Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Proverbs 10:19, 13:3, 15:28, 12:18, 11:12
19 When words are many, transgression is not lacking,
but whoever restrains his lips is prudent.
(ESV)
3 Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life;
he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.
(ESV)
28 The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer,
but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things.
(ESV)
18 There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts,
but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
(ESV)
12 Whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense,
but a man of understanding remains silent.
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Good morning.
Caleb Chancey:Good morning.
Jeffrey Heine:Nice. It's good to see you all. Good to see you all. We're gonna be continuing our study this summer, through the proverbs. And today, we're gonna be talking about the the wisdom of our words.
Jeffrey Heine:And so if you've got a worship guide that that has the, the Proverbs that we're gonna be looking at together, we're gonna be starting off with Proverbs chapter 10 verse 19, as we consider our words and how we use our words, how our words can be of encouragement to others, how our words can wound others, and the seriousness with which we need to consider how we use our words. So Proverbs chapter 10 verse 19, let us listen carefully for this is God's word. When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent. Proverbs 13:3, Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life. He who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.
Jeffrey Heine:Proverbs 1528, The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things. In Proverbs 12 18, There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. Proverbs 11:12, Whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense, but a man of understanding remains silent.
Caleb Chancey:This is
Jeffrey Heine:the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let's pray together. Father God, we are here by your grace. And whether we know you or not, whether we love you or not, we are here by Your grace.
Jeffrey Heine:And You know us, each and every one of us here this morning. In fact, You know us better than we know selves, and, inexplicably, You love us. So help us this morning, Lord, to know You, to love You, and to worship You. By Your Spirit, Lord, give us the ears to hear You and the mouths to praise You. Give us give us hearts to adore You and minds to obey You.
Jeffrey Heine:For there is no one here, Lord, who does not need Your love and Your grace. And so, Lord, in our time together, renew our hearts and our minds that we might trust in You, Jesus. So would you speak, Lord, for your servants are listening? We pray this in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Jeffrey Heine:Last week, I was back home in Kentucky for a funeral, and I was given my family Bible, which had been handed down through generations. It is printed in German and it's in pretty good condition considering all of the years it's been around. What's not in good condition is my, high school German. Unfortunately, the Bible is not made up of people just asking when their birthday is, so my German is not good enough to read it. But it's been really fascinating.
Jeffrey Heine:There are lots of little family artifacts that were inside of this family Bible. One was a very small recording, like a record album, of Stars and Stripes. There was a red ribbon from an event in 1901, and there was a newspaper clipping from 190 4 announcing the marriage of my great great aunt and uncle in Maysville, Kentucky. And I wanted to learn more about them. I'd never come across their names before, and the newspaper clipping gave me just enough information to find some other articles about them that were archived online.
Jeffrey Heine:And one of my favorite ones was a piece of information that I found in that newspaper, the Maysville Evening Bulletin, and it said this, Friday, Mr. C. E. Geisel, that's my relative, had a narrow escape from serious injury. He was standing in the work room at Clooney's Jewelry Establishment, when a full size brick came hurtling through the skylight and barely missed striking the gentleman on the top of his head.
Jeffrey Heine:Workmen shoveling snow off the roof were the innocent cause of the mishap. End of story. What that means is that my great great uncle was nearly killed by a brick in the jewelry store owned by George Clooney's great great grandfather, or Rosemary Clooney, if that's a better reference for you. I'm so glad that this story was recorded. It will be an excellent story at dinner parties.
Jeffrey Heine:People are gonna love it. If if you happen to be at that dinner party, pretend like you haven't heard it yet. But let's pause for a second and acknowledge that this was in a newspaper. This was the news fit to print in the Maysville evening bulletin. There are a few other breaking stories in that edition of the evening bulletin in 190 4, And I would like to read a few to you.
Jeffrey Heine:1st, Mr. Frank Smith of Germantown was in town Monday. That's the whole story. Here's another one. Mrs.
