Mr. Robin Webber

Sermon Transcript
January 12, 2002

A Transformed Tongue

People love to talk. Sometimes too much. Sometimes they say things that just simply should not be said. I am sure you and I at one time or another have talked about tripping over our words. But if we were really honest, it is more than trip. What it really is is a crash landing. And we just haven’t admitted it. And sometimes we are the last ones to know that we really bombed out by what we said.

No! Talk is not cheap. Its misuse can cost you everything that you hope for that is near and dear, your spouse, your children, your job, your neighbors, your friends, a number of items. And even more importantly, ultimately our words can cut us off from our God. But what I want to share with all of you today is an even grander point, and I think a very positive point, and that is that our words can also bring us together with people and can also endear us to our God. For a moment, allow me to draw a contrast between the proper and the improper use of our tongue.

Now all of us in America have basically grown up with the old nursery rhyme, "sticks and stones may hurt my bones, but words will never hurt me." The reality is that words do hurt. They really do. And each and every one of us, if we want to be honest, have been hurt by the words used against us, and we have hurt others by the words that we have used against them. Yes, words do hurt.

Join me if you would for a moment over in the book of Job. If you think about it Job goes back, oh my, what? 1500 B.C. or so. This is probably the oldest literature that is in the Bible. And some things do not change. Notice in the book of Job, Job 19:1, let’s understand his plea and his cry in discussing words. Job 19:1. And then Job answered and said, how long will you torment my soul and break me in pieces with words? Yes, words then and words now, our words, even to those individuals that we love, can indeed cause great pain.

Now as Christians God asks us to be much different, incredibly unique in how we speak to our fellow man. And that is what I would like to talk to you about this afternoon, the role of the Christian in using our tongues.

Come with me if you would to the book of Colossians. We have already been going through some of the literature written by Paul. But now let’s go to the book of Colossians, and let’s go to Colossians, chapter 4, and notice where I would like to take you today. In Colossians 4 let’s allow God’s word, and God’s word alone on the Sabbath day to create a framework of discussion and moving our hearts together to glorify God and to do what he wants us to do. In Colossians 4:5 it says to walk in wisdom towards those who are outside, redeeming the time. And let your speech always, always, be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.

Wonderful scripture! Mentioning that our speech as Christians should be grace filled. It should almost be seasoned as if there was salt on it. You know when it is seasoned, I don’t know if you are like me, but if there isn’t salt on things — I'm probably going to give away my diet situation — but if there is a piece of meat and there is no salt, I am not going to touch it. But if there is some salt on there I am going to go back again, and again, and again, and again because it is just savory. It is wonderful. It attracts. And that is exactly what Paul is saying in this bit of verse.

Now why do we want to discuss this subject today with you here and now? Why as your pastor is this my first message to you in 2002? As we enter a new year, there is probably no greater challenge that you and I are going to face on an ongoing daily basis, minute by minute, moment by moment, week by week, person by person, than how we use our tongues and the words that we use, as to whether or not we are going to build up, or whether or not we are going to tear down our relationships with God and with our fellow man. Again, why do I bring this message to you? It is an increasing challenge for Christians living in this world that increasingly has lost its way, lost its good manners, no longer uses wisdom in how we talk to one another, how we communicate with one another. Seemingly we are in a world where more and more people pride themselves on their liberty, their first amendment right to say what they want to say, how they say it, when they want to say it, and the words that they want to say it with. People today talk dirty. People today use language that when I was a boy my mother would have washed my mouth out with soap, and did! And sometimes even as Christians we forget the unique calling that God has given us, that our speech and our tongue and our words are to be grace filled, and are to be seasoned, and we are to be unique in the way that we use our tongue.

We have been called, brethren, to something very unique. You and I have been called to be very, very different than the world that is around us. Let’s think this out for just a moment, and let’s consider something for a moment. What is God’s messenger to this earth? What was is? What is he called? Jesus Christ in scripture is called The Word. He came by word, and he came by deed to represent the clear and unpolluted picture of the plan of God for humanity in human form. You might want to say, putting those two thoughts together, he was the perfect word.

