The Most Powerful of All Four-Letter Words │ Msg 12/14

0:01 The Sermon on the Mount overflows with frequently quoted statements that have become familiar mottos. Most are better known than Ben Franklin's wit and wisdom, and they're certainly more penetrating. Stop and consider several of them. Let your light shine. Every jot and tittle.

0:24 An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Turn the other cheek. They have their reward. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. You cannot serve God and mammon. O ye of little faith, do not judge lest you be judged. Well, today we're going to examine three other well-known penetrating statements. Casting pearls before swine. Ask, seek, and knock. and a third that's known as the golden rule. We're going to discover the importance of using the power we hold to communicate true words, prayer, and our deeds to make Jesus Christ known to those who will listen. To guide us through these sayings that are so powerful, let's open the Word of God to Matthew chapter 7 and listen along as I read verses 6 through 12. I'll be reading again from the New Living Translation. This passage from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount forms the basis, the foundation, for everything we learn today. So listen carefully to Matthew chapter 7, beginning with verse 6.

1:48 don't waste what is holy on people who are unholy don't throw your pearls to pigs they will trample the pearls then turn and attack you keep on asking and you will receive what you ask for keep on seeking and you will find keep on knocking and the door will be open to you For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. You parents, if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not. So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him? Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.

3:01 Have you thought recently about the power of words? I find it rather encouraging in a day of missiles and rockets and bombs to remind myself that there is probably nothing more powerful than a well-spoken and well-timed word. Someone has said, colors fade, temples crumble, empires fall, but wise words endure. It was Solomon 29 centuries ago who said, Words fitly spoken are like apples of gold in settings of silver. As an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear. I love that turn of a phrase, apples of gold in settings of silver.

3:59 What's true of wise words is also true of harsh words. Who of us hasn't been wounded by the word of another? Sometimes they not only land on us and impact us, they remain embedded in our brains like shrapnel from a grenade. And years may pass, but they don't wash away the reminder of those harsh words that were said. but better still are the wise words, the good words, the words fitly spoken. I love people who are wordsmiths. One of them over the years has been Mark Twain. He said this, the difference between the right word and almost the right word is the difference between lightning and lightning bug. Haddon Robinson, another wordsmith, has said, There are bright words and there are drab words.

5:01 Some are bright as a tropic sunrise and some as drab and unattractive as an anemic person. There are hard words that punch like a prize fighter and weak words as insipid as tea made with one dunk of a teabag. There are pillow words that comfort and steel cold words that threaten. Some words transplant a listener at least for an instant close to the courts of God. And other words send him to the gutter. We live by words. We love by words. We pray with words. We die for words. Let's do this. I've thought about the Old Testament special words in it and the New Testament special words there as well.

6:00 Have you thought lately about the impact of two words said over in the book of Genesis? I ate. Eve said that, and she changed the whole course of history. She said to her God, I ate. Abraham's life was changed when he was told by God regarding his son take your son and then while they were going up Mount Moriah the son asked about a sacrifice and Abraham responded with words fitly spoken God will provide My Bible is open to the book of Proverbs chapter 11. Join me, won't you? Over in Proverbs you find all kinds of words fitly written. And they are the kind of words that stick, not because they are numerous, but often because they are brief and so picturesque.

7:03 Look at Proverbs 11, 22, for example. I love this verse. As a ring of gold in a swine snout. Now those are words fitly spoken, aren't they? So is a beautiful woman who lacks discretion. Isn't that a great way to put it? Don't say that to her the next time you see her, but remember, chapter 23 of Proverbs in verse 2, here are other words that some of us can identify with. Let's take 23, 1 and 2. When you sit down to dine with a ruler, consider carefully what is before you. Put a knife to your throat if you're a man given a great appetite. I love that. That's a great way to diet. It'll stop eating every time. Look at 25, 19.

