"Power of the Tongue" RESCUE RADIO with Marjorie Cole

0:00 Music. Rescue Radio, because there's a war for your soul. Yes, Father God, thank you, Jesus, that you have already won that war and defeated our enemy. We thank you, Lord, for giving us courage and strength, for teaching and talking to us through your Spirit.

0:40 Bearing witness with our spirit that your will be done, your kingdom come, on earth, in and through us, as it's being done and declared in heaven, that we would understand that we are your instruments, your vessels, your ambassadors on this earth to bring forth your will and your purpose, Lord. God. And so I pray that we'd all yield ourselves completely to your will and your purpose and speak as you would call us to speak and stand as you call us to stand. I thank you, Jesus, for doing the will of the Father, obeying, even though it meant death for you, that you obeyed and you took the cross and you stood in our place and you took the death penalty for us. Thank you for purchasing our salvation. I pray that many, many more would receive and realize the wonderful power of this gift, that they would not be locked and blocked in all the foolishness of this world and the narratives of Satan, that you bring them out of death into light and truth, Father God.

1:31 And I thank you, Jesus, that no weapon formed against us will prosper. We pray for divine protection, divine journey, mercies, healing in our bodies with our children, our grandchildren, all that pertains to us, those who work for us, pray for us, and love us, that your will be done in and through all of us today that we'd be rewarded with the blessings of peace and rest and joy and wisdom and revelation in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Well, we're talking about the tongue today. The tongue. Yeah. Yeah. Someone said years ago, there's nothing more open by mistake than the mouth. How about that? Well, that's something— The tongue, James said, it's a little member, but it can do a lot of damage. It's just like a little spark can set a whole forest on fire. Yes, exactly.

2:18 And so, our text here for today is Proverbs 18, 21. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit. That's pretty powerful. Well, people don't realize how powerful that is, though, because they just flip through it, read through it. Oh, yeah, death and life and the power of the tongue. But literally, when God says something, God means it. And when he says something, there's power to it, and there's implications and ramifications that come out of it. So if there's death and life in your tongue, that means the words that are coming out of our tongue can bring life and healing and hope. Or they can bring death, destruction, and even disease. So it's very important that we know what the tongue is, is managing the tongue, like James says, taking control of that tongue.

3:04 Here's an Old Testament example. It seems very, very harsh, but it gives us an indication of the power of death and life from the tongue. Proverbs 18, 26 through 29. And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and saying, how long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against me? I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make against me. Say to them, as I live, says the Lord, just as you have spoken in my hearing, so will I do to you. The carcasses of you who have complained against me shall fall in this wilderness.

3:44 All of you who were numbered according to the entire number from 20 years old and above. Oh, yeah. And so— Isn't complaining an easy thing to do? I mean, we take our circumstances. is we summarize them and spit it through our mouth. We process it in our mind or our heart, and then we spit it out of our mouth. And this complaining only creates words for the enemy to grab hold of and bring to pass. So that's why God doesn't like murmuring and complaining, because when we do that, it gives the enemy the opportunity to bring to pass the things we're complaining and murmuring about. It's interesting that all the murmur, think of all the murmuring that you hear, maybe in the workplace.

4:27 Negativity. In your family, negatively complaining, oh, this isn't right, this isn't right, and everything like that. It doesn't mean that we don't confront evil and so forth, but a lot of people just complain about, you know, aches and pains and the government and the church. And the more you do that, the more you complain about those aches and pains, the more you endorse them. You reinforce them. Reinforce and read, yeah, exactly. Reinforce. Well, you know, the Bible also talks about the flattering tongue in Psalm 5, verse 9, but I'm going to read 8 to go to 9. Verse 8, 5, 8. Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies. Make your way straight before my face, for there is no faithfulness in their mouth, in the enemy's mouth.

5:13 Their inward part is destruction. Their throat is an open tomb. They flatter with their tongue. Pronounce them guilty, O God, and let them fall by their own counsel. Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions, for they have rebelled against you. You know, this flattering tongue, that's a lot of what Jezebel uses. She really uses that flattery well to get people seduced into buying into her agenda, her character, believing lies, just because they want to hear good things about themselves. They want to hear, and there are good things we should be speaking over ourselves and to one another, but not in flattery. Flattery is divisive, deceptive. It's divination.

