Being Slow To Speak

Lord, thank you for today that you've given us opportunity to meet in a place, Lord, where we have freedom and we're still able to say the things that pertain to life and Godliness from the scriptures without repercussion. I pray we wouldn't take for granted your many blessings. Forgive us where we've grumbled and complained against you, been selfish and self-centered.

Teach us your ways. Help us to walk in your precepts. In Jesus' name, amen.

Let's look in the book of James chapter 1. I put on the hillside church group this morning a scripture, something the Lord's been trying to teach me about not speaking everything that comes into my head. Just because it comes into your head, it doesn't mean it's from the Holy Spirit. And where there's many words, sin is not absent.

And Jesus never spoke unless he first heard. He heard and then he did. And it's for us also to learn this as we mature.

I remember my grandfather when he got on an age, and I'd come over to visit. We'd come Sunday afternoons. It was kind of our pattern of what we would do.

We'd go there for supper in the evenings, for fospa they called it. And my grandpa, Neufeldt, would be sitting on his chair with the Bible in his lap. And there'd be a lot of people talking, a lot of activity, but he wouldn't be saying a lot unless they'd ask him a question.

I didn't understand why older people speak less and the young people kind of dominate the conversations. It's because we, when we're young, we have lots to say, but when we're older, we understand that our words are what get us into trouble. Reading from James in chapter 1 and verse 19, it says, So then my beloved brethren, let every man, and that includes women and children, be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to get mad.

For the wrath of man does not bring about the righteousness of God. It can happen that when we rub shoulders in fellowship one with another, and we let our hair down in our families, among our friends, that people get offended because we are careless with our speech. We don't realize that the things that we're saying are affecting other people.

We can have the best intentions, but we still, there seems to be the enemy always uses our words to bring about offenses. And so, let our prayers be many and our words be few. And everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.

We're to bring a request to God. Many times we have lots to say, but we haven't even spent one minute to pray about the situation. And prayer changes things.

Saying things doesn't change anything unless the Holy Spirit is behind it, brings conviction, and brings repentance. That's why an anointed word is what we need. We don't need many words.

We need an anointed word. When we have an anointed word, the Holy Spirit can convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment through the foolishness of preaching. If we look in Ecclesiastes chapter 5, the preacher Solomon speaks on some things.

Verse 1, walk prudently when you go to the house of God, and draw near to hear rather than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they do evil. So, when we prepare ourselves to come to worship the Lord, and to speak for Him, and to act on His behalf, we have to be careful that we come reverently. That we are careful that we're not speaking on our own authority.

That we're not saying things just because they need to be said, but we're speaking from the Holy Spirit. There was a couple of men who were priests in the house of God, we talked about this when we were driving last day, Aaron's two sons, Nadab and Abu. And they offered up profane fire, they were in charge of the altar and the sacrifices, they were taking care of the house of God, and they were keeping the lamps lit there.

And they took their censers in their hand when God didn't tell them to put fire on it, they kindled their own fire on it, in front of the people, they held up their own fire. Profane fire before the Lord. And God allowed fire to come from heaven and to kill them both.

Aaron's two sons who were priests, by the way. Just because we're priests, a kingdom of priests under our God, it doesn't give us the right to say whatever comes into our head. We need to think before we speak.

And as you mature as a believer, you're going to be slower to speak and quicker to pray. Quicker to listen, to see what the Spirit is saying. Jesus never spoke on his own authority, never once.

He said, as I hear, I speak. He said, I judge no man, but as he hears, he spoke. He said, you have that which judges you, my word, because his word came from the Father.

And if we learn these things from a young age, there'll be less quarrels among us, less fighting, less of the things that Dan shared about from James chapter four, where do wars and quarrels come from among you? It's our pride. I used to play crib with Dan. I enjoyed the game.

I still enjoy the game. But I remember that I don't like losing. My pride just gets the best of me.

And so what happens is we start speaking, putting one another down. And I'm not in the past. I'm bad at it.

You know, you're trash talking people. There's nothing about that from the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit's got nothing to do with these kinds of things.

And so we enter in to go play a game, whether it be a chess game or a crib game or a basketball game or a baseball game or the game isn't the problem. The pride is the problem. And then what ends up happening is the pride comes before the fall and haughtiness before destruction.