Jeffrey Heine:George Knoedler, which we can get into that sometime, Mrs. George Loner has returned to her home after a delightful visit to her parents and other relatives. And then this was my favorite one. Policeman Ryan spent Sunday in Cincinnati. That was news.
Jeffrey Heine:Everyone's commonplace coming and going was just printed up in the evening paper. It was Twitter before Twitter. It's Facebook before Facebook. Except back then, you had to go downtown to the newsroom, have a reporter write down your news, and then they had to take each letter for the printing press, print it onto paper, wrap that in twine, give it to a boy on a bicycle that probably had the giant wheel on the front. And then he had to go through town and deliver the news to everyone.
Jeffrey Heine:And now they wanna make fun of you for posting a photo of your food. It's all insane. None of it makes sense. The news hasn't really changed, not really. We just have the evening bulletin in our pockets, so we can endlessly scroll through equally trivial posts and updates, and not to mention the deluge of breaking news, because now all news is breaking.
Jeffrey Heine:And now, not only do we feel compelled to keep up with everyone else's minor details and all the news of the world, there's this pressure to reply. Whether it's a like or a repost or a comment, you have to show your engagement. You have to demonstrate your awareness. You need to make a statement on everything to prove that you are a good and virtuous person. And the unacknowledged secret of this massive cultural demand for engagement is that more often than not, no one cares what you think.
Jeffrey Heine:If they did, they would ask you, and not just to confirm what they already believe, they would ask you because they care what you think. And then you would have a conversation. You'd make a connection. You'd share your honest thoughts and concerns, how you're processing things, and then they would do the same. And you'd both shift a little bit.
Jeffrey Heine:You'd both grow in your perspective and mutually benefit. But instead, we forget as quickly as we like something. We move on as quickly as we can repost or retweet something. We move on to the next issue, the next outrage, the next backlash, and the subsequent commercials, all having grown so very little. The speed of news, the pace of opinions, and the volume of it all creates a forceful cultural current, that whether we acknowledge it or not, profoundly affects the way that we think, and feel, and act.
Jeffrey Heine:And most of the time, we don't even realize what is happening until we are exhausted. Mentally, emotionally, spiritually exhausted. And we still might not even realize why we are so exhausted, but we feel it deeply. Have you felt that exhaustion lately, today? Do you feel exhausted?
Jeffrey Heine:Even in a place like this, a respite for us to pray and to worship together, we still feel the force of the cultural current upon us. It's still shaping us. Every day, there's another barrage of cultural issues and cultural concerns that we could be responding to. And any one of those topics could take up every minute of a Sunday gathering. There's this push to address everything all the time.
Jeffrey Heine:So what do we do? What do we do about this relentless cultural formation that is happening to us? What can we do? Try to keep up with it all? Fight against it?
Jeffrey Heine:Try to ignore it? In short, we need wisdom, which is what this summer series in the book of Proverbs is all about, our desperate need for wisdom. We need wisdom to know how to follow Jesus in all the various situations of life. We need wisdom to know how to be faithful and to live in a manner worthy of our calling. We need wisdom to navigate the push and pull of our culture and to understand our own sorrows and joys and exhaustion.
Jeffrey Heine:It's wisdom that we need, not just interesting ideas and concepts, but real practical wisdom. And that's what Proverbs is about. The Hebrew word for this wisdom is chokhmah, and it means applied knowledge, the practical skills of living. And today, we're considering the wisdom of our words, the wisdom we need concerning when to speak, how to speak, and what to speak, and also the wisdom to know when to remain silent. The passages that we are considering today offer us composite pictures, the picture of the foolish person and how they use their words, and the picture of the wise person and how they use their words.
Jeffrey Heine:And to help us order our time together, we'll consider these passages in 3 parts. First up, our restrained words. That's the wisdom of when to speak. And second, their pondered words, the wisdom of what we speak. And lastly, restorative words, just the wisdom of how we speak.
