The Wise Mouth

INTRO: If we are honest many of us speak before we think. We speak more than we listen. We think about other things while other people are speaking. Even if we have nothing to say, some of us speak for fear of the uncomfortableness of silence. Some of us say what others want to hear, some of us speak things no one wants to hear. But what if our mouth was a tool in the creator’s control that could speak only right things? What if all our words were not spoken just to be spoken or to spread rumors or unneeded information? What if our words were divinely wise? What if our words always healed and what if they were always truthful?

The next 4 weeks we will explore what it can look like when God’s people have a wise mouth!

The Good Life is often determined by one of the smallest organs in our body, the tongue. James 3 says it can cause the greatest damage and we often bless and curse out of the same hole somehow thinking thats natural and it’s not and it shouldn’t be so.

Speak For Change!

Hate Perverted Speech.

ILLUST: Proverbs 8:8 "All the utterances of my mouth are in righteousness; There is nothing crooked or perverted in them.”

This is WISDOM’S mouth and wisdom hates a perverted mouth.

ILLUST: Proverbs 8:13 “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverted mouth, I hate.”

NOTE: A perverted mouth says “have another piece of pie it won’t kill you. A perverted mouth curses others instead of blessing them. Bottom line a Perverted mouth twists God’s truth to proclaim I can live how I choose. And that never produces change for the Good Life.

2. Speak to Benefit others and Yourself.

ILLUST: Proverbs 10:20-21 “The tongue of the righteous is as choice silver, the heart of the wicked is worth little. The lips of the righteous feed many But fools die for lack of understanding.”

NOTE: Right words give clarity to situations, they develop trust with those who hear them, they actually bless and nourish the life of others and they are satisfying to the one who speaks them.

Someone says “I don’t want to live anymore . . .”

4. Proverbs 16:13 “Righteous lips are the delight of kings, and he who speaks right is loved.”

ILLUST: Employers no matter how crooked and evil they may be really appreciate employees who have righteous lips because they know they won’t do them wrong. Joseph and Daniel are great examples of this principle.

Look at some benefits of choosing right words instead of perverted words.

ILLUST: Proverbs 16:28 “A perverse man spreads strife and a slanderer separates intimate friends.”

If we create more ways of looking at a person or situation to bring people together instead of separating them it blesses others relationships.

ILLUST: Proverbs 19:1 “Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity than he who is perverse in speech and is a fool.”

NOTE: There is even a greater benefit in speaking right than having money or posessions.

Proverbs 23:16 “And my inmost being will rejoice when your lips speak what is right.”

Proverbs 18:20 “With the fruit of a man’s mouth his stomach will be satisfied; he will be satisfied with the product of his lips.”

NOTE: Even when you have to speak truth to a friend this principle holds true Proverbs 28:23 “He who rebukes a man will afterward find more favor than he who flatters with the tongue.”

NOTE: Speaking right, speaking truth in a way that desires the best for others will always benefit them and ourselves.

3. Speak for those who can’t.

ILLUST: Proverbs 31:8-9 “Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all the unfortunate. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and defend the rights of the afflicted and needy.”

We can’t just open our mouths to defend a scenario we like or are convinced of by the media etc. This is thoughtful, discernment to defend and speak for others who can not.

CLOSE: Learning to hate a perverted mouth, Learning to speak right in every situation, and speaking for those who can’t changes us and the lives around us for the better. We experience the really GOOD LIFE when others experience a wise mouth that speaks for change. Anyone can learn to Speak For Change by drawing near to Christ, Spending time in His presence, learning from Him and speaking the way He would.