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Beneficial to God, Useful for Good Works
45 Plays2 months ago
2 Tim. 2:14-26
Recommended
Transcript
Origin of the Wildfire
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Speaker
It was on the afternoon of July 23, 2018, just outside of Sacramento, California, that a wildfire had jumped just over the Sacramento River, and it blew across three counties. It took more than an entire month to contain this fire. Over a thousand structures were completely destroyed. The fire started, if you can believe it, from a spark from a tire rim hitting the pavement.
00:00:31
Speaker
something so small. That spark became a flame and that flame was carried by the wind with little or no regard to the lives that it destroyed and damaged. These once lush hills are now still, to this day, charred black. And the homes that were eventually rebuilt were just never quite the same after that devastating fire.
Gossip as a Wildfire Analogy
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Friends, gossip is like a wildfire.
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Like a wildfire, the very small spark of a gossip can be like the metal hitting the pavement. It can start with a very small wisp of smoke, and as it's fanned into flames, it starts to destroy relationships, eroding communities and compromising the church. In the book of James, gossip is referred to as, indeed, a wildfire.
00:01:30
Speaker
James says, even though the tongue is such a small little member, it boasts great things. And how great a forest a little fire kindles. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity follows shortly behind. It says, the tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature. And it's set on fire by hell itself.
00:01:59
Speaker
Pretty damaging gossip can be. And and it doesn't take much gossip if it's left unchecked just to kind of run amok, if you will. And it just leaves this wake of devastation. Not just in Sacramento, but in church after church after church. What comes out of our mouths, plural, matters.
00:02:29
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The scripture reading this morning, Brother Kyle so eloquently put, says, that which comes from the heart which comes out of the mouth, if it is indeed gossip, will defile a person.
00:02:44
Speaker
What's even more damaging, I think, that we'll see from the scriptures today is that gossip disqualifies us from being beneficial for God's use and for his kingdom purposes.
00:02:56
Speaker
Now I know, thankfully, none of us have ever been wrapped up in gossip before. But for those other people, that's what this sermon is all about this morning. When it comes to the words that come out of our mouth, we'll see from scriptures today that there are certain types of speech which are useless for kingdom purposes. That's what we're first going to look at. Speech that is useless for the king. And second, there are another type of speech, another type of words that come out of our mouth that are beneficial for the king. And then third, what does that mean for you and I today?
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How can we be ready for good works being beneficial to our king and his kingdom purposes if we are to use these right type of words? We're in
Advice from 2 Timothy on Speech
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2 Timothy and we're continuing here in the latter part of chapter 2, starting in verse 14. So if you have your Bibles, please follow well along with me. Verse 14 through the end of chapter 2.
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Paul starts this way, he says, remind everyone everyone about these things and command them in God's presence to stop fighting over words. Such arguments are useless and they can ruin those who hear them. Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth.
00:04:17
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Avoid worthless, foolish talk that only leads to more godless behavior. This kind of talk spreads like cancer, as in the case of Hemoneus and Philetus. They have left the path of truth, claiming that the resurrection of the dead has already occurred. In this way, they have turned some other people away from the faith.
00:04:40
Speaker
But God's truth stands firm like a foundation stone. With this inscription, the Lord knows who are His, and all who belong to the Lord must turn away from evil. In a wealthy home, some utensils are made of gold and silver, and some are made of wood and clay. The expensive utensils are used for special occasions, and the cheap ones are for everyday use.
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If you keep yourself pure, you will be a special utensil for honorable use. Your life will be clean and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work. Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, pursue righteous living.
00:05:24
Speaker
faithfulness, love, and peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts. Again, I say, don't get involved in foolish, ignorant arguments that only start fights. A servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but must be kind to everyone, be able to teach and be patient with difficult people. Gently instruct those who oppose the truth.
00:05:49
Speaker
Perhaps God will change those people's hearts and they will learn the truth. Then they will come to their senses and escape from the devil's trap, for they have been held captive by him to do whatever he wants." This is Timothy's instructions now to the church. We saw here in the first part of 1 Timothy all the way up to this chapter in 2 Timothy.
00:06:19
Speaker
This Paul speaking to Timothy, Timothy remind everybody what is to come and now 2 Timothy chapter 2, really through the end of 2 Timothy, really can be considered the last half of this letter. This last half of the letter is all about matters of faith and praxis, P-R-A-X-I-S, praxis, which is living out that faith.