Jeffrey Heine:So first up, restrained words, the wisdom of when we speak. Look with me at Proverbs 10:19 again. When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent. In Proverbs 13:3, Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life. He who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.
Jeffrey Heine:These proverbs teach the necessary skill of restraint. The foolish person opens wide their lips and speaks many words, but the wise person restrains their lips and guards their mouth. The image offered in Proverbs 10/19 is that of a hand covering a mouth, physically restraining the lips from speaking. The early church father and archbishop of Constantinople, John Chrysostom, Chrysostom, wrote in the 4th century these words, quote, God has surrounded the tongue with a double wall, with the barrier of the teeth and the fence of the lips, in order that it may not easily, heedlessly utter words it should not speak, end quote. I like that image.
Jeffrey Heine:God has placed these barriers around the tongue, our our teeth and our lips to restrain our words. And Proverbs 19, 1019 says that with an abundance of words, there is an increase in transgression, meaning that our unbridled, our loose talk, what Jesus calls careless talk in Matthew 12, and Paul calls irreverent babble in his letter to Timothy. When there's an abundance of those kinds of words, there's a great opportunity for the abundance of transgression as well. One of my favorite writers and performers is Mike Birbiglia, and he has a memorable line, What I should have said was nothing. And I find myself thinking of that a lot.
Jeffrey Heine:As you can see in my line of work, I do a lot of speaking. And I can't tell you how many hours that I've spent awake in bed replaying conversations over the years. And more often than not, it's not that I wish that I had said different words, better words, wiser words. It's that I wish that I had said fewer words. Often, what I should have said was nothing.
Jeffrey Heine:And again, in Proverbs 13:3, we read, Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life. He who opens wide his lips comes to ruin. This picture of a wise person depicts the active work of guarding one's mouth. It's as though the mouth cannot be trusted on its own. A deliberate intentional effort must be put forth to guard the mouth.
Jeffrey Heine:And in doing so, the wise person preserves their life. This is contrasted with the fool who opens wide their mouth and says whatever pops into their head without caring what they say or who they may harm, and eventually they are brought to ruin. Wisdom in our words requires the skill of restraint. And it does not mean that we are withholding things that are profitable, but we are to be skilled in the ability to hold our tongues and not be ruined by our own rash words. The skill of restraint requires self control.
Jeffrey Heine:And self control means that discipline of the self, not following every impulse and immediate desire. But how do we grow in that self control? Now this may come as a surprise to some of you, but I have never ridden a bull. I know you look at me and you think to yourself, that guy's probably ridden a bull, But I'm gonna shoot you straight. I haven't.
Jeffrey Heine:But I do know that anytime someone does ride a bull for at least 8 seconds, that's the only way that you can get a score for that ride. So you need 8 seconds on the bull. And 8 seconds is not a long time, unless you're strapped to the back of a 1500 pound Bronco that does not want you there. If I could put an 8 second delay between my brain and my mouth, if I could hold on to whatever emotional, relational, situational bull that's tossing me around before I let go and spoke, I would be a much wiser person. I'd be a better friend, a better pastor, a better dad, a better husband, just 8 seconds to guard my mouth, to restrain my lips, to better serve and love the people in my life.
Jeffrey Heine:Sure, 8 seconds is not a long time, unless you are riding the latest outrage in the news, or riding your emotions from when your supposed closest friend has let you down once again, or you're riding the frustration, of your roommate who has now demonstrated once again that they are the most inconsiderate person you've ever known. To live wisely, we have to develop the skill of restraint. We have to live into the work of the Spirit to bear the fruit of self control. And as we have talked before here at Redeemer, the Spirit often teaches us these skills by bringing people into our lives who are a challenge to our self control. That's how we grow.
Jeffrey Heine:If you desire to grow in self control, you are in effect, inviting the Spirit to bring people into your life that will challenge your restraint. He may bring roommates or coworkers, parents, children, spouses, neighbors. Consider the people in your life, and how the Lord might be using them to grow you in self control, to help you gain those 8 seconds of restraint on your lips, holding on to that raging bull and exercising the discipline of self control. And fair warning, as you grow in self control, you will most often feel more like a failure than a success. That's what it most often feels like when you are in the process of growth.
