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00:00:00 good morning church um what a blessing for us to have a Bible we all can understand um so today's scripture I'll be reading from um NIV in the Book of James um chapter 3 verse 6- 16 Verse 6 the tongue also is a fire a world of evil among the parts of the body it corrupts the whole body sets a whole course of one's life on fire and is itself set on fire by hell all kinds of animals birds reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind but no human being can tame the tongue it is a Restless evil
00:00:50 full of deadly poison with the tongue we praise our Lord and father and with it we curse human beings who have been made in God's likeness out of the same mouth come praise and cursing my brothers and sisters this should not be can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring my brothers and sisters can a fig tree bear olives or a grape vine bear figs neither can Salt Spring produce fresh water who is wise and understanding among you let them show it by The Good Life by Deeds Done in the humility that
00:01:34 comes from wisdom but if you Harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts do not boast about it or deny the truth such wisdom does not come down from heaven but is Earthly unspiritual demonic for where you have envy and selfish ambition there you find disorder in every evil practice this is the word of God thank you Clementine so good morning church so this is uh the scheme of uh on the pulpit coming up next week our Elder Arnold will be taking you two weeks in a row in his uh Journey Through the book
00:02:24 of Ephesians and after that John Lee will be speaking to us on the topic which is very close close to everybody's heart materialism is a sin that plagues all of us uh so now I just want to express my gratitude for whitcliffe they've been doing a wonderful job for years sometimes we just take the Bible for granted isn't it all the different versions it's in our hands and some people like this tribe in in sarawa it's so difficult even to get one version out and I and she she mentioned a familiar name Ray Cunningham if you ever read met
00:03:06 Ray Cunningham I met him 30 to 40 years ago as a student in Sydney and he's the only person in my life that had when he preaches for two hours I'm telling him don't stop very much unlike us but he's really wonderful and I can see the fruits of his work 30 40 years later on in a whole crop of young people now uh working on among the people in that region so just praise God for that let's just start with a word of prayer father Lord we just uh bring your word front and center right now that you will just open up our
00:03:46 hearts father we pray a lot this day that the word this doesn't stay on the tongue or on the brain but it moves into our hearts it causes us to repent it causes us to look to the cross it causes us to look to the power of the Holy Spirit to transform us we ask for Jesus sake amen so let's look at uh we were doing two weeks ago the true spirituality speech control is very important because if you think you're religious and you don't Bridle your tongue you deceive your your heart and you and you basically are not spiritual
00:04:25 all right we covered the first three points the sin of speech will be judged particularly severely in Preachers and somebody pointed out to me on that day Vicki was advertising pre teachers for Sunday school and after thought my God after that nobody wants to be a Sunday school teacher so I do apologize for that um I think Sunday school teachers will be judged a little bit lower because they don't go into complex Theology and all that so but I will try to correct that later on with another testimony about Sunday school teachers
00:04:58 how important they are uh sin of speech are Universal problem SP of speech has outsized impact in our lives and today we're going to look at the last three points which is the first thing is since of speech speech has a danger of great evil we know that how great a forest is set a blaze by such a small fly fire 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 and and set on fire by by by hell
00:05:31 this is a very graphic description James uses a a series of pictural language so that we can understand he's telling us a fire this is a 2007 fire in California destroying 21 homes uh killing people and blackening 38,000 Acres we're not unfamiliar with this started by young boy 10 years old playing with one NCH that's all it takes and and James is using that to illustrate how d dangerous your words are remember what we used to teach our children sticks and stones will break my bones words will never that's a complete lie the greatest
00:06:12 evil in the world is actually perpetrated by our words all right number one in Garden of Eden Satan said did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden injecting doubt into the woman's heart what about this chap trying to be president again and everybody believes him so much so that they raid the capital in an Insurrection and how does this affect well down in Brazil uh and anyway what happens these guys are all now going to jail for 22 years because what he did Brazil this guy copies the same thing
00:06:46 tells a lie when he lost the election and they also raid the Parliament House just one word a lie all right what about the hurtful words that we have said and you know who we say it to our spouse why they are within target range you angry you shout you do whatever it's target range and vice vers all right and it's ironic isn't the person whom we love most we target the most because they are in a close proximity and uh what about gossip conversations or reports about others private lives might be unkind