00:06:42
Speaker
The first half was Paul saying to Timothy, I want you to remind others. Now this starts with Timothy, you remind, or maybe a better translation is keep on reminding. This is a continual action. Keep on reminding the people of these things, verse 14 says. What are these things? Well, it's just a couple of verses before. It's the trustworthy statement of the gospel message that we talked about last week.
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Speaker
He says, Timothy, keep on reminding them of the things which matter most, the things that are at stake. Keep reminding them about the instructions and the warnings that Paul had passed down to Timothy. Keep reminding them what the scriptures say. You know, that's pretty much what my job entails for you. It's simply just to remind you of what you already know.
00:07:37
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for most of you. right Those of you who study the Scriptures, my job is fairly easy because I simply call you to remember what the Scriptures say and then to obey them.
00:07:50
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My job is simply that of reminding you of the truth, reminding you of the nature of God, reminding you of the demands of holy living. My job, surprisingly, this may surprise some of you, is not organizing the music here.
00:08:08
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or organizing concerts or printing flyers or the bulletin or updating the website. or attending any of the various church functions that happen here. Now, it's great when I can do that, but my primary job in what you really need from me may not be what you want from me, but what you need from me is for me to point you towards those things of ultimate significance. That is the truth of the scripture. The bulk of my job is simply just reminding you, and Paul is now telling Timothy,
00:08:46
Speaker
You too are to remind them of the things that are most important. Keep reminding them, he says, verse 14, of the trustworthy statement of the gospel message, and get this, charge them before God. This is not something trivial here. This is something super important. He says, charge them before God not to be quarrelsome with words, which does no one good, and it only causes ruin to those who listen. It's a serious business.
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Speaker
He warns that the first type of speech that comes out of the mouths of these false teachers, which is absolutely no good, which is useless, it's not only useless to the here, but I would argue that it's useless to the king in his purposes.
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He says this type of speech, verse 14, is quarrelsome. Your translation may read
Types of Gossip and Their Impact
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something, word fighting. This is really this word, laga, it means the words that come out of your mouth. Macheo means a struggle or a wrestling or a quarrel. He says the the type of speech that comes out of our mouth should not be quarrelsome because that, friends, is useless.
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But then He also goes on and says it's dangerous.
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Verse 16, if you'll look down with me, verse 16 says, it's worthless and foolish talk. That worthless and foolish talk leads only to further, what does 16 say? Further what? Godless behavior.
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It's empty chatter, your translation may say. It's profane chatter. It's irrevant a irrelevant or irreverent babbling. Verse 18 says, this type of talk strays from the truth.
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Verse 23 says, this same type of speech is foolish and ignorant. It leads to further controversies and speculat but speculations. And might I say nothing hampers the flourishing of a good church.
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than gossip, than empty chatter, than full of speculation. And we all know these type of people. And when I say these type of people, I'm saying you type of people, but I'm also saying me type of people. These people who gossip, they love it. Because if they didn't love it, they wouldn't do it.
00:11:22
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See, gossip is easy for you and I to do because it's something that makes us feel important, like we're plugged in, makes us feel like we know something that somebody else doesn't know.
00:11:37
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I've seen in churches from time to time that gossip has really little to do with the person person person gossiping, not the target of the gossip, but the person who's actually doing the gossiping.
00:11:57
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I think what what's worse here says not only does it cause ruin, but if you look at verse 23, it says it causes dishonor. It leads to the ruin of believers. 16 says it leads to further godliness. It spreads like gangrene. Anybody who's familiar with that? Cancer.
00:12:18
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rotting of a limb. It just spreads and it just keeps spreading like a wildfire that's hard to control, destroying everything in its path. Gossip, he's saying, is like this. It consumes everything and everyone in its path until nothing is left. And it says, verse 18, this type of speech upsets the faith of some people.
00:12:45
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And ultimately, verse 20 says it brings dishonor. I think nothing is dishonored more disheartening to me as a pastor is to hear gossip within the body of Christ, especially if it's somebody new to the faith that's hearing this. Especially somebody that's new to the church and they hear gossip going on in the church and they're probably thinking to themselves, wow, is this how Christians act? They act just like the world because the world gossips too, so nothing is different in the church.
