We get a choice in how we speak!
In Proverbs 13:3 says whoever guards his mouth preserves his life, he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.
– This speaks of a person using words carelessly.
– Not thinking about the impact of what they say
– Whether in jest or in truth.
– I have to and continue to have to think about what impact my sarcasm has on others.
– What is to far!
– The fact is our words can build up or tear down.
– We need to choose our words wisely.
– To guard our mouths.
If I choose to speak negative words into your life. Its weighs you down
o Eventually you will break
o Like ELIJAH you may run away.
o But more often than not we carry the effect of negative words around with us.
o In my life I carried a lot of baggage
– Its shaken my self esteem
– Its changed the view I had of myself and others.
– Its slowed me down.
– Its has led me to thinking what’s the point, I will give up.
When we come to Christ and we are secure in who we are in Him.
He takes our burdens. He gives us freedom to be who we are created to be. He has given me freedom from the baggage I was carrying in my life. That’s another preach.
– There are people here today that have been weighed down by the words of others.
– You have been told that you will never amount to something,
– That you will not succeed
– That you are not loved and not valued.
– There are people here today that are weighed down by the words of the past.
– Just like He’s told me. God wants you to know today that you are loved, that you’re His child, the apple of His eye, that your past and what people have said does not determine how He sees you.
– Your future is in Him, it is determined by Him and that you can do all things in Him.
Ok if I choose to speak positive words into your Life.
o It begins to build you up.
o The more I do it the more I lift you up.
o You see we are not weighed down.
o In my life when people have lifted me up I have been so encouraged to keep going keep on moving.
o It doesn’t take much to encourage someone
o Its fun and makes a difference
- We have a choice in life,
- We can be lift people or we can tear people down
- I am not saying we all leave the house in the morning and think right I am going to tear some people down with my words today.
- NO. But if we don’t guard our mouth then it is something we can fall into without even realising.
- I have made a conscious choice that I will be a lifter of people.
- I will speak life to those around me.
- I may not always get it right but my heart is in the right place. How much more can we achieve for God as we lift the people around us.
- As we love people with our words.
Choose to be a lifter of people around you
- In Ephesians 4:29 it says Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
o Tracy and I have put a spoken contract in place
o That if we can’t say something positive about someone then we choose not to say anything at all.
o Because whether the person is present or not we can choose to speak death or life about them.
o We have to guard ourselves against gossip.
o If someone starts it around us then we must not get involved.
o Again its about choosing life.
