Valley View Church
Valley View Church
Proverbs 18:21 | What Proverbs Says about Words
Sunday Morning | June 8, 2025 | John C. Majors | Louisville, KY
The sermon "What Proverbs Says About Words" explores the profound power of speech, emphasizing that our words can bring life or death (Proverbs 18:21). Using the acrostic "GENTLE B.R.E.A.T.H.," the message highlights that godly communication should be Gentle, not harsh or boastful, marked by restraint, integrity, and wisdom. Proverbs teaches that gentle words calm anger and even break resistance, while reckless speech invites conflict and ruin. We are warned against gossip and self-praise, called instead to speak with humility, to listen before answering, and to value truth. Drawing from James 3 and Bonhoeffer’s insight, the sermon reminds us that the failure to listen is the beginning of spiritual decay. Ultimately, wise words, fitly spoken, reflect the heart of God and nourish those who hear them.
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Well, good morning, Valley view. Great to be with you. Thank you for the applause for opening the door. Wow, that's a good start. I did that just to highlight the fact that our stage is very different today. If this is your first time here, we don't normally have all of these outdoor decorations, but this week is Vacation Bible School. We're starting into that this week, which is one of our best outreaches to the community where we intentionally invest in the lives of the children who are part of our church. And it's a powerful week, so be praying for that this week. One of the things I've been contemplating since all of this is outdoor theme. I wish there was a way we could incorporate, especially into snack time, the use, use of cicadas. Wouldn't that be great? We we have so many around. It'd be great if we could figure that out. Don't worry. Still bring your kids. It's going to be okay. We won't. Don't bring cicadas. By the way, kids, I know you're thinking it's a great opportunity. Okay, bring it back together. We're looking at the book of Proverbs. We've been studying the book of Proverbs because we want wisdom. We want ancient wisdom for a modern day. And the Book of Proverbs is all about wisdom. And we're working through a series of topics that spreads across many of the chapters of Proverbs. We looked at character. What does Proverbs say about character? We looked at finances last week. This week we'll be looking at our words. What does Proverbs have to say about the words you use? And I think this is probably the topic Proverbs gives more attention to than any other. Beyond the obvious of how do we get wisdom? I did a study of this in college. I just went through every verse in the book of Proverbs, every single one, and I circled wherever I saw any kind of word related to our words the mouth, the lips, the tongue, speech, every word like that. How many verses in the book of Proverbs have some reference to the use of our words? I don't remember the exact number, but it was somewhere around 25% of the verses in the book of Proverbs makes some reference to the use of our words. That's a huge amount of the book of Proverbs. A quarter of the book is given to. If you want to apply wisdom to your life, make sure you're careful with your speech. Now, why would God care so much about how we use our words? Why would he give it a fourth of a book of wisdom? Give attention to the use of our words. Why give that so much of all the things he could give attention to? Why our words? What we're going to build towards emphasizing that and pointing out why I think there are some other elements of Scripture that point us towards that. But to begin with, part of the reason comes back to just understanding the heart.
