It's Only Words

In 1967, there was a group from Australia of three brothers who recorded a song that actually made it to number one in various nations, including England. But the song only became number four in the United States, but it was a very memorable song. And the words of the song became very catchy. It's hard to get it out of your head. As a matter of fact, why don't you play something on that? It's only words, and words are all I have to take your heart. Only words. How many people remember that song? Most of you? Yes.

It's only words. How important are our words? Something because of scripture that brings that to mind to most of us. If you've ever had an argument, you've ever had conflict, you've ever been through a divorce, you've ever had various issues come up, words can be very important. I'd like you to go with me if you will. I don't have a lot of scriptures today, but I hope the scriptures that I use, you will remember the words in those scriptures. If you will, turn with me to Matthew 12. Matthew 12. Two verses here. Verse 36 and 37 in the New King James Version I'll be reading from as Jesus Christ is making a statement. And for all of us in this room and everyone who was listening to him at the time, it's a pretty big statement and it's about words. Verse 36 says, But I say to you, that said, God is saying these words. They're not Matthew's words. They're God's words. He said, 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, or by your words you will be condemned. That is how important our words are.

Every idle word, have you ever said idle words? Just said something and not even thought of think about it? Say something you say, boy, I wish I could have that back. Few people smiling, Frank even more than smiling. Not that's that saying anything. Idle words. So if we're going to be held accountable and judged for idle words, what about the words of forethought? How about premeditated words? Words you knew you were going to say, but in the back of your mind you say, well, maybe I shouldn't. This is what Christ is talking about. Everyone, this is not just us, but everyone is going to be held accountable for the words that they use. As another time, Jesus said when they ask him something about it, he goes, well, let your yes be yes and your no be no, because anything more than that is of what? The devil, he said.

Have you ever used the phrase that I have in the past? I think I'll give him a piece of my mind.

And usually that state of my mind was not good to be saying something. I've regretted quite a few words that I have said in the past. And I'm not perfect. I'm sure I'll say some words that I'll be judged unless I repent of them, because that's what he's looking for.

Growing up in our household, there were three little words that better not be said. And it wasn't, I love you. I got a few smacks in the mouth by my mother, who had a Chris Everett type back end. My father would let me have it. If we or me or my sister, or even my younger brother and sister, said the words, I hate you!

That was something you didn't say. Because my parents knew that saying the words could lead to actions later on. And we see it on the news every day, don't we down here? See, it every day where someone says something and it turns into violence.

And there are some words that should not be spoken. Now, why do I bring this up? Because we need to set the example for not only our community, our street, but our house. Of making sure the words we speak, they're the ones that need to come out of our mouths. The world today doesn't really hold anybody responsible for words, for gossip. In fact, they have magazines, newspapers with nothing but gossip. And these magazines get sued all the time because they lied. But they make more money selling it than they do having to settle out of court.

You'd have to think in your own minds, as we are the purveyors of God's Word, we're called to be that. Who was the biggest gossip in the Bible? Who was the biggest gossip? I hear Satan. I think you're pretty correct. Because how in the world without gossip did Satan draw one-third of the angels, as the Scriptures tell us, away from a perfect setting, perfect home, perfect creator, creators? How did he do that? How did he convince a billion or more angels to follow him instead of righteous and perfect God? Scriptures tell us iniquity was found in him. Sin. It also said by the, one translation says, merchadising. Merchadising. By his trading. By his trading. What did he have to trade?

Oh, we know what he wanted. He said he wanted to be like the Most High. He wanted to replace. So how did he do that? Was that with a rumor?

Gossip. Hey, did you hear? Did you hear what they're planning next?

That they're actually thinking of having dirt gods? Gods formed from dirt? Can you believe that? Did that happen? I don't know. Something happened. Some rumor. Otherwise, how do you get a billion or more angels to follow you? When you understand the character and the righteousness of God. I'm living a few billion years.

