Latest / Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ) / "Common Sins and Struggles" by Joey Morgan - Part 6

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"Common Sins and Struggles" by Joey Morgan - Part 6 · Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ)

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Well, good morning, everyone.
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So we're going to start today with the common sins and struggles.
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We're going to talk about swearing and gossip.
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Gossiping is how I have it, but I guess gossip seems better.
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So when we think about swearing, there's actually two ways
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that you could go with that.
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We're going to talk about one in particular.
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But in the Bible, there's a couple different instances of swearing.
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One would be you taking an oath about something.
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It would be like you might take an oath of citizenship here.
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You might swear to something.
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An oath between two people would be something in marriage
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or something like that.
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You could have the personal type of oath described in the Bible
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where Abimelech swore not to harm Abraham, Genesis 21 through 16.
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And Jesus talked about we should really use those types of oaths
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where we're swearing that we will do something, not do something,
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whatever it is.
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We need to be careful with that.
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We need to maybe even do it a little bit sparingly, Matthew 5, 33 through 37.
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He says, again, you've heard that it was said to those of old,
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you shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.
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But I say to you, do not swear at all, neither by heaven,
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for it is God's throne, nor by earth, for it is his footstool,
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nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king.
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Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make
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one hair white or black.
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But then the verse that I'm sure you all might know
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is, but let your yes be yes, and your no be no,
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for whatever is more than these is from the evil one.
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And we kind of talked about how God is the one who's
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in control of everything.
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And once we realize that, we need to be careful what we say we might will do
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or won't do, because sometimes something might come out of our control
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where we can't fulfill that.
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It makes me think about James, again, the people who
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say we will go to such and such a city, and this and that,
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and we will gain profit, and all those things.
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Well, you don't know that that's what's going to happen.
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So we better be careful when we swear or take an oath in that kind of a way.
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So that's one swearing.
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That's not what we're going to talk about today,
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because there's the swearing where one would use profanity.
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Now, most of us probably don't even use the word swearing for that anymore.
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I think most people probably say cussing, or cursing,
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or however it is, whatever the definition is,
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or whatever the word is that you might use for that.
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And that's the one that we'll talk about.
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One example that would be for us using words of a sacred nature irreverently,
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such as using God's name in an incorrect way,
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other religious things, sacred ideas, or just using whatever the bad words are.
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And that's going to depend upon the culture, right?
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Because some people, I've always said, I don't
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know how we decide what a bad word is.
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Where did we come up with, this is the word that's bad,
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how do we decide that?
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But it's a cultural thing, because some words in certain cultures are bad,
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and sometimes they're not in others.
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But everything that we're going to talk about
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applies to whatever culture we're in.
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The idea is we shouldn't be using the profane words that that culture uses,
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because it's going to cause us to lose a certain aspect of our influence,
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or things like that.
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That's what we'll get into.
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So it doesn't matter.
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You might say, well, this isn't a bad word here.
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It wasn't a bad word there.
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It's wherever you're at, if you are more like the culture
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and using the verbiage that they're using to be vulgar,
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or whatever it might be, it's going to cause the same problems.
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And that's the reason why we're not supposed to do those kinds of things.
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So why do people use words like that?
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What do you think?
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What are some reasons why people would use cuss words, curse words, again,
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whatever it is that you might call those things?
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Yeah, it can be a habit, for sure.
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Sometimes we might swear because we're angry, something just in an instant.
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It's just a thing that comes out.
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Sometimes we might have a limited vocabulary,
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and that's all we know, because that's all we've been around.
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It's not just necessarily it can be a habit part of it,
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but it's also that's all we know.
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That's all that somebody's heard their entire life,
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and that's the words that they use.
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And it's definitely more common probably now for us to hear it,
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you know, no matter who, even if we're in a position
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where most of our family doesn't maybe do this,
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and most of our co-workers maybe doesn't do this,
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but we're in a society now with internet, media,
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and all the things we're used to,
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they probably didn't use this verbiage as much in those things.
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Anybody know when the first time a curse word was used in a movie?
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Yeah, 1939, gone with the wind.
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Anybody turn on a TV show today and not hear a single one?
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And that's probably not even the word that was used in gone with the wind
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is pretty low key compared to some of the stuff
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that you might even hear today in considering
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what the words typically are.
