So when you were a kid, did you ever draw a picture? Ever, ever draw a picture of anything? My sister found a picture recently that I drew for my dad when I was a little kid. And, and the picture is of my dad and his blue Ford pickup truck. It was his work truck. And um, so he's driving it and then in the back is, you know, a little thing with his tools in it. And then there's this huge gray blob. And so my sister took this picture and she sent it out to our family text group. She said, doubt. What is that blob in the back of the truck? She said, is that an animal and did daddy tote animals around? Well, he did not tote animals around in his truck. It was a company truck. We were lucky if he ever let us get in the truck. So there definitely were no animals in that truck. But that big gray blob Bob is an animal. It was our little gray cat, Zach, that was our, our little cat was the big gray blob. Now, that picture was an image that reflected what I saw in my dad, but everything in that picture is not correct. It's not all true. My dad's truck and my dad driving the truck, the tools. That's all, that's all right. But Zach, the cat was never in my dad's truck. You know, sometimes in, in life the same thing happens. Right. We're, we're looking at an image, we're looking at a picture, we're looking at a situation and we say when something's something's off here, so something's not right. These, these two things don't go together. We continue our series Fresh Air where we are looking at the concept of the words that are up in the air and not just the general words that are in the air, but the words that we are putting in the air, the words that you are saying, the words that I'm saying in our homes and at work and at school and in traffic and in line at the DMV, that the words that we're filling the air up with and we're going to be looking in the Bible at the book of James and James is going to help us to see that the words we use are drawing a picture that we're creating an image. We're communicating something with our words. And there are times James is going to point out that our picture isn't right there. There's something off that, that the words we are drawing with the image that we are creating with our words. Something's not right. Something's off. So what kind of images are we creating? What kind of words are we using? And what kind of pictures are we drawing with our words? And does it matter? Let's see if we can find out we're going to be looking at James chapter three, verse nine. Our message today is two words, two words and we'll be looking at verse nine. Listen, as James begins with it, we bless our lord and father. So what's the, the it here? Well, the it is the tongue, the tongue is a muscular system in our mouth. It, it strikes the roof of the mouth or strikes the teeth and, and helps us form words. So we could say in a sense that our tongue draws our words, it's the, the one thing that helps us form our words. And James says that one of the things that a Christian does when it's draw and a Christian is drawing with our tongue is, is we are blessing God with our words. If you've ever been to a funeral, you have possibly heard someone give a eulogy. It's where someone stands up and, and speaks well of the person that died. The word that James uses here in the original language is the word where we get our word eulogy, eulogy. So the word bless is, is where we get our word eulogy. And so this blessing here, this eulogy is, is us speaking well of God. It's us using our words. Part of what it means to be a Christian is we use our words to speak well of God to bless God to praise God. But unlike uh a funeral eulogy, God is not dead. So when we speak well of God, when we praise God, when we bless God, we are blessing the one true living God. He's not a statue. He's not a philosophy. He's not an idea. He's not a great leader from years gone by that is now dead. We bless and praise and speak well of a living God. The living God in Psalm 42 verse two, it says this as the deer pants for the water brooks. So my soul pants for you, God, my soul thirst for God for the living God. See, the psalmist had experienced everything in life. The psalmist had experienced all the entertainment, all the athletic events, all the religions and philosophies, all the government and the the world leaders, the psalmist had experienced almost everything in the world and he had come to realize that none of those things would ever satisfy his soul. He discovered that it wasn't going to be an idol or an idea or a political party or a Friday night party that was going to satisfy his soul. Everything was temporary. If there was going to be something that got to the core of his existence, it was going to have to be something that was a living reality. And there's only one ultimate, true, eternal sovereign, everlasting, living reality. And that living reality is the one true living god. Now, many would say, well, there's lots of gods and there's, and there's lots of realities. I came across an interesting quote the other day. Bit of bit of sarcasm. And the quote went like this man descended from apes. Therefore, we must love one another. That math just doesn't work right, man descended from apes. Therefore, we, we must love one another. The, the math doesn't work there, there has to be some kind of original truth behind the concept of love. There has to be some original truth that's perfectly pure. That's perfectly right. That's perfectly just and truth that, that directs us to understand that there is some kind of moral standard, a truth that feeds this standard so that we will understand why we exist, why life is such an incredible gift and why we all know there are things that are right and things that are wrong. There has to be some type of original truth to, to give us some sense of purpose because if it was just a big bang and, and then nature took its course and, and the the the strong survived and involved and improved, then how in the world would there ever be a moment where we go? Yeah, maybe we shouldn't eat other people. See if there's not some original truth that creates something that is pure and perfect. And just