1-24-09 Fundamentals: Good Words

The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe – Video Clip – about 2:00:00 – 2:05:00 Lucy using her magic healing serum to bring healing to Edmond.

Last week we started talking about words, and last week we specifically talked about the power of our words to create evil, to hurt other people, and really, the power of our words to create hell on earth.

We started last week with this premise: We all understand at some level that our words have power. People say hurtful things and those words affect us? And yet, the very same people can say really good things that put a smile on our lips and joy in our hearts. Those words feel good. There’s something therapeutic about words that come out a good heart, out of good intentions, out of a heart that loves

We started with this scripture last week.

Rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. Proverbs 12:18

We said that carefully chosen good words bring healing and help those around us become the people who God created them to be (blow up a balloon). On the other hand, rash words, words said without much thought or much caution could do great amounts of spiritual and emotional damage to those around us, much like a sword thrust (pop balloon with sword).

Jesus said, Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. 

Our words come from our hearts. There are not good words and bad words, but rather good words come from a good heart and bad words come from a bad heart, and we said that a bad heart is one that is governed by fear and a good heart is one that is governed by faith or love.

We briefly looked at the idea of speaking out of fear last week, so this week we’re going to look at what a heart of faith looks like.

In order to do that I’d like to draw your attention to what this (Bible) is called? It’s called a Bible, but it’s also called something else? Anyone want to take a guess? Yes, it’s called the Word of God. Why do you think they call it that? It’s an unusual name isn’t it?

I mean, if I wrote a book, it would be a really weird title if I called my book “The Word of Adam”, wouldn’t it? So why do you think people call it that? We’re looking at the power of words, so it’s a good question to ask, why would people call this book God’s Word?

This comes from Psalm 33:6.

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth. Psalms 33:6 (NRSV)

There is this ancient understanding that God created the heavens and the earth by merely speaking words. This idea comes from the creation story when God created everything by merely speaking words. In Genesis 1 we read the familiar line:

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. Genesis 1:3 (NIV)

God speaks over and over again in the creation story, “Let there be . . .” and by no other means other than by speaking words, God creates the world through his voice. The world is created and sustained by the words God speaks. God’s words are powerful and they are eternal. They go on creating forever.

In the same account, human beings are created, and we are told that we are created in the image of a God who creates with his mouth. You and I are created in the image of a God who speaks . . . to create goodness. We are not God, but we resemble him in many ways and the primary way in which we resemble God is that we create the world around us with our words.

You might think that we create our world with our minds or our hands, because we go to work each day using our hands and our brains to do a lot, but can you imagine if we couldn’t talk. How much could we do then? The single most important way that we resemble God is that we create the world around us with nothing more than our words.

Here’s a thought for you. Our words are spiritual. They are a direct reflection of who God is . . .He is Spirit, which is unseen, but heard. We cannot see our words, but we can hear them. We are different from animals because we can speak like God. Our words are maybe the the most spiritual part of us.

God’s word goes on forever, but your word and my word have limited power. We have power to create indeed, but our words are not as powerful as Gods. God’s word goes on and on creating the universe, but our words go out a little ways, they have a little power and then they fade away.

God stands back after creating and he looks at everything that he’s created through speaking and he smiles with joy in his heart and he says, “It is good, it is very good.” God created heaven on earth by speaking and it was very good.

When God speaks goodness and blessing always comes from his mouth.

We are told in the Psalms that: The Lord is faithful in all his words . . .. Psalms 145:13 (NRSV)

Throughout the Old Testament God is not seen, he is just heard by the words that he speaks. There is only a voice, a word, or a whisper, but no body. Then Jesus comes, and the disciple John begins his account of Jesus’ life this way:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1 (NRSV) 

What word do you think John is focusing our attention on in this passage? Yeah, “Word,” It’s repeated three times in one sentence. The point John is trying to make is Jesus is the Word. Jesus is the embodiment of God. Jesus is the voice that created everything in the beginning. And if there was any doubt about what John is trying to say, he says in John 1:14

The Word became flesh and lived among us. John 1:14 (NRSV)

Jesus is the embodiment of the Word or the embodiment of the Spirit of God. He came to teach us about who he is  and how we are to be like him with our words.

But then, something happened. Those who spoke evil and those who did evil, they killed Jesus the word. Killed him dead just like God knew they would. Jesus the Word of God was killed and buried and he spoke no more goodness, but God raised him from the dead, just as Jesus had foretold his disciples that he would.