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So whatever the reason is, swearing is never
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going to endure or endear us to others.
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And if we are Christians, it's possibly
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going to ruin whatever example that we might have for Christ.
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So we're going to look at some of the things
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the Bible teaches on the subject of things that we say.
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Why is it important how we choose the things we say, what we say,
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all those kinds of things like that.
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So again, although there's a lot of bad language in our society,
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it's not a new problem.
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The Old Testament and Jesus, along with his apostles in the New Testament,
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talk about the issue of things that you and I say
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and then the consequences that can come from those things.
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Plenty of people, again, use God's name in ways
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that it doesn't give it the reverence that it deserves.
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Again, that's probably more prolific now in our society
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than what it's been in the past as well.
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But Deuteronomy 511, you shall not take the name the Lord your God in vain,
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for the Lord will not leave him unpunished
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who takes his name in vain.
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So that command demanded that we need to protect
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the integrity of God's name and show reverence to his name.
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Everything that his name represents, his essence,
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and to devalue that is wrong, and that's what he's saying there.
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And it's like, you're not going to go unpunished for that.
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Over in Matthew 12, 34 through 37, it says,
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you brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good?
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For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.
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The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good,
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and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil.
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But I tell you that every careless word that people speak,
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they shall give an accounting for in the day of judgment.
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For by your words, you will be justified,
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and by your words, you will be condemned.
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What's Jesus saying here?
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There's quite a few little things about the words that we speak.
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What else does he tell us in those verses?
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Watch your tongue.
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What's in your heart.
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Yeah, so what, it's not only, the problem,
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it's bad enough that the stuff's coming out of you.
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Like the words that you're using is coming out of you.
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That's one thing.
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But there's a reason why those words are coming out of you.
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It's actually a bigger problem of what's inside of you.
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And that's what he's kind of getting to there.
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For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.
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Yeah, it's more of an indication of who we might really
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be internally instead of just the things that are coming out
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of us externally.
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Basically, a liar is going to speak lies.
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If your heart is filled with lies,
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or if your heart is filled to be a liar,
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if that's what you really are internally,
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it's going to come out of you.
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You're going to end up lying.
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Impure people speak impurities.
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Haters of God will speak swearing against his name,
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whatever it might be.
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Again, internally, if you have hatred towards God,
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you might use his name in vain and use it
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in different ways in which you're not showing reverence.
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And then verse 36 and 37 there are some of the most,
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in my opinion, scary verses that you
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can read about the things that we
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say to show us how much we should really
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be putting the effort in to think about.
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They say you should taste your words a little bit
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before you speak them out or whatever it might be.
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For by your words, you will be justified.
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And by your words, you will be condemned in 37.
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But in 36, he says, I tell you that every careless word
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that people speak, they will give an accounting
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for in the day of judgment.
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Jesus warns that everything that we've said,
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and of course, we should know this, is known by God.
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I may say something somewhere where there's nobody around me.
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I may say something somewhere where there's
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very few people around me.
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And I think, well, not too many people know about that.
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Or whether it's me telling a lie, whether it's me cursing,
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whether it's me gossiping, the things
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that we'll talk about a little bit later,
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he knows every single word that's coming out of my mouth.
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And I mean, if you think about that,
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and you think about the judgment and the condemnation
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or the justification that can come from that,
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it shows the importance that we should put towards thinking
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about the things that we're going to say
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and thinking about all those things.
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Ephesians 4, or chapter 4, verse 29,
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let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth,
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but only such a word as is good for edification
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according to the need of the moment,
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that it will give grace to those who hear.
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That's the flip side of things.
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It's like, we shouldn't let unwholesome words
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come from our mouth, but we should still be using
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our mouth for good things.
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If we're going to be, he said a minute ago,
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that we were going to be justified by our words
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or we're going to be condemned, that
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means we can do good things, but we can also do bad things.
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But Paul tells us not to allow useless words
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to come from our mouths.
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Again, that could be swearing, cursing, gossip, lies, slander,
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however you want to look at it.
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But instead, we should be building people up
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with those things.
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Why should we not use useless words?
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No benefit to it, right?
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They really have no worth.
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So that's how you really know if a word is useless,
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what's the fruit that came from me speaking, whatever this is?
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Did anything good come from it?
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Did it change anything?
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Did it cause someone to be better?
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Did it cause me to be better?
