What Are You Saying?

Hey, this is Tim Pratt Jr. and I want to welcome you to the Student of Life Podcast. Listen, we're going to get into so many transferable truths throughout the content of these episodes that I believe God is going to use to help you apply, because he's going to reveal what's already been there the entire time. Enjoy. So this is your host Tim Pratt Jr. and I want to welcome you to the Student of Life Podcast. So listen, I know I've been on a break, uh, I haven't really dropped content since the Master one, and I'm gonna drop one more this year and I'm gonna take a break, enjoy the Christmas time off, man. Uh, the holiday season for some, but I still say Christmas, man. It's all about Christ. Uh, I personally don't want to get into, you know, when was his birthday. I know it's just some time set aside on the calendar to celebrate it. It's not necessarily saying that this is his birthday, but we're just celebrating it. Um, as we have come into the knowledge, so man, I'm going to take some time off, um, and just like to enjoy time with my family family, friends, and just people, man. Love on people and just make it all about Jesus. Uh, but I want to just drop one of these episodes on you, uh, the last one for this year. Uh, so that being said, uh, I will hope and I'm praying that you do have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, uh, since I won't be back on the rest of this year unless the Lord say otherwise. I might come on and drop some bonus content, uh, because we have a big New Year's Eve service planned where, you know, both of my dads are coming together, man, uh, and we're gonna fellowship in Lively Stone in Stuttgart. So, uh, I want to encourage you to be in the place, uh, if you don't have plans, uh, man, just— I want to invite you to come out and fellowship there, uh, in Stuttgart, Arkansas, at Lively Stone Church, uh, Lively Stone Pentecostal Church. Uh, so that being said, man, let's really jump into this one. Of here and there. So we're going to call this one What Are You Saying? What are you saying? So I had the opportunity to preach this message probably a little bit over a month ago, uh, and man, it was very challenging because it's something that I still deal with today, that, that tongue. But I want to just kind of open it up like this, uh, so we can look historically and see how many leaders have learned to tame and conquer countries. I mean, I mean, like just massive things, have learned how to conquer people, movements, that started movements and so on, but never have took the time to conquer themselves, let alone their tongue. That, that little member. And the way I had opened up the, uh, service that week, I was like, man, what is one of these smallest members, one of the smallest members that gets us in so much trouble? So much trouble. Gets us in so much sin, to be honest. And, you know, so some people gave feedback, and I just asked myself, man, let's go to James 3:8-12. James 3:8-12. Because I wanted to talk about that tongue. And so James— because James is essentially telling us, um, that only God can do it. No man can tame it. Only God can hold us. Uh, let me back— let me back up. Only the Holy Spirit can help us tame the tongue through the power of God. And so James has told us that God is the only one that can do it, essentially. That's, that's what James told us. And so I remember kind of like giving an example when I was talking to my therapist, uh, so at that time it was about 2 weeks, so it's been like probably about a month and a half ago, um, you know, based on something I said, you know, his feedback was, don't tell me in words when your behavior has trained me to think otherwise. In other words, let me say it again, Don't tell me in words when your behavior has trained me to think otherwise. Another way to put it is, don't tell me in words when indeed you have shown me something otherwise. And that's what our tongue does to us every day. It has the opportunity to say one thing and say another one out of the same mouth. And so, uh, let's read the text, James 3. 8 through 12 in the ESV. I'm sorry, verse 8. I'm just reading down one time. But no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessings and cursing. My brother, these things ought not to be so. So James is saying, man, that's weird, bro. You shouldn't even be able to bless God and then curse out of the same mouth? Come on, let's keep track with me. Does it spring forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or grapevine produce figs? Neither can salt pond yield fresh water. So James is taking it even a step further in this analogy, saying just a little bit of salt changes it from fresh to salt water, meaning that, uh, it's not possible for that to go back and be fresh water because it's been tainted. And you know, we want to keep this contextual. Uh, because some people might say, well, man, you know, Tim and I said something kind of foul the other day and now I'm tainted forever. No, no, that's, that's not what I'm saying. You know, we live in a body, we live in this flesh, but that shouldn't be something that we habitually practice. Like, for example, if you're cursing out, cursing someone out every time I see you, okay, versus like you're driving, does it make it right? And someone cuts you off or whatever. I know I use the