Let's grab our Bibles tonight. We're going to start in Proverbs 18. Proverbs 18. Keep a marker in Proverbs. We'll be here frequently. We're continuing our evening study on words. Remember, it's the Watch Your Mouth series. That's what we started up on Wednesday night. We call it that because of Psalms 141.3 that says, Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth. Keep the door of my lips. That was David, a man after God's own heart. He had his heart right because he asked the Lord to watch his mouth. And last Wednesday night we looked at the different kind of words that we could use. The Lord differentiated them between basically good words and evil words. Remember good means beneficial or helpful to others. Edifying, words that build up. And we looked at evil words. We saw a good Bible definition for the word evil means destructive or harmful. We looked at Jesus in Matthew chapter 12, likening men to fruit trees and evil men and evil trees produce evil fruit and good men and good trees produce good fruit. Remember the fruit is the result and the heart is the cause. Okay, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. Okay, that's what the Bible was saying. We saw that we will have to give an account for every idle word that we speak. And we found out that idle meant unfruitful or barren, not productive of good, not tending to edification. So any of the words you're using to tear down or cut down people, you will have to give an account thereof in the day of judgment. I had the question after Wednesday night. Well, what if we get that settled here? Do we still have to deal with it at the judgment seat of Christ? No. Anything put under the blood here that we don't deal with now and everything ask the Lord If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness If you are sinning with your mouth Against the Lord by tearing people down with a bunch of evil words get that right with God and you will not have to face the Lord Jesus Christ for that offense because you've already dealt with it here and Now if you're tearing down other people with your words, you're harming them, that's a trespass not just against God, but a trespass against them, so you need to make that right with them. If not, you'll have to give an account for your harm done to them, even though you might not have to give an account for that particular sin or trespass against the Lord. So basically, anything in the judgment seat of Christ, if you get it right here, you don't have to get it right there. And it's better to do it now. Tonight we're going to be looking and seeing what the Bible says that your words do to others. We're going to look at some of the effects and basically I called this one the power of the tongue. The power of the tongue. Proverbs chapter 18 verse 21. Proverbs 18 21 the Bible says, death and life are in the power of the tongue and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. Let's pray. Amen. Let's read that verse again. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. So notice this, your tongue, the Bible says, has death and life are in the power of your tongue. Do you realize your tongue is stronger than your biceps, or stronger than your thighs, or stronger than any muscle you might think you have in your body? Your tongue is more powerful than that. Your tongue can build people up, your tongue can tear people down. There's a lot of weight in your words. I know I have hurt many more people with my words than I ever could with my fists. Because you might smack someone real hard, you can break their nose, broken bones heal. Bruises get better. But some of the words that people use against you and some of the words you use against people, they don't heal so easy. It is rough. Death and life are in the power of the tongue. Look at what the second half of that verse says, though. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. You see the heart connection there? You're loving death. You're loving life. You're loving how you use your tongue. You're going to eat the fruit thereof. Here again, we see the heart and we see fruit tied with what? What you do with your mouth. It seems to all be connected here, the study that we're doing. There's a correlation between your heart producing something that comes out of your mouth that either bears good fruit or bad fruit. That's what we're talking about on Wednesday night. I like it this way. The words of your mouth are like the bullets in a gun. What's that? They have the power of death and life. A gun can be used to kill somebody. You can go out and murder someone with a gun. You could also use a gun to save life. You can shoot wild animals that are coming in to attack. You can ward off offenders that are trying to harm you or your family. What are you using? That gun to preserve life. Okay, you can shoot it in the air, scare off people, whatever you want to do. But that gun can either be used for death or for life. That's just like your mouth. If you deal with guns at all, I hope you know a little bit of gun safety. You know what my dad told me? Treat every gun as if it were loaded. Doesn't matter if you know for sure that it's unloaded, you treat every gun like it was loaded. And he said this, he said number two, don't point