Our Words

Text: Matthew 12:33-37.

Intro: I want you to imagine a conversation between a young man and two older gentlemen. They all work in the same business together. One day, the younger man makes a perfectly honest mistake. A mistake that anyone could make. This mistake, however, messes up the flow of their work and they have to do damage control the rest of the day. After the day is done, the two older men come to the young man and they talk about what happened. The first of the older men say to the young man, “What a completely dumb thing you did today. When I was your age, I never made mistakes like that. You don’t even deserve to be here. Why this company wasted money on hiring you, I will never know. You better shape up because right now, you’re nothing but a worthless waste of air and space.”

The next older man then had his turn, which he used to say, “Hey son, you know, when I was younger, just trying to learn the ropes, I made tons of mistakes just like this and some arguably even worse. You already know what caused the problem so i wont beat you over the head with it. But I will tell you this, you may fall on your butt many more times to come, but you don’t have to stay there. each time it happens, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, try again, and you’ll get to where I am some day.”

Which mans words do you think the younger man was more readily to hear, the first or the second?

Words have the power to build up, or tear down, as Paul says in Ephesians 4:29. But more importantly our words reveal something very intimate to us. They reveal the very condition of our hearts. They show us and those around us where are mind has been, what we truly feel, and what we truly believe. There is an old Japanese proverb that says, “The Mouth is the source of disaster.” To me, this mirrors perfectly what Proverbs 18:21 says.

In Matthew 12:33-37, Jesus is commenting on the power of our words revealing our hearts in response to the religious leadership blaspheming the Holy Spirit of God. This is Jesus’ way of telling them, and those who heard them, that in their hearts, they do not truly follow God. Their own words exposed them, which of course, only amplified their hatred of Jesus.

Vs 33, A Tree is Known By Its Fruits

Remember trees in Wizard of OZ (creepy), what if they were talking to you and said, “hey, i’m a cherry tree.” you look and say, “that’s in correct because you just pelted one of your apples at my face.” there is no amount of convincing me that you are a cherry tree because i can see your fruits.

Make

ποιέω - make, produce, manufacture, bring about

make it good or bad

Jesus has a distain for lukewarmness, Rev. 3:16.

the tree is known by its fruit.

language tells of your nation,

What kind of tree we are hangs off of us

mostly this is more obvious to everyone else

because we are the easiest person we can deceive

Jer. 17:9.

The pharisees did this very well

Vs 34-35, Our of The Abundance of The Heart, The Mouth Speaks

brood of vipers

how can you speak good?

they are evil.

stop pretending

out of the abundance of the heart

the easiest way to let people around you know who your lord is, is by the language you offer in conversation. As Warren Weiserbe says, “When Jesus is the Lord of the heart, He is the Lord of the lips too.” If someone is at work and they let everyone know that they are a christian, but through time they find out every other word from your mouth is a swear or a cuss, or you clearly have no morals, or even constant complaining, it becomes clear to all of them who you actually are and you harm your ability to convince them of Christ. you are Christian in name only or worse yet, they confirm to themselves that Jesus is not worthy of considering because, “this proves all Christians are hypocrites.”

Your heart is like a spring, constantly pushing up and producing water out of it. you cannot stop it. what dwells in your heart cannot be hidden for long. Your heart will be revealed to all because your words communicate who you are, whether hatred or love, slander or charity, compromise or truth. Its known to those who listen to you and more than that, before you speak a word, its known by God.

What shall we do?

when to speak.

Prov. 10:19, 13:3.

sometimes your wisdom will be shown in not saying anything. The fruit of an evil heart is speech, sometimes without ceasing. The nature of someone who loves slander, gossip, tearing people down not building them up is an unceasing tongue. Yet the nature of someone committed to wisdom, godliness, and building up basically says, “You know what? I just don’t need to say anything about this.” A godly heart can choose to not speak. An evil heart sometimes has no choice but to.

how to speak

Prov. 18:21.

“Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” There are many phrases we use as truisms and we kind of expect they are biblical, meanwhile, The Bible says the opposite. “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps, or God helps though who help themselves, or God will never give you more than you can handle.”

what we say matters.

Prov. 12:18.

Prov. 15:1.

Vs 36, Every Careless Word

this is a scary thought, because I've said some dumb things in my life before and after becoming a Christian.

ἀργός - Idle, without thought, careless, useless.

The whole world is in trouble

The Christian, however is not.

Vs 37, Shown To Be Righteous or Condemned

justified?

dikaioo

means different things in different contexts. James 2 is not Romans 4.

condemned

Quick question; Why does God care about our words?

in a way, it is part of the image of God