00:07:24 disproving or not true that's the definition in Cambridge Dictionary so another describes a person who habitually reveals personal Sensational facts about others or rumors or report of an intimate nature right but Proverbs actually tells us it doesn't matter what you tell about a person whether it's truth or a lie whoever goes about slandering reveals Secrets therefore do not associate with a simple babler so that person could have a truth okay maybe he committed adultery and that's wrong you he did commit
00:08:00 adultery that's a truth but he had come before God and had repented of that but you're dragging out the old truth in order to put him in bad light so therefore if you bring it up in order to bring the person in the bad light that's basically gossip biggest gossip nowadays is Prince Harry he wrote a book called spare you know gossip actually makes money right he actually he sells it on Netflix he has a documentary he tells about the difficulties within the royal family remember some years ago Harry was uh uh
00:08:35 was caught with a picture that he was celebrating the Nazis and it turned out from his book that his sister-in-law and his brother told him to wear the dress and when he was criticized they washed their hands of him right so and and all the things come out and and and the whole family intrigued why because somebody started to slander all right so there was a study done some years years ago to tell us how dangerous speaking about other people is about we don't really the study actually looked and and
00:09:09 and and and actually discovered that when someone tells us something and you know what they do they will actually give you a caveat you know so and so did this allegedly I'm not sure but I think he go and rob the bank okay this is only you know and it really doesn't matter you know why after that they actually did MRIs the the uh EEG studies on people who had been told these untruths and you'll find that with the EEG responses we tend to judge people on emotional basis even though whatever it was told had a caveat
00:09:49 may be alleged which means the effect is already in our brain once you put that idea there whether it's true or not whether you have yet or not it remains permanent so when you see a picture of ah that one not liar you may say no only say allegedly but actually the brain actually has a negative response towards that person so gossip creates bitterness it makes us judge jury executioner it takes our mind off important spiritual matters it breeds self-righteousness because we are all speaking about that person so
00:10:26 therefore we we don't do that right ah so so we're better than them destroys relationship and does not cure the problem but actually spreads the virus that's what happens and gossip is the favorite pastor of First Baptist Church it's a fact you want to deny it I don't think anybody here can deny it and it is a sin in my own life as well there are no innocent parties in this you could also gossip by using a by flattery Psalm 1123 may the Lord cut off all flattering lips the tongue that makes great
00:11:03 boast so Chang you sing so well you should be on Malaysia Got Talent right ah I mean you know he's lying right and and some people are so vulnerable some people low self-esteem and know you you you must uh you know say good things about then then they they your best friends and these are the people flaty manipulates them they're so so anxious for approval that they're L listening and these are the same people you say one how how was the singing uh okay but die if you say okay you need finished you should be there saying
00:11:42 wonderful go for americ Got Talent or something uh you see flattery is deception faithful are the words of a friend profuse are the kisses of an enemy so sometimes if you need to be in church honest it may hurt and the person and and you need to have good friends who are honest enough to perhaps tell you the truth otherwise you live in a dream world you got conspiracy theories antivaxers all that is due to words and the worst thing nowadays is Media you don't have to say a word all you have to do is just
00:12:19 type and that poison goes all over the web here's a ipsu uh uh study on cyber bullying in Malaysia if you look at awareness global average is about 75% Malaysia it's 85% these are the views of parents cyber bullying experienced by your own children global average is 37 uh is 177% Malaysian parents say that their children have been bullied by words in 23% and then the child within their Community has experienced cyber bullying bullying by themselves 47% versus the global average of 33% right so what are the platforms that
00:13:04 are used for this social media and mobile phones are the number one another study in 20175 looked at 712 students of higher Institutes of Higher Learning in Malaysia and the prevalence of cyber bullying was 66% that mean 23 of all students in this country have experienced some sort of cyber bullying in fact so bad that this story story Malay mail by Terrence K told of a Sarawak teen who jumps to death hours after asking Instagram friends if she should kill yourself that is the most stupid thing you should ever do you want
