No Filter
Pt. 1 – Silence
In an age where things that are not real are promoted as reality it would serve to reason that in church, we would tell you to live with no filter since we are taught by our Savior to live authentic and genuine lives. However, I want to tell you that filters are an important and essential part of life.
Anyone need a warmup this morning? Maybe you had a late night or a rough morning and you need some of this hot, steaming coffee to keep you awake? Oh, but before I pour it let me inform you that I failed to use a filter as I brewed this pot. (SHINE LIGHT THROUGH IT)
Filters catch impurities. Filters serve a critical role in making it possible for the coffee to be drinkable, the air to be breathable, the machine to run properly. They keep some things in and they keep some things out! So, although I too want you to live with no filter in respects to authenticity, I want to address the fact that many of us have no filters. We have lost some essential filters in our life that were designed to catch impurities, to help us look and act more like Jesus and to protect us.
We need to check our filters! I wished some of us had filters. So, over the next few weeks I want to remind you of some of the filters we should have in place as followers and representers of Christ.
Text: Deuteronomy 1:23-28, 34 (MSG), 2:1 (NLT); Joshua 6:2-5 (MSG)
That seemed like a good idea to me, so I picked twelve men, one from each tribe. They set out, climbing through the hills. They came to the Eshcol Valley and looked it over. They took samples of the produce of the land and brought them back to us, saying, “It’s a good land that God, our God, is giving us!” But then you weren’t willing to go up. You rebelled against God, your God’s plain word. You complained in your tents: “God hates us. He hauled us out of Egypt in order to dump us among the Amorites—a death sentence for sure! How can we go up? We’re trapped in a dead end. Our brothers took all the wind out of our sails, telling us, ‘The people are bigger and stronger than we are; their cities are huge, their defenses massive—we even saw Anakite giants there!’”
When God heard what you said, he exploded in anger. He swore, “Not a single person of this evil generation is going to get so much as a look at the good land that I promised to give to your parents.
Then we turned back across the wilderness toward the Red Sea, for so the Lord had instructed me. For many years we wandered around in the area of Mount Seir.
God spoke to Joshua, “Look sharp now. I’ve already given Jericho to you, along with its king and its elite forces. Here’s what you are to do: March around the city, all your soldiers. Circle the city once. Repeat this for six days. Have seven priests carry seven ram’s horn trumpets in front of the Chest. On the seventh day march around the city seven times, the priests blowing away on the trumpets. And then, a long blast on the ram’s horn—when you hear that, all the people are to shout at the top of their lungs. The city wall will collapse at once. All the people are to enter, every man straight on in.”
It is against the familiar backdrop of this account that I want to tell you we need to check to make sure that we have a filter of silence in place in our lives.
In this day and hour is seems that we ignore the fact that one of the fruits of the Spirit is self-control. The end result is that we have also lost the ability or willingness to be silent. Whatever comes into our mind ends up in our mouth. Just because you can say it doesn’t mean you should say it.
We desperately need the filter of silence.
Please don't misunderstand me. I have encouraged and at times implored you to speak up. There are moments, opportunities in which we cannot remain silent. In the face of prejudice, injustice and regarding the things of God, calling evil, evil and good, good, broadcasting the Good News are all moments in which must open our mouths and declare. Proverbs teaches us to speak up for those who can't speak for themselves. However, I often think that the boldness in those areas has caused us to grant ourselves the right to disobey the commands of Scripture when it comes to how we talk and what we say at other times.
There are few truths I need to share with you this morning from this account as I try to get us to reestablish a filter of silence.
This account teaches us that . . .
Sometimes we must march in silence so that we can march to victory.
Complaining is not a strategy. I think in this day we need to apply the filter of silence. Our constant complaint. Our constraint critique. Our constant commentary could just keep God from responding. Maybe our voice is so loud and so constant that we can’t hear His constant still small voice. Maybe we think God isn’t talking when the truth is He just can't get a word in edgewise! Listen, if complaining could keep a million people out of their Promised Land, then why do you think your complaints and whining won’t keep you out of your promise? Too many of us are talking ourselves into lost promises. We are talking ourselves into circling.
