(Church Leadership) 9. a Disciplined Tongue — Zac Poonen

The Three Foundations for Faithful Ministry

So, when I say there are three things primary, which I don't mean those are the only three things necessary for us to minister God's word in a good way. But these are the three that come to my mind as very important.

Discipline in the Use of the Tongue

I mentioned that first of all we must recognize when we speak that we are speaking as the utterances of God. And second thing I want to say is to be disciplined in the use of your mouth. You can't expect God to use your mouth when you stand up to speak.

If the devil is using your mouth the rest of the time. Many people have destroyed their ministry by careless use of their mouth. Proverbs chapter 18 verse 21 says death and life are in the power of the tongue.

It's an amazing verse. There is another verse in Proverbs which says a wise tongue is like a tree of life. Imagine the tree of life can grow out of your mouth. Or you can kill people. There are two fires mentioned in the New Testament.

One is axed to a tongue of fire on top of people when they were baptized in the Holy Spirit. And then in James 3 the same tongue which is set on the fire of hell. So your tongue can have the fire of the Holy Spirit or the fire of hell.

If you want God to use your tongue, be very careful in the use of it the rest of the time. Because death and life are in the power of the tongue. And you can't control your tongue unless you control your heart.

See a lot of people say ok I am going to control my tongue from today onwards. That's impossible. Because it depends what's in your heart. See Jesus said in Matthew chapter 12 and verse 35 the good man brings out of his good treasure what is good.

The evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil. And where is this treasure stored, the evil treasure and the good treasure? Verse 34, the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. So he says in verse 34, the earlier part, if you are evil then how can you speak what is good?

So the thing to control is not our tongue. The thing to control is our heart. Supposing dirty water is coming out of my tap. It may be due to the tap being dirty. But if all the taps are producing dirty water what does that show?

The tank upstairs is dirty. So go and clean the tank. And automatically the clean water will come from the pipe. So the tank is the heart. And the mouth is like the tap from which the water comes. So we have to make sure that the tank is clean.

Then the mouth will be ok. Begin with the heart. That means the thoughts you think about people. You think certain type of thoughts. One day or the other those type of words will come. Guard your thoughts.

You have always spoken what you have thought in your heart. It is the same with God's word. If you have God's word in your heart, you meditate on it, think about it frequently, it will come forth from your mouth.

But if you are only interested in speaking when you come to the meeting, out of the abundance of the heart you will start speaking in the meeting. You are irritated with so many people in the church. Your wife has told you so many things about different people.

And as an impure servant of the devil you will stand up and speak whatever is in your heart. So we shouldn't listen to everything our wife tells us about other people. I mean you can listen to it but don't let it get into your heart.

Certain things your wife says should come through here and go out through here. I saw a cartoon once. A woman talking to her husband. And the words were, aren't you listening to what I am saying going out from the other ear.

And everything he says coming out from here and going out. See sometimes our wives may be burdened or disturbed and they are the weaker sex. They may vomit out certain things. It is better they vomit into your lap than go to some other sister somewhere else and vomit into her lap.

So when your wife wants to vomit, say okay. Let it all out. But let it go through. Don't keep it. Because that I have seen many elder brothers are speaking what somebody else has told them. Not what God has told them.

Speaking Only What God Has Given

Now if like Paul, the householder Chloe wrote to Paul about certain things in Corinth, he writes correcting those things. That's different. That's different. God gives that type of authority to an apostle or a prophet.

But to just speak what some complaint you heard from some carnal brother or from your wife and all, that's not the message for the church. You have to listen to what God is trying to say to you. The abundance, so be careful with your mouth.

Even in private conversation. Let me tell you this. The more responsibility you have, the more careful you must be with your mouth. Jeremiah chapter 15. The Lord told Jeremiah and verse 19. If you return, you will stand before me.

And if you extract the precious from the worthless, you will be my spokesman. That means if in all your conversation you take out what is precious and throw away all the garbage. And then you will be my spokesman.

Then you will speak for me. See in the Old Testament there is a psalm which says, the words of the Lord are pure words refined seven times. I think it is 19 or 12. I'm not sure. It's either 12 or 19. The words of the Lord are pure words refined.

