising the Lord and we exist to join creation. It's why we exist, we exist to enjoy the reality that God's Kingdom is forever. Listen, if you are not a Christian and you're struggling with meaning and purpose in life right now, we want you to know that your ultimate meaning and purpose will be found in the God of glory whose Dominion never ends and whose kingdom is everlasting. In fact, Augustine said, your heart will be restless until it finds its rest in the one that God sent to save the world. In other words, your heart, your soul, your mind, your attitude, your bank account, your health, your home, your yard, everything about you will be restless until you find your rest in Jesus Christ. You can do great things in school, you can do great things in sports, you can do great things in work, you can do great things in your workshop, but your heart will be restless until it finds its rest in Jesus. God is your purpose. And the power of the purpose in your life is found in the person of Jesus Christ. And that's why we say little things matter because those two ounces of muscle that are in your mouth, called the tongue that, that strike against the roof of the mouth and and the teeth to, to form words. You have been created to find power and purpose in words that glorify God like you will actually be satisfied when your heart start speaking to your tongue and your tongue starts speaking to your mouth and you start forming words that glorify God that lift up the fact that His Dominion is forever. There is great purpose in speaking of the glory of God and his everlasting kingdom. There is great power in speaking of the glory of God and his everlasting kingdom. There is great comfort in speaking of God and his glory and his everlasting kingdom. I spoke with someone this week who, who had interaction with a funeral recently and, and they just spoke of of how the person that, that led the funeral, just, just like read some things from a book, just just said some things from a book and, and then that, that was it, that was, that was the service. And, and it's such a sad thing when at the moment of death, when there's not going to be a tomorrow for, for many, it's such a sad thing that, that in that moment, the greatest comfort that you could possibly give anyone is the glory of God and his everlasting kingdom. There is comfort in that. There is hope in speaking of the glory of God and his everlasting kingdom. Your tongue was designed for that like a, a little bit in a horse's mouth, like a little rudder on a ship. Your little tongue is designed to be used to lead and guide and direct and manage you so that your heart and all of your existence would be filled up with confidence and satisfaction in the glory of God. So is your heart and all of your existence right now today filled up with confidence and satisfaction in the glory of God. If not, it matters really because when death comes, yeah, there will be no comfort and hope. If our hearts are not filled with confidence and satisfaction in the glory of God, when the health scare comes, there won't be any comfort and hope. If our hearts are not filled up with confidence and satisfaction in the glory of God, when when hard things come, when your candidate loses, when you don't have enough to pay the bill, if your heart is, is not full of confidence and satisfaction and the glory of God, you will find yourself restless and wanting. Now, look, none of us are perfect. We can't perfectly fill up our hearts that way. But, but are we even in the ball game? Are we looking at the glory of God, his Dominion that never ends his everlasting kingdom and saying yes, that is mine. I'm going to own that today. And if things go bad at the hospital or things go bad at the doctor, if things go bad at work or if we lose the game, it's ok because my confidence, my satisfaction is in the Dominion of the one who never ever fails and his kingdom is forever Do your words reflect that you are confident and satisfied in the glory of God? Do your words sound like blessing or, or blemishing? Do they sound like seasoning or spoiling? Are they improving or impairing? Are they helping or are they harming? Are they aggravating? Are they advancing? What are our words? And what, what's the air around us? The little bit for the horse, the little rudder for the ship, the little wrinkle in the socks, the little lace on the shoes. All of those things can make a big difference. And so can our little tongues that little two ounces of muscle. It can make a huge difference in our lives and not just in our lives and in the lives of those around us, listen again to what James said in verse five. So also the tongue is a small part of the body and yet it boasts of great things. The tongue is one of the smallest parts of the body. And yet it's, it's one of the most powerful parts of the body. The tongue can boast of great things that the tongue can be full of prideful arrogance and it can boast in that