SERMON OUTLINE

Careful Living in 2010   (Ephesians 5.15)

 Talk that Meets the Need      Ephesians 4.29-30

Every word corrupt out of the mouth of you let not proceed, but if any is good to improvement of the need, in order that it may give grace to the hearing.

                                     Ephesians 4.29   Literal translation

Introduction

-One of the distinguishing marks of humans, who are created in the image of God, is self-consciousness with the ability to speak and express themselves to others and communicate their thoughts and feelings and ideas to each other in words.

-Words are powerful and can hurt or help. James 3.8-10. Proverbs 12.18

-Paul writes often about speech. Ephesians 4.25; 5.4,12,19

Every Word: Corrupt

-Mark of the non-Christian

-Used to describe rotting fruit. Complaining, demoralizing gossip, slander, immoral talk, whining, grumbling, hurts.

-An imitation and partnering with the Devil

Every Word: Good to Meet the Need

-God arranges our conversations

-The person you are speaking with has a need; so do you

-Speak with love as a motive

-Be aware of circumstances and who you are speaking with. Psalm 141.3

Source of Words

-The heart. Matthew 12.33-37 and 15.16-20

-The Mind. Romans 12.1-2

-The Devil and the Flesh

-Feed your mind. Philippians 4.8

-Choose good words that meet needs

Conclusion

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit. We do not so much have to concentrate on controlling our speech as concentrate on giving ourselves steadily under the control of the Holy Spirit. Our behavior is different from humanistic ethics because it is in relationship with the Holy Spirit.

SERMON NOTES

Careful Living in 2010   (Ephesians 5.15)

Talk that Meets the Need       Ephesians 4.29-30

-Roof, Roof. Meow. Moo, Moo, Moo. Eeeeeha, Eeeeeha. [Pause]

-Can you understand me now? [Pause]

-One of the distinguishing marks of humans, who are created in the image of God, is self-consciousness with the ability to speak and express themselves to others and communicate their thoughts and feelings and ideas to each other in words.

-The words we speak to each other have power to inspire, encourage, educate, inform, build up and heal. Our words also have power to discourage, misinform, lie, tear down, and deeply hurt. There is remarkable power in the tongue. James writes, “The tongue is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.” (3.8-10) Proverbs tells us that “Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.” (12.18)

-As Paul describes how to live like a Christian he has a lot to say about our speech. In verse 25 Paul has already commanded us not to lie but to tell the truth. In chapter 5 verse 4 we are told that there should be no “obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which is out of place, but rather thanksgiving”. Verse 12 says, “it is shameful to even mention what the disobedient do in secret”. (A related thought comes to mind. If we are not even to mention the shameful things done by the disobedient in our conversations should we be watching them on TV?) Verse 19 commands us to “speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ”. One area that we must be very careful about in 2010 is our speech.

-If you take your bulletin you will find at the top of the inside page the Greek text translated word-for-word into English. [Read it]

-You can see that this verse begins with “Every word”. Every word true, and pure, and grace-giving, is a high standard to keep but it is the standard we are striving for as Christians. Do we fail often? Yes. Do we quit or lower the standard? No. We stand fully accepted before God in our justification and through the discipline and guidance of the Holy Spirit we become more like Christ in our speech, which is sanctification. The way you speak is one of the transformations that the Holy Spirit is seeking to work into your life and mine. We are to walk like Christ is this dark and sinful world. [Roger’s testimony]

-This verse pictures the Christian as a person with a mind full of words ready to be spoken. Some of these words will corrupt those they are spoken to, and some words will do good. The words that will corrupt are not to be allowed to proceed out of the mouth, but those that will do good are to be spoken to the other person. As Christians we have the power to control our speech for the good of others and for the Glory of God. If it were not possible to control our tongue then we would never be given this command. We may often fail to keep this command but we must continue to strive that every word of our speech be for the good of others and for the Glory of God.

–Corrupt words are a mark of the non-Christian. Obscenity, blasphemy, lies, exaggerations, hateful and bitter words, constant complaining, prejudice, sexual jokes, gossip, self-exaltation, arguments, slander, this is the common speech of the unbeliever. As Christians our speech must be different, not only true and pure but life giving as well. We must regulate our speech according to God’s Word and not speak to please or conform to the world.

-The words spoken by a Christian are not to corrupt others. This Greek word is used to describe rotting fruit. As a Christian your speech is not to be the rotten apple that spoils the whole basket of apples. You are not to complain and demoralize and rot the unity and positive attitudes in the fellowship of the church. If you have a complaint, then bring your complaint to the leadership and not to fellow members. Do not corrupt others with complaining speech and do not support corruption by listening and agreeing with the complaining words of others. If there is something worth complaining about lets fix it together

-Don’t rot the reputation of others with gossip and slander. What you are saying about the other person may be true, but is it beneficial to them and to others to talk about it behind their back? God has shown you the situation not so you can gossip and slander about it, but so you can pray for them.

-Don’t rot the mind and morality of others by sharing sexually charged talk with them. Don’t rot the mind and morality of others by encouraging them in questionable behaviors.

-Don’t support whiners and grumblers and nit-pickers, and fault finders by listening to them and agreeing with them and don’t corrupt others with that kind of speech. You are a Christian now and that is no longer the way you are to speak. Truth, thanksgiving and encouragement should guide your words

-We can also drive people to corrupt behaviors by deeply hurting them with our words. Words like, “your stupid, dummy, your bad, worthless, ugly, brainless, you will never amount to anything, retard, your nuts” do not build up but tear down and drive people to discouragement and corrupt behaviors. We need to be careful of the effect of every word that proceeds from our mouth.