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If it doesn't produce anything positive, then what good was it?
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And that's why he's saying unwholesome words,
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they're useless to let those things come from our mouth.
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They're useless to let those things come from your mouth,
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but only such a word that is good for edification
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is what you need to be spending your time on,
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the things that you say.
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And the flip side of that's also true
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is how do we know if something's not useless?
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Well, if I go to someone and I say something to somebody
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and it edifies them and builds them up
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or it causes them to see something differently that
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changes to be a benefit to them, it's
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fruit is produced from it that is good,
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then we know that that was a word
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that we should have been using our tongue for,
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using our mouths for.
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So James, over in James chapter 3,
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you might want to turn there.
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I'm going to spend quite a bit of time on this one.
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We're warned against the dangers of the tongue
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and then why we should control it.
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So James, over in James chapter 3, beginning at verse 2.
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James chapter 3, beginning at verse 2.
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And I'm going to get verse 1,
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but I'm going to come back to that.
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It says, for we all stumble in many ways.
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If anyone does not stumble in what he says,
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he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well.
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Indeed, we put bits in horse's mouth
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so that they may obey us and we turn their whole body.
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Look also at ships, although they are so large
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and driven by fierce winds,
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they are turned by a very small rudder
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wherever the pilot desires.
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So I mentioned earlier and we brought it about
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as what are some reasons people might do this
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and sometimes it's a symptom of we lack self-control,
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which is the case with a lot of the things
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that we're going to cover throughout this class.
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That's the big problem, the big issue within ourselves
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is that we lack self-control to maybe do that.
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Controlling the tongue is a hard thing to do.
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It's very easy to sin with the tongue.
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However, when one does not control the tongue,
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it points to one who really possesses lack of self-control
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and also lack of the maturity to be able to do those things.
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The flip side is one who does control the tongue,
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it is a sign of maturity and someone who has
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more self-control over the things that they might say.
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So James gives an example for this as the rider
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who controls a horse by putting a very small bit
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in their mouth and then also the command of a captain
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of a large ship who is simply turning that big ship
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by that small rudder.
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So a lot of things in life are directed
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by the things that we say and then also not only that,
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but really how we say it as well.
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You know, if we don't place importance on that,
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if we don't place the importance on it that we need to,
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we can, if we just see the things that we say,
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maybe it's just a flippant thing,
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it doesn't really matter, it's just a small thing,
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it's just a few words, whatever it might be,
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James is saying you're not understanding the consequences
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of what can come from the very small words
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that you say to somebody.
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It's a big thing, even though it might seem small,
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it can do big things and that's good or bad.
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It could be a lot of good can come from the things,
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the small amount of words that you might say,
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whether it is just saying something that you were thinking
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about somebody or you're calling someone
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or you're praying for them or whatever it is,
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both can achieve great things
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and can cause a big change in somebody,
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whatever it might be, but the same thing,
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just a few small words the other way can cause total,
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you know, dissension or whatever it might be
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between two people and cause a relationship
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to go down a path of just dissolving.
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And that's how powerful the things that we say
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because the uncontrolled tongue,
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James in three, five and six, he says,
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can cause great destruction.
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Even so the tongue is a little member
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and boasts great things.
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See how great a forest a little fire kindles.
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And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity.
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The tongue is so set among our members
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that it defiles the whole body
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and sets on fire the course of nature
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and it is set on fire by hell.
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So a small spark can cause a great fire.
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I mean, how many of the fires out in, you know,
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the other side of the country,
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they always say sometimes, most of the time,
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it's usually somebody threw a cigarette out of a window
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or whatever it is, and those fires can go on
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for weeks, months, whatever it is.
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Just that little small spark causes such great damage.
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And he's saying in the same way,
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evil word spoken can continue to do that same exact thing.
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That same kind of destruction that you see
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when entire counties of forest and everything
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are burned up just by that little small spark,
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those few evil words or those few words
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that you might speak that aren't good,
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that aren't beneficial, that aren't edifying
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can cause that same kind of destruction,
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whether it's in your home life,
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whether it's around your friendships,
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whether it's in the church, whatever it might be,
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it can cause that same kind of destruction.
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So James is warning us that there's really
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no other part of the body that can get us
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into more kinds of sin.