arrogance and that's, that's foolish and dangerous. Why? Well, James said this in the next chapter, James four verse six, God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble, that God's opposed to the boasting of greatness. God's opposed to, to prideful attitudes for lack of a better word. He's, he's opposed to the boasting of the proud. So you don't, you don't really want to be an opposition to the one true God of the universe. You don't want to be in opposition to the one whose Dominion is forever and whose kingdom is everlasting. He's opposed to the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. It only takes a casual glance to look around the world today and, and in all the airwaves from politics to to sports, to entertainment, to just about any other category of life. If there is one dominant theme, it is pride, it is boasting, it is arrogance. We live in a world where everybody has decided their answer is right and your answer is wrong, no matter what category of life we're talking about, their answer is tried and, and your answer is wrong and, and we tend as Christians to go. Oh yeah, we're being attacked. We can be the same way and it's not because we're holding up the gospel. See, we, we would say the gospel is right because of Jesus, not, not because of us, but because of Jesus. But oftentimes we're holding up a lot of stuff that is not the gospel and saying we're right. But we live in a culture where everyone is, is claiming that their answer is right. So the airwaves are full of arrogance. The airwaves are full of pride. The airwaves are full of, well, this is what I'm going to do and this is what I will do and this is what I have done and that's dangerous and, and James speaks to that in chapter 42, verse 14, he said this yet. You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow for you or just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away just, just a vapor. All of us, we're, we're just a vapor. We may live eight years or 28 years or, or 48 years or 88 years or 98 years or more. But our, our lives are, we're just a vapor and in the big picture of eternity, we're, we're just a vapor now. That doesn't mean we should be down on ourselves and, and never talk, you know, I'm, I'm just going to go buy a tent and go live by the sea of galley and never say anything to anybody. You know, I'll just go out there and be holy nope. That's, that's not what we're called to do. Does mean this though that if our life is a vapor, let's don't waste our vapor being arrogant. Let's don't waste our vapor being prideful. Let's don't waste our, our vapor boasting. Let's don't waste our vapor fighting to get our way. James has given us this, this warning, but he's also given us a challenge. Use your vapor, not, not to boast of great things about you, but use your vapor to boast in the greatness of God, all of creation. Thanks and praises the Godness of God, the goodness of God and the greatness of God. Let us use our vapor to joyfully boast of the greatness of God, the Godness of God, the goodness of God, the greatness of God, the glory of God because His kingdom never ends. It's why we do those things. The only true great things are the great things of God because His Kingdom is forever. So if we want to be great, the greatest way that we can be involved in greatness is by speaking the words of God because His words are great because His glory is highest and His glory is forever. So this warning from James about our, our tongues and taming our tongues and, and our words and what we say it comes on the flip side a little bit with, with this promise. But don't, don't waste your vapor, use your vapor be great, be great by speaking of the greatness of God, be great by pointing all of the attention to the glory of God. Again, we won't perfectly do that. We just won't, ok. It doesn't mean that, you know, if you go see a movie, you're supposed to stand up in the middle of the movie and say, hey, I just want to say glory. You've got, you know, it may not work OK? But it does mean that our, our air, the air around us somehow needs to be filled with, with something about this God whose kingdom is everlasting. King Solomon said this about our words. Proverbs 15 verse four, this is the amplified version, a soothing tongue speaking words that build up and encourage is a tree of life. Good, good words. Oh Tree of Life flipside verse four. But a perversive tongue speaking words that overwhelm and depress crushes the spirit. So are are we being a tree of life to those around us or are we crushing people's spirits? And, and how do we crush? Look at that, it says there speaking words that overwhelm and depress do, do you overwhelm the people in your lives? Look, I, I gotta tell you I'm in a season of life where I'm, I'm just having to deal with, with so much sin in my heart. And, and one of those things is I'm constantly asking myself was I overwhelming with my kids. I mean, I sure didn't mean to