This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to day four of our look through chapter 12 of the book of
Matthew, and I want to begin today by reading verses 33 through 37 of this
chapter 12. 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 an 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. " Now Jesus talks about words here when
it comes to what's going to be in the end, what really counts in our lives.

We are told actually in Scripture that we're going to be judged on three
specifics, our actions, our thoughts, and our words. Our actions in Matthew 16,
27, Jesus said he will reward, God will reward each person according to what
they've done. Our thoughts, Jeremiah 17, 10 says, "The Lord searches the heart,
and he examines the mind, our thoughts, to reward each person according to their
conduct.

" And then our words here in Matthew 12, 36, "Everyone will give an account on
the day of judgment for every empty word that they have spoken. " Now when you
think about this judgment, remember as a believer, the judgment of whether
you're going to be in heaven in eternity with Jesus is already settled by the
forgiveness of his sins. That's what he died on the cross for.

So for unbelievers, those who have not yet believed, this judgment that we're
talking about here of our actions, our thoughts, our words, it will just confirm
why they are lost, what sin really is in our lives. For believers, this judgment
will confirm two things. One, why we needed to be saved, why only Jesus could
have saved us.

But in the New Testament, there's a second thing. Once you get saved, once you
start to do things in the power of the Holy Spirit, your actions, your thoughts,
your words, they're not just judged and condemned. Some of them are rewarded.

Those that we do in faith, they are rewarded. Now keep that in mind as we walk
through this because here Jesus focuses on words and he talks in these
scriptures about the power of your words. Now James says, "If anyone is perfect
with their words, they'd be perfect.

" Well I'm not perfect and you're not perfect, so we struggle with our words
sometimes. Let's just admit that we're all in the same boat with that as we
begin here. And Jesus teaches us about our words and the importance of them.

He wants to raise our words to a new level. He taught very clearly in this
passage, he teaches this truth. Your words show who you are.

Don't fool yourself about this. Your words show who you are. Words flow out of
what fills the heart.

Now I've got to tell you, I feel uncomfortably challenged by what Jesus taught
about this connection between our mouth and our heart. I'm a real believer in
this idea of the accidental slip of the tongue. I didn't really mean to say
that.

The truth is, when I say something, it gets an unexpected, unpleasant reaction,
I would much rather say I didn't really mean it than face the relational
consequences. Now if you think that means I'm a coward at times, you're
absolutely right. But we all struggle with that, don't we?

And the truth of the matter is, Jesus says, "Out of the overflow of the heart,
the mouth speaks. " That hurts. Jesus speaks of this direct link between the
mouth and the heart.

Just like your foot pushes the accelerator of a car and the speed increases,
direct connections, or your finger pokes the up button on the elevator and the
door swish open, direct connection. Jesus is saying here your heart is feeling
bitter and so your words become sarcastic. Direct connection.

I'd like to think that I could avoid that connection. That somehow I could cut
off this overflow before it actually spills out. Our solution is often, if I
could just build a bigger dam, nothing will overflow.

So we dam up our emotions, our fears, our hearts, eventually, of course, the dam
bursts. And what in the beginning could have been a refreshing stream of
honesty, it becomes this destructive flood of pent-up words. So Jesus says,
"These words that come out of my mouth, they reveal my heart.

" But there's a clincher in this in what Jesus taught. This connection between
the mouth and the heart, it's actually a two-way connection. My heart affects
the words that come out of my mouth, but Jesus says the words that come out of
my mouth, they also affect my heart.

Over in Mark 7-15, he says, "Your souls aren't harmed by what you eat, but by
what you think and say. " It's a reciprocal connection. And sometimes it causes
us to get caught up in this vicious circle of words.

The anger in our heart spills out in biting words and those words magnify the
anger inside and that wounds our soul. And the wounded soul reacts by striking
out with more angry words. It's this vicious circle.

When I think of a vicious circle, I'm reminded of that story of an older man who
was running at the track of a high school. Football practice was going on in the
middle of the field and the high school boys were running wind sprints. And the
older guy thought to himself, "You know, as long as those boys are sprinting, I
can keep jogging.

" So he went around the track again and then again and the boys kept sprinting
again and again and kept going around again and again. Finally he needed to go
home and he stopped. And the boys also stopped and they headed for the locker
room.

As one of the boys passed the older man on the way to the locker room, he said,
"Sir, I'm so glad you finally stopped jogging. " The coach told us, "As long as
that old guy can jog, you guys can keep sprinting. " That's a vicious circle.

And we get caught up with it in our words at work, at home, with friends. Now
the question is, how do you break that circle? How do you break that pattern?

The answer is not in trying to break the inevitable connection between what's in
your heart and what you say. When you look at what Jesus teaches, you realize
this is a battle you've got to fight on two fronts. First, since words are an
overflow of the heart, you've got to start by taking your heart more seriously.

Instead of pretending that your words mean nothing, what you just said, ask
yourself, "Why did I say that? " Take your heart seriously. Where did that come
from?