In fact, a well known verse is Matthew 12:34 out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. And you know how this works. You've probably used this with your kids. If you squeeze a tube of toothpaste, what comes out? It's not a trick question. Toothpaste? Thank you. And when you get squeezed, meaning stress, pressure, hard times apply to your life. What comes out? It's not toothpaste, by the way. Hopefully whatever is in your heart, whatever's in there is what gets shown in that moment. That's what gets revealed. Our hearts get revealed through our words. What we say reveals what's already in our hearts. There's another side to it though, as well. It's not. It doesn't just only reveal what's in our heart. What we say also affects our hearts. Also influences our hearts, also directs our hearts. That's why we need to be careful with what we say. In fact, we're going to have as our anchor passage today, Proverbs chapter 18. And it's on the back of your handout that you got. If you didn't get one, slip up your hand. Maybe, maybe people will be able to get one to you. But we're going to use Proverbs chapter 18 as our central passage to unpack this idea of the words. We’ll jump around all over Proverbs. That's why we have a handout. But there's a verse in Proverbs 18 that highlights this reality of how it affects your heart. Look at 18, verse seven, before destruction a man's heart is haughty, but humility. I'm sorry, that's verse 12. Verse seven- a fool’s mouth is his ruin and his lips are a snare to his soul. What you say affects your soul. The two are related, so it works both ways. And we need to practice care with our words. Now, Proverbs 18 is useful towards this end because I've said early on we talked about the structure of verses chapters one through nine. We talked about the fact that chapters ten through 30 have less structure and they're more individual proverbs. But chapter 18 has some interesting things going on. I've tried to highlight that on the back of your handout,
where I put verse 17:27 through 18:21, many of the commentators and scholars I read said they see this kind of as its own unit with some structure within it. It's not super clear structure, but there are some, they called it proverbial clusters. There are some things clustered together to give emphasis, and hopefully you can see that in the way I've laid this out. The first two verses emphasize the restraining of our words. He closes his lips. You see the bookends there of that. Verses four through eight begin with the words of a man's mouth, the words of a whisper, a focus. There. That section working together. Verses 12 through 15 begin and end with a heart talking about the heart, and in the middle is the spirit. Verses 18 and 19 begin and end with quarrels, emphasizing how we address quarrels. Verse 20 and 21 talk about the fruit of the mouth, so that these clusters, these gathering of proverbs that give emphasis to those and give some structure. And we see over and over again in chapter 18 that he's addressing how we use our words, how we use our mouth, how it relates to the heart and the rest of our life. And I think it's all loosely organized around this last verse in chapter 18, and it's an important one for us to recognize today. While we think about how we use our words, it says death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat of its fruits. You see, every time we open our mouths, we have a choice to make every single time, every word we use is. And there are variations and shades, but we're either giving life through our words, or we're taking life through our words every time. And we've got a choice all day long, a million times a day. Am I going to give life with what I say, or am I going to take it? And those who love life eat of its fruit, and those who like to take life love to eat of that fruit as well. How should we use our words? Here's the challenging part for the Christian our word should be life giving. In fact, flip over with me to James chapter three. The page numbers in your outline. If you have one of our church Bibles, you can reference it there. James. Chapter three James is often called the Proverbs of the New Testament. It's the book of wisdom in the New Testament that has a lot of proverbial statements. But in James chapter three he talks specifically about the tongue. We're going to keep coming back to this chapter a couple of different times, but here's what he says in verse eight- no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. We do both. But notice what he says about this. From the same mouth comes blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does this bring forth from the same opening both fresh and saltwater? His point being, if you know Christ, if he lives in you, if he has changed your life, what comes forth from us should not be both blessings and cursing. The same way you go to a spring and it's either freshwater or saltwater. It's not both. Now, of course. Listen, none of us are perfect. Even if you're the most seasoned Christians here, you have used your words wrongly even recently. Probably. But for the Christian, the burden should be to give life. It should be moving towards life giving. It should be quick to confess when I give death with my words, it should be wanting to change old patterns and habits that lead to words of death. So how does the Proverbs guide us in this giving, life giving words rather than words that take life? There's a real, simple acronym we're going to use today that I got from Bruce Waltke, a commentator. He got it from a student, and this student said we should use gentle breath. Gentle breath. We'll use that acronym starting with the letter G. Gentle. And that's the word we're going to emphasize here. It's in your notes. How do we use words that are gentle? Life giving words tend to be gentle.
