The tongue is a fire

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.
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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the
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Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.�
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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you.
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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the
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Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.
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Welcome to No Compromise Radio. This is Mike Abendroth with my co -host, Al Shreddo. Yes, and I�m about to announce my first fundraiser ever to get new headphones for No Compromise Radio.
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Steve, what are those little barometer deals they have on the websites that, you know, show, oh, this is how much money they need and stuff like that?
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I don�t know, but ours ought to say, �He loves me. He loves me not.� Well, for years, we didn�t have any donation site.
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I listened to a man the other day, and he has on his website, I think he does a podcast, can�t remember the guy�s name.
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And when you click on the Donate Now, it opens up a page and it says, �Give to your local church.�
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Wow. I thought that was pretty good. Pretty good. Yeah. So it�s good for them, but not for us. We need new headphones. Give to Bethlehem Bible Church.
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That�s where it should be. Designated fund pastoral staff. What about these big industrial complexes like the
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Gospel Coalition and the money that they take in? Now, I would assume some money is above and beyond local church giving, but they influence a lot of the church members because it�s socially driven, but they also take a lot of money.
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I wonder how much money goes to that place. That is, for certain, an industrial complex.
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I don�t know. It just reminds me of the Department of Education or all these other things. You send your money to Washington, D .C.,
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they skim off the top and then decide how much you should get back. And I think it�s the same with the Gospel Coalition.
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They�ve got a huge mechanism that they�ve got to all these people that are there working, right?
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So they all have to get paid. And so then they take that off and then they decide how much they�re going to actually put towards gospel ministry.
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Well, these days, I mean, it�s kind of run the gamut how much gospel ministry actually goes on. Social gospel, they�re big on that.
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Trevin Wax, now I think he just said that Wesley is in the stream of the Reformation. He was taking a task for that.
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Wax off. Wax. Max, who is the wax guy who is maybe a politician in Los Angeles?
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Miyagi? I don�t. What? Oh, Waxman? Yeah, Waxman. That�s right.
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What�s his first name? I can see his face. I want to say�
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Yeah. Okay. Henry Waxman. Yeah. I think so. That might be. Anyway, how we got on to all these subjects,
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I don�t know. But when I think of these complexes and you�ve got a lot of the
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Ann Voskamp promoted now on the Gospel Coalition instead of really critiquing her and you�ve got all the
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Tabeti stuff going on and social justice and is the gospel just and is justice the gospel and whatever it�s called,
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French front porch stuff. I mean, it�s just crazy. Who could make this stuff up? Can you have the gospel and not have justice?
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Yeah. I think that�s it. Can you? Well, maybe they need to read some
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Van Drunen Two Kingdoms stuff, 2K stuff. Maybe that would be helpful. But I really�
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I mean, short of looking at them saying, �What are they doing that for ?�
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and maybe an occasional Kevin DeYoung article, it�s pretty much� I�m pretty much done. Had enough of the
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Gospel Coalition? I don�t think they�re asking me to do anything for them. So we don�t have to worry about that bridge being burnt.
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I think we�d like less coalition, more gospel. Well, we have to redeem every square inch.
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So we�ve got those special� you can make brownies for the gospel. Is that right? It�s our job to redeem every square inch?
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I think it�s Kuyperianism on steroids. Like the Lord� well, I mean, it sounds like post -millennialism, right?
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Well, that�s actually making an increase too in popularity. I think it�s directly related to our new president.
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It�s post -mill fever. Next thing you know, we�ll start all of our services with onward
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Christian soldiers. Well, what we do here in New England, since this is, you know, the north, we start off every service with Battle Hymn of the
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Republic. That�s what we�re all about. What does that all mean? I don�t know, but it�s a great song, isn�t it?
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I mean, not a great hymn, but it�s a great song. I mean, you listen to it and you just� you want to go marching to war.
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That song elicits a response. That�s for certain. If you sing it in a church service, you should elicit the wrong response.
