This week, I’ll be sharing a sermon prepared during my preaching class at Southern Seminary. It’s one of the very first sermons I preached, so it’s a bit unpolished and runs about 18-19 minutes; we kept them brief since each student (about 25 of us) had to preach over a couple of weeks. Starting next week, I’ll begin posting sermons from my three years pastoring at Sovereign Grace Church, each adapted specifically for this podcast. I will be starting with the Gospel of Matthew.
Today's message comes from James 3:7-12. James addresses the power and difficulty of controlling the tongue. In these verses, James notes that while humans can tame animals, the tongue is uniquely challenging to restrain. He describes it as a "restless evil" full of poison, capable of both blessing God and cursing people who are made in God’s likeness. James emphasizes the inconsistency of using the same mouth to bless and curse, illustrating with examples from nature: fresh and salt water cannot flow from the same spring, and a fig tree cannot bear olives. He calls for consistency in speech, suggesting that our words should align with our faith.