00:13:15
Speaker
Gossip takes all types of forms. You know, there's some that's just plain old malicious gossip. Ill will. Somebody who's looking to stir the pot to cause problems. I would also say there's uninformed gossip. This points us to those people who feel like they're out of the loop. And so they want to insert themselves in a situation by gossiping.
00:13:37
Speaker
There's also the veiled gossip, which is somebody who says, would you play it please pray for sister so and so because she is fill in the blank with the gossip, right? It's a veiled attempt to still spread gossip. And then I put, there's the habitual gossip. This is the person that gossiping has almost become second nature to them because they just have gossiped so much they don't know any different. And if it left unchecked,
00:14:07
Speaker
And I like this, ah you know I'm a fan of Chuck's one doll. And if you know Chuck, I think the older he gets, the clearer sometimes he gets. And he just says this, and I was listening to him on Friday, and he said, stop it out. When it comes to gossip in the church, stop it out. It's got no place in the church.
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Because if we don't, friends, what happens is it spreads like gangrene.
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So I'm here to remind you of what you already know. Now it's a call to obedience. Do we obey and not gossip? Because when the gossip brings dishonor, understand it's not bringing dishonor to the person you're gossiping about. It's bringing dishonor on you, the person who is gossiping. And when you do that, you no longer become beneficial to the king or his kingdom purposes.
00:15:09
Speaker
dishonor from the words that come out of our mouth disqualifies us. And I know we all want to be beneficial. We want to be ready and be used like a good utensil for a special occasion like Timothy says here. So if that's the type of speech that's useless, what is the type of speech that is useful? This is what I love about Paul in this letter. A whole lot of contrasts.
00:15:37
Speaker
do this, don't do this. Don't be like that, but be like this. Right? He says, if gossip makes us no longer beneficial to God, then there is a certain type of speech which is indeed beneficial to Him. Verse 15 says, that we are to be a people whose speech is someone who accurately handles the word of God. This is is your Greek word, ortho tomato, right? a A straight cut is what this means. And he's kind of doing this in regard to the picture of gangrene. He's saying, if you have gangrene, you go to the doctor, the surgeon, he's gotta take a straight cut to get that out. He's saying, if you're gonna be beneficial, the words that come out of your mouth ought to line up with God's word.
00:16:30
Speaker
22 says that they ought to be characterized by righteousness and faithfulness and love and peace. And we're supposed to be in fellowship. ah And we have some good friends, Kim and I, um who who are not active in the church. and And we're always kind of like, why are they never active in the church? and And I just think there's something wrong as a Christian if you don't want a fellowship with other Christians.
00:16:56
Speaker
One of the ways God helps us all keep each other in line is by Christian fellowship, so that we don't have this tendency to be on an island and just want to feel like we're outside of the loop. Which by the way, if you're ever here during the week at church here, there is no inner sanctum here. There is no inner core of mysterious people running the church. There's Cindy and myself. That's all of us.
00:17:24
Speaker
right And there's other volunteers that show up. But there should be this sense of we want to get together as fellow believers who call on the name of the Lord with a pure heart because the benefit of that is it keeps us from wanting to gossip. And when you're around other like-minded people who speak a certain way and who praise the Lord and don't use this unrighteous speech,
00:17:52
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says that it keeps us and prepares us to be used as vessels. And I like this idea of a of a cup that's ready to be used. you know If you're ever super thirsty, like I was working in the garage the other day and it's like 900 degrees out there, and I'm so thirsty and I run inside and I go to grab a cup, only to realize in the bottom of the cup was some crumbs. I think that somebody had swiped, and I'm not saying somebody, it's either Kim and I, that's the only people in the house.
00:18:18
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But somebody swiped like the crumbs off the counter and just instead of dumping them in the garbage disposal trash dumped them in this cup. While it was so thirsty I grabbed the cup and went to fill it up with the water only to realize what is all of this in there? You know and I think to myself sometimes I wonder if God's like that when he comes to us. You know he's here expecting this clean vessel ready to be used, empty, clean, available.
00:18:43
Speaker
And he gets us and he goes, oh man, this cup is defiled. It's dirty. It's unuseful. And just like a dirty cup that you would never drink out of, God's not going to be able to use you for his kingdom purposes if this is the type of speech that constantly comes out of our mouths. Just like there's dishonor with gossip that comes out of our mouth, he goes on here to say there's a certain level of honor that comes.
