Proverbs | Watch Your Mouth (April 11th, 2021) - Mike Armstrong

Uh Proverbs chapter 15 right now.

Proverbs 15 · chapter mention

Proverbs 15 is where we are today.

And again, earlier this week, you know, when we were starting to hear of the even more restrictions being placed on us in Ontario and lockdown being you know tightened and all of that.

I was kind of watching this and hearing some of the whispers that were happening, and and uh I can't even remember which morning it was now, but I was hearing about this and knew it was going to be announced.

And I sat in my chair in my living room in the morning, and to be perfectly honest, I stewed.

Okay, I I was in inside, that's how I was feeling.

I was I was straight up grumbling, I was complaining, I was sour uh about all of that.

And then in short order, the text started to fly, right, among different people who are, you know, somewhat like-minded, I think, in this, and and uh certainly there was complaining and all of that.

Well, you know, after well, just moments, literally moments after I finished my little venting session, if you will, um, I went upstairs and I popped my computer open and I went to the preaching calendar to to kind of wrap my head around what's the sermon gonna be about this Sunday?

And lo and behold, it was called Watch Your Mouth.

Okay, so I kind of read that and I was like, oof.

Right, that one stings a little bit because um two seconds ago, my mouth, um my heart, my mind, my attitude, uh, not exactly in the best place.

And so I would say a message like this, I'll speak for myself, but I'm sure for many of you.

Uh timely, I think.

Okay, our our our verses today talk about the the power of the tongue, okay, the the power of our our words as we interact with each other, okay, and as we interact with the various issues and and and circumstances that you and I face.

Now, this is all uh directly tied to the topic of wisdom as we have been uh exploring it through the book of Proverbs, all right?

So we had our Easter series, now we're jumping back into Proverbs, and here is our main idea today.

You can jot this down.

It's the words that I use are a direct indication of the wisdom I possess.

That's a thing a little bit, right?

If if if you and I, if we're prone to uh popping off verbally, okay, which I have just admitted I I I do, right?

I've done.

Right, if we use words to cut people down to size, if we're argumentative type people or or or straight up combative, we we love a good fight.

Okay, this goes for not just face to face, but but also how we handle ourselves online, right?

A lot of gutless weasels out there, let's be honest, online with you know no profile picture and just jumping into the comments section to eviscerate people, right?

If if we're like that, right, if we're like you know gossipy type people, love sharing bits of information with other people to make us feel powerful and to tear people down.

If if if it's something like foul language and that happens to be a struggling point for us, if it's just again the complaining, the negativity, again, it's easy to be like that in our world.

Okay, if any of that is our struggle, and I'm sure if I asked you to be honest about that and put your hand up, we would all have our hands up.

Okay, if that's us, I'll just come out and say it here.

If any of that is the case, we are simply not as wise as we'd like to think we are.

Okay, that according to the scriptures, right?

And so I think about all of this, I I I absorb all of this, and all I think is like, man, God have mercy.

Right?

God have mercy on me, on us.

Forgive me, Lord.

God give me the grace, give me power by your spirit to transform the way that I speak, the way that we converse with each other, right?

Help us, Lord, to be self-controlled when it comes to our mouths.

All right, so let's look at the verse here, or starting in verse one.

We're gonna look at the first four verses of Proverbs 15.

But here's how it begins.

It says, a soft answer.

Okay, depending on your translation, it might all you might also see there a gentle answer.

Okay, a soft or gentle answer turns away wrath.

Okay, that's the wrath of another person, okay?

A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word, okay.

Notice how it uses the word word in the singular there.

Okay?

But a harsh word stirs up anger.

Okay, that that harsh word there uh literally means a word of pain.

Okay, uh a singular word of pain stirs up anger in a person.

It means that all it takes, and you know this, all it takes is one solitary word used in an evil way, okay, to make anger rise up in somebody else.

Okay, in a person, right?

We we know this.

We've, I'm sure, been on the receiving end of that.

It doesn't take a lot of words to just carve somebody, right?

And and you know this as well.

You know, especially the per the people that we know the best and love the most, we know them the best.

We know exactly how to hurt them, and sometimes it just doesn't take much, does it?

Right?

It's it's a serious business, and and the scriptures talk often about the power of the tongue.

James chapter 3 is a passage preached it here before, and and you would be uh somewhat familiar with it.

James 3 · chapter mention

The power of the tongue, you know, calls it a like a rudder on a ship, such a small part of the ship that has power to steer the entire massive vessel in whatever direction it needs to go.

