Silence Series

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.