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It�s not gospel, you know, ministry. Can you imagine we�re blasting the gospel coalition, but we�re promoting
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Battle Hymn of the Republic, which we�re not. Battle Hymn of the Republican, is that what he said?
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We actually have sung that song here, to my shame, but that�s one of those Sunday night deals where everybody raises their hands and you got to sing
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Count Your Blessings and a variety of other tent songs. Yeah. The Sunday night thing,
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I like being up there on Sunday night because I just like looking and going, �No.�
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Yeah, because you have the say. We�re not going to do that, no. Well, we�ve got the new hymnals. We have those.
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So maybe that�ll help some. I was just going to say� I think there�s still two or three kind of bad ones in there.
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What I was going to say, though, is I don�t know if Battle� I don�t think Battle Hymn of the Republic�s in there. It can�t be in there. It can�t be.
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No. What other songs? It Came Upon a Midnight Clear. That was written by Unitarian. Yeah, I just found out we�re going to a wedding at a
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UU church. That just made me think of that. Oh, that�s exciting. Yeah. Yeah. The wedding�s going to be at a
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Unitarian Universalist church and I believe
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LBGTQ kind of stuff. Well, yeah. They said there�s no flag out, though.
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I said, �Oh, it must not be in the budget because I guess they have a wood stove at this place and the guy�s going to have to get there like four hours early to heat the place up.�
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Well, we�ll give some� the gospel, well, maybe it�ll be the first time in 50 years the gospel has been preached there.
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At least, my guess would be at least. So I�m looking forward to doing that wedding for certain. That�s this month.
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What are we doing? I don�t know. Yeah. It�s coming up. All right. So, Steve, tomorrow in real time, it�s probably going to snow like a banshee.
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What�s a banshee? Is that� Somebody who screams a lot, I think. Is that like a female word? Is that people are going to be really mad because it�s feminine?
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I don�t know. I don�t even know. I don�t know what a banshee is. I mean, I�ve used the word.
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I guess I just don�t know what it�s. But it sounds like a mythical kind of like one of those sirens.
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Siren songs. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it�s going to snow, so I like to have snow sermons ready.
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And snow sermons mean this. I�m preaching through Hebrews verse by verse. I�ve got Hebrews 3 done.
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And Jesus, while Moses is faithful, Jesus is more faithful. But I�ve got a snow sermon on the tongue and talking properly and making sure we say the right thing.
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So which one do you think I�m going to end up preaching? How about Isaiah 118? Well, that would be good.
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Wider. You know. Should we� Is that an okay song to sing? Wider than snow? Yes. Wider than snow?
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Yeah. It�s biblical. It seems like though we�ve got some revivalistic tent songs in our queue these days.
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Maybe a few. Yeah. But I mean, what you want to avoid because you have to enunciate, you want to say, you don�t want to say wider than snow.
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You want it to be whiter. That�s exactly right. So I was looking at this tongue issue.
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you know, Steve, if you add everything up, you will spend 13 years talking.
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So if you live to be 75, 13 years of that would be talking word for word.
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See, I don�t think that�s true for some people though. I think, you know, some people, I think that must be an average because for some people,
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I guess it�s probably more like 40 and for some people, I guess it�s more like two. 12 ,000 to 25 ,000 words a day.
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How many is it on a typical – how many words on a typical NoCo show I wonder? Six. We went to a basketball game last night.
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Gracie plays JV basketball and, you know, she does pretty well even though I require her to wear that long dress and stuff, that Amish dress.
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Well, she has to be modest. Yeah, because it can�t – those shorts that they have now, you know, now they have the baggy shorts.
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But back in the day, you know, the Magic Johnson, Michael Cooper day, those were inappropriate on men or women.
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I do wish you�d let Gracie get away from the burlap though. That�s kind of � Well, I had her get some
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Birkenstock shoes and we fashioned them and molded them into a special kind of a tennis shoe, a basketball shoe if you will.
