Words Matter!

Words Matter!                                           10-13-13             Kelly Durant 

2. Scientists have studied how many words we speak a day. They have determined that men speak about 10,000 per day and women speak about 20,000. The problem is when men get home from work they usually have already spoken their 10,000 so that will explain why when the woman asks the man questions and he just gives one word answers. How was your day at work? Fine.  Did you talk to your boss? Yes. What did he say? Nothing. Ha! We have to be careful what we speak, right?

Words are real things! They have the ability to lift up, or to knock down, to inspire, to encourage, or to discourage! Open your Bibles to:

Matt 12:36-3736 But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.

37For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

3. Every single word you and I speak is important! (repeat) Let’s contrast man’s words to the words that God gave us through Jesus, who gives us love, faith, and hope with His words of life! Not even money can buy the inspiration that words can give! Open your Bibles to:

John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

What we all must do is strive everyday to spend our time with these words of God so we will be full of life and full of the Spirit! Comparing words to food, God’s Word is like meat, solid protein, but man’s words are often like a sweet dessert that will make you sick if you eat only that. We must control what we take in, as it will be what we speak out as well.

4. Lets now see how Our Lord reacts sometimes to our words, the words we speak when we are defending our wants and thinking about our own selves. Look up:

Matt 16:21-23

21      From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.

22      Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.

23      But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

Any of us often can become the very mouthpiece of Satan if we are not careful. It seems so easy to open our mouth when things are not exactly the way we want them. According to the Word, we should not judge a person on the surface by his words only, but we should know their motive and we also must remember God takes into account they will answer to Him on the judgment day.

5. But amongst ourselves here I want you to please feel the freedom to correct with love and patience any brothers and sisters in the Lord when you perceive there are words coming out of their mouths that are just of their own selfish interest, and not in the overall interest of winning souls and building God’s Kingdom! Especially when there is criticism, gossip, and negative things being put into words. The word says:

Prov 27:5Open rebuke is better than secret love. 

One of the highest expression of your love to your brother is to correct him. Jesus did it and you must follow His example!  I know inside you may be asking yourself, is there a problem here in the church that you are talking about this? The answer is I don’t really see that there is a serious one but the Lord laid this message on my heart to be like a pre-emptive strike. You know in order to prevent a forest fire, the foresters will make a controlled fire to burn the brush on the ground so that way if a real fire comes it will not be able to stay lit.

6. Also, always there have been many churches that have lost many people due to the words of man and in house quarrelling. Why do you think the mega churches with 20,000 members are so popular? People would rather sneak in, then sneak out, no responsibilities and no commitments, but also there is no maturing on the part of those that choose that way because more than half of the New Testament is all about relationships and how to get along with each other and with God and He wants us to deal with it. 

In a small place like here we are all family and families have their disagreements, but they later hug and they forgive because they have the same blood, the blood of Jesus to unite them!  

Let’s look up:

Prov 18:21

21      Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

7. Have you noticed it is your own choice of words that determine if you are going to hell or to heaven? I would always get a chill when I would hear someone laugh and say they wanted to go to hell because that is where all their friends are! You cannot get into to heaven without confessing, using your own words, that Jesus is your Lord and savior and you receive Him. Look up:

Rom 10:9        That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.10      For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

8. I observe there are too many people in this world using about 9,900 words a day in emptiness or trash talk, saying many things they should not be saying and only saying a little 100 word prayer to God! We must pray to change what is in our hearts and change what comes out of our mouths!

And when you correct someone for saying words that you know are not right, and they do not accept it so well, don’t worry about it! You cannot be responsible for another person’s pride, or immaturity, or whatever, but you owe them in love to set it straight. If a person speaks evil about someone to you, what is to stop them from later speaking bad about you too? We must defend the correct standard God wants us to have. Look up:

Eph 4:29 29      Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

9. And speaking of grace, how many of you here say kind words to those around you? When was the last time you said: Thank you to those here like:

Lizbeth for watching the kids every week…

Miquel, Joel, Rodrigo, Linda, Miquel Angel for the inspiring music…Sonia for being a driver all these years and picking up the children…Pedro for preparing the Bible classes…Thank you for preparing the food…etc.

And if I forgot to mention you, you tell me later, okay! I want to always encourage you because I sincerely love each person here! Today I have a special request. Like it says in the Word, that God will not hear your prayers if you have something in out heart with your brother. The word says to leave the altar and go to your brother and make it right and then come back to pray.

10. I want us to right now to all come to the front and pray for each other. We can take the time we need. If there is anything you need to share with your brother, anyone here, do it now or call them up on the phone later! Let’s pray for our maturity, spiritual growth, honesty with one another, and healing, and pray about every word that comes out of our mouth in front of others and behind closed doors.