So James chapter 3, and I believe that I said verses 1 to 12 to the crew at the back,
but I'm going to read verses 1 to 14, just a touch longer.
Let's read God's Word together.
Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers,
because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.
We all stumble in many ways.
If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.
When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal.
Or take ships as an example.
Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds,
they are steered by a very small rudder, wherever the pilot wants to go.
Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts.
Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.
The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body.
It corrupts the whole person.
It sets the whole course of his life on fire and is itself set on fire by hell.
All kinds of animals, birds, and reptiles, and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man.
But no man can tame the tongue.
It is a restless evil full of deadly poison.
With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in God's likeness.
Out of the same mouth comes praise and cursing.
My brothers, this should not be.
Can both fresh and salt water flow from the same spring?
My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives or a grapevine bear figs?
Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.
Who is wise and understanding among you?
Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done and the humility that comes from wisdom.
But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth.
This is God's holy word.
Before we come and think about it together, we're going to sing one more time to prepare our hearts.
A classic hymn, Holy, Holy, Holy.
So let's sing to the Holy God together.
Let's stand and we'll sing.
Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty.
Early in the morning, a song I'll rise to you.
Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, merciful and mighty.
God in three persons, blessed Trinity.
Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, all the saints adore you.
Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea.
Cherubim and seraphim falling down before you.
Holy, Holy, holy, holy, holy.
Glide by sin your glory may not see.
You alone are holy.
There is none beside you.
Perfect in power, in love and purity.
Holy, holy, holy, holy.
merciful and mighty.
God in three persons, blessed Trinity.
Please be seated.
Tonight, we're looking at texts that are all about the life of wisdom.
And that's specific to one area in the text that we read.
And that's the wisdom surrounding the way that we speak our tongues.
And the reason, one of the reasons for looking at a subject like this is because we believe that the gospel changes all of who we are.
And so it first changes our relationship with God.
But then the gospel makes a claim on our lives that we're to actually bow the knee, bow the heart in every aspect of who we are, including our speech and all other things.
And so we read from the actual list of the seven deadly sins from the book of Proverbs.
From Proverbs chapter six.
And this is seven areas of life that we're called to put away, to be new selves in.
Just a reminder.
This is what we read, that there are seven things the Lord hates.
Haughty eyes, a lying tongue.
Hands that shed innocent blood.
Devising wicked plans.
Feet that run to evil.
A false witness that breathes out lies.
And a one who says discord among brothers.
Now you can take those seven sins and you can translate them, whittle them down if you will, into five.
And they are pride, anger, unnecessary violence, quarreling.
But then the fifth, and I don't know if you caught it when we read it, but out of the seven things that the Lord hates, according to Proverbs six.
Two of them appear to be the exact same.
And two of them are the lying tongue and a false witness that breathes lies.
And that means that at least God is very serious about the sins of speech.
He mentions it twice in the seven deadly sins here in Proverbs six.
And the reason he mentions it twice is because one of those refers to false witness.
Breathing lies in the midst of the courtroom.
That's a judicial term in Hebrew.
So it's saying that God hates it when people lie in the court.
But then also the second time is just normal life.
So whether you're in the courtroom or whether you're living life, he addresses here the sin of lying.
Now, in Proverbs, the word that gets used, a Hebrew word, a distinct Hebrew word that gets used to describe the sins of speech is the word deceit.
It's the word that shows up four or five times across the book of Proverbs and a few times in the New Testament.
And it's correspondent to refer to the sins, all the different ways that we can be sinful with the way we speak.
But more precisely, deceit is the word that speaks of the condition of the human heart that stands underneath sinful speech.
So deceit, when Jesus says out of the heart, the mouth speaks.
The mouth speaks sinful speech whenever the heart is full of deceit.
Deceit's the term that describes the condition of the heart that produces sinful speech.
And so let's think together this evening from Proverbs and James three about this problem and how to deal with it.
So we're going to see first the power of deceit.
Secondly, the origin of speech.
And finally, the wise tongue.