then how do we know what is right? How could we possibly know the difference between love and aggression? Well, we, as Christians, we, we graciously and boldly proclaim there is an original truth and the original truth that has established the standard and standards that are above all other standards, that original truth, that reality is the living God, the one true living God. Listen, there are many religions, there's many philosophies that, that practice some very, very good things and do some very good things. But when it comes to the ultimate salvation of the soul, when it comes to the ultimate satisfaction of the soul, there can only be one ultimate reality. There can only be one pure, perfect, just eternal sovereign, everlasting eternal mercyful reality, present living reality and that reality, yahweh, the most high God and the most high God has, has not hidden himself. We, we're not trying to figure out who God is. He's, he's displayed himself very perfectly. Billy Graham said this. He has not left us to guess what he's like. He has shown himself to us. And he did this supremely by coming down to earth in the person of his only son Jesus Christ. No matter what you may hate about religion, no matter what you may expect or demand from science, no matter what you may disagree with, with modern politics or, or what you can't affirm in society and culture. We would plead with you to take a very serious look at the person of Jesus Christ, the truth surrounding his birth, his life, his death, his resurrection, and his promised return. Because Jesus has created a story that is unlike any other story, because he came to supremely display supremely introduce you to the one true living God. And when we yield to, when we surrender to the love and salvation and grace and mercy of Jesus, when, when we yield to Jesus, we don't just come to know the one true living God as the greatest and most ultimate reality in the universe. But we come to know Him as father, we come to know God as a shepherding father. And James says, we will use our tongue to draw words that show and prove that we know this father today would have been my dad's 88th birthday. And I, and I didn't just draw pictures about my dad when I was a little kid pictures that, that reflected who he was 13 weeks ago. I stood at his funeral and I, and I gave a eulogy, I blessed and, and praised and spoke well of my father and I wasn't a perfect son, but I didn't just do that in a picture a long time ago and, and, and on his funeral, no, II, I tried with the strength that God gave me to honor my dad throughout his life. So what are we doing with our heavenly father? Are we honoring and, and speaking well of God, our father on the good days and the bad days are we using words speaking well, of the most high God who has rescued us and redeemed us. Are we speaking well of the one true everlasting sovereign mercyful, one true living reality, the God of all Gods and what he has given us the salvation he has provided in his son, Jesus Christ. Or are we so mad and so angry and so put out and so frustrated and so afraid and so worried about everything that's happening in the world that rarely are there any words that come out of our mouth that display that, that we are confident in God that reflect that God is alive that, that He's a living God? Or are we so arrogant and prideful that we spend all of our times talking about what's going on with us with our problems with our difficulties, the way we want things to be done that rarely are there any words that come out of our mouths that voice that we are confident in our God, we're so obsessed with, with all the things that we want and the way we want things to be that we, we never speak words about God's ways, his ways that are, are perfect, his love, that is perfect. His power that is perfect and that He will reign because he rains. Now he will reign forever and ever and ever What kind of words are we drawing? What kind of words are people hearing around us as followers of Jesus Christ? We need to be people that bless and praise and speak well of our Lord and speak well of our Father, the living God because He rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness and the fact that Jesus will get his prize. Do people hear words from our mouth about the confidence we have in our God? Or is it just about how we are undone with everything happening in the country? What words are we drawing? What images are we communicating? We should be blessing and praising and honoring and speaking well and confidence of our God. But we don't, we don't always do that with our tongues, do we? There's, there's some other things that, that come out, right? Listen to what James says next verse nine and with it, we curse people well, bless our hearts. So, so we bless and we curse from the same mouth. The word for curse here. It, it means to speak in such a way about other people that you kind of want bad things to happen to them. You know, you, you don't want good things to happen to him. Now someone might say, look, I'm I'm no witch doctor. I ain't made no voodoo doll and I didn't curse nobody. What James is painting here is a picture of what's known as a fork tongue. A fork tongue means you, you don't know which fork in the road that person's going to take. You know, they may give you a compliment and cut you down in the same sentence that ain't Christian uh fork tongue. You, you don't know what they're going to. Is this going to be a blessing or a curse? I, I don't know what's going to come out of her mouth. I, I don't know what he's going to say. Is it going to be a curse or is it going to be a blessing? Is it going to be helpful or is it going to be harmful? Is it going to be respectful or is it going to be rude? Is it going to be greedy or is it going to be gracious? Is it going to be mercyful or is it going to be malicious? What kind of words are we drawing? But look, none of us are perfect, right? We're all going to have our moments. But again, the, the question that we see throughout the Bible is what, what normally marks who we are when it comes to those two words, blessing and cursing. Which ones are we normally known by