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The tongue helps to plan sin,
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whether it's speaking words to decide on the sin
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that you are wanting to commit,
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or it goes into getting in with other people
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to decide that you're gonna commit some other sort of sin.
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The tongue can also encourage sin.
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The tongue can join in it.
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The tongue can defend it.
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And then the tongue can also spread that same sin
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to other people as well.
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So even such a small little member that it is,
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it can also cause us to get into more kinds of sin
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than maybe anything else.
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And then in addition to this,
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James in seven and eight writes that the tongue is a danger
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because again, it's naturally hard to control.
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For every kind of beast and bird and reptile
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and creature of the sea is tamed
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and has been tamed by mankind,
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but no man can tame the tongue.
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It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison.
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So not only does the tongue produce evil,
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but the evil once it begins cannot be easily stopped.
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So even something as small as gossip,
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which we'll talk about in a minute,
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once it gets going, it's pretty hard to stop.
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And you've probably seen that especially in recent times
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because the way that our world is set up
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with news and stuff now,
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and we've got so many people that have opinions
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that aren't even like on TV,
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we've got social media and everything else.
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Like you've probably seen it with,
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let's say it's a, whether it's a murder
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or whatever it is that happens
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and public opinion starts in this one direction
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because it's what they've been told
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and you don't have all the facts yet.
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Like you, and then you get some body cam footage
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that comes out later and totally goes against
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whatever that is,
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but it's pretty hard to reel that back in and say,
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oh, this is what really happened
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because that's already happened.
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The gossip of what has happened
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has already been put out there
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and the damage has already been done
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and it's already spread like wildfire
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and now it can't come back to where it might would be.
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So the evil, once it begins, is not easily stopped.
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So it can cause actual damage to people in their lives,
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but what else does it do?
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You know, that's the damage that can be done in the world
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to friendships, to whatever it might be,
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if we are using our tongue for,
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whether it's cursing like we're talking about,
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again, lying, whatever it is,
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what else does it do if we, as Christians,
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are participating in it?
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Yeah, Kevin.
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In the paper, chapter one, beholding,
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the conduct is to be able to listen to music
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when we listen to, in the name of God,
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blasphemy, euphorism, like,
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shit eyes, and that same upholding,
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what color is holy,
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what makes that any different?
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Yeah, and that's kind of what I was asking is,
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what does it do if we are the ones
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that are participating in it?
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It's going to kill our influence.
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It's going to destroy our influence
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since we, as believers, are moved to both,
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now we're blessing and cursing
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with the same tongue that we're using,
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and that's not going to make,
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you know, that's not going to end up
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pointing people in the right direction.
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That's just, they're going to see that
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that's who Christians are, in their opinion.
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It's, they're just like us, in a sense,
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and we're not supposed to be.
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You know, we are a lot alike sometimes with the world,
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but we're not supposed to be exactly like the world.
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We should be different in some way
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that they're seeing us and saying,
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there's something different about this person,
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and I want to know what that is.
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Why is it that they do things the way that they do?
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It's going to destroy our influence
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because we're doing the same things that the world's doing,
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and they're not going to see us as any differently
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to ask why we're different,
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and ultimately, that's not going to lead them
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to get that answer of why we're different,
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and that's because of Jesus.
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He, James even says in verse nine and 12,
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with it, the tongue, we bless our God and Father,
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and with it, we curse men
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who have been made in the similitude of God
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out of the same mouth, proceed blessing and cursing.
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My brethren, these things ought not to be so.
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Does the spring send forth fresh water
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and bitter from the same opening?
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Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives,
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or a grapevine bear figs?
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The snow spring yields both salt water and fresh.
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People are going to judge you as evil
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if evil is what comes out of your mouth.
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That's what's going to happen.
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You could put all these verses in context
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with James 3, 1 up there at the top,
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which I didn't read.
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Like I said, it says,
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my brethren, let not many of you become teachers,
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knowing that we will receive a stricter judgment.
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All these warnings about the tongue,
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of how you use your word, definitely apply to that.
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Like, so in a sense, whenever I read this in context,
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as me, I'm reading this saying,
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if I'm going to be a proclaimer of God's word,
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I need to make sure that my mouth
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is being used in the correct way,
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because I don't want someone
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to mix those two things together,
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and I can't give them the spring water,
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and at the same time, also be giving them the bitter water,
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because it's not going to have the same impact,
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it's not going to have the same influence with people,
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it's not going to work in quite the same way
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with someone else.