your gun at anything you're not willing to kill. You know what you need to do with your mouth? You should treat your mouth like you would treat a loaded gun. Treat every conversation as if it were loaded. Don't use those pointed words unless you're willing to destroy that person. Your mouth, your words have the power of death and life in them. And you're the only one that can shoot it off. You better watch where it's pointed. I want you to understand this, your tongue is dangerous. We already said, number one, it has the power of death and life, That makes it potentially very, very dangerous. But number two, your tongue is dangerous because it can easily breed sin. Look at Proverbs chapter 10. Proverbs chapter 10 and verse number 19. Like I mentioned last, well, yeah, I guess it was last week. but your tongue, your mouth, is one of the easiest body members to send with. You can send faster and more often with your mouth than you can any other part of your body. Proverbs 10, 19, and the multitude of words there wanteth not sin, but he that refraineth his lips is wise. There is not a lack of sin where a lot of talking is going on. We're a nation full of talkers. We used to be a nation full of doers. Now we're a nation full of talkers. And there's no shortage of place that you can go to to shoot off your mouth or just talk and rattle continually. I think social media, you can go to parties and stuff and just chit-chat with a bunch of people. You have family get-togethers, you can ramble on there for hours and hours. You could just be two friends chit-chatting and shooting the breeze, right? All day long, these are easy scenarios for sin to creep in. What kind of sin can I get into just talking? Well, gossip. Slander, you can start bad-mouthing somebody. You believe what they did now? Yeah, I hear they're over there doing this. Ooh, slander, lies, lust. You can get that from talking. You know, every man that's ever stepped out on his wife and every woman that's ever cheated on her husband, it didn't start with a physical relationship. It started with a verbal. relationship. It started off talking. What's that? Multitude of words that shouldn't have been taking place. It can breed inappropriate relationships. All this much talking, it can breed hatred or bitterness. That's a loaded verse. And the multitude of words there, wanteth not sin. Your tongue is dangerous. It can easily, easily breed sin. Keep a marker in Proverbs. We'll be back here, but turn to James chapter number three. James chapter number three, this will tell you a little bit about the danger of the tongue. Got the board up here tonight because we got two sides of the story that we're talking about. The Lord said that there's good fruit that come out of a good man's heart and there's evil fruit It comes out of an evil man's heart. So we've got two different sides, two different options as to the power of your tongue. That verse we read said it has the power of death and the power of life. James chapter 3, let's start in verse number 5. James 3.5. Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among your members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire of hell." So far already, we've got that the tongue is a fire. We also got, let's see here. world of iniquity. So as you're talking about among the members that it defiled the whole body, set it on fire, the course of hell, or set set it on fire, the course of nature, and it is set on fire of hell. So it defiles. It's a world of iniquity. I'll put up here iniquity. It defiles. This is some of the options we could use with our mouth. Verse seven, For every kind of beast and of birds and of serpents and of things in the sea is tamed and hath been tamed of mankind. But the tongue can no man tame. It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison." So we find out it's unruly and it's poisonous. I don't know how to spell poisonous. I'm going to put poison. I can almost spell poison. Poison. Poison. Oh, thank you. O-U-S. There we go. Poseidonus. There we go. Yeah. Poisonous. Let's see. Verse 9. Therewith bless we God. That's a good thing we could do with it. Bless we God, even the Father, and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. So we have cursing as part of it. part of the dangerous side of things. Doth a fountain send forth, verse 10, out of the same mouth proceedeth blessings and cursing, my brethren, these things ought not so to be. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries, either a vine figs? Can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh? Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts. Uh-oh, looky there, there's the heart showing up again. But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie. not against the truth. So we have bitterness, if we don't have that one already. Bitterness, you notice there was lies mentioned. What else did we have? What was it? Envy, thank you. Envy on there. There's a lot of dangers in this tongue. Let's see, what verse are we on? Oh, there we go, verse 16. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. So there's confusion, and we already have evil. Every evil work. 17, but the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits. without partiality and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of the righteous is sown in peace of them that make peace." This isn't just a list of all the evil things your tongue can do. There are some good things in here too. I'd like to ask your help to list out some of these so we don't read the whole thing again. Let's see what kind of good ones we have. Verse 15, "...the wisdom descendeth not from above..." Oh, we missed that one, didn't we? Verse 14, But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, lie not against the truth. The wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, and devilish." So we have earthly, sensual, and devilish. What do we got on the good side there? Let's see. Blessings, thank you. What else? Well, how about 17? Wisdom that is from above is verse pure, peaceable, gentle. So we have pure, peaceable, gentle. What else we got? Mercy. Is grace mentioned there, gracious? Not in this one? Okay. without partiality and without hypocrisy. Verse 18, peace is mentioned two more times. All right, that might be all we have in the good things here. What was it? Did you say meekness? Meekness. Yeah, that's a good one, meekness. Meekness. These are different kinds of powers in the tongue. Verse 5, even so the tongue is a little member and boasteth great things, behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth. Did we put down defiling? Yeah, defiles. Okay, good. Your words can be used for great good or it could be used for great evil. We see the power of death and life in the tongue. Turn to the next book to your right, look at 1 Peter 3. 1 Peter 3. I like descriptive words. I like it whenever the Bible sits there and gives us a lot of different things so we can understand even better what it is that the Lord's talking about so we know in great detail what it is we're supposed to be doing, especially in this instant with our words. 1 Peter 3.8, you'll notice a lot of the same like words. We might find some other ones. First Peter 3.8, finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one another, one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous. So let's write down some of these. How about compassion? Compassion. We saw love. What else we have? Courteous. What else? I think there's one more. Pitiful. Okay, pitiful, be courteous, verse 9, not rendering evil, that's what we're talking about, for evil, or railing for railing, but contrary wise blessing, we see that on the good side, knowing that ye are there unto called that ye shall inherit a blessing. A new one there is interesting, railings on the bad side. Railings and strife, thank you. Our board's getting full. It's almost like there's a lot of power in the tongue. You know what railings are? Railing is insulting or attacking language. It's yelling. It's aggressive. That's what railings are. You're really harping on someone. You're really railing on somebody. You're attacking them verbally. We know what evil speaking is, evil is destructive and hurtful and things like that. Oh, let's keep going, there's more. Verse 10, for he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile. G-U-I-L-E, guile. We'll go over that here in a minute. Verse 11, let him eschew evil, that means you flee from it, and do good, let him seek peace, and ensue it. We see back on this peace side again. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers. But the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. So if you're working on this side of the board over here on the evil side, the Bible says God's face is against you. You start hurting people, you start attacking them, you start doing all these things on that side of the board, the Lord's face is against you on that. That's what the Bible says. Let's look at some of these key words that is evil and destructive towards others. The one we mentioned about that you might not be familiar with there in verse 10 is guile. You know what guile is? It's craft, it's cunning, it's duplicity, it's deceit. That's what guile is. Guile may or may not be alive, but it is deceitful, like half-truths, or omitting some detail to make things seem differently than what they really are. That's what guile is. Don't look at me so hard. I'm good at the guile part of things. I was born with the gift of guile. Just asked my dad. My dad told me whenever I was a teenager and stuff, he said, you should be a politician with how you talk. Because I was like, I didn't say that. And he's like, you implied it. You might not have said it and everything. And I tried to walk the fine line. What's that guile? That's evil speaking. That's deceitful. That's not right. That's not good. Guile is evil. It hurts. It deceives people. That's no way to be. We talked about railing, verse nine, being insulting or attacking language, whether it's truth or not. Yelling, it's aggressive. So I wanna show you, I'll give you four right here. We already hit one of them. Four kinds of words or speech that is evil and destructive towards other. Number one is guile. Number two is railings. Let's look into Proverbs chapter 16. Proverbs chapter 16. Because if you want to avoid evil speaking and the kind of language that is evil fruit proceeding out of your heart, it's good to know what kind that is. So number one is guile. Number