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Nice. Anyway, listening to parents talk, you know, I get excited at the game and if she scores a basket or something,
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I clap and, man, listen to some of the chatter in these. They�re just JV games, you know, whether it�s girl or boy, but this is a
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JV girls game and it�s just chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter and all this stuff about the refs and that was a bad call.
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And then I realized, to my chagrin, that�s me. Well, you know, as long as it�s not course language,
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I mean I�ve just been shocked lately everywhere I go just by the coursing of language in general.
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The things people will say around kids and, you know, and usually it�s women who are, you know, talking like that and I just �
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I�m shocked. I guess I�m, you know, in my mind it�s still the 1970s where there�s a modicum of civility about people and this is not the world we live in.
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The last time I almost got into a physical altercation was when I said to a man at a lunch place after I put up with it for a while, �Oh, you know, excuse me, sir.
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I�ve got a couple of my little daughters here. I was wondering if you could watch your language.� As nice as I could be,
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I thought I was going to have to duck. I thought, you know, here comes fisticuffs flying haymakers my way.
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I talked myself out of it, but it was just like, �Let�s just go.� That was the way I talked my way out of it. It�s awful.
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So, he didn�t say, �Oh, I�m sorry. Pardon me.� I know. Most of the time they do. Most of the time they say that.
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And James 3 talks about the tongue and I know this is an important part of pastoral ministry and even addressing it as Christians.
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Steve, when people say, �Well, what do I say ?� and I have to be careful about what I say. Tie this
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James passage in for us, at least by application. Not just what you say, but what you type, right?
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I�m thinking Twitter, Facebook, social media, comments at the end of news articles.
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How can we make sure we envelop social media into this discussion the Bible has about the tongue?
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Well, I think, you know, the Internet might be the worst thing ever invented in terms of civility because there�s an anonymity and a distance, you know, so people get really super brave and they�re willing to say things about people that they would never say to their face, you know, and just kind of empty their spleen as it were, you know, just let them have the full fusillade of their rage and they just say things that Christians definitely should not say and, you know, decent people shouldn�t say, you know.
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And it is amazing to me how bold and how brave people, you know,
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I mean, I�ve had people say things to me on Facebook and other places that I�m pretty sure they wouldn�t want to say to my face, you know, because they�d kind of look at me and go, �Well, he�s a pastor and I don�t think he�d do anything, but I don�t want to risk it either, you know, so I know he used to be a cop, so what if the cop wins and or runs their fingers on the keyboard.
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Just typing away. The end result is really like an X -ray machine showing what�s in our hearts, correct?
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Out of the mouth, the heart speaks. So true. And it's almost like, well, how are you doing spiritually?
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If we ever ask that question of someone, our next question should say, could you please just begin to talk, right?
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If we sit down and we're counseling someone, tell me about your week, tell me what you're doing, how do you feel, what are you thinking about?
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And they start talking. We pretty much can know because how can we see the invisible? But once they start talking, we realize where their affections are, what they like, what they don't like.
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Well, I mean, even when you listen to somebody say, you know, well, it's been a rough week or I'm depressed or, you know, well, what's the focus on?
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The focus is on their problems and, you know, their circumstances. So that's right.
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Here's a quote from a Greek philosopher, and he would start off his conversations with these words, say something so that I could see you.
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Reveal yourself, right? Reveal yourself, speak to me. Well, in the context of James, don't you think it's fair to say this living faith, this saving faith, a vibrant faith, a faith that has works, it reveals itself in a control of the tongue?
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Isn't that the progression here with Chapter 2 moving into Chapter 3? Absolutely. I mean, and we would know that from other places.