Look at 18:14 here. You want to look at chapter 18. A man's spirit will endure sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear? So the fool wants to use their words to crush you. They want to harm, they want to hurt. They want to tear down. They want to make you feel small so they can make themselves feel big. But, but, but note the Christian uses gentle words building upwards. Look at a couple of these verses
here 15:4 - the soothing tongue is a tree of life. A soft answer turns away wrath. A gentle tongue breaks the bone. So here's the crazy part of this. The reality is, harsh words can work to get what you want. People do it all the time. Yell, scream, threaten. And it does work. People do respond to that. But the case Proverbs is making here is that actually the opposite of that is more powerful, is more persuasive. It's the gentle word that actually turns away wrath. And everyone here has experienced this where you're hoping to hurt someone through your words and you use harsh words. You use words meant to intend to harm. And the other person does not respond. And it changes the tone. Yeah, you can use harsh words. You can use crushing words. And it may get what you want in the moment. But it's not winning their heart. It's not the way to go about it long term. It's not the path of life. And so life giving words, are first gentle. They are words that come with a sense of tenderness and kindness and love and joy and respect. All right. Now let's continue in our acronym. Acronym with the word breath. The letter B, you can fill in the blanks here. Boasts not. Words that honor God. Words that are life giving do not boast. They boast not. Look at verse 12 here of chapter 18 - before destruction, a man's heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor. So the fool loves to boast, loves to talk about themselves, loves to be braggart. But honor comes through humility. Words that are life giving have at their core a measure of humility. In fact, look at this
other verse listed here, verse 27:2, let another praise you and not your own lips. The call of the Christian is let someone else do that. We don't have to stand up and talk about how great we are. Let someone else do that, and if they don't, it's going to be okay. Our security, our identity is not dependent on someone else praising me as a Christian. I don't have to have that to have significance. But if it is going to happen, let someone else do it. By the way, it doesn't work when you do it anyway. Everyone sees right through that and they go, what's going on with him? Well, why does he have to talk about how great he is? No, let another praise you and not your own lips. Now the fool wants no part of that.
Look here at 18:6- a fool's lips walk into a fight and his mouth invites a beating. You've seen that? The fool cannot humble themself. They got to keep pressing and pressing, and their mouth walks him right into a situation they can't get back from. I was down in men's breakfast recently. We had that last month, in fact, Saturday we're having a gathering of the men out at the ball field. It's going to be a great afternoon barbecue from 2 to 4, but we had our men's breakfast and I was getting the plate of food. One of the things I like to do is put some hot sauce on my eggs. We usually have some bottles of hot sauce sitting there and I'm over there near the hot sauce, and I hear Richard Cotton back in the kitchen. I hear him say something about hot sauce. And I know Richard loves a good hot sauce, so I'm getting excited. I just hear him utter the phrase hot sauce. And so I yell back because it's noisy in there. There's fans going and machinery and equipment and there's people talking, and I kind of yell through there, what did you say about hot sauce? Richard? Do you have something for me? And here's what Richard yells back. He yells, why don't you come over here and say it? Which if you weren't here, I told the story of a time I did that as a kid weeks ago, and it got me in big trouble. My mouth was writing checks, my fist couldn’t cash kind of thing. You know what I'm talking about. He thankfully had to remind me of that. I didn't really appreciate it in the moment. The fool's lips walk into a fight, the fool's lips stir up, the fool's lips divide rather than moving towards life and peace. Boast not. That's part of what we're called to do with our words. That's the letter B, letter R, the words that are life giving are called to be restrained. Restrained. Few.
Look at 17:27. Whoever restrains his words has knowledge. He who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding. There's something about the book of Proverbs over and over again. It gives this emphasis to the reality that a Christian is called to use less words. That wisdom is often attached to less words.
