Latest / The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast / 597 | A Word Fitly Spoken: The Power of Your Tongue

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597 | A Word Fitly Spoken: The Power of Your Tongue · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

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  Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Woman at the Well Ministries podcast.
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  With Kimberly Miller, where we believe that every man, woman,
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  boy, and girl must come to Jesus just like the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
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  Our highest priority is helping you experience the reality of God in your everyday life.
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  Whether you're listening in our app, on your favorite podcast platform,
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  are on our website at watwm.org.
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  We invite you to sit down with us as we open the scriptures to learn more about
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  who God is and to strengthen your daily walk with Jesus Christ.
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  Too often we use our tongues for evil and not for good. Jesus said that we are
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  to love our neighbors as ourselves.
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  Though the tongue is but a little member of the body, it is the most powerful,
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  for with it we can build or we can destroy.
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  Join us in this broadcast of Woman at the Well Ministries as we discuss how
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  important it is for us to use our tongue to spread the love,
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  mercy, and grace of Jesus.
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  Hello, and thank you for joining us in this broadcast of Woman at the Well Ministries.
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  We're talking about a lesson today that we've entitled, A Word Fitly Spoken.
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  And it is amazing to me how little time we put into determining what it is we're going to say.
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  When you think about the amazing implications and the impact that our words
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  have on us, on those around us, sometimes on our future, on our moods.
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  It is amazing what power the tongue has.
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  I'm reminded of the stories that you hear all the time where children have been
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  told they couldn't do something at a very young age.
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  And you see them sometime in their 20s and you ask them to do that very task
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  and they'll say, well, I can't do that.
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  And you'll look at them knowing full well they can.
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  But they have never tried it after so-and-so who had some sort of influence
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  over them said, you can't do that.
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  I'm reminded of a friend of mine who has a beautiful voice.
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  And never sings. So I said to her recently, why is it that you never sing?
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  Because I heard her humming and she stopped immediately when I came in.
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  And she said, well, when I was a little girl and I was in first grade,
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  she said the music teacher wouldn't let me sing some part and said,
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  because I couldn't sing.
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  And so she said, I believe she couldn't sing. So she never sang.
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  How about the people who have zero confidence because their entire lives,
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  someone has said to them, you can't do it.
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  You're no good. or the things we just don't try because we're afraid someone
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  will say something bad to us.
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  You see, words have shaped us and molded us because the antithesis of that is
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  the grown adult who thinks they cannot fail,
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  who thinks they can do no wrong because they were molded with the idea that they were wonderful.
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  They were celebrated for who they were and things that they did were almost
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  drawn out in proportion because the love that was poured upon them,
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  the kindness of their words, and you'll see them do things they can't do at all.
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  And amazing things will happen because they don't know the word, I can't.
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  Because no one said to them, you can't.
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  You see, the devil uses our tongues to destroy others.
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  The church is not isolated from this fact.
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  You walk into the church and you see people whose feelings are hurt.
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  You see little factions and sections sometimes.
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  And you'll see little words that by themselves may not seem to be wrong.
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  But they mean something to someone else and it's hurt them.
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  And you see people who are just cowered down. and there's pain because a word wasn't fitly spoken.
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  Proverbs chapter 25 and verse 11 says, a word fitly spoken is like apples of
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  gold in pictures of silver.
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  In other words, it's bright and it's cheery.
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  It's priceless and it's precious and it's moldable and it's beautiful and it's
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  set out for display and it has great value,
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  a word that is fitly spoken.
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  The book of James warns us that the tongue is a little member and boasteth great things.
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  Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth.
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  You see people who just needle others? They like to say, I know how to get you.
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  I know how to press your buttons.
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  That's needling. That's kindling a little fire. and what you want is a negative response.
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  That is so contrary to what God says.
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  Because God says that we are to love our brothers, that we are to encourage
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  them, that we are to lift them up, that we're to esteem them as we love ourselves.
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  And yet, with no thought whatsoever come flying out of our mouths,
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  our bricks and stones and knives and jagged swords,
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  And as soon as we've said it, there's no taking it back.
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  You see, once the word comes out of your mouth, you can't just reach out and
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  grab it and throw it back in.
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  The damage is done. All you can do then is begin to do damage control and say, I'm sorry.
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  Or begin to backtrack in amazing ways to try to be able to say something different
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  to help sort of smooth over this tremendous pain you've just caused.