00:13:44 to kill yourself you don't have to take a poll right and see whether I should kill myself and the sad thing is that how can the six the the people on the pole actually tell you to kill yourself it is something perverse about human nature and what social media does it amplifies your tongue it makes it a million times stronger widens the circle that's why it's very dangerous and and all this social media causes problems why you're always constantly on alert you're fearful you're challenged by social
00:14:24 circumstances some children actually have learning deficits developmental delays mental health problems and your weakened ability to receive positive feedback so therefore when you're so Cyber Bullied right friends telling you you're nothing you're horrible your face is full of pimples like volcano going to WRA all the time and when your parents say you're okay you don't actually receive that because father father of course bias with right so therefore it affects your brain in fact the areas affected are all that described in this
00:14:56 slide Corpus capos hippocampus it is real damage what your your your mouth can do this is Measles an age old problem which I think we have solved why because we we use the measles moms and rubella all of you have had it right but right the beginning you know when they started using this all right you know who were against it Christians this a preacher called Edmund Massie and he interpreted vaccines is an attempt to oppose God's punishment upon man for his so measles is God's punishment so you must receive the punishment you get the
00:15:30 menitis you die it's so sad that preachers the problem with preachers they think they're very smart just because you hold the word of God in your hand that means you're expert in medicine you're expert in everything else you're not you're not it's only one aspect of life you are expert in you're not an expert everything and so therefore when you cross that border you cause pain and how many thousand nowadays people are refusing misles vaccines and we are seeing in France almost 21,000 people getting measles again look at the
00:16:03 previous covid vaccine 43% of the websites are antivin they write vaccines have retroviruses that destroy our health in fact Studies have shown you just look at the antia website for 10 minutes you know just 10 minutes are it changes your perception of vaccines and it actually endangers like you see what your word can do it's so dangerous what other forms of sins of speech judging negativity some people just all the time negative and whatever they sit down and talk to you over lunch nothing good to
00:16:44 say the only good is the food but everything else is negative now if you have got people like that I think you better find another lunch partner right uh complaining making excuses some people are dogmatic oh my goodness this the world according to Peter and nobody else uh exaggeration I caught a fish that big boasting rash quarrelsome harsh cursing very few are but you need to recognize these are sins of speech and don't laugh I'm sure all of us are guilty about about this at some put your hand up
00:17:20 you're not guilty anybody who have never been negative have never been gossiping you never it is time for us to understand and repent and on the other hand is a more subtle kind of damage the tongue does here is what's his name again the the man with a claw right the claw the claw oh Wolverine Hugh Jackman had a good marriage with this young lady well not young lady for 20 over years and they decided this yesterday to divorce and they put out in the web this statement we have been blessed to share almost
00:18:01 three decades together as husband and wife in a wonderful loving marriage our Germany now is Shifting and we have decided to separate to pursue our individual growth you know how dangerous this is you know how dangerous this is worse than Donald Trump why because he's casting marriage as a journey of which you take together and after all you go separate Journey where is the Covenant of marriage where is Fidelity where's faithfulness all this is covered over by language which looks beautiful and
00:18:39 appeals to people so everybody say oh it's okay we all can uh uh you know lean and lean can have a journey together after that we have different Journey for our own personal growth that's the devil's tongue we need to recognize this is more dangerous to our soci what about loving relationship loving relationship same sex okay as long as you're committed you see you see how you can recast things this is what the tongue does so speech as a danger of great evil s of speech are bad news today if I tell you you got a disease
00:19:17 this disease got no cure because sin of speech are Beyond self-control every kind of Beast and bird or reptile and sea Can Be Tamed and tamed by mankind and no human being can can tame the tongue is a Restless evil full of deadly poison you know it's so difficult to tame even animals have you ever tame a crowd of cats all the cats will sit out and beg and give me a you can do that for a dog right you never do that for a cat even wild animals if you look this picture this kala Nash she was introduced to a
00:19:51 friend uh who had a chimpan for 20 years called Travis totally docile suddenly after 20 years in captivity he erupted tore off her face and this the first facial transplant in in the world because this chimpanzee who was apparently tamed was not really tamed and the tongue is worse than that here is a study uh by the University of California Riverside they looked at 467 men and what they did was they hang hung on their neck electronically activated recorder so it'll record everything you say when you start speaking to