Look here at chapter 10:19-- When words are many, transgression is not lacking. But whoever restrains his lips is prudent. There's something about the wise person who knows. Let me just hold back a little bit. Let me not do and say the very first thing that comes to mind. Let me wait. Let me be patient. Let me see if I need to say anything. If it gets said by someone else. Again, the fool wants no part of this. The fool just wants to talk and talk. Express his opinion. In fact, look at verse two in chapter 18. A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion. One author I read called this the Babyl-on-ian; babble on and on. The person who's just talk, talk, talk never stops, never takes a break, breath. You're waiting for them to come up for air so you can interject. And they don't. They have unceasing amounts of breath and they just keep talking. And all they value is expressing their own opinion. What that reveals is an unteachable heart. I don't really want to hear what anybody else has to say. It's just going to make it all about me. And again, look, we've all been there at times. This is hard for me to talk about because I get paid to talk. You can imagine this is just a little bit intimidating to me, to talk for me to bring up these verses right here- where words are few, there are less transgressions. There's something, though, about Proverbs that calls us to give care with our words, to pause, to think before we just shout out whatever comes to mind. In fact, I love verse 28 of 17 even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise. When he does close his lips, he is deemed intelligent. If you're not sure what to say, just don't say anything. It's okay. We don't always have to express our opinions, so our words are called to be restrained. Now, I think there's three ways to show restraint. These aren't in your notes. You'll need to jot these down if you want to capture them. Three reasons why we should show restraint. The first is that controlling our tongue is a way to gain self-control in general. If you can't control your tongue, it generally is connected to self-control in other areas of life. Let's go back to James chapter three. This is stated explicitly in James chapter three, James chapter three, verse two. For we all stumble in many ways, and if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. Notice the connection he's making here and he's going to make it in the next one. There's a connection between the use of the tongue and the use of the entire body. He gives the example of a horse. If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. A very small thing controls a much larger thing. He talks about a ship after that. Look at ships. Also, though they are so large and driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue, though it is a small member, it boasts of great things. Something very small, the tongue-- when it is controlled, there's a connection between that and self-control over the entirety of the person. That's the first reason why restraint is important. Second, it is a path to wisdom. Wisdom, as we saw in verse 28, even if you keep silent, you might be considered wise if you don't have wisdom, stay quiet, gain wisdom from others, and when they talk and you gain wisdom from them, you might be in a place then to have something of worth to say. Silence can be a path to wisdom. And then number three. Listening is a profound means of love. Listening is a profound means of love, especially in our day and age. I mean, people are dying to be heard. They're dying to be heard. Everything they do is screaming out, will you listen to me? Will somebody hear me? Well, someone care enough to listen? I've got to tell you, there's a-- some of the most profound moments in my life were the times that someone just sat and listened to me for hours. And of course, I was the Babyl-on-ian, and they just listened. They just loved on me. They were hard seasons where I needed to be heard. But this is hard for the Christian, especially the Christian. In fact, I put this quote in here by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I put it in your notes because it's long, but it's one you're going to want to reread, reread and consider. I mentioned Bonhoeffer before he was a pastor during World War Two. In fact, this quote comes from his book. He was a German pastor. He wrote a book, Life Together, summarizing their approach to an illegal seminary they created because they didn't like what was happening across the whole German church. That seemed to be going along with Hitler's program. We've got to go a different direction. We should be about making disciples, not supporting the government. And so he wrote a book summarizing up their approach to how they were training pastors. And one of the things he talked about was the importance of listening. Look at this quote with me. Many people are looking for an ear that will listen. They do not find it among Christians because these Christians are talking when they should be listening. But he who can no longer listen to his brother will soon be no longer listening to God either. Notice the connection he's making here between our ability to listen to others and our ability to listen to God. He's making a strong connection between the two. He will be doing nothing but prattle in the presence of God to this is the beginning of the death of the spiritual life, and in the end, there is nothing left but spiritual chatter and clerical condescension arrayed in pious words. That's a mouthful. He draws it to a conclusion here. One who cannot listen long and patiently will be presently talking beside the point, and be never really speaking to others, albeit he not be conscious of