-Make sure that you are not imitating the Devil and partnering with him by corrupting others with your speech. The Devil’s corrupting words brought the whole human race into sin and led to the devastation in the world that we see today. Instead our speech should reflect the Goodness and the Glory of God as we build others up and give them the Grace of God with the words that we speak to them. Words have great power. Our lips must be instruments of God.

-What we are to speak is “what is helpful for building others up according to their needs”. Speech of this kind requires not only that we speak what is true and pure but also that we know the needs of the person that we are speaking with. This is speech under the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit. Start imagining every encounter you have with another person as arranged of God and look to the Holy Spirit to direct your words in that encounter.

-Every person you and I meet has a need for more of God in their life. Some need salvation while others need to grow in the Grace of God. As we talk with a person we may get to know their need and as the Holy Spirit leads we can speak more specifically to their need. The other person may not want what God is presenting through you for their need but that is not your problem.

-God may arrange your next conversation to meet your need. We need to be teachable as well as willing to try and meet the needs of others. Through our conversations together we are to build one another up in love.

-Don’t be one of those Christians who deliver a monologue and call it a conversation. You may feel a lot better after the so-called conversation but have you built the other person up and delivered the grace of God to their need, or has your deeper need for God been touched?

-The talk in this verse is Christian-love talk because it is about the other person and about God’s purpose and plan for them through their conversation with you. This is not self-centered talk or self-on-display talk but talk with God’s glory in mind. Self-satisfaction is not the purpose here. There is an exchange of God’s Grace in the whole transaction because both are speaking under the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit. We will find that as we go through all of these behaviors that Paul presents for the Christian walk that love is always the motive because a Christian is to walk in love.

–Where do the corrupt words or the good words that are in our mind, ready to be spoken, come from? Jesus helps us in our thinking here with one of His teachings in Matthew 12.33-37 and 15.16-20 [Read].

-They come from our heart. Do you have a heart that is born again and belongs to God? Do you desire in your heart to please and Glorify God? Your speech begins with the spiritual condition of your heart. Proverbs 4.23 tells us, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life”.

-Then comes the mind. Romans 12.1-2 [Read].

-Are you renewing your mind by reading and thinking on the Word of God each day? What does your mind dwell on during the day? Do you imitate those around you in your thinking and speech? How you think will be how you speak. Deliberately make choices to renew your mind. Pursue godly thinking. How you think will show in your speech. Philippians 4.8 [Read].

–The Devil and the flesh can put corrupt thoughts into your mind but you do not have to speak them out or act on them. In Christ you are free from the power of sin and the flesh and the Devil. Toss those thoughts into the trash.

-We need to know what words to speak out. Knowing what words to speak comes by perceiving our circumstances and looking to the Holy Spirit. We need to learn to be aware of our circumstances and of the people we are going to speak with. We need to listen to both those we are speaking with and to the Holy Spirit so we can answer with words that build up and minister grace

-David’s prayer in Psalm 141.3 is a good one to pray often, “Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips”.

-In verse 27 Paul warns the people of God not to give a foothold to the Devil by holding onto bitterness. Now in verse 30 Paul warns the people of God not to grieve the Holy Spirit by letting corrupting talk proceed out of their mouth. We will focus more on grieving the Holy Spirit on the last Sunday of July. I am going to end this morning by sharing how it feels to grieve the Holy Spirit and what to do when that happens.

-You have been busy all day under stressful circumstances and as the day is ending you begin a conversation with someone. During the conversation you say something and you sense a change take place. A coldness comes over the conversation. The open reception you first received evaporates into the air. The conversation turns to the weather and soon comes to an end. Most important of all you sense a loss of energy, a deflation in the pit of your stomach, a non-physical ache comes over you, there is a sense of emptiness and heaviness. You realize that you have said something wrong. A joke that has hurt, a misplaced accusation, a brushing off of some serious matter that took a lot of courage for that person to speak, an inappropriate remark, a hurried agitation that says you are being inconvenienced.

-If the person you are speaking with is being convicted of sin through your conversation they might have the same reaction toward you but you will not feel the grieving of the Spirit but rather the mercy and grace of the Spirit for them.

-The only possible reaction to such a grieving of the Spirit is to confess our grieving of the Spirit and ask God for forgiveness and then to ask the other person for forgiveness as well. Asking forgiveness will restore fellowship with the Spirit at once but not necessarily your fellowship with the other person. That may take some time.

-It is very important to continue to walk in the Holy Spirit even when stressful circumstances try to take control of our spirits during the day. We do not so much have to concentrate on controlling our speech as concentrate on keeping ourselves constantly under the control of the Holy Spirit. All these directions that Paul is giving us for Christian behavior only differ from other religious behaviors or humanistic codes of ethics because they are the result of a relationship with God through the Holy Spirit. These behaviors are the result of a life made spiritually alive by the Holy Spirit and then placed under the discipline and guidance of the Holy Spirit. So the way you speak is another expression of your living relationship with God through the Holy Spirit. Make sure you feed your mind on God’s Word each day and concentrate on walking in the Spirit every day in 2010. How you speak will be part of that Holy Spirit walk.