which words sound like our words? Do our words normally sound like something that, that would honor God that would speak well of, of what it means to follow after God or are the words that we kind of say on a regular basis? The kind of things that really don't bless people's hearts again, we may be tempted to say, look, I, I ain't got no fork tongue. I don't bless and curse. You know, Peter would have said the exact same thing just before he was arrested. Jesus turned to Peter and he said, you're going to deny me three times. And how did Peter respond? Mark chapter 14 verse 31. But Peter repeatedly said, insistently, even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you repeatedly insistently. Peter said, ah, no, no, never, never, never, never. Jesus, would I ever do that? No, I I don't have no fork tongue. Jesus. Uh Hours later, a woman turned to Peter and said, hey, I recognize you. You're, you're that guy that was with Jesus the Nazar. You, you're one of his friends. How did Peter respond? March 14 68. I neither know nor understand what you are talking about. That's a whole another way of denying, right? Just hours later from the same mouth, devotion and denial, devotion and desertion. Peter had a fork tongue in his classic work, Pilgrims Progress. John Bunyan described a, a character that he called talkative like this. He was a saint abroad and a devil at home. Yikes. Oh man, everybody loves old d but good night. If you saw him at home, you know, see the the picture that we have is that sadly many of us all over the world there are, there are professing Christians today. They are singing songs about the grace and mercy and love and forgiveness of God, but they will barely be able to get out of the service before they'll be seen. Did you see what she was wearing? Did, did you hear what he said? I don't like that song. We sang, you know, the preacher didn't even speak to me. See, we, we can't wait to serve us with our tongues. Not, not to bless God. We are always tempted to serve ourselves. King David said this, I'm 64. Hide me from the secret discussion of evil doers. The bullies behind the scenes, hide me from the secret discussion of evil doers from the restlessness of the workers of injustice. Verse three who have sharpened their tongues like a sword. They ain't drawing pictures of daddy. They, they're using their words to sing people to criticize, to hurt, to complain. They're not using it to bless and praise John Wesley told a story one time of a a woman that came up to him and and said, Reverend Wesley, I I think my talent from God is to speak my mind to which Wesley replied. I don't think God would mind if you buried that talent. See, we think speaking our mind and I'll say this more than any other culture in the world. We as Americans think this, we think speaking our mind is something glorious, but speaking, our mind might make us a tool of the devil. We don't wanna be a tool of the devil, but we don't want to have tongues that are sharpened for the wrong reasons. None of us are perfect. We're all going to struggle. We'll all have our moments. We'll all have that argument with our spouse or our kids or, or with somebody at work or in traffic. We, we'll have our moments but more often than not as believers and followers of Jesus. We really do need to be the kind of people that say I don't want a fork tongue. I don't want to give a compliment and a criticism in the same sentence. II, I want to be affirming as much as possible. I wanna be as positive as I possibly can not for my glory but for the glory of God, we don't want a fork tongue. We, we want words that are formed that have more blessing than cursing because blessing and cursing. Those two words just don't go together. They just don't match when my kids were little. I was pretty notorious for uh concocting a lot of things like whatever was left over in the refrigerator was going to turn into a casserole or a soup or a milkshake, uh whatever is left. Yeah, I think I've shared with you all before. One time they got English peas and a milkshake and I just assumed they didn't know but they told me later. They did. So. Yeah, they were just being kind. Now imagine if I had made my kids a milkshake and I use a cup of good fresh milk from the refrigerator and then I used a cup of milk that had been sitting out on the counter for a week. Now, when they drank that milkshake, which milk do you think they're going to taste the most, the good milk or the, or the sour milk, or what if I give you a glass of water and it's half full of Italian spring water. Oh man, just the, the best. And the other half is water that I got from? The surf at Myrtle Beach. Which water do you think you're going to taste the most of the, the, the really nice spring water or, or the salt water? We may be able to fool people at church and work at home school and wherever else we go. But, but if we are blessing God and we are cursing others with the same tongue, which one do you think God's going to hear the most? Which one do you think God's going to believe the most? Why does it matter? Why does it matter? What kind of words we use? We've got James says next and with it, we curse people who have been made in the likeness of God. I have been made in the likeness of God. You have been made in the likeness of God, that person in your family that's driving you up the wall right now. They've been made in the likeness of God, that politician that you despise, they've been made in the likeness of God. We've been made in the likeness of God. The, the likeness of God is another way of saying being made in the image of God. So what does it mean that we've been made in the image of God? Well, why did I draw that picture of my dad? Well, I drew that picture because I was trying to reflect something about my dad. That that picture was a a drawing that I made that tried to reflect something about what I saw in my dad being made in the image of God is, is similar but a little different. John Piper says, it's almost like a like a mirror like we or a mirror and, and the mirror, we we've been placed at a little bit of an angle and the glory of God is to shine down on the mirror and then