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684 | The Power of the 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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or 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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There is amazing power in the words we choose to say.
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The tongue is a little member of our body, but perhaps the one most powerful.
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We can use it for good, or we can use it for evil.
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Join us today in this broadcast of Woman at the Well Ministries,
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as Kim discusses the value of choosing our words for good.
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Hello, and thank you for joining us in this broadcast of Woman at the Well Ministries.
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It's always a pleasure to be
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able to come and speak of the things that the Lord has placed in my heart.
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Today we're going to talk about something that we all encounter every day,
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and that is a discourse from our tongue.
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Every day we run into people that we know. We run into people that we don't know.
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We have situations that go by pleasantly and everything is fine,
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and then we find ourselves occasionally, or perhaps for others more than occasionally,
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in situations that are filled with stress.
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Perhaps you're in a conversation with someone and they begin to say things mean
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or they begin to say things hurtful.
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You firsthand are experiencing the damage that a tongue can do.
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But you have a moment in time where you can choose how you are going to respond.
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Whether you're going to respond in like manner and begin to destroy them down
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with your tongue, or whether you're going to choose to be an instrument of God,
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spreading his love and his mercy and his grace.
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Now, obviously, those words spoken are much easier said than they are to practice.
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It is difficult when faced with situations that make you fearful or really irritate
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you or may even hurt you to realize that your next move...
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Is a direct response to your relationship to God.
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All of us are tempted to turn around and absolutely fillet the next person with our tongue.
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But there are those who are completely aware of its damage.
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And they choose to say something less hurtful.
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They say things that will help the situation instead of escalate it.
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It's with our tongue that we're able to tell others about Christ.
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The greatest commission was to go out into all the world and teach and preach
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the gospel, to let other people know who Jesus was, that none should perish
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but that all should come to repentance.
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The book of James is devoted to the small member of our body called the tongue.
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And we're going to spend our next few moments together discussing the tongue,
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the power of words, the ultimate responsibility that we have to choose to use it for its purpose.
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In Matthew chapter 5, beginning in verse 13, we're told we're the salt of the earth.
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But if the salt hath lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted?
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It is thenceforth good for nothing. and you can destroy your witness to someone in an instant.
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In but a brief moment as you begin to just lay into them with no mercy and no
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grace and absolutely no love of God.
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For some of you within the sound of my voice, you have very hard time controlling your temper.
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And so when you begin to slay someone with your tongue and lash out at them,
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you use words that are not becoming to a Christian or someone who has submitted their heart to God.
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So in that instance, you bring shame and reproach to God.
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And you absolutely destroy your witness so that later on when you encounter
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that same individual and you're not angry anymore. And perhaps you might even
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be in a pleasant and good mood.
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And you see them so you want to sit down beside of them and talk about the love of God.
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And what they can remember were the words you said in that last encounter.
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And so your words fall upon death's ears.
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And you have much to do with those consequences.
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You see, Proverbs chapter 25 and verse 11 says this,
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A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.
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When you say the right word at the right time and in the right way,
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It shines as gold and is priceless.
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And it is exhibited around the rest of the words, like a picture we display on our mantle.
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It'll stick out and shine for Jesus. The Bible tells us in that same chapter
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of Matthew chapter 5, beginning in verse 14, that ye are the light of the world.
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A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.
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Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick.
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And it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
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Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify
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your Father which is in heaven.
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Ye let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and
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glorify your Father which is in heaven.
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People see your good works by the things that you do, but the things that you
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say have an amazing impact on them.
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Children who are reared in homes where there is abusive language they grow up
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with very big scars and deep hurts.
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They tend to have an attitude that looks at the world as if it is a horrible
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place as if it is a monster
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they don't like people they don't like things and they don't usually become
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all that they were meant to be and their potential is stifled because somebody
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somewhere as they were growing up continually told them they couldn't do it.
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They continually said to them they were no good. They continually said to them
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that they were worthless.
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They bought into that theory.
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They become what they were told.
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Perhaps one of the things that we often neglect about the damage that is done
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with our tongue is the things that we say to ourselves.
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We impose barriers upon our work for Jesus by telling ourselves we're unworthy.
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The devil speaks in our ears and he,
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infiltrates our mind by the things that we allow him to
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let us see and the things that we sit around and listen to from others and the
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stuff that we read, and then we become this big cesspool for his resources to
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begin to just filter into us.
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And when the Lord calls us to service or ask us to do something,
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we begin to listen to a little small voice in our head that says, you can't do that.
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You're not perfect. God doesn't love you.