be but man, it's, it's just in my was I overwhelming with my kids. Did that I speak in such a way that made it hard for them to win, you know, or was I a firming and encouraging? Was, was I a tree of life or did I, did I crush spirit and you know what parents, we all, we all have the ability to do that and, and truthfully it's kind of noble because we have in our minds I gotta try so hard with my kids and, you know, we don't do that with grandkids. Well, I don't know yet, but I'm assuming I won't. Right. Grandkids. I'm not responsible for them. We're dropping them off, we're out, you know? But with the kids it's like, oh, I'm so responsible, I'm so responsible. I'm so responsible and if we're not careful with our kids, with our principals, with our pastors, with our politicians, with people we work with and go to school with and our neighbors, we can be overwhelming and be crushing instead of being a tree of life. I love eating barbecue and, and uh sometimes and you've been there, you go to a barbecue restaurant and the meat smokers are a little too close to the seating area, you know what I'm talking about. And then like three days later, you still smell like barbecue, you know, because it got in your clothes and your hair and just everything you, you just still smell like barbecue. Now, this isn't grammatically correct. I realized that. But what do your words smell like? What are our words smell like to the people around us? Paul said this to the church at Second Corinthians 2 15 for we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing to the one, an aroma from death to death to the other and aroma from life to life. It's pressure, right? We, we are the aroma of Christ around us. And then he says in verse 16 and who is adequate for these things? That's one of my favorite verses in the whole Bible. Paul goes well, who can do that? Who can be the aroma of Christ? And the answer is, well, nobody, you know, no one is adequate to be the aroma of Christ without Christ. Yet with Christ, with Christ, we can be the aroma of the gospel to our spouse. We can be the aroma of the gospel to our parents, to our kids, to our grandparents. We can be the aroma of the gospel to people that we don't even know. See with Christ, we can do great things, we can have great words. And how do we get started? Now, how do we get started with, with these great things, these great words, this this aroma of the gospel? Well, interestingly, it, it kind of starts with shoes and socks and feet. Marshall Siegel said this when the greatest greatness Jesus came into our world calling lowly fishermen to be his disciples. He kneeled and washed their filthy, undeserving feet. The king of kings, the greatest of all time humbled himself to the point of death. Even the most shameful, painful kind of death, true greatness. Jesus lost his life and love for us. True greatness. Big G is all found in Jesus. Marshall goes on if you aspire to be great, give yourself to the small mundane, easily overlook needs around you. Jesus died that we might live and that life your new blood bought, forgiven grace filled life was meant to be great. Now, I think it's easy for prosperity preachers to stand and say, hey, you're supposed to be great. Go live your great life now. But that's not what the scripture really says to us. So don't miss what Marshall said. Your life, your new blood bought, forgiven grace filled life. In other words, when you realize that Jesus loved you and gave himself up for you, you no longer exists. It is a joy for you to take up your cross and follow after Jesus because you know, my life has been blood bought, forgiven and filled up with grace. So if you've received that kind of life, you, you have a life that is intended to be great. And what does that greatness look like? Marshall says this? It was meant to be laid down in love for others. So keep the wrinkles out of your socks. Ok? Care for them blisters. But more than that follow Jesus. I, I know it sounds over simplified but, but the message will never change. It'll never change. Follow Jesus. Don't follow your favorite candidate. Don't follow your favorite pastor. Don't follow your favorite family member. Follow Jesus. Follow Jesus because if we're truly following Jesus, here's what's going to happen. We're going to pay attention to the little things we're going to pay attention to the small mundane, easily overlooked needs of people around us. We are going to, if we are truly following Jesus, we're going to lay our lives down for other people. Jesus said, the son of man came not to be served but to serve. If we're following Jesus, we're, we're going to serve others. And when we're laying down our lives for others so that our hope is that they would find Jesus in our words, that fill the air in our deeds that fill the air around us. We will be speaking of the glory of God and his everlasting kingdom. That is the fresh air are two ounces of muscle, were designed to speak.