You can go to church, enjoy the day, and then you leave feeling dirty because your words got the best of you. No one feels good about themselves when they're putting their brother down. That's the way of the world.

That's not the way of Christ. Jesus didn't come to put people down. He came to build up the church.

He came that in him, we might have life. That through his words, we would be built up, edified, encouraged, and that sometimes involved rebuke, exhortation, but it was to bring forth comfort. John Baptist said comfort, comfort my people.

What did he preach? Repentance. Repentance is supposed to bring forth comfort, not to put people down because you have dirt on them. It's to bring about a change of heart through the spirit that people would repent and turn that after they were made sorry.

Paul says, I was glad that your repentance led to a clearing of yourself to a vindication in your inner man. Not worldly sorrow, but godly sorrow, not to be regretted. He did regret it because you were made sad.

He didn't want to do it, but it was necessary. Just like a father has to discipline his children. There comes a point where there's finally enough and the rebellion against authority is going to send them to hell.

When you allow your children to rebel against you as their authority, you're sending them to hell. It's so mean to bring out the wooden spoon or to take the belt. It's not mean, it's love.

In fact, the Bible says to spare the rod is to spoil the child. If you hate your son, you let him just tell you off and beat you up and just do everything opposite to what you say, because God doesn't treat you that way. And if he treats you that way, you're illegitimate.

You're not a true son. So we have to take these things that God says to heart. You say, well, my father disciplined me and it didn't work one bit.

I'm not going to do it that way. Well, maybe he disciplined you from anger, but you know what? God says that we need discipline. That's going to bring about a change of character to bring about a humility and discipline humbles us.

When I have a child and they get a small discipline and they're humbled and I see the heart change, that's enough discipline. You don't have to discipline every single one the same and he disciplines us. If he gives you a discipline and he gives you something lame, you could become lame in your hand or in your foot or your shoulder becomes lame.

He says that that's a discipline and don't despise it and don't get angry with the Lord because whom the Lord loves, he disciplines. And if you despise it and you rebel against that discipline, then he says that which is lame can go next level on you and you can have a dislocated shoulder. You know, you can have a broken foot.

You can have a broken arm and this is how he gets our attention to put some good fear in us. We need to have a good healthy fear of God. What is the fear of God for? It says in this passage and we're going to read it.

Ecclesiastes 5, it says, do not be rash with your mouth. This is why we have to discipline our kids because they start talking foolish stuff one toward another and then they all start talking to their mom in a certain way. Well, you start talking to mom that way, you have a problem with that because mom and dad have to have a united front.

If mom and dad are divided and the devil uses the kids to divide mom and dad, then you're not going to have a unified house. His house is not divided and Satan's kingdom is not divided. He's of one purpose is to destroy the family.

And if you can have mom and dad in disagreement on how to discipline, then you're going to have confusion there and every evil thing is going to be going on in your house. You have to learn God's word established together how you're going to handle situations, then you have to talk it through. Talking alone, it says, if you put a thousand words to a fool, his foolishness won't leave.

And if you put a thousand blows on a fool, foolishness won't leave. So there has to be prayer and love incorporated with the discipline and they have to understand why they're being disciplined. When I get a discipline immediately, when I fall down the steps and I'm laying at the bottom with broken ribs immediately, I think of God's word.

I think of something God was trying to tell me for a few weeks and I was ignoring his words. So then he had to go next level while I'm laying on my bed. I got lots of time to think about his words.

I'm not running around doing all the stuff that I want to do. I'm slowed down. He slows me down to think about the things that I was doing while he was trying to just gently talk to me about it.

And you know what? Just discipline of itself doesn't bring about a change of heart. It has to bring about a humility. And if our hearts harden through discipline, you know whose heart hardened through discipline? Pharaoh.

Pharaoh got shown the power and glory of God. He hated the punishment. He said, okay, okay, okay.

I'll let the people go. And then he hardened his heart and the Lord allowed his heart to be hardened because it wasn't repentance. He was, he buckled under the power of God, but it never brought about a heart change.