In Jesus’ death and in his resurrection, with the blood that he shed, it made it possible for our sins to be forgiven, for our words to be forgiven, and here’s the good news, that Jesus could now not just be with us, but his death and resurrection made it possible for him to be in us. The word of God, that creative, powerful, good word of God could be in us – could be speaking through us. Look at what is possible now.

Peter says, Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God. 1 Peter 4:11 (NRSV)

Throughout scripture you and I are called to speak the words of God, to speak words that give life, to speak words that give blessing, to speak words that lift others up, to speak words that give goodness to those around us.

The Apostle Paul puts it this way.

Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, Is there any need out there for people to be built up? so that your words may give grace to those who hear. Ephesians 4:29 (NRSV)

That’s a conscientious choice. That’s being proactive. Today, I am not going to let any evil talk come out of my mouth. If I’m reactive, if I just go off every time I don’t feel like my wife is respecting me or every time the kid’s don’t do what they’re told, then I’m going to say some things that are hurtful. It’s going to take a conscientious choice. “I am not going to let any evil come out of my mouth today.” And if it happens, then I need to spend more time praying and asking God to remove the fear that is making me reactive or explosive and replace it with faith. When I am reactive I will be destructive. When I am proactive I will become constructive.

Every good word is like blowing up a balloon. Take out the balloon that was on your seat and I’d like you to take a big deep breath and on my cue, blow hard into the balloon. Does everyone have a balloon? Is everyone ready? Here we go, one, two, three, Blow! Ok, stop. You just created something with your mouth. You just created something with your breath. When you speak good words, words that build others up, it’s like you’ve expanded the goodness in the world.

You can almost see a person change as you speak good words to them. Shoulders that were almost too heaven to carry just moments ago feel like there’s a weight just lifted off them. You can see something different about their eyes. Where there used to be only darkness, you can see a glimpse of light. Maybe you can see the beginning of a smile. Your words, like your breath in that balloon have the ability to make a powerful impact in a person’s life.

The greatest commandment is to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, and when we begin to do embrace him and seek to love him, and seek to follow his will, then our hearts, like that balloon, begins to swell and grow with the love and presence of God.

To create goodness with your words is to make a conscientious choice each day to fill our hearts and our minds with the vision and the love of God. Together, we go after the evil and fear that’s in our hearts and minds and we seek to be warriors that fight for love and fight for goodness and fight for heaven on earth.

When I’m reactive, I ask myself, what did I fear? What made me explode? What made me say that? And with God’s help I go after it. I give it to God and ask him to clean that fear and sin out of my heart and I begin to live a life of faith instead of fear. I begin to live a life that’s proactive instead of reactive. I begin to lead a life that’s constructive (blow into balloon) instead of destructive (Pop balloon with sword.

Rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

Here’ another proverb:

Proverbs 16:24 (NRSV)
Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.

That’s a true statement isn’t it? We all know it’s true. How do we begin being creating good with our words? How can we be intentional about that? How do we keep from doing evil?

When I say something that hurt someone and I’ve become aware of it, I need to go and ask for forgiveness immediately, because If I don’t I’ve just collaborated with Satan.  I sometimes mess up and say things to people in my family or even some of you that I shouldn’t. I sometimes get reactive and say things that I shouldn’t – things that hurt others, and I immediately go and ask for their forgiveness. Someone may of said something hurtful to me, but sometimes how I responded to them can be just as wrong. By apologizing, I’ve used my words to begin working towards setting things right. I’ve used them to fight against the evil that I propagated. We don’t return evil for evil.

We return good for evil. We do this because if I return evil words for evil words, what good does that do? How do I join God in bringing heaven to earth if I retaliate evil for evil? Both of us will be hurt by the words that we speak if I return evil words with evil words. Instead, I choose to return good for evil. I choose not to enter into the evil. I choose not to be reactive. I choose to not let fear govern what I say and propagate evil, but instead I choose to be proactive and propagate goodness. I choose to speak good words that affect the world positively (blow into balloon).

And then we go back to our key verse: Rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. Proverbs 12:18

There is boat loads of scripture containing wisdom on how we are to speak. Why is there so much scripture? It’s because you and I were created in the image of God, and God’s primary way of revealing himself is through his words. The primary way that you and I reveal who we are is through our words. The primary way that we reflect God’s glory is through our words.

God created the world around him with his words. You and I create the world around us through our words. Words are powerful and yet we speak thousands of them each day without a thought. Will you join me in beginning to speak the very words of God? Will you join me as we seek to speak words that bring healing, that bring joy, that bring goodness to those around us.