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If you're going to be a proclaimer of God's word,
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one who is using their words as a blessing or fresh water
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to those seeking it,
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we need to realize that if we mix that
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with cursing and bitter water,
23:16
it's not going to be well-received,
23:17
it's not going to influence people in the same way,
23:22
excuse me, and people aren't going to see us
23:24
as the follower of Christ, you know, that they should.
23:28
I'm reminded of Peter's denial over in Matthew 26,
23:33
beginning at verse 69.
23:37
Three times he's asked about knowing Jesus.
23:41
You know, over and over, he's asked three times.
23:44
The first time he denies, anybody remember what he said?
23:48
He said, I don't know what you're talking about.
23:51
I don't have a clue what you're talking about.
23:55
Aren't you one of his disciples?
23:58
No, that's not me.
24:01
The second time he denied it with an oath,
24:03
like what we talked about at the beginning of this.
24:06
And he said he swore and said, I don't know the man.
24:10
I don't know who that is.
24:13
And they still didn't believe him.
24:14
Like, no, I'm pretty sure.
24:16
I mean, I can tell by the way you're speaking,
24:18
the things that you're saying,
24:19
like your language, your dialect, all those things,
24:22
I'm pretty sure you're one of those.
24:26
You're one of his followers.
24:28
And then the third time it says,
24:30
anybody remember what he said the third time?
24:34
He began to curse and swear, saying, I do not know the man.
24:40
It's as if he had to say,
24:42
I'll show you I'm not a follower of Jesus.
24:45
I'm gonna start speaking in a way
24:46
that really doesn't make it look like I'm one of him.
24:51
I'm gonna say things that it's gonna say,
24:53
oh, well, he can't be one of them.
24:55
And that's how much it might've stood,
24:57
because of course the rooster crowed
25:00
and it doesn't say they ever asked him
25:01
anything else anymore after that.
25:02
And of course, that's all that it was told to us
25:05
was gonna happen.
25:07
But whenever I think about that,
25:09
I don't know exactly what it is that he said.
25:11
I don't know what kind of the curse,
25:13
I don't know what the curse was
25:14
and what the swear was or anything like that.
25:17
But it's as if it progressively, he's like,
25:21
I've got to use my words in a way
25:24
that is going to prove to these people
25:27
that there's no way that I'm a follower of Jesus.
25:31
And he did that progressively by using things
25:35
and saying things that he shouldn't be saying.
25:38
And apparently they left him alone at some point.
25:41
They believed him, I guess, because of that.
25:44
And it's the same for us.
25:45
If we plan on bringing others through teaching
25:50
to know Christ, some may say,
25:55
that's not me, I'm not a teacher,
25:57
so this doesn't apply to me, verse one.
25:59
You know, it's talking about, you know,
26:00
if you plan to be a teacher,
26:01
you better watch the things that you say.
26:03
Well, that's not me.
26:04
I'm not gonna stand up in front of people and do that.
26:08
But who are the teachers?
26:11
It's every single one of us that's sitting in here.
26:13
It's anybody who's went down in that water and came back up.
26:17
We're all given the commission to go out into the world
26:20
and bring people to Christ.
26:22
And some of you are preaching a sermon every day
26:25
that you're out there walking in this world,
26:26
whether it's around your family,
26:28
whether it's around your friends, your coworkers,
26:29
whatever it might be.
26:31
And if we are someone who is using our words
26:36
and speaking bitter things
26:37
instead of bringing that spring water,
26:40
the influence is not gonna be there, that it should.
26:43
Because Christianity is a taught religion.
26:47
He set it up that way.
26:48
You know, God set it up for us to go out into the world
26:51
and take it to people
26:52
and teach them to let them know about Jesus.
26:55
And the words of our mouth are so important and so impactful
27:01
that the same thing that James says about a few little words
27:05
is that spark that can cause great destruction
27:07
like a wildfire.
27:09
Well, a few little words that we might share
27:12
with someone about Jesus
27:14
can do the exact opposite of that wildfire
27:17
and cause great things to happen for somebody in their life,
27:20
cause them to come to repentance,
27:22
cause them to come to know Christ
27:24
and cause them to ultimately obey the gospel,
27:27
become a Christian, become a child of God.
27:29
And even the greatest thing is get that crown of life.