Words can kill. They do every day in the United States. How many stories have you heard or read of bullies on the internet intimidating? And punishing and torturing young people their age or a year younger. To the point that even young people today commit suicide because of things that are put on and shown on social media about young girls.

Words. It's only words.

Very important.

How about murder?

It's called character assassination. Because you assassinate someone's character. It's done every day, millions of times by people that just don't care. For some, they never really recover. What was her name? Shandra Levy? Had a boss? Congressman? And they...rumor was he was having an affair, never proved.

She was found dead. Rumor had it he killed. His whole life destroyed. They found, years later, someone else had murdered her in a park. Was it ever clear? No. Was it ever clear that he didn't do a thing? No. No. But it sure made the news cycle, didn't it? You remember when it was going on? That's just one of many. Were they suggested or it's been rumored or some unknown source told us that this happened and then you find out that it didn't. But a week later, instead of being on page one where it was, it's on page nine. A retraction. Words do serious damage. When I was growing up, there were these words, sticks and stones. May break my bones, but what? Words can never harm. That's a lie. We know it. We know it. As a kid, you want to go, yeah, but they hurt. They hurt. And if we cannot have control of our words, how do we expect the world to? How do we expect our families to have control? Yeah, but look what you said. Look what you did.

Let's go back to Matthew 12 verse 36. As I ask a question again, it's only words. Verse 36. Say to you that for every idle word, man may speak. They will give account of it in the day of judgment. We know what the day of judgment is about, don't we? We know that all shall stand before the judgment seat of Christ someday.

And everyone will give account. The only difference is our judgment is now. We who are standing now before the judgment seat of Christ. We'll look at that because Peter tells us so. And so we, as also the world, will be either justified by our words or will be condemned. That's a scary thought, isn't it? That we are judged every day now. And by being justified, it's made right with God. That comes either through repentance or keeping our mouths shut.

Or saying something that's actually true and good or condemned. Our condemnation is scary. Because we cannot say, well, I didn't know. Uh, I didn't know. I never opened the Bible.

I think about this. I'm held accountable for the words that I speak because they go out over the internet, YouTube. And I'm either called or send an email. Or read it, in case any of you have seen my sermons I've given and you watch it on YouTube. And then you scroll down after it and you'll see those people who want to take me to task or say really appreciated your message. Or you're full of it.

Most of you are not held accountable for that. Because you don't have to make a point of teaching God's Word. That's why you find me teaching from the Bible more than any booklet, more than anything else. Because I'm held accountable for the words in here that I preach them just like Christ. 1 Peter 4, verse 17. You can turn there if you'd like. It says, time has come. Peter is talking to the church. He knows he's about to die. He says, time has come for what? Judgment. On whom? What does your Bible say? House of God. Is that you? If it isn't, why are you sitting here today?

So he just moved this up for all of us. Time has come. Judgment on the house of God. And it begins with, what do your Scripture say? Us. So, being first fruits, being God's called out one's first fruit, guess what? The reward is greater, but the responsibility is even greater than the reward. And the reward is out of this world.

It begins with us. Will God use, in the second resurrection, will he use examples of those who were condemned and didn't make it to the first resurrection because of their words? I don't know, but I just have to think, many times, as it said, not everybody's going to make it. Will they? Scarcely is a righteous man what? That's right, Dale. Scarcely is a righteous man saved. Barely, as another translation says. This is very important stuff. I don't just bring it to you because, well, I think this is a good subject to cover. I just realize how important it is. What an example we have. And I'm giving this, and then I'll give part two, which is coming up in a couple of weeks, which will be Matthew 18, which is very, very important. And after that, as we head into the Holy Days, I'll be going into prophecy, as I usually do, the end of August and all the way through September, as we prepare for the Holy Days. As the picture is that time, only words. Has anybody ever hurt you with their words? Is there? Oh, excuse me. You mind if you raise your hand? Has anyone here never been hurt by anyone's words? For those watching us, there's no hands. Everyone's been hurt by words.

