Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

Tonight we’re continuing a series here at APEX called Building Blocks. In this series, we’ve been talking about some foundational issues for our faith. Important things that we have to consider if we want to grow in our walk with God.

So far we’ve talked about the importance of simplicity. Of quieting our lives. We’ve talked about the importance of authenticity. And we’ve talked about how critical worship is in our lives.

Tonight we’re talking about our words. We don’t often think about our words in connection to our spiritual growth, but the Bible makes that connection in an unmistakable way.

James 3 says, “All of us do many wrong things. But if you can control your tongue, you are mature and able to control your whole body.” (James 3:2, CEV)

Our words and our spiritual maturity are inextricably linked. It’s not an either-or proposition. The Bible doesn’t give us an option to become a mature Christ-follower while not controlling our words. Your words are directly linked to how far you have come in your faith journey with God.

With that in mind, here’s a profound thought for you. Every word you've ever said is still a sound wave that is traveling through space. According to physicists, if we had the right equipment we could recapture everything you've ever said. Everything you've ever said is somewhere in space.

In a very real sense, your words last forever. Every word you’ve ever uttered is still echoing somewhere out there.

Most of us will have a mixed reaction at this thought. Every one of us has said things that we would like to have stricken from the record.

Remember those insults you pitched to the nerdy kid in Jr. High? They’re still reverberating. The lie you told to your boss? It’s still echoing. The time you lost your temper and berated you kids? The words are still making waves. The gossip you spread about a person in your church is still resounding through space. The hurtful words you said to your spouse? Those words still exist.

Every negative, untrue, hurtful, angry, divisive word you’ve ever spoken is still in existence somewhere in space.

But there is a flip-side to this. On the positive side of this equation, every prayer you’ve prayed is still somewhere in the universe. Every word of encouragement you’ve offered is still reverberating through the cosmos. Every syllable of praise you offered your child, or your spouse, or your friend, or your co-worker, or your classmate is still pulsating. Every word you have prayed, or sung, or said in worship is still in existence. The prayers of people we have loved who have passed on are still resounding and are still being heard and answered.

Our sound waves outlive and out last us. Our words are forever.

For many of us, it feels like the negative side of our words far outweighs the positive side. Tonight we want to give you a chance to begin to turn the tide.

Tonight we’re giving you a chance to utter some words that you actually want to last forever. In my office, which is directly outside those main doors, we have set up a space for you to offer some forever words. We’re inviting you to go into that space, one at a time or as a family, and offer some words to God. This is a time between you and God. Or you can do this as a special time of worship with your spouse and kids together.

However you choose to do it, remember this: these words you walk in to speak will last forever. Offer up some words of praise and worship. Thank God for something specific. Tell him how much he’s done for you, how much he means to you. It can be a sentence, or a paragraph. But tell God something that you would want him to hear forever…because he will.

Our words last forever. The sound of every word you’ve ever spoken is still hurtling through space. And if we could recapture it, it would probably sound something like this.

That is the actual sound of the words that we all spoke earlier in that little cube in my office. Obviously it’s an unintelligible mess. We can’t pick out specific voices or actual words…but God can. And this has far reaching implications when it comes to the judgment.

Jesus doesn’t mince words when he talks about our words. Speaking of the Pharisees, the supposed religious leaders in his culture, Jesus said, “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good

stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matthew 12:33-37, NIV)

Our words last forever. And because our words last forever, they impact our eternal judgment. There is good reason that God ties our words and our judgment together.

Words are clues. What we say gives clues to what lies inside us.

That’s what Jesus meant when he said, “out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” (Matthew 12:34b, NIV)

Our words are windows into our heart. Most all of us can play the game for a while. We can say the right words and fool people for a little bit. A skilled politician can do it for a long time. But nobody can do it permanently. Our words will eventually reveal the good or the evil that is in us.

There has been a lot of talk recently about the plays that Cho Seung-Hui wrote. This man who blew 32 people away on the Virginia Tech campus had written plays that spewed venom. They were violent and hateful. I’m not at all saying that these plays should have been the crystal ball needed to stop the shootings. Hindsight is 20/20. But it is undeniable that the words in these plays revealed what was in his heart long before he started shooting.

Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. Words are clues to who we are, what we value, and what we stand for.

In a story entitled The Whisper Test, a woman named Mary Ann Bird writes about the defining moment of her childhood:

I grew up knowing I was different, and I hated it. I was born with a cleft palate, and when I started school, my classmates made it clear to me how I looked to others: a little girl with a misshapen lip, crooked nose, lopsided teeth, and garbled speech. When schoolmates asked, “What happened to your lip” I'd tell them I'd fallen and cut it on a piece of glass. Somehow it seemed more acceptable to have suffered an accident than to have been born different.

I was convinced that no one outside my family could love me. There was, however, a teacher in the second grade who we all adored—Mrs. Leonard.. She was short, round, and happy—a sparkling lady. Annually we had a hearing test. Mrs. Leonard gave the test to everyone in the class, and finally it was my turn. I knew from past years that as we stood against the door and covered one ear, the teacher sitting at her desk would whisper something, and we would have to repeat it back—things like: “The sky is blue” or “Do you have new shoes?” I waited there for those words that God must have put into her mouth, those seven words that changed my life. Mrs. Leonard said, in her whisper, “I wish you were my little girl.”

“Those seven words that changed my life.”

These words give a clue about Mrs. Leonard’s heart. They also clue us in to the power of words. Seven words changed a life.

The Bible tells us, “The tongue has the power of life and death…” (Proverbs 18:21a, NIV)

Our words are power-packed. Aldous Huxley wrote, “Thanks to words, we have been able to rise above the brutes; and thanks to words, we have often sunk to the level of the demons.”

Our words have the power of life and they have the power of death…and it’s up to us to decide how our words will be used. They last forever, not just resounding through space, but in the minds and hearts of people around us. Our words have the power to build up or to destroy a life. It’s that terribly simple.

If you’re like me, you feel like such a loser in the realm of your words. I have uttered so many things in my life that have been critical, divisive, ugly, and mean. And those words live on as sound waves speeding through space…and they live on in the lives of people that I have hurt.

Our only hope for our words lies in these words from the book of Hebrews. God says, “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” (Hebrews 8:12, NIV)

I don’t know how an all-knowing God forgets our sin, but he does. And that promise is for all our sins and shortcomings, including our words. Somehow, in some way, God turns down the volume on the stupid, sinful words that we’ve spoken. They may still be reverberating throughout the universe, but they are no longer ringing in God’s ears.

However, he doesn’t take that stance on our words of praise and worship. They will forever be in his ears, they will forever lift his heart, they will always put a smile on his face.

Leaving here tonight, our goal is to say more memorable words for God, and fewer words that God will have to forget.

Let’s all leave here praying this simple prayer of David from the book of Psalms: “Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips.” (Psalm 141:3, NIV)

Mike Edmisten

Tags: taming the tongue, words, apex