#3 in Proverbs: Walking in Wisdom || April 21, 2024 || Glynwood Baptist Church, Prattville AL || James Jackson, Pastor
Good Morning! Please open your Bibles to Proverbs 15. A little later we are also going to be in James 3, so if you want to put an offering envelope there or something, you can hold your place.
We are in this study on Proverbs, and when I looking for graphics for this series, I kept coming back to the image of a crosswalk, because proverbs is all about walking in wisdom. Paying attention to the traffic signals, obeying the walk/don’t walk signs, and so forth.
But I think there’s another reason I kept coming back to this image of the crosswalk. Everything we are talking about in Proverbs—words, work, wealth, marriage, family, it all comes back to discipleship. Following Jesus. Taking up your CROSS. So everything we are talking about during this series is about walking the CROSS walk.
Introduction
At the end of World War II, On July 26th, 1945, the Allied forces gave Japan an ultimatum which would become known as the Potsdam Declaration. The declaration said,
We call upon the Government of Japan to proclaim now the unconditional surrender of all the Japanese armed forces, …. The alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction.[1]
The Prime Minister, Kantaro Suzuki, gave a one word response: Mokusatsu.
Mokusatsu can have two meanings. It can mean, “No comment. We shall continue thinking about it.” Most scholars believe this was Prime minister Suzuki’s intended meaning.
But mokusatsu can also mean “We’re ignoring it and have contempt for it”. Ten days later, the American atom bombs fell over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
We will never know for sure whether anything would have changed had the prime minister not been misunderstood. But the point is that words have unimaginable power, either to create or destroy.
Words matter. And we use so many of them. According to research done in 2007, the average human being speaks sixteen thousand words a day. Now, if you are a wife looking at her husband and thinking, oh, he speaks WAY less than that, then there’s a good chance your husband is looking at you and thinking, oh… she speaks WAY more than that. Remember—this is an average!
Three billion emails are sent every single day.
100 million text messages are sent every minute.
Sixteen thousand words every day. Put another way, we have sixteen thousand choices to make. Will we use words to tear down, or build up? To speak truth, or spread gossip?
And of the 915 verses of Proverbs, 222 of them—almost a quarter of the book—have to do with the words we say and the power they have. That’s why when I was trying to figure out what passage from Proverbs I wanted to put on the cover this week, I couldn’t decide on just one. I had to go with three.
So this morning, we’re going to look at why words matter. Then, I want to give you three practical ways to help you make better choices with your sixteen thousand words each day.
Let’s look at Proverbs 15 as just a representation of some of the things Proverbs has to say about our words. I could have gone anywhere in Proverbs to talk about the power of words, but Trish and Josh and I have been reading a chapter of proverbs together each night, like what I recommended to you, and this was the chapter for this past Monday. And since I knew this was going to be the topic, all of these just jumped out to me.
15 A soft answer turns away wrath,
but a harsh word stirs up anger.
2 The tongue of the wise commends knowledge,
but the mouths of fools pour out folly.
3 The eyes of the Lord are in every place,
keeping watch on the evil and the good.
4 A gentle[a] tongue is a tree of life,
but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.
5 A fool despises his father’s instruction,
but whoever heeds reproof is prudent.
6 In the house of the righteous there is much treasure,
but trouble befalls the income of the wicked.
7 The lips of the wise spread knowledge;
not so the hearts of fools.[b]
Why Words Matter: Pr 10:11, 19-20
Words have the power to get things done. When God created the universe, he did it with words. When God communicated to His people, God used words. In fact, what we call the ten commandments, in Hebrew is actually the Ten Words.
We build worlds with our words also. Did you know that human beings are the only creatures to whom God gave the power of speech? That means our words can build up or destroy. They can give life, or they can take life.
- They can turn away wrath, or they can stir up anger. (15:1)
- They can be a tree of life, or they can crush the spirit. (15:4)
- They can gush evil (15:26) or they can be a honeycomb (16:24)
- Proverbs 18:21: The tongue has the power of life and death.