Now let’s carry that thought just a little bit further. Let’s think of the words "perfect in word", and let’s turn to Hebrew 6. In Hebrew 6 there is a thought that I would like to share with you, and something that my mind has been on, and my wife’s mind has been on, and we talk a lot, and this is where we want to move to, and I think this is where the body of Christ needs to move to in 2002. Let’s notice Hebrew 6:1. Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, the basics, those matters that we came into the way on, it says now knowing those, having understood those, now we go on to perfection. Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, or faith towards God, or the doctrine of baptisms, or the laying on of hands, and/or the resurrections, and/or of eternal judgment. Those are things that you and I know. But now the author of Hebrews is saying, now knowing this, now we move onto perfection. Because it’s now what you know, it’s what you are and what you are doing. And what the author of Hebrews is saying then is, knowing this, and you know that Jesus came to earth, God in the flesh in human form, living the perfect life, dying the perfect death in obedience, and being raised in glory. Knowing that, believing that, embracing that, now your life is changed. Now your life is different. Now you don’t want to do what everybody else is doing out there that you were doing before God tapped you on the shoulders and said, I want you to be one of mine. Everything else pales into insignificance with the crown that is laid up for you in heaven. Now you are going to do things differently. And the way that God knows that you are moving towards perfection is not by what you know, but by what you do, and by what you say, and by how you say it. And when you are controlling your tongue, and it is not only a tongue in cheek but it is a tongue in check, because it’s a mind in check, and it is a heart that is in control, your life is going to be different. And you are going to be a witness of Jesus Christ living in your life, and not just Robin Webber, or David Hoover, or Rory Darden, or Scott Darden, or John French, or Rene Gruder, or anybody else that might be in this room. A new life. So this afternoon, let’s consider for the time remaining the Christian responsibility of a spirit-led tongue, offered to God for God’s glory.

First of all, we need to take a reality check and know what God has asked us to do when it comes to the matter of the tongue. And perhaps there is no better outline than the book of James, if you will join me there for a moment. In the book of James the apostle James offers an incredibly blunt description of the tongue, found over in James 3. Now even as I say James 3 I am sure you and I shudder, because we have all gone to James 3 sometimes just like a mirror that’s on a wall, and you go, oh no, not James 3. Not that indictment about my tongue. But it is interesting, maybe you have never noticed the initial encouragement that is in James 3, the positive point. Notice verse 2. James is saying, for we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man. There is the encouragement. He is a perfect man. And if you can hold your tongue and control your tongue, then you are on the way to bridling the entire body. So there is the encouragement of where to start. Because you know, like any discipline in life once you get one thing down it kind of moves into every other aspect of your life, whether you are doing exercise, whether or not you are doing dieting, whether or not you are working on a specific area of overcoming in your life. Once you are working in that area it tends to just spill over, because you are now thinking not of yourself but of God, and having God live his life in you.

Notice what it says though, now starting in verse 3. Indeed, we put bits in horse’s mouths that they may obey us. And we turn their whole body. And look also at ships. Although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very, very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. It is just talking about, you know, thinking of being in the back of a boat, a little rudder how it just makes the boat go back and forth. Even so, the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a force a little fire kindles.

Now just because the tongue is little doesn’t mean that it can’t create a lot of destruction. You know, especially here in California where it is dry, we all have the difficulty in our houses with termites, don’t we? Well a termite is just a little, little bitty bug, but that termite left unchecked with all the other little termites, you take all the little termites, and if you don’t deal with them over a period of time the whole house can ultimately come tumbling come. And if, using that analogy, we don’t understand the power of the little powerful words that we do use, and leave them unchecked over a period of time, it can create the same amount of damage.

Notice, it says, even so the tongue being little, being like a little fire kindles, and the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. Now when James was writing this, here he is writing in Palestine, you can only imagine what a forest fire was like in Palestine, which is much like our own Mediterranean climate right here, seeing it is the original Mediterranean climate in Palestine. And if a fire let loose in the Judean wilderness, or up in the mountains of Lebanon, once it took off it just took off. There is no controlling it. And what James is trying to tell us is that, look that tongue left to itself is like a fire that is not even trying to be abated. It just goes and it goes. It is explosive. James is basically telling us that a tongue that is not under control is like dynamite in our dentures, and we need to be very, very careful.

And it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature. And it is set on fire by hell. For every kind of base thing and bird or reptile and creature of the sea is tamed, and has been tamed by mankind. A very Jewish thought, James being a Jewish Christian. The Jews would often go back to Genesis 1, Genesis 2, about the initial admonition of God to Adam and Eve that they would have dominion over nature. And so that thought always runs through Jewish literature. And so the thought comes that God placed man to have dominion over the animals. Even so, it is very hard for a man and woman to have dominion over our tongues and over our words. Here we can make tigers go through hoops, we can make seals balance a ball, we can even take a gigantic elephant and make it a beast of burden. But we can’t keep the tongue still in its own cage.