analogy, you're like, oh, you know, like, whatever, or, you know, mother, you know. So I mean, you know, is, is that a habitual practice? But even when that comes out, or even if we think it, you know, we should basically say, Lord, help me. Holy Spirit, keep me from thinking that. Keep me from wanting to say that. God, why is my heart posture even there? But at the same time, if it comes out so fluent and loosely, like every single time, every time I talk to you, it's M-F-S this, B that, just so casually, how out of the same mouth can you sit up and worship and praise and say, God, I glorify you, I love you, I adore you, but at the same time talk so corruptly? Like, even not just in profanity, but just negative, turn down someone, gossiping. Because it's a fine line. And trust me, I have to really watch myself because I can, you know, sometimes be like, look, I'm just gonna tell it like it is. But then it's very easy for me to tiptoe and I'm like, oh God, Tim, you're starting to gossip. And I had to repent, and I feel so bad because that's not what I want to do. So I have to be mindful of that and ask the Holy Spirit to say, hey, I need some help. I need some help here with my words. I need some help with taming this tongue through the power of God. So I'm gonna give you 3 points, 3 points. First thing you have to understand is words matter. Uncontrolled words and wisdom of the world will always lead to destruction. I'm gonna say that again. Uncontrolled words and wisdom of the world will always lead to destruction. Like I say, James was giving us context. He was giving us context that the tongue is very powerful, very powerful. But here we go again. Like I just said, an example: what are we— what are we using our tongue for? What words are they producing? Or when we do produce those words, are we doing things like this? Well, I didn't use profanity today. I didn't slander anyone today. I didn't gossip today. I didn't tell him my mind today, but we do it the next day. I used to be like this in college, man. It was like willpower. Oh man, okay, one minute I'm, I'm like letting everybody have it. Like, I, I probably, man, I don't know how much profanity I use honestly back in high school and college, just to keep it real, and even early in my adult life. But then I go a few days and it's like Wow, man, dang, I haven't cussed nobody out. I haven't said this. I haven't been talking sexual or, you know, and I'm talking like perverted talk, uh, and just because I wasn't married at the time. And so it's just like, man, I haven't been doing it. 3, 4 days go by. It's like I'm trying to deliver myself, and then all of a sudden the situation happens. I get put in the right situation, and now I'm back talking like that. I'm saying, you know, using profanity so loosely. I'm talking in a way, uh, very, very sexual when I'm not married, and so on. So it's just, it's like James is saying, like, man, that, that ought not be so, man. Our words matter, and our words should build up. They should produce. They should bring forth life. We should be speaking what God say. And I know it's a lot of talk about out there now about, is profanity really a sin? You know, cursing versus cursing, cursing and cussing and stuff like that. Listen, um, I'ma just stay with the text, man. I know it's like some people are very skilled when they say, no, that's not what he meant. I just don't believe Jesus would be using profanity if he was walking amongst this world. I don't, I don't believe he'd do it. Then you might say, well, you know, Jesus wouldn't do a lot of things we do habitually, practicing habitually. I know we all are going to miss the mark in our flesh, but through the power of the Holy Spirit, if Jesus was the model and I went up to him, I don't believe that I would have a profanity-laced conversation with Jesus. I don't, not in a habitual way. Now, one might slip out and you might say, dang, but you know, I, I don't know. But what I'm trying to say here is that I'm not going to habitually practice. I'll be like, oh Lord, forgive me, right? Right down the spine. Lord Jesus, please forgive me, I did not mean to say that. And then I might not— I, you know, I pray that God keeps me. But what I'm trying to articulate here is that I don't believe many of us that truly reverence him would use profanity so loosely in front of him. So, um, if that's the case, then why do I feel compelled to use it so loosely when I feel like he's not present. He's omnipresent. But because I feel like, well, when I'm talking to just other people, why do I— why does it— why do I use those words so casually? And so we have to really examine it because James is telling us that yes, it's small. It's, it's so small, you know, it's equivalent to a bit in a horse's mouth or a rudder on a ship, meaning these little things, that bit can control the horse. That rudder on the ship, relative to the ship's, uh, ship size, it can control it. So he wants us to know, man, our words matter. Because it's like, think about the wrong words. If words matter and we, and we produce them, I mean, and we articulate them in a wrongful or slanderous or gossiping way, man, it's like a forest. And then just all it needs, like a dry forest, all it is is a little spark. And now it has turned into a wildfire, wildfire that's destroying so much, destroying homes, destroying