weekly sermon
6-8-08
What Do You Think?
I heard a personality this past week that said; 'folks often ask him if he has
to watch what he says', he said, "no, I just watch what I think". This really
got me to thinking. How often do we speak before we think? There are many times
folks that talk without thinking about what it is that they are saying. There is
another old saying that says, do not put your mouth in gear while your mind is
still in neutral. This just means think before you speak.
What does the Bible have to say about this subject. There are several verses
that we will look at today to see what is really said concerning what we say
verses what we think.
First we will go to Proverbs 26:24, "He that hateth dissembleth with his lips,
and layeth up deceit within him;". This says that if a man has hate in his
heart, he will put on a look of innocence with his lips, dissembleth means to
conceal the truth or make something look as it is not, but it will only put
deceit in that same man's heart so that his hatred will be strong in him. No
matter if we talk outwardly in a nice innocent manner, the hatred will remain in
our heart and make us liars unto God.
Now we will look at two different verses in Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes 5:3, "For
a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice [is known]
by multitude of words." And Ecclesiastes 5:6, "Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy
flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it [was] an error:
wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine
hands?" Let us notice one thing in verse 3, that a fool's voice is known by a
multitude of words. What does that mean? This simply means that usually a person
that talks way too much either has no clue what they are talking about or they
are just foolish for talking so much. We can also see by the words in verse 6
that our mouth, or us talking, can cause our flesh to sin. How is it that our
mouths can make our flesh sin? Look at Matthew 15:11, "Not that which goeth into
the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth
a man." and Matthew 15:18, "But those things which proceed out of the mouth come
forth from the heart; and they defile the man." It is stated here that the
things we say are from our hearts and the things from our heart is what can
defile us . Keep this in mind for a minute and we will come back to this one.
Let us look at a few more passages that pertain to what we are talking about.
Ephesians 5:6, "Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these
things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience." If our words
are deceiving to anyone then we will eventually, in the time we stand before
God, will have to answer and fall under the wrath of God because of our
disobedience. James 1:26, "If any man among you seem to be religious, and
bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion [is]
vain." This passage states that if a man appears to be religious, but his words
show different, then we can believe that he is what his words show and not what
he appears to be. This is what it is talking about when it tells us to bridle
our tongue. Folks, just by nature, become angry and say things, many times, that
they eventually regret or do not really mean to say. This is when we should
bridle our tongues, by not saying what we want to say in the midst of anger, but
keep our tongues until we calm down and say things that are nice unto God. My
mother always said, if you can not say something nice, do not say anything at
all. This is a prime example of bridling our tongues.
If we are successful in bridling our tongues as we just talked about, then we
can look at this next passage and what it has to say about our tongue and what
we have to say. Colossians 4:6, "Let your speech [be] alway with grace, seasoned
with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man." If we always
speak with grace in our hearts then we will always find favor with God.
There is a story in Matthew about Jesus being tempted by the devil. At one point
during the tempting, the devil asked Jesus about Him being hungry and wanting
Him to turn a rock into bread. Let us look at what Jesus' response was to this
temptation. Matthew 4:3-4, "And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou
be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. (4) But he answered
and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Now of course this was a temptation to
show that Jesus had the power to be able to turn the stone to bread, but it also
shows us another thing. Man lives by every word that comes out of the mouth of
God. This will tell us that the words that come out of our mouths should be the
same as the words that would come from God's mouth.
Finally let us look at one more verse. Exodus 4:11, "And the LORD said unto him,
Who hath made man's mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or
the blind? have not I the LORD?" God is asking Moses a question here, because
Moses does not think he can speak well enough to perform the function God is
wanting him to perform at that moment. If God has made the mouths of every man
then it should be in our best interest to speak as though God did make it. There
is another saying, about folks that use profanity, that says, would you kiss
your mother with that mouth. Well look at it this way, would you talk to God
with yours?
In closing, we need to remember that earlier I said we would come back to
something. The things from our heart and mouth that could defile us. The things
in our hearts is what we think, the things out of our mouths is what we say. If
we watch what we think, then we will say what we think and not deceitful,
ungodly things.
What is in your heart? What do you think? How do you appear to others when you
talk? More importantly, how do you appear before God when you talk? If for some
reason you are not sure, or you know for sure that you would like to change the
things you say, and make your heart right with God and bridle your tongue to say
what is right with God, then all you need to do is say a simple prayer with me
that will put you in the graces of God.
Dear Lord, take over my life and forgive me of my sins, and give me the gift of
everlasting life. Amen.
If you have said this simple prayer, then we believe that you have received
salvation. We would love to rejoice with you, so please drop us a note, in our
link, to let us know and confess Jesus before man, so that we may send you a few
things that we hope will help you in your new Christian walk.
With Love in Christ,
Pastor Stone