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I mean, Ephesians 5, Galatians 5. You know, if we're to be imitators of God in Ephesians 5, then how can we not, you know, exercise control over our tongue, fruit of the
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Spirit? In Galatians 5, you know, that self -control is one of the fruits of the
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Spirit, one of the evidences that the Spirit is at work in you. And ultimately, if you cannot control your tongue, then what does it say about your heart, as you were saying?
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What does it show? Well, it may show that you've still got a sinful heart, a heart that's not been changed from stone to flesh.
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If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well.
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That is what he's saying in James 3. Look at the ships also, though they were so large, they are so large, and driven by strong winds.
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They are guided by very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.
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So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.
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I guess that I probably sin with my tongue more than any other, you know, that's the member of my body that makes me sin the most, right?
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My mind begins to think, and out of my mouth it comes. It's not with my fist where I beat people up, it's with my mouth where I tear people down or complain or something like that.
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Isn't that true? It's so easy. Very easy. And like you were saying, especially with the keyboard, you know, as I said,
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I think it's one thing. I mean, it's almost like being in the presence of somebody is like an instant restraint most of the time.
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I mean, it doesn't always work perfectly, but at least there's a certain, I guess, a social pressure that is just kind of applied to you if other people or at least one other person's around.
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But when you're in isolation and it's just you and the keyboard and you can say whatever you want, you know, that's where the heart really manifests itself.
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And I don't know if you ever had this circumstance, just thinking about the tongue being like the steering mechanism for you, but if you ever said something and realized that you just, you know, like you're a cartoon character, you just ran out off the cliff and you're about to fall to earth because you're just like, why did
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I say that? I didn't even want to say that. And, you know, now you're stuck.
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We have this thing at home where if one of the kids says something or I say something, excuse me, my first reaction after I see the words come out of my mouth almost,
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I can almost watch them materialize. And I'm realizing that is like a bomb that is so destructive.
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That's not encouraging. It doesn't edify. It's selfish and sinful. And I want to reel those things back in to shore.
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I want to say I didn't mean it. But according to this passage in Matthew 12,
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I did mean it, but now I regret saying what I said because that was really stupid. So I try to get the kids and I try to do the same.
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We don't say I didn't mean it. I meant it. But I'm really sorry. Please forgive me. Peter Goetz Well, and you said the key there, you know, in Ephesians 4,
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I think it's 29 where it just talks about edifying language, language that builds up, you know. And so, what we ought to strive for is to not see our words coming out and then kind of being horrified by them.
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What we ought to strive for is to think ahead of time and think, okay, this is what I'm about to say.
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Is it edifying? You know, does it build up? Not even, is it true? Because people fall into that trap.
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Is it true? Well, is it true is beside the point. Scripture doesn't say, only say that which is true.
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It says, say that which is edifying, that which is going to give grace to the hearer. Right?
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So sometimes it would do us, it would serve us well to speak a lot less.
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Wouldn't you think it's fair to say, Steve, that most church problems, divisions, strife, it's all due to what people say?
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I mean, there are sexual sins that are in churches and they could destroy things or some horrible thing that could happen.
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But nine times out of 10, it seems to me, it's just because people say things. Absolutely. I mean, if the gossip, the rumor mongering in the hallway, all the complaints about the pastor and the elders or the
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Sunday school teacher or whatever it is, all those things, you take those things out and the church is a much, much happier, holier place.
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Steve, I was just thinking for a minute about Jesus's ministry and how they would regularly say that they were amazed by his words.
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They were impressed by his words, the words that were falling from his mouth. And he was just such a great speaker.
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And of course he gave some invectives against the Pharisees and scribes. But can you imagine, and I know this is only some theoretical thing, but James 3 talks about the tongue is a fire, it destroys.
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If in fact Jesus were a sinful man with that intellect and with who he was, imagine what he could say to destroy people and imagine how awful it would be to be on the receiving end of a sinful man like that.
