Speaking A Kind Word for A Change

Proverbs chapter 12, verse 25. We're going to

Proverbs 12:25

look at a few different Proverbs. If you're not

able to catch them as I go through them, just

let me know afterwards and I'll be glad to tell

you where they are. Proverbs chapter 12, verse

Proverbs 12:25

25 is where we will begin. Probably going to

be a pretty short sermon today. Amen. If there's

any aspiring preachers in the audience or online

listening, I'll give you a word of wisdom. People

may complain about a long sermon, and they may

complain about a bad sermon, but very seldom

will anybody complain about a short sermon, even

if it's bad. So just keep that in mind if you're

an aspiring preacher. Proverbs chapter 12, verse

Proverbs 12:25

25, let's pray, and we'll get started. God, we

thank you for being good to us. I thank you for

all these folks that's able to come today. I

thank you for loving us. I thank you for your

grace and your mercy. I thank you for giving

us air conditioning and just all the good things

you bless us with. And I pray, dear Lord, that

in these few minutes that we would hear from

you, that your Holy Spirit would speak to us.

Where our heart is, you know what our distractions

are that we come in here with. You know what

happened in our life last week and what's going

on next week. But, dear Lord, we don't want to

think about those things today. I pray that you

just help us to focus on you. Let your Holy Spirit

speak through me, dear Lord. Take away any pride

or fear that's within me that I would just be

faithful to preach your word in a way that brings

glory to you. And I ask these things in Jesus'

name. Amen. I have said probably no less than

100 times over the last 12 years. Proverbs are

good. You should read the Proverbs. If you have

not ever read the Proverbs, there's 31 of them.

So a lot of months you can start in the first

one, the first day of the month, and finish up

by the end of the month. But there is such good

wisdom and encouragement and instruction to help

us not to be foolish. There's all kind of good.

in the book of Proverbs. And I find myself reading

the book of Proverbs a lot, and I like to preach

a proverb here and there. And so that's what

we're going to do today. Proverbs chapter 12,

Proverbs 12:25

verse 25. Anxiety weighs down the heart. Now,

before we read the second half of the proverb,

let's stop right there. Anxiety weighs down the

heart. Would anybody in here agree with that

statement? I think every single one of us would

agree with that statement. Anxiety is one of

the worst things that there is. And some of us

struggle with it more than others. But I think

everybody has times in their life where they're

anxious about something. They have anxiety. They

have worry about something that's going on in

their life. We all have it. There's bills that

are due. There's health problems that are coming

up. There's busy schedule. There's school that's

starting back. There's things that we've done

and all kind of things in our life that just

bring about a great amount of anxiety. And that

will weigh you down. It'll bum you out. It'll

make you feel bad physically. It'll consume your

mind. That's one of the hardest things to escape.

Like a lot of temptations and trials that we

go through, maybe we can just avoid them in some

way. But we can't just step away from anxiety.

Because when anxiety is upon us, we wake up anxious.

And we go through the day anxious. And we think

about whatever is causing our anxiety. It's just

there. And we may pray a lot. Three, four, five,

a hundred times a day. And that anxiety, it just

continues to bear down on us. So when we read

the scripture that anxiety weighs a heart down,

everybody in here could say amen to that. We

understand that. Now, if you struggle with anxiety,

Philippians chapter 4, verses 4 through 6, you

Philippians 4:4–6

need to put you a bookmark in there because that

is a beautiful passage. Be anxious for nothing,

but in everything, through prayer and supplication,

let your request be made known to God. And the

peace of God which transcends understanding will

guard your heart, guard your thoughts. That's

a loose translation of it, but mark that down.