So first, the power of deceit.
Proverbs 12, 17 says that when people speak rashly to one another, that it's like a sword thrust to the gut.
So it literally says that rash words, words that are spoken improperly to each other, are like taking a sword and jabbing it right in the gut of the next person.
It's a mortal wound.
And then vice versa or reciprocally speaking truth in love is like medicine.
It's like putting a balm on a person's soul.
And so when you look across the book of Proverbs, one of the things you see very quickly is that the main idea is that deceitful speech can kill.
It can wound.
It can be a mortal wound on somebody's soul.
It can destroy.
And that speech that is full of love and righteousness brings life.
It's like medicine to a person.
Now, it's not difficult to imagine why this is the case.
Imagine.
You don't even have to imagine because you've seen it play out.
In real life, imagine that you see a witness in the courtroom and that witness breathes out lies like we read about in Proverbs 6 towards another person.
And they breathe out so much corruption.
They breathe out so many false statements that the guilty one goes free or that the innocent one gets put into prison for life.
And that's a grave injustice.
It's evil.
It's wicked.
And Proverbs is a text that was originally written to young men, actually, to royal boys that were being trained to rule the land.
And so Proverbs over and over again is saying young men, but it's, of course, for everybody.
It's God's word.
Everybody never lie.
Never lie.
Why?
Because when we lie and we lie and we let little lies carry on and carry on, little lies become big lies and big lies become courtroom lies.
And courtroom lies produce immense injustices in the land.
And so the writer says that a harsh lie, a harsh word, a rash word has the power of death.
It wields the power for grave injustice.
It can kill.
But on the opposite side, words can also at the same time give life.
Now, the New Testament has a chapter devoted to this.
And we read it.
James chapter 3.
Very famous.
And in James chapter 3, James gives us three illustrations, verse 3 to 5, for how powerful our speech really is.
It's always wonderful when the Bible gives the preacher the illustration.
So that means there's ten minutes saved.
I don't have to think of an illustration.
It's right here.
There's three of them.
Verses 3 to 5, James 3.
Did you see them?
He says the tongue is small, but it can do great things.
It's very powerful.
And here's how he explains it the first way.
It's like the rudder of a ship.
You know, you think about the great ocean liners that park out in the Firth of Forth.
Some of those things are absolutely massive.
And they have very, relative to their size, they have very small rudders.
And the rudder can, of course, steer the entire thing.
And what it's hinting at there is that your speech, the way you speak, is so powerful to you
that it has the power actually to reshape your own heart.
That when you speak lies all the time, you become a liar.
That speech actually shapes our plastic hearts.
We are moldable.
It changes the soul.
The second illustration is that our speech, our tongues, are like a bit in the mouth of a horse.
You know, bits are little metal poles that you stick in the mouth of a horse.
And you can control a horse of 20 hands, which is horse talk for a very big horse,
with just a tiny little piece of metal.
And that's what your tongue can do to your own soul.
But thirdly and finally, this is the most important.
He says that, verse 5, that the tongue has the power of a fire, that it begins like a spark.
I think he's thinking of there in this first century culture of a simple campfire,
you know, casting a little flint and building a small fire.
Now, my family and I went camping two Fridays ago.
This is our first.
I have four small children.
This is our first ever family camping outing.
I've always been a big camper.
Going with children is a different thing, I learned.
And we went two Fridays ago, and I bought a flat pack little grill slash campfire set.
You can put charcoal in it.
You can put wood in it.
And if you've ever done this, you have done this.
Of course you've done this.
You've gone camping.
You've been out in the woods.
And you've built a little fire somewhere.
And you know that when you're in a public place, it's not private land.
It's not your land.
What do you do with it?
You know, you're vigilant.
You watch it closely.
You clear the brush.
You know that you do not want what could happen happen.
And you know what James says.
He says a small campfire can all of a sudden, it can get out of control.
And it can become what?
A forest fire.
And a forest fire can become a city fire.
And a city fire can mean the nation burns.