Well, in James 3 in verse 6, here's what it says about the tongue.

It calls it a fire.

Okay, a fire, a world of unrighteousness.

The tongue is set among our members, among our other body parts, okay, staining, okay, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life.

And then this, and set on fire by hell.

Right?

That is that is heavy, punchy, hard-hitting language there.

I mean, again, just shows us how seriously the Bible, God Himself, takes the matter of our words.

Okay, but let's keep going here in Proverbs 15, verse 2 now.

Proverbs 15:2

It says this It says the tongue of the wise commends knowledge.

That word commends there means dispenses, okay, pours out uh knowledge, okay, or literally it's just saying it uses knowledge rightly.

Okay, wise people use knowledge rightly or use knowledge uh well.

It says, but the mouths of fools pour out folly.

Okay, no surprise there.

Folly meaning foolishness.

Now, verse three, and this is kind of interesting here, it it sort of sh uh appears as though the author is now shifting gears to a different topic.

We know that in the in the Proverbs, he tends to do that.

He'll talk about one thing for a few verses or a couple of verses or whatever, and then and then shift on to something completely different, and then way later he'll come back to that topic.

And so this gives the impression that he's shifting gears, but but he's really not.

I mean, we'll I think we'll get this as we see it.

Here's what it says, verse 3.

It says, the eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.

Okay, so the Lord's watching.

Okay, but then verse 4 helps us kind of understand verse 3.

It says, a gentle tongue, back to this, is a tree of life.

Okay, but perverseness in it, important two words there, perverseness in it breaks the spirit.

All right, so if if you take these two verses, verses three and four together here, it's saying that the Lord sees, okay, and he knows what's what's truly going on in our hearts when it comes to the words that we use.

And so according to this verse here, verse four, it is very possible for you and I to demonstrate optically, audibly, visually, okay, a gentle tongue.

We can come across gentle.

We we can have the right and proper tone.

We can look as though we are being kind, but but as the if you have an ESV study Bible, there's a great note in there about uh this verse.

I I really like it.

It says that sometimes gentle speech can be used to to to perverse or to mask perverse intent.

Crushing the spirit and causing injury.

Okay, sometimes gentle speech can be used to mask perverse intent and in the end crushing the spirit and causing injury.

Which I think, and this is helpful to us, it helps us to go just a little bit deeper, you know, behind, you know, get down into the roots of what's really going on behind our words.

Okay, it's not just the you know, the actual spoken language that comes out of our mouths when we talk.

Okay, God is also very concerned with the intent and the motive and the purity of the heart behind the words that we use.

Okay, I was thinking about Luke chapter 6 today in the words of Jesus.

Luke 6 · chapter mention

Let's get this on the screen here.

This comes from verse 45.

This is what he says, and you'll know it.

Okay, he says, the good, okay, or the righteous person, out of the good treasure of his heart, okay.

Notice how it talks about the idea of the heart here.

Okay, out of the good treasure of his heart produces good.

Okay, and then the flip side, the evil person out of the evil treasure, meaning of his heart, the evil treasure of his heart, produces evil.

Okay, and then this part right here.

Write this down, okay?

For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

Okay, but again, what this shows us here in the text is that taming the tongue, okay, it isn't just about behavior modification.

Okay, that's not what God is going for.

That's not what we as Christians are to devote our lives to.

You and I don't simply need to behave better.

Okay, it's we it's not about just making some adjustments or some tweaks to you know to the words that we use here and there and consider using different words from an approved list as opposed to these words from uh from an unapproved list.

And if I would just you know engage these words instead of those words, then it's all good.

That's the end of it.

No, it's it's not about replacing foul words with more Christian approved words, if there was such a thing.

It's not merely about just biting our tongue in our fury and thinking that's all that needs to be addressed.

Our problem, as the scriptures show us and point, it's far deeper than that.

It's a far deeper issue.

All this venom that that has the tendency to spew out of us in in various ways, all of that venom is simply a symptom of a much more serious problem.

And it's and it's that our hearts are in need of like a full-blown strip it down to the studs renovation.

Right?

That's what we need.

But again, that's exactly what the gospel tells us Christ has done to us, in us, and and is continuing to do in the lives of believers.

Right?

You and I, when when we read a passage like this and we experience sinfulness and we make mistakes and all of that, sometimes Christians are like, oh my goodness, like I should be better.

I should I I should be done with all of this, and and and and and and we get kind of depressed and get get down about that and beat ourselves and all of that.