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  A person in my life is a communications major and she's constantly speaking
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  to me about words and their impact and the way they are and we talk about a
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  lot of things and one of the things that I see her teach when she teaches a
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  course on communications is this once the word is out,
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  you can't get it back no matter how hard you try when I think about that it
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  makes me wonder then And why is it I will plan for a long time,
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  perhaps on a letter that I write to somebody?
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  I might pour over an email to make sure that I've got it grammatically correct
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  and that I've got the content the way I want it to be.
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  And I'll make sure that it's saying what I want it to say. And I think about
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  how when they read it, it's going to be received.
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  Yet you'll see me on the street and I'll just, just wham, a hundred words will
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  come out in just a few seconds.
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  A ministry partner was joking just, just moments ago that if you cut me off
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  a minute, that's a thousand words.
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  Don't even think. They just fly out.
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  And if your heart and mind is not grounded and rooted in the word of God,
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  if you're not spending your time speaking to God and asking him to cleanse you
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  from all of your wickedness, to forgive you of your sins,
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  to clean your heart out, because from the heart, the mouth speaketh.
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  And if you really want to make sure that you are doing God's work,
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  It begins by cleaning your heart up so that every word you say is in congruency
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  with the light of his love that you want to be a witness thereof.
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  Friends, the words you say have great impact. People are looking at you.
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  We hear so often that actions speak louder than words and actions give power to your words.
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  But don't you ever be deceived. The words you say are extremely powerful.
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  They can destroy an entire being in just seconds.
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  You can absolutely destroy a person's reputation among people who barely know
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  that person with just a few sentences.
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  You can destroy a person's life by breaking their heart with just one or two words.
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  And you don't have to be verbose. You don't have to be eloquent.
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  You just speak and out comes destruction.
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  But the Lord says that you can give him your tongue and you can come to him
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  and you can use your tongue as an instrument of peace.
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  He said, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall inherit the earth.
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  The Lord has told us that a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.
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  He has warned us in James chapter 3 and verse 10 that out of the same mouth
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  proceeds blessing and cursing.
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  My brethren, these things ought not to be so. You shouldn't be blessing someone
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  one minute and cursing them the next.
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  You shouldn't be saying good things and bad things.
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  Don't talk behind people's back. Don't gossip about people. Use your mouth to
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  spread the love and the word of God.
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  Think about the difference in these two sentences. is son you're always making a mistake.
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  You never do anything right. That scenario as opposed to this one.
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  Son, we've made a mistake again.
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  This time, let's think about what we did wrong. And let's determine how we can
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  fix it. Because I believe in you.
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  Let's look at the scenario of the one child whose parents are keeping score
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  on wins and losses in their life.
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  Whether it be grades or whether it be talents or
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  whether it be sports events and they're
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  always telling them you did great that was
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  a fantastic shot you made what were
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  you doing on third base when the ball went
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  by you were you just thinking about something else or the parents that are keeping
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  track of the efforts and are feeding the person's confidence and they say things
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  like man what a great game you had today i was so proud of you because you're playing your best.
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  That isn't a cop-out because you don't just say that to the ones who don't have any talent.
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  You say that to talented and untalented. You say that to every individual because
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  the truth of the matter is, is a lot of their performance depends on what is
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  being put inside of them.
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  And if you're constantly feeding them destruction and negativity,
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  if you constantly are giving them the world who wants nothing but to destroy them,
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  my friends, you will have an unhappy person in your life, and you will have
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  somebody who's not reaching their potential.
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  But the moment you hand them Jesus by giving
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  him his love and his grace and his glory through the words that you
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  speak you see his word is made
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  flesh among us Jesus dwells with us that's how important words are we can have
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  him because we love him and because he has us a word fitly spoken is like apples
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  of gold and pictures of silver you can build up or you can destroy,
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  And I leave you with this thought.
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  Jesus said, I love you and neither do I condemn you.
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  My friends, where would you be today had Jesus looked at you and said,
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  you're no good for nothing, scallywagon scoundrel, and I don't want anything to do with you.
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  I gave you a chance and you blew it.
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  But he did a word fitly spoken and he said, I am the way, the truth and the
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  life and no man cometh unto the father but by me.
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  He said, I love you.
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  Thank you for joining us for today's podcast.
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  You can find quotes and scripture references from this episode in the show notes.
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  We pray today's message has been a blessing.
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  Thank you for your prayers and support. Remember, Jesus loves you. You are loved.