- They can separate close friends, (Proverbs 16:21)
Proverbs 26:18-19
Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death
19 is the man who deceives his neighbor
and says, “I am only joking!”
In the new Testament, James wrote, how great a forest is set ablaze by such a fire. And the tongue is a fire, a restless evil, full of deadly poison. )James 3)
So, don’t believe the lie that sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never harm me. That’s a lie. Not only do hurtful words hurt the people they are said to, but they also hurt the person who says them. If words of anger and hatred, sarcasm and snide remarks, bitterness and negativity are what come to mind first, there is something wrong with you.
So what do you do with this great power? Well, you exercise great responsibility. Here our three practical ways to make better choices with your sixteen thousand words.
1. Talk Less
Proverbs 10:19 says, “When words are many, sin is not absent. But he who holds his tongue is wise.” Friends, listen: sixteen thousand words is an average. Some of us treat it like a quota. You don’t have to use that many!
Proverbs 17:27-28. Even fools are though wise when they keep silent. With their mouths shut, they seem intelligent.
By listening more and talking less, you give yourself room to act more wisely, think more clearly, and consider how you are going to react.
Think about the story of Job. You may be familiar with the basics. Job was a righteous man who sought to honor God with his entire being. The devil comes to God and asks for permission to mess with Job. Satan believes that when those things are taken away, Job will want nothing to do with God anymore. God agrees to this, so the devil takes away pretty much everything from Job, Job has three friends: Eliphaz, Zophar, and Bildad. When they hear about Job’s awful tragedy, this is what they decide to do…
Read Job 2:11-13
1 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him. 12 And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven. 13 And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.
Way to go friends! No one said a word to Job for seven days and seven nights. It’s when they opened their mouths that they got in trouble. Often in life, especially in times of great pain like Job was facing, people need our presence rather than our advice. How easy and even tempting it is to offer up some sort of advice or words of comfort in situations of hurt, and there certainly is a time and place for those things.
Wisdom with our tongue is understanding when and where the time and place are for those things. Maybe you have been in a situation just like this before. If you are like me, you have made many mistakes along the way, offering up advice that did not end up helping in the slightest. Maybe today, you begin to take a page out of the “biblical playbook”, if you will. You decide to first sit with someone before speaking to them about their situation.
Make a decision to trim those 16000 words a day. Some of you guys know that I do a manuscript for my sermon. I write it out pretty much word for word. The reason I do that is because at the bottom of the screen it tells me how many words are in the sermon. I’ve learned that I typically speak about 100 words a minute. So I know that if the word counter at the bottom is getting up to around 3000 words, that’s going to be about a 30 minute sermon.
I know that sounds kind of OCD, but it helps me make sure every word matters. Matthew 12:36 says that on the day of judgment, we are going to be held accountable for every careless word they speak.
So think about it this way—the fewer words you speak, the sooner you can get to the banquet table in heaven!
Let me encourage you to practice some self-awareness. If you know you are usually the first person in a crowd to speak, or the first person in small group to share a prayer request, or the first person in class to raise your hand to give an answer, don’t be.
2. Do Better with the words you do use.
You don’t have to be a victim of your own words. You have the responsibility to control your words. You can restrain your lips. You don’t have to do it alone. Psalm 141:3—set a guard, O lord, over my mouth. Let me share the best tool I’ve found for setting a guard over your mouth.
THINK acronym
Before you say something, share something, tweet something, truth something, post something, or pass along something, run it through a five point filter:
1. Is it true? If it’s not true, or if you don’t know if it’s true, stop right there. Christians have absolutely no business trafficking untruth. If you know its not true, shut up. If you don’t know if it is true, shut up. If you are tempted to say, “I don’t know if this is true, but if it is…” shut up. These are not hard things. Untruth is corrupting. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouth
2. Is it helpful? How does your comment add value to the conversation? Go back to Eph. 4:29—but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion
3. Is it inspiring? Does it give grace to all who hear? Paul does not just give us a command to follow, but the result once we do. He says that if we are willing to refrain from negative speech, our words will be an encouragement, and even helpful, to those listening.