27:33
That's what we're here for.
27:34
That's what we're supposed to be doing.
27:36
And so the challenge ends up being really for all of us
27:38
is are the words that I'm using,
27:43
the bulk of the things that come out of my mouth,
27:46
are they to achieve that goal with people?
27:50
And again, we have to have conversations with people.
27:52
I'm not saying like we can just walk around
27:53
and just go up to people and say, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.
27:56
I can't say anything else, but Jesus.
27:58
We work in a civilized world where we have stuff
28:01
that we've got to say to people in our work lives.
28:03
We have to say, hey, I need this to somebody
28:06
that's in our house or whatever it might be.
28:09
But how much time do we think about
28:13
what are the words that I'm saying every day?
28:16
The bulk of the things that I say,
28:18
how much time do I spend saying important things?
28:22
Like things that will last,
28:24
things that will cause that good wildfire,
28:28
the things that will happen in that way.
28:31
So we need to make sure we impress upon ourselves
28:35
based on what James says, based on what the others said,
28:38
what Jesus said, what you say is extremely important.
28:44
Again, we might think of it flippantly
28:46
and just think, eh, it's just a word.
28:50
That word is a big deal.
28:52
It can cause great things, it can cause horrible things.
28:57
So bad language of all types exists in the world.
28:59
We hear it all the time.
29:00
The solution is not to add it to ourselves
29:03
and to learn to control our tongues as best as possible.
29:06
Again, we can't control other people, that's inevitable,
29:09
but we can influence them.
29:11
We can change the things that they might see within us
29:16
to cause them to maybe become more like Christ through us.
29:20
And James tells us that we basically have the choice
29:24
of blessing and cursing,
29:26
but only one instrument in which to do both,
29:29
and that's the tongue.
29:30
So we need to learn to do one of those consistently
29:33
because we can't do both and be pleasing to God.
29:37
We can't continually,
29:39
we need to continually produce fresh water,
29:42
but it's very hard for us to do that
29:44
if we also have a lot of bitter water mixing in.
29:48
So some of the things I've mentioned at the beginning
29:50
of why do people maybe say these things,
29:54
use these bad words, whatever it might be,
29:57
one would be anger.
29:59
Like I said, sometimes we get angry with somebody,
30:01
that's usually when the real hateful stuff comes out
30:04
or you're angry because something's happened
30:06
and you just say stuff out of that temper moment.
30:12
A previous problem that we talked about was anger,
30:15
but we need to find an acceptable way
30:17
to express that in a different way.
30:19
My own experience, I have found this to be,
30:22
like I said, a lack of self-control.
30:25
I've gotten pretty angry plenty of times around people,
30:30
especially church people, not that I get angry,
30:35
I'm just saying I've been around church people,
30:36
not that I get angry at church people,
30:38
but I'm saying I've gotten angry around people
30:40
plenty of times and I've controlled my tongue
30:44
because I'm like, ooh, I can't say that
30:45
in front of these people
30:46
because they'll think poorly of me.
30:49
What's that show?
30:50
I got self-control enough to control it if I want to
30:53
because I don't say it right then,
30:56
but it's still within me,
30:57
like what we were mentioning earlier,
30:59
I need to do something about that.
31:01
But there's also been plenty of times
31:03
where I'm working by myself
31:07
and I cut a board a little bit too short
31:10
and I go to stick it up there and it doesn't fit
31:12
and that board costs $50 or whatever it is.
31:16
And I might say something
31:17
because there's nobody else around me
31:19
and see, it doesn't click with me.
31:22
That God knows.
31:23
That God knows.
31:26
But I didn't control it there,
31:28
but I can control it in front of you.
31:30
That means I can control it.
31:32
Somebody said something,
31:33
it wasn't, I wasn't here Wednesday,
31:35
I was out of town,
31:36
but Chris was teaching on Wednesday
31:38
about taming the tongue.
31:39
Is he in here?
31:41
Somebody said something really good,
31:43
but I don't remember who it was,
31:44
but they were up here about the taming of the tongue
31:46
and they made a very good comment.
31:47
I tried to think about what it was,
31:49
but I couldn't think of,
31:50
can't tame it,
31:51
but they said something else.
31:52
You remember what it was?
31:55
Yeah.
31:56
There's a difference between taming and controlling
31:58
or something along that lines.