Look that up. That is a verse that a lot of us

probably need to spend some time on and live

on because that anxiety is ever before us in

our busy world. And so the proverb acknowledges

the problem. Anxiety weighs down the heart. But

listen to what it says. A solution to the problem

is. But a kind word cheers it up. Now I suspect

that some of you can understand that. Have any

of you ever been in a point in life where you

were kind of down and you were depressed? Just

nothing seemed like it was going good and you

felt like a failure. Maybe some of you have been

there before and you felt that way. But it's

a beautiful thing when somebody comes up to you

and shares a kind word to you and shares a word

of encouragement with you. I know this because

this has happened to me just recently. I was

kind of bummed out about some stuff and, oh,

woe is me, you know. And maybe you've been like

that way, or maybe you hadn't. Maybe it's just

me. But just last week, somebody gave me an encouraging

word, just kind of out of the blue, and it changed

my whole attitude. It changed my whole mindset

instantly. Just because somebody took the time

to say a kind word. And how many people's lives

could we impact in our world today with a kind

word? Now you know what it's like to be anxious

and don't feel good. And it's not just you. Sometimes

I think we look at our lives and our own troubles

and we feel like, man, I'm going through this

struggle and nobody else knows what it feels

like or I'm afraid to tell anybody else because

everybody else has got it together. But I've

got news for you. None of us have it together.

The things that you struggle with and the things

that you go through are the same things that

everybody in here goes through. So when you struggle

over loss and you struggle over sickness and

you struggle over hardships and you struggle

over relationships and you struggle over people

doing wrong to you and you struggle over whatever

it is you struggle over, there are people in

here that are struggling over it too. And they

have in the past and they will in the future.

And some of you really know what it's like to

go through those struggles. Some of you really

know what it's like. When somebody comes to you

and offers you an encouraging word and a kind

word. And the question is, are we doing that?

Are we doing that in our life? Some of you have

walked through hard paths in life and you see

and you know that there are other people that

are walking through that path that you've walked

through. And you know how hard it is. Maybe you

could offer them a kind word today. encouraging

word today. What kind of word do you bring to

people when you see people? Are you just complaining

all the time? Are you just rude to people all

the time? Are you short with people all the time?

I mean, the way we treat people really has an

effect on people. It can change their day for

the good or for the bad. When you're standing

in line at the Dollar General and you say, why

is this taking so long? You can tell the girl

at the register, why is this taking so long?

That could make her day a lot worse. Or you could

say, golly, I see you're working really hard

today. Thank you for checking us out so we can

get the stuff we need. Like the words we say,

like how do we handle situations that we encounter,

even bad situations? How do we treat people that

we see every day? Do we treat them with love

and with kindness and with gentleness? Or are

we harsh with them? Like this is something we

can think about. Like this is something that's

easy for us to put into practice instantly. Like

you can start working on this as soon as you

leave today. You can think about this and pray

about this and say, okay God, do the words that

come out of my mouth, are they building people

up or are they tearing people down? Because I

got news for you. When you are anxious and depressed

and afraid and feel like a failure and somebody

comes at you with a negative word, that does

not help your situation. That does not give you

any hope. That does not make you want to try

harder and do good and make it through another

day. It makes you want to give up. And you have

the power. You have the power to tear somebody

down or you have the power to tear somebody up.

And it comes a lot of times through the words

that we speak. I wish that I could say that I

always spoke a kind and gentle word, but that's

not true. But I know the power of a kind word.

And this proverb reminds us that, hey, anxiety's

pretty rough, but a kind word will... Make a

big difference in somebody's life. Proverbs chapter

Proverbs 16:24

16, verse 24. If you want to flip over a couple

of pages, it says the same type of thing. It

said, Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to

the taste and health to the body. Same message.

Pleasant words. They're good for us. They are

sweet to us. If you've ever eaten honey before,

it's good, it's sweet. It's something that we

probably like and we probably look forward to.

I remember when I was a kid, we'd go to the state

fair every year, and you'd go inside one of the

buildings, and there was always a booth there,

and they always had Mississippi honey. And they

had these little plastic straws that were full

of honey, and you could get one of those and

hand them out. And I couldn't wait every year

to go through there and cut the top off of that

thing and just suck that honey down because it

was sweet and it was good. And it was refreshing.

And that's the illustration that the proverb

uses. Not going to the fair. But the honeycomb,

the honey is sweet. It's good for us. It's something

that lifts us up. Are your words pleasant? Are

they kind? This is an easy test for us to take.

We don't have to be super smart. We can just

pause for a moment this afternoon. And you can

think back over the last week, the last month,

the last year of your life. And think, okay.