it bounces off that mirror and it reflects around us so so that people can see the glory of God even in our lives. But the first man and the first woman in the beginning, they listen to the temptation of the enemy who told them, you know what you look better than God. God's image isn't as good as your image. And you know what they they believed him and they flipped that mirror over so they could see themselves. And that means on the back side of the mirror. There's, there's no glory being reflected. They're just, they're just looking at them and, and we're no different. We, we followed their example, whether we want to admit it or not. We far too often are just obsessed with looking at ourselves and looking out for ourselves. Looking out for number one, looking out for what we want and what we think should be right? And that type of looking is sin that brings with it. A curse that separates us from God. So is there any hope? Well, there is, that's where salvation in Jesus Christ comes in because when a person yields to Jesus, when they're rescued and redeemed by Jesus, the mirror gets flipped back the way it should be. And all of a sudden we're enjoying the glory of God. And as we enjoy the glory of God, that glory is reflected in our lives, that's what it means to be made in the image of God, we were created and designed to reflect the glory of God. So if we've been made in the image of God, and if other people, even other people who are not Christians have been made in the image of God, what kind of words do you think God would want us to use toward his image? What kind of words do you think God would want us to most reflect to those made in his image? And again, we're not talking about an image like an idol or a painting or a picture or a statue. We're talking about human beings. We're talking about people that God created. What kind of words do we think God would like for us to use that reflect Him to his own creation? You think God desires that we use words of blessing or words of cursing words that are helpful or harmful words that are respectful or rude words that are gracious or, or greedy words that are mercyful or malicious. Which words do we think God wants us to use? When it comes to this? We could all boil it down to, to one sentence. Really? 11 thought of what it means for us to reflect God in the image of God. And it's something God told the Israelites, Leviticus 11 44. Be holy because I am holy. Someone may be thinking, oh, ok. Well, good, something easy. All right, good. I like it. Yeah. Be holy as God is holy. Yeah, we can pull that off. Well, think of it this way when the Bible talks about the holiness of God, it says things like this. Holy, holy, holy God is holy, holy holy or we could say He is other, other other that means that God is holy. He is other. He is set apart. There's no one like Him, there's no one like the one true living God. And we have been called to be holy like him. In other words, we're supposed to be set apart. We, we're supposed to live different. We're supposed to talk different. We're supposed to text different, we're supposed to post different. We're supposed to email different. Jin Wilkin says this simply put God's will for your life is that you be holy, that you live a life of set apartness that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you strive for utter purity of character. She goes on every admonition contained in all of scripture can be reduced to this. Every warning. Every law, every encouragement bows to this overarching purpose. Every story of every figure in every corner of every book of the Bible is chanting this call be holy for He is holy. What's God's will for your life to be holy? You're trying to figure out what job to take, who to marry, what car to buy, how to invest be holy. Be holy as God is holy. What does that mean to come on man? So I'm supposed to go sit in my investment broker and said, hey, I wanna be holy. Let's let's figure out where to put this money. What is it? What does it mean to be holy? That's the call of all of scripture to a follower of God be holy. So, so what does it look like in the nitty gritty? What does it look like in the nitty gritty to be set apart? I'm so glad Jesus made this so simple because Jesus said it this way. If you, if you wanna be holy, what you need to do is you need to love the one true living God with all of your heart and all of your mind and all of your strength and all of your soul and love your neighbor in the same way you love yourself. That's, that's the bare bones of the pursuit of holiness in a sense that to be set apart, to be holy, like God is holy, is to love God first and most and to love others in the same way that you love yourself. That's one of the quickest paths to holiness. Remember that quote from earlier man descended from apes. Therefore, we must love one another. I mean a math. It, it just doesn't work, it doesn't. But think of this man was created in the image of the one true living God. And because of that image, the very fiber of our existence is wrapped up in that image because we've been created in the image of God. Therefore, we should love our neighbor in the same way that we love ourselves. And we may fight against that. But in the deepest part of our soul, we know that Math, it works. You cannot believe in God, but in the deepest part of your soul because you were created with this, you know that math works that it is the creator God that becomes the original truth and the ultimate present reality that we need the most. So what image are we creating with our words? What do, what are we drawing with our tongues? What kind of pictures are we drawing in our lives for the glory of God, for the good of our own souls? Let us do all that we can with the strength that God provides us to use words that are not, not marked with, with cursing again. That's, that's not cuss words that is speaking in a way that is harmful and rude and greedy and malicious toward others. Let us not speak words that are full of cursing. But let us speak by the strength that God provides. Let us use words so that the people around us can really feel like we truly have blessed their hearts.