Series: Under Construction (2)
Christianview Church
August 13, 1995
More Principles to Build On
Review:
I Corinthians 3:9-10
For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds.
Definition:
A principle is fundamental truth, law, doctrine, or motivating force, upon which others are based. A principle is a rule of right conduct.
Principles are the laws of nature by which things operate.
God has established truths upon which everything in this world operates. The more of them you are aware of, the better you are going to do in life.
1. The principle of giving.
Proverbs 3:9-10
Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.
You don’t have to limit your giving to the offering plate at church, have some fun with it.
Proverbs 11:25
A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.
You don’t have to have money to refresh others. Have someone over for coffee, open your home and love people. Do you have things someone else could use? Find out and offer to share.
Do you see someone down on their luck? Rather than avoiding them, try being a blessing!
One time when I was about 19 a group of friends and I were downtown late one evening after a church function. As we were walking back to our cars from the restaurant a homeless man cried out to us, “Please, can you help me?” he said.
We were young, and it was dark, and we had girls with us, and all of that is no excuse for what we did. We just walked on and ignored his plea for help.
Later in the car one of the girls was convicted enough to say out loud what I am sure we were all thinking.
“What if that was the Lord?” she said, “He didn’t ask for money, he asked for help.” She went on, “What if we get to heaven and find out that was the Lord and we didn’t help him? What are we going to say to Him?”
Now you have to understand that I was much younger then and I was ever trying to appear to be cool around the ladies and I handled almost every awkward situation by making a joke. That said, I told her; “I’m going to say, Lord, what did you expect me to do, you were falling down drunk.”
Everyone laughed and we drove home.
When I got into my bed I lay there looking at the ceiling. I couldn’t sleep. I kept hearing that cry for help, and finally I got on my knees and begged for forgiveness for my shameful behavior and even more shameful comments in the car.
That night I made a commitment to never refuse help to anyone who asks me in that kind of situation again, and I never have.
Proverbs 19:17
He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward him for what he has done.
Proverbs 21:13
If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.
You do not want to find yourself crying out and going unanswered!
Proverbs 28:22
A stingy man is eager to get rich and is unaware that poverty awaits him.
I know some of you will be thinking, well I’m not going to do that; they will just use the money for booze. If I was sure they would buy food with it I’d give and God knows my heart.
If they do misuse your generous gift, it’s okay, God won’t hold you responsible for their folly.
Proverbs 31:6-7
Give beer to those who are perishing, wine to those who are in anguish; let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more.
2. The principle of the spoken word.
Proverbs 18:20-21
From the fruit of his mouth a man’s stomach is filled; with the harvest from his lips he is satisfied. The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
The power of life and death is in the tongue? How does that work? What does that mean?
It means your words have power!
Your words affect the condition of your life, if you don’t think so read the verses above again.
This should not be surprising to us; God establishes the power of words from the beginning of Genesis when he creates everything with words. Eighteen times “God said” Let there be… and there was.
Jesus further reveals this truth.
Mark 11:23
"I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ’Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.
Even in the natural we know that words have power, just look at a child whose parents have berated them by calling them names like “stupid” or by constantly saying, “What is wrong with you?” Those words have a crippling effect that takes years to overcome; many never do recover from that kind of abuse.
The question is how are you using your words? What kind of world are you shaping?
Are you a complainer who always sees the negatives in life?
Are you always talking about how you can’t get ahead in life?
Is the world out to get you?
You are shaping your world with those words.
When my boys started hockey the first year was kind of a learn-to-skate program; picture forty or fifty, four and five year olds; slipping and sliding around the rink. They are running into the boards, some are crying because they can’t get up and every now and then a couple of them run head on into each other. It is pandemonium with a couple of adults skating around, helping them up and encouraging them. Some are getting the hang of it and amidst the crying there is also lots of laughter. This hockey stuff is fun.
I am standing behind the glass watching my sons, remembering my early days at the rink with my Dad and thinking to myself, “This is great!”
No sooner does the thought pass through my mind than the Dad standing next to me says, “This is horrible, it’s disorganized and someone is going to get hurt.”
We don’t see the world as it is, we see it as we are!
Out of our mouths come the words that reveal our hearts, and that shapes our lives.
I have no idea if that man’s children continued to play hockey, but my sons and I have spent hundreds maybe thousands of hours togeather, enjoying the smell of the rink, the sound of the steel on ice, and the roar of the crowd.
My positive words about that first day on skates, built a life that I love.
What are your words building?
If you recognize yourself as a person who tears down with their words rather than building up; what do you do about it?
You have to change what is coming out of your mouth. Easier said than done but here is how to do it.
A.) Fill up on the word of God.
You can’t speak what you don’t know and we feed ourselves so much worldly garbage these days you can’t help but suffer from “garbage in, garbage out” syndrome.
Matthew 12:34-35
You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. 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.
B.) Start saying what the word says about you.
You are either going to agree with God’s word or your going to agree with the lies.
Someone lied and said you were no good.
Someone said you were stupid.
Someone said you’d never amount to anything; and you have been agreeing with them, shaping your world with horrible self-fulfilling prophesies. Stop doing that!
Proverbs 21:23
He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity.
Set up a guard and watch what you say about yourself.
C.) Start saying what the word says about others.
You know that you have hurt people with those nasty words of yours. That’s not the life you want for yourself, so stop.
Proverbs 25:15
Through patience a ruler can be persuaded, and a gentle tongue can break a bone.
Don’t miss more principles to build on next time in “Under Construction – 3”
