A great secret in a happy life
June 15, 2026
And good to see you out tonight. Praise the Lord for a great morning. I sure just thoroughly enjoyed Brother Chase Williams and two people saved, and then one baptized this morning. That’s just a great thing. And they got to meet with the other church. And for the first Sunday, first weekend, I thought it was very smooth.
You know, it’s not going to be without a little trouble here and there, but I thought overall just very smooth, and praise the Lord for that. And we’ll work out some bugs, but good people. And just a good two people saved. Vacation Bible School last week, and our laborers in Vacation Bible School are making it, we’ll say it that way.
And just a good, good week there. So I appreciate everybody doing their part, making it all happen. And ushers, if you come on for offering, that would be great.
Let me just, of course, next Sunday is Father’s Day. Excited about that. Then the next Sunday, All Out for Souls Sunday. We’re going to—well, that Sunday morning, the message will be centered around the gospel and salvation. Then 4 o’clock that afternoon, we’re going to load up a bus here.
I love to have it packed out, but we have air conditioning on our buses nowadays. That works for the most part now, you know what I mean? But we’re going to go to a neighborhood and just canvas that. I like it when they’re like, oh, my goodness, the Baptists are attacking, you know. I love it, man. We’re on the offense. And we’ll be back by church, of course, 6 o’clock, and looking for just a good time of kind of that night service, praising the Lord for His goodness to us. So plan on that.
If you know someone’s lost, be praying and try to get them here that Sunday morning, the 28th. That’s not next Sunday, but the next. And looking for—we haven’t, it’s been a couple years since it’s done anything like this. We call it All Out for Souls Sunday.
And let’s just do our best. Remember a couple that had fasted and prayed for their friends to come—a husband and wife, they came. The wife got her salvation, I think, that first Sunday. And years later, the husband, he was one of those—you ever hear of white-knuckling? He would just white-knuckle forever. But finally got to say they’re both in heaven now. And so let’s just pray God will bless and use that Sunday in a great, great way. And that’s two weeks from today.
So good to see you here tonight. Appreciate the McCords. They’re just a blessing and just faithfuls the days long. We needed a substitute teacher this morning and called Ms.—or texted Ms. Kim yesterday—and just willing to step in there and just change some things around. Just great people. And appreciate folks that are just willing to do whatever needs to be done to get the job done for the Lord Jesus Christ. And praise the Lord for them.
Brother Day, would you lead us in prayer for the offering, please, brother? Amen, amen. Praying for us a little bit extra on a Sunday night. That song reminds me, “Shall We Gather at the River?” You heard about the preacher. He got preaching, just got into it, and he said, “Hey, throw your cigarettes in the river!” He got preaching, he said, “Throw your bottles, throw your beer in the river!” And they just threw it in the river. And they had a baptism service, and the preacher got up and said, “Hey, we’re going to sing, ‘Shall We Gather at the River?’”
I thought about that while we’re singing that tonight, you know. So James chapter number three, James chapter number three in God’s Word tonight. I don’t know that we’ll get anything brand new for many of you, but I need to be reminded of it for sure. And James chapter number three, the title we’re giving it for the internet is a secret, a great secret, in having…
A happy life. A great secret in having a happy life. Can I say happy? It has a little bit of a bad reputation amongst churches that it’s not really a biblical fault. You know, just happy. It has to do with all the happenings. Actually, the Bible says, “Whosoever trusteth in the Lord, happy is he.” And a lot of good things are about happy, too. But just a great secret in having a happy life.
And I’m going to—I like to have order, and I’ve got all kind of books down here. And I’ve got to straighten up our pulpit, man. Amen. There we go. All right. Good deal. Now we’re good. We’re good to go. Amen. Amen. Oh, I didn’t have to throw it up, Brother Robert, in the middle of the message, you know.
So James chapter number three in God’s Word. And we’re going to read a couple of verses. We’ll talk a little bit as we go through. And we’ll start in that first verse there, James three. And would you stand, please, as I read God’s Word together? James three, and verse number one, he says, “My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.”
Can I just rehearse a little bit? He said, “Be careful of wanting to be in charge of everything.” Kind of be the one that just, you know, you lead everything. He says, “You know you receive a greater condemnation.” Now, God calls you to leadership, take the reins as God leads. But don’t just try to lead in everything is what he says. Be careful of that.
Then verse number two, he says, “For in many things we offend all.” Let me just maybe paraphrase a little bit, maybe help you understand what he’s saying. We all offend in many ways. He helps us understand that. All of us do. You know, I heard a fellow say, “I have no regrets.” Boy, I thought, “I sure do.” I have offended people, and it bothers me that I have. And for many things we offend all. All of us do that from time to time in many different ways. What you say it?