Psalm 12 and verse 6. You know, Psalm 12, by the way, is the James 3 of the Old Testament. Both are about the tongue. Psalm 12 and James 3, read them. Very, very good psalm. I don't have time to go through it.

But here it says in verse 6, the words of the Lord are pure words as silver refined in the furnace seven times. That means I have looked at it like this. I want to say something. I say, well, is that the best way to say it?

I throw it back into the furnace in my heart and try to purify it. And I examine it and throw it back in the furnace again. And I throw it back and throw it back seven times and then I get pure words.

It's like whenever I have to write a strong letter to somebody, I usually throw it back much more than seven times. You know, when I have to correct somebody or set something right, sometimes I spend days before I finally send that letter.

It's throwing it back, throwing it back, little more impurity, little more impurity till as far as humanly possible, it's God's word. And that's how we improve our ministry also. We have to purify it in the furnace for it to be the words of the Lord.

After every message you preach, I mean, I judge myself, you know, from what I spoke yesterday. Especially when I lie down at night at bed before going to bed and say, Lord, just show me what was it, how did I say it and did I say it right?

See, a lot of us, our words are not being purified because we never put it in the furnace any time. And that's why we, year after year after year after year, we're just boring people and boring people and boring people.

We have to be very careful with the words of our mouth. There must be a discipline. See, one of the things we lack among all Christians is discipline. I'll give you one example. You know, different times, different meetings, we say, please speak for 10 minutes.

Or in our local churches sometimes, speak for 3 minutes. I think 1%, I'm not exaggerating, 1 of elders know how to do that. Whether senior elders or junior elders. It's because we just don't respect authority.

Who is that fellow to say 3 minutes? I want to speak 10 minutes. Okay, go ahead. But God sees that. Respect authority. You know, when I go to different places, I ask them, how long do you want me to speak?

If they say 10 minutes, I stick to 10 minutes. If they say finish by so and so time, I finish by so and so time. I remember when I used to speak on the radio. 12 minutes. You can continue to speak if you want, but it's all switched off there.

It's like that. Do you know that a lot of people sitting in your congregation are switched off even after 3 minutes? You can continue for the next 1 hour. You are standing there imagining the great prophet whom God is speaking and all that.

But all the radios are switched off. They are thinking about what shall we cook tomorrow for lunch and do this work next week. You can continue. And at the end of 1 hour, you say, ah, prophet has spoken.

Don't deceive yourself. Dear brothers, most of us have got a very high opinion about how long we think we can speak. I have seen in, I have noticed this even in some of the Tamil Nadu conferences. The elder brother there will say, ok, now we will hear these 3 brothers.

And you know, in half an hour the meeting has to finish. Every brother has got to do a simple division. 30 divided by 3, that's all. I mean, you need to know a little simple division and all. But first fellow will get up and speak for 25 minutes.

Sometimes even 45 minutes. These are elder brothers who were told by the elder, in the next half an hour we would like to hear 3 brothers. Either they don't know division or they have got fantastic conceit about themselves.

Or they say, who is this fellow? He is a junior elder, I am a senior elder. And I sat and listened to them. It's ok, if it's a word from God, we don't mind listening for 2 hours also. Break all rules.

But all these brothers who have violated the rules, I have never once heard them say anything from God. But they imagine they are speaking from God. Have a sober estimate about yourself. And if some elder brother says, 3 brothers must speak and you know the meeting has to finish in half an hour, do a simple division there.

If there are 6 pieces of fish on the table and there are 3 brothers to eat. So do you have to fast and pray? How many pieces you have to take? And if you take 5 and say, ok, please take the other 2. That's exactly what many people are doing in the meetings.

Sharing Time and Opportunity in Church Meetings

I heard of one wise brother who taught his elder a lesson in one church. It was a church where different brothers were allowed to speak. But this elder brother would take such a long time that nobody else got a chance to say anything.

Others would get half a minute, half a minute and this fellow would go on for one hour. So during breaking of bread, when the bread came to this brother, he took about 3 quarters of the bread and ate it up.

So little left for all the others. What to do? You can't create a confusion in the middle. So elder said, I want to see you after the meeting. And the elder said, you don't have any sense. This one bread has to be divided among so many people.