And you can get discipline from your parents or you can get discipline from the Lord. If it doesn't bring about a heart change, it won't bring about the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it. That's what discipline is for at the end of Hebrews 12, to bring about the peaceable fruit of righteousness.

Now, how many in your home would just love it? You come home and there's peace there rather than everybody's screaming. Everybody's bickering. There's confusion there.

No, God says my house has to be a house of prayer, a place of peace. We want our homes to be homes filled with peace. So when people come into your home, they say a man of peace lives here.

The Holy Spirit lives here. He himself is our peace. When Christ comes and indwells our hearts through faith, the prince of peace dwells in there.

And so the children have to also come to have their own encounter with Jesus so that they start to have rest and peace. But this kind of bickering and fighting, it can't happen in our house and it shouldn't happen in yours. Just talking about it isn't going to work.

Just yelling does. That's not discipline. We have to use careful instruction according to the word of God and God and prayer.

God to change the hearts of the children. Now, before I keep reading, I'm going to say this. Through discipline, through one act of discipline, you're not going to win the war against your son or against your daughter.

But you know what? Every battle, if you're consistent and you stick with it, you will win the war. Eventually, you'll start to win the battles. Eventually, you'll start to win over your son.

Eventually, you'll win over your daughter. And there comes a point where they become teenagers and they become of age where they take their own decisions. You cannot waver because of family.

You have to be exactly the same, whether you're dealing with your neighbor's kid and his situation or your own child or someone in the fellowship's child, your code of what you stand for has to be the same. You say, well, you know, I won't attend my neighbor's wedding because, you know, they're they were living this way and that way. But what about when your son is living this way and that way? Will you attend his wedding? Or do you have a different standard when it comes to family? We can't show partiality because we don't do this thing because of our own.

We do this thing because we believe in what the Lord's word says. And this is where the word of God says, if you don't hate your father and mother, if you don't hate your wife and your children, if you don't hate your sons and your daughters or your own life, how can you be a disciple of Jesus? You become a yes man and a man pleaser. There were people who were afraid to confess Christ among the Pharisees because they were afraid of being put out of the synagogue, and they were silent, secret Christians.

Does it give such? If you're ashamed of me before men, I'll be ashamed of you before my father. Well, I just used wisdom. I'll win them over with love.

No, they're committing sexual morality. Take a stand for something. Or you'll fall for anything.

It's what my grandmother taught. You might be wrong sometimes, but you know what your kids are going to say? Well, you know what? Dad stood for something right or wrong. The guy stood for something.

I got you got to respect that. Do not be rash with your mouth. Do not let your heart utter anything hastily before God with regard to making oaths to God or with regard to having careless speech or with regard to profane fire or falsehood.

False fire saying things that God has not said. For God is in heaven and you're on the earth. So let your words be few.

I taught my kids a verse and I told him at that time I told my wife, I says, I'm trying to learn this verse. I memorized the words, but I'm trying to learn the verse. The verse goes like this.

A wise heart teaches his mouth and adds learning to his lips. A wise heart teaches his mouth and adds learning to his lips. We need to have be slow to speak and quick to listen to what the spirit says.

We have so many opinions were quick to weigh in on because of our pride and I've been there. We need to be be slow and and how we respond and react to things. I want to learn that.

I need to learn that verse yet more and more. Therefore, let your words be few. Please ask these five to for a dream comes through many activities.

I know a lot of us. We have a lot of dreams just because you have a dream. It doesn't mean it's from the Holy Spirit.

Because this verse says dreams come through much activity. So you're busy running around doing all kinds of things. You're going to have a lot of dreams and you're going to try and spiritualize them and you might be saying things of this means this and this means that it doesn't mean that at all.

Just came from your head. And a fool's voice is known by his what his many words. When you make a vow to God do not delay to keep it if you say Lord, if you if you just do this for me, I've done that before not supposed to do that Lord.

If you just do this for me, then I'll do this for you. Making promises that that you can't even keep. Don't make hasty vows to God because he'll keep you.

He'll hold you to it. Because his word means something and he expects our word to mean something. For he has no pleasure in fools better to pay what you avowed better not to vow than to vow and not pay verse 6. Do not let your mouth cause your flesh to sin.

