In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the power of our words and how they reflect our relationship with Christ. He highlights the importance of using our words to praise and thank the Lord, rather than speaking negatively or engaging in gossip. The speaker also discusses the prevalence of harmful and malicious words in society, including online platforms. He encourages believers to be different and to let go of bitterness, rage, and anger, as these emotions can eat away at us. The speaker shares a personal experience of facing challenges in ministry and how he overcame them by seeking God's presence and choosing to praise the Lord.

So much has happened, I don't wanna rush the word of God, so we're gonna just go right to this and talk about something that we can all implement today. And it all applies to all of us. I don't care if you're the pastor, you've been a Christian for 50 years. Ask my mom, how old was she when she became a Christian? How old was she? She was 13. So 13 minus 102, she's only been a Christian for 89 years. Oh my goodness. But this applies to her. This applies to you. And it goes right along with what is much needed, that we wanna live lives that are pleasing to the Lord. How many are strongly purposed in your heart, you wanna live every day to make God happy? Come on. If you know what the Lord has done for you, like Pastor Hammond said, in all his faithfulness, you wanna make him happy, like tomorrow when I go to my mother's house with that good Polish food. Ukrainian food, actually, it's coming from a Ukrainian restaurant. I wanna make her happy. I wanna make her happy. I don't care what she does for me tomorrow, I'm not asking her for a thing. I wanna make her happy because of my love for her. We wanna make the Lord happy. Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be that assumes that words and purposes in your heart can be unacceptable. Why would you pray, let the words of my mouth, the meditations of my heart be acceptable, unless there was the possibility that you could say words and have purposes in your heart that are unacceptable. If you can please the Lord, that assumes you could displease the Lord. I could make my mother cry tomorrow if I wasn't careful, by being rude or rough or speak to her improperly. This theme here, there's no such thing as small talk. Every word that we speak has an effect on ourselves, on the people who listen and to God. Listen, every word you say, I don't care, there is no small talk. Every word we say affects us because the book of James tells us that the tongue sets on fire the whole person. If you speak angry words, you don't vent and get less angry, you get more angry. If you speak gossiping words, negative words, you don't get less gossipy, there's such a word, you get more gossipy. Saying the words, having them go out, has an effect on your whole being. For good or for bad, you talk about God's goodness, it'll lift your faith. If you speak words of remembering what he's done for you, like Pastor Hammond did, it'll have an effect on your whole body. Your heart will be warmed and you'll start to want to praise him more. Am I right or wrong? Number two, the people who listen are gonna be affected by your words. There's blessing in conversation and there's cursing in conversation. There's lifting up of someone and I could speak to her in such a way that she's lifted up and encouraged and she was going through something, I didn't even know it, but by my words, I actually lifted her up and encouraged her. Or I could speak negativity, I could speak junk to her, I could speak proud boasting and now nothing will help her, that I said, nothing. In fact, it might bring her down more. And then to God, while we speak, he's listening, he's either made happy and he's blessed. In other words, when you say, let my life be pleasing, most of our life is talking. We're talking all day long. We can talk rough, vile, angry, gossiping, slandering, cursing, or we can talk sweet. Let's see what Paul tells the church that they should know about this in the book of Ephesians. So I tell you this and insist on it in the Lord that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do in the futility of their thinking. These are those who don't know Christ. They are darkened in their understanding and they're separated from the life of God. That's society without God. Oh, don't we know that now? Because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts, hard hearts. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths. That word unwholesome means rotten. Don't let any rotten words come out of your mouths. But notice, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs that it may benefit those who listen. Notice the three directions here emphasize that when you talk, you're not supposed to vent. I'm not supposed to open my mouth. I have a lot of thoughts. Keep them to yourself if they're not gonna help the person who's listening to you. Why do you have to say them? Oh, you don't know what I'm going through. Tell God, it won't help them. Talking is not supposed to be selfish. It's supposed to be ministry to others. Notice building others up according to their needs. What do they need? Are my words building up Carol when I speak to her? According to her needs, what is she going through? Not what do I think, what do I go through, my mood, my situation. That's not what conversation's supposed to be about. That it may benefit those who listen. Will it benefit people who are listening to me? Like this message. But in every conversation, when I talk to my secretary, Jackie, upstairs before the meeting, what I'm saying, is it helping her? She's telling me, you gotta do this today, that. We're going back and forth. But when I speak to her, does it benefit her? Does it lift her up? Does it minister to her need? Or is it all about me, what I feel, what I'm going through? Notice what conversation does or can do. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Grieve there means pierce, make sad, put a dagger through him. Conversation grieves the Holy Spirit when it's wrong. This is why many people who are Christians are weakened, they don't understand the power of God's grace, they don't have peace like he wants to give them, they don't have the joy he wants to give them. Why? Because all day long they pierce him, they grieve him, they hurt him. All day long. We're just talking and talking, grieving the Holy Spirit, and then we go, where's the peace of God? Where's the joy of the Lord? Well, how can you have that if you're hurting the Holy Spirit every 20 minutes? Even if you don't say amen, this is an excellent message. I can't believe, I can't believe it's this good. What can I tell you? Get rid of all bitterness. Notice all, everyone say all. Get rid of all bitterness. Rage and anger. Bitterness means that poison that you get in you toward other people that will eat you for lunch. It'll eat you up for lunch. And you can justify it all you want, what they did, they did this, they did that. Guess what? You're the loser, I'm the loser when we're eaten up with bitterness. And all rage and anger, what's the difference between the word? Rage is the outburst of anger. Rage is when you explode. As they say in Argentina, fofurito, a matchstick, he went off. You know, there's some people, you don't have to rub them too hard. Like a matchstick, you know, you just rub them and oh, there's a flame. That's anger, that's rage. Anger is that settled disposition of an inner anger. Oh, don't you meet people like that? And in society today, and Christians join into it. All of this stuff, racial, political stuff, Christians are right in it, full of rage, full of anger, full of bitterness, brawling, slander, along with every kind of malice. That's the world. The world apart from Christ is filled with malice, hate, evil, brawling, slander, anger, outbreaks of anger, bitterness. And God is saying to us, I don't want any of you like that. That should never let it be named among you because Jesus never did that. And he was provoked a lot more than you and I. They hung him on a tree and he was still praying for them. They led him to false trials, made slanderous accusations, he wouldn't even open his mouth. And we've all sinned that way. Come on, you can agree with that, can't you? We've all sinned that way. We just talk, we run our mouths, and a lot of people do that because they grew up in houses where everyone just ran their mouth. They had a mother who just wouldn't stop talking. Just critical, all that, and they drink it in with their mother's milk and that's how they reproduce it. Some are outright, they just go off, favorito, favorita, they go off in public. Others hold it and act nice in public and then behind closed doors, there it goes, there it goes, there it goes. Poison, slander, negativity, hate, prejudice. And making it worse is because in public it's praise. God, how are you? Oh. I call a longtime member of this church who is like a part of our family and we spend Christmases and Thanksgiving, Carol and I, just, we love her. But she's kind of fearful, so she's living up in the Bronx now, but she really is from New Jersey, but she's in a home up in the Bronx. I called her, but she's very leery because she has children who have tormented her. She'd been through a lot. So I called her on the phone and she didn't recognize the number from my cell. So she answered the phone and I went, hi, how are you? And she went, who's this? Who's calling me? Just like that, with that tone. Let me see if I can get it. I gotta channel this a little bit better. I said, hello. And she went, no, who's, how'd you get my number? Who's calling me? And I went, it's Pastor Cimbala. She went, praise God, Pastor Cimbala. Pastor Cimbala, praise God. I said, no, you just Bronx me. I'm not gonna let you get away with that. And every time I see her now, I say, don't you Bronx me. Well, let's go on. Nor should there be obscenity. That means cursing. Christians should never curse. Never, never under any circumstances. How in the world could Christ have died for your sins and called you to be like him and now you're using filthy words? Could you explain that to me? And now people think you're a Christian and can go off like that and talk like that. And we live in a society, I just, you know, there was a political rally a month or so ago, one of the acts that they had to draw the crowd. They had to bleep out every word the guy was saying. Every other, this had a political rally for the President of the United States. Had to bleep out every word. This is how acceptable this is. You feed that to little kids as they're growing up. Lots of luck when they're 13, 14 years old. Lots of luck. Nothing will be sacred to them. No woman will be respected. No, it's the way it is, Pastor. Well, don't be a dinosaur. I'm not a dinosaur, I'm a Christian. Don't call me a dinosaur. Look at me, I'm a Christian. How many wanna be Christians and obey God's word? No obscenity. Foolish talk or coarse joking which are out of place but rather Thanksgiving. You wanna use your mouth? Give God thanks. You wanna talk to my sister to go back to her? Would you please say something to help her? She has her own battles. You got problems, tell it to God. You don't have to drag her down unless you want her to pray for you. Don't be negative, be positive. Remember, Jesus died for you. You belong to Christ. Why are you so negative? I met a minister a long time ago who told me that one of the great burdens of his life was to go home after church to be with his wife. Now listen, I'm not saying that to be funny. That's a tragedy. He told me he dreaded going home because the minute, I don't care how God blessed, I don't care who got saved, I don't care how the Lord came and blessed the meetings, he was gonna go home and hear negativity. Oh, I saw that there, Sister Jones was there. She's a phony, she's not real. I can see through her and the guy broke down with tears in his eyes and said, you know what? I didn't even wanna go home and that's my wife. But listen, some people are stuck like that. I'm not being negative, this is reality. Some people are married or grow up in a home where it's