00:20:37 investigate uh what we say and the conclusion is everybody gossip not a single one of the test subjects do not gossip you know who gossips young people gossip more or old people anybody put your hand uh who believes that the young people will gossip more put your hand up no ah yes yes okay how many believe old people gossip more yeah all old people yeah because old people retire nothing to do plenty of money right they sit restaurant and they talk about each other else well the data shows young
00:21:12 people more negative gossip than older people and young people are involved in social media how dangerous is that okay negative gossip is twice as common as positive poor people gossip blessed and rich people H poor people got you know not enough to to to put food on a table you think a time to go and gossip rich people sit and talk about each about other this is actual data we all spend average 52 minutes a day can you imagine 52 minutes a day gossiping that's a heck of a lot you know you drive to work every day is
00:21:52 about 1 hour right drive two and fr 2 hours then you add on top that 52 minutes well I suppose you can multitask at the same time you you you drive and then you gossip and there are no gender differences you all try to blame the women and there no gender differences but in those days uh they always blame the women for gossiping and this is called uh the skull's bridal and and in Scotland 1500 they will put this cruel device because they they targeted women as if women are the only one who gossip
00:22:24 all right and and there's a metal uh lever inside that depressed the tongue so you cannot actually open your mouth and your husband stands behind you as you walk in front this called a skulls Bridal in 1967 they actually outlawed it in the UK heck of a long time 1967 you can see this uh uh you they cannot control in fact The evolutionary psychologist Robin danar reckons that our gossiping it's like monkeys you know you know what they're doing every day they're grooming each other right ah it's a very helpful activity he says
00:23:01 off when you're gossiping you're offering teachable moments and providing people examples of what is socially acceptable right in fact is is collective criticism by each other will then warn people not to transgress and there a lot of motives for us gossiping uh and and not all gossiping is wrong because it is a way in which we interact to to to basically help each other in a socially positive construct it is possible but what the Bible is against is one that's actually negative why do people gossip well data shows that when
00:23:38 you gossip about Hugh Jackman like I just I didn't really gossip because it's in a newspaper right your corded nucleus which is the blue color structure actually lights up which means makes you happy yes data shows that when you gossip about a celebrity's particular study only about celebrity if you're talking about Hugh Jackman and how he divorced his wife horrible guy whatever y I thought Vine was hero actually he's not hero uh you actually get happier uh it's another 2012 study that actually
00:24:12 showed that when you talk about another person anti uh social behavior or the fell so lazy when he when he comes he doesn't dress up well when you talk about somebody negative fashion your heart rate goes up when you gossip about about person to somebody else your heart goes down so actually gossiping helps calm the body that's all the research I can find for you okay uh to tell you why it's so hard to control the tongue you get a high when you tell is just great fun but the Bible looks at the person
00:24:53 gossip it looks like an evildoer the words of a Whisperer that's how it Des describes it whether it's evil or not depends on the content the situation and the motive of that particular person so it's very very difficult now let me go to the last Point speech can only be transformed by a change in our hearts because it cannot be tamed like the chimpanzee you see we look at James chapter 2 uh he you know the faith of Abraham is Vindicated or shown by his willingness to sacrif rice his son the faith of Rahab was indicated and
00:25:34 confirmed by her willingness to sacrifice her safety for the protection of the 12 Israelite spies works are evidence of Faith words are works that's what the Bible is saying if we bless people our Lord God with our mouth we curse people who are made in the image of God you know how contradictory is that right it's totally contradictory from the same mouth come blessing and cursing my brothers these things ought not to be so does the spring pour out the same opening both fresh water and salt water can a fig tree my brothers
00:26:09 bear olives or grape uh Vine produce figs neither can salt porn yield fresh water this is a contradiction of nature it cannot be you can have one side of your mouth praise God the other side of man you you you you you curse men you know um there was a saw survey on churches and and most American Christians are judged to be what self-righteous hypocritical and judgment why because we speak on two side of our mouth one side good one side bad and that's why we are actually judged as hypocritical because we subscribe to the
00:26:47 biblical ethical standards on the other hand we break the same standards as well Jesus says you brute of vipers how can you speak of good when you are evil from out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks the good person out of his good treasure brings forth good and evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil but it's not so easy Martin Luther he is 500 years ago the head of our Protestant movement right he wrote in 1523 a brilliant booklet saying that Jesus was born a Jew which he extoled