No man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Now something we need to recognize, it is not talking about the person’s tongue next to you. That is talking about your tongue. That is talking about my tongue. That there can even be poison.

There is snake in South America. It is called the Two Step Snake. Anybody have any idea why it is called the Two Step Snake? I'll take a hand. Wesley, is that you? Stand up, please. Go ahead, nice and loud. Pardon? I can’t quite hear. No, but if it bites you, Wesley, you will only step two times, because it has so much poison and it is so venomous that when an individual is struck by it, in two steps it is over and out and you are dead. Let’s think about for a moment. James’ thought about the poison snakes, and South America, and let’s put it all together. The reality is that at times our biting tongues have stopped people in their tracks. At times on purpose, if we want to admit it. And sometimes unknowingly. Both are wrong. Both are offensive. Both are sin.

Notice what it says here in James 3 then, speaking of the tongue. With this tongue we bless our God and Father and we curse men. James is saying that doesn’t make sense. For these men are made in the similitude of God. And out of the same mouth proceed blessings and cursings, my brother. These things ought not to be so. And then a rhetorical question. Let’s go through it a moment. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? And can a fig tree, by brethren, bear olives, or a grape vine bear figs? Or if you want to bring it up to date, can an apple tree bear oranges? Now it doesn’t make sense. Thus, no spring yields both salt water and fresh. Who then is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom.

Now, with that stated, we got through James 3 again. We are indicted. I am indicted. Our words are ever before us to look at, ponder, and to do better with. Let’s understand what James is saying and what he is not saying. He is not saying that silence is better than speech. James is not forbidding speech. Abstaining is no substitute for the victory that our God wants for us, with us learning to control and check our tongue for him. James is not pleading for cowardly silence, but wise use of speech. So where do you start, where do I start in having a tongue in check, in control for God? Such wisdom comes from the words of Jesus Christ, who pinpoints what the tongue is connected to.

Join me if you would over in Matthew 12. Come, let’s go right to the gospel, and let’s notice what Jesus Christ said about the tongue and about words in Matthew 12:34. Now there were times when Jesus Christ was the wisdom of God, and God in him lashed out and was powerful in words, and notice what he says here in Matthew 12:34. Brood of vipers, speaking of snakes, how can you being evil speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.

Now what Jesus Christ is telling you and telling me on this Sabbath day is that our tongue does not stop right here in our cheeks. Now you know we all sometimes go to the doctor and we stick out our tongues. We make our little tongue noise as we stick it out at the doctor. The doctor sticks his tongue back out at us — I was just teasing. The point is this. Our tongue does not end after four or five inches. What Jesus Christ is telling us in reality if you look at the anatomical picture is the tongue actually goes much further, almost down here somewhere. Jesus Christ is using an analogy that really the tongue is connected and goes all the way down to your heart. That is where it begins. You have to go to the source. You have to know how far to reach back, or you don’t understand it. Just like in the last century when people were looking for the source of the Nile. How far back did it reach into deepest, darkest Africa? Of course, then, you have Stanley, and Livingston, and everybody else. And what Jesus Christ is saying is, there is no secret how far the tongue goes. It goes down to the heart.

Now stay with me in this analogy if you would for a second. When you and I go to a service station what do we do? We open the hood to see how our car is doing. We open up the hood in front, and we get out the oil stick. We clean it, we take it out, and we look at it, then we stick it back in, and then we take it back out just to see two things. Number one, how much oil is in the oil tank. And number two, what is the quality of the oil? What is down in there? How is your engine running after all? That is what Jesus Christ is alluding to here. That the tongue is the dipstick to our heart. And if you really want to know what is in your heart, just listen to what you are saying with your tongue. How often have you had somebody say, "Oh, I didn’t mean that. Oh, I didn’t mean that." Yes, they meant that. Of course they did. That’s what they meant. It came out of their heart. It came out of the tongue. So you can’t blame your tongue. You have got to blame your heart. You can’t blame the moment. You have got to blame your person. You have got to take responsibility for what you are saying.

Just notice what else it says here in Matthew 12. But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the Day of Judgment. For by your words you will be justified. And by your words you will be condemned. Why? Because words that are spoken by your tongue are connected to your heart. And it is not what you are on the outside, but it is what you are on the inside that counts with God. And God is holding us, brethren, responsible for words.

