Say the Right Thing

The power of life and death are in the tongue. That's Proverbs 18, 21, and this is Destined for Victory. In just a few moments, Pastor Paul Shepherd shares his message, Say the Right Thing. But before he gets started, he joins me now to talk about a special gift we have for you this month. Pastor, let's talk about your In God's Army Now, a special resource we'll send to our listeners for a generous gift.

Tell us what we can learn from this. In the Word of God, I came across the fact that we are going to have to help people understand, talk about we-ness. We're not just a family. We're not just a flock.

We're not just a group of people who happen to get together. But the Bible itself calls us an army. Paul said we're soldiers and that we've got to be strong in the Army of the Lord. I am a guy who's never been in the armed forces. I just never was led in that direction and I wasn't born in wartime where I would have been drafted. So I've not been in the armed forces. But I've had the privilege of pastoring a lot of men and women over the years who are service men and women, either past or present service. And I've talked to them about their experience and not a one of them was grabbed from civilian quarters and thrust into the front line of some battle.

They all had to go through some form of what I heard them describe as boot camp. And so what I did was took some time and made sure that this little booklet just reminds people we're soldiers. We're going to go through some processes that God uses to help us get ready to deal with spiritual warfare. The Bible is real clear. We're not wrestling against flesh and blood. We are wrestling against principalities and powers, against rulers of darkness, against spiritual wickedness in high places. So since we're soldiers, we might as well learn how to battle well and enjoy the victory that we have in Christ. Once again, the resource is called You're in God's Army Now, and it's our gift to you this month by request for your generous gift to Destin for Victory. Again, You're in God's Army Now, a booklet from Pastor Paul Sheppard and our gift to you this month when you make a donation to the ministry. Simply call 855-339-5500 or visit pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. You can also mail your gift to Destin for Victory, post office box 1767, Fremont, California 94538.

Again, the address is Destin for Victory, box 1767, Fremont, California 94538. Paul is saying, let no words that cause death or decay to the hearer come out of your mouth. Don't speak death over other people.

Don't speak decay. Don't speak things that don't honor God, that don't bring life, that aren't leading to something good and life-giving and positive. Don't let your mouth form words that are going to bring death to the hearers. One of life's toughest battles is the one we fight with our own tongues, what we say, how we say it, when we say it. Today on Destin for Victory, Pastor Paul Sheppard encourages us to build people up with a spirit of kindness and conviction instead of beating them up with the stones of criticism and condemnation. So now let's join Pastor Paul for today's Destin for Victory message, Say the Right Thing. Say the right thing. If you're making notes, jot that down. It's extremely important.

Say the right thing. Look at verse 29 of Ephesians 4 and you'll see why I'm calling that the fourth point. Verse 29 in the English Standard Version is where I'm reading it from because I like the way it's put. It says this, let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up as spits the occasion that it may give grace to those who hear. Let's stay there for a second.

I need you to let that sink in and soak in. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up as spits the occasion that it may give grace to those who hear. Now, let me help you understand right away in this verse, Paul is not telling us you got to stop cursing or cussing some of us would say. You got to stop swearing. There are places in Paul's writings where he tells people clean up your mouth even in terms of swearing or cussing. He does go there in some passages.

Here, that's not his point. His point here is you've got to stop letting corrupting words come out of your mouth, which begs the question, okay, what does he mean by corrupting words? Corrupting words, glad you asked.

Of course, if I'm asking the question, I'm about to give you the answer. The answer is the Greek word that is translated corrupting here in the ESV is a term that has to do with something perishing or something decaying, something that is losing life, something that is rotting to death. That's what the Greek word is rooted in. Let no rotting words, let no perishing words, let no words that bring death and decay come out of your mouth.

Notice it's corrupting. The word is not the issue. It is what the word is sent to say and do that is the issue. In other words, Paul is saying let no words that cause death or decay to the hearer come out of your mouth. Don't speak death over other people. Don't speak decay. Don't speak things that don't honor God, that don't bring life, that aren't leading to something good and life-giving and positive. Don't let your mouth form words that are going to bring death to the hearers.

Now, let's take some time and talk about this. You can see this isn't a hooping message. This isn't a get happy message.

I'm not trying to run you around your living room. I was blessed by that word. No, this isn't a blessed by the word.

This is get your mouth in order. I'm a pastor. A pastor is a spiritual parent. We can't just give you all fun foods. You got to feed on some vegetables, spiritually speaking. You got to get some things in your system that'll make you grow and become a better person. Child of God, let me just tell you something real straightforward.

