Our Words During Times of Hurt
Notes
Transcript
In my personal devotion, I have spent a lot of time in Job. I am also reading through the Psalms. What you consistently see in both of these sections of the Old Testament is hurt. Job hurts because of loss of property, family, health, and the words of his friends. He also feels abandoned by God. In the Psalms, you see many of the hurt because of friends, family, enemies, death, and sin. There is also the hurt from loss of freedom and rights when the children were in captivity.
If we stop and compare those lists, the sound a lot like what we are going through now. That is what I am so often amazed at about the word of God, how a situation from thousands of years ago can apply so perfectly to what I am presently going through.
Words are very important. As we recently discussed in a message, we long for words of truth. With all that is going on, we simply want people to tell us the truth. We do not want political spin. We do not want lies. We do not want agendas. We do not want opinions. We want truth.
Today, I want to look at the importance of not only truthful words, but kind and compassionate words. Turn in your Bibles to Job 16. We are going to read verses 1-5.
Then Job answered and said,
I have heard many such things:
Miserable comforters are ye all.
Shall vain words have an end?
Or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest?
I also could speak as ye do:
If your soul were in my soul’s stead,
I could heap up words against you,
And shake mine head at you.
But I would strengthen you with my mouth,
And the moving of my lips should asswage your grief.
I had the privilege of speaking to a local pastor last week. I enquired about how things were going for them and asked about some specific members. During the brief conversation, he shared with me some of the burdens he has. People have been making hateful comments and accusation about him and the church. As is always the case, out and out lies have been told in an effort to sensationalize the truth. Whats worse, he told me that much of this is coming from Christians.
I do not need to share specifics for you to understand. I am not going to stand here in the pulpit and try to come to his defense. God will fight that battle. What I do what to look at this morning is the topic of “words”.
What I am doing this morning is issuing a warning. This is not a reprimand or a correction. I have not heard of anyone from our church doing such things. However, we are capable. Why do I say this? Because we are human. Paul said “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man…”(I Corinthians 10:13). All temptations are common to humanity. This does not mean that each of us are tempted by the exact same things, but the things that temp you also temp millions of others, and have for all of time. Let today’s message warn you about falling into these temptations.
I would like for us to consider Job’s statements for a few moments this morning.
A. "I have heard many such things”
In verse two, Job tells his friends that he has heard many of the same things that they have heard.
If this was true for Job, how much more true is it for us today? We live in the information age. We literally have the world at our fingertips. What used to take buildings and buildings off books to contain, is now in our palms.
You can earn a doctorates worth of information and never leave your recliner. And most of that information is free.
Not only to we have access to knowledge, but we also have access to current events, interpersonal communications, and gossip. If you have a news app on your phone, you may have noticed that you will receive a headline before the story has had time to be written. That is how quickly we can receive information.
It is not uncommon to try and share information today and have someone tell you, “I’ve already heard about that.”
B. “Shall vain words have an end?”
In verse 3, Job asks his friends this question. In the Hebrew, the word vain is literally wind. Wind has no sustenance. It is the movement of heat. So, for the Hebrews, this idea of wind words was a way of saying vain or empty words. Like wind, their words had no sustenance.
Is that not also very true for today? So much of what we hear is pointless or profitless. There is so much misinformation, lying, and “Fake News” everywhere we turn.
Job is not only talking about meaningless comments, but also hateful comments. His friends were attacking him with lies. They honestly believed what they were saying was true, but belief does not make facts. Some people used to believe that the earth was the center of the universe. They even imprisoned people who taught otherwise. Now we know that the Sun is the center of the universe. Their belief did not make fact. Their hatefulness did not make facts.
Job wanted to know if these baseless accusation would ever end. In essence, he was telling his friends that they needed to hush. The dirt they were using to build the mountain of evidence against Job was taken from under their own feet. So, while they were mounding up the evidence, they were digging themselves into a hole.
C. “Miserable comforters are ye all…what emboldenth thee that thou answerest?”
In a very wordy way, Job is basically telling his friends “guys just shut up. Why do you feel the need to keep talking?”
In a time when there was much suffering and hurt in Job’s life, his friends were only making things worse. The words they were speaking were of no benefit.
What about our words today? Do we use our words to help and heal or do they tear down and hurt? It is so easy to tear down and hurt. This comes naturally to most of us. It takes intentionality and great effort to help and heal with our words.
While we all have opinions about things, we should take time to ask ourselves, “Why do we feel the need to speak?”, or to apply Job’s words to ourselves, “What emboldendeth [us] that [we] answerest?”
D. “I also could speak as ye do...I could heap up words against you…But I would strength you with my mouth”
I wrote in one of my devotions this week about “could” and “would”. Job said that it is possible for me to do like you are, but I would do the opposite. That is really the point of all of this, we are called to do the opposite of what comes naturally.
We could speak words that tear down.
We could speak words that hurt.
We could speak word that destroy people’s spirits.
We could make baseless accusation.
We could vilify churches because of our fear.
We could spread fear to others.
We could do say a lot of hurtful things.
The question is, will we?
Job said “I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should asswage your grief.”
Job says that his words would build up.
His words would heal.
His words would bring life.
His words would be true.
His words would edify the church and Jesus.
His words would calm and bring peace.
On this subject, the Apostle Paul wrote:
Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
Paul tells us that we are not to let corrupt messages come from our mouths. The word corrupt means rotten or worthless. We are to let no rotten or worthless messages come from our mouths. Why? Because they edify or share grace to the hearers.
Paul also says that our words can grieve the Holy Spirit of God with our words.
He continues to say that we are put away all “bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, and all malice.”
We are to do the opposite of these things which is “be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another.”
The reason we are to behave like this is because “God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven [us].
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
Our spiritual gifts are for this very purpose. No matter what God has called us to, it is to build up the saints, not tear them down.
Our calling is for:
1. Perfecting - making more like Christ
2. Working - Great Commission (Teach, Baptize, Teach)
3. Edifying - Building up or growing and strengthening in Christ
The only demolition that Christians are called to is the demolition of the stronghold of sin in our lives
(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
Conclusion:
Going back to my conversation with the pastor last week, I would issue this warning. Be careful what you say against God called ministers and churches. The Psalmist said:
Saying, Touch not mine anointed,
And do my prophets no harm.
While many do not understand, pastoring is not a personal choice but a calling from God. Most men I know would never have chose to be a pastor on their own. They answered the call of God, many times against their own will.
Also, the church is the bride of Christ. While you may not agree with every decision that is made, to speak against the church is to speak against Christ. Vain words will get us in trouble with him.
Do not fall into the temptation of speaking against the Lord’s people, the Lord’s messengers, or the Lord’s church. Be aware that all who do will answer to the Lord himself for such. You may not agree with every decision that is made, but be careful that what you say is acceptable to him.