negativity, cursing, slandering, talking about people who are not there in a negative way who can't defend themselves. How would that possibly fit in with Jesus? Right in the same context is forgive one another even as Christ has forgiven you. So if people did you wrong or did you dirty, listen, vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord. Give them to God. Come on, do I get a witness here? Give them to God, say, God, you take care of it. I'm not doing anything more, you take care of it. So this is a good lesson for all of us, isn't it? And we can put it in practice today because I prophesy that before the night is out, you all will talk. How many are with me, are you with me? You will talk. And every word you say, the Lord is listening. So choir, choir, listen up. You would be the ultimate hypocrites, more so than us, because you just sang the songs that I sing, the words that I say. But it's one thing to sing the song. I mean, no, it's another thing to do it. Words can bring healing. Words can stabilize people. Haven't you ever had somebody say words to you in a conversation, they didn't even know what you were going through, and God used their words to lift you up? How many have ever had something like that happen? How many, honest, my mom lift her hand. How many have had people say words to you that pulled you down, that hurt you? Come on. So, same for us. I can say someone with a thought, what's her need, what's his need, what will edify them, speak according to their situation, or I can just say, I'm Jim Simlin, I gotta let out whatever I wanna let out. I'm gonna vent, I can't take it anymore. That's the world. All of that is the world. And of course, all these words include text words and all that other stuff, emails, and every kind of stuff on the internet. Just think of the filth and the words. Oh my goodness. This characterizes our society. Angry, slanderous, hateful, full of malice, and all of that, and Jesus said, but I've called you to be different. You are in the world, but you're not of the world. You don't have to talk like that. And this characterizes more of who we are than anything else. My words define who I am. One last passage just comes to me. Jesus said, and remember this, by your words, you shall be justified, and by your words, you will be condemned, because all the words are being kept, and they're all gonna be laid out in some way at the judgment seat of Christ. I'm not talking about losing your salvation, but the way we talk reflects of how much Christ is in us. How could Christ be in us and be talking negative, hateful, critical, hyper, gossipy, and all that stuff? But how much better to use these lips and praise the Lord and give him thanks. I was in the ministry three months. I was living in Jersey in a house that my mom and dad bought for us, the down payment. $32,000 house, 8,000 down. Those were the good old days, right? Oh yeah. And the devil would battle me for every Sunday because I had never been to seminary, and I couldn't get sermons for the life of me. And they had an attic, an unfinished attic, and I would crawl up there at night on Saturday and pray and be there with God, with my Bible. And one Sunday, when I was borderline wanting to quit and give up, it seemed like Satan was just gonna choke me. Like, forget I won't have a sermon for tomorrow. Don't even go tomorrow. Ah, what does it matter? There'll be 14 people. What does it matter? Go or don't go? These are the battles you fight. So I said, you know what? Satan's in this attic. I'm being attacked. Anybody here ever been attacked by Satan? I didn't know what to do because my heart started to pound as God is listening to me, witness of it. And I said, I know what I have to do. I gotta start to praise the Lord. And can I tell you the truth? It was as if somebody put their hands around my throat and I couldn't praise God. And I couldn't think of one answered prayer. Anybody ever have that happen? I couldn't think of one promise. I couldn't think of anything. It was like, no, you will not praise God. And then I got up. I see, I get, there was a mattress up there that I used to lay on or kneel on or whatever. And I started walking around that closed-in thing and it didn't have a high ceiling on the sides. And as I'm walking back and forth, I said, God, I gotta praise you or I don't know. God help me. And the moment I broke through and used my lips to praise him, the atmosphere began to change because God inhabits the praises and the thanksgiving of his people. So if you're here today and you're under attack, give your lips to God. Use your voice for God. Give him thanks. Lord, I thank you for your word, which is to all of us, starting with the speaker. Let no rotten words come out of our mouth. Let there be sweet words of healing that we would speak according to the need of the person we're talking to, not to our selfish desires, that those words would be acceptable in your sight. Don't let our words affect our own person the wrong way and other people the wrong way. And then to be displeasing to you. But let every sentence, every word be like Jesus. Help us to get rid of all wrath and anger and bitterness and frustration and malice and all obscenity and coarse joking. Let us speak every sentence as in your presence to the advantage of those who listen. We ask you to have mercy on us and forgive us for wrong words, wrong sentences, slander, gossip, harshness, lying, any other kind of wrong speech, Lord. We ask you to forgive us. But today is the first day of the rest of our life. So we thank you that we can walk with you now. And that if we confess our sins, you're faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us. So bless our words. Use them not as daggers, but as the balm of Gilead, like medicine. To heal, lift up, stabilize, encourage. Everybody, just put your hand on your lips. We dedicate our lips to you today. All conversation today that it might be approved by you, we pray it in Jesus' name. And everybody said. You may stand, please. I want you to hug three or four people and say something kind, say something good.