two is railings. Here's a good example of that in Proverbs 16 verse 29. I hope you kept a marker there in 1 Peter, I forgot to tell you, but yeah. If not, you found it once, I have faith in you, you can find it again. Proverbs 16, 29. The Bible says, a violent man enticeth his neighbor and leadeth him in the way that is not good. He, who's the he? Violent man. He shutteth his eyes to devise froward things, moving his lips, he bringeth evil to pass. The Bible describes someone who is moving his lips to bring evil things to pass as a violent man. That's what we just read. Have you ever heard of someone being verbally abusive? That's it. Now listen, I'm not saying somebody that said one little thing and it hurts your feelings, that's not it. It's not one just sharp little jab every now and then or something. No, it's verbal abuse. You're tearing someone down with your words. You are attacking them. The Bible says you're violent. We'll read it again. Verse 29, a violent man enticeth his neighbor, and leadeth him in the way that is not good. If it's not good, it's evil, it's destructive. Verse 30, he shutteth his eyes to devise froward things. Moving his lips, he bringeth evil to pass. What is that? That's railing. That's insulting or attacking language, whether it's true or whether it's not. Yelling, aggression, that's what it is. It's attacks, it's verbal attacks. You're violent, the Bible says. Number three, third kind of words or speech that is evil and destructive towards others, lying. Proverbs chapter 26, Proverbs 26. Lying is evil language. Lying hurts people. Lying destroys lives. Lying brings harm. Lying is evil. Proverbs 26, 28. A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it, and a flattering mouth worketh ruin. Anybody you lie to, you hate. You can't sit there and say that you love somebody if you're lying to them. God is called the God of truth several times in the Bible. Like in Psalms 31.5, it says, into thine hand I commit my spirit, thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth. God is the God of truth. Satan is called the father of lies in John 8.44. One of these sides is obviously influenced by God. One of these sides is obviously influenced by the devil. When you're lying, oh, there it is, you're on the devil's side. And the Bible says you hate the person that you're lying to. You didn't get that from God. The devil's the father of lies. That's what the Bible says. I don't know what evil language is, it's lying. It's evil, it's destructive. Number four, fourth type kind of words of speech that is evil, destructive towards others. The modern day prophet said this, his name's Randy Travis, digging up bones. Digging up bones is a kind of evil speaking. Look at Proverbs 16, you didn't know it was in the Bible, did you? Proverbs 16, 27. Proverbs 16, 27. Hey, just ask Balaam. God could use all sorts of things to speak. Proverbs 16, 27. The Bible says this, an ungodly man diggeth up evil, and in his lips there is a burning fire. What's this man doing? He's digging up things from the past. He's digging up them bones. to use against and hurt and destroy people. Using someone's past in an attempt to hurt their present or to destroy their future is evil. Okay, that's the Bible definition of evil. You're trying to destroy them, you're trying to hurt them. Now listen, if you, let me throw this disclaimer out there, if you know something about someone's past that could hurt or harm others if it's not said, then speak it with discretion to the right people. Tell the authorities that need to know, Facebook is not one of them. Let the people know that need to know to keep them safe, okay? But if you're just flinging mud to hurt someone now, you're speaking evil. If there's no danger to somebody else because what brother so-and-so did 25 years ago, then leave it dead and buried in the past. Digging up them bones, old Randy Travis, that's an evil speech, that's a kind of evil words and speech that's destructive towards others. I want you to understand this. Let's turn back over there to 1 Peter 3. We'll be back in Proverbs, I just bet you. 1 Peter 3. I want you to understand we're going over these words and The death and life are in the power of the tongue. And we see one side that it's so easy for us to sin. It's so easy for us to open up our mouth and speak some of these things, guile, iniquity, being poisonous, cursing, bitterness, railing, strife, envy, all these things that we've talked about. It's so easy for us because it comes so naturally. It's so part of our flesh. Remember, it's earthy, earthly. That's probably supposed to have an L. Earthly, there we go, perfect. It's natural. That doesn't make it right, that means it's easy to do. But changing how you speak is possible. It is possible to go from this side of the board over here to evil speaking, over here to this side of the board to good speaking. It is possible. One of the best lists on the subject that we've got on good speech versus evil speech came from 1 Peter. Peter wrote it. Peter was one of the most destructive speaking people in the Bible. He was a foul-mouthed fisherman that spoke before he thought, and he spoke a lot, and he persuaded people oftentimes in the wrong direction. But you know what? He changed, and