24, February 2002
Dakota Community Church
The Winners Words
Introduction:
1 Corinthians 9:25
Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.
Lets look at tools that have been given us for victory.
Our words can help or hinder our progress in the transformation.
A lady asked a man working in the produce department if she could buy half a head of lettuce. He replied, "Half a head? Are you serious? God grows these in whole heads and that’s how we sell them!"
"You mean," she persisted, "that after all the years I’ve shopped here, you won’t sell me half-a-head of lettuce?"
"Look," he said, "If you like I’ll ask the manager."
She indicated that would be appreciated, so the young man marched to the front of the store. "You won’t believe this, but there’s a lame-braided idiot of a lady back there who wants to know if she can buy half-a-head of lettuce."
He noticed the manager gesturing, and turned around to see the lady standing behind him, obviously having followed him to the front of the store. "And this nice lady was wondering if she could buy the other half" he concluded.
Later in the day the manager cornered the young man and said, "That was the finest example of thinking on your feet I’ve ever seen! Where did you learn that?" "I grew up in Grand Rapids, and if you know anything about Grand Rapids, you know that it’s known for its great hockey teams and its ugly women."
The manager’s face flushed, and he interrupted, "My wife is from Grand Rapids!" "And which hockey team did she play for?"
- A.) Why are our words important?
Do we really need to be careful about what we say? Doesn’t God know what we mean?
If I keep saying it will I ever really laugh my head off?
1. Because the power of life and death is in the tongue.
Proverbs 18:21
21 The tongue has the power of life and death,
and those who love it will eat its fruit.
There was once a pastor who had a little five-year-old daughter. Now the little girl notice that every time her dad stood behind the pulpit, and was getting ready to preach he would bow his head for moment before he began to preach. The little girl noticed that he did this every time.
So one day after the service the little girl when to her dad and asked him, “Why do you bow your head right before you preach your sermon?”
“Well Honey” the preacher answered, “ I asking the Lord to help me preach a good sermon.”
The little girl looked up at her father and asked, “Then how come he doesn’t do it?”
2. Because God is watching over His word to perform it.
Jeremiah 1:12
12Then said the Lord to me, you have seen well, for I am alert and active, watching over My word to perform it.
- Give Him something to work with!
3. Because our words reveal the condition of our hearts.
Matthew 12:33-35
33"Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. 34You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. 35The 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.
4. Because our words are direction setters.
James 3:2-6
. 2We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.
3When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
In 1941 GERMAN BATTLESHIP NAMED BISMARK. SPENT 4 YEARS BUILDING IT. ON ACTIVE DUTY FOR 9 DAYS
BEFORE A SMALL TORPEDO STRUCK THE BOTTOM OF THE SHIP AND DAMAGED THE RUDDER. PILOTS UNSURE IF ANY
DAMAGE HAD BEEN DONE. WITH THE RUDDER DAMAGED IT WAS UNABLE TO MANEUVER OR ESCAPE.
Proverbs 18:6-7
6 A fool’s lips bring him strife, and his mouth invites a beating.
7 A fool’s mouth is his undoing, and his lips are a snare to his soul.
5. Because we will be judged by them.
Matthew 12:36-37
36But I tell you that men will have to give account on the Day of Judgment for every careless word they have spoken. 37For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned."
Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. - Proverbs 12:18 (NIV)
"If you haven’t got anything nice to say about anybody, come sit by me." - Alice R. Longworth
Can it be that the average person spends one-fifth of his or her life talking? That’s what the statistics say. If all of our words were put into print, the result would be this: a single day’s words would fill a 50-page book, while in a year’s time the average person’s words would fill 132 books of 200 pages each! Among all those words there are bound to be some spoken in anger, carelessness, or haste. Today in the Word, June 15, 1992.
T.H. Huxley, a well-known agnostic, was with a group of men at a weekend house party. On Sunday morning, while most of them were preparing to go to church, he approached a man known for his Christian character and said, "Suppose you stay at home and tell my why you are a Christian." The man, knowing he couldn’t match wits with Huxley, hesitated. But the agnostic said gently, "I don’t want to argue with you. I just want you to tell me simply what this Christ means to you." The man did, and when he finished, there were tears in Huxley’s eyes as he said, "I would give my right hand if only I could believe that!" Our Daily Bread, January 24, 1993.
B.) How do we use our words to win?
President Franklin D. Roosevelt got tired of smiling that big smile and saying the usual things at all those White House receptions. So, one evening he decided to find out whether anybody was paying attention to what he was saying. As each person came up to him with extended hand, he flashed that big smile and said; "I murdered my grandmother this morning." People would automatically respond with comments such as "How lovely!" or "Just continue with your great work!" Nobody listened to what he was saying, except one foreign diplomat. When the president said, "I murdered my grandmother this morning," the diplomat responded softly, "I’m sure she had it coming to her."
--James S. Hewitt, Illustrations Unlimited
1. Speak what you want, not what you have!
- Talk the solution not the problem
- God does not want to here your whine
Joel 3:10 Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weakling say, "I am strong!"
Romans 4:17 it is written: "I have made you a father of many nations."[3] He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed--the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.