And he says that's the power of speech.
In other words, you see what he's saying?
He's saying that when a fire is treated appropriately, it's light in the midst of darkness.
You know, it's warmth in the midst of Scottish cold winters.
It's food when you need it, right?
But when you let it get to the wrong place, when it goes too far, it burns down the nation.
And that's the power of human speech.
It's the instrument of death and life at the same time.
It has immense potential all in one.
And so I think James here is working from a very important proverb that we read that says it all.
Proverbs 18, 21.
Proverbs 18, 21 says,
In the tongue is the power of life and of death.
Now let me ask you tonight.
Did you know that your speech can minister life or death to other human beings?
That in your tongue, in the gift of speech that God has given you,
that you have such immense power to give a mortal wound or to be a balm that heals the soul?
And so the second question then, the diagnostic we have to have tonight is,
What are you doing with your speech?
What are you doing with this gift that God has given you,
that he's given you to wield in a very specific way?
Now, oh boy, the Gospels is very clear.
Jesus spoke about this very clearly.
He gave us the final word about our words.
Matthew 12, 36,
I tell you, on the day of judgment,
every person will give an account for every careless word that they've spoken.
For by your words you will be justified,
and by your words you will be condemned.
Oh, careless speakers,
what are we to do with ourselves?
Now, secondly,
secondly, the origin of speech.
We've seen already that our words are very powerful,
that they can minister death,
they can minister life,
but the question underneath that is why.
In other words,
what is it about human speech that makes speech so powerful?
Why is it that this is the case,
that our words are ministers of death and of life?
What is it that makes our speech so powerful?
And I think James hints at it for us here,
in chapter 3, verse 9.
In chapter 3, verse 9,
he says,
we use our mouths to,
on the one hand,
bless God.
He's talking about hypocrisy here.
We bless God on the one hand,
but then he says,
we turn the next day,
and we curse our neighbor.
We speak ill of our neighbor.
We gossip.
Who has been made,
and here it is,
he says,
we curse our neighbor who has been made in the image of God.
Now, immediately,
we know what James is thinking about.
You know,
where is James taking us?
Where is James reading?
What is James reading as he writes this?
He's thinking about Genesis chapter 1.
He's taking us back to the very beginning,
to the first page.
And he, in other words,
is trying to help us to think about our speech
in the light of creation.
Because he tells us,
the issue in our speech
is that we curse people made
in the image of God.
And do you see what he's doing?
He's asking you the question,
well,
what is the image of God?
Why is it so serious
to talk poorly of others,
to gossip,
to slander,
to speak with spite,
or flattery,
to lie to your neighbor?
Why is it so serious?
And he says,
it's serious because
they are in the image of God.
So he's connecting speech,
our words,
directly to the image of God.
What's the connection?
Here it is.
The first thing we read about God
in the Bible,
on page one,
is that God is the great speaker.
He creates the world by word.
He opens his mouth.
The very first thing that he does
is he speaks word,
and out of nothing comes something.
Creation ex nihilo.
Creation from nothing.
There is something by speech.
And so when you get to Genesis 1, 26 to 28,
you've got to say,
well, what does it mean then for me
to be the image of God?
You are the image of God.
What does it mean?
It means so much.
But one of the things it must mean
is that I am distinguished
from the animal kingdom
because God has made me a speaker
like he is.
God speaks,
and from nothing there comes something.
And then he turns and says,
and I give to you, humanity,
the gift of words,
the gift of speech.
Why do you think God has decided
to communicate his revelation to us
by way of word and not image?
Because words, speech,
it's so critical from the beginning.
He is the divine speaker,
and we're like him in that we speak.
And so,
that means that we image God
as the image of God
when we speak words that give life,
and we desecrate and sin
against the very image of God
and fail to image God
when we speak words
that minister death to other people.
That's why our words are so serious,
because we have been made to speak
like God speaks.
It's who God is,
a great speaker.
Now,
there's, again,
an illustration of this in the Bible.
I don't have to come up with an illustration.