it. Anyone who thinks that his time is too valuable to spend keeping quiet will eventually have no time for God and his brother, but only for himself and for his own follies. That is a really hard couple of paragraphs to read, because he was writing this specifically to pastors, by the way, but I think we all can relate to that. There are times I've been so self-absorbed that all I can do is just talk, talk, talk. All we gotta do is listen. Our words are called to be few, to be restrained. Now, let me give one caveat to that, because I know there's some of us in here are going to maybe a significant other, see? Pastor said it's okay if I never talk. No, no, no, that's not the point. And we're going to get to how we need to use our words. And God calls us to use our words. What I'm talking to is the moments when we use way too many without purpose and significance. We've shut others out and we're not listening. You know the difference. You know what I'm talking about. Don't use this quote to justify just being silent. We gotta use balance. So restrained. Now the next letter E. Words of wisdom are called to be words that do not eavesdrop. Eavesdrop not is how they stated it. And in that category I put gossip and rumors. Both of those together. Rumors would be things that maybe aren't true or you don't know. Hey, I'm not sure if this is true or not that's getting spread. Gossip would be things that are true but shouldn't be spread. And you're spreading them. In fact,
look at this verse here 11:13-- whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets. The slanderer, the person who by-- and by the way, at the heart of both of those is this desire to hurt someone. I'm sharing this with the intent. Even if I act like it's not. Even if I call it a prayer request, I'm sharing it with the intent of injuring someone, of shaming them, of lowering their esteem and estimation in the eyes of others, again, so that I feel a little bit better about myself. See, I'm I'm somehow superior to them. Can't you see that? See what I shared about them. That's not what we're called to do. Look at part B of that verse. But he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps a thing covered. Keeps the thing covered. We looked at this verse. In fact, you can just look across the page
to 17:9. It says this-- whoever covers an offense seeks love. We looked at this verse in First Peter. Love covers a multitude of sins, seeks to cover over and conceal instead of draw out those imperfections. And again, we're not talking about things that do need to be highlighted-- crimes, horrible sins, things that need to be corrected and changed. Yes, those need to be uncovered and revealed. And we're also not talking about the kind of things that need to happen in the church, or I need to be able to go to Eddie Lee when I hear about an issue with the senior adult member, and she's a minister to senior adults, and we can talk about how do we minister to this person, that's not done in the context of hoping to tear them down, but how do we go to them and minister to them and build them up? But you've got to have the wisdom to know the difference between the two. And that's not always easy. But our words are called to not be about the rumors, the gossip, the tearing down, but to be about giving life. That's letter E. Now look at letter A. Our words are called to be apt, a-p-t, apt, fitting is another way to say it. In fact, chapter 25, verse 11 says it this way-- a word fitly spoken, some of your Bibles might say, aptly spoken, is like apples of gold in settings of silver. A word spoken in a fitting way, in a timely manner, in the right way, fashioned and crafted well is like a fine piece of jewelry. That's the imagery here for someone to take apples of gold and put it in settings of silver. Takes skill. You don't just randomly do that. You don't do it well without skill, without craftsmanship, and you see that that person has worked hard to gain that ability. And so using words that are apt have different elements to it. They should be timely. The right word delivered at the wrong time is not helpful. In fact, there's a great verse on this.
25:11, which we already read.
It's 27:14. Whoever blesses his neighbor with a loud voice in the morning is counted as cursing. But I came to bless you. I'm not ready. I'm not awake. Haven’t had my coffee. Who? Who are my not morning people here. I don't want any noise in the morning. I like getting up early, I want quiet. It's not a blessing to be greeted with a loud song first thing. Some of us wake up and you're ready. You wake up singing The Star Spangled Banner at full volume, and you think the whole world is ready to hear it as well. An apt word is timely, an apt word considers the tone. You can say the exact same sentence and it can be a huge blessing, or it can be sarcasm and the person can know you didn't really mean it. This is the big challenge with texting, right? You see the exact same sentence. The exact same words on a piece of paper can be taken two very different ways. The tone matters. The pace matters. If I need to say something very meaningful, and I say it quickly and rush through it as I'm dashing out the door, you have to wonder if I really meant it, if it was really important to me or not. But if I take the time, if it's careful, if it's slow, if it's thoughtful, then you know it is. It's it's meaningful. There's an artistry to delivering words that are apt, that are timely, that are careful. That's letter A. Now letter T- thoughtful words that are life giving