5:54 It's using something that appears to be good, that appears to be good to bring forth something that's bad. That's what flattery does. It's drawing you, hooking you into an agreement, or it will end up, you know, destroying you because of, why do we receive flattery? Because we're insecure. Because we don't know who we are, and we want everybody else to tell us who we are, and when they tell us what we want to hear, then we're flattered. Yeah, well, there's a difference between flattery and giving someone a genuine compliment, appreciating them, and so forth. Flattering is deceitful, it's lying, it's manipulative, all of that. And then there's another part where, And in Psalm 12, verse 2, it says, it's kind of the same kind of thing you're talking about, flattery.

6:42 They speak idly, everyone with his neighbor, with flattering lips and a double heart they speak. May the Lord cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaks proud things, who have said, with our tongue we will prevail. This is Psalm 12, now verse 4. With our tongue we will prevail. Our lips are our own. Who is Lord over us? Now, I'm just going to say blab off whatever I want to say. And it talks about pride. How many people just, you know, boast about things, their accomplishments and so forth. If you're talking about your accomplishments, you need to be giving glory to God.

7:26 Because if it wasn't for the breath in your mouth from the living God, you wouldn't be able to do anything. And, you know, we're not here just to build up ourselves and make ourselves look good because we're so insecure. Well, what did Jesus say when you do what he asked you to do? Just say, it's my duty to do it. I am an unprofitable servant. I have done that, which is my duty to do. Let God then bless and brag on us. In Psalm 109, verse 1 and 2, he says, Do not keep silent, O God, of my praise, for the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful have opened against me. They have spoken against me with a lying tongue. They have surrounded me with words of hatred and fought against me without a cause. In return for my love, they are accusers.

8:12 But I give myself to prayer. So this tongue is a tongue of the wicked, the enemy. It can be a person, it can be an internal voice that's in your head or your heart. The mouth of the wicked is deceitful. Satan is deceitful. He's trying to get us to believe lies about ourselves and one another. He uses our mouth to open our mouth against others. and then he uses those words that he pushes through our mouth. Into the atmosphere, he uses those to grab those onto those and use them to hurt other people. They have spoken against me with a lying tongue. And how do you defend yourself from lying? Actually, the accusing of the enemy, whether it's through a person or a thought. The accuser is about just everywhere, everywhere to try to bring to division and discouragement.

8:56 The lying tongue. How do you protect and defend yourself? He says, I'm surrounded by hateful words. They fought against me without a cause. How do you defend yourself when you're innocent and those around you? Like, this is, again, witchcraft. It's the accusing. That's a big hallmark of witchcraft is accusation, false accusation. False accusation. And so remember, when you're attacked with a witch or witchcraft or the words of witchcraft or surrounded with those who have words of hatred against you, forgive them. That's the key, key, key. Absolutely release them from your judgment. Say, Father, I release them from my judgment for the things, the hateful things, the lying words, the treachery, the plot, the plan, the trap that they've set for me. I forgive them.

9:39 I release them from my judgment, and I'm going to let you be the judge. So, I'm going to come into your court bringing my complaint, what they're doing to me, but I'm going to let you be the judge because I'm not going to judge them. So, forgiveness means I'm not going to judge them. I'll let you judge them. And so, this is the only way we can get deliverance and healing from these kinds of things. Yeah, in Psalm 120, verses 1 through 3. In my distress I cried to the Lord, and he heard me, Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips. And from a deceitful tongue, what shall be given to you or what shall be done to you, you false tongue?

10:21 So he's praying for the psalmist here is asking him to say, I need deliverance because this is distressing me. This is really bothering me that I'm involved with lying and deceitfulness, you know, telling, so we call it half-truths. We're not just talking about, you know, cursing, coarse cursing. Some people. Are profane. You know, just plain profane in their speech, and it's just like, please, just, but we'll find out later why that is. And it's in Proverbs chapter 17, verse 20, interesting enough. He's, well, it's verse 19 in the read-down.

