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Ministries
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Message given at Grace Church, Moloka'i August 17, 2008 Don't Just Words are important! Three aspiring psychiatrists were attending their first class on emotional extremes. "Just to establish some parameters," said the professor to the student from Arkansas, "What is the opposite of joy?" "Sadness," said the student. "And the opposite of depression?" he asked of the young lady from Oklahoma. "Elation," she said. "And you sir," he said to the young man from Texas, "How about the opposite of woe?" The Texan replied, "Sir, I believe that would be giddy up." Like many of you, I've been watching Michael Phelps break all of Mark Spitz' gold medal records at the Beijing Olympics this past week. What amazes me is how soft-spoken and gracious he has been during all of his interviews. Have any of you noticed how polite and humble he seems even as he achieved the status of the greatest Olympian of all time? When I saw him interviewed for his eighth gold medal, he gave credit to his teammates as the reason for his success. It gave me pause to stroll down memory lane to when Mark Spitz was at the top of his game. Mark Spitz was anything but polite and gracious. Now don't get me wrong. This message isn't to talk stink about him, but to do a bit of comparison and apply it to our lesson from Matthew 15. Back in the day, when our family returned to Hawai'i from Australia, my father worked at the Hilton Hawaiian Village as a maintenance man. There were 2 penthouses at the top of the newly built Rainbow Tower. Mark Spitz owned one, and in the other penthouse was Don Ho… My dad would often come home with tales of his day. He couldn't say enough about Don Ho, who was extremely gracious. He was polite and offered to feed everyone who came in, welcoming even my dad - the lowly maintenance guy as an honored guest. Don was full of a-l-o-h-a. On the other hand, I heard a phrase this week that would have described Mark Spitz. He had a "bad case of the I's." Not e-y-e-s. Everything was I-this and I-that. He was the #1 athlete in the world and he knew it. He treated my dad and others like scum through his actions and words. It isn't just Olympians. There is nothing that destroys our credibility as quickly or as deeply as bad words or selfish actions. Jesus says in today's gospel, "But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart and they defile a man." Words reveal what is in the heart. If you often provide encouragement to the downtrodden, then you have a heart that has compassion. If you speak words that confirm your trust in God during a crisis (rather than worry), then you have a heart that is filled with faith. The other side of the coin says that when you speak impatiently then you are demonstrating a heart that is filled with impatience. When you speak words that are cruel and demeaning you have a heart that is cruel and does not respect the person you are speaking to. Your words reveal your true character and nature. Other people can only know what you are thinking when you put those thoughts into words and actions. In fact, your words are admissible evidence to prove to others what the actual intent of your heart is. We often watch our favorite movie stars and on screen they seem to be so sweet and kind. Who are these stars in their unguarded moments? Do they throw fits and insult and demean the film crew when the cameras are no longer rolling? Do they complain about their dressing room or the food on the set? Who they are when the cameras aren't filming is the reality. What we see on the television or movie screen is an edited and enhanced fantasy. Who are YOU when the cameras stop rolling? Jesus says in Matthew 12:35-37, "The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.. . For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned." The Apostle Paul also touched on the subject of speech. He commanded the church at Ephesus, (Ephesians 4:29) "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." Let's set the scene of today's section of Matthew 15. The Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus to scold Him for breaking with the tradition of washing hands. Jesus blasted them for not honoring their parents by using their religious traditions to cheat them. Then He told them that their traditions were trying to nullify God's commands. They were trying to cheat their families. Jesus gets to the point by quoting Isaiah 29:13, "this people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me" Then He said, "Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile."
Jesus challenged them that it's not what goes INTO your mouth that makes you holy, it's what comes out. It's not what goes through your mind that's a problem; it's what you do with those thoughts and how you act on them. One time, Matthew 12:34 tells us, Jesus told the Pharisees, "You brood of vipers! How can you speak good things, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Jesus listed 7 bad things "evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander." 2 of them are specific to speech. The others point to actions. What comes out of us shows what's inside of us. If we recognize that we are responsible for our attitudes then we must be responsible for our words as well. It's much easier to control our words when we begin to bring our wrong attitudes under control. An attitude adjustment will usually lead to a vocabulary adjustment. So last week we spoke about asking Jesus into our boats. This week I want to urge us to put Jesus in our mouths. Think about that for a second. How would you speak to your family, to your co-workers, and to your friends if Jesus were on your tongue? I know that's a shocking image. But we do it every time we partake of the Lord's Supper. Each week, we pray and ask simple bread and wine to be changed into something else: not carbs and simple sugars. Every Sunday at Grace we ask the bread and wine to symbolize the Body and Blood of Jesus. We take Jesus into our mouths and ask Him to live in us, to transform us, to change us.
Before we go on, remember that Jesus was teaching about people that looked good on the outside but had inside problems. So every application has two parts. The first part really is to get Jesus in your heart. We need the Holy Spirit working in us to change us but also to help us with the second part. It is taking steps of discipline. Dallas Willard calls it being a simple yoke Christian. You remember Matthew 11:28, "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." For many of us, following Jesus is anything but easy and light. And asking the Lord to live in our hearts and on our tongues seems hard and almost impossible. For example, Jesus says to bless those who curse us. I don't want to bless them, I want to blast them! So how do we do the impossible of blessing those who speak badly of us? Easy. We get Jesus in our boat. We lay down our pride and ask Him to power us BEFORE we are insulted. And then we apply simple yoke discipline. Long before the fight, we begin to always speaking blessings and encouragement. With a heart and mouth full of Jesus, we begin to speak His words, and let our actions reflect His love. Then, when someone lets us have it, we have already have practice speaking with Jesus on our lips. Then we can be like Psalm 145:21 "My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, and all flesh will bless his holy name forever and ever."
Those around us will be charged by what comes out of us. If we learn to speak blessings, we will become a blessing. Our words will be used for healing and not for wounding. And with Jesus in our vocal cords, we will discover peace and joy that passes all understanding. So here is where it gets tough. Not everyone will appreciate us speaking words of blessings and encouragement. People will cut us off in the line at the market. Co-workers will be rude. And our families will sometimes be battlefields. So what do we do then? Well, we already know how to handle them! We will use the disciplines of the simple yoke of Jesus. With Jesus as a regular member of our hearts and mouths, we will already be in the habit of blessing. So if they curse us, we will then bless them in the Name of Jesus! That's what honoring God with our lips AND having our hearts near to Him will bring to us. It is also the way to strengthening our CORE. There is nothing more powerful in the world that a man or a woman who live their lives with Jesus at their core and living with the simple yoke of Jesus in everything they do and in everything they say. Back in the 70's we called it, "Being sold out for Jesus". As I listened to Michael Phelps, I heard a young man who worked hard each and every day to pursue his dream and place in history as he won eight gold medals. There is only one Michael Phelps. And there is only one of you. God was so proud of what He created when he made you that He threw away the mold. He knew that with Jesus in your heart and with the simple yoke of Jesus on your lips you will bring gold medal blessings to the world. That means, in Christ, each of us can be a champion. In Christ, each of us can win the gold. And when our actions and our words are in Christ, we can bring gold to the world, after all we have the best team in the world right here, Amen? AMEN
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