Notice if you will that the first place they go after spending 40 years in desert is Jericho. I also want you to notice that as they march around the walled city 6 days and 6 times on the 7th day that they had a horn in their hands for each and every trip around the city. Just because they had the horn didn't mean they were to blow the horn. Just because you think it doesn't mean it has to come out of your mouth! Maybe we are just too mouthy. May I remind you that Solomon in Proverbs 18 empathically teaches us that life and death in tongue. I am convinced because we have no filter of silence that we are too often filling the air around us with death.
We need to rediscover when we need to be speechless so that God can be heard.
Some things stay walled up until we shut up!
I need you to do this with grace but tell your neighbor shut up and you may no longer be shut out!! Tell your neighbor you might just talk too much.
We know from Scripture that there are times we sing our way out, shout your way out but there times we need to silence our way out. Some of you have tried to talk your way out, cry your way out, scream your way out, declare your way out . . . maybe today you need to learn to silence our way out!
But I am in a fight . . . if Jesus could be silent in the face of his accusers, then there are times we need to follow His example and refuse to respond to a fight that isn’t mine and a fight that is fixed.
If all your verbal attacks, acclamations, proclamations haven’t produced any change, then maybe it is time to just march to victory in silence. You have heard silence is golden. I declare there are times silence is godly. We have got to get the filter of silence back. We have got to know when to speak. We have got to know when we have got to be silent. We grow uncomfortable in silence and feel like we have to fill it. Why don’t we let God fill the silence? We allow our need to become so noisy that we open up our mouth and fill our life with that noise. We need to learn to be silent until we remember what God has and can do.
We need the filter of silence because this account teaches us . . .
Silence strengthens our praise!
If we would learn to filter with silence, then a praise would rise up in us that can’t be silenced. Our praise would be weaponized if we would learn to let it bake a little bit. But pastor you don't understand I can’t be silent because I don’t like what I’m dealing with or going through. However, if we would get our eyes back on who is with us and reflect on what He can do we would be able to swallow our complaint because we know what I see doesn’t have to dictate what I discuss. What I see doesn't have direct what I speak.
May I remind you that the Bible says, "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh!" Another version says, "For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of."
In other words, if you would listen to what is coming out of your mouth you would get a clear picture of your heart. That is why we are given instructions on what should be coming out of our mouth when we do speak. Maybe said another way . . . we should remain absolutely silent unless we follow the advice of
Ephesians 4:29 - Don’t let even one rotten word seep out of your mouths. Instead, offer only fresh words that build others up when they need it most. That way your good words will communicate grace to those who hear them.
Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift.
Ephesians 5:4 - Though some tongues just love the taste of gossip, those who follow Jesus have better uses for language than that. Don’t talk dirty or silly. That kind of talk doesn’t fit our style. Thanksgiving is our dialect.
Philippians 2:14 - Do everything without grumbling or arguing.
James 3:10 - And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Dear brothers, surely this is not right!
We must silence complaint. Silence fear talk. We must silence doubt. We must silence negative. We must silence critique. We must silence the dirty, the silly, the gossip. Maybe the reason our mouth is full of complaint is because our heart is full of criticism. Maybe our is full of doubt is because our heart is full of fear.
Instead like David declares in Psalms 71:8 - My mouth is filled with your praise, declaring your splendor all day long." If our mouth was full of praise, then we won't have room to say anything else. Silence those deadly things we say and remember who is for us!
May we become tongue tied until God speaks or tells us to!
Our words shape our world. Silence shapes our words.
Proverbs 10:19 - Too much talk leads to sin. Keep your mouth shut.
Don’t talk so much. You keep putting your foot in your mouth. Be sensible and turn off the flow!
My prayer today is God silence me. We must surrender our talk to God. My lack of shut up keeps me shut out! Filter us with silence!
I hope you have caught the progression . . . In October we talked about the need to manage mind, manage mirrors, manage doors, manage mouth.