And I and I would say this what the Lord is doing is just simply the process of sanctification in your life.

And part of that process of growing and and getting to a place of greater holiness is that the Lord has to bring all of that junk in us up to the surface where he can skim it off.

And so as you see things in your life that concern you, recognize that part of that is the Lord doing a work in your life.

Now it's not gonna feel good.

Right?

It's it's not.

It's gonna feel the opposite of good.

It's gonna feel discouraging and it's gonna feel disturbing, and it's gonna disturb others when they see the junk in you that's coming out of you.

But again, the scriptures tell us time and time again that this is exactly what Christ is doing.

And in that, we can find hope.

We can find encouragement that, oh, okay, what I'm seeing in my life, though it's not good, and I want to be, you know, certainly grow and be more like Jesus in the way, as we're talking, in the way of our words, at least I can know that the Lord is doing a work in me, and this is actually part of it.

This stuff needs to come out.

Enough of Christians coming to church and behaving as though we've got it all figured out, because listen, we don't.

We do not have it all figured out.

This side of eternity, we're always gonna have issues that that that the Lord needs to change.

You are not perfect, I am not perfect.

I've told you this week, part of where my word, only only one example of where my words were not real great.

That's all of us.

All of us have work to do, and that is that is part of it.

Let's be real about that.

Let's be honest about that.

Let's not let's not fear holding, you know, and and hold all of that back because someone may not understand.

And listen, when someone has to share with you that, hey, listen, I'm I'm in a in a bad place in my life this week.

Don't don't judge them as though you've got no issues.

No, you you've got issues too.

The fact that the person is telling you is is amazing.

Right?

They need your prayer, they need your support, they need you to point to them to the scriptures and to the hope that is found in Jesus Christ.

And I want to do that right now, just looking at a couple of verses here that show us that that God is at work, sometimes even when it doesn't feel like he is.

How about Ezekiel 36, verse 26?

Ezekiel 36:26

He says this, he says, and I will give you a new heart.

How great is that promise?

And a new spirit I will put within you.

I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

I will do these things.

He promises three times in that one verse alone that he is in the work of transforming you.

That's awesome.

Be encouraged by that today.

How about this one?

2 Corinthians 4 16.

It says, so we do not lose heart, though our outer self is wasting away.

Our inner self is being renewed day by day.

The Lord, by his Holy Spirit, is working to redeem you and make you live in line with the truth of the gospel.

Now, you and I, we're not going to be able to, you know, look back on yesterday and be like, wow, I grew by leaps and bounds.

We often can't see that in the day-to-day.

Over time, we should be able to see that happening.

But we were we we rest in the promises here.

Our inner self is being renewed day by day.

How about Philippians 1, verse 6?

Philippians 1:6

Love this.

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will quit part way through.

Doesn't say that.

He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

To know that the Lord is sanctifying, He is working in you should fire you up today, and that He will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Right?

At the end is when you will reach completion.

You're not going to be perfect in the way that you handle yourself in daily life, but the Lord is working to grow you.

And so as you think about this, last verse I want to remind you of is Romans 12, 2.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

Be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

As you're angry or as you're popping off with your words, as you're complaining, think about what is it that I believe deep down that's causing me to be angry.

Is it is it in line with the truth of the scriptures?

Or is it a lie?

Am I angry at that person and eviscerating them because I believe deep down that they exist to make my life more comfortable?

That's just one example.

Like that, that's some deep stuff there, but it's being transformed by the renewal of our mind.

Believe what is actually true, and the and and the heart begins to change and our words begin to change.

If you have a pipe burst in your house and water is spraying everywhere, you're not gonna be like, hey, grab the paper towel and let's like start dabbing up this flood.

No, you're gonna get right down to the pipe and make sure that that gets fixed.

Be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

Let's go after the heart, let's allow the Lord to go after the heart.

As our hearts grow, as our hearts change, as God promises to do, then our words are transformed and they become real, they become authentic, they become life-giving.

And so listen, I want us to pray right now.

We're gonna take a few moments to pray in the groups that you came with, or or you can pray uh individually.

We'll give you, I don't know, five or ten minutes, and and and once that time is done, you are free to leave, and we ask that you kind of make your way uh outside and all of that and congregate uh all out there.

That would be uh really great.

But let's go to the Lord and pray.

There's gonna be some prayer requests that to kind of help you kind of frame this up as you pray uh before the Lord.

But let's bring the area of our words and the heart behind that before Him and ask Him to do a great work.

Let's go to prayer now.