you can too. It's easy and natural for some people to speak life with their tongue. It's easy. If you've got the right background and the right personality or favorable conditions, it's pretty easy to start on this side of the board and never stray too terribly far onto the bad side. Maybe you came from a loving household, or maybe you're soft and gentle-spoken, maybe you're mild-tempered, maybe you're non-confrontational by nature. It might be easy for you to speak good to people, and you might even have to work a little bit to speak evil, but unless, you know, your fuse gets down short enough, then it comes easy. You know, we're still earthly. We, you, whoever, anyway. But for some people, evil speaking is much more natural. Maybe you grew up in a harder family with little or no love. Maybe you grew up without a family, foster care system, things like that. Maybe yelling and criticism were common. Whenever I grew up, one of my childhood friends, that was how they spoke in their house. The mom yelled at the kids, the kids yelled at the mom, the mom yelled at the dad, the dad yelled at the mom, the dad yelled at the kids. I remember going over to their house for something, and I was just sitting there shaking like the whole time because everybody's yelling at each other. And I'm like, what's wrong? What's going on? And that's how they talked. They talked by yelling, angry, railings. That was natural for them. And if you grow up in a situation like that, it's a lot easier to be on that side of the board. Maybe yelling and criticism was common in your past. Maybe you're confrontational or aggressive by nature. Now listen, whether it's easy or difficult to speak life and peace and grace or not, we're all called to speak it. 1 Peter 3, look at verse 8. First Peter 3.8, finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous, not rendering evil for evil, doesn't matter what they did to you, or railing for railing, doesn't matter what they did to you, but contrary wise, blessing, knowing that ye are there unto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. You realize you're called to have compassion one of another. You're called to love as brethren. You're called to be pitiful and to be courteous. You are called by God not to render evil for evil or railings for railings. You are called by God to bless others, to be a blessing to people. You're called to edification, not to destruction. That's your calling in life by God. And he doesn't say if it comes natural, then it's your calling, but if it's difficult, agree it on a curve. That's not what he says. He says that's your calling. Well, I'm glad that the Lord doesn't put on more on you or expect more of you than what he enables you to be able to do. So how can you make the shift? How can you go from over here to speaking like this and shift over to speaking the way you're supposed to speak? Well, the Bible tells us. Proverbs chapter 13. Let's turn back to Proverbs chapter 13. I got you three simple steps. What was that panda cartoon we watched? What was that one? Yes, special agent Oso, the wisest panda on the television. He did everything in three special steps. Yeah, yeah, he could build a rocket to the moon. It was in three special steps. You can cross the street. It was three special steps. What's funny is the first one was very, very easy, like crossing the street. It was like, step one, find the street. Step two, look down. Step three, look both ways and walk and hold hands and make sure you have an adult and go across. And it's like, why is step three always the hardest one? But anyway, he was very special. I'm trying to figure out how special he was. That's not even my notes. I don't even think Special Agent Oso's in the Bible. But he's a good example. He's a panda. Step one, special step number one. You want to know how to change your speech from evil fruit to good? and from changing from the power of death to the power of life. Proverbs 13.3, get there. Proverbs 13.3. He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life, but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction. You know, step one in keeping, in making the switch from death to life, shut your mouth. That's not very deep and it might not sound very spiritual, But it's the first step in order to quit speaking these things. If you have your mouth shut, you don't speak any of these things. You don't speak something that's unruly. You don't spread bitterness. You don't have railings or strife. You don't speak evil if your mouth is closed. Proverbs 17, verse 28. Proverbs 17 verse 28, Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise. And he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding. Like I said before, your mouth is like a loaded weapon. If you close your mouth, that's like having the safety on. You know, you don't have to worry about the gun going off most of the time. I wouldn't trust the safety all the time, you know, or anything, but you're better, keep the chamber empty. How about that? That'll help too. Keep the safety on and nothing in the chamber. But if you have your mouth shut, that's a safety on that weapon. It's hard to shoot off your mouth when it's closed. We do some hum talking around the house if we got our mouth full