I will ask you now, though, anybody ever gotten a Dear John letter? Guys, you ever gotten a Dear John letter? There's one. There's two. David? No. Yes, three. I saw a half hand. So I did. And you looked over at your wife and it was like, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, for our men who had been in the military, they knew. I had a man named John Fitzgerald. He's passed now. He worked with me. He worked with me. Uh, he was older than I was. He did. He was a sergeant in the Sergeant Fitzgerald. And, uh, I was blessed to work with him when I was younger because he served three tours in Vietnam. He was a lifer. And, uh, he told me the story of how he would have to intercept letters in the second or third year of a man being over in Vietnam because girlfriends were writing them Dear John letters. A Dear John letter meant they were breaking up. There was somebody new. They didn't want you anymore. And he said it was deadly because they would read those letters. And he said I wasn't even supposed to because it was inspected by someone else that came, but it came. But he said I knew those men. And he said I had more men injured by not watching for booby traps than I did to get shot. And he said I told if you just watch me and stay with me, keep your head up and watch. I'll get you back home safe. And he said one of those Dear John letters came and the guys are just like moping around just and not even looking. And they step on a mine. Step on a trip wire. So he said I just got to where I I knew my small platoon who the letters when they came and I just tore them up. If it was from the girlfriend because I was just I couldn't take a chance. Words hurt. I remember getting my first John letter. I was 18 years old. Thought I was in love. Little girl. But someone was in love, but it wasn't her. And I remember opening that letter and thinking it was going to be and it wasn't. Found somebody new. Breaking it. Thankfully in my life, I only got two. One from my first and one from my last girlfriend. This Mary kicked me to the curb after dating her for a while. Wrote me a Dear John letter. She's looking at me like, why did you bring that up?

But as I told her, God had other plans. It was best for both of us at the time. So can we hurt others with our words and then just move on? Like nothing happened? That's one of the worst things.

Oh, Mary, can you hand me my other Bible? I'm sorry. I meant to bring my New Living translation up. My New Living, it's in my black bag there. I want to read something because as much as people can crush us, break our hearts, thank you. Somebody else cares as much as we do. Cares more. And I found that out. You don't have to turn there because this is in the New Living translation. I just want to read it to you about how crushed we can be sometimes and that it's taken personal. David wrote about this. I'd like to read you Psalm 56 and verse 8. It's in New Living so you don't have to turn there because this phrase is so very good. He's talking about God and he says, God, you keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book, the Book of Life.

What it tells me? He knows who crushes us and he feels the pain that we feel.

So do we have or have tears that have our name on them but by somebody else? We've caused those with our words. Something to think about. To me, it's very important that we realize that it's only words. It's words that matter. If we think it's only words, tell that to James. In chapter 3 of James, you see he spends a whole chapter on what? The tongue and how much damage it can do. We're called to become perfect.

We're not there yet. We're not there yet and hopefully we're working towards getting there. We have problems. We have issues. But God is working with us, thankfully. And he cares about us so much that he keeps our tears in a bottle. And he writes them down in the book of life. When we might have stumbled because of what somebody else said for us, did to us. I want to read something else because if anyone understood words, it's songwriters and poets. They know the power of words.

Blessed with knowing some songwriters who were poets. And there are just some of you here that know how to phrase words. And you know the impact of those words. And one of the greatest poets and songwriters ever to ever live was King David. We don't know how many songs he wrote. We know his son had over a thousand. How many did he? Probably more. He has more written in the Bible than anyone else. So I'd like you to just listen because I'll read from Psalm.

You can write it down, but I'm reading from the New Living Translation, unless you have that. I'd like you to think hear these words. It's a New Living Translation, Psalm 39. And this is from David. And I have read so much about David. And we all have, and we've heard his stories. And you know, he's a hero, a hero, a hero, and then a heel. Okay? And then he'd be back a hero, and he's just like, ah! The women loved him. The men wanted to be him. The men wanted to be him.