31:59
It was a really good comment,
32:01
but I'm not,
32:02
I don't have a good enough memory to remember it,
32:04
but we can have self-control,
32:11
but sometimes we have that selective self-control,
32:13
I guess,
32:14
like how sometimes our wives say we have selective hearing
32:17
if you're a husband out there.
32:21
But we need to make sure that if we are angry,
32:28
we just find a different way to express that thing,
32:30
that whatever it might be,
32:32
and go back to the solutions of anger
32:34
that we talked about previously.
32:36
Again, lots of people do many things
32:39
when they need to let out their frustration
32:41
and keep it from being something
32:42
that turns into bitter water.
32:45
And some people,
32:46
and you can share if you've got a thing like it.
32:48
So if you're angry and you just,
32:51
oh, I'm about to lose it
32:53
and about to start saying some stuff
32:54
that I probably shouldn't say,
32:56
maybe you've got something that you do in particular.
32:59
I mentioned before about writing an email
33:01
and then not sending that type of thing,
33:04
but I know there's lots of people who go out and run.
33:07
Some people sing,
33:08
some people go straight to prayer,
33:11
which is a very good thing
33:12
because you'll start thinking about things differently.
33:16
Maybe you've got something,
33:17
if you want to share it, you can,
33:18
about sometimes whenever I'm really, really frustrated
33:22
and stuff's not going my way
33:23
and I'm about to lose it, maybe,
33:25
and say some things that I'm not supposed to say
33:27
to somebody out of that spot of anger.
33:30
Is there something that any of you do in particular
33:32
that kind of helps you in that situation
33:37
that you want to share?
33:40
Yeah, I'll just go ahead and say it then,
33:41
I guess, don't you?
33:42
Yes.
33:47
Yeah.
33:49
Yeah.
33:51
Draw near to God and yeah.
33:54
Yeah, yeah.
33:56
And that's ultimately, in my opinion,
33:59
like why we need to implant God's word
34:03
into our minds and our hearts.
34:05
And if your conscience is trained in that way,
34:08
when those instances come up,
34:09
the more you mature as a Christian,
34:10
there should be, like to me,
34:12
that's how the spirit talks to me
34:13
is the verses come up in my head.
34:16
It's like boom, it's like.
34:17
So sometimes, whatever situation I'm in,
34:20
we should be getting to the point
34:21
where there is a verse,
34:23
like that just comes into your brain
34:26
and every situation that you're in
34:28
and the more that we do memory verses
34:30
and things like that,
34:31
the more likely we are to be able to resist the devil
34:35
and to flee from him and then draw near to God.
34:38
All those things can happen.
34:41
But again, having negative feelings
34:43
and expressing them might be fine,
34:45
but we need to find better ways to maybe do that
34:47
and simply refrain from using the bad language
34:51
because of everything that Jesus said,
34:53
everything that James said.
34:55
It's very dangerous, can cause great destruction.
35:00
Sometimes what we might need to do
35:02
because sometimes we might need to avoid people
35:05
and situations, kind of like what Kevin was mentioning
35:08
about a minute ago,
35:09
if there's situations where there's dirty jokes,
35:12
gossip, bad language are always present
35:15
and whatever this situation is,
35:18
sometimes we might need to get ourselves away from that.
35:22
You know, 1 Corinthians 15, 33,
35:24
that's probably a memory verse for some of you.
35:26
Who knows that one, anybody?
35:30
I bet if I say the first part, you'll get it.
35:32
Do not be deceived, evil company,
35:37
corrupts good habits or good morals,
35:39
depends on what translation is you're looking at.
35:41
I want to talk about myself again.
35:44
You're probably going to think this guy
35:45
must have a real potty mouth.
35:47
You know, he gets angry and cusses
35:48
whenever he cuts a board short.
35:51
I had a coworker that I worked with whenever I was younger.
35:54
And of course we were together all the time.
35:56
We sat together at the table at lunch
35:59
or whatever it might be.
36:01
And this particular coworker
36:03
couldn't say an eight word sentence
36:05
without saying a certain word seven times.
36:07
Like if he said an eight word sentence,
36:09
it had this word in it seven times.
36:12
I didn't think nothing about it.
36:14
I wasn't somebody who usually even
36:16
said any type of words like that
36:18
even whenever I was younger.