Jeffrey Heine:But take heart, the Spirit is growing you. He's pushing your limits of restraint and self control. And at times, it will come alongside bringing you to repentance over sins of unguarded and rash words. But He's also renewing you. And in that renewal, He's calling you to faithfulness in a new day.
Jeffrey Heine:Wisdom, in our words, requires restraint. That's part 1. Part 2, wisdom, in our words, requires pondering. Look with me at verse, chapter 15, verse 28. The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things.
Jeffrey Heine:Along with restraining our lips, a wise and righteous person considers what to speak. We consider what to speak by pondering our words in our hearts. This proverb, again, offers contrasting pictures. 1 of the righteous person and 1 of the wicked person. The righteous person ponders words in their hearts, while the wicked person pours out evil things from the mouth.
Jeffrey Heine:Notice each of those contrasts, the righteous and the wicked, the pondering and the pouring, the heart and the mouth. It's important to note here that the righteous person is not a perfect person. If that was the case, we're all dead in the water, right? The righteous person is a repentant person. If the wicked person were repentant, they too would be called righteous.
Jeffrey Heine:So when we read about the wicked person, we're reading about a person who refuses to repent, who refuses to turn to the Lord. And the person who refuses to repent, evil pours out of their mouth without care and without caution. The repentant, the righteous person ponders their answers in their heart. Speaking without thinking is a luxury of the wicked. You can only afford the luxury of speaking without thinking if you pay the cost of not caring about consequences, who you harm and what damage might result.
Jeffrey Heine:But the repentant, the righteous person cannot afford such luxury. The consequences of words matter to the repentant. It matters to the repentant, how they might be understood or misunderstood. It matters to the repentant, how their words might unintentionally confuse or harm others. It matters to the repentant, how complex and gentle their response might need to be if it's going to be received in a way that is profitable and honoring to the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:The Apostle James, in his New Testament letter, reiterates this truth from the Proverbs in chapter 1 verse 19, writing, Know this, my beloved brothers and sisters, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, slow to speak, quick to listen. This aim is the absolute antithesis of the pressure of our culture, the pressure to be quick to speak regardless of the outcome. I took a typing class in high school on an actual typewriter. I don't know if that says more about my age or the funding of my school district. Computers were doing pretty good then, but we had typewriters.
Jeffrey Heine:Every week, we would do the time typing test to see if our words per minute and accuracy had increased. I still have a typewriter at my desk in my office. And so this past week, I decided to do a speed test again. But this time, I first took an online typing test to determine how fast I could type on the computer keyboard. And then I loaded a fresh piece of paper into my typewriter and set the timer for 1 minute.
Jeffrey Heine:In the end, I typed 68 words per minute on the computer. And on the typewriter, 25. The difference in the machines, the technology at my fingertips changed my speed considerably. Not only do we have a culture that expects immediate responses and demands instantaneous opinions, but we also have the technology that drives us toward this speed. You will be hard pressed to find anything in our culture or our technology that encourages you to slow down, to be slow to speak and quick to listen.
Jeffrey Heine:And whether you see it or not, you are being shaped by our culture and emboldened by our technology to neglect the call of God to be slow to speak and quick to listen. And to be clear, there isn't a caveat that you should only be slow to speak when you don't know what to say. We are to be slow to speak, perhaps particularly slow to speak, when we already think we know what we want to say. Wisdom in our words requires pondering in our hearts. And to do this, we we must learn to be patient.
Jeffrey Heine:We must learn to resist the demands of our culture for unwise speed and the pace of the technology that we have, and take our considerations to the Lord in prayer. We have to learn to value slowness to speak in ourselves and in one another. We need to give ourselves and one another the space to be faithful in pondering our answers and our hearts before the Lord. If we cannot give that to one another, then how are we different from the demands of an unbelieving world? Wisdom in our words requires discernment, and discernment requires patience.
