Latest / The Daily Word / April 25 – What Your Words Reveal
Transcript
- Cory Barnes: Well, hello, it is April 25th and today we are in Matthew chapter 12 as we continue along in our life journal, our daily reading plan, and I'm excited to share with you verses 33 through 37, which is the portion that I captured today. So want to encourage you, if you haven't already read Matthew chapter 12, Go ahead pause this podcast, take a few moments, read the entirety of the chapter or listen to it, and then come back to this podcast and take a listen so that you yourself can hear the scriptures for yourself before you hear my insight. But otherwise, I hope you've already read this morning or today at some point, and you can now hear what I felt the Lord impressed upon me as I read his word. So, in Matthew chapter 12. Verse 33 it says either make the tree good and it's fruit good or make the tree bad and it's fruit bad For the tree is known by its fruit You brood of vipers How can you speak good when you are evil for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks? The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil I tell you on the day of judgment, people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned." So these are all the words of Jesus. Jesus is of course a teaching and talking to those who are listening, and he makes some pretty strong statements. For me, verse 36 and 37 really is what popped off the page. he said this, tell you on the day of judgment, people will give account for every careless word they speak. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. When I read this, it really causes me to pause and to check myself, to first check my heart. Because just backing up a couple of scriptures, it doesn't say, you know, make sure the outside's clean and that you're ⁓ dotting all your I's and crossing all your T's and just making sure you sound good. It says no, either a tree is good and its fruit is good or it's bad and its fruit is bad. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouse speaks. So whatever we're saying, that's coming from what's inside of us. So when... I'm looking at this scripture and hearing Jesus say that, I've got to give an account for every careless word that I speak. He's talking to them, but he's talking to me. And it makes me pause to say, what are the words that I've been speaking lately? Am I speaking words of life? Am I speaking words of encouragement over those that I love, over those that I care about? What about those that frustrate me? What about situations and circumstances? that maybe I ⁓ am frustrated or struggling with, what am I speaking and saying over those things? Because even in those things, my heart is speaking, my heart is revealing. And so I am definitely pausing today to not only say, Lord, search me and know me, but I have the opportunity to search myself really, because my words are revealing what's going on on the inside. So I can do some self-reflecting on what I've been doing, but even as I move forward to be more aware of what I'm saying and paying attention because my words are a reflection of the fruit. As we ⁓ walk around our neighborhood, there is a apple tree that our neighbors are so gracious to allow everyone to enjoy the fruits of. But whenever that apple tree is not being tended to or cared for, the apples get really rotten. not taking care, you know, nobody wants those apples, but we're always careful to look for where are the good apples. But I know that if that tree continues to not be taken care of, eventually it won't produce good fruit. The roots and the tree itself have to be tended to in order for us to continue to reap the benefits of good, healthy apples in the years to come. And so today my encouragement is for you and for myself, for us to check our heart, to allow the Lord to check our heart. But again, and I'm even reminded that every careless word I speak, I'm gonna be held accounted to for that. So kind of that old, I don't know, what we would call it, just saying of maybe sometimes you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all. Perhaps that's a little bit of wisdom we can use today, but I wanna challenge you to... even maybe take it a step further, if you're feeling like maybe you don't have something nice to say, yes, A, don't say it. But take that to the Lord and ask the Lord, what's going on there in your heart? Because it's also not good for us to just stop it there. Because remember, Jesus said, there's many times in the scriptures where the Pharisees who by the law, they could look really good on the outside actually. Before Jesus came, You could abide by the law and there could have been terrible things going on inside your heart. But Jesus said, I tell you, if you think about a woman in your heart, you've committed adultery in your heart. Jesus cares very much about what's going on inside of us and what's going on in our heart. And this is why, because he knows what's going on in the inside is what's going to come out on the outside. So what's important? It matters. So can I pray for you today, can I pray for myself as we come before the Lord and we ask him to help us continue to tend to the roots as we hope and pray and believe God for good fruit in our lives. Well Lord, we come before you and we thank you God for your word that it comes and it is good seed to get planted deep within our hearts. And so Lord, we want to allow our heart to be fertile ground to receive your word, that it would be deeply planted and rooted in our lives. And God, if there's anything in our hearts, in our minds ⁓ that is trying to ⁓ choke out your word, that is trying to choke out ⁓ anything that you want to be planted and rooted, Lord, whether it's the cares of this life, the riches of this world, distractions. We speak against those right now in Jesus name. And Lord, we are praying that we would refocus ourselves on you and the goodness of Jesus on the finished work of the cross. And Lord, as we continue to look to you and trust in you, allowing your word to wash over us and to cleanse us, we know God that you are faithful to produce the fruit of the Spirit. in our lives. God, it's not through our own work and our self-righteousness that those things are produced, but it's through leaning on you and trusting in you and allowing you to work in us that the fruit of the Spirit would grow in us. So Lord, we thank you that you are our strength. We lean on you today, and it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.