2. Sow words of life to others.
Galatians 6:7 7Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.
KAREN CARPENTER (SINGER DIED @32) – EARLY DEATH BROUGHT ON BY AN EATING DISORDER. STARTED WHEN A
REVIEWER CALLED HER “RICHARDS CHUBBY SISTER”
- Don’t sow critism.
In his book The Youth Builder, Jim Burns talks about the importance of building up young people with affirmation and trust. What he says about criticism applies to every age group: For every critical comment we receive, it takes nine affirming comments to even out the negative effect in our life. Most young people receive more critical comments a day than encouraging ones. You can have a very positive, life transforming effect when you develop a ministry of affirmation.
- To the kids, “What’s wrong with you?”
A guy came to his pastor and said, “Reverend, I only have one talent.”
The pastor asked, “What’s your talent?
The man said, "I have the gift of criticism."
The pastor was wise and replied, "The Bible says that the guy who had only one talent went out and buried it. Maybe that’s what you ought to do with yours."
3. Through relationship with the Holy Spirit - guard your tongue.
Ephesians 2:29 29Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. 30And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Proverbs 15:23 A man finds joy in giving an apt reply- and how good is a timely word!
Off the Wall
In 1899 four newspaper reporters from Denver, CO, set out to tear down the Great Wall of China. They almost succeeded. Literally.
The four met by chance one Saturday night, in a Denver railway depot. Al Stevens, Jack Tournay, John Lewis, Hal Wilshire. They represented the four Denver papers: the Times, the Post, the Republican, the Rocky Mountain News.
Each had been sent by his respective newspaper to dig up a story—any story—for the Sunday editions; so the reporters were in the railroad station, hoping to snag a visiting celebrity should one happen to arrive that evening by train.
None arrived that evening, by train or otherwise. The reporters started commiserating. For them, no news was bad news; all were facing empty-handed return trips to their city desks.
Al declared he was going to make up a story and hand it in. The other three laughed.
Someone suggested they all walk over to the Oxford Hotel and have a beer. They did.
Jack said he liked Al’s idea about faking a story. Why didn’t each of them fake a story and get off the hook?
John said Jack was thinking too small. Four half-baked fakes didn’t cut it. What they needed was one real whopper they could all use.
Another round of beers.
A phony domestic story would be too easy to check on, so they began discussing foreign angles that would be difficult to verify. And that is THE REST OF THE STORY.
China was distant enough, it was agreed. They would write about China.
John leaned forward, gesturing dramatically in the dim light of the barroom. Try this one on, he said: Group of American engineers, stopping over in Denver en route to China. The Chinese government is making plans to demolish the Great Wall; our engineers are bidding on the job.
Harold was skeptical. Why would the Chinese want to destroy the Great Wall of China?
John thought for a moment. They’re tearing down the ancient boundary to symbolize international good will, to welcome foreign trade! Another round of beers.
By 11:00 p.m. the four reporters had worked out the details of their preposterous story. After leaving the Oxford Bar, they would go over to the Windsor Hotel. They would sign four fictitious names to the hotel register. They would instruct the desk clerk to tell anyone why asked that four New Yorkers had arrived that evening, had been interviewed by reporters, had left early the next morning for California.
The Denver newspapers carried the story. All four of them. Front page. In fact, the Times headline that Sunday read: GREAT CHINESE WALL DOOMED! PEKING SEEKS WORLD TRADE!
Of course, the story was a phony, a ludicrous fabrication concocted by four capricious newsmen in a hotel bar.
But their story was taken seriously, was picked up and expanded by newspapers in the Eastern U.S. and then by newspapers abroad.
When the Chinese themselves learned that the Americans were sending a demolition crew to tear down their national monument, most were indignant; some were enraged!
Particularly incensed were the members of a secret society, a volatile group of Chinese patriots who were already wary of foreign intervention.
They, inspired by the story, exploded, rampaged against the foreign embassies in Peking, slaughtered hundreds of missionaries.
In two months, 12,000 troops from six countries joined forces, invaded China with the purpose of protecting their own countrymen.
The bloodshed, which followed, sparked by a journalistic hoax invented in a barroom in Denver, became the white-hot international conflagration known to every high school history student . . . as the Boxer Rebellion. —Paul Harvey
4. Value God’s Word above the physical evidence.
Romans 3:3-4 What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness? 4Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar
- We make mistakes, He doesn’t.
- We don’t always have the answers or the complete picture.
Dear Readers: And you thought there was nothing funny about the law. David Broome of Phoenix sent these questions (taken from official court records) lawyers have put to people on the stand:
Q: Was that the same nose you broke as a child?
Q: Now, doctor, isn’t it true that when a person dies in his sleep, in most cases he just passes quietly away and doesn’t know anything about it until the next morning?
Q: Was it you or your brother that was killed in the war?
Q: The youngest son, the 20-year-old, how old is he?
Q: Were you alone or by yourself?
Q: How long have you been a French Canadian?
Q: Do you have any children or anything of that kind?
Q: I show you Exhibit 3 and ask you if you recognize that picture.
A: That’s me.
Q: Were you present when that picture was taken?
—Columbus Dispatch, 11-1-96, p. 2E