He said, that's exactly what I wanted to tell you also. We have so much time in a meeting. It has to be divided among the brothers who have to share the word. You take so much time. Now there are brothers whom God gives a very unusual gift.

Like Paul and all, I mean if Paul were here, I would just let him speak all the time. But in our regular church meetings where we don't have so many prophets and apostles in our church, we must have a humbler attitude.

I am not saying that everybody has to speak because everybody is not called to speak. But in a church of 100, if 4 people have the gift to speak, then those 4 brothers should speak. So, don't misunderstand me.

Discipline in Time and Daily Habits

Discipline. Discipline in time. Discipline in the use of our tongue. I have a little tract here which we circulated long time ago on discipline. This is written by a very godly brother. This is an extract.

It's not by me. But I will try and give you a copy of this after maybe sometime today or tomorrow. OK. Let me just share a few things with you because it will affect the use of our tongue also. Paul said, I train my body to do what it should do, not what it wants to do.

1 Corinthians 9 .27. The fruit of the spirit is self-control. Discipline is what believers today need the most, but they don't want it at all. So, first of all, say, Lord help me to be a disciplined person.

Frequently think about the tremendous disappointment you are going to be to God if you are just going to be lazy. So, let's begin with the simple things first. Tongue and all is much more difficult to control.

Start with simple things like in your home, don't make unnecessary work for your wife. Don't throw your clothes around here and there and your wife has to pick it up. Don't throw your shoes and other things here and there and your wife has to go and arrange it.

These are little things. Little things. Try and keep your place clean. When you got up from your bed, do your bed, whether you roll it up or put a sheet over it or whatever it is. Be thoughtful. Other people are living here.

Let me make it easy for them. OK. Then show respect to all men. It's a matter of discipline. When somebody is talking to you, listen to him. And I tell you, when somebody is talking to you and you are talking to someone, a disciplined person will say, right now, you are the most important person in the world to me, right now.

Not, just quickly finish, come on. No, if you are in a hurry, that's OK. In a church meeting, don't look here and there and what speed is that fan running and these are not the things to look in a church meeting.

Listen to what the speaker is saying. And if he is boring you, just keep looking at your watch. No, I mean, what to do? I myself, when somebody is thoroughly boring, I just look down and read my Bible so that I don't waste my time.

Because I'm not getting anything out of what this guy is saying. I want to redeem the time. I've got only 24 hours a day. I can't allow this fellow to waste 45 minutes of that. OK. He can continue. I've got to read something here.

Redeem the time. Discipline. There is a lot of wastage of time in our church meetings. And that's why we drive young people away. Have a sober estimate of yourself. Make the meetings interesting. I'll never forget this true story I heard of D .L. Moody.

Guarding the Use of Time and the Example of D. L. Moody

He was a great evangelist in the 19th century. And he, when he was going to speak in a meeting with a large crowd, he said, brother so and so will pray. That fellow thought, oh, fantastic opportunity to impress all these thousands of people.

Let me pray. He prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed. And prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed. Everybody was getting bored. D .L. Moody got up and said, while our brother is finishing his prayer, we will sing him numbers so and so.

We won't stop him. Let him continue his prayer. The rest of us will sing. So people got up and sang. I don't know what that chap did, whether he stopped or what. See the best part of it. There was a man who had come to listen to D .L. Moody.

He was an atheist. And he listened to this fellow praying. He said, I didn't come here to hear this. He was just about to get up and go away. When he heard D .L. Moody say, while he is finishing, we will sing.

So he said, at least there is one sensible fellow here. So let me sit down and talk. And he sat down and listened and he got converted in that meeting. If D .L. Moody had thought, oh, will he get offended if I start singing while he is praying, he would have lost one soul.

We are so bothered. Oh, will so and so be offended. I couldn't care less if they are offended. Let God be glorified in the church. In the early days, conferences and all, we used to allow people to speak.

I had to tell so many people, brother, would you mind sitting down half a minute more? Then, now there is something about discipline. When you have a number of jobs to do, do the most difficult things first.

The most important things. Otherwise you do all the easy things which are unimportant, you will not have time to do the most important things. Try to discipline yourself to reply to the letters you get.