There's a perfect illustration
in the Old Testament.
In the Old Testament,
the Hebrew Bible,
the Bible that Jesus Christ read from,
has a name in Hebrew
that in English is called the Tanakh.
And it had three parts to it.
It's our Old Testament as we have it.
But in it,
the writings were a section,
and they were a group of books
grouped together,
like the Psalms,
Proverbs,
Ecclesiastes,
these books of wisdom.
You know,
we know these books
as books of wisdom.
But there were also
four other books
in that section
of the Old Testament.
And those books
were meant
and given to us
as illustrations
of what it means
to live the wise life.
There were two
about men
and two about women.
So when you read
through Proverbs,
you read through
Ecclesiastes
and books like it,
the Psalms,
what it means
to live the wise life,
the life of worship,
and you say,
well,
I need to see
that lived out.
The Old Testament
gives you that.
Who are they?
Two female,
Ruth and Esther.
Two male,
Daniel and Job.
And in each of those,
there's also
an anti-wisdom character,
or many.
Now,
the greatest,
or the worst,
you should say,
of the anti-wisdom characters
in all of the Old Testament,
I think,
is the great king,
Nebuchadnezzar.
The king of the world.
You know,
the most powerful man
who ever lived
in some senses.
And at the height
of his power,
Daniel chapter 4,
he goes out to his balcony
and he opens his mouth.
He speaks.
And remember what he said?
He says,
Is this not Babylon the great,
which I myself
have built
as a royal residence
by the might of my power
and because of the glory
of my majesty?
And the text tells us
that by the words
of his mouth,
he was driven away
from humankind
to dwell with the beast,
to eat grass
like the cattle,
to grow hair
like a bird,
to grow nails
as long as birds' claws.
Now look,
what's going on?
James chapter 3,
verse 7,
is he wrestling
with that Old Testament text?
When in James 3,
verse 7,
he says,
Every animal,
bird,
reptile,
creature of the sea,
we've tamed him.
We've put him in pens.
We can tame any beast,
even lions,
but we cannot tame
the beast of the tongue.
And you see,
Nebuchadnezzar,
he spoke,
he spoke lies
and deceit
and pride
and he flattered himself
full of selfish ambition,
exactly what James
refers to in James 3,
14,
and immediately God said,
I will give you
what you are.
And he sent him away
to be like a beast.
You see what he's saying?
If the image of God
is to speak words
that are instruments of life,
then it's opposite.
You know,
when we speak words of death,
like Nebuchadnezzar,
we become beastly.
Our beastly speech,
it dehumanizes.
It dehumanizes the speaker.
It dehumanizes the receiver.
Just think about it.
When you,
a situation we've all been in,
how many of us
have been in here this week,
in this situation,
we've turned to a friend
to talk about another friend.
And we did it behind their back
and we spoke accurately of them.
You know,
it's not that we told lies.
We said things that were true,
but we did it
with the worst motivations,
selfish ambitions.
What do we call that?
We call that gossip.
And in that moment,
what we're doing is we're saying
that person is less
the image of God than I am.
We're cutting them down.
And the Bible
subtly,
theologically hints
over and over again
that our sinful speech
is dehumanizing
because it desecrates
the image of God,
which is to be
a life-giving speaker
because God
is life-giving speaker.
Now,
back to Matthew 12, 36.
Jesus Christ again says,
anybody who has ever spoken
a careless word
will be judged
for every careless word
on the day of judgment.
And maybe there are
a few of you
who have not spoken
a careless word
in the last 12 hours.
Maybe you're like me.
And even this afternoon,
you struggled.
You struggled
with careless speech.
What are we to do?
And it's no coincidence
at all
that when you open up
the Gospel of John,
John chapter 1,
the first three words
are,
in the beginning,
Genesis 1,
and the next is,
the Word.
The Word.
You see that
John's connecting us
also back to Genesis 1
and saying,
what do you do
with your sinful speech?