11:02 He who loves transgression loves strife, and he who exalts his gate seeks destruction. That means he's praising himself. Verse 20, he who has a deceitful heart finds no good, and he who has a perverse tongue falls into evil. Perversion means to twist or a crooked, they're telling half-chews or they're switching things around and making it look like something it's not. He who begets a scoffer does it to his own sorrow, and the father of a fool has no joy. But a merry heart does good like a medicine. And what does a merry heart do? It speaks joy and peace and promotes vision. But a perverse heart, a perverse tongue, what the heart is full of, again, the mouth speaks.

11:47 So if you're hearing things like this coming out of your mouth, bitterness, contempt, jealousy, wishing evil upon people, that's in your heart. And so your mouth is going to speak what your heart is full of. And the tongue is the instrument that is being used to shape those words. In Psalm 10-7, it talks about a wicked person. Wicked in his pride, persecutes the poor, boasts of his heart's desire, so forth. And God isn't even, he's not even thinking about God at all. But one of the characteristics of this wicked person, according to Psalm 10, 7, his mouth is full of cursing and deceit and oppression. Wow.

12:34 To oppress others, yeah. Under his tongue is trouble and iniquity. It's like, really? I mean. Yeah, there's no mincing of words there, is there? No mincing of words there. Well, in Proverbs 17, 4, this is a very interesting verse that most people, I'm sure, don't read it the way I see it. But anyway, Proverbs 17, 4 says, An evildoer gives heed to false lips. A liar listens eagerly to a spiteful tongue. So what he is saying there is, an evildoer gives heed to false lips. In other words, and a liar listens to a liar. So when lies are being spoken and you're listening to those lies, you're also believing those lies.

13:14 A liar listens eagerly to a spiteful tongue. So an evildoer gives heed to false lips. So when people are talking lies and you're listening to and agreeing with those lies, then you are also a liar. You're a liar receiving the lies and endorsing those lies eagerly, the words of a spiteful tongue. So again, liars listen to liars. Isn't that crazy and scary that they actually do that? But in Proverbs 29 20 let me just get this here problem Proverbs 29 20 it says do you see a man hasty in his words there is more hope for a fool than for him so some people are just so hasty they just spout off they really haven't thought anything through they just.

14:01 Blab it out, you know, hastily don't think it through. They don't think about the effect that these words will have on somebody else. Right. Devastating words. You know, that's true. When we're angry, when we get angry, we blurt all things against our children and things that we may, you know, in that moment of rage or whatever, we're blind, feary, blind rage. We don't even remember what we said, but the child is stabbed in their heart forever. I have so many clients who, You know, going back to three, four, five, six years old, mom said something over them, and mom just in a wisp of anger and fury blurted out something and is stuck like an arrow in the child's heart for 20, 30, 40 years.

14:43 Yeah, we've seen that over and over and over and over again. A lot of people that have been involved, they've gotten into, you know, addictions of various kinds and so forth, and their life has been shambles. A lot of it goes back to, you know, your parents, their dad, if they had a dad around, they said, you're worthless, you're just a piece of crap, whatever you are. I mean, that's been done so much. Hurtful things like that, that just, you never amount to anything. You're so stupid. Why did you do that? Why don't you like your brother? Why don't you, you know. All those kinds of things. Or you're fat. I mean, all these. If you're listening.

15:23 Words. and then you're talking like that, just stop it now. And repent and apologize to them and take back those words. You can actually, Take back these bad, negative, horrible, cursing words, even though you said them 40 years ago. They're still floating out there in the frequencies and vibrations in the universe. You can say to the Lord, forgive me for speaking so ill and hateful over my child. I ask you to remove, dissolve those words of the blood of Jesus. And talk, if you could still talk to your kids, whether they're adults. Yeah, Jesus. Please ask forgiveness for what you said. We know that the truth of your heart was that you loved your child, but the truth is also that Satan was trying to get you to use your mouth, because he has to use our mouths, our words, because his words don't count.

16:09 He's got to get them from our head, from our mouth. In Psalm 10, verse 7, he says, The mouth is full of cursing and deceit and oppression. Under his tongue is trouble and iniquity. This is what we're, the oppression, the deceit, the deception that is released when our tongue speaks cursing, cursing of me. Cursing against God, cursing against someone else, bringing a curse is the opposite of a blessing. So when you're blessing someone, you know, I bless you. I pray that God will bless and restore your losses or, you know, receive you or bring you back to health or whatever it is. You're blessing. But in this country, we do not really bless very much. We don't bless people.