Even if it is one line. Somebody is waiting for a reply. I mean, if you have a ministry where you get hundreds of letters and you can't reply, then you got to ask somebody to help you. Be in time for church meetings.

Or try your best to be in time. You may get a flat tire or something, you will be late. Or small children suddenly want to go to the toilet just before you are starting out to the meeting. So, all that is understandable.

There are many good reasons why sometimes people are late for the meeting. I found my wife used to come late for many meetings because just before the meeting somebody will come for some medical consultation.

So, there are so many reasons why some people can be late. So, I am not talking about such time. I am saying when there is no other interruption, no other reason, try to be in church. But for that you must plan ahead.

If somebody says, let's meet at 4 .30, don't start from your house at 4 .30. Go there, plan. It will take me half an hour to get there. I have got to start at 4 o 'clock. Or this may be a rush time of traffic.

Maybe I have to start at 3 .30. Why? Because when we have arranged to meet at 4 .30 and I go at 5 o 'clock, I have stolen half an hour of his time. I will not even steal one rupee from his pocket. Many of us who are so careful not to steal one rupee from a brother, steal many minutes of their time.

Supposing I speak for 45 minutes and only 15 minutes of that is from God. Half an hour I have stolen the time of 100 people. Let's do a little multiplication. 100 people into half an hour is 50 man hours.

If that man is earning 10 ,000 rupees a month on an average and he works, let's say, 40 hours or 50 hours a week, 200 hours a month, 10 ,000 rupees is 50 rupees per hour. 50 man hours I have stolen 2500 rupees in one Sunday morning.

Imagine going every Sunday morning and stealing 2500 rupees from the church offering box. No, no, no, I don't touch the offering box. You are touching the offering box. Because God gave you 15 minutes to speak and you spoke for 45 minutes and 100 people got bored for half an hour.

You know, in fourth standard we used to have questions like this. If so many hours from one man works, how many man hours does it become? If 100 people get bored for half an hour, how many man hours is lost?

50 man hours. And if their average earning capacity is 50 rupees an hour, you have stolen 2500 rupees. Very simple. I don't want to steal one rupee from people. See, this is all a matter of discipline.

We wonder, oh, anointing, anointing. There is no use of anointing if we are not disciplined. Another thing, don't waste time in daydreaming. That's alright for young girls who are in love or something like that.

But use your spare time to read some good Christian books or help someone or fellowship with somebody. If you are a young person and you are in love, okay, daydream a little bit. That's alright. But use the time.

Discipline in Relationships, Moods, and Speech

Another thing, when your plans are all confused because of something happened during the day which you didn't expect, don't get all upset. Say, Lord, okay, I got an hour to rearrange my day's program because of this unexpected event.

And say, Lord, Romans 8 .28, I believe some reason why you were allowed this. Another thing, in conversations with the opposite sex, always keep a little reserve and distance. I don't mean just physically, I mean even in the type of conversation.

Friendship can become affection and affection can become lust. Be very careful in counseling ladies. Never sit alone with them in a room. Counsel them along with another brother or in an open place, the door open and people are around.

Otherwise, you can ruin your whole life. You can ruin your family. Don't think because you are married, you won't be tempted. Another area of discipline is to master our moods. You know, one day it's bright and sunny, another day it's all rainy and gloomy.

And we have feelings which vary. But disciplined person says, I'm going to do the right thing whether I feel good or feel bad, doesn't make a difference. I'm going to read God's word just like I go to office, whether I feel like it or don't feel like it.

You know, you know, all of you, there are many days when you don't feel like going to work, but you still go. There are days even now when I don't feel like reading the Bible, I read it. It's like going to work.

Another thing, discipline. Don't say everything that comes to your mind. Lot of things may come to your mind. Don't say it. Don't have a great desire to be the first person who conveys certain exciting news.

Did you hear about this? Did you hear about that? And you know, I heard this over there. And I heard this over here. And this thing, what about you? What is your view on this? So many things. I mean, if you want to preach God's word, you better forget about all this type of conversation.

We have to have little discipline. And another area of discipline is to submit to authority in a gracious way, wherever you find it. Because that time in a church or in society, the police, traffic rules, submit to authority, submit to authority.

Because that will smooth all the rough edges in our life. Another aspect of discipline is control your curiosity. Don't be a busybody in other people's marriage. You know, don't be like a woman. Lot of women are like that.