Jeffrey Heine:And once again, we find patience is something that the Spirit works in us. It's part of the fruit born of the Spirit in our lives. And just like self control, patience is learned through challenge and testing. Being slow to speak and quick to listen, pondering our words and our hearts means that there will be times that you will frustrate others for not being fast enough. People may misunderstand you, and you might be accused of not caring or not being engaged enough.
Jeffrey Heine:And you might become the target of other people's harsh words, their rash talk, their gossip, or their slander. The loudest voices of the day might even seem to enjoy a triumph in the moment. But over time, your words will bear greater weight for the people in your life because they will know that your words have been pondered in your heart and held before the Lord your God. Then your words will bear something much greater than simply promoting yourself, garnering admiration, or feeding your pride. Your words will become instruments of the mercy of God.
Jeffrey Heine:So wisdom of our words requires us to ponder those words in our hearts. That's part 2. And part 3, restorative words. Look with me at Proverbs 12 18. There's one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
Jeffrey Heine:In our last passage this morning, we have a picture of a foolish person whose rash words are like a sword thrusting in harm. And the wise person whose wise words not only refrain from harm, but bring healing. We know that words can hurt and wound. They can bring pain that lasts a lifetime. The rash words of the fool paid no mind to this, and and at times, even seek to, hope to hurt.
Jeffrey Heine:And we've all experienced this before. When someone speaks with the intent to wound, their words cut and thrust like a sword. They are quick and sharp, and they seek to hurt. Those are the words of a fool. But the words of the wise not only forego harm, they seek to bring about healing.
Jeffrey Heine:Have you received restorative words like this before, words that brought healing and comfort to you? These words are not simply kind. They are words that bring about real, lasting healing to a place of woundedness. It can be as simple as a sincere I'm sorry or a reminder of the unshakable promises of God. When we have shown self control, restrained our lips, and pondered our words with God in our heart, then by the work of the Holy Spirit, our words can be more than words.
Jeffrey Heine:They can be instruments used by God to restore, renew, and refresh our brothers and sisters. Words of healing don't usually get much acclaim. They don't get likes and retweets or attention. And that's because they are not usually spoken to the masses. Wise words of healing are rarely shouted or broadcasted for public consumption.
Jeffrey Heine:No wise words of healing are most often said in quiet places, in the less crowded context of relationship, where one's woundedness can be tended to and restoration can begin. We don't get to participate in this restorative ministry when we run our mouths, our unguarded mouths, at every little thing under the sun. Because then, we are like the little boy who cried wolf, who demanded everyone's attention so many times with empty words that no one paid attention to Him when His words actually and kindness. The Spirit works this fruit in us. These are not rampant qualities in our world.
Jeffrey Heine:And I would also say in the church today, and I count myself in that analysis. Gentleness might even seem like an unusual word to describe the character of a Christian leader, but it is an explicit requirement laid out for elders in the Scriptures in 1 Timothy 3, and it's also used to describe the work of the apostles in the early church in 1 Thessalonians 2. And it's supposed to be part of the moral character of every follower of Jesus that we see in Titus 3. But we cannot tend to the wounds of others with words of restoration if we are harsh and unkind. We need the Spirit to work His gentleness and kindness in us.
Jeffrey Heine:Because if at the very moment when we were enemies with God, completely and totally against Him, if when we were His enemies, Christ died for us, then that means that in the moment when God could have justifiably been most harsh to us, most justifiably condemning us with judgment like sword thrusts, He instead spoke tenderly to us, calling us from our rebellion that our warfare has ended, calling us His children. We do have to be cautious when we read through the Proverbs because there is a pull to take these various passages and turn them into a simple blueprint for better living. And that's not their aim. Kathleen Nielsen, a writer and theologian, wrote in her commentary on the book of Proverbs, highlighting this issue. And she does it so well that I want to read that quote to you.