16:52 We don't bless our children like they do in some nations. We reprimand them. We lecture them. We discourage them because we're afraid if we don't legalistically apply the lecture, they'll do the wrong thing. We don't realize in their heart is also the desire to be good and be loved and do the right thing. So we curse them inadvertently, but that stands. They're full of cursing and deceit and oppression. A lot of times we lie to one another to deceit. We lie to protect ourselves, to keep ourselves out of trouble. We lie by saying things like, I don't know, when you do know. And we think lying is just saying a thing that's not true.

17:32 Lying can also be holding back, keeping someone from understanding the truth by holding back the information that would give them a correct understanding of what's happening. So lying can be both speaking out and holding back. So the tongue can hold back things that need to be spoken or can speak things that need to be kept quiet. Right, exactly. It's not only what we say, but what we don't say. Let's transition here from death to life and the power of the tongue. There's death and life. We're talking about these things that bring death, that bring hurt, that bring destruction to people through our mouth, through our tongues. In Proverbs 12, beginning with verse 17 through verse 19, it says, He who speaks truth declares righteousness, but a false witness deceit.

18:23 There is one who speaks like the piercings of a sword, but the tongue of the wise promotes health. The truthful lip shall be established forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment. Now, it's interesting. If you speak the truth, you're declaring righteousness, falsehood. It's contrasting someone who brings truth and someone who brings deceit. But there are some that speak like the piercings of a sword. There's some people that— They're giving wisdom. They're giving counsel. Yeah, there's—well, there's people, yeah. There's two ways you can look at the sword thing. The sword is the Word of God, right? But what they're talking about here, there's people that speak cutting remarks.

19:09 They're just cut, cut, cut, criticize, criticize. They have a critical spirit. They just scold. They cut. They're just— Tearing down everything. They're just tearing down. And basically, the poison of asps, it says in one place, the poisons of snakes is in their tongue, in their mouth. So they're quick to— Find fault. Find fault. Judge others. Criticize, everything like that. Yeah, judging others, and that comes through a lot. I've been around people that, you know, speak— Life or death. That death, because, you know, some people that, you know, the Bible says that there's meekness connected with wisdom.

19:54 And some people have arrogance connected with wisdom or what they think is wisdom or their knowledge. Orally wisdom. And some people, you're around some people where you don't— They think they know it all. They think they know it all. Yeah. And what happens is there are people that maybe are—I've worked with people that, you know, when I was just learning computer, I still don't know much about computers, but there was this one IT person that I worked with years ago. If you didn't know something, she just made you feel so stupid. How come you don't know that? And then there was another guy that had the same basically IT position. And the company, and he was so gracious. He was just like, okay, here's how you do this.

20:39 And he made you, he didn't feel like, make you feel like you were just stupid and ignorant. And so he had meekness. He had lots of knowledge, knew way, way, way more than I did. But he spoke with meekness of wisdom, not arrogance of knowledge to make you feel like you're stupid because they don't know, you don't know what they know. Well, the wise person is a good teacher, too. They can speak the truth of what they know and understand with the gentleness that makes the learner learn. In Isaiah 50, chapter 50, verse 4. This is really good. This is interesting. It says, The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary.

21:23 He wakens me morning by morning. He wakens my ear to hear as the learned. The Lord has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, nor did I turn away. So he is saying here, now this is an interesting verse in that it connects the idea of God's Spirit bearing witness with our spirit. You know, we have the soul software where we think, feel, and try to figure things out. But we also have been given the spirit software where God has programmed our spirit to know the truth, to love the truth, to love him, to recognize what is true, and to desire the goodness of God and desires to be good ourselves, to walk in the goodness of God's image created in us.

22:06 But here he says, the Lord has given him the tongue of the Lord. So here's what happens. When the Spirit of God speaks to our spirit, we don't know what he's saying. Until we hear it come out of our mouth. So the tongue of the Lord. So my spirit is actually teaching, I mean, his spirit is teaching my spirit and brings that information into my tongue, into my mouth. Then my ears hear it and I learn it. So I'm learning through my own tongue. I'm learning how to speak the word of wisdom and season to him who's worried. But I'm learning it as I learn it, as the Lord speaks it from his spirit to my spirit.