and things like that. I say we, I mean the kids. Not, not me most the time. But they get asked something, they go, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm. You know, what's that? They're trying to communicate something, but your mouth's closed. Awfully hard to shoot off your mouth and hurt somebody if your mouth is closed. If you have a problem speaking evil, the first step in correcting that is limiting your speech. You cannot speak evil if you do not speak. That's really deep. You cannot speak evil if you do not speak. Say, I'm going to take a vow of silence. That might not be a bad idea. I don't know. Step two, special step number two. Proverbs chapter 16. Now I've got to go home and watch some Special Agent Oso now. I'm going to have to find some of that. That was some good TV there. Proverbs chapter 16, verse number one. How do you change your speech? How do you change from evil speaking to good speaking? Proverbs 16, one, the preparations of the heart in man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. Notice here again, we have the heart and the tongue joined together, but notice the Lord has a say in both of them. The preparation of the heart in man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. Step two, let God work on your heart. Step one is shut your mouth. Step two is let God start working on your heart. Why? Your heart is the root cause of the problem. The evil speaking means that you have problems with your heart. If every time you open up your mouth, or a majority of the time you open up your mouth, you're finding some of these evil things coming out, realize it's not your mouth that has your problem. Your mouth is the symptom of the problem. The root cause is the heart. We've already seen an indisputable correlation between your heart condition and what comes out of your mouth. You correct the symptom by closing your mouth. You correct the cause by having the Lord help you change your heart. Oh, we have time. Keep a marker here, but turn to Luke chapter four. I found something interesting here. The way the Bible phrases this verse, I find it interesting. I think it has a lot to do with what we're talking about. Luke chapter 4, verse number 18. You remember this time, the Lord's in the temple. He asked for the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opens up his mouth, he reads this prophetic verse about himself, then he sits down, and the verse that he's quoting, it says here in verse 18, he says, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. This is Jesus speaking of himself using an Old Testament reference. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised." In the middle of that verse we say one of Jesus' jobs that it was prophesied of Him to do was, "...he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted." Now, that could either mean the modern interpretation that my girlfriend just broke up with me, and so I'm heartbroken, or my boyfriend, you know, he picked someone else, so now I'm brokenhearted, and Jesus is here to help me feel better whenever I make bad romantic decisions. Or it could mean there's a problem with your heart, your heart is broken, and God is able to make your heart get back on track. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted. If you've got evil speaking problems, the Bible says, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. We know there's a heart issue there. There's a problem with your heart. God expects you to be speaking these things. But if you open up your mouth and these things are coming out, there's a heart problem. Your heart's broken and needs to be fixed. Jesus can do that. If you've been saved for an extended period of time and you still have problems with evil speaking, there's a good chance that you may be broken hearted. Listen, some situation or event in your past may have broken your heart. I like a saying that I've heard a time or two. I don't know who originated it. But they said, hurt people hurt people. People that are hurt tend to hurt other people. So hurt people hurt people. It is hard to speak encouraging, edifying, and constructive things if your heart is broken. How is the symptom going to fix itself without you dealing with the root cause of the problem? Jesus can heal your broken heart and he can fix the root cause of your evil speaking. That's one of the things that the Bible says that he can do. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, the recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. You see a broken heart, maybe your heart's full of pride and it's broke that way. However it is, I believe that's a good application of that verse. So step one, how to switch from the evil speaking to the good speaking. Step one, first thing you need to do is shut your mouth. Stop the flow of the evil coming out. Step two, let God work on your heart. Jesus Christ can do it. And this is either step three or maybe it's step one and a half. Didn't know which way to put it in there. I'll put it as step number three. Let's say it's this, learn to speak right things. Learn how to speak this side of the board. Learn how to speak blessings and life and peaceably and gentle and yeah, peace was the big one. Speak courteously and pitifully and