Then it goes on. He says, “If any man offend not in word, wow.” The same as a perfect man or a mature Christian man, if you will, and able also to bridle the whole body. Well, that gives you a little insight right there. If you can bridle your tongue, you can bridle your tongue. So there’s a secret, very important: your tongue. It’s critical. Man, if you can just—if you’re going to work on anything, work on your tongue. And you get your tongue, then you get your whole body. Wow. Pretty amazing.
Verse number three, he says, “Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole body. Behold also the ships, which, though they be so great, we are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm.”
Rudder, if you will, whithersoever the governor listeth. Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is also a fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members that defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire of hell. Wow.
“For every kind of beast and of birds and of serpents and of things in the sea is tamed and hath been tamed of mankind.” I don’t know about these people that try to tame these snakes and they play these flutes, and that’s not going to be me. I don’t want no snake coming up around me. Uh-uh. I mean, I’ll tame them with a shotgun, amen, you know, and a shovel, amen, you know. But they do that with the birds and serpents and all, even animals, SeaWorld, all these different things, you know.
But then verse number eight, “But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” Can I just add that verse? Can be maybe a defeating, and add a little dimension to it with the bit, all these different things he’s adding that kind of more in context. You’re saying you can’t just let your tongue go wherever you want. You got to keep—you got to—you can’t—how many of you got a dog? I’ve got a dog that she’s usually friendly, but you never know.
I was walking my crazy dog the other day, and a lady that was walking, she wanted to pet my dog, and there was another dog around, so I got my dog all set off, you know, barking and everything, you know. And then this lady was—and I told the lady, I was trying to be nice because she knows my passion—but I said, “I’m sorry, my dog is bipolar.” And it’s just one of those dogs, you can’t let her off the leash. Sometimes she’ll be good, sometimes not.
And it’s kind of saying that about your tongue. You can’t let it off the leash. It’s not going to be tamed. And you’re going to have to bridle. Somebody says, “Well, I just say what I want to.” Well, your poor spouse, your poor family. No, you’re going to have to bridle. Everybody has to bridle your tongue. That’s what he said. You can’t tame it. You have to keep it under control. You can’t let it off the leash. Your tongue’s like my tongue is bipolar.
And just this little hope maybe with that verse. Then verse number nine, he says, “Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessings and cursings, my brethren, these things ought not so to be. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? Either a vine, figs? So can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh?”
For just a bit, just a little bit tonight: a great secret to having a happy life. Let’s talk about that. Would you pray that God speaks to your heart about that? Father, Lord, we come. Lord, I thank You that many of these truths these people know already. But Lord, would You refresh them in our minds, our hearts? Challenge us, speak to us, give us a vision of having happy lives, Lord. And Father, well, thank You for what You do. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated. Have you ever seen an aircraft carrier in real life? Many of you have. Those things are massive. Years ago, I was working at Newport News, Virginia, shipyard. And the next dock over, they had an aircraft carrier. They were reworking. And it was going to be there for a year. So, man, the thing is just massive. They say many of those are three football fields—three football fields in length.
They weigh—some of them weigh over 120,000 tons. Wow. The nuclear-powered ones—this is amazing—the nuclear-powered ones, they can be in service for 20 years without being refueled. Twenty years. Wish we had cars like that, amen, you know?
They combine crew, they can have well over 5,000 people on there without a problem. They’ll stand about 13 stories out of the water. That’s not counting what’s in the water. Just massive. And if you look at the rudders, they can look big, but in comparison to the ship, the rudders—they typically have two of them behind there—but those rudders are small in comparison to that huge ship, and it controls it.
I was working at North Florida Shipyard years ago, and we did some work on military ships, and they had these ships—I can’t remember the name they would call them. These are just massive ships. They would load up with tanks and armored carriers, all these, just all kind of equipment. And there was a trouble spot in the world, they would take these ships out at sea there, close to what the trouble spot was, and they would just leave it out at sea for six months a year. And if there was any trouble, they had all kind of equipment ready to go.
These things were massive. And I, for a while, was working on one of them down in the engine room. And the thing is, when you go to work in that section of that, you better make sure you have all the tools you need. Because if you’ve got to have another tool—I mean, the engine room’s at the bottom, so you’ve got to go all the way up, you know, elevator if you can get on that. And then they’ve got to walk all the way across these football fields, and you’ve got to get on the dock, and you’ve got to go to the tool bin. And it just took forever. These things are massive.