I think we need to go back to the full understanding that what I am sharing with you today is a part of equipping the saints of God for preparing themselves to be the bride of Christ. The crown that Mr. Hamilton talked about today does not come cheap. It does not come easy. It does not come without a price. The price, of course, is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ first and foremost. And we cannot buy it. We cannot earn salvation. We cannot buy salvation. But we can show God we understand what salvation is about by the way that we live. And that’s what we want to talk about.

The idle words that are spoken up here comes from a Greek word argos that means unprofitable. It means unfruitful. Jesus Christ says that we are going to be judged by the unfruitful, unprofitable words that we use. Also our words, like I said, can endear us to God. That’s kind of encouraging isn’t it? The words that we use can justify us. Speaking of justification, can endear and warm us to God that he says by the way they are speaking, by the oil that is in their hearts they understand, they know what I am doing for them, they know what my son did for them. They know that they are being called to be kings and priests and to be a part of the answer and not the problems that beleaguer this earth.

For a moment, though, let’s understand what a few idle words are when we say idle words. Let’s break that down for a moment. Let’s talk about idle words. Let me give you three sets of idle words for a moment.

1. Lying uses idle words. Saying something that is not true, or simply did not happen, or did not happen that way. Now when and why do we lie? The when is answered when we feel that somehow we have to take matters into our own hands because we don’t think that God understands. So we grab it, and we go with it, and we run with it, and it is all us. We want to protect our image rather than conform to God’s, pretending that no one sees our hand in the cookie jar. That is a problem. Proverbs 6:16. Come with me please. This is what God says about lying. These six things does the Lord hate. Yes, seven are an abomination to him. A proud look. God hates a proud look. Number two, a lying tongue. God hates a lying tongue. That is a strong word, God and hate, sounds like two words that shouldn’t be together, God and hate. But God despises, he hates lying. Why? I will tell you why. Because it creates barriers. Lying breaks down all trust in relationships. If a husband lies to a wife, a wife lies to a husband, an employee lies to an employer, a child lies to a parent, there is no deeper wound. Trust has been broken. Relationships have been cracked. Not only that, but normally lying is an accomplice for other lacks of character. Oliver Wendell Holmes perhaps put it best when he said that sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle that fits them all. Now let’s remember what we are about today, brethren, as we turn to Psalm 33:4. Join me there for a moment. In Psalm 33:4 let’s be positively jolted not by what this world is about, but by what God is trying to establish in our lives by his example. Psalm 33:4. For the word of the Lord is right, and all his work is done in truth. It is clear. It is out there. There is no deceit. There is no guile. It is not muddy. What God says he is going to do, he is going to do. Mr. Hamilton talked about a crown today that is reserved for us in heaven. If God says there is a crown reserved for us in heaven, brethren, it’s up there. No doubt. No problem. All the way. I know that.

2. Spreading rumors uses idle words. Let’s talk about that for a moment. I'm going to bring you all into this. I am widening the net. We are all going to get in here before it’s all done! I'm already caught. Your pastor is already in the net. I use idle words. And I need to be different. Spreading rumors uses idle words. No one ever says, well, would you like to hear a rumor? Have any of you heard that one recently? Would you like to hear a rumor? Nobody ever says, would you like to hear a rumor. Rather, it kind of goes like this. Guess what I heard. Or, would you like to know? Now, what we do is we disguise it and we bring it up a grade by saying, we call it shop talk. We call it problem solving. We call it shooting the breeze. No brethren, it’s rumors. No brethren, it’s idle talk. No brethren, no brethren, it is unprofitable, it is unfruitful, and if you are spreading rumors you will be judged by every word that you used in that rumor unless you repent of it. Here’s the importance I want to share with you. The reality is, when we engage in this particular form of idle words, that is, rumoring, what we are really doing and why it is so damaging is that we are breaking and entering, hear me, breaking and entering into another person’s life without their presence or without their permission. And we serve them up like meatloaf without even inviting them to the party to hear about what is being talked about. I want you to think about that for a moment. The next time somebody asks you to talk about somebody else and they are not present, you recognize that you are trespassing. That is what rumors do. They trespass upon another person’s character and integrity, and maybe you don’t even know that maybe they have repented of something, how they are going to God about something, how they have changed their life, where they are today versus yesterday, and yet we’re going on, and on, and on. And you can never catch up with a rumor. That’s what we need to understand. There are three things that it is said that do not come back. The spent arrow, the spoken word, and the missed opportunity. Now what that old saying stated, allow me to share you a story. A young man during the Middle Ages came to a monk and said, I have sinned by telling slanderous statements about someone. What should I do? And the monk replied, put a feather on every doorstep in town. The young man did that, and then returned to the monk to inquire if there was anything else he might do. And the monk said, now go back and pick up all the feathers. Well the young man exclaimed excitedly, that’s impossible! For by now the wind has blown them all over town! And the monk replied, just like your slanderous words are now irretrievable. Why are rumors idle words? Because Jesus Christ stated that we are to love our neighbor as ourself. And we would never want that to be done to us. So we should no do it to others. Don’t be a gossip. Stay away from gossips. I am not going to go to the Proverbs. There are countless verses on that. I want to share a thought with you, that when you are around somebody, and we call this kind of individual, I don’t know if they are like this, you have them at your company, you have them in your congregation, you have them in your school. We call it the person that is in the know. Have you ever met somebody that is in the know? You will know and understand that you have run into the person in the know when you meet them. Because they will not talk about themselves. They will talk about everybody else. When you run into somebody that is talking to you about somebody else, when they are not with you they will be talking about you with somebody else. Because they are not willing to deal with their own life. But they must barter and trade like an old time horse trader in the lives of others and what they are doing and not doing, because their life is not going anywhere itself. So they have to take on other peoples’ lives. Don’t do that. Don’t be there. Don’t be a talebearer. Don’t be a gossip.
   