I love you enough to tell you the truth. Some of us have got to put off the mess that's been coming out of our mouths in many cases for years. We knew our minds, and now we've got to begin to speak the right things because there's no more time in God's plan for you to have corrupting words coming out of your mouth.

You need to speak things that are good, things that are wholesome, things that are glorifying to God and beneficial to people. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever had someone in your life, maybe when you were a child, maybe when you were a youth, maybe when you were a young adult, maybe you are an older adult. At any stage in your life have you ever had a person or multiple people speak corrupting words to you, decaying words, words that don't produce life, they produce death, words that don't do anything positive for you, words that are sent to bring death and destruction and decay? Have you ever had that experience? I hope you haven't, but chances are you have because there are so many people around us who don't know how to watch what comes out of their mouths. So many people were raised in an environment where there was a lack of discipline where things that were spoken are concerned.

A lot of y'all came from families, let's just put it out there, where folk would pop off at the mouth, say any old crazy thing at all, and that was normal in your household. That was normal in your upbringing, and so if you are like most of us, you have experienced these corrupting words, these decaying words, these words that bring death rather than life. Someone spoke not just unpleasant words, but they spoke words that try to reverse the momentum or the progress you're making in your life. Somebody has spoken words whose mission was to snuff out your light or snuff out your hope or snuff out your dreams, words that tried to stop you dead in your tracks from doing anything productive and God glorifying. You ever had anybody who heard you speak a dream or a passion or a pursuit, here's what I'm going to do with my life, and then when they got through talking, if you allow those words to land in your heart and in your mind, you would shut off all of your ambition because they just tried to kill your dream.

And the fact is, many of us have experienced that at some point in our lives. So Paul speaks up and says to the church at Ephesus and by revelation and by inspiration to all of us down through the centuries, Paul says, a child of God who is the product of the life-giving word of God, where God said, I so love the world that I'm sending my son that whoever puts his or her trust in him will not perish but have everlasting life. God spoke that word over us, his life, his forgiveness, his salvation, his transformation has been spoken to us by the son of God and we who are the product of life-giving words from God have no business producing death-giving words to other people.

You and I have no business telling somebody what they can't do, what they're not smart enough or rich enough or whatever good-looking enough, whatever it is. You and I are the product of the right thing being said to us from God and he says, you're my child, you got to put off the old self, you got to renew your mind and you got to put on the new self. And the new self has got to learn to speak the way I speak as your savior. Let me tell you something, it's important what comes out of your mouth. You got to learn that your words have consequences, your words have impact.

You might think you're joking but it is where it lands and how it is received that is going to matter. And so you and I have to learn to watch what we say. We'll be right back with more of today's Destined for Victory message from Pastor Paul Shepherd who is senior pastor at Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California. You can listen to the broadcast on demand at pastorpaul.net. That's pastorpaul.net and while you're there you'll find a host of great resources at our online store. Now for more on what it means to speak life into others, let's join Pastor Paul once again for the second half of today's message, Say the Right Thing.

I grew up a little Sunday school child and in those little kids' classes I can remember some of the songs. One of them was, be careful little mouth what you say. Be careful little mouth what you say.

There's a father up above looking down in tender love. So be careful little mouth what you say. They had other verses, be careful little eyes what you see, be careful little feet where you go and all that. I remember that. It was good to be a little Sunday school child. I tell you what, it taught us a lot of simple yet profound things and we were taught you got to be careful with what you say because it matters in heaven. That song told us God's looking down, he's listening to every conversation. You have to be careful. So I want to encourage you to take inventory, what you've been saying lately over other people's lives.

Just go back, push rewind, think about some of the conversations you've been having with people that you have some level of relationship with. Has it been God glorifying? Has it been inspiring?

Has it been something that would help them produce life? Or have you been speaking corrupting words, corrupting a vision they had, corrupting a dream they had, corrupting their plans to do better than they're doing right now? Just take inventory and find out because some of us, if we would be honest, some of us really just are so used to popping off at the mouth. The first thing that flies by your mind, you let it out of your mouth.

Child of God, you are a son or daughter of God, you have no business having diarrhea of the mouth. I said that on purpose just to shock you and I hope that hit because that's not a corrupting word, that is a jarring word to get you to look at what's coming out of your mouth. And you've got to stop saying any old thing, just let it run out your mouth. Oh, I didn't mean that, I just said that.

