Unwholesome

Intro:

I have two apples. On the outside they both look edible and delicious. But what if I were to tell you that if you bit into one of these apples, you would be doing anything you could do to spit it out. That Apple is what? Rotten. It is disgusting. Every single person in here would want nothing to do with it. No one would eat that. Can I be honest with you guys? The way that a majority of you talk with each other would be defined in the same way as that apple: Rotten.

As we start this new series (XWholesome), we are going to have our theme/key verse:

English Standard Version (Chapter 4)

Let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear

Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words Bad

sapros (σαπρός, 4550), “corrupt, rotten”

God’s word says that when we talk with we have the possibility of our language to be as disgusting as rotten fruit. Words that hurt, poison, and make everyone disgusted.

We are going through this whole series, so that you guys will be able to identify unwholesome talk, so that you can then produce wholesome talk.

- Wholesome: good for one's health or well-being

- As Christians, God’s desire is for us to talk in a way that is for what: Building others up.

Use Lego table as example of someone being built up all the way through 5th grade and then they enter 6th grade and it all changes. Being popular becomes important. Being seen by your friends matters way more. and all this building up that you have had over the past 6 years will get put to the test.

Why do your glasses look weird

You never have your homework done

You smell weird

Your annoying

No body wants you at this school

As followers of Christ, we need to understand God does not just care about how your relationship with Him is. He cares how you treat others more than you could know.

His second Greatest Commandment:

English Standard Version (Chapter 22)

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

English Standard Version (Chapter 15)

18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person

Know: That God’s people are not bullies

Feel: That God hates when we put others down

Do: Choose to treat people the way God calls us too

1. Bullying

Sometimes what comes to our mind when we think about bullying is throwing people into lockers. At the core, of bullying is a simple definition. Pushing someone down so that you can stay up. Often bullying is beating a kid up after school. Bullying is pointing out something that you know will hurt to someone in the friend group to get a laugh from everyone. Bullying is not allowing someone to be apart of the group because there is “not enough room” at the table. Bullying is seeing a friend or classmate mess up and never letting them forget about it.

You see most of us aren’t trying to hurt someone when we say or do these unwholesome acts, we just say and do them so we feel better about ourselves. That we don’t look like that, or act like that, or are into whatever it is.

Its just like when someone who can’t swim gets thrown into the deep end of the pool. Someone that is already in the deep is trying to help them out, but in doing so the drowning individual begins to push the other down under water so that they can stay afloat.

Shadow youth, in Middle School you guys bully one another. This is where most people learn how to bully. Some just call it teasing, and that it is bot a big deal. You see God HATES BULLYING. He hates it so much that the second greatest law he ever gave was:

2. Gossip

3. Disobedience