Don't let your mouth cause your flesh to sin. You know what? When we get angry. We say things we regret.

That's where Dan shared that verse in your anger. Don't sin. Don't sin when you're angry.

It's best when you're angry. To keep your mouth shut. Let it burn.

Until such a time as you can speak from the spirit. Nor say before the messenger of God that it was an error. Always coming and apologizing because our mouth got the best of us.

You know we could read James 3 right now and it says you know the mouth boasts great things. It blesses God but it curses men. And just because you can say it it doesn't mean we should.

Why should God be angry at your excuses and destroy the work of your hands. For in the multitude of dreams and many words. There is also vanity.

But fear God. This is what we talked about earlier. But fear God.

If we look at verse 10. He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver. And he who loves abundance.

Nor nor he who loves abundance with increase. This is also vanity. We can find ourselves in the flesh.

When we're pursuing the earthly things. When our minds and our hearts are set on earthly things. Then our mouths will be speaking carnal things.

A mindset on the flesh is death. And it's in your purpose. It's in your pursuits.

What is our purpose in our pursuit? Brother shared about it. We should pursue holiness. We should pursue the love of God.

We should pursue the things that God loves. And we should hate the things that he hates. It says of Jesus he loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.

Those should be our pursuits. But if we love silver. And we love gold.

And we love pleasures. And we love food. And we love all these other things.

Let me tell you. You're not going to love the Lord. Because it says you cannot love God and mammon.

You're going to love one hate the other. And the evidence of it is no peace. No rest.

Brother shared already from Hebrews 4. But we're going to back up a little bit. Because that's where I really wanted to share on today. And this thing on discipline just came by the spirit.

So he who has ears to hear let him hear. Hebrews 4 verse 1. Therefore since a promise remains of entering his rest let us fear. If your children have a healthy fear of dad and mom.

There will be great respect for them. You can say oh it's just an awe. It's a respect.

It is an awe. It is a respect. So don't just treat his word like it doesn't mean anything.

Because it means everything. And that is what we're supposed to teach our children. When we lie down.

And when we rise up. And when we go in. And when we go out.

Teach them to respect authority. You know when brother Sean came over. And the kids were young.

We called Sean uncle Sean. We told the children he's your uncle Sean. And when they say hey Sean we're going to play football.

I say you mean uncle Sean even now. Because we have to treat those who are elder than us with respect. When we were younger we had to call people with respect.

We didn't just call them hey Joe. Hey Randy. Hey Bill.

No we have to treat them with the respect and the honor that they deserve. And when we come to the Lord. Though he's our father.

We don't say hey you know buddy. You know I got here's my here's my basket of requests. Jesus is not your buddy.

He's not ashamed to call you his brother or his friend. But we have to approach him in a in a right way. We can come boldly.

We can come and have access. But we have to be humble. Because we are who we are because of him.

And the fear of the Lord is really the key to understanding authority. Already brother Dan shared about respecting authority. How Moses they weren't afraid to speak of Moses in certain ways.

And God backed up the authority of Moses. In the same way he backs up the authority of the governing authorities. If you don't pay taxes he backs them up.

You're gonna have to pay. We may not like it. We may not agree with it.

But God is a God of authority and a God of order. The wife can't assert the authority of the husband. The children can't assert the authority of the parents.

The priests like Cora, Nathaniel and the 250 who stood against Moses. They couldn't assert the authority because they had the numbers. God backed up Moses and those others paid.

They were given giftings. They had a call of God. They were priests.

They were anointed. They were chosen. But they rebelled.

Therefore since a promise remains of entering his rest let us fear. Lest any of you seem to come short of this rest. We want to enter his rest.

We're here because Jesus is our rest. He's our peace. And when we're abiding in his word there's rest for our souls.

But there's no rest for the wicked. When we're walking in the flesh there's no rest. When we have an evil heart of unbelief that's wickedness.

There's no rest there. And what's the evidence of that? Sin. The flesh is getting the best of us.

And there's sin there. This is what the passage talks about. For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them being the children of Israel.

But the word of God did not profit them because not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. So we who have believed do enter that rest. So when we have genuine saving faith and we mix it with the word of God it brings about rest.

There's a rest for the people of God. A rest in our spirits. For we who have believed do enter that rest.