22:46 It comes out of my mouth and I hear it, then I say, oh, oh, that's what it is. You know, sometimes I say, you know, you hear yourself say something like, there's so much chaos around here. This is chaos. And you don't really recognize it as chaos until you hear yourself say, oh, it's chaos. Oh, oh, the spirit of chaos is here. Got it. Okay. So you see, the thing is, again, ask the Lord, how else would God speak to us if he doesn't speak to us through our spirit and then give it to us so we can hear it and understands this faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. So when you read the word of God and hear it out loud, it's actually teaching you yourself. I mean, you're speaking it as if you know it, but it's also teaching you so that it gives us the tongue of the learned. God has opened my ear to hear.

23:32 And I was not rebellious. This is the key. We don't say, oh, that's just me, or oh, everybody knows that, or oh, that's no big deal. We say, no, no, this is the spirit of God giving me something to say here, and I'm learning it myself. That's kind of amazing to me. That's Isaiah 50, verse 4. And Proverbs 13, verse 3, he who guards his mouth preserves his life. Whoa, that's pretty important. Yeah. You want to stay alive? Guard your mouth. Yeah, keep it. Set a watch over my mouth, he says. Yeah. But he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction. So, listen, if you guard your mouth. Set a watch over it, it says, yeah. Yeah, set a watch over my mouth.

24:18 The psalmist says there, too, set a watch over my mouth. And another thing, too, with that is. Well, this is the same thing as Proverbs 21, 23 says, whoever guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from troubles. Right. A proud and a haughty man, a scoffer, is his name, who acts with arrogant pride. So you're guarding, you're setting a watch means that, that means that, okay, I'm not going to say everything. That just comes into my mind. I'm going to select the words I'm going to bring to this conversation. So that's what guarding your heart and guarding your mouth is. Right. I'm not going to blurt it all out because it's maybe not time to say this. So you have to be very wise and say, well, I know this. I see this.

25:00 I totally read this situation. But now is not the time to say that because now is the time to either build a relationship with that person or develop a trust relationship rather than tearing them down with all the stuff you know. The Bible says speaking the truth in love that they may grow up. So sometimes we have to set a guard over our mouths and not say everything right away because we're still in the building process. They're not ready to receive what we have to say, and so therefore it would be pointless and destructive to say it at the wrong time. So it talks about in Proverbs 25, verse 15, Proverbs 15, by forbearance a ruler is persuaded and a gentle tongue breaks a bone.

25:42 How can a gentle tongue break a bone? Proverbs 15, 25, 15. Well, I believe a gentle tongue is so we're always ready to be defensive and lecture and harsh. And so we're just receiving, you know, anger is being mixed with the truth. So when anger is mixed with the truth and you have this harsh word that you're speaking over someone, it can break their bones. But the tongue of the wise and the gentle, I think, brings healing to the bones. But it also breaks the bone in that it breaks the resistance to the words.

26:25 For example, a soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. So the tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly, but the mouth of the fool pours out foolishness. So a soft answer, you know, they're expecting you to come down on them, lecture them, berate them, you know, correct them. But your soft answer will turn away their wrath because they're going to be defensive. They're going to want to defend themselves and make you look like a fool for correcting them. But a harsh word stirs up anger. So, when you speak harsh words over your children, you know, it stirs up their anger and it breaks a bone. Actually, I think in 1530, it says of that same proverb, hold on, I think it's 1530, it says, Yeah. It says, the light of the eye rejoices the heart. A good report makes the bones healthy.

27:14 So a good report makes the bones healthy. So a bad report breaks the bones and the marrow is in the bones. So it's going after the life of the child. When you break their bones with criticism and bitterness and anger, it is you speaking to them out of your own fear. that if you don't correct them and be harsh, that they're going to do something bad and wrong. It's like you saying, I don't trust you. I don't have faith in you. I don't have faith in God's goodness to bring you through this. I have to be the one to correct you. And then the mouth of the foolishness. This is so sad because so many people are so desperately dumb and foolish, and yet they think they know something about something, so they think they know something about everything.