are thoughtful. Look at 18:13-- If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame. And then also verse 17, look at what it says. The one who states his cause first seems right until the other comes and examines him. Both these verses are pointing to the reality that the foolish person doesn't really want to know the whole picture. They want to rush to judgment. In fact, one commentator said it this way I love this sentence. Jumping to conclusions is a special snare of the self-important. Jumping to conclusions is a special snare of the self-important. The first thing you hear, oh, I got this figured out. I know what's going on here, but it takes thoughtfulness to hear the side of one story. In fact, anytime I'm involved in any kind of marriage counseling conversation and I've only heard one side of the story, no matter how unjust it seems, I gotta keep telling myself, John, you've only heard one side of the story. You've only heard one side of the story. I got to say it to myself a million times. Wait till you hear the other side. Because there's always, always, always another side to the story. And sometimes you hear both sides and you're like, are these two even in the same universe? I'm hearing two stories that are so completely contradictory. Have they ever even spoken to each other? Other times you hear both sides and you go, I can see the middle. I can see how they're seeing this differently. But don't go just spouting off judgment right away. You want to practice thoughtfulness and care and take the time it takes. The fool just wants to rush to judgment. I got it all figured out. Here's what I've seen. I know. We're called to be thoughtful. Now, letter H-- honest. Look at verse four. The words of a man's mouth are deep waters, which means they're hidden deep waters. You got to drill down to find them, to get to the well. They're hard to get to. That's how our words are. But the wise, the fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook. The words of the wise give life easily and often. You can come to them and expect that the bubbling brook, the life giving water, will be there. And those words are honest. They're true. They're not-- You know, sometimes people will use flattery to get what they want. Those words aren't true. Even though they feel nice, they're still not true. And you walk away later going, I don't think they meant that. That was insincere. But the person who uses words of wisdom uses words that are honest and even when that's hard to say, that's where apt words comes into play. There are times you do have to say things that are hard, that may feel like they're not life giving, but you know, we've got to address this in order to help you grow. Now, we don't go around all the time doing that, all the time pointing out people's problems. No, people will avoid you as much as they can, if that's who you are. Here's a little tip someone shared with me. If you do have something to deliver with someone, do it in the context of some encouragement as well. And parents, do this with your children. In fact, I think our tendency as parents is to highlight all the things our kids are doing wrong a lot of times. That's all we see a lot of times. And the next time your instinct is to criticize-- this works for parents, this works for employees, bosses, students. This works in marriage. The next time your instinct is to first immediately jump to here's what's wrong. Pause and think of five things you can encourage them with. Maybe you can't get through all five. Maybe you don't think of five, but don't you like it a lot better when someone comes up to you and go, man, when you did that, I saw this in you. I saw that you cared. I saw that you were loving this person. I saw-- but can I just point out one thing I think might have made that a little stronger? I'm ready to hear that now. Now, if you start with that, I'm not even listening. Probably. Unfortunately. But our words are called to be honest and to be true. And here's why. We've looked at these verses already. Proverbs 30 verse five. Every word of God proves true. Our words are called to be true because his words are true. Titus one verse two says, God cannot lie, and because we know his words are true and we can trust his words, we're called to mirror that. We're made in his image. We're called to use words that honor him in all we do. In fact, this is why I think words are so important to God. This is why I think so much of the book of Proverbs are focused on our words. Think back to the book of Genesis, to the very beginning of words. God could have created the world in any manner he wanted, in any way he wanted. He could have snapped his fingers. He could have stomped his foot like Pastor Kevin would have done to create the world. He could have danced. He could have done anything to create the world. And what did he do? What did he do? He spoke. Let there be light. He spoke the world into existence. He, he spoke you into existence. He used words to literally give life to the world. There is something about the spoken word. And by the way, he gave us that ability too. Isn’t that incredible? The very power he used to create the world. He gave us that ability. It looks a little different. But you've had life giving words given to you, and it's given you life. Not only that, we are called to use our words to give eternal life. Romans chapter ten. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you will be saved. It also says in the same passage, how will they know if they do not hear? We're called to tell others with words about Jesus. He's given us the life giving power, eternal life giving power. Now I want to end by giving you just one practical way to drive this home. Because every one of us in here, and I gotta to tell you, as I'm studying this, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed going, have I ever said anything right in my life? Right? There's so many ways we misuse our words. It can be overwhelming. Just pick one thing from this list that you read today. We're going to do this in a really practical way. I want you to turn to First Corinthians 13. I don't have the page number on the screen or anything, so you may have to look around and ask around to find it. If you don't know where First Corinthians is. First Corinthians in the New Testament, First Corinthians 13, you-- if you don't know what that is, you've probably heard it before if you've been to a wedding. That's the love passage, the section on love that gets read at weddings. And we all love to hear because it's lovey dovey and we're at a wedding and there's young love and there's a couple smiling and hugging and... But that's not why Paul wrote it. He wasn't at a wedding when he wrote it. He was writing to the Corinthians, who were deeply divided at this time. And specifically they were divided about the use of their words. In fact, look at verse one, chapter 13. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. The context here is spiritual gifts, and they were deeply divided about the spiritual gift of tongues. And here's the crazy part. That gift was meant to unify, not divide. It's no coincidence that we're talking about this. And today is Pentecost Sunday, because Pentecost was a reversal of what happened at the Tower of Babel. The Tower of Babel, God came to earth and he divided people because they were going their own way, making a great name for themselves. He divided humanity, and Pentecost was the reversal of that. I'm going to unify people in the spirit, and here they are deeply divided over really a secondary thing. And so Paul has to come to them and say, here's what love should look like, and I'm going to read this, and I've seen this done before. I didn't come up with this. A friend of mine showed me this. He uses this in marriage counseling. I'm going to read this and hear me out. I'm not trying to replace love with myself, but I'm going to replace the word love with my name as I read, and I want you to do the same in your head. We're not replacing ourself with love. We're asking, do I live up to what it says to be loving? So look down here at verse four. Love is patient. Okay, John is patient. Can that be said? Is that true of John? You put your own name in. Don't come judging me right now, okay? Put your own name in. John is patient. Is John patient? Is he kind? John does not envy or boast. John is not arrogant or rude. John does not insist on his own way. John is not irritable or resentful. John does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with truth. John bears all things, believes all things, hope all things, endures all things. Love never ends. When you read through these descriptions of love, just what is one that God pricked you with? Man, I need to grow in that. I need to grow in my patience. I need to grow in not making it about my way. I need to not be irritable or resentful. Because our words say so much about who we trust in. First Corinthians goes on to talk about the perfect. When the perfect comes, all things will be made right, and the perfect at the end of the day is Christ. And by the way, it's no coincidence that he is called the word. In the beginning was the word. The word was with God. The word was God. God cares deeply about our words, and we have the power to give life or to take it. I shared in the midweek update this the story of Hershael York, who was interim pastor here when I was in college. He preached here a while back. He works at Southern Seminary, Dean of Theology there, and I was a college student walking across campus because I love to sneak over there, check out the library, the bookstore. And I was just walking across campus and here, here he was. And he was walking with a friend. And I had gotten to know him because he was interim pastor here, and there was very few people here. We could kind of sit just right in this area at the time. It was a rough season for the church, and he introduces me to the guy he’s walking with, I don't didn't know who he was. I don't remember who he is, but I remember what he said. And I think back to all the ways he could’ve introduced me. Here's John, he's a college student at our at our church, and, he he's really trying to figure life out, by the way. You know, he could have said that. That would have been fair. John's a young guy. He's got a long way to go. That would have been fair, too. Here's what he said. I want you to meet John Majors. He's going to be a great preacher someday. I thought I had to look around and say, is my dad behind me? Is my grandpa behind me? You must be talking about some other John Majors, but I walked away from that. Here's what I heard from him. I believe in you. Life giving words. You have a choice. All day long. Pray for Christ to give you the ability to move towards a life. Let's pray. God, we thank you that we can come and worship. Thank you for all the effort that has gone into decorating this stage for this week. And my prayer this week is life giving words to hundreds of children. We don't know what situation everyone's coming from. We pray they would leave here at the end of the week full of your word, and it gives them life and hope and joy and peace, abundant and everlasting. Give wisdom and grace to our leaders this week. My prayer would be right now that each of us would be burdened with one specific word from today. Where do I need to grow? Peace, not irritable? Joy? Are my words few or many? Are my words divisive or healing? Are my words gentle or harsh? God, would you impress upon us just one word to work on this week. Thank you for your word that guides us. We love you. Amen.