lives. I mean, just think about that spiritually, man. How many homes have you divided just with your words? How many marriages have been divided just with words? How many friendships have been divided with just words? How many people have been fired and let go and looked at sideways just because words? And so we are, we are going to have to operate by the wisdom of the Bible, the wisdom of the word of God. With the help of the Holy Spirit so that we can use better words in a mature way, in a very consistent way. That's point number 1: words matter. Point number 2: your tongue is a shapeshifter. Your tongue is a shapeshifter. Now, if you've watched, you know, different, um, what I'm trying to say, like, uh, oh man, uh, what's a good one? Um, the comic shows, you look at Black Lightning, you know, uh, um, Flash, uh, and other things too, Marvel, Marvel, uh, movies and TV shows and things like that, they have this character that can literally, uh, shape and, you know, but basically take on the identity of anything that it wants. And a lot of times that's how we are with our tongue. We, yes God, yes Lord, we love you, we magnify, we worship you, God, we adore you, when we are in the local church. But then once we are outside of those four walls and we're in an environment that's conducive for us to really show us our true colors, now we're tearing down the character of ourselves and someone else, we're talking corruptly. We're, we're tearing down the image of God that we were just professing around believers or like-minded believers when we was coming together, gathering. Because people who have openly indulged, people that who consistently and openly indulge in the criticisms of other fellow believers, have had to watch people close to them adopt the same critical spirit and wander off from the fellowship. This is true Uh, people who have, um, openly indulged in criticism of, um, in-laws, family members, children, co-workers. Did I say friends? Like, oh, people who have openly indulged in that type of just habitual criticism to tear down have had to watch those very same people that's close to them when they should have been speaking life, but instead they were tearing down and slandering, adopt the same critical spirit. This is what shape-shifting does. Because like I said, again, you're, you're, you, you talk highly in private. You can affirm this person, you can encourage this person to them, but then when you get around other people, you say something else with your tongue. And maybe, maybe that's not you. Maybe you say, no, I don't, I don't do that. But you got to be very, very careful because even if you're not gossiping, what type of words are you using? Would you talk like that in front of your kids if you have them? Would you talk like that in front of your pastor? And you might say, man, I'm a man, I'm a and just like, okay, well, that's good. Would you talk like that in front of your parents? Would you talk like that in front of Jesus? Let's go back to him. Because if you say, man, I don't care, then you got a whole other issues because you don't have reverence for anyone. We, we can't allow our tongue to be a shape-shifter, man. Just if you can be around people and other believers in the body of Christ and you can allow the Holy Spirit to work through you, and you have enough reverence and respect to say, man, I'm not going to talk like that in here. Because some of us just really think that's God's house, it's just a place of fellowship, it's a building, you know, and, and it houses us as like-minded and fellow believers to come together collectively and corporately worship and pray and hear the word of God. But if you can say, have enough sense to say, man, I got enough reverence for a building, but I don't have enough reverence for a omnipresent God. I don't have enough reverence for the Holy Spirit that I say that resides in me that will help me bridle my tongue and put a mature— um, I'm sorry, let me back up. I don't have enough reverence to bridle my tongue and operate through the lens of maturity, through the wisdom and the word of God. So I said I'm just letting my tongue be a shapeshifter, and I'm just fake. I'm fake. Because we have to understand that some things, truthfully, when we are engaging, man, with this tongue, we have to realize that some things are just better left unsaid. And point number 3 that I gave in the sermon— I'm kind of giving this condensed version on the podcast, um, ask yourself, if you, if you are, have, if you've seen yourself in these first 2 points, ask yourself, how did that come out of my mouth? Verse 11, verse 11: Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? No, it doesn't. So why does your mouth do it, do it then? Why? How does your mouth one minute, how's your mouth fresh, and then salty in the next one? Because like I say, it would be bizarre or weird if salt water and fresh water coming— came out of the same spring. It would be very weird. Or if we've seen a, a, uh, if, if we've seen a tree described in this text growing figs, it has to be one, one or the other. It has to be one or the other. So however, blessings and cursings with the same tongue is normal behavior for so-called Christians. I'm gonna say that again: blessing and curses with the same tongue is normal behavior for so-called Christians. These are just