Jeffrey Heine:She writes this, quote, The tendency when applying proverbs is for me to clinch my jaw and try to do what they say, or to hope that the person I'm thinking of will get the point and do what the proverb says. When I read Proverbs about restraining the tongue, I might resolve to control my words better than I have been. I'll go off social media for a while. I won't lose control when I'm talking to an irritating friend or family member and say things that I will regret. But then, of course, I will fail.
Jeffrey Heine:I will fail if I try to apply the moral like a whip, either to myself or to others. The key is there for us in Proverbs. It's fearing the Lord, living in relationship with Him, reverencing Him for who He is and humbly listening to His words of life. It is having the kind of heart, first of all, that receives God's word. Our words are just the outflow, end quote.
Jeffrey Heine:To begin addressing the words coming out of our mouths, the starting point is to receive the words of God, namely the person Jesus, God in flesh. In other words, to address our talking, we must begin with our listening. The chapters 10 through 22 of the book of Proverbs are attributed to King Solomon. It's also traditionally held that Solomon wrote the book of Ecclesiastes in his old age. And as I spent time this week in these proverbs concerning the wisdom of our words, I was reminded of a passage in Ecclesiastes chapter 5.
Jeffrey Heine:Here, Solomon is giving instructions for how to approach the Lord in worship. And he writes this, Guard your steps when you go into the house of God. To draw near, to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know what they are doing is evil. Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven, and you are on earth. Therefore, let your words be few.
Jeffrey Heine:As important as it is for us to consider how we wisely use our words in the context of community with one another, I think it would be negligent if we didn't turn our attention to the most important context for our communication, and that is with God Himself. Solomon cautions the worshiper to draw near to God to listen, and that it's better than the sacrifice of fools. Because the fools come in with their rash words and make promises and promises, negotiating with God in some way to get what they want. That's the hasty uttering of words before their God. And Solomon offers a stern and sobering reminder, God is in heaven.
Jeffrey Heine:You are on earth. In other words, remember your place before you open your mouth. God is the Creator in heaven. You are a creature on the earth. Therefore, let your words be few.
Jeffrey Heine:So often, we think of worship as all the things that we have to say, or sing, or declare, or proclaim. And Solomon is cautioning that we do not need to grow too fond of our own words or the sound of our own voice. We are the creatures, not the Creator. Let your words be few. Not because there's not enough to declare or praise or celebrate, but we need to posture ourselves rightly before a holy God.
Jeffrey Heine:Instead, we should come to the Lord humbly, quick to listen, ready to hear and to respond to the sovereign and supreme words of God. And while this call to let our words be few is not encouraged by the culture around us, it must be the disciplined practice of the followers of Jesus. Just as we cover our mouths in wise restraint, ponder our words and our hearts and seek to speak the words of healing to the people in our lives, we should also come before the Lord our God, Father, Son, and Spirit, beholding the goodness of His grace and mercy to us in the gospel of Jesus, and listen first to what He has to speak. Because as Nielsen reminded us, our words are just the outflow, the response to what God has already said and is saying now. We must listen to the wisdom of God in Christ our Savior.
Jeffrey Heine:We must listen to the healing words of His gospel. And we must listen to the voice of the one who made us and loves us and has come to restore us to himself, because He alone has the words of life, and His words alone will stand forever. So that's what we're going to do with our time. As the band comes up here, we're going to take a few minutes, a few minutes where we're not the ones speaking. We're not the ones saying.
Jeffrey Heine:We're not the ones declaring, but a few minutes where we are quiet before the Lord, our God. That we confess to Him that He is the one who is in heaven. We are the ones on the earth. That He is the creator, and I am a creature before him, that we would humble ourselves before him. And then we'll stand together and sing.
Jeffrey Heine:As we move into this time and into a posture of this time of prayer, let me begin by praying for us. O Lord, we confess that you are God in heaven and we are Your creatures on the earth. Lord, we ask that in this time that you would speak and you would teach your servants to listen. Oh, lord, at your throne, where nothing is hidden and all hearts are open, let our words be few.