Please Build, Not Tear Down!

Sermon

Lanier Christian Church

February 11, 2018

David Simpson

Please Build, Not Tear Down!

Numbers 13:30-32; 1 Thessalonians 5:11

I grew up in church; And part of my childhood involved learning countless children’s songs. One of the popular ones was:

(VS 1) Oh, be careful little ears, what you hear (repeat)

For the Father Up above,

Is looking down in love,

So be careful little ears

what you hear.

(VS 2) Oh, be careful little eyes, what you see, (repeat)

For the Father up above,

is looking down in love,

So be careful little eyes

What you hear.

(VS 3) Oh, be careful little mouth, what you say, (repeat),

For the Father up above,

Is looking down in love,

So be careful little

mouth what you say.

And the song continues with hands, feet, mind, and heart. So from childhood, many of us are taught to be careful what we hear, see, speak, think, do and feel. Why? Because God is watching and listening. We are His children and He wants us to live like that.

Perhaps it would benefit all of us if we would just heed the words of this song every single day. Because, as we grow older we tend to become careless with our thoughts and words and deeds. And if you have enough careless people thinking, saying and doing the wrong things, then we have a recipe for disaster.

We as believers are called to reflect Christ in all we think and say and do, yet many times we fall short. I, for one, need a reminder every day to keep my eyes on the prize – the goal of being faithful to Christ in every aspect of my life. And one area that is a constant battle for me, and perhaps for you, is in the things I say.

No, I don’t cuss (as we say in the south). I don’t have very many angry moments, although certain things can rile me up. But, I do really battle a negative and critical spirit at times. What about you? But, it seems to be everywhere, even to the point of permeating our society.

Just last Tuesday alone, I turned off the radio because I could no longer stand the vitriol. I changed the channel on the TV because of the focus on bad news, not helpful news. I was on Facebook for less than five minutes and signed off, because of posts that caused me to shake my head in despair, not lift my spirit. I received a text that day from someone severely criticizing someone else. I got a call from a church member that had been wounded by the words of someone at work.

Stop and evaluate your life and your words right now. Are you guilty of having a critical spirit? If you’re not sure, then ask a dear friend or family member to honestly tell you the truth. And yes, I hope you CAN handle the truth!

Every one of us in this room today should take a vow before God himself to stop poisoning the heart, soul and mind of others with critical, damaging and discouraging words. Sometimes we are harming our Christian brothers and sisters. At other times, we are giving a reason for those seeking hope to not find it in you or me.

To the guilty (and I believe we all have our moments), I say:

If you think people are impressed with your negativity, you are wrong.

If you think that attacking someone verbally will cause that person to change their course, you are mistaken.

If you think that others enjoy your ridicule of others, they most certainly do not.

If you are simply trying to gain attention by your steady diet of discouraging words, you will be able to pull off that attention getting act for a few minutes, but when someone truly needs a lift and support, they will not turn to you.

If you think that God is pleased because you are revealing the truth, no matter how harsh it is, then you may want to re-think that.

Please take time and read the Old Testament book of Numbers, chapters 13 and 14 just to see how God really feels about discouraging, negative words. To summarize, I share these verses today:

30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”

31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” 32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. (Numbers 13:30-32)

Do you know what happened to those who spread the bad report? They died. They died the next day from a sickness caused by God’s anger toward them.