Be Careful Little Mouth What You Say
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I don’t know many of you know that old children’s song, O be careful little eyes what you see, and how one of those verses goes, o be careful little mouth what you say. The Lord has laid it on my heart to study and remind myself on how I should be speaking, and to share that with you this morning. Here are a couple instances in my life that I have been reminded of how powerful words are.
My Brother: I don’t know if I have shared with you all about my relationship with my brother growing up. Honestly not good. Since then there has been forgiveness and I’m very thankful now that we are great friends. We talk nearly every day. But growing up, I gave him so much grief, teasing and making fun of him. Calling him names putting him down. We did not get along at all. The words that I told him were so harmful and nasty, and I didn’t give it a second thought.
At the School: There are so many times at the school when I am working with a kid, maybe reading with them or teaching them letters. I’ve been working in the second grade, and the kindergarten this year. When I’m working with them and they do a good job, I look them square in the eye and say, you did a good job, keep it up. You can see their faces light up. At the same If a kid is doing something wrong and I have to speak to them sternly, “Hey, knock it off, your making a bad choice.” When I have to do this their heads often go down. They are ashamed, which is good, they did something wrong. But I share this with you to cement in our heads just how careful we must be with our words. We must be speaking accurate and true words in a loving manner.
And what a huge part of our lives our words are. 7,000 word per day on average. That’s words we speak. In person, on the phone, 7,000 words per day. What about the words we write, maybe on our phones. Well I saw one poll that said the average American sends and receives 94 text messages per day. That’s not counting email or other messaging apps. Words are a huge part of our lives.
A few other things to note as I was thinking through the first words in mankind's history. God spoke us into existence. He created us with language, able to communicate. He spoke to men through the years, prophets, and to His people. And He speaks to us today through His Word. He has laid out for us in His Word how He wants us, as believers, to speak.
Be careful little mouth what you say.
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!
The tongue, so small, but so powerful.
If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.
If we are believers who can’t control what we say, our religion worthless. It does no good to those around us. People will be hurt, no one will be able to trust us, and no one will hear of Christ if we can not control our words.
Proposition: Think about what you say.
Think about it, take your time when you speak, be aware of what you are saying and the impact it has on the people around you.
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;
Think about what you say.
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
Don’t shy away from what you know is right and true from God’s Word, but be sure to speak the truth in a loving way.
Think about what you say.
Question: How can we think about what we say?
You know how in the old cartoons a character would have a light-bulb turn on above their heads when they had an idea or realization. Well today we are going to look at.
Transitional Sentence: 6 light-bulb realizations we must have, or continue to have, as we think about what we say.
Light-bulb # 1: Realize Your Words Flow From The Heart.
Light-bulb # 1: Realize Your Words Flow From The Heart.
“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. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.
What is in the heart will eventually come out through your words. And you are known by what you say. Think about what you say, and realize that your words come from your heart. Make sure your words are coming from a heart transformed by Christ. And realize your transformed heart is meant to produce true, good words.
Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”
What you eat doesn't make you spiritually unclean, the pharisees thought that was the case. What is in your heart makes you unclean. And what is in the heart will eventually come out. Among those things that come out of an evil heart are false witness and slander. False witness being lying about others, slander being speaking evil of others.
The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
What you have poured into your heart, in what you watch, in what you read, in what you listen to, will eventually pour out of your mouth. What you value, what your treasure is, what you have purposely stored up in your heart, will eventually produce either good or evil.
So we must be aware of what we are treasuring. What are you putting into your heart? What are you watching, reading listening to? Is it going to end up producing good or evil.
Think about what you say. Realize your words flow from the heart and what goes into the heart will flow out.
Light-bulb #2: Realize Your Words Matter To God.
Light-bulb #2: Realize Your Words Matter To God.
I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Realize your words matter to God. We will give account for every careless word. We can’t really say, “O, it’s not a big deal.” We have got to think about what we say. Our Words matter to God.
The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.
Pride and arrogance and the way of evil
and perverted speech I hate.
God hates perverted speech. Deliberately going against what God says is how we should talk. He hates that. He can’t stand it.
The first light-bulb that must light up in our minds is the realization that our words come from our heart. The second is that we must realize that our words matter to God. He hates it when we choose to talk in an evil way and He will judge every careless word we say.
Light-bulb #3: Realize You Must Control Your Words.
Light-bulb #3: Realize You Must Control Your Words.
1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. 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 If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. 4 Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 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!