27:54 And so they pour out foolishness, And this gets even more enhanced or increases even more when people are under the influence of mind-altering, mood-altering chemicals. And so foolishness just pours out of their tongues. And we have to realize that that also, we have to give account, Jesus said, of every idle word. And so those words, unless you ask God to forgive you for them, they're still hanging out there and they need to be dealt with. There's foolishness poured out against us every day, you know, on the internet. Well, we don't want to be the ones pouring it out, though. On the internet, on the TV, that sort of thing coming against us. But we're talking about us here today. And it says, Proverbs 15, 4, a wholesome tongue is a tree of life.

28:37 The perverseness in it breaks the spirit. So we talked about two, I mean. Breaks the spirit. Breaks the spirit. So what breaks the spirit? Perverseness. Right. Perverseness in the tongue, that where it's twisted and perverse, it breaks the spirit. It breaks the spirit of the people that we talk to. How does that work? Well, I would say, you know, what we were talking about earlier, if you curse your kids, for example, you curse your, you know, some people too, I know, here's another thing that's really bad is that people. When husbands gossip about their wives to other guys.

29:18 And vice versa. Or wives gossip about their wives. You're betraying a trust. They go to their friend on the phone or on Facebook or whatever. And say, oh, yeah, you know, Harry's really being a jerk today. Right. You're not blessing. See, when you speak these things, they come to pass. When you speak these words, they come to pass. And if you don't want them to come to pass, then don't give life to them by speaking them out of your tongue. Because that's what happens. There's death and life again in the power of the tongue. Notice he says death first. Here's one thing I've endeavored to do. What? And it talks about, in Proverbs 15, 4 again, a wholesome tongue is a tree of life. If you do, like, reverse gossip, usually gossip is about something that's bad about somebody or something.

30:12 I like to say nice things about people behind their backs. That's good. So I'm not flattering. I will just say it's something I know that's a great character. I'll build them up. I'll speak life and good things about them to somebody else. Right, and that's putting positive things in the atmosphere for them, but at the same time, say those nice things to them, too. Oh, of course. I know you do, but many times behind the back, it's all secrets and whispers and, you know, deceptive things, and people are being plotted against, spoken against, and they don't know how and where and why things are going so bad in their life, because others are speaking evil. And it's a form of witchcraft.

30:55 Yeah. It's a form of cursing. Yeah. So when you speak about people behind their backs, you're actually practicing witchcraft against them. And if they don't know it, but if you do know something's going wrong and somebody's probably talking about you behind your back, which... Is the way the devil divides so many things. Then ask God to forgive that person. You may not know who they are, but God does. So we forgive them and ask those words to fall to the ground and bring forth nothing covered with the blood of Jesus. The English word gossip is interesting. It's gossip. Sounds like a snake, doesn't it? Yeah, gossip. Ephesians 4, verse 15 is also a very powerful prescription for teaching people to grow up.

31:36 He says, I'm starting with verse 14, Ephesians 4, 14, And we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness by which they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things unto him who is the head, which is Christ. So, okay, so no longer be tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of gossip and doctrine. You know, there's so much doctrine out there, the trickery of men, the treachery of the demons. Doctrines of demons, whatever, who they lie in wait to deceive, discourage, mislead people with lies that, you know, and that's so much what Satan does.

32:20 He misleads, misperceives, misunderstands, divides to conquer, sets us up in opposition to each other, brings wars and contentions, and nobody's growing up. Everybody's just trying to survive. The whole point of this whole thing down here, is to grow up in God and to be more like Jesus and to promote that same growth and development and spiritual strength and reality in others. And so here he says, speaking the truth in love. That's the combination, speaking the truth to others, our children, co-workers, classmates, speaking the truth in love that they may grow up in all things into him who is so growing up, but knows us, speaking the truth in love. There's a combination, truth plus love. You can't just speak the truth without the love because that becomes lecture and discouragement.