   
3. Angry words are idle words. All of us have spoken angry words. Oftentimes when we are embarrassed, feeling inadequate, our own natural human approach is to lower others, to bring them down either by angry words, hurtful words, belittling comments, and/or sarcasm. Sarcasm are angry words. Sarcasm are idle words. They are unfruitful. They are unprofitable. We might target our mate. We might target our children. We might target our employees. We might target somebody in school. Brethren, God has called us out of that. He doesn’t want us to be like that. He doesn’t want us to deal in idle words of lying, and rumors, and angry words. He has called us to something else. Now having said this, what do we do? Do we plead the fifth? Do we remain silent due to self incrimination? Yes, silence is golden, but silence is not the key to a transformed tongue. I want you to think about this for a moment. Just four simple points. Four simple points very quickly. Number one, here’s what I want you to do. Who am I talking to? I am talking to you. I am talking to the body of Christ here in Los Angeles congregation. This is God’s message for you this day. Number one, recognize that dealing with your tongue, dealing with your words is a part of your calling. It is a part of your calling. 1 Peter 2. Come with me please. In 1 Peter 2 let’s notice what is spoken here. Speaking of Jesus Christ, the master, the Lord, the one, the perfect word, the one that set the example. In 1 Peter 2, starting in verse 21, notice what it says here. For to this you were called, oh, you were called! So we’re not like everybody else out there right now. You have been given a calling. You’ve been given an opportunity. You’ve been tapped on the shoulder by none other than God the Father. And you have a calling. Because Christ also suffered for us, and he left us an example, that you should follow in his footsteps. So it shows that it can be done. Who committed no sins, nor was deceit found in his mouth. No idle words. Nothing unfruitful. Nothing unprofitable. Who when he was reviled — that means they were saying some pretty dirty, rotten, mean, filthy things about the man who was perfect. That was an ugly, ugly night. Nonetheless when he suffered he did not threaten, but committed himself who judges righteously. One of the major things that Jesus Christ set for you and me was an example of words. He set us an example that we must rise above that which is coming at us, and around us, and is before us. His inner man, his inner mission, was more than all that was around him. His interior purpose, your interior purpose, the calling that God has given you, the reality of faith in you that God came in the flesh, lived the perfect life, died the perfect death in obedience and raised in glory, and is watching us today, begs you, commands you therefore to use your tongue to his glory, your tongue to his purpose, your tongue to rise about everything and anything that might drag you down into unprofitability. Number two. Ask God for help. Remember the problem does not start from the neck up. It is from the neck down. It deals with the heart. Come with me just one verse, Psalm 141. Notice what is mentioned here. Lord, I cry to you. Make haste to me. Give ear to my voice when I cry out to you, and let my prayer be set before you as incense. So there is a relationship. And to be able to do all of this brethren, you have to have a relationship with God. You have to be praying to God. You have to be connected to God. You have to believe that God really is, and that your words can justify you. Remember the positive side of this, your words basically tell others and tell God what is going on down inside of you. It is an echo that comes out of your chambers to let God and others around you know what you really think. They can justify you. The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. Set a guard O Lord over my mouth. Keep watch over the door of my lips. And do not incline my heart to any evil thing. God knows the world that we live in, and he knows the challenges we have in a world that has lost its way. In this post Christian society where everything goes, and I'm just going to say what I want to say. I'm just going to do it the way I want to do it. I'm just kind of a plain spoken guy. Pow! You know, just push over people by verbal grenades. Have you ever been around people who lob verbal grenades? Or am I the only one? Hope I'm not launching too many. But you know, when you do that, it’s like this. And people like this. Get in an argument, angry words. You know, they go… God says we are made out of clay, so we are kind of brittle. But what we do, we get angry. Why do we get angry? Because things get out of control. So we start going like this. We back up like two knights. Let’s do it again. Do you ever do that with your wife? Do you ever do that with your husband? You just keep bouncing into one another. And you think you are going to get away with it with your words. And pretty soon something gets fractured. Something gets broken. Something gets wounded. And words wound. Now you would never do that with two glasses, would you? But some of you may want to go home tonight and try that. I'm not talking about two glasses. We’re talking about two people made in the similitude of God just as James said. God says don’t do that. Ask God for help. Because it is going to come. And you need to repent. Frankly brethren, I have heard too much loose words, loose lips in the people of God over the years. Using wrong language, using idle words, not being the measured ambassadors that Jesus Christ has called us to be. Every word that we say should represent God and the fullness of life he has called us to. Don’t mimic some disk jockey. Don’t mimic somebody on television that’s not going to be on television in the world tomorrow, guaranteed. I think we need to really, really think of the words we have used, and how we are using our tongue, that it really is profitable to God, that it is building up and edifying.
   
