Pursue Unity with Your Tongue
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· 49 viewsOur Tongues can be the cause of great trouble or great blessing. As Christians we have the ability to purpose our tongues to the cause of Maintaing the Unity of the Spirit.
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Our Text is about Pursuing Unity and Love in the Local Church
6 Things
Lying
Uncontrolled anger
Stealing
Corrupting Speech
Bitterness to love
Unrestrained sexual behavior
All of this is the practical ways we pursue unity and love in the local Church. you
God has given you New Desires at the New Birth. Love for God, love for his Word, and love for the Church. If you are a Christian, you already desire these things. Paul is directing us in how to express the rightly.
This is the New Man Paul refers to, the new you God made at conversion and the Local Church is the realm where we live this out.
Illustration:
Mechanics express their giftings and talents in the garage.
Moms express their gifting and talents in their home.
Carpenters express their giftings at the work bench.
Christians express their New Nature in the Local Church!
In Church Membership we make public, what is true of us inwardly.
What is the most important gifting a Christian has to build up the Church?
Christ’s commands have very extensive claims. When you surrender to him as Lord, you find that even your mouth is to be brought in subjection to his will.
His/her tongue!
Christ desires to change the way you speak.
Every Christian is gifted with tools for the project of building Christ’s Church. Every one has resources that are vital in loving and showing love in the Local Church. Our chief tool for building up the Church is our tongue.
It’s also a chief culprit in destroying the Church.
Guard Our Mouths
Guard Our Mouths
2 For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.
3 Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips!
Definition of Corrupting
Definition of Corrupting
Rotten or spoiled. Can refer to fish or fruit. A bad apple in the middle of a bowl soon corrupts the whole bole of apples.
17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.
Explanation of Corrupting Speech
The Content
It can be untrue or deceitful.
Worthless content.
Vs. 5:4
Quality
It can be true but defiling.
Gossip or slander potentially true, but destructive.
It Spreads
5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
James 3:
The Old Man and his Tongue
The Old Man and his Tongue
It Reveals what’s in the Heart!
13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” 14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
33 “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. 36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak,
James says the tongue is untameable!
The tongue is not the problem, the heart is the problem. Get the heart right and the tongue will follow.
The Old Man is Dead
When our hearts are turned to the Lord, we have new abilities, even to have new speech.
I am a man of unclean lips!
Purified his tongue with the coal from the fire!
Get the heart under the influence of God’s Word and the tongue begins to change.
Do you have a wild tongue? First ask, is the Old You Dead?
Speaking Good Things
Speaking Good Things
We are new creations, we have new desires. To love God and love his people, now put that on.
We should purpose your lips to speak good things. Good fruit.
The Unity of the Spirit is maintained and increased through our speech.
3 Qualifiers
For Building Up People (The Church)
For Building Up People (The Church)
15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
This is his New Nature (Love for the Church)
This is his New Nature (Love for the Church)
The Unity of the Spirit is maintained and increased through our speech.
Instead of needless tearing down. Slander, gossip, build up. Due praise, encouragement,
We Always Need Builders In The Church
Satan is always trying to tear down God’s Church.
Build through
Encouraging
Sharing Scripture
Fitting to the occasion
Fitting to the occasion
Not speaking too much. A right word. Some words are true but not fitting.
11 A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.
11 A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver. 12 Like a gold ring or an ornament of gold is a wise reprover to a listening ear.
23 To make an apt answer is a joy to a man, and a word in season, how good it is!
Prove. 15
Unnecessarily discouraged, harmed, or disappointed someone with our words.
Imparts Grace
Imparts Grace
We are people who have received much grace, we should be willing to give it. Give grace to people. “Telling it like it is” or ‘always speaking your mind” is not high enough for a Christian.
Not always pointing out faults.
Not quick to point our faults.
Assume the best possible of people’s motives and speak like it.
It lifts the soul in truth and encourages.
4 The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.
22 And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”
and Jesus in
28 When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. 29 And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. 30 But passing through their midst, he went away.
Gracious doesn’t always mean pleasing.
Gracious doesn’t always mean pleasing.
The Reason To Do Both
The Reason To Do Both
Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit.
He’s a person that can be grieved.
We should desire not to do anything to grieve him since he’s done so much for our Good!
Ephesians: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary From Unwholesome Words to Wholesome Words
Helper, Comforter, Teacher, Advocate, Divine Resident of our hearts, and guarantor of our eternal redemption?