You see that God
has spoken.
that the Word
has gone forth,
that the Word,
the Logos Himself,
the very speech
of God
is God the Son
made incarnate.
And that means
that if He is
the Logos of God,
the speech of God,
the Word of God
into this world,
this broken world,
broken by our nasty words,
He must be
the instrument of life.
He must create life.
He has to.
He's the Word Himself.
And how does He do it?
How does He do it?
How does He create life
for us that have,
for those of us
who have wielded
our mouths unto death,
what does Jesus Christ
do for us?
And here it is.
You can go to one place.
Isaiah 53.
Isaiah 53 says that
when the Messiah comes,
when the very speech of God,
the Creator Himself,
comes to the world,
He will be,
in our eyes,
so dehumanized.
It's said that
He would be
so disfigured
by suffering
that we would see Him
like an animal.
That He would be
like a sheep,
a lamb,
led to the slaughter
for us.
That the very speech of God,
the communication of God,
the Creator Himself,
would go all the way
to dehumanizing death
for us,
that at the cross,
at the cross,
the very word of God
heard nothing
but divine silence
from His Father.
He was forsaken.
And you see,
that means that
at the cross,
oh boy,
Jesus' words,
Matthew 12, 36,
come true,
that every word
will be judged.
It was,
it was,
tonight.
It was judged.
In other words,
have your,
you can ask this question,
James says
that our words
have the power
to set a hellfire.
He uses the word
Gehenna
from the Gospels,
Jesus' word for hell.
Have your words
ever set
not just a fire
but a hellfire?
Look,
if you are in
Christ Jesus tonight,
then the answer is yes.
you set
the hellfire
by which
He was burned.
And here in that,
not only the pronouncement
of judgment
over our sinful speech
but the fact that
Jesus Christ says,
this is how much
I love you.
This is how much
I love you.
This is how much
I want you.
This is how much
I want to give you
the balm
that ultimately
will heal you.
That will change
the heart of deceit
into the heart of flesh.
Jesus Christ
at the cross says,
your speech
is that serious
and my love
for you
is this big.
That I would go
all the way
to the point of death.
Dehumanizing death
like a lamb
led to the slaughter
to deal with
this great problem
that we have,
our sinful speech.
And so,
tonight,
what are you to do
with yourself?
The first thing
Jesus says is
do nothing.
Do nothing.
Receive.
Receive
the work
of Christ
for every careless
word that you've
ever spoken.
And that you,
tonight,
by faith,
believe tonight
you're forgiven.
You're forgiven
for every word.
Every word that you
spoke in the past.
Every word that's
dehumanizing and harmful
that you will speak
in the future.
It's glory.
It's beauty.
It's the message
of hope.
It's the message
of the gospel.
Now, thirdly and finally,
how then should we live?
We've got to say
something then
about growing
in this area
of our lives
because that's exactly
what God calls us
to here in James 3.
And so,
lastly,
let's consider
the wise tongue
very briefly.
There is a matrix
for righteous speech
across the Old
and New Testament,
a framework
for how to think
about it.
What does it look like
to be a holy speaker,
to be a good speaker,
to be a person
who speaks words
of life?
And the framework
that we get
all the time
over and over again,
it's in Ephesians 4.15,
verse 25,
1 John 1,
John 14 to 17,
and right here
in James 3.14,
he says that
the key ingredients
are that we always
combine truth
with love,
never one without the other.
And that's,
it's critical.
You know,
you can say,
what does it mean
to not lie
and it's a little
too simplistic
in the eyes
of Scripture
to say,
well,
it just means
to tell the truth.
Actually,
righteous speech
is more than that.
Righteous speech
is more than that.
Righteous speech
is not just the way
you would speak
in the courtroom
as if you were saying,
look,
I'm going to tell you
exactly as it was recorded
on my iPhone.
No,
it's more than that.
And I can show you this
by a simple question.
Let me ask you,
those of you
who are married,
but this works for anybody,
husbands and wives,
have you ever spoke
accurately
the truth
to your spouse
at the wrong time
and in the wrong way?