00:19:14
Speaker
He says, we'll be a good workman, approved by God, verse 15. He says, look look at verse 15. He says, work hard so that you can present yourself to God and receive His approval. Be a good worker, one who who who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth. He's saying in all matters you know that really matter, that stuff that really counts, all you really need is the king's approval. You don't need man's approval.
00:19:43
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Watch your speech, handle the Word of God accurately, and if you do this, instead of bringing dishonor, verse 20 says, you'll be used for honorable use. You'll be a special utensil for honorable use. You and I both want to be that utensil.
00:20:02
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He says 21 continues, if anyone cleans themselves of this type of behavior, this useless speech, this gossip, if they get rid of that type of speech, they will be a vessel of honorable use, set apart, holy, useful for the master and prepared
Characteristics of Honorable Speech
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for every good work.
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If we want to be useful to God and His kingdom purposes, ready for good works, we must keep ourselves from gossip. It's just that clear. And so the call is, do you remember this? Do you remember this verses from here? Have you been taught this before? Am I just reminding you today? Or is this a new concept, don't gossip? Your parents, if they did even a halfway decent job raising you, told you don't what? Don't gossip.
00:20:50
Speaker
It's not beneficial to you, it's not beneficial to the person that you are gossiping about, and it doesn't benefit the entirety of the church body. So what does honorable speech look like for you and I today? This is where I want to land. Just a couple of observations from the text, a couple of observations from Proverbs, because I think it's very helpful in our praxis, our living out our faith. So what does honorable speech look like today? If you're taking notes, the first two words that go together,
00:21:20
Speaker
nourishing and healing, nourishing and healing. If we want to win honor with our words, those words ought to be words that nourish and heal. Proverbs 16, 24, 16, 24 says this, gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. And Proverbs 10, 21, 10, 21 says the lips of the righteous nourish many.
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Speaker
but fools die of lack of s sense.
00:21:56
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Many, many years ago, my loving wife taught me something, and I don't know if I've ever accredited her for this, but she said, are the words that coming out or come out of your mouth, are they helpful or hurtful?
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And she said, when we get ready to have an argument or we can feel an argument coming on, would you would you simply go back to this before you speak? Is what you're getting ready to say helpful or hurtful? And then she would say, and understand I come from a good place. I come from a sincere place. I'm not trying to cause problems here. If we keep those two things in check, I think sometimes,
00:22:38
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with our approach to conversations, not only at home, but here at the church. And we think to ourselves, I'm getting ready to say something to this person. Is it helpful? Is it nourishing? Or is it hurtful?
00:22:59
Speaker
Yeah, you know, Alistair Begg, which I listen listen to often, he just said, of there's a heart defect in the Gossiper. That was the the terminology he used, a heart defect in the Gossiper. He said, because it reveals in that person a heart that lacks understanding, that lacks compassion, and it lacks grace. He went on to say, if you want to combat gossip, you should probably have an attitude that says, I may not know the whole story here.
00:23:36
Speaker
Let me just tell you, friends, this is probably the best advice somebody has ever given me. You may experience somebody in your day-to-day life, they may be here in the church, they may be at your work or at your school, and they may rub you the wrong way. I'll just put that the most polite way possible. The best advice I've ever gotten is we don't know what that person is going through. We really don't know the whole story.
00:24:04
Speaker
And so instead of just responding to that person or exploding on that person like we often wanna do or gossiping about that person, often we it's helpful just to say, I may not know the whole story here. And what that does is it provides us an opportunity to display grace. I don't know what's going on here. Maybe something else is happening.
00:24:32
Speaker
Chuck Smidall tells a story where he's up preaching at Stonebrier Church and there was a gentleman ah that sat near the back and he said, week after week this man fell asleep. He said he slept the entire sermon. He said, and I felt myself week after week getting more and more aggravated with this man. He said, and I went back one day and he said, I couldn't help but noticing, sir.
