A Way to Speak

Introduction

Good morning church,

Continuing in our series looking at Proverbs

This week we are looking at A Way to Speak

Words have power

Why?

I wonder whether it is something woven into the fabric of creation …

Words are creative

If we think back to Genesis - God creates through words

Genesis 1:3 “And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.”

Genesis 1:6 “And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.””

God’s ‘word’ is a repeated theme … God creates through words …

Then, God ‘speaks’ to his people … sometimes audibly … if we think of Moses at the burning bush, there is a miraculous physical action … a bush is on fire but it is not burning up, and then God calls to him from within the bush.

Later, we see God speaking to the prophets … ‘the word of the Lord came to’ … sometimes this can be dreams or visions or pictures … but some of the most powerful moments involve speech from God … and what God says to the prophets, they pass on to the people

In Proverbs we also see that God creates through his wisdom …

Proverbs 3:19–20 “By wisdom the Lord laid the earth’s foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place; by his knowledge the watery depths were divided, and the clouds let drop the dew.”

So there is an overlap between God’s spoken word and wisdom

And then when we come to the New Testament, we see that in Jesus, God’s speech, God’s wisdom becomes physical …

John 1:14 “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

So, we see that God does a lot through speech and words … God’s speech, his wisdom, his word … is creative

When God speaks in Genesis things are created … when God speaks to people, it’s not just information, but something happens … whether that is God speaking in person, through angels, or through the prophets …

Isaiah 55:11 “so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

Words have power

Proverbs 18:21 “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”

And if we come back to our passages for today, in Proverbs 11 we see the same thing

Proverbs 11:11 “Through the blessing of the upright a city is exalted, but by the mouth of the wicked it is destroyed.”

Words have power - we influence with the words that we use - words bring change

Words can build up or destroy

You can build up or destroy … you can bring hope or you can bring despair … you can tell the truth or you can lie … you can be positive or you can be negative

You choose

Proverbs 11:11 “Through the blessing of the upright a city is exalted, but by the mouth of the wicked it is destroyed.”

In Proverbs 11:11 we see that through the power of words a city is built up or it is destroyed … now that could be one person’s words or it could be a group of people … it could start with one person … then it could spiral

And this is true today …

If you think back to July 2022, we saw in British politics the collapse of the Conservative government under Boris Johnson. Johnson had faced numerous different challenges over the past year … different scandals relating to personal behaviour and financial misconduct by members of his party … there was Partygate of course, the discovery that there was a drinks party at 10 Downing St during the height of the pandemic whilst the rest of the nation was in Lockdown, and then there was another scandal that emerged

And on 5th July there was the first in person National Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast for 3 years and Rev Les Isaac, founder of Street Pastors, spoke on ‘Serving the Common Good’. Later that day Health Secretary Sajid Javid and Chancellor Rishi Sunak resigned, which triggered the resignation of 36 other conservative MPs - it was the largest number of resignations in one 24hr period since 1932. Interestingly, the sermon had an impact on many parliamentarians, and Sajid Javid stated that it was during the sermon delivered by Revd Les Isaac that he made his decision to resign as Chancellor.

Proverbs 25:15 “Through patience a ruler can be persuaded, and a gentle tongue can break a bone.”

Now, I haven’t listened to Les Isaac’s sermon, but it would be interesting to do so and you can definitely find it online. And I don’t know what he said or how he came across, but I’m willing to bet that he spoke with conviction but also a degree of patience and gentleness. These are fruits of the Spirit … and it seems like the Holy Spirit was clearly at work during that breakfast … so I would be surprised if these fruits were not evidenced …

Patience and gentleness can have significant results - they are often not highly thought of … I spoke the other week about our fast paced and changing world, and in the midst of that patience doens’t seem to get a look in - it’s not really that efficient, gentleness also doesn’t seem to be thought of highly these days, it feels like if someone is spoken of as gentle, it’s almost like the meaning is that they are ‘too soft’ … but I don’t think that is the meaning of the word here … I get the sense that it is speaking with kindness not weakness

And this proverb is interesting because it means that it is not just the words themselves but the tone with which they are used has power

Through patience is a ruler persuaded, through gentleness a tongue can break a bone … the tone speaks volumes

I wonder if you’ve ever heard someone start a sentence … ‘I don’t mean to be rude but … and strangely what follows is something quite rude

You learn after a couple of occasions to brace for impact

Or there is the Christian version of this … if you’ve been in Christian circles long enough … you may have heard someone refer to Ephesians 4:15 about speaking the truth in love … but your experience may not be that they spoke in a very loving way

And I think the tone relates to the heart behind the words

I’m reminded of the phrase from Luke 6:45 ‘out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks’ … the mouth speaks out of the overflow of the heart

So it’s not just the words themselves but the way that they are spoken that has power

And so words and how they are spoken therefore clearly relate to character

Words relate to character and trust

Trust is so important - can we trust someone or not. This relates to how deep a relationship we can have with someone. If you can’t trust someone, you won’t tell them lots about yourself because you don’t know what they are going to do with that information - you will only go surface level. But if you can trust someone, you feel confident to tell them things about yourself that are important to you.