33:08 And if you just speak love and know truth, you're just giving licentiousness and permission for them to do whatever. So it has to be a combination of both. And so many times, however, we speak the truth in anger. We love them with compliance or complacency, and we don't really, you know, and here's part of that problem is when we're speaking the truth in love, we're speaking to the being, and we must also then address the behavior. Especially people who have married together their being with their behavior, like so many people have, I am a, and then fill in the blank. And if you don't like what that is, and that's scripturally destructive, and they're going to, that's going to not be okay with God to practice that kind of behavior, and you give their, call their attention to it, then they're taking it personally, and they're getting offended, and they're saying, you don't love me.

33:58 But so when you and I separate a being, a human being with the soul, body, soul, and spirit, that's going to give an answer to God on Judgment Day, that soul, when you separate that precious one, their soul and their destiny, eternally destined for whatever. You separate that from their behavior and you're calling them to take a look at it, that's really what love is. But so many times we get confused because we're accused of judging and not loving and not forgiving and all these things, and then no one grows up. So growing up in God is a combination of speaking the truth in love. You love them through that relationship. And then once you get that road of relationship, love and built, then you can come across it and say, and here's the truth. Here's what I really want to tell you.

34:44 You know, I love you. And this is why I have to tell you this. It's not because of your behavior. I can see what you've been deceived by the devil. We can blame the devil. He's done it all anyway. And so it's not you, but I want you to know that there's a treacherous thing going against your life. And I want you to know that Jesus Christ has come to set you free. So that's what speaking the truth in love is all about. So it's not only what we say, but it's how we say it. It's our tone. Speaking the truth and love. Well, some people just speak with such harsh, harsh, evil tones. But it's like how you say it and the tone of how you say it.

35:25 All of us know that. And a lot of times in texting, now, it's hard to get the tone, and so you don't know. It's kind of a masked way of being. But we want to look at Matthew 12. This is really the bottom line here. Matthew chapter 12, and we want to look at beginning with verse 33. Either makes a tree good and its fruit good, or else makes a tree bad and its fruit bad. For a tree is known by its fruit. Then he said, brood of vipers, he's saying family of snakes. How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

36:09 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil things. He says, but I say to you that for every idle or empty careless word that men may speak, they will give account of it on the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. This is pretty serious. But basically what happens is that your words are the showcase of what's in your heart. So you have to look when you... What the heart is full of, again, the most big thing. We discern with people what's really in their heart is what they'll talk about.

36:56 Even sometimes people that are passionate about fishing or basketball or baseball or something. And when you talk to them about it, you bring up the subject, and all of a sudden, boom, boom, this is this. They're on it. They're on it. They're going on and on. So what's in their heart comes out of the mouth. But a lot of times, and we've got to wrap up with this, but a lot of times people don't go to the deeper parts of what's in their heart because they're afraid they will be rejected or not understood. So let us not be afraid. You cultivate your praise of God. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. Yes. My soul will make its boast of the Lord. The humble shall hear of it and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name together." So, one of the ways we can use our tongue to make a lot of spiritual progress is to praise the Lord and be thankful, rejoice, and in everything give thanks.

37:47 So, we're not murmuring, we're thanking, we're praising God, we're looking to God to fix the things that we cannot fix, and we're trusting God in that expression to make it right. The first part of Psalm 51.10 says, Create in me a clean heart. Oh, God. Oh, God. And if your heart is full, Psalm 119.11, he says, Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. Amen. Well, Father God, we thank you for the power of words. We thank you for the power of your word to teach us the power of words and to teach us even through our own mouths what your Spirit would say to us. Lord God, and help us to yield our tongues to praise and blessing and life instead of yielding it to the enemy for death and destruction and lies.

38:30 Father, I just pray that you give us courage to take control of our tongues and shut them up instead of watch over our mouths if we need to, and give you the praise and let you have the time you need to do the work without cutting it off by cursing or judging or coming into a place of despair and unbelief. Father, we thank you for this beautiful group of people that listen to us. We pray divine blessings upon them, and that you'd cause us to grow up, speak to our hearts. May our hearts be filled with praise and joy and rejoicing, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Hey, what are we going to talk about? Well, Life Recovery, go to the website, check it out. We've got all kinds of options and opportunities and teachings.

39:13 I think the one I'm going to talk about today is, why can't I concentrate? It has to do with the mind, the heart, the mouth. And why can't I concentrate? God, help us to be set free to walk in Jesus and walk in His power. Amen. Available at liferecovery.com. Amen. Music.