A Loss For Words

Eccl. 5:2 Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.

Prov. 10:19 In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise.

Some years ago, a man who worked as a Longshoreman in Seattle was saved in our church. He had such a bad habit of profanity; he had to learn a whole new vocabulary. He told me, "Pastor, since I got saved, over half of my vocabulary is gone." I said, "Good."

How about you, do you need to adjust your vocabulary? You say, "But, pastor, I am a Christian and I no longer use profanity." Perhaps not, but isn't there something you might need to eliminate as you speak? There is something worse than profanity, you know.

Let's take your preaching, for example. If you completely stopped attacking other pastors and believers from the pulpit, regardless of their denomination or practices and strictly focused on edifying God's people, would you have a thirty minute message left?

The longshoreman was convicted by the Holy Spirit each time he said a dirty word. He prayed he would not do it again. Shouldn't you be as noble and ask God to put a watch about your mouth so you don't talk dirt about another believer; even if it is true?

1. You may talk dirt because of jealousy-
2. You may talk dirt because of a bad habit-
3. You may talk dirt because of inferiority-
4. You may talk dirt because you keep bad company-
5. You may talk dirt because you are covering a personal sin of your own-
6. You do not talk dirt because the Holy Spirit is leading you to do so-

By Pastor Ken Blue