What are the words that I've said to people?

Have I said them out of love? Have I been kind?

Have I been pleasant to people? Do people like

to see me coming or do they dread to see me coming

because of what I'm going to say and what's going

to come out of my mouth? And if we're honest,

we probably could look at our life and say, oh,

there's some days that I haven't been super kind.

There's some days that I've been short, been

rude. And maybe there's some good days in there

too. I'm not saying we're all just evil all the

time, just negative, negative, and mean, and

hateful. Hopefully we're not. But if you are,

you may be. I don't know. If you are, you don't

want to be that way. That's not what the Lord

calls us to. We want to have kind words and pleasant

words because that's going to be a light to the

world. That's going to be a breath of fresh air.

Because look, you look around the world, there's

people, negativity all the time. People have

enough negativity. They don't need more negativity.

They need grace and mercy and love and peace

and kindness and gentleness. These are the things

that come through Jesus Christ. These are the

things that when we follow the Lord, this is

what he calls us to. We see these things mentioned

in Proverbs. We see these same ideas mentioned

to us in the New Testament. Proverbs 25, 11.

A word spoken at the right time is like... Gold

apples on a silver tray. That's pretty good.

A word spoken at the right time. Sometimes maybe

that's a good word. Maybe sometimes it's a corrective

word. That is a word that's really not something

you want to hear, not something you want to say,

but a word at the right time. How many times

in our life do we encounter somebody that is

having a bad day? That if we were to... Speak

a kind word at that time. It'd be like gold apples

on a silver tray. It would be of great value

to them. The scripture is full of positive and

encouraging words. And I think the devil, he's

pretty good at discouraging us and our anxiety.

He's good at... Getting us depressed. He's good

at getting us down. He's good at wanting to make

us give up. Or maybe not for you. Maybe it's

just me. But maybe you struggle with that too.

But a kind word goes a long way. An encouraging

word goes a long way. And maybe for some of you,

you need to hear an encouraging word today. But

for all of us, we need to give an encouraging

word. Because we may be the hope and the light

and the love and the grace that somebody needs

to help them make it through another day. I just

wanted to share a couple of New Testament scriptures

with you today that I think are good scriptures.

John chapter 8, verses 10 and 11. You can go

John 8:10

back and read this story this week. There was

a woman who was caught in adultery and she was

brought before Jesus. And all these people were

ready to stone her. And Jesus said, you who are

without sin cast the first stone. And everybody

began to walk away and drop their stones. And

pretty soon there was no one left but the lady.

And he said, is there anybody here who condemns

you? And she said, no, everybody's gone. And

he said, neither do I. Go and sin no more. Now

that's an encouraging word to us. We may not

be caught in adultery today, but name the sin.

Whatever sin that we struggle with, there's sin

in our life. And a lot of times that causes some

of our anxiety. That causes some of our struggle.

We feel ashamed of that or we feel the burden

of our sin. But I want to give you a word of

encouragement through Jesus today that if you

would come to Jesus like this woman did, there

is no condemnation there. Jesus died on the cross

so your sins could be forgiven. So maybe you

say today, I don't know if Jesus can even love

me anymore. I don't know if Jesus cares about

me. I want to tell you that Jesus does care about

you. And if you'd come to Jesus today, he'd say,

I don't condemn you. Go and sin no more. Maybe

some of us need to hear that encouraging word

today. Matthew 25 and verse 23, Jesus is telling

a parable. And at the end of the parable, there's

a line that's pretty well known. You may have

heard it before. Where the servant who was doing

the right thing in the parable was applauded.

And he was told, well done, my good and faithful

servant. Well done, my good and faithful servant.

Are we doing what God calls us to do today? And

maybe we are. Sometimes I think maybe we're doing

good and the devil wants to convince us that

we're not. Now, I'm not implying that we're perfect.

I'm not saying that we're all going to stand

around and pat ourselves on the back. But maybe

you are living in obedience to God. Maybe the

devil's convinced you that you're not. Maybe

you're not as big a failure as you thought you

were. Maybe those words... Apply to your life

today. Well done, my good and faithful servant.