Well, that's the problem. You don't just say any old thing and just because a thought comes doesn't mean it needs to come out of your mouth. Sometimes you have a crazy thought and you need to stop it right at the door, at the gate.

Don't let that thing go down to your vocal cords and get out of your mouth. Not everything that's true needs to be said. And some of the stuff that crosses your mind isn't even true and it sure doesn't need to be said. Oh, this is good, people not buying this message on anything like that, we're not selling CDs, we're not here anyway, but the fact of the matter is you need the truth of it. The fact is we've got to learn that God will bless us and bless people through us once we take seriously the fact that we are to put on the new self and the new self is designed to make sure that we say the right thing. That's the point, you've got to learn to say the right thing.

I've got a lofty goal for this particular part of the series. I want today to be the last day that some of you will be okay with having the wrong things come out of your mouth. From this moment on I pray that for some of us we will arrest our words, we will put them in strong restraints and they only get sifted before they come out. You'll be better because you speak better, you'll be thought of as better, you'll be appreciated better because people know when you open your mouth good things happen, good things are said.

When you open your mouth you inspire, you encourage, you do the right thing with what you say and we're calling it in this point by saying the right thing. How many diseases would have already been cured if some popping off the mouth somebody hadn't said something to a brilliant child that kept them from going into a certain science or medical field where they could have learned through medical research some things. God had already put in them the ability to be brilliant in that area. Some of the diseases that we're losing loved ones from right now I am sure could have been cured had somebody not opened their mouth and killed a dream in a child. How many scientific breakthroughs would have already occurred and through scientific research our world would be far advanced from where we are now but that the wrong things were spoken over the person who had it in them to help change this world in some ways. How many inventions would have already changed our lives had some brilliant child or young person not had corrupting words limit what they decided to pursue. Do you see what I'm saying?

What you say matters. Don't be a dream killer. Be a person who pushes for good, pushes for the right things to happen in somebody's life. Listen, all of us who are parents, all of us who are mentors whether you have nieces or nephews, grandchildren, whether you have just children in general that you speak into their lives in a special way. You got to understand that is a stewardship meaning those kids don't belong to you.

They belong to God. Their future belongs to God but it is your job to be part of what prepares them to be exceptional and great in this world. So you got to understand you can't just say any old thing to your nieces, your nephews, certainly your kids, your grandkids. You just can't say any old thing to people who pay attention by your influence to the things you say and the things you do. And we have to learn. It's a stewardship.

Just like you have to answer to God for the money, how you give, how you worship with it, how you give to others, just like you got to answer to God for what you do for others as we saw in the last message. You got to do good for others. The same thing pertains to what you say. You got to learn to say the right things.

You got to learn to say the right things. When you see these children, they need to hear life come out of your mouth. They need to hear good things come out of your mouth. They need to hear about their potential and the possibilities. They need to hear about their worth and their value. They need to know from you that you see them in their future and exciting things are yet to come.

They need inspiration from you. They don't need death from you. Nobody needs you to speak death over them. That's the work of the enemy of their souls. He is the one who comes to kill and steal and destroy, but you represent the one who comes to give life and that more abundantly. Since you are the recipient of the life-giving love of God, you need to be one who is a conduit, and that same love that's changing your life begins to change the lives of people around you.

So I want you to know that what we say to people makes a difference. God wants it to make a difference for good. So Paul says in this passage, you have to say the right thing.

No corrupting words, no decaying words, no words that produce death and doubt and disillusionment should come out of the mouth of a child of God. Listen, we have an enemy of our souls. His job is to be negative.

What are you doing on the devil's side with your negativity? You need to be positive in what you say and in what you do, especially as it impacts other people. How different for the better would our world be if folk just hadn't killed a dream, killed a vision, killed a possibility in some child or young person's mind or even some adult's mind?

Many marriages would have not only survived but thrived had somebody not popped off at the mouth and said something that could never be taken back. We need to learn that what we say matters. And God calls us, the people of God, to be free from corrupting, decaying, death-providing words spoken by angry, arrogant, misguided people. We need to be people who make a difference for good in this world. Thanks so much for joining us for today's message, Say the Right Thing.

We're always glad to have you with us. If you'd like more information about the Destined for Victory ministry or this month's special offer, be sure to stop by our website, pastorpaul.net. That's pastorpaul.net. Nobody needs you to speak death over them. That's the work of the enemy of their souls.

He is the one who comes to kill and steal and destroy. But you represent the one who comes to give life and that more abundantly. That's next time in Pastor Paul Shepherd's message, Say the Right Thing. Until then, remember, He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory. .