For those of us who speak a lot, we need to speak with caution and not haste. We need to think carefully before we speak. What words are we going to speak? Will those words make the world a better place? Will they make the people around us better? Will they bring more of heaven to earth? For those of us who speak a lot – too much it’s like we speak, (blow on balloon each time I say “Speak”) and we speak and we speak, and we speak, until the balloon pops. This is not good. We need to tame our tongue. We are called to listen twice as much as we speak because God gave us two ears and only 1 mouth.

For those of you who quiet and who don’t speak very often. Realize that your words have power and if you don’t speak you don’t create goodness. You have to speak a certain amount of words to share the goodness that’s inside of you, in order for the people around you to be built up. Without your words the people around you wilt like a flower without water. You have a power gift that God has given you. Use it wisely. Use it well. If you don’t speak, you make no difference (balloon in mouth, but not blowing).

In 2 Cor. 4 there is this idea that we are like cracked and broken pots. We were created whole, but sin has cracked us. Evil words have slashed and gouged us and now we are like a medical I.V. We leak. We drip. And what do we leak? We leak love from all the slashes and gashes and wounds – from all the rash, careless, hurtful words that we’ve uttered and now, instead of being a vessel that holds love forever, we leak.

The love of God is necessary for us to stay full of love. My words to you and your words to me are necessary for us to each stay full of love and God’s goodness. Kid’s you need to speak good, encouraging words to your parents and parents, you need to speak good, encouraging words to your kids. Spouses, you need to speak good encouraging words to one another, because this brings about heaven. When we do that, those words heal the hurts, the gashes, they slow the dripping, the leak of love from our souls

Rash words are like sword thrust – they create the drip, but the tongue of the wise brings healing – it slows or stops the leak

Apart from good words, words that build us up, words that show that we are loved and significant and valued, we all run dry, we get depressed, we lose hope, we try to fill that emptiness with drugs and food and smokes and more things.

When we don’t use positive words we don’t feel valuable or significant, and when that happens are hearts fill with fear and we become reactive and we enter fight or flight mode and when that happens our words become hurtful.

But when we use positive words we are filled with goodness and we feel valuable and significant and good.

It all starts right here. Love the lord your God with all that you are – with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

1. Reading or listening to God’s Word, the Bible fills us with his goodness, and his blessing as God’s word teaches us how to live and how to speak. God’s word fills us up because it is filled with his goodness. But that’s not enough.
2. We are called to pray – speaking to God is formative for us and listening to him speak to us forms us and fills us with his Goodness. But that’s not enough.
3. The church exists so that we can surround ourselves with people who are reading God’s word and who are listening to God speak, and we are called to lift our voices together as we worship God. We are called to live in community discussing God’ word and listening to each other share how God has spoken to them and shared his wisdom about how to live according to his will. The words we speak in life group help form us into the people God created us to be. 
4. Seeking God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, fills us up with his love, but we’re not done there. We are called to share God’s word with those that have never heard it – those outside the church, people who are often times empty of God’s love. We are called to use our words to love those who God loves

Good words, God’s words have the power to change your marriage, your relationship with your parents, or the relationship with your children, with all the people in your life . . . even complete strangers.

Listen to what the Psalmist says. This really speaks to me.

We can’t speak good words apart from God, so I invite you to join me in praying this simple prayer this week. A prayer that’s been prayed by many for nearly 3000 years
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Psalms 19:14 (NRSV)

 

Life Link

Have you contacted and invited all the people on your retreat list? Let them know that we need to know if they’re going by February 10.

Questions:

Do you recall anyone who helped you become who you are today because of the kind and helpful words that they spoke to you? Who, and what did they say to you that made such an impact?

Was there anything in the message that struck you, confused you or that you disagreed with?

Is it easier to speak good words to those who seem to have it all together or those that don’t? Why do you think that is?

Do you ever feel low, empty, depressed, isolated, alone, etc, or do you know someone who does? How do good words help dispel feelings of emptiness, depression, isolation and loneliness?

Depression is nine times more likely today than it was 60 years ago. How can our words help dispel depression.

How important is listening intently to someone as they speak and asking questions? Why?

Why is talking too much a sin?

Why is talking too little a sin?

Why is talking rashly a sin?

What power does your words have? Do you believe that together our words have more power to do good than all the medicine in the world? Why?

How does your relationship with God affect your heart and your words? How is your relationship with God?