00:27:21 the virtues of Jews founder revelation of the Reformation he's the one that stood with the 95 thesis and said we shall be saved by faith alone 1943 wrote us another booklet called the Jews and their lies and he called the Jews a base whing people that is no people of God and they boast of lineage circumcision and the law must be accounted as filth because of that what happens is that to generations of German Christians Martin sass Bishop of the Evangelical church at duringa read that book promoted that book and participated in
00:28:05 actively encouraging the Nazis to kill Jews systematically they gave them the theological foundation for persecution because the Jews were evil people why Martin Luther tells you so so the words that you write or you say have great damage we rationalize our failures we say say a slip with a tongue is not a fault of the mind that is also not true our tongues reveal our hearts just like a doctor you go there you see him irritating habit of shoving that stupid thing down your throat right to look at
00:28:43 your tonsils words show who you are better than your thoughts you cannot understand yourself but your words show who you are for example if you try to intimidate somebody else okay to show them you're bigger than them why are you doing that because you want to conceal your old V vulnerability isn't it because you're so scared of the person so you better attack him first if you were to be brutally Frank with people tell him that his chuch Chang singing sucks okay why because I CRA respect because I I I I I I don't really think I
00:29:16 can sing as well asang so I better put him down I said I'm brutally Frank with you or if I put somebody else down to defend my pride or if I gossip to feel good about myself because I'm not doing the same thing I wouldn't gossip about other people with the same sin I'm doing directly right that's stupid isn't it you always gossip about things that you don't do Kim Keller was talking about in one of his sermons on the sunship course which he runs in Philadelphia and his thesis is that even though you say you believe in the gospel
00:29:49 saved by grace no condemnation in reality you don't function with the gospel in the center of your life you said we all Bible believing Christians we believe in the gospel we we we translate the gospel in various languages but yet at the center of our heart we don't operate with the gospel at the center of our lives right so most Christians put up something else in the center of the life you know what they put up their own righteousness all right so they when they did this course they actually did the tongue test uh can you
00:30:19 go through one week and you do not complain or Grumble about the other person you better go back and do this in in one week do you do not complain or Grumble about one person do not gossip or repeat a matter do not boast about anything at all or yourself do not run anybody down do not defend yourself if you are attacked and you must at all times affirm others how many of us you don't have to go to Philadelphia for the test for the course I tell you within three days I will fail and the reason why we fail Kella is
00:30:55 saying is because all of us are like defendants on the dock being tried right and whether we're boasting or cursing or building ourselves up or putting ourselves in good light it's because you're still standing in the dock being accused of crimes we have a guilt Center why do you think Adam and Eve when they sin run and hide in the bushes and cover with fig trees that's what we're doing and when we are actually speaking out whether it negatively or boasting or that it is a symptom of what is in the center of our
00:31:41 hearts let's say you go to criticize somebody all right the first thing that person will do lash back at you why because at his Center is his own self-esteem but Keller is saying that if you are saved by grace and you really understand that you are a no good horrible piece of teth then you go and criticize me what's the difference I'm already a no good horrible piece of teeth you want to add one more sin sure I got a few million here so why are you going to defend yourself you see what I mean that shows
00:32:23 what's in the heart that shows what is in your heart we need to take the beauty of Jesus Christ and start to worship him because that will heal our hearts and the pollution there then we can then use that to respond Romans says no more condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us neither Heights nor depth nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of Jesus Christ Our Lord if you take this in your heart you won't
00:33:01 be standing on the duck defending yourself all the time you don't have to be gossiping other people's travails just to make you look good because the only person's gaze upon whom you you value is Christ so if you're doing all these things it just tells me you don't have you don't understand what Grace is you cannot operate from self-control so we curse people we bless people or we operate from the heart and what's in your heart your CV your accomplishments you make excuses your defense your resentments everything that