If we are able to control our tongue, to be self controlled in how we talk, we are well on our way to becoming self controlled in all other aspects of our lives. Of course, this passage points out that we all stumble, verse 1 and 2 remind us no one is immune to stumbling. No one is perfect in what they say, but nonetheless, we must have a goal of controlling our tongue. Thinking about what we say, our main theme of the day, has an end goal of controlling our words, and letting them be used for God’s glory. We can not be a mature man or woman of God, if we have not learned to be self-controlled in every area of our lives, and that includes the area of the tongue.
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. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.
These verses remind us of the challenge it is to control our tongue, its not easy. Our words can get us in trouble so easily.
I remember one time my senior year at Frontier when we had to go online to finish the year. Frontier had never done the online format before, it has always been in person and personal classes. Well I was dating a young lady at the time, and we were a long distance couple due to covid, and I saw she was online one day so I sent her a little message. I can’t remember what it said exactly, but it was definitely a little cheesy and enough to concern me when the website glitched and I thought that I had sent it to the vice-president of the school.
Our words can get us in trouble very easily. This situation was harmless enough right, but a snappy comment said in anger, man, that can cause tremendous harm. We find in James that our words should be a fresh spring of water. Refreshing to those around us. We are reminded of the power of our words and to control them for God’s glory.
Think about what you say. Realize your words flow from the heart and they matter to God. Realize you must control your words. Fourthly...
Light-bulb #4: Realize You Must Keep Your Word.
Light-bulb #4: Realize You Must Keep Your Word.
Tell the truth.
“Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.
What the Pharisees of the day would do is swear by heaven or earth or Jerusalem. And then if they could’t keep that promise, they would say it was OK because God wasn’t involved in their oath. This passage teaches us that in our lives their shouldn’t be levels of yes and no. I shouldn’t have to say I swear I will do this or that, as a further assurance to someone. If I say yes, people should know that I genuinely agree with what they are saying, or that I am committed to helping or working in the capacity that we have agreed on. I confess I haven’t always done this perfect, but this is the standard God has set.
But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.
We need to think about what we say. We need to think about what we say yes and no to. If we don’t it will come back to bite us when we double commit to something and we end up having to go back out on our word, or end up doing something that we said we would not do. And this is all part of the simple truth that we must tell the truth.
Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
Realize you must keep your word. Your words flow from the heart, they matter to God, we must control our words and part of that is in keeping our word and telling the truth. Think about what you say. Think about what you say.
Light-bulb #5: Realize You Must Build Up With Your Words.
Light-bulb #5: Realize You Must Build Up With Your Words.
Let no corrupting 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.
That, “corrupting talk,” is very close to what is also translated as rotten.
Imagine those leftovers that hid in the back of the fridge for too long and it is just nasty.
Let no rottenness come out of your mouth. Only the edifying stuff, the building up stuff, should be a part of our vocabulary. That doesn’t mean that the hearers of our words will always be happy with what we say. Sometimes exactly what we need to hear, is difficult to hear. Sometimes even when a word is spoken graciously to us, we don’t want to hear it.
15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
In Ephesians we see that speech within the body of Christ should be loving, edifying, and truthful. Our words should be helping us grow into being more Christ-like.
Think about what you say. Realize your words flow from your heart. They matter to God. You must control your words and keep your word. Realize you must build up with your words as that is an essential part of us growing together by the power of Christ.
Lets look at our 6th light-bulb moment we must have as we conclude today.
Light-bulb #6: Realize You Must Share Christ With Your Words.
Light-bulb #6: Realize You Must Share Christ With Your Words.
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
The only reason, as believers, we are in the grace of God today, is because someone was faithful to share about Christ with us, with their words. The only way souls will come to Christ is by them hearing the word of God. How do they hear it? By someone preaching, or proclaiming the gospel message of Jesus Christ. The same word here in Romans is used in Mark.
15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.
There’s no cop out for us in this command. Proclaim the gospel, unless your busy. Proclaim the gospel, unless its awkward. Proclaim the gospel, unless you don’t want to lose a friend. No, Proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.
Think about what you say.
How can you think about what you say? Well these 6 light-bulb moments we must have or continue to have start us on the journey of bridling the tongue. Realize your words come from the heart, hopefully a heart transformed by God. Realize God cares about what you say a whole lot, hates evil speech, and will judge what we say. Realize we must learn to control our words in our journey to being a mature believer. Realize we must keep our word, or have our testimony before fellow believers and outsiders harmed. Realize our words are meant to build up fellow believers in our journey of becoming more Christlike, and finally, realize you must share Christ with your words. Be careful little mouth what you say.
21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
and those who love it will eat its fruits.
That phrase is bigger than we ever thought it was as a child, but with God’s help we can harness the power of the tongue to live right, and to give life to those around us.