Now, sometimes in the shipyard, they were already in the water where we’re at, they would—the front part of the ship—they would flood those ballast tanks with water. And so the front will go down, and then the back part, they would empty those ballast tanks. And they could actually replace the propellers and whatnot. But you can see these rudders. And a lot of these ships, they can replace the propellers out at sea because of that. But you can see in these rudders in comparison of this massive ship is small.
And it’s amazing, there’s like a city on water, what they are, you know. These cities, floating cities, you know. And they can turn those massive cities on water with these rudders. And that’s what he’s saying in verse number three, I believe it is. Well, no, verse number four, he says, “Behold also the ships, which, though they be so great, they’re a little different here—these are talking about ships where they had sails in the Bible time—and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm or rudder, whithersoever the governor or the captain who listeth.”
Now, it’s comparing that to your tongue. Your tongue, my tongue, is a rudder. Now, I don’t know about you. I’m not here all the time, but I like to be here. You know, I would like to be a thankful person. Do you want me out there? You are quiet tonight. I think everybody’s tired tonight. How many are you tired tonight, you know? I thought so. We got VBS and men’s activities and trips and all that we’re coming off of.
But I would like to be a thankful person. I mean, being thankful really, it makes—I know some folk, one of them is in heaven now, but they went to Hawaii, and they fought the whole time. Spent thousands of dollars. Then I know people that are in nursing homes, literally, and yet they’re thankful and they’re happy. And I would like to be a thankful. It just changes the dynamics of everything. It’s the sweetener of life, being thankful.
I’m not there where I would like to be there. I mean, I don’t work out like I ought to, but I want to work at it. It’s God’s—God’s will in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. It’s not saying that everything happens in your life as the will of God. It’s saying it’s the will of God for you to be thankful is what that verse means. First Thessalonians 5:18. That’s what he’s teaching there. And I like to be in the will of God, and I like to be a thankful person. It just makes life more enjoyable.
And I kind of give you a secret on how to be thankful. You know, it’s interesting, the Bible only three times uses—I can use my whole hand for it—only three times does the Bible use the word “thankful.” Interesting. But 35 times it says “give thanks.” Five times it says “giving thanks.” That truth is working in line with this James 3 about the rudder. Your tongue is the thing that will guide you, steer you into being thankful.
It’s your tongue. And if I want to be a thankful person, it’s so key that with my tongue, I turn my heart into the alleyway or the harbor with the ship that is thankful. And when I get in there, it just makes life so much more enjoyable, being thankful. But if my tongue is not there, it’s going to be very, very hard for me to be thankful.
I think about a couple, Fran and Sue Watkins. How many remember Fran and Sue Watkins? Some of you’ve been around here for a while. Some of you do remember them. They were with our church for, I don’t know how many years. They lived over in Friar Tuck. It’s the same neighborhood Brother Eddie lives in behind Food Lion here in Smyrna, that neighborhood. We had some of our people living there over the years, you know.
Anyway, they lived there, and an older couple, Fran and Sue, sweet people. I think they’re from New York, if I remember right, originally. And both got cancer. Now, it’s one thing if one person has cancer, that’s tough enough, but both of them. And they’re both battling it severely. And it was aggressive with both of them. And I never forget they ended up going over to—I think their daughter, one of their children, I think it was their daughter, lived over kind of beside Walmart. If you’re facing Walmart in that neighborhood, you’re facing the front of it here in Smyrna, to the right of it. They lived in that neighborhood, and I went over there, that neighborhood, to visit Fran and Sue. They were living with their children. It didn’t look like they had much time, either one of them. I went out, boy, there’s going to be a tough visit.
And I was shocked. And I walked in, and one of their biggest things that they were so thankful for—the insurance company, of all people—had sent them this talking bear. And they just loved it. And then they were so thankful for how kind everybody had been. I mean, just really the whole visit, they were just so thankful for everything. And both of them had cancer. Both of them passed within months of that visit. And yet their tongue—they were giving thanks the whole time. And they were genuinely thankful, and even both of them dying, they were happy.
A friend, I don’t know about you, but that speaks to me. I just get a little problem, I want to talk about all the bad things, and I’m not thankful, and I’m not steering my ship down the right alley. Your tongue, our tongue, is a rudder. It’s so very, very important.
You see, in order for me to give thanks, I have to think about things that are good in my life. And then once I think about it, I say it, and once I say it, I hear it. And what did he say with Acts 4? He said, “I cannot but speak the things which I have seen and heard.” And that slowly, that ship’s turning.