00:33:39 is it comes out from your speech your speech will tell you you don't believe me you you just go to not chuch Chang anymore somebody else and you just tell them about something about them which is correct it's a criticism to help them grow and you see the fellow respond to you you come and chop your head off then you know what's in their heart Grace is not in their heart this is the gospel test don't don't go and test each other after I will end in a better note I don't want you go criticize everybody
00:34:15 and then everybody comes out so so for God gave us a spirit not of fear but Power love and self-control the spirit of God gives us self-control and that comes from him you see words direct Our Lives he's saying that look at the ships they are so large and driven by strong winds they Guided by a very small brother wherever the will of the pilot directs what he's saying is that your entire life can be guided by your tongue you see there's an ontological argument you should not do this from the same mouth come blessing and cursing my
00:34:55 brothers this ought not to be so when the Bible says this things is what it's saying is that this that one John we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness we lie and we do not practice Truth by good my little children I am writing these things to you that you may not sin if anyone does sin we have Advocate with the father Jesus Christ the you see what what's happening is that he's it's an argument if you actually are with God's nature you should not sin if you actually have one nature there should
00:35:33 not have be blessing and cursing coming from the same mouth so therefore we get to decide which part of our Lives to express you can direct your heart towards the good part and starve the evil part you clothe your good thoughts with words and reject the bad thoughts like the rather that directs your life so in Sp of expressing your anger you confess your anger to someone be accountable able and strengthen that part of your heart now aside from this there are practical biblical applications all right the gospel
00:36:06 transformation is looking at your heart understanding your identity has been changed your motive for changing is because you love Jesus he died for you and then how your thinking changes and and basically first of all practical points saturate your minds with the gospel of grace Paul says finally Brothers whatever is true whatever is Honorable whatever is just whatever is pure whatever is lovely whatever is commendable if there's any Excellence anything worthy of Praise think about these things you see I mean basically by
00:36:40 thinking about the good points you actually change your brain and there's evidence book published by Andrew Newberg and Mark Walman from from neuroscientists they NE scientists that say that don't only prayer and spiritual practices reduce stress and anxiety because 12 minutes of meditation per day slows down the aging process a lot of people from kis here right just 12 minutes meditation on God's word slows you down you may live to 105 intense prayer and meditation permanently change brain uh structures
00:37:15 in your in your heart so there are physiological benefits uh James 1:19 slow to speak so basically nothing good to say keep quiet you know you save your energy uh words are many transgressions is not lacking so when there are more words means more transgression whoever restrains his tongue is prudent the tongue of the righteous is Choice silver the heart of the wicked is a little worth this is very useful halt don't talk when you're hungry when you're angry when you're lonely and when tired the only person who who cannot avoid
00:37:55 this is your wife because you come home home you're hungry you're angry you're lonely hopefully not lonely or you're tired right then she can so basically when you're angry all right don't say anything speak graciously your speech always be gracious seasoned with salt so that you may know how you ought to answer each other person you you must understand what speech is speech is like this baggage trade this baggage train has information has emotion has truth and has got context right so how you speak to a person the
00:38:37 ination the body language you can say oh Yen I love you or Yen I love you different right ah social media you don't get that Zoom meeting you cannot get that that's why you should come back for physical you lose half your communication because words are are are clothed to so many of these actions are all part of mannerisms are part of it you see this how we interpret and encourage each other so I think that's important to understand before you open your mouth speak graciously the tongue of the righteous is Choice silver the
00:39:12 heart of the wicked is a little worth the lips of the righteous feed many but the fools die a lack of sense even in my profession I now be to go to R training when I talk to my patients okay I cannot say you got chronic degenerative changes I must say you got normal wear and tear I cannot say negative test result I must say oh everybody everything appears normal I cannot say don't worry a stupid thing to say you just say everything will be okay okay uh you cannot talk about damage you must put out there
00:39:47 repairable harm you can see where I'm going you cannot talk about wear and tear you must talk about normal aging changes you cannot talk about instability you just see you need your KNE needs more strength and control ah you see right see an old dog like me has to learn new tricks why because when I speak I minister to my patience so in the past I've been brutally honest because I'm stupid right I'm trying to show people how clever I am right now older and more circumspect too much sitting down the