Matthew chapter 11, verse 28. It's one of my

Matthew 11:28

favorite verses. I have said it a lot over the

last 12 years, and I will continue to say it

because I feel like it's so important in our

life. Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened,

and I will give you rest. Boy, I tell you what,

when anxiety... It's bearing down on you. It's

hard to rest. You don't get any rest in the day.

Your mind's constantly going. You don't get good

rest at night. A lot of times sleep escapes you.

You lay there and you think about your worries

and your fears and that anxiety. It just robs

you of your rest. But I want to give you an encouraging

word today that through the kindness of Jesus

Christ and His love and His mercy and His grace

that He... died on the cross for you, that He

can offer this promise, this invitation to you,

that if you'd come to Him, that in the midst

of your anxiety today, He will give you rest.

Psalm 34, 18, one of my favorite passages. It

says, The Lord is near the brokenhearted. He

saves those crushed in spirit. That's what anxiety

does. It breaks our heart. It crushes our spirit.

It leaves us just looking for some hope. Well,

I want to tell you today that there is hope in

Jesus Christ. Now, you may have come into this

room today with anxiety that weighs you down,

as Psalm 12 said. But I want to offer you an

encouraging word and a word of kindness. I want

to tell you today that God loves you. I want

to tell you today that you may be a sinner. You

may very well be. You may be thinking about your

sins and they may be weighing on you. And our

sins are bad and we are sinners. But I got good

news for you. Jesus still loves you. There is

no condemnation in Christ. God didn't send his

son in the world to condemn the world but to

save the world. That we can all be saved through

Jesus Christ. That we can all find rest when

we are weary and burdened. That we can all find

a moment of relief in the midst of our anxiety.

And I know sometimes when we're anxious it feels

like that we are alone and that God doesn't care.

But God's word says just the opposite. He is

near those who are brokenhearted. He is near

those who are crushed in spirit. Save them. I

want to tell you today there is hope and there

is help and there is love and there is grace

and there is peace and there is joy in Jesus

Christ. I want to tell you that he'll walk with

you through what you go through. I want to tell

you that life's not always going to be easy,

but I want to tell you that Jesus loves you today.

If you've ever experienced What it feels like

when somebody shares a kind word with you. And

you know how that lifts you up. How that encourages

you. And I challenge you this week. Would you

share an encouraging word to somebody that you

encounter? Would you show kindness to a world

that may not see it anywhere else? Now the most

likely place probably people in our world is

going to see kindness is through a Christian.

And if our world cannot see the kindness of God

through His followers, where in the world are

they going to see it? So may God help us today

to be a people who seek Him, who find encouragement

in Him, who find grace in Him, who are uplifted

through Jesus Christ. And may we take that joy

and that grace that we've experienced and bring

kindness into a world that we encounter. Because

you never know. The words you speak to somebody

this week may change their life for better or

for worse. But you have to decide the words that

are going to come out of your mouth. Let's pray.

God, we come to you today. We thank you for your

encouragement. We thank you that you love us.

Dear Lord, life is so tough. And I suspect, dear

Lord, that there are some... hear today and some

online that they are feeling the weight of that

anxiety. They feel that burden. They feel that

pain. They feel like there is no hope, that there

is no light at the end of the tunnel. And I pray,

dear Lord, that just through these few verses

that we've looked at today, that they would know

that they can come to Jesus Christ, that they

can have forgiveness of sins, that they can find

peace today. God, I pray that that they would

know that you have not abandoned them, that you

are with them, dear Lord, even as their heart

is broken and their anxiety weighs on them, that,

God, you are near them and you will save them.

So, God, I pray that if there are some today

who are weary and brokenhearted and buried in

anxiety, God, that they would just seek Jesus

Christ, that they would come to him to put their

faith and trust in him. God, help us to be a

people who bring kindness to the world. So many

times, dear Lord, we speak words and they are

so powerful and we don't think about what we're

saying. But I pray, dear Lord, that you would

just help us to examine our hearts. Help us to

be a people who bring gentleness and kindness

to our world today. In Jesus' name I pray it.