Set Aflame week 3, James 3.9-12

I’d like to talk about something that I would guess every single one of us did before coming to church this morning. In fact, this same habit is something that I would venture to say nearly every single one of you does every single morning. And not only every single morning, you probably do it multiple times a day. It’s the type of discipline you almost never leave home without doing. It’s the type of thing that could make you feel comfortable and confident or could move you to action in an instant. It’s a practice that others in your house engage in, but you probably don’t like to share and do it at the same time. And it’s the type of activity that could take just a few seconds, or a matter of minutes or hours depending on the occasion. Does anyone know what activity I am describing? Looking in the mirror!‌‌ We all look in the mirror multiple times a day—you probably don’t leave the house without doing it. Sometimes, we are like this in our spiritual lives. We see something that needs taken care of, and we pretend it isn’t there. Maybe we pretend like we didn’t see, or we get mad at the mirror and brake it because we don’t like what we see, but we don’t do anything about it. We can live in denial in our spiritual lives. Our passage this morning addresses one area in our spiritual lives where we might tend to live in denial. It’s an area that acts like a mirror—but instead of showing us what’s on the outside, it shows us what is on the inside. This area is the area of our tongues. Our tongues show us what is inside, and we need to pay attention. ‌‌ . . . As we come to this text this morning, James describes for us how our tongues can reveal what is truly inside of us, and how we use our tongues reflects the inside coming out. And as we examine this passage today, there’s one bottom line I want you to remember:‌‌ your tongue shows who you really are inside, and you need to pay attention