00:40:22 road and then I learned that I've already hurt so many people so I think we have to change all right we need to speak in love now now why why is he saying speak the truth in love it's actually activity speaking not not loving the person I'm not asking you to bake a cake for him I'm asking you to speak the truth in love because there's something about speech you see the tongue directs your life your attitudes your perceptions and your wellbe if you got bad thoughts and you clothe your bad thoughts they become a
00:40:56 power on you let's just give experiment the whole week you go and say bad things about yourself about other people you wind up depressed I guarante you if you actually go to the whole week and give amplification to your good thoughts then they become a power over you your own attitude perception and well-being will be lifted you know some people I tell you there even in this church you go and sit down the sit down everything negative one and you feel like I need get out of here you know because they create an
00:41:31 environment see we all have good thoughts and bad thoughts in our minds we decide which to closethe and that is a challenge to us Titus says we to speak evil of no one avoid qu quarreling show perfect courtesy Ephesians says whatever we say we need to be building up people give Grace speak the truth less no corrupting talk come out with your mouth Ephesians says no filthiness or foolish talk or crude joking do things without grumbling and the speech that you have reflects the power of the holy spirit in
00:42:12 your life addressing one another in Psalms hymns and spiritual songs can we have the team up here so speech has a danger of great evil sin a speech are Beyond self control since speech can only be transformed by a change in our hearts and there's one important last point you know why God gave you the tongue because the tongue is the most powerful organ the entire body and the tongue is created for one thing you know when God creates amazing roses when the rose blooms it serves only one function to
00:43:11 illustrate the beauty complexity intelligence of our creator everything has a purpose it shines the light in who made us when God made human beings In His Image we we have something that replicates what God is his word comes from our tongue today we can decide whether we use that tongue that most intimate part of our body that most reflects who he is he's the one who said let there be light and there's light so powerful we could use that tongue to create to build to bless to honor to transform the
00:44:02 world or you could use that tongue to look inside and keep tearing each other down in First Baptist Church if your tongue achieves that purpose the good purpose for which it was designed to mimic God to reflect God to be the image of God we will change the world which is why if you look there's only one verse I want you to focus on which is your future at the end of time there's a vision which God gave John in the Book of Revelations you know what it is after this I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could count
00:44:43 from every nation all tribes even the kyya tribe and peoples and languages standing Before the Throne before the lamb clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands crying out one voice loud voice salvation Belongs To Our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb so let's today with one voice use our tongues for watch for which for what it was created to do let us with one voice sing can we stand father we ask of you this day come and heal our our hearts together that your glory might be
00:45:51 seen in us then the world will know that Jesus Christ is Lord let us be one that glorifies your name let us be one voice declaring that you let us be one voice in love and harmony and we pray oh God grant us you be one voice that glorifies your name let us be one declaring that you let us be one voice in love and harmony and we pray oh God grest [Music] Unity now is the time for you and I to join our hearts in Praise that the name of Jesus will be lifted high above the Earth First Baptist Church we go in the community
00:47:26 right now we go to our families we go to our workplace now is the time your time my time our time where with one voice we have opportunity to bring glory to bring the name of Jesus into every conversation into every action so that the gospel is spread and his Beauty his love and his voice goes out to the ends of the Earth let his voice rain but he only speaks through us let's sing now is the time for you and die to join our hearts in Praise that the name of Jesus lifted high above the Earth the world will
00:48:33 know that Jesus Christ is Lord let's sing up there's a wild voice that glorifies name let us one declare you let us be [Music] and Harmony and we pray oh God grest [Music] Unity let us be one glorifies your name let us be one voice declaring that you re let us be voice in love and harmony and we pray God let's have the benediction father Lord we we are so OD because you gave us our tongues and father we declare that Jesus Reigns and the only way that the world will know that Jesus Reigns is through our tongues so we ask
00:50:04 as you dismiss us this morning that your spirit inspires us wherever we go if we are to gossip let us gossip about Jesus even with the share that didn't share about the grace of Jesus so that everywhere they will know that Jesus Christ is Lord may God add a blessing to all of you as you depart to speak in one voice you may be seated have prayer uh come forward and the elders and pastor Raymond will be here