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But thankfully, that was never the case. Well, if that was the case, he'd probably be a politician. And then to think,
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OK, now Satan, while not great like Jesus, the son, still a created being,
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Satan is, saying things. And what did Satan do? I mean, when he's in the garden talking or he's in Job talking, he's not one of these kind of foul -mouthed, four -letter people just spewing scuds.
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He's nuanced. He not only looks like an angel of light, I think he speaks like one. Well, I mean, the father of lies, right, would have to be gifted at it.
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You know, to my shame, I'll tell you, there is a gift to it. You know, I mean, there are ways of lying and then there are ways of lying.
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Well, I thought of the gift of gab, and now there's the gift of deceit and the gift of lying and the gift of using your words to control and manipulate and all those other things.
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And by the way, those aren't spiritual gifts. It might be a gift, but it isn't a spiritual gift.
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Well, Steve, I don't know if it's such a struggle these days. I probably should say it is because I'm not trying to come across like I've got everything wired.
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But I know early on, especially in the ministry, I thought I've come out of a sales background where I'd want to persuade people.
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And, you know, I'm sure there was manipulation involved. But then I'm thinking, all right, in gospel ministry, I want to be persuasive and winsome and encouraging people, or 2
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Corinthians 5 .20, begging people. But to distort that and to tweak it just one hair off into the sin land area, that's a bad deal.
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So you did want to use persuasive words of wisdom? I did, actually. But I didn't want to persuade with manipulation or man -centeredness or having people, you know, be attracted to me instead of the messenger.
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I don't know. It was hard. You're just quoting Bible verses. Sorry. Sorry.
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Sorry, I'm not trying to use the word. Now, you know, this is not the
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Stephen Furtick show kind of thing. I want to be careful. What do you think is going to happen there?
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What's going to eventually happen with all the Elevate stuff? You know, honestly,
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I have no idea. Well, here's what I do know. I'm like, you know, I keep thinking, oh, these things are going to blow up. Oh, these things are going to crumble.
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And I'm like, well, look at all these people that have been on TBN fleecing, you know, old people and the sick and the infirm and the weak -willed for decades.
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So I'm like, who knows what's going to happen with Furtick. He might be in his eighties going, hey, haters. Well, I think it's become such a brand that pretty soon you're not, you know, he's probably going to be around, but you wouldn't even need him.
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Right. You've got music and you've got, you know, the style and you can pick other people that talk like him.
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And so it's just a friend, it'll be like a brand and franchise, and you just can replicate the thing. It'll be like a denomination.
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Oh, that'll be a great day of celebration. I don't get TBN on my antenna at home.
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I get about 40 channels. I don't get TBN. I get the Jimmy Swagger deal. What's that called? Sunshine or something?
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Cool for you. I have no idea. What's that called? Sunshine Network, the Sun Life Network.
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Some good old boy probably gave him about 40 million and off he goes. Yeah, well, that's great.
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Jimmy, still at the keyboards. I did like that Jack White Muppets snippet where he was singing, you are the sunshine of my life.
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That'd go over well on Jimmy Swagger's show. You think? What you listening to these days?
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Anything good? What am I listening to? You mean musically? Yeah. Yeah. You know, your, your secular music.
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Uh, Chris Stapleton. Never heard of the person. Must be country. Sort of.
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He's kind of blues rock country. I'm glad I guessed he, because Chris, of course.
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Yeah. He's the, he's the big deal these days. If you call Chris Stapleton, Chrissy, one more time,
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I'm coming across that table. Okay. Jim Rome. That was probably the best bit of, uh, you know, that was an illustrative event of how not to use your tongue.
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And it was very illustrative when he, well, you know, to just set it for our audience, here was a radio host challenging a professional athlete, basically challenging his manhood.
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And the athlete said, don't say that one more time where I'm coming across this table. And he did it and I'm, and he came across the table and I'm like, okay.
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I think that propelled Jim Rome into fame. Well, maybe infamy. Yeah. It was, it was a sad moment as far as I was concerned.
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Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible church is a
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