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Nobody loves you. You need to let that person do that. They're smarter than
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you are. They're better than you are.
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And we begin to hear that stuff over and over and over in our head that we're
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telling ourselves until finally
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we give in and we don't allow the Lord to work through us and to be all that
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we can be in Him because we have used our tongue in our mind to begin to speak
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to ourselves about things we cannot do.
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I submit to you that I serve a risen living God.
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And I submit to you that greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.
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And I submit to you that he doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the called.
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He doesn't need anything from us because he's going to impute in us his righteousness.
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He will give us his skills that he needs for us to have.
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He will place our feet in the places we need to be.
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He will open our mouths and come straight through us if we but yield ourselves
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to him and submit ourselves to a loving, wonderful, non-failing, powerful God.
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The one thing we seem to have so much trouble submitting to the Lord is that
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small member of our body, the tongue.
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And it seems that we may show up for church every time the doors are open.
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We may have on our Sunday vest every time we see our family members and we see
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our church family at church and we have that church look going.
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But just as soon as someone comes to us and says something we don't like then
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our tongue opens up and we begin to use it as a sword piercing asunder the heart
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and the emotions of those around us,
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perhaps we've sit in the church house and we've heard our pastor speak or a
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guest speaker come in and speak and we hardly get out of the parking lot till
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we begin to pick fault if nothing else in how he looked or how she looked
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and nothing else in what they spoke or chose to speak about And then you begin
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to just start whittling away at the words that they have said because your tongue
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is going to try to destroy what God has laid out there.
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But I want to tell you that the Bible says that his word will not go without.
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Something changing because his word will not go void.
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But I also want to tell you that we are the tabernacle of God.
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And the Holy Spirit dwells in us.
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And out of the heart, man speaketh.
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And so when we are in right fellowship with God, our heart will flow with His
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blessings, His grace, and His love.
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Someone will come to us and they may ruffle our feathers.
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They may do something we don't like. They may do something that we think is appalling.
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But when we speak to them it will be out of love and it will be out of grace
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and it will be out of mercy we will not condone their sin we will point out
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that sin to them in a loving godly way.
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You don't have to be wishy-washy and you don't have to be
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meek and completely submitted to sin in fact he says be bold in the Lord
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but that doesn't mean you have to be bold in your speech to the point that you're
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violent and vile when you talk to them That means you have to stick to your convictions,
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that you have to be confident in the God that feels you, and that you have to
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turn around with an answer
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that tells them why you believe and who you believe in, and that reproves them
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through the blood of Jesus Christ, and you do it in a loving manner.
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And let me tell you something, that's the only way that person's going to hear it anyway.
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If you come attacking someone, slamming them, using the Bible as,
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a weapon against them, assure you they're going to close their ears they're
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going to close their heart and you're going to lose all opportunity to win them for the lord
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but if you come to that sinner steeped in sin and you come speaking the word
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of the lord and you come with a heart that is intent
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to be able to help them and your main goal is to show them jesus when you sit
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down and come alongside them and you begin to spread the word of god about them
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and you begin to spread your arms wide and You begin to embrace them and love them.
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And you choose words that are soft to the heart and strong to the point.
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They'll begin to hear you.
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Because their heart will seek after what you have to say.
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Your words won't fall on deaf ears because you won't have threatened them when you begin to speak.
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You'll be inviting them to a better way.
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You see, it's the easy thing to do, to respond in anger.
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It is the godly thing to respond in love.
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Proverbs chapter 15 says, beginning in verse 1 through 4, A soft answer turneth
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away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger.
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The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright, but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness.
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The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.
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A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit.
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The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the good and the evil.
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And the wholesome tongue is a tree of life.
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When you think about a tree of life, you see something that is growing,
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something that is vibrant, something
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that is alive, something that is noticeable, something that is huge.
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That's what a wholesome tongue will be. You'll spread life as you go about your world.
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You'll be bigger than life in that they see him instead of you.
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If you're a wholesome tongue, you'll go about and you'll be able to not stir
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discord and strife, but begin to establish peace and the truth.
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The Bible says, I am the truth and the way and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father but by me.
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The Bible says that we are to speak truth.
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What are you speaking? You see, we have a moment between what hits us and what we say.
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And that moment between there is our choice.
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We can choose to just spit what comes out, which is almost always going to be
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something from the devil, something that's going to hurt, something that's going to destroy.
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Or we can choose for a split second to let that pass and to choose to do good with our tongue.
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If we think of nothing else in this brief time that we have together,
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it is imperative that we think about the fact that you can choose to destroy
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someone with your tongue or you can choose to lift them up.