So, number one, very quickly, number one: Your tongue is a—what’s your tongue is a what? Rudder. Help me out. What’s your tongue? Your tongue is a rudder. Oh, so very, very important. Just one little note on that: Hey, if you want a happy wife, don’t go home saying everything bad. Don’t remind her of all her flaws. She knows her flaws. Your tongue. If you want a happy—do you want a husband that’s not a grouch? Ladies, you want to wave your way? Hey, man, come on now, you know. Hey, your tongue, your tongue, your tongue, your tongue. And in your home, if you want a good spirit in your home, your tongue, your tongue, your tongue, your tongue. So very, very important.
Look over in 1 Peter chapter number three. First Peter chapter number three. These are good verses right here. The Lord has spoken to me more than once from these verses, and I’ve needed it every single time. 1 Peter chapter number 3, and look in verse number 10. 1 Peter 3, look in verse number 10 of God’s Word. 1 Peter 3, verse number 10. What you’re there, would you say, “Amen?” Good. Y’all are listening. Amen. I thought you’re all asleep. What about that, man? You’re on board.
First Peter 3, look at verse number 10. He says, “For he that will”—what will? I want to be there. I’m not saying I’m there all the time, but I’d like to be there—“For he that will love life and see good days.” Let him be a millionaire. Never have any aches and pains, no problems. That sounds pretty good if we could do it, you know.
And now he just says, “If he’s going to love life and see a good day, let him refrain his tongue.” There it is. “Let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile.” Manipulation, just going against someone. Don’t let him do that. “Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it.” Wow.
I was—that several years ago, we had two dogs. Typically, we just have one. We had our little Yorkie. She was about this tall and about this wide. Really, there’s many times she’d been laying in the living room or something, and we said her silhouette looks just like a little pig. It really did. She ate and ate. But she was a happy camper for the most part. Belle was her name. Many of you have seen Belle before.
And at the time, we had Reagan. Now, Reagan was our—he was, oh, I think half lab, half golden retriever. If he was good, his name was Ronald Reagan. If he was bad, his name was Reagan the pagan, you know. And you never know which one he’s going to be, you know. But I remember one down, down right down Baker Road, and I had—I had Belle in the cab of the truck. The windows were down, and Belle, you know how a dog is. She loved to get up there in the driver’s seat, and she would put her paws on that either handrail or on the edge of the window. Man, she liked to stick out there, and she was just—you could get the breeze blowing, and Belle loved it. I mean, she was just like a puppy dog in a meat factory. She was just a happy camper.
And she’s over there by that side mirror, and then I look back in my mirror, and Reagan would do this sometimes. Reagan would just—he wanted to have all the full wind. And you ever see a dog when the wind catches their jaws? We’ve not had this with my present dog now, but Reagan would do it, and the wind would catch those and just flop those jaws, blah, blah, blah, flop them all around, you know. And the thing is, both of them were loving life. Man, they loved their rides in the truck. Happy campers.
And the Lord said, “Paul, he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile.” Oh, friend, a key to a happy life. And we’re all challenged by it.
I thought about years ago, Sunday morning, we had an incident happen that needed to be dealt with in the church. And it was not a pleasant thing, and we were dealing with it. But that same service, we had a couple—I believe it was that service, a couple, a husband and wife that some of our people had invited, and they came, and they came to church, and they came on this side of here, and they came forward, got saved. It was one of those sweet ones. They moved away, but they’re still in church, an independent Baptist church to this day, living for the Lord.
And it was Sunday morning, they both came. They got saved, and that same Sunday morning we had an incident, and boy, I watched how my tongue and my mind wanted to talk about the problem. And there was a problem needed to be dealt with, and needed to be talked about somewhat. But man, some of you dream—you know, preachers dream about a couple coming and getting saved and their life getting changed and their family tree being changed. And yet my tongue and my mind wanted to go to the problem and just kind of wallow in that when there was such a great victory that day. And what I’m saying is your tongue—you’re going to have to work at that thing. It’s not going to be tamed. You’re going to have to, as Peter says, you’re going to have to rein it in. You’re going to have to refrain your tongue. You can’t, you can’t—nobody tames that thing. You got to bridle it in. You got to have control over it. Y’all with me out there?
But he says, “Hey, he will love life, see good days”—your tongue, our tongue. Now, go back over to James 3, if you would please. We’ll be done here in just a minute. Look back over in James 3. And just the wording of this is very interesting. James 3 and verse number four. You know the Bible’s got so many hidden things that I never see, and every once in a while the Lord will show me a little thing. This is just interesting thought truth here.
Verse number four, he says, “Behold also the ships, which though they be so great…” And are driven of fierce winds. Now, when there’s a fierce wind, typically we call that a storm. There were some fierce winds Tuesday night, wasn’t there? I mean, you know, the power was out here. Many of you know that better than I; you were here. And limbs and trees and all the rest of that, you know. And usually there’s fierce winds when there’s storms. That’s kind of the context of what’s going on here, not all of it, but he’s talking about these great ships that are driven by fierce winds.