7:58 Same book, 25, 19. like a bad tooth at an unsteady foot is confidence in a faithless man in time of trouble ever had a bad tooth unpredictable it would go bad on you at some times and it would be okay at other times or you ever had a foot that went out of joint or it was unsteady on a slippery day that's the way it is when you trust in a faithless person you think you can rely on them and they slip out from under you. You think you can count on them, but you can't. They go bad on you. It's a turn of a phrase that is wonderful. Words fitly spoken are like apples of gold in settings of silver. From Proverbs, look at Ecclesiastes. Last chapter, look at verse 9 of Ecclesiastes 12. I often think of this passage when I am preparing a sermon.

9:01 I think of the value of words that are said correctly. 12.9 In addition to being a wise man, the preacher also taught the people knowledge. And look at the trouble he went to. He pondered. He searched out. He arranged many proverbs. The preacher sought to find delightful words. That's a beautiful Hebrew term. It has to do with providing something that finds favor, that is easily grasped, readily digested. Mary Poppins said a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down. Find a way that will get it digested. And this preacher, according to verse 9, who ponders over those Proverbs looks for delightful words and to write words of truth correctly.

9:55 Don't just write them. There's nothing to be gained by a mass of words, but a few words written correctly will grab the attention of an individual. Look at verse 11. The words of wise men are like goads, and masters of these collections are like well-driven nails. They are given by one shepherd. Have you ever been goaded by a word, goaded by a term, goaded by a reminder? That can happen even from a look, can't it? J.B. Phillips has said, if words are to enter men's hearts and bear fruit, they must be right words shaped cunningly to pass men's defenses and explode silently and effectually within their minds. someone told me between two morning services that they had just met a fellow who had been a cocaine addict and he had tuned in and listened to some things that were being said by a preacher on the radio and he said those words pricked my conscience he was referring to the goading of right words. We've all had it happen. Sometimes they are so startling that we can't believe someone hasn't been looking in our keyhole or reading our mail. I've literally had people come to me. I think of a man recently who came to me and he said, my wife talked to you, didn't she?

11:27 I said, no, I don't even know. Come on, level with me, Chuck. She called you this week? No, she didn't call me this week. You haven't talked to my wife? I said, no, I haven't talked. I could hardly wait to talk to her when he got through. But the words that he heard were so goading, so penetrating, he was convinced that I'd talked to somebody who knew him. I didn't even know who he was. There's something about God's word that cuts right through life like a hot knife on butter. over the New Testament we read in Colossians 4 let your words be with grace seasoned with salt not a good way to put it somebody paraphrased it seasoned with Tabasco sauce let your words always be with grace seasoned with a little Tabasco sauce how about the words of James in chapter 3 the tongue is a fire a world of iniquity what the spark is to a forest, the tongue is to an audience. It lights a fire, it explodes into a flame that sweeps across acreage. The tongue is a fire. Speaking of that, turn to Matthew chapter 23.

12:51 Let's turn to the words of our Lord, especially for some who still believe he was a rather insipid, easygoing, hail fellow, well met. Look at Matthew 23 and you will find a man who was not popular among his peers, certainly among the religious peers of his day. Matthew 23 has a host of epithets regarding the Pharisees. Look at verse 13. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Now, you don't win friends by saying that to them. Verse 15, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! If that isn't bad enough, verse 16, woe to you, blind guides! Isn't that descriptive? words fitly spoken are like apples of gold and settings of silver. Here is one.

13:48 You Pharisees who are leading people astray, you're like blind guides. You aren't even aware that you're sending them to hell as you talk of heaven. Verse 17, fools and blind men. 27. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, you're like whitewashed tombs. On the outside you appear beautiful, but inside full of dead man's bones and all uncleanness. You wonder why they took up stones to stone him? You wonder why they finally nailed him to the tree? These are words that exploded in their minds and they thought about them for a while and convicted to the core, they thought the only way to get rid of him is to silence him forever. now I prepared you for the shock of the day by having you turn now to Matthew chapter 7 I wanted you to see other places where words fitly spoken startle the reader and the hearer here's an example from our Lord's ministry in the Sermon on the Mount do not give what is holy to dogs do not throw your pearls before pigs lest they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces.

15:14 Wait a minute. We're working our way through the Sermon on the Mount these days, and we have in fresh memory his words in chapter 7, verse 1, don't we? Do not judge. Sounds pretty judgmental to me, doesn't it, you? Doