Jesus Makes A Difference! Overflow!
Sunday, September 18, 2016
A couple of years ago, March of 2014, I preached a series called “Me and My Big Mouth,” that focused on our words. We looked at talking too much, murmuring, swearing, lying, and gossiping. It was a good series.
Mt 12:33 “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. d Mt 12:34 You brood of vipers,e how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. f Mt 12:35 The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. Mt 12:36 But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. Mt 12:37 For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Words mean sooooo much. Usually, they mean much more than we realize. Like many areas of our lives, our words can edge farther and farther away from God unless we are extremely thoughtful and careful. I was thinking about the prophet Isaiah this week. In Isaiah 6m the prophet is worshipping and is faced with the presence of Almighty God.
“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” 6Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
Spending time in the presence of God make Isaiah aware of his unclean lips.
Ask God to put His words into your mouth. It’s clear that He does that. God is the SOURCE of our words. Isaiah 51;16. I have put mywords in your mouth and covered you with the shadow ofmy hand— I who set the heavens in place, who laid the foundations of the earth, and who say to Zion, ‘You are my people.’”
God is the FOCUS of our words. Psalm 19:14. May these wordsofmymouth and this meditation ofmy heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.
Change a home? Mike Holmes is a Canadian contractor, best known for his “Holmes on Homes” show. He and his crew will visit a home with some known issues, evaluate it, and then “make it right.” Should have never passed inspection. Big two story brick house needed some attention. At its core, it was unstable and unsafe and a total disaster waiting to happen. Holmes gutted the house and removed all the interior structure. Floors, walls, plumbing, electrical all came out. It was an empty shell of a house. Jesus makes a difference. We read last week how God has promised to take our hard, cold hearts of stone and to give us soft, supple hearts of flesh. That’s the starting point for change in our lives.
David seeks purification in Psalm 51: “Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. . . . Cleanse me, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. . . . Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm 51:2,7,10).
Jeremiah 17:14. “Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.”