Watch what he says: “Yet”—just said fierce winds or storms—“yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth.” Here’s the thing: A wise sailor uses his rudder to keep his ship steered right during storms when the fierce winds are blowing. That’s the key time because you know what my tongue wants to do? Go to all the problems, the bad things, and say they’ve got to be dealt with. But I don’t want to let my ship be turned. Y’all with me out there?
Boy, that’s such a key time. It’s more important than ever to keep my tongue right when the fierce winds are blowing. That’s so important. You know, they say nuclear blasts when they happen—of course, initially, you know, thousands and thousands are killed—but you know, the fallout causes more damage. And boom, boom, man, we have battles and problems, and boom, boom, boom. You know, typically there’s much, much more damage by the reaction or the fallout.
We have NBA Finals just ended last night. The wrong team won. Come on now, you know. Something you don’t know what’s going on. Anyway. But I heard the announcement more than once during the series, and I watched part of it, but I would say, you know, so-and-so got called for the foul, but this is what they’ll say in basketball, almost always: it’s not the first elbow, it’s almost always the second elbow, just for it. And the announcers mentioned it several times in the series. And that’s kind of the way it is, you know. The initial boom, the devil hits. You know, the devil can’t—the devil can’t stop a Christian. But if he could hit that Christian and then the fallout, and while they get off course, that’s when the devil wins. And the key is when you get hit, while the fierce winds are blowing, keep that rudder right. Hard to do. But it’s a key. It’s a secret to have a happy life. When the fierce winds are blowing, just that tongue is so very, very important.
There’s a story. It’s about back in the days when people would travel out to Oregon and the West, you know, out West, the Oregon Trail and all that. Very dangerous. And they would get a group of people in wagons, and they’re traveling out West. And they had to leave a certain time, make sure they keep in schedule. And get attacked by Indians often. And so they just—it was a very dangerous thing. And they had a group that was heading out West, and they had problems pretty quick into it. Wagons had some problems that slowed them all down, and the morale was just getting very low. They hadn’t got attacked yet, but fear had become the norm with the—you know, the people trying this camp of travelers, and just it was—it was really getting bad.
And so the leaders said, “Well, tonight when we stop, we’re just going to have a meeting and we’re going to air out everything and try to”—because of morale—“we’re just going to—it’s not going to be good unless something changes.” And so they said they met that night, you know, they got the wagons together and everybody met together. And someone stood and said, “Well, before we air it all out, I first want to thank God.” And I’m quoting this part here: “that we have come this far with no loss of life, having no serious trouble with the Indians. They have enough strength left to finish the journey.”
And they say that little statement, and other people started saying, “Well, I want to be thankful for this.” And, you know, the whole spirit of the thing changed. They never even aired out all the bad. Everybody knew about the bad anyway. But just our tongue—our tongue. Oh, our tongue is so key.
You know the verse, Proverbs 18:21: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” We moved—most of all of you know—we moved to a new house. And someone gave us this plaque. My wife put it over—there’s an electric fireplace inside there—and my wife put this plaque someone gave us. And I love it. It speaks to me every time I see it. She put it in the perfect spot. But it says this: “Blessed and Grateful.” I’m blessed, no doubt about it. Blessed way, way more than I should be. But that “grateful” always speaks to me. I’m like, man, I’m blessed. I am blessed way beyond where I should be, but I’m not always grateful. Every time I see that, it’ll probably get old once you see—you see something—but I don’t want it to. Because I’m blessed for sure, but I like for that plaque to be true: be blessed and grateful. If I’m going to be there, that thing right there is going to be a secret to it all.
Would you bow your heads and close your eyes just for a bit tonight? Would you tell the Lord, “Lord, I want this. I want to be wise with my tongue”? Would you stand, please? Just let him know, “Lord, I want to be wise with my tongue.” You spend some time talking to the Lord about that. Would you do that tonight?
Father, thank You for the wisdom of Your Word. Lord, I—forgive me, I’m often not where I ought to be with my tongue. I want to get there, Lord. Lord, help us to bridle and steer our ships where they ought to be with the tongue. We give them to You. You work tonight. And Lord, we’ll thank You for what You do. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
Would you be obedient as our musicians play? Let’s just, Lord, here’s my tongue. I want my tongue to be right. That’s key if it’s going to be happy. “He that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile.”
Original File: 2026-06-15 - Pastor Paul Chisgar ＂A great secret in a happy life＂ - Sunday PM 06⧸14⧸2026