What Comes Out of Your Mouth Was Already Inside

Sermon outline

Our words steer the course of our lives and reveal what is already in our hearts, so a negative, critical believer has a word problem, cured by time in prayer, time in the word and learning to think before we speak.

1. Love is the language of a son of God

   Without love, eloquence, prophecy, mountain-moving faith and even martyrdom amount to nothing. Love never gives up, does not strut, does not keep score of others' sins and keeps going to the end. It is God's love poured out by the Holy Spirit, to be practised towards everyone we meet.

   “Love is the ultimate language of a child and a son of God.”

   • 1 Corinthians 13:1-8

2. Your words set the course of your life

   Let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, only what builds others up. Sin is not ended by multiplying words, the soothing tongue is a tree of life, and speech should be gracious and seasoned with salt. Much of what we say is culturally and socially acceptable and still does damage. The mouth is the rudder of the ship: turn it and the whole ship changes course.

   Illustration: Saying "take care" sounds kind, but taken literally it wishes worry and anxiety on the person. Saying diabetes "is in the blood" opens the door; a believer says instead that it may have been in the bloodline but this generational health stops with him.

   “If you only realized just how weighty your words are.”

   • Ephesians 4:29
   • Proverbs 10:19
   • Proverbs 15:4
   • Colossians 4:6
   • James 3:4

3. What comes out was already in the heart

   Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. At work we use a professional language, but in the staff room the tongue loosens and what is really inside comes out. Jesus calls negative speech the symptom of a sick heart. Be wary of the man who announces that he is a man of God and a man of his word, because the one who truly is tends to be careful what leaves his mouth; that announcement usually comes from pride, and pride and negative speaking are both blessing blockers.

   “What comes out of your mouth is already inside of your heart.”

   • Matthew 12:34
   • Matthew 15:10-20

4. A negative Christian has a word problem

   Without the word of God there is no language of God, and without that there is only second-hand faith. A believer who is always negative, always critical, never seeing the blessing and always naming what is wrong does not have an attitude problem but a word problem, and it shows he is not reading his Bible. By your words you are justified and by your words condemned. Ask yourself how you speak when someone disagrees with you: are you swift to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger, or must you have the last word?

   “Whenever you find a diseased Christian, I'm talking about a person who's negative all the time, a person that doesn't see the blessing of the Lord, always critical, always negative, always talking about what's wrong instead of speaking faith, then unfortunately, that's a word problem.”

   • Matthew 12:37
   • James 1:19-20

5. Three things to practise daily

   First, spend time in prayer, not only on Sundays or at the prayer meeting, asking God to guide your speech; the quiet Christian who rarely speaks but speaks with power is usually the one who prays. Second, spend time in the word, because if you know the word and do not exercise it you are functioning in religion, not faith; the word tethers the mind to the truth. Third, practise thinking before you speak. It comes naturally to some and never to others, but "forgive me, I am who I am" will not do, because we are who God says we are. Pause and ask whether your response honours God.

   Illustration: If you really want to know what is in someone's heart, tramp on their toes and see how they react.

   “There's power in keeping quiet. There's weakness when we just say whatever's at the top of our head.”

In this message