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The choice is strictly yours.
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And I submit to you that just slamming somebody with your tongue has never amounted to anything good.
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It has never rectified a situation, and it's never solved a problem.
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But when you sit down and begin to speak words that are uplifting,
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but to the point, words that are soft,
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you can choose a hard word to say or a soft word to say and say the very same thing.
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But a hard word will turn that person who's listening to you on the defense.
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It will close their ears and I will assure you it will shut down communication.
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But if you really want to communicate to someone choose words that they're able
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to hear words that will not tear them down words that will show them the facts and the truth,
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and that will hurt them perhaps but if it's the truth the truth will set you free,
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the Bible tells us we don't need to tell people what to do We need to tell people
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what the Word of God says.
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We don't need to condemn the people.
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The Bible says that Jesus said that He did not come into the world to condemn
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the world, but that the world was condemned already.
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We need to speak the truth and let the Holy Spirit discern the hearts and minds
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of those that are going to receive the Word.
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And let the Lord have His perfect will and way in all situations,
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but it will begin with you.
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If you have a problem with somebody and you just can't communicate,
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I ask that you just stop for a minute and you analyze what it is that you're
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doing in that situation.
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I ask that you think about how it is that you're talking to them.
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I'm not asking you to step back on your position. I'm not asking you to condone sin.
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I'm asking you to speak with the love of God.
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I'm asking you to deliver the truth of the Word of God.
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I'm asking you to do it in a way that they can hear you and receive.
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I'm asking you to take the time to bathe your life and your heart and your mind
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in prayer that when you open up your mouth, it's the Holy Spirit coming out.
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He doesn't need any help.
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He can do it. And if we will let him, he surely will.
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James chapter 3, beginning in verse 2, the word of God says this.
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For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word,
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the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.
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Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths that they may obey us,
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and we turn about their whole body.
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Behold also the ships which thought they be so great and are driven of fierce
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winds yet they turned about with a very small hymn whithersoever the governor listeth,
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even so the tongue is a little member and boasteth great things behold how great
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a matter a little fire kindleeth,
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and the tongue is a fire a world of iniquity So is the tongue among our members,
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that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature,
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and it's set on fire of hell.
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For every kind of beast, and of birds, and of servants, and of things in the
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sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind.
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But the tongue can no man tame. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
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Therewith we bless God, even the Father, and therewith we curse men,
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which are made after the similitude of God.
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Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing.
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My brethren, these things ought not so to be.
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James teaches us that the mouth is the pathway of the mouth.
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People. The Bible tells us that out of the heart man speaketh.
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As James in John, in James chapter three begins to speak, he explains to us
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that a big ship, though it is huge, is actually turned by just a small helm.
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He tells us so a horse may be powerful and mighty, the entire horse moves as
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the bits in his mouth are adjusted.
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He likens that to the tongue in our body. When you use your tongue to destroy and to defeat.
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When you use your tongue saying vile words and obscenities and cursings,
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it isn't just the little tongue in your mouth that you are defiling.
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It is the entire body. It is you.
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When you think it's cool to join in on the dirty jokes,
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and to use obscenities or jump on the bandwagon at work and gossip and begin
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to backbite and demean a fellow co-worker,
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it's not just your tongue that's involved in that.
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You have now destroyed your whole witness.
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You have now defiled your whole body.
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We have a choice to make the Bible tells us choose you this day whom you will serve in Deuteronomy.
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But Joshua tells us that as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
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Now, the tongue is a constant battle. We are humans and we live in this world,
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and we have passion and we have
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things that cause us to fear and we have things that will stir up anger.
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My question to you is, have you submitted your tongue to the Lord?
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And you say, well, Kim, but I just get so angry. I've just got to say it or I'm going to explode.
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I ask you when you do explode, what have you gained?
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You see, we have a moment between what causes us to anger, that stimulus of
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what shoots the wrath up through us, and the response of what our tongue will say.
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And in that split moment, we are controlling something deadly.
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But we must control it. We must give our mouth to the Lord.
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And in every situation, we must use it to uplift him, to bring him glory.
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You see, it's not just the ministers, the teachers, the evangelists,
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the singers that are using their mouth for the glory of God.
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It is everyone in the family of God.
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And you, my friend, need to sit down with the holy God and ask him to search
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me, O God, and try me and know my ways.
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And ask him to control the tongue, that you may speak words that show others him.
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Because a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. Thank you.
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Thank you for joining us for today's podcast. You can find quotes and scripture
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references from this episode in the show notes.
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We pray today's message has been a blessing. If it has, please consider leaving
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