What is that revealing to me about me so that I can deal with it? So you take
your heart more seriously. And then second, since your souls are harmed by what
you think and say, you start taking your words more seriously.

You realize that words designed to hurt others, they actually hurt you the most
deeply of all. Even though they may hurt them very deeply, they hurt you the
most deeply of all. The truth is, there is no arena of life that's immune from
the dangers of this vicious cycle of words.

It's not like some relationships are personal and others are I can say anything
I want. I sometimes hear people excuse away their ugly words in arenas such as
theology or business or the practice of politics. The assumption is that those
on different sides of an issue can say whatever they want to gain an advantage
without fear of it igniting this battle that ends up wounding everyone.

And that's just a lie. I've got to tell you, that's just a lie that we tell
ourselves. Who speak in words of anger, who write in words of anger, they stir
up trouble in hearts.

They hurt their hearts and the hearts of those they hope to teach. Politicians
who speak viciously in a national debate, they deepen anger in their hearts and
in the hearts of the nation. Those who are in a business who use ugly words to
try to gain a competitive advantage, they're hurting themselves and they're
hurting their business.

That's what Jesus taught. So let's get practical about this because we all
struggle with this one. We all struggle with our words.

So how do you boil these truths down to actions that we can take in our everyday
lives? Have you ever tried to like refocus your emotions in the middle of an
argument, stop saying those kinds of things? Have you ever tried to like
intentionally calm yourself in the middle of a verbal battle?

I hope you have because if you have, you're not going to take what we're saying
here lightly. You know how hard it is that there's no instant formula for
success. It's not like flipping a light switch on and off.

Your emotions are involved. Patterns of how you've communicated in the past are
involved. Past hurts, past frustrations are involved.

Even whether you're hungry with low blood sugar is involved. Have you ever
noticed that some of your deepest, greatest arguments in a family, they happen
right before a meal? Because this is so tough, we've got to have some practical
strategies.

So here's just a few strategies that can help in breaking this cycle before this
point that words pour out of your mouth. One strategy is very simple. Many
people have used it as you take five or ten.

You just take ten minutes, let your anger cool down, let God speak to your
heart. Wait till your heart is ready before you let the words flow out of your
mouth. A second strategy is to pray for the other person.

Not pray against the other person, pray for the other person. Third strategy is
wait until after you've eaten to have that difficult conversation. A fourth
strategy is to use what are called owning statements instead of blaming
statements.

Instead of blaming the other person for your feeling, you made me whatever, you
own them yourself. I am feeling, and you say how you're feeling. Another
strategy is to watch the tone and the volume of your words.

You can say the right words, but if you say them with a sarcastic tone and a
very loud, loud voice, it doesn't really matter what you're saying. All they
hear is the sarcasm, the tone. Another strategy is you focus on the solution,
not the problem.

How can we solve this together rather than pointing fingers? You're the problem,
they're the problem. Another strategy, and this may be the toughest one of all,
is learn to accept what can't be changed.

If it can't be changed, and I'm arguing with the person about something that
can't be changed, of course we're going to get worse and worse in our argument.
Now I need, we all need some motivation in this, and Jesus gives us some. He
reminds us of one more thing about our words in this passage.

They're not just about you and me, they really are about eternity. He says you
will give, everyone will give an account for our words. You probably noticed
that as I read through the passage.

It's a very scary thought to most of us. Every careless word you give an account
for. Now remember, for the unbeliever, that means an account that involves the
fact that they've rejected God.

They haven't accepted the forgiveness they needed for that sin. For the
believer, it's an account that recognizes I needed that forgiveness. But don't
forget, it's an account that also recognizes that every time I've said a
Christ-like word, I've done a Christ-like thing, that there's reward in it.

Every time I act in a Christ-like way, that has eternal impact. Every time you
think in a Christ-like way, that has eternal impact. And every time you speak in
a Christ-like way, that has eternal impact.

There will come a day when Jesus looks us in the eye and says, "Well done, good
and faithful servant. " And that can be, will be, should be, for some of the
words that you have spoken. So don't just think on the negative side of this.

It's easy to get stuck there. Think also on the reward side, what God wants to
do through your words, how he wants to change your life, the life of those
around you, through your words. Now without his strength, we're doomed on this
one.

But with his strength, with his strength, he can begin to change our hearts. And
that begins to change our words. And so Jesus, right now, we ask for your
strength.

And that is our prayer. Jesus, will you change our hearts so that our words
might change? We want to speak words that build up, not tear down.

We want to speak words that lift people towards the light, not put them in the
darkness. We want to speak words that who we are because of you, Jesus, the
grace you've shown us, the love you've shown us, not that reflect the anger of
something that's happened or the frustration that something happened in our past
or even in our day to day. We need your strength for this.

So I pray that lovingly, kindly, day by day, moment by moment, God, you would
transform the words in our lives to be more encouraging, more loving, more
Christ-like. Would you do this in us? We pray with faith that you would because
you've said you want to.

You said you're working in this way. So we ask this in Jesus' name, amen.
Tomorrow join us.

We're going to talk together about the dangers of spiritual pride.