fake Christians. They, they just are labeled Christians but not indeed Not indeed, because a tree produces only one kind of fruit. A tree produces only one kind of fruit. So how is it then that the tongue can produce two kinds of fruit, good and evil? It's impossible. What are you habitually practicing with your mouth? Because in the text, man, we have been warned against using the tongue to produce two opposite kinds of fruit. I'ma say it again. We have been warned in the text. We have been warned against using the tongue to produce two opposite kinds of fruit. So we have to ask ourselves, man, if things can easily and consistently come out of our mouth, we got to examine our heart posture. It needs to be addressed because, as Tony Evans said, production is based on what's the inside. And if it can come out like that, we got to ask God to help steer our tongue. We have to ask God to help deliver us. We have to revisit some things. We have to, we have to revisit some things because, man, listen, even in Proverbs 6 it talks about sowing discourse and things like that. Matter of fact, let's, let's go to it. Proverbs 6, um, 19: A false witness who breathes out lies and one who sows discord among the brothers. But that verse 16 says there are 6 things that the Lord hates, 7 that are abomination to him, and the majority was a lying tongue, someone that breathe out lies, and, uh, and, uh, someone that sows discourse among the brethren. So we have to really re-examine these things and ask ourselves, man, what are we saying? What are we saying with our tongue? What are we saying with our mouth when we are engaging with people? How are we really handling that? Because I get a chance to coach a lot of different personalities, and then being in pastoral ministry, I get to see a lot of different personalities. I'm in the middle of a lot of stuff in my secular job as a senior agile delivery manager, and, and as well as my role in ministry, um, as an associate pastor, man, I'm always just in the middle of stuff, and I have to be very careful. And sometimes I do have to have certain people that I can talk to to help me make sure that I'm seeing it right. So I have to be careful. But even in that, like, I try through the power of God, I'm like, man, I don't want to come off as if I'm gossiping. And I have just truthfully tiptoed over that line, and I have to have a repentant heart because I'm like, no, man, this is not right. This is going to be destructive. And so I have to bring it back and ask God, and I have to stand corrected and go to those people. And then eventually, most of the time, I always just bring them face to face, uh, if I get permission, and talk to them. Because that's the end goal, because I don't want to participate and be talking out of both sides of my mouth. So I want to encourage you to just challenge and say, man, Lord, what am I saying with my tongue? Do I, do I fall in line with this? Is it very, very hard to tame? Am I in willpower? Uh, do I use things that, that are not God-approved so loosely. Because if, if, if we do, if I do, then I need the Holy Spirit to help me. I need the Holy Spirit to help me navigate that. I need the Holy Spirit to prune me and, uh, and purge me and mold me into his likeness. That has to go because I can't be a double-minded person. So I just want to challenge you, like all of us, this is all inclusive. What are you saying? Like, what are you truthfully saying? Are you standing on the things of God and worshiping and blessing God out out of your mouth and living a life that's pleasing, acceptable to him? Or are you just saying that for face value because you have been taught, you've been programmed that way, but then who you really are is what you say 90% of the time? Because it's in the Bible. Because even Jesus said, you know, many are going to come to me, many are going to come to me, and some translations, uh, but, and I'm gonna say depart Depart from me, I never knew you, you workers of iniquity. And you know, and I don't want to get into— I, I really, man, oh my God, I really want to go contextually with that, but I don't want to open up. That might be another episode, uh, but I want you to just allow that to be a gut check. Because if we truly know God, if we truly are in his presence, would we be talking about people that he died for? Now I'm not talking about addressing and standing on truth and calling out false teachers and false doctrine and things like that, and people that are evil and corrupt. I'm talking about how are we really treating God's people, his sheep? How are we really— how are we really going about this, especially believers and people of the faith? So again, I want to ask you, what are you saying? Because if you are not saying the things of God and going about speaking and encouraging and equipping and empowering and loving and praying for people according to the scripture, helping, helping build them in the things of God, then you might just be saying the wrong thing. Hey, what's up? I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to this Student of Light podcast today. If this content has impacted you in any kind of way, please take some time to share it on your social media feeds. And also, if you want to connect with me or just learn more about me, go over to www.timothyprattjr.org. Once again, thanks.