00:24:59
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that you are sleeping through all of my sermons is the way he said it, right? You got to love Chuck. This guy said, yes, sir. He goes, and I just want to let you know, this is the only time I get quiet solitude he said I've been at the hospital my wife she's got stage four cancer he goes the last eight eight months you know she's going downhill I can't sleep but at the hospital I'm just sitting by her bedside he goes and I come in here and I find true peace and he goes and it's just comforting and I sleep please don't take offense is what he said and Chuck said oh man I feel like a heel like because I'm so angry he said I didn't know the whole story what was going on with that guy
00:25:39
Speaker
I think oftentimes, friends, we can we can take this attitude of I probably don't know the whole story, nor do I need to know the whole story. But I should probably show a lot of grace in the moment. What does this look like for you and I today? One example.
00:25:59
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An example of uninformed gossip sounds like this. and i And trust me, these are purely examples. I have not heard this from anybody at the church.
00:26:11
Speaker
Can you believe that the church wants to waste more money on AC units for the gym? Can you believe that? That's an uninformed gossip. Someone who shows grace, rather, would probably respond this way. Hey, I'm not really sure why they need new AC units for the church, but I really haven't been plugged into the property committee, so I'm not really sure what's going on. I think I'm just gonna defer to them and show grace.
00:26:41
Speaker
That's a proper response that combats gossip. But that takes a lot more effort, doesn't it? It's much easier to go, ah, I just don't agree with the way they're doing things over there.
00:26:55
Speaker
If we want to be somebody who's nourishing and healing with our words, we want to say positive and encouraging things instead of complaining. And I feel like that's often the case with the gossippers. They're complainers at heart. They're complainers at nature. So instead of being critical and being compassionate, instead of complaining or gossiping the way something ought to happen here at the church, let me encourage you to show up and volunteer. and It's the curious way to to quickly get you from gossiping here at the church. It's just to come and see what all happens. Come on down, sign up and help out, make a difference. And if you're unhappy about something at the church, let me explain the the easiest way to combat gossip. You find somebody on the church council and you explain to them, hey, here's my grievance.
00:27:47
Speaker
But be constructive, not destructive. Because why? We don't know what everybody's doing and what they're going through. Every interaction that we have, we have the ability to respond either with words of encouragement or words of discouragement. And believe it or not, there are people that volunteer here at the church that don't get paid. That's 99% of the church here.
00:28:10
Speaker
So understand when you're if you have a complaint or you're gossiping about somebody, 99% of the chance they're not paid and they're just volunteering. They're just up here out of the goodness of their heart. So show them some grace.
00:28:26
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Unless you want to take their place.
00:28:29
Speaker
Second, the second grouping of our words is edifying and rewarding, edifying and rewarding. Proverbs 12, 14 says, from the fruit of their lips, people are filled with good things and the work of their hands brings them reward. This means that honest, godly words come back to those who use them with as much benefit as those who work with their hands. By the very words we speak to one another, we can either build them up, which is this word edify, or we can tear them down.
00:28:58
Speaker
simply by the words that come out of our mouth. Therefore, bless others with kind, encouraging words, and you'll gain the respect and love of others. What does this look like in your Bible study class? One example I gave. Tell your Bible study teacher, who by the way is a volunteer, who doesn't get paid, say, hey, it's really wonderful to sit under your teaching.
00:29:26
Speaker
Hey, encourage them to continue studying the Bible as fervently and diligently that they do. And also understand they're human and they're flawed. And they have other things going outside of Bible study class.
00:29:44
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And I put, understand they're not paid. And even if they were paid, they're not doing it for the check. Trust me.
00:29:54
Speaker
Don't complain to other people privately saying, I don't like this class, or I don't like the teacher, or I don't like their style, or I don't fit in.
00:30:09
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Pastorally and lovingly, just like Chuck Swindoll, let me tell you, stop that. It's not helpful. It's not helpful to you. It's not helpful to me. It's not helpful to the church. It's not beneficial. and i And I want you to really consider it will disqualify you from use in God's kingdom. And we all want to be useful to the King. Amen. Pray with me.
Prayer for Strength and Righteous Speech
00:30:38
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Heavenly Father, help us to abstain from quarrelsome speech, from gossip,
00:30:46
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Help us, Lord, that when we identify that small spark that we stomp it out before it becomes a wildfire. Thank you, Lord, for the reminder that your word brings. May we be obedient to that call. May we realize that we we're all part of this body, all different, all serving, all serving the one Lord.
00:31:16
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May we show grace and mercy and compassion in our speech.
00:31:24
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And may that glorify you. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.