   
4. Think before you speak. What does the book of James say about being slow to anger, swift to hear, slow to speak. Just think about that for a moment, how important it is to simply think before you speak.
   
   
5. If you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say it. If you don’t have anything good to say, well that means then I'm going to go speechless. Well some people might appreciate that for awhile. Proverbs 15. Let’s look at God’s word here. Let’s notice verse 28. The heart of the righteous, that’s what God wants us to be friends. He wants us to be right before him. He wants us to reflect that we really know what he has done for us, and what his son has done for us. The heart of the righteous studies how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours forth evil. It is interesting what Edmund Morrison said, like stones words are laborious and unforgiving, and the fitting of them together like the fitting of stones, the man’s great patience and strength of purpose, and particular skill. We are building something. Our tongues, which are connected to our hearts. Our hearts, hopefully, God willing, being connected to him, are building something. But we say, where are the bricks? Where are the stones. Philippians 4:13 tells us what to think on. And if we think on these things, then we are going to say them. Whatever things are lovely, and just, and pure, and honest, and of good report. If there be anything to think on, think on these things. Now why am I sharing this with you brethren? If we dedicate our hearts, and minds, and tongues to God, wonderful, wonderful things can happen. They really can. You can be justified before God. It says in the book of James that our words justify us. The temple, the living temple of God can have color, and beauty, and depth, and warmth. When people come among the people of God, do they hear words that are edifying, and uplifting, and building up, and warm, and genuine, and generous, and loving, and kind? Do they hear something different than what is out there when they come into your home on a Saturday night for fellowship? Or the boys are down playing a game of basketball together. You know, you can play basketball and be a Christian, you really can, and not have to talk like everybody else. I play quite a big of racquetball. Steve Hall plays a lot with me. There is a man that we always play with. And you know, every time he misses the ball, well I'll just say, he uses words. How’s that? And Steve and I are working on him. And oftentimes when he misses the ball, unfortunately he says JC, if you can fill that in. And I usually tell him, I'll just change the name, I'll say, Buddy, JC didn’t do that. That was you. You missed it. Don’t blame it on him. But what we do, we have got to learn to be responsible for our actions. One day you are going to come before the throne of God. I want you to remember that. And I am going to come before the throne of God. That is not something that is kind of out there and ethereal. That is a reality brethren. You and I are going to come before Jesus Christ who is the judge. Now when I say that, that is not to scare you. You can’t have a better judge. You want Jesus Christ to judge you. But what is he going to judge you on? Do we not know what book he is reading from? He says you are going to be judged on your words. You are going to stand on your words. Brethren, I want to stand on the words of Jesus Christ. I want to stand on his example. I need to watch my words. I need to guard my lips. The reason I am sharing this with you is I want to equip the saints of God with their tongues and with their lips so they can add glory to what he is doing here on earth with humanity and humankind. You have now been equipped. Now, let’s be about our Father’s business, word by word.