The Bible speaks about old wives' tales. Who is getting married to whom? Oh, they got married last week. Has she become pregnant already? I am not interested if they have been married for 10 years, whether she is pregnant.

This is not my business. Don't be like an old woman, to go around asking married people, what news? Are you a servant of God? Or a gossip? Don't even have an interest in knowing it in your mind. So many things, like many, many things.

You want to know what that person is doing and how much he is earning. Why you want to know how much he is earning? So many things people are interested in which you got no concern for them. And then they get up.

Prophet is going to speak. In a thousand years, God will not give you his word. These are not elders. They are not fit to be elders. Some of them are fit to be women. Some elders should cover their head with a sit and sit in the church, because they are women.

For all they are interested in knowing, when their mind should be on the word of God. It is all lack of discipline. Be disciplined in your eating. That is one advantage of fasting once in a while. When we get good food, enjoy it.

But don't become a slave to the food. See, we all love food and it is very easy to be a slave. Another aspect of discipline is learn to wait for God's time to give you whatever he wants you to have. And when somebody gives you a job to do, an elder brother gives you a job, some other brother gives you a job to do, can he trust you?

Dependability and Thoughtfulness in Ministry

I know certain brothers in CFC. If I give them a job to do, I can go to sleep. I know that they will do it. I mean, we may all accidentally forget, if somebody has given us a hundred jobs to do, we may forget one of them.

I am not talking about that. We may make mistakes now and then. But there are certain brothers who are 100 dependable. And certain other brothers, if I tell them, I don't know whether it will be done.

After one week, oh brother, I forgot that completely. Yeah, so then I learn a lesson not to give tasks to such people. There is a saying in the world, if you want to get a job done, give it to the busiest man you can find.

He will do it. If you can't do something, tell the person, brother, I am sorry, I can't do that, I am busy with a lot of other things. You know, one of the reasons why in that form we have asked, how long do you look up email?

Because some people give an email address to people and then they look it up once a month or once in two weeks. That's fine, that's okay. In such cases, it's better to tell people, I don't have email, don't send me email, send me a letter.

Because that person is waiting for two weeks, he doesn't know that you are looking it up only once in two weeks. I would say to all such brothers, cancel your email address, don't give it to other people, keep it to yourself, but don't give it to other people.

Because then if they have got something urgent, they will telephone you. I really recommend that. If you are not looking up email once in every day or two, don't give your email address to CFC or anywhere else.

Totally give your phone number. There is no sin in not looking up email regularly. Nothing wrong in it. But people must know that you don't have time or you don't have a facility or you don't have a computer at home or you are busy, whatever it is.

Let people know that so that they don't keep on waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting for this reply and you have not even seen what he has sent. See, these are, I tell you from experience I have had for number of months and years with our elder brothers.

I am waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting for a reply. After one month I say, oh brother, I didn't look up my email. I said then why in the world do you give me that address? Why do you give it to CFC? They would have phoned you up and found out the answer.

See, this lot of discipline comes out of thoughtfulness about other people. Thoughtfulness. I have got to be thoughtful. How will that affect that person? A lot of people may be much busier than you are.

Some things they may want an answer immediately. Systematic prayer and Bible reading is very important. Another aspect of disciplined life, avoid unnecessary luxuries, buying things which you don't really need.

We are in great danger when we have a lot of money to buy whatever we want. When you can afford to buy something and you can deny yourself, it really builds your character. There is a saying in the world that when the nest is made very comfortable, the little eagles don't learn how to fly.

So the eagle mother just breaks the nest. Because the eagles have to learn to fly. So all this ultimately relates to the discipline of my tongue. A disciplined tongue is a very, very important thing in the ministry of the world.

Cleansing the Heart to Speak God's Word

The Lord says, if you control your tongue, get rid of all the rubbish, keep what is precious, think about what you say. A foolish man utters whatever comes into his mind. He says, Lord, I really want to control my tongue in the areas where I can.

Start with, stop asking people all types of unnecessary questions which are not going to help you. Who is marrying who, who is pregnant, etc. Just get rid of that. Get rid of it from your heart. Don't have any desire to know these things.

