Curing the Tongue - Pastor Kenneth Woolf

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New Life COTR Sunday June 10, 2007
THE POWER OF YOUR WORDS
“Curing the Tongue”

INTRODUCTION: We’ve been in this series on the power of your words. A core truth in the Bible that we all need to remember is that OUR WORDS HAVE POWER.
We are created in the image of God and God used words to create the universe.
When God wanted to bridge the gap between Himself and mankind the Bible says, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
Psalm 107:20-(NIV)- “He sent forth His word and healed them; he rescued them from the grave.”
YOUR WORDS ARE POWERFUL, THERE IS POWER IN YOUR WORDS
My words, your words, pave the road that we’re going to drive on tomorrow.
TRANSITION: Just how powerful are your words? These next few verses give us an idea of how important our words are.
Proverbs 13:3- “He who guards his lips guards his life, but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin.”
Proverbs 21:23- “He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity.”
Can you see how your words affect your life?
1Peter 3:10- “For, Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech.”

MY WORDS AFFECT THE QUALITY OF MY LIFE!
MY WORDS REVEAL WHO I REALLY AM!
James 1:26- “If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.”
Matthew 12:33-35- “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.
YOUR WORDS ARE POWERFUL; THERE IS POWER IN YOUR WORDS.
TRANSITION: Do my words matter to God?

Matthew 12:36, 37- “But I tell you that men will have to give account on the Day of Judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Numbers 14:26-35- Turn and Read
Your words are paving the road you’re going to drive on tomorrow!!!Your words are powerful and they matter to God!!
TRANSITION: Can you see the value of your words and how they affect your life?

The Bible calls Jesus the Great Physician. I think it’s good for us to allow Jesus to examine our tongue and the words coming from our mouth.
So let’s go in for a check-up this morning. If I’m sick with something that’s going to affect my life in a negative way I want to know about it.
Before you can write a prescription you’ve got to be accurately diagnosed.

SYMPTONS OF A SICK TONGUE
The purpose for diagnosing an illness is so you can be healed! So the first symptom of a sick tongue.
I. TELLING THE UNTRUTH
Lying is probably the most common sickness of the tongue but that doesn’t mean God approves of it.
Proverbs 6:16-19 tells us seven things that God hates. One of those seven is a “lying tongue.”
Why does God hate lying? Because lying is the opposite of His nature. GOD IS TRUTH. He doesn’t just have truth, He is truth.
On the other end of the spectrum the Bible describes Satan as the “Father of Lies.” (John 8:44)
Thus, when we lie we leave the throne of God and go to the throne of Satan. No wonder God hates lying.
TELLING THE UNTRUTH IS A SYMPTON OF A SICK TONGUE!

II. STIRRING UP DIVISION
Proverbs 6:16-19 also tells us that God’s hates it when we sow discord.
Proverbs 6:12-15- “A worthless person, a wicked man, walks with a perverse mouth; he winks with his eyes, he shuffles his feet, he points with his fingers; perversity is in his heart, he devises evil continually, he sows discord. Therefore his calamity shall come suddenly; suddenly he shall be broken without remedy.”
What a serious thing it is to stir up strife, especially among Christian brothers and sisters.
That’s why it grieves me when I see people stirring up strife in the church. I fear for that person’s well-being because the Bible says calamity will come on him suddenly.
I hate to be the one to tell you this, but if you are a person who goes around sowing discord, calamity is on its way to your house.
Titus 3:9-11- “But avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and useless. Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition, knowing that such a person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned.”
Satan has convinced some people that they are guardians of the truth. So they run from person to person, relating what the other person said.
“I thought you should know” is the common rationalization. In all actuality that person is being used by Satan to sow discord in the church or the family or on the job.
A great Baptist preacher, A.B Simpson once said, “I would rather play with forked lightning, or take in my hand living wires with their fiery current, than speak a reckless word against any servant of Christ, or idly repeat the slanderous darts which thousands of Christians are hurling on others, to the hurt of their own souls and bodies.”
Be a peacemaker rather than a troublemaker. God is a reconciler. God sent His Son into the world for one reason-to reconcile mankind to Himself.
That’s why He hates discord so much. He paid a terrible price to bring people together and He doesn’t look kindly on any activity that drives them apart.
Stirring up division is a symptom of a sick tongue. JESUS CAN HEAL YOUR TONGUE!

III. DISHING THE DIRT
Morgan Blake, a sportswriter for the Atlanta Journal wrote the following words in the newspaper around the time of the First World War
“I am more deadly than the screaming shell from the howitzer. I win without killing; I tear down homes, break hearts, and wreck lives. I travel on the wings of the wind. No innocence is strong enough to intimidate me, no purity pure enough to daunt me. I have no regard for truth, no respect for justice, no mercy for the defenseless. My victims are as numerous as the sands of the sea, and often as innocent. I never forget and seldom forgive. My name is gossip.
A gossip a person who habitually spreads intimate or private rumors or facts.
Some people claim it’s not gossip if it’s the truth. They are deceiving themselves. True or not, it’s gossip if it’s private or intimate in nature.
From God’s viewpoint, if you’re not part of the problem or part of the solution, there is no reason for you to be talking about the matter.
Proverbs 20:19- “A gossip betrays a confidence; so avoid a man who talks too much.”
Proverbs 16:28(NLT) - “A troublemaker plants seeds of strife; gossip separates the best of friends.”
Gossip is not a new problem in the church.
2Corinthains 12:20-(NLT) “For I am afraid that when I come to visit you I won’t like what I find, and then you won’t like my response. I am afraid that I will find quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfishness, backstabbing, gossip, conceit, and disorderly behavior.”
If you’re talking to other people about it more than you’re talking to God, it’s probably gossip. LET’S BREAK THE HABIT OF GOSSIP!

CONCLUSION: Telling the untruth, stirring up division, dishing the dirt. These are symptoms of a sick tongue.
But the Bible tells us that Jesus is the GREAT PHYSICIAN. Let’s turn to Him today.
1John 1:9- “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
YOUR WORDS ARE POWERFUL, THERE IS POWER IN YOUR WORDS
Proverbs 15:4- “The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life….”