Oh boy,
you have.
Friends,
have you ever spoken
to your friend
the truth
in the wrong time,
at the wrong time
and the wrong way
with the wrong motivation
and then later
you defend yourself
and say,
I was just telling you
the truth.
It was just the truth.
No,
God says,
no,
that is not
righteous speech.
And James makes
very clear here
in James 3,
12 to 14
that truth
is not enough,
but actually
the greatest question
is why am I saying
the things that I'm saying?
And he says,
so if you say anything
that's motivated
by selfish ambition,
then it becomes untruth.
In other words,
it's not God glorifying,
it's not righteous,
it might be accurate,
but it's not the truth
with a capital T,
it's not righteousness,
it's not the way of Christ,
it's not true truth,
if you will.
Let me give you
just a couple examples
and we'll close.
Have you ever
spoken accurately
to a friend
about another friend,
but you did it
for selfish ambitions?
That's gossip.
You know,
have you ever spoken
accurately
directly to a person
and said exactly
what you think
their problem is,
but you did it
for selfish ambition?
That's spite.
It's a wound.
It's a word that kills.
Have you ever
spoken about yourself
to other people
accurately,
but with the motivation
of selfish ambition?
That's boasting.
That's pride.
You say we can speak
true words
that are at the same time
sinful words.
But the matrix
always across the Bible
is that truth
be unified
to love.
One last example,
a striking example
from Proverbs 27,
verse 6.
It's one of my favorites.
Wounds from a friend
are faithful,
but an enemy
multiplies kisses.
Wounds from a friend
are faithful,
but an enemy
multiplies kisses.
You see what it's saying?
That when you have
a friend,
a true friend,
they will speak
words to you,
truth,
in love,
that wounds you.
You know,
it's not the sword,
the dagger that kills
by the way of a mortal wound.
It's the surgeon's scalpel.
A true friend will cut you
with the surgeon's scalpel.
We'll say,
look,
this is what I think
is going on in your life
and I love you enough
to tell you
so that you might be healed
and grow.
But an enemy,
the enemy comes up
and kisses you
on the cheek all the time.
What's it talking about?
The sin of flattery.
Flattery is a form
of deceitful lying.
It comes and praises
a person all the time.
But look,
none of you are that great.
I'm not that great.
We're not that great.
We can't be flattered.
It's not true.
It's a lie.
We're not that great.
An enemy multiplies
kisses on our cheek,
but a true friend
tells the truth in love.
You see,
truth without love
is spite,
but love without truth
is flattery.
And neither of them
are really love.
Now, lastly,
let me leave you
with three thoughts.
And I'll rattle these off
in 30 seconds each.
Three thoughts
to walk away with.
One,
remember,
your speech
can be forgiven.
If you are a believer
in Jesus Christ tonight,
it has been.
Jesus Christ went to hellfire
for your speech.
And that's an invitation.
But look,
that means,
that means then
that you've got to be willing
to turn around
and forgive the speech
of others.
And so,
the Christian life
cannot be one marked
by harboring speech wounds.
Wounds from the past
or the way people
have spoken to us.
We've got to be,
Christ says,
take this gospel of grace
and then go
and live like it too.
And so,
we've got to be people
that are so motivated
by Jesus
that we forgive
sinful speech.
Number one.
Number two.
Number two is,
at the same time,
it's very important
that we go forth
from here
remembering how serious
our words are.
John Webster,
one of the great
British theologians
of the past generation.
Many of you
will know
of John Webster.
John died
just a few years ago.
He was a theologian
at St. Andrews.
He wrote a wonderful essay
about speech
in the Bible
and in theology.
And this is what
he says about it.
He says that
what is said
may not be unsaid.
Speech sets up meaning
in this world
which may never
be retracted.
Our words can be
recanted,
withdrawn,
renounced,
forgiven,
but they cannot
be unsaid.
Because that which
has been said
is irreversible.
If I am called
a fool by someone,
I am now the one
who has once
been called a fool.