36:20
But I remember one day Amanda asked me,
36:23
who have you been hanging out with?
36:25
I was like, I'll just go.
36:26
I mean, at that time I was working seven days a week,
36:28
you know, long shifts.
36:30
I was pretty much, I'm hanging out with my work people.
36:32
That's all I do.
36:35
And she said, well, I don't know,
36:36
but you've been saying this word
36:39
quite a bit.
36:40
And I hadn't even realized I was saying it.
36:44
But it's because I was in the position
36:46
to hear it constantly all the time.
36:49
And it just became something that I started saying,
36:52
not even realizing I was saying it.
36:55
I had to space myself from that coworker
36:59
and also make a conscious decision after the fact
37:02
because it had kind of got itself into me
37:04
that I need to make sure I root this thing out.
37:07
I've gotta, again, taste my words
37:10
before I say them type of thing
37:12
because I had to break myself of the habit
37:14
of that just being a word
37:15
that I threw in there pretty flippantly.
37:16
Again, I wasn't thinking about saying it.
37:18
I wasn't purposely saying it.
37:20
But if I walked around saying it all the time,
37:22
nobody cares if I'm not saying it
37:25
for a particular reason or not.
37:26
They're just hearing it come from my mouth.
37:28
And then what if that is what causes somebody
37:31
whenever I go to say something,
37:32
tell them about something important,
37:34
they're gonna say,
37:36
well, that guy just cusses all the time
37:38
and doesn't really care what else he says.
37:39
Why would I listen to him?
37:41
So again, I had to space myself from him
37:44
and make a conscious decision.
37:45
I had to change my habit.
37:47
And sometimes we have to change a habit.
37:48
Sometimes we have to change the people that we're around.
37:50
Sometimes we have to change the situation we're around.
37:53
And again, you're not gonna do that
37:55
unless we go back up and talk about what Jesus said
37:58
about the things we say
38:00
and what James said about what can happen
38:02
about the things that we say.
38:04
If we don't realize the importance of it
38:06
and the significance of how much damage it can cause,
38:09
how much problems it can bring,
38:12
then we're not gonna see it as I need to root this out.
38:16
So until you realize the importance of the words
38:19
that you say,
38:20
you're never going to probably do either any of this stuff.
38:23
So if you're someone who doesn't understand
38:24
the significance of what you say,
38:27
this could be something that you don't end up doing.
38:29
So you have to come to that realization first.
38:31
And then once you realize that, you might do this.
38:35
Psalms 141.3 is a good thing to think about,
38:38
a good verse for you to put into your thoughts
38:41
in a time like this.
38:42
It says, set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth
38:45
and keep watch over the doors of my lips
38:49
or over the door of my lips.
38:51
So the best way to avoid swearing and evil communication
38:57
is to learn the experience and the joy
39:00
of what comes from saying what's right and good.
39:03
You know, the more that you go out into the world
39:05
and you say things that are right and good,
39:08
and you see the fruits that come from that,
39:11
the more that you're gonna say,
39:13
this is what I need to spend my time doing.
39:16
Because you're gonna see,
39:17
the more that you go out in the world
39:18
and you say the evil things
39:20
and the things that don't benefit in any form or fashion,
39:23
you're gonna say, it's worthless.
39:26
It doesn't benefit anybody.
39:28
It doesn't help anything.
39:31
It doesn't cause anything good to come from it.
39:33
And again, the more effort that we choose to do that,
39:36
the more that we will see that
39:38
and the more that we'll be encouraged to do it more.
39:41
Well, I really thought I was gonna get
39:42
through the gossip side of things too.
39:44
So I guess we'll pick up with,
39:45
I guess today we'll do swearing
39:47
and then next Sunday we will do gossip.
39:51
So I don't wanna get into that since the bell just rung.
39:54
We'll just go ahead and stop a hair early.
39:57
So be thinking about gossip.
40:01
What you, why you think people do it,
40:05
the things that come from it.
40:07
If it's something that you have taken part in in the past,
40:12
what have you done to keep yourself from doing it?
40:15
Be willing to share those things.
40:16
Because again, that's the idea behind this class
40:19
is for us as a collective to be able to share
40:22
our experiences to help others who might be struggling
40:25
with that same exact thing.
40:26
But thank you for your comments
40:28
and we'll pick up with gossip next Sunday.