4. Is it necessary? Look, if you agree with what everyone else is saying, just nod your head. That’s fine. You don’t need the “100” emoji. You don’t need the “this” gif. It isn’t necessary to virtue signal every comment you read.
5. Is it KIND: Here is the next part of the Ephesians 4 passage:
31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
AJ Jacobs is a journalist who writes for the New Yorker. He is a cultural Jew who describes himself as Jewish in the same way the Olive Garden is Italian. He decided to spend a year trying to live out every commandment of the Old Testament as literally as possible. That meant cutting profanity out of his life completely. So in his book “The Year of Living Biblically,” he describes his reaction at hearing his wife drop a casual curse word on Day 277. “I am shocked at her language,” he writes. “But then I am shocked that I am shocked.”
For the last two months, inspired by Orthodox Jews and evangelical Christians, I haven’t used a single naughty word. And it startles me when others do. There are sections, especially in the New Testament, that indicate such language should be avoided. Ephesians 4:29 says, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth.”
So to be totally protected, I’ve scrubbed up my vocabulary. My current curse words are fudge, sugar, and shoot. When I say one of my new curse words, my wife usually starts whistling the theme from the Andy Griffith Show.
She can mock me, but the weird thing is, I think my G-rated language is making me a less angry person. Here’s the way it works:
I’ll get to the subway platform just as the downtown train is pulling away, and I’ll start to use one of my old curse words. But then I’ll remember to censor myself. I’ll turn it into “fudge” at the last second. When I hear myself say “fudge” out loud, it sounds so folksy, so Jimmy Stewart-ish, and so amusingly dorky that I can’t help but smile. My anger recedes. Once again, behavior shapes emotions. [2]
Change your heart, and your words will follow
You know the phrase Garbage in Garbage Out, right? That’s never more true than when we are thinking about our words. Jesus says in Luke 6:45 that is is out of the abundance of our hearts that the mouth speaks. So what is in you is going to come out.
The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
I Want us to end our time by looking at James 3. Turn there please.
6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life,[a] and set on fire by hell.[b] 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers,[c] these things ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.
Guarding our hearts looks like keeping good things in and bad things out. It must be a moment-by-moment decision. Most of what will be thrown your way from the world around you will not be helpful. It will distract you from Scripture and make you question whether God is still good. This why it’s important to fill your heart with the Good News of Scripture. If you don’t already, develop a daily reading rhythm in the Bible. Spend time speaking with God through prayer throughout the day. These will be the make-or-break points for what gets into your heart, and therefore what eventually comes out of it.
Read James 3:10
James believes that blessing and cursing are not meant to come from the same mouth. This verse reminds us of the two options on the table for us whenever we decide to open our mouth to speak. No matter what setting we are in, these are ultimately our two options. What we say will be either a blessing or a curse. It will be either helpful or harmful. It will be either positive or negative. There are many things in Scripture that are grey areas, if you will, areas of the Bible where many have debated what it means for centuries. But this statement from James is extremely black and white.
Conclusion
When you read James 3:7, it can sound really discouraging: 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
Maybe you hear this and you’re thinking, I can’t change. I’ve been angry at my ex or frustrated with my job or mad about politics for so long that it’s just my default. I’ve tried to stop cursing, and its just such a habit that I can’t help it. I can’t NOT speak my mind. I hate silence, so if no one is talking, I have to jump in.
All these are expressions of either your own willpower or your lack of it. James is right—no human being can tame the tongue.
That’s why you don’t leave it up to a human being to do so.
This entire year, we are focusing on what it means to be a disciple. This is the Cross walk—surrendering every part of your body to the Lordship of Christ. Especially your mouth.
Let’s pray together.
[1] https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1945Berlinv02/d1382#:~:text=We%20call%20upon%20the%20Government,is%20prompt%20and%20utter%20destruction.
[2] Jacobs, AJ. The Year of Living Biblically. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2007. P. 281-282.
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