compassionately. Learn how to speak right things. Turn to Proverbs chapter 12. Proverbs chapter 12. God's called you to do this side of the board. He can help you get there. But some of it is learning how to speak the right things. Proverbs 12 verse 18. There is that speaketh like the piercing of a sword, but the tongue of the wise is health. So see, if you're wise, you speak the things that are health, life, good, helpful. You're speaking peaceably if you're wise. How about Proverbs 15 verse two? Proverbs 15 two. You can have a wise mouth in a good way. Proverbs 15 two, the tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright. But the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness. Wisdom and knowledge are in the tongue of the wise, and that is health to other people. Look at Proverbs 10. Proverbs 10, verse 32. I like this one. Proverbs 10, 32. The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable. But the mouth of the wicked speaketh frowardness. The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable. Acceptable to who? To the Lord. I'll give you some to write down. We won't turn to these. But Ecclesiastes 10.12 says this. It says, the words of a wise man's mouth are gracious, but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself. Bible says if you're wise, your words are going to be gracious. That's good. I can put it to this side now. I knew it was coming. Gracious. What's that mean? Full of grace. You know, we're told in Colossians 4, 6, let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man. We're still called to gracious speaking. that our speech be always with grace. Grace is unearned goodness. That's what our speech should be. Listen, you don't talk to people the way that they deserve to be talked to. If you're obedient to the Lord, you speak to people the way God wants you to speak to them. And part of that has to do with grace coming out of your mouth. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you know how you ought to answer every man, Colossians 4.6. You say, but preacher, wouldn't it be deceitful if I spoke good to people, but I didn't mean it? No. It's a step in the right direction, and it's an act of obedience to the Lord. You're in Proverbs, look at Proverbs 16. I like this verse, I use it a lot, it's got a lot of application. Proverbs 16, verse 3. The Bible says, commit thy works unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established. What does that mean? You start doing right before you start feeling like doing it. Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established. You start obeying God with what you do, including what you say, and He'll bring your heart along later. Speak health and life and good to others, not because they are worthy of it or because you feel like it, but because God told you to. Obey Him and ask Him to change or heal your heart so that then you can feel like it. We talked about it a lot, you know, I mean, let me say this first, your feelings should be no match for God's expectation of you. You can't say, okay, Lord, I will obey you in speaking life and good things and bearing good fruit out of my mouth and using my words for good instead of evil. I'll obey you in this and the calling that you've called me to do when I feel like it. How about you start doing this and you worry about the feeling about it later? Let the Lord deal with your heart, because that's where your feelings are anyway. Let the Lord work on your heart and get your feelings right. You work on your actions and get your actions right. Commit thy works unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established. We've seen in this study time and time again how closely related the mouth and the heart is. And a lot of times what we'll do is we'll say, like I said earlier, we wanna fix the mouth, we gotta get the heart right. Well, the mouth is so completely connected to the heart that you may find that speaking health and life is exactly what you need to have your heart healed. Instead of saying, well, I can't possibly use my mouth right because I know my heart's not right. Well, how about you start speaking and obeying God with the right words coming out of your mouth? And you start doing that consistently enough, I wouldn't be surprised if the Lord uses the connection between your mouth and your heart to heal your heart. You start speaking and obeying God, and he'll sit there and heal up that heart. You start obeying him and you start showing him, Lord, I am committed to doing what you want me to do, and he'll say, okay, I'm gonna patch up your heart there. I'm gonna fix that broken heart here because you're willing to obey me there. It's up to him how he does it and what stipulations, if any. Sometimes, I imagine if you just ask the Lord, sometimes he'll just heal that up and those right words will start flowing out. Maybe he says, you know what, it's gonna take some work, but your level of commitment by speaking these things and doing what I've called you to do, that's what it's gonna take to heal up your heart. Be careful about giving the Lord some ultimatums and saying, I will do this if you do that. No, no, no. God's called us to this already. We need to be obedient to Him and let Him worry about the heart.