Matt.
15:10-11; Exo. 20:7; and Eph. 4:29
Introduction:
A. There's a lot of talk these days about pollution. We hear a lot about Earth pollution: landfills and recycling. Forsyth and many communities around have recycling available. We hear about water pollution and air pollution too!
B. But we don't hear much talk about pollution
of the
sound waves.
C. Jesus said in Matt. 15:11, "it is not
what goes into
the mouth that
defiles [maketh unclean or pollutes] a
person; but it
is what comes out of the mouth that
defiles."
NRSV
Trans: Jesus taught that we are to have a clean
tongue and in America today there seems to be less and less emphasis
put on
this! I want to talk about this today,
"A Beautiful
Tongue is a
Clean Tongue."
Prayer
I. Our society accepts a lot of usages of our
tongue that James wouldn't have considered clean! James 3:1-5
A. It is about common place to use a little bad
language
1. T.V.
2. Everyday language.
B. People talk behind others backs not thinking
of how
they are
hurting the other person, and in the case of
Christians, the
church and God!
C. Our society accepts and
thrives on unclean usage of our tongues!
* It
doesn=t matter what is common place or
accepted by
society, Jesus
said, It is what comes out of a persons
mouth that
defiles!
II. A Clean Tongue Shows Reverence for God!
Def. Reverence = Deep respect with awe and
affection!
A. Exo. 20:7 "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord
thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name
in vain." KJV
B. Society may think it's cute, and we may fit in real well, but the Bible says God will not hold us "guiltless!"
C. Pretty serious, I want to be
held guiltless before God, don't you?
D. Listen to this; this is a problem today!
1. Do we know what it means to take God's name
in vain?
2. Webster's def. Vain = Without
value.
It is using
God's name without value
(without there
being a valuable reason why we are using it).
Ex. "My God", "Good Lord",
"Jesus Christ", "Lordie, Lordie, Lordie"
3. When we use the Lord's name, it should mean
something to us
and our listeners, or according
to this
scripture, we are in trouble!
4. When we use God's name (without value), we
are making God less important to our listeners.
a. They won't reverence God.
b. God won't seem important to them!
c. God's a joke, a by-word!
III. A Clean Tongue Displays Reverence For All Things Holy, Personal, Private, and Important.
A. A Clean tongue is a beautiful
tongue because it shows reverence for life, and the way God has made us and for
God's creation!
B. When we speak with a clean tongue, it
expresses
sensitivity to
the spiritual. It is a witness to the
world that we
reverence and respect spiritual things!
C. When we refuse to use four-letter words to
refer to sexual things, it shows that we hold very highly the
way God has
created us, and we want that to be
something
special! On the other hand, when we use
them, it shows
that the sanctity of the act is not
there, only the
animalistic desire! It isn't special
to us!!
D. When we use words like
"heaven","hell", or "damn" loosely it means these
words don't mean much to us! We don't
even know if these places exist; it is just a
good
by-word! On the other hand, when we
don't use
them loosely,
it means we hold these words to refer to
things of
value: Real places and Real things!
E. We need to teach our children to use good
language.
1. By example.
2. By disciplining when necessary, maybe not by
washing their mouth out with soap, but some
way.
IV. A Clean Tongue Displays Good Stewardship of God's Gift of Speech!
A. God has given us all the gift
of speech! How we use it reflects our
stewardship of it!
B. Anybody can swear. It takes no special talent to use curse words! A parrot can repeat swear words and do it very well!
C. But it takes stewardship and work to learn to
communicate
clearly and to make full use of God's gift
of speech!
V. A Clean Tongue is a Witnessing Tongue! (we
talked about having a witnessing tongue last week; we talked about living lives
such that people would ask why we live as we do)
A. Profanity is so common place today; people
will notice
if we have a
clean tongue!
B. People will probably ask, and
they will certainly label us as a person with strong convictions.
C. When they ask, it gives us an opportunity to
share Jesus!
D. Our witness is really what's at stake here; if we are genuinely trusting in God's grace, God's grace will cover those slips. But people who are looking to us as representatives of God will loose their respect for our testimony or witness.
Story: Before I went into the ministry, I knew a pastor of one of the sister churches in our community. He was a very good speaker; I really liked to hear him preach. He was very enthusiastic and had a very likeable personality. I really liked him. I don't doubt his commitment to God and the church! As a community, we were preparing for one of our community services, and he was to be the speaker. I was inviting people to the community service and talking about it one day. I asked an older gentleman in our community if he were going. He said he didn't believe he would go. I proceeded to share how I really liked to hear him speak and encouraged him to go. He said, "When I go to the coffee shop and hear him tell dirty jokes and swear, it is just a little hard for me to put much faith in what he has to say!" What was at stake was his witness!
Maybe he thought
he was trying to fit in and be personable, but what was at stake was his
witness!
Conclusion:
A. Do we need to ask God to help us clean up our
tongues?
B. Perhaps, in our world today, it is so common
place to
not have a
clean tongue that we didn't even realize
what we were
doing!
C. There really is a lot at stake
here; do we need to grow in this area of our lives?
"Let no
evil talk come out of your mouths, but
only what is useful for building up, as there
is
need, so that your words may give grace to
those
who hear"
(Eph. 4:29). NRSV
D. As we encounter Christ at the table this
morning, do
we
need to ask Christ for help with this one?
Do we
need
to grow in this area of our lives?
Prayer of Confession
Service
of Communion
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