As he said also so I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest. Now this is an interesting part of the verse. Although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

When God spoke in six days he said he finished all of his works in that he created the world. And then it says on the seventh day he rested from all his works. Again verse five saying in this place they shall not enter my rest.

Verse six therefore since there remains that some must enter. And those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience. Again he designates a certain day saying in David today after such a long time.

If you'll hear his voice don't harden your heart. If we fight against God's word as an authority. If we fight against the authorities that God has placed over us.

There will be no rest. Only a judgment and a discipline is coming. If you're a child of God.

He speaks of another day and he speaks of Joshua. For if Joshua would have given them rest when he brought them into the promised land. He would not again have spoken of another day.

There remains therefore verse nine a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered his rest has also himself ceased from his works as God did from his. Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest.

Lest anyone fall short according to the same example of disobedience. That brings us to a whole new topic of works or being under grace. Of trying to do something for God.

Of trying to seek or to establish righteousness by in our doing and in our saying. And are trying to strong arm people into becoming godly. Is never going to change the hearts of people.

We have to come to the end of all that and enter into the seventh day. Where God rested from his labors. And we have to rest from our works.

Jesus where Jesus becomes our rest. Where we rest in his word. We hope in his word.

We trust in his promise. We have faith in him that he is able to do exceedingly abundantly more than we've asked in prayer. But if we're still trying to grab the bull by the horns.

And straighten someone out with our crowbar. Well just keep fighting with a stiff upper lip. Because it's not going to change anything.

Just going to produce strife and quarreling. And pushing back. Because when we're in the flesh.

And we war after the flesh. Nothing good happens. The weapons of our warfare.

And I'll finish here. They're not carnal. Right.

When you fight against your kids in the flesh. You discipline in the flesh. You try and deal with things.

Yell at them in the flesh. You're not going to bring about a change of heart. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal.

But mighty in God. To tear down strongholds. Through prayer.

Through faith. When you trust in the Lord. With all your heart.

Don't lean on your own understanding. You take it to the Lord. Casting down arguments.

In Jesus name. The Lord rebuke you. Satan.

He is our enemy. He's working through the flesh. We have to identify.

This is something that's happening in the flesh here. We need to pray about this. And then we can say something when the spirit guides us.

The armor of God is not carnal. Many weapons he's given us. Including the offensive weapon.

Which is the word of God. The sword of the spirit. Which is the word of God.

But the shield of faith can quench many fiery darts. And all the other armor that he's clothed us with. Saul gave David some armor.

It hadn't been tested. But the armor of God had been tested. And David knew that he was going with a shield of faith.

And he was going with a breastplate of righteousness. And his feet were shod. He was ready to go after the Goliath.

He had the belt of truth. He had the helmet of salvation. And a sling and a stone.

The sword of the spirit. Which is the word of God. This is how we defeat our enemies.

Not natural fighting. Not arguing and bickering among brothers. It says through love serve one another.

Love covers a multitude of sins. Let stuff go. We don't have to always be right.

Pray for one another. Being tender hearted. Forgiving one another.

Even as God in Christ has forgiven us. Love as brothers. And as brother Dan shared.

Serve one another. You know, many times I've heard it said. Well, you know, I'm not getting anything out of church.

I mean, we don't have the programs. We don't have the infrastructure. If you're coming to church to get something.

Rather than to bring something. You need to have a change of heart. Because the scripture says it's more blessed to give than receive.

And when you start to have a heart willing to give. You're going to receive a whole lot more than you came and asked for. It's not what I can get out of it.

It's what can I bring. Bring a word of encouragement. Say, you know what? I'm going to bring peace into that place.

I'm going to bring peace. Rest into that place. I'm not going to bring a quarrelsome spirit in that place.

I'm going to bring a song in my heart. The Lord gave me a song today. I'm going to bring a song.

I'm going to bring something. I'm going to bring a macaroni salad to that place. I'm going to do what the Lord puts on my heart to do.

To be a blessing where I can. You know what? If you're looking for fault. You're going to find plenty.

But if you're looking for Jesus. You can find him here too. May the Lord give you wisdom and understanding in the things that I say.

In Jesus name.