Proverbs 11:13 “A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy person keeps a secret.”

[11:13] A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy person keeps a secret.

People don’t trust a gossip … once someone is known for gossipping … people are less likely to share personal things with them that they don’t want shared far and wide

It comes back to character

Being trustworthy is a very valuable characteristic

Do you trust someone's character - trust them to do what you ask

In the workplace, some people have executive assistants - not just personal assistants but executive assistants - people who can represent them in different situations

Those people need to be trustworthy - the assistant needs to be trusted to say things on behalf of their manager - that they will say things in line with the values of their manager

Proverbs 25:13 “Like a snow-cooled drink at harvest time is a trustworthy messenger to the one who sends him; he refreshes the spirit of his master.”

And part of being trustworthy is telling the truth - if someone repeatedly lies then they can’t be trusted

Proverbs 25:14 “Like clouds and wind without rain is one who boasts of gifts never given.”

Clouds and wind appearing bring the promise of rain … rain for an agricultural community is very important … and so a boastful person is like clouds and wind that promise rain but do not deliver … they make the promise of something that never materialises

They get hopes up but those hopes are dashed - people find there is no substance behind their words

And then also trust is built on how you behave towards others … do you treat them well or not … do you speak well of someone or not (and this links back as well to Proverbs 11:11)

Proverbs 11:12 “Whoever derides their neighbor has no sense, but the one who has understanding holds their tongue.”

Deriding a neighbour tears people down, it doesn’t build up - it isn’t wise - the understanding should not speak in this way

And we know this to be true … if someone tears people down you begin not to trust them … you don’t confide in someone who you don’t think values you.

So words relate directly to character and trust

The Value of Good Words

Proverbs 25:11 “Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a ruling rightly given.”

I’ve already mentioned the impact of words on rulers - but this is the flip side of the previous example … when a ruling is righly given it is valuable

You often see on the news when a court case has been going on for many months … and eventually when all the evidence is heard, when witnesses have spoken, the jury have weighed up their evidence and a decision is made that reflects a just result (it doesn’t always happen this way I know, but when it does) … the people come out of the courthouse and make statements to the press … and there is a sense of justice and peace … there is a sense that people have been heard, those in the wrong have been brought to account, and there is a value in the ruling

It’s the same when rulings change that create a fairer society - we feel a sense of satisfaction, even if we are not directly impacted - justice is valuable

What is even better is when those brought to account admit to their error and promise to change for the benefit of all

Proverbs 25:12 “Like an earring of gold or an ornament of fine gold is the rebuke of a wise judge to a listening ear.”

Let’s be honest, none of us really like to receive correction … we like to think we are doing the right thing all the time … but we also know that we get things wrong too … so the two things don’t tally

But when people take correction well - not when someone is being put down and made to feel small, but when they are guided back onto a right path for the benefit of all - there is something valuable in the outcome

Maybe a good analogy is if you have ever learnt how to drive … your instructor is always correcting what you do … especially at the beginning … and when you pass your test that doesn’t mean that you’re a perfect driver but that you’re good enough to go solo … and then in my experience, it’s once you have passed your test that you really start to learn

How do we speak?

So, how do we speak?

We’ve talked about how words are creative … they have an impact, they shape our surroundings and the situations that we find ourselves in

Words therefore have power … they can build up or tear down … and it’s not just the words themselves but the tone with which they are spoken … What is the heart behind our words?

We can easily forget encouragements … but we remember criticisms for ages

Words can hurt … they can cause deep wounds

If we have hurt people with our words, or if we have a pattern of doing that … let’s turn away from that … let’s start a new way of speaking that builds people up

Are we trustworthy with our words … do we keep a confidence or do we gossip? … do we boast or are we humble?

Our character and trustworthiness are important

And do we receive correction? … Do we listen to what we hear and put it into practice?

Two little asides … Firstly, always in communties there are those who speak more and those who speak less … that’s part of our personalities … but it might be worth just checking ourselves … if we speak lots, do we need to listen more? … and if we speak little, do we know that there is value in what we have to say?

Secondly, we can just look at Proverbs as individual wisdom … what this means to me … but it written to a community, the people of God … so this is collective wisdom for us as a church too ...

So, how are we speaking as a community ... How are we being perceived by others?

I mentioned how managers have executive assistants who speak on their behalf … in political spheres we might think of an ambassador - someone who represents the interests of a country in another nation

Ambassadors are often linked to embassies - and these are actually foreign soil … when you step into the UK embassy in Spain for example you are on UK soil.

I think the church (both the community and the building) should be like God’s embassy … that when people come in they experience being on Kingdom soil … and that the language reflects that