And the someone
who called me a fool
is now the person
who once called me a fool.
And the world
is now a place
in which that someone
once called me a fool.
And so a fool
I will be.
And you see
what he's saying?
He's saying that
yes, your words
can be forgiven,
but the Christian
has to be more serious
about our speech
than anybody else.
Because words
can have serious
consequences
for all of life.
They're very serious
because we're
made to speak
like God speaks.
Lastly,
walking in step
with the Spirit
here
creates a real paradox.
It's the last thing.
Maybe you caught it.
It comes up
all across the Old
and New Testament
when the Bible
talks about speech.
It's one of the
difficult things
to know what to do with.
Jesus says,
out of the heart
the mouth speaks.
In other words,
Jesus says
ever and ever again
like Proverbs
and like James
that you're going
to speak
in accordance
with the condition
of your heart.
But then at the same time
the Bible comes
and says
stop speaking
like that.
You see the paradox?
It says
you can't help
but speak
according to the condition
of your heart
and stop doing it.
And there's a paradox
a relationship there
and it's because
the Bible understands
number one
that when you're in Christ
you have the Holy Spirit
you have the X factor there.
You know,
you have the Holy Spirit
who can do the work.
But at the same time
there's work for us
to do here.
We're called to grow.
And here it is.
When we decide
to be conscious
of our particular
sin patterns
when it comes
to our words
you know,
what do you struggle
with particularly?
Is it gossip?
Is it slander?
Is it slanting?
Is it exaggeration?
Is it lies?
Is it small lies
or big lies?
Whatever it may be
are you conscious
of it?
Of your sinful
speech patterns?
And then the Bible
comes and says
look,
here's why you've
got to put it away.
Because it's true
that our souls
are what we call
plastic.
Not in a material sense
but in the sense
that they're malleable.
That we can change.
That the more
we speak truth
the more we become
truth speakers.
And when you speak lies
you become a liar
more and more.
You see,
out of the heart
the mouth speaks
but also whatever
the mouth speaks
the heart becomes.
And so it works
both ways.
And so in the power
of the Holy Spirit
the Bible says
how do you grow?
Well,
in prayer
you stop lying.
You say
I'm going to fight this
nail and tooth.
I'm going to put away
the little lies
that I'm addicted to.
And then all of a sudden
your soul changes.
And all of a sudden
you love the truth
and desire changes
and you're reshaped.
And that's how it works.
That's how growth works
in the Christian life.
And so I can
leave you with this
last word
and it's this.
We need
counter habits
to our sinful speech
our sinful patterns.
And here's the greatest
counter habit
you can take away.
Swim in the river
bathe in the waters
of the speech himself.
How do you grow?
Bathe yourself
in the word.
The speech of God.
Jesus.
Meditate on him
and his very speech
we have here.
And in it
your soul
will be transformed.
You'll learn
the habits
of righteous speech.
Let's pray together
and ask God
to give us these hearts.
Father,
we pray now
that you would change us
as speakers.
We give thanks
that you've given us
the power of speech.
We give thanks
that we have been
differentiated from the
animal kingdom
in this way.
and we pray now,
Lord,
that you would forgive
and forget
the many sins
that we have spoken
through which we have spoken.
And we give thanks
that you have
in Jesus.
We give thanks
that it is true
that our sins
are cast away
as far as the east
is from the west
because hellfire
was set to Christ
at the cross
and he did not
stay dead.
And so in the power
of Jesus
we rest
in the forgiveness
for our sins
and now send us
from this place
as new selves,
new speakers,
speakers that are
birthed by Jesus,
regenerated by the Spirit,
given life
to speak words
of life.
So help us
in this battle,
Lord,
we pray and we ask
in Christ's name.
Amen.
Let's respond
to God's word
by singing together.
We're going
to sing the hymn,
I heard the voice
of Jesus say,
let's hear the voice
of Christ
in prayer
as we sing this,
the words of this hymn
to God.
So let's stand together
and we'll sing.