How much salary somebody is getting and all types of unnecessary details about other people which are not going to help you spiritually. And then you will find your mind is able to listen to God more.

Because I am not thinking about the ten people who got married, whether they have become pregnant yet. That space in my mind, I can now give to God to listen to what he has to say to me. And like that, I get rid of all the trash from my mind and I can listen to what God has to put there in place of all this trash.

And like that, if I cleanse myself, boy, when I get up to give God's word, all of that riches will be gone. All the riches will start flowing. Discipline in the heart, thoughts, because that's what controls our tongue.

So, please remember this. To control your tongue, you need to control your thoughts. And if we begin to do that, we will find gradually, we get control over our anger also. Anger is a very serious sin which I have found lots and lots of believers have not overcome.

Irritation. And that irritation that comes forth in our word, the fruit of the spirit is self-control. You know, as we seek the power of the Holy Spirit to control our tongue, these irritating thoughts may come, but if we put them to death, after some time, that snake will die.

Because you hit that snake on the head so many times. Then, if you suddenly discover one particular day, you are not even irritated when something goes wrong. Isn't that a wonderful day when that comes in your life?

How do you speak to your wives at home? How do you speak to younger brothers in the church? You don't know how to speak graciously? How can you get up in the pulpit and imagine that you can speak God's word?

Is it like a switch? Ok, I come to the pulpit, I have to switch on, now God. And then, now after that switch off, now I am going to be myself for the rest of the time. It doesn't work like that. I believe it's because a lot of people are very careless in this area, that they don't have God's word in their mouth.

This is a very, very, very important area. Many people have lost their ministry just because of the way they use their tongue. When the Holy Spirit baptized people on the day of Pentecost, it is not a hand of fire or a leg of fire, but a tongue of fire on top of their head, to prove that this is the most important member of the human body, which I am going to use in this new covenant age.

The devil saw that. Oh, this is the instrument which God is going to use in this age, is it? It's not like the old days where split open red seas and kill lions and kill the Philistines, that's all changed now.

Oh, this is the tongue, is it? So, I have got to now make sure that all believers don't understand this. Has the devil succeeded? 99 of believers, he has succeeded. I tell you, there are certain qualities I see in the devil.

He is a very smart person. And he is a full-time worker. Day and night, he goes about his job. How to trip up God's people. Imagine if we became like that, full-time thinking how to encourage God's people, how to protect God's people.

We would really be a match for the devil. It will be full-time worker versus full-time worker. Be one like that for the Lord. Lord, I want to see every possible way whereby this tongue, which is the main instrument, is going to be only for you.

The Tongue as Evidence of Human Sin and a Means of Encouragement

I was very interested to see once where Paul is describing the sin of the human race in Romans 3. See, Romans 1, 2 and 3 is first of all a description of the sin of the human race. And he finally concludes in verse 10 onwards.

There is none righteous, no not one. They have all gone aside, verse 12. Nobody who does good. What is the proof? Okay, I'll tell you. It's all got to do with their speech primarily. See verse 13. Their throat is an open grave.

With their tongues they keep deceiving. The poison of asps is under their lips. The mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. And their feet are swift to shed blood. Today we shed blood with our tongue.

And destruction and misery are in their paths. You know what we are supposed to use our tongue for? To encourage one another. Hebrews 3 .13. Encourage one another every day. See, in the King James version of the Bible, it says, exhort one another every day.

Exhort. What is it in Tamil there? Buddhi sullungal. Okay. Here it says in the NASB, encourage one another. So, exhort gives us the impression, give the fellow a correction. Encourage means say something to lift him up.

And our natural tendency is to exhort rather than encourage. How to protect him from sin? Rebuke him, correct him and exhort him. But it says encourage him. That will protect him from sin. I want to tell you my dear brothers, I mean I've known many of you for many years.

There are very few among you, less than 5 among you who got a real gift of prophecy. But 95 of you can have the gift of encouragement. To say something that will encourage others. When you come to the meeting to think, what can I say to encourage all the young people here who are so discouraged?

Or some backslidden person or someone who is facing problems in his home. Seek for the gift of encouragement. Romans 12, these two are two different gifts. That's what I want to show you. He says in verse 6, Romans 12, 6.