He wrote these words about this. And I read it from New Living Translation, just five scriptures. Psalm 39, verse 1. This is from David. I said to myself, I will watch what I do and not sin in what I say. Why would he say that? Because he knew he'd sinned on what he said. His psychotic nephew, one of the first serial killers in the Bible, Jo-El, came to him and said, no! Don't number Israel. When he tells you not to do something and you still do it, you know.

But David said, do it. Said to myself, I will watch what I do and not sin in what I say. People had to pay the price for his sin, didn't they? People died because of what the words he chose to use. And he didn't say, no, let's not do this. He said, I will hold my tongue. You ever held your tongue? How long can you hold your tongue? Go home tonight before you go to bed, hold it and see how long you hold it.

Not very long. I will hold my tongue when the ungodly are around me. We want to say things, don't we? Sometimes we pick up. I moved out of parents' house, 19, in my own place. Started running around with guys I worked with and other guys. Next thing you know, my father said, when did you start cussing like that?

Why? Because all the other guys did. My father said, you weren't raised that way. Verse 2, But as I stood there in silence, means I didn't say words. Silence is what? Golden. A lot of times for us. But as I stood there in silence, not even speaking of good things. Because sometimes we can cast our pearls to swine, can't we? Using words. The turmoil within me grew worse. What's he talking about? Well, verse 3 says, the more I thought about it, the hotter I got.

Here I've been that way. Oh, you're mad. Oh, you can feel it burning inside you. Oh, what you want to say. And then you presume it's, you can't control it. You got to let them have it. Remember David? David was told this incredible story by the prophet, Nathan. A made-up character. A made-up little lamb. Remember what David said? Lost his cool, didn't he? Kill him!

To which Nathan said what? You are that man. You think this didn't have anything to do with these words? Of course. The more I thought about it, the hotter I got, igniting a fire of words. Mind you of James, the fire? Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be.

Remind me that my days are numbered, how fleeting my life is. You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. Mine's eight and a half inches from here to here. Call it a span in the Bible. Mine's eight and a half. I measured it from here to here.

Eight inches in this room is pretty small, isn't it? Now take eight inches in the world. That's pretty small. That's how small our life is. David's trying to tell us, we're not going to be here that long. Can we do damage control before it happens? Then he says, my entire lifetime is just a moment to you. At best, each of us is but a breath. God, that's funny. That hit home this week because of a funeral that I attended of Joe Campbell up in Eustace.

He just... No, he wasn't quite. I think he's just a birthday. Sixty-eight or sixty-nine? I'm sixty-four. He's sixty-eight. He's four years younger. He graduated college in 1977. I graduated high school in 1977. Any of you ever meet Joe Campbell? You met Joe Campbell? You've got to have a memorial up there. I went up there just to show my respects for Joe and for Garrett, who was a caretaker or executor. And Joe went for a hike in the heat. And the coroner said that he died of a heart attack. Joe worked out six days a week to YMCA. I met some of his buddies. Joe Campbell was drafted in 1977 NFL pro draft. The seventh player picked.

He won a Super Bowl with the Oakland Raiders. As a matter of fact, one of his teammates came with one of those huge rings that was on the team at the funeral. He said some incredible words because they roomed together. It was very touching as people got up and spoke. Because that's what it was after the funeral. We all went up and had lunch and had the place to ourselves. They just asked everybody to tell a story about Joe. As many wanted to. And you know, of course, Joe's hand was a lot bigger than mine. He was six foot five, 245 when he played, 254 when he played. His hand was huge, but it's still like 10 inches, 11 inches. The width was small compared to the world. He was only here. He didn't know he was going to die. But the word said at that memorial by his teammates, by his neighbors, was so positive. He was such a guy. Somebody drove a thousand miles to attend because they had known him for a year or two, living next to him. They liked him so much. A young individual, a young individual was there and had what? He said he remembered one thing. He remembered that he was a candy man because he always just wanted to give some candy to someone. This is the words that everyone said about him were the words we could just wish were said about us. Joe didn't say a lot, and they said that.

He'd gone through some tough times and was almost killed in a motorcycle accident where someone hit him. Bicycle. They said it was a motorcycle. Yep. Amazing. His teammates said he was six weeks in a coma. Never quite right. As always, struggle, arm and mind and everything else. But yet, everyone said something great about him. Now, you may say, well, who's going to say something bad at a memorial? I've had that before. But not about Joe. So giving, so caring.

So, David learned this. Yes. David learned that words are so important. Have we? Will this message change? Any of you may not. It will change me because as I sat there and listened to all those people get up and talk about Joe. And they all said, basically, he was a pretty quiet guy. But as what he did say mattered. He always cared about people. How do you want to be remembered at your memorial? There's a good chance many of us will have a memorial service, but we won't be standing when it's done. What do you want? We want God to remember. That's what I thought about. Because I came up there to show my respects for Joe. Because I had spent time talking to him about football and various things. And I liked him and, plus, Garrett had gone through so much losing his wife just a month before. And they were really good friends, best friends. So I wanted to be there for Garrett. Garrett had asked me, would you mind saying the closing prayer? Because Bob Ours, most of you know Bob, was going to go and do the service. Bob got lost and went to Orlando instead of Eustace. Because Bob had just lost his father-in-law that they were taken care of. So I told him I didn't blame him. He died. Mr. Feig died two days before the funeral. So I kind of understand about Bob. So think about that sometime. Of course, it's my job, but I walked up and said, it's two minutes for service. Can you give a service? So I get what I gave the best service I could to Joe, for Joe. And that's why it's memorable to me. It's that I would like for people to say that about me someday. So let me wrap this up.

Many of you have heard this before, and many of you know the acronym. But I think it's important that I do this again. I haven't done it here. Let me grab this.

Because it does help me.

We can squeeze that down there. Anybody can see that. And it says what? Think! It's not just that, it's an acronym. T-H-I-N-K. So with the sermon of its only words, T. Ask yourself, what you say, what comes out of your mouth? T. Is it true? Is it true? People think nothing of lying today, do they? But you know what I've been caught at? Telling something that somebody else said, and I took it as a truth, and found out later it wasn't the truth. So it's time that I examine, and you examine, wait a minute. Is it true? How about H? What I'm about to say? Is it helpful? What I'm about to repeat, is it helpful to people? See, it's important about, is it true, because all liars have the destiny in the lake of fire. That's what the Bible says. So is it helpful? Is it a gossip? The Bible so many times calls it murmuring, don't they? How many murmurs you think will be in the kingdom of God? So what comes out, is it going to really help somebody to hear that? I've heard things where somebody, they've come up and told me, and I said, I wish you hadn't told me that. You know, it might have been true. But I find that the person had issues and problems at the time. So, really, is it helpful? And then I, is it? Inspiring? Is what I'm about to say is inspiring? I've known people that never said an inspiring word in their life to me. All they've talked about is negative. You ever known anyone like that? They couldn't say anything good. That can't be us. Do we inspire others when they're going through things? Or do we sometimes say, well, you deserve that!

Or what do you think you were going to get out of that? No. Can we inspire? And really, as I think about Joe, shouldn't we inspire before we expire? And Ian. That's right, Tracy. Is what? Is it necessary? Is it necessary that we repeat this? But it needs to be said. Really? Is it necessary? Is it needful? Or is it just out of emotion? Judgment is now on the house of God. And the last one is what? Okay. Is it kind? Does it sound familiar? One of the fruits of God's spirit, Galatians 5, 22. What is it? Goodness, kindness. Is it kind? Can we be kind? Haven't you known people who are just kind people? And they said, well, no, I'd rather not say that. I can learn from those people. And because what comes out of our mouth should be kind. You know, this is really hard to do sometimes. But it's what we've been called to do and to be. So the song goes, it's only words. And words are all I have to take your heart away from the song. We have to make sure that it doesn't come across to us. It's only words. And words are all I have to crush your heart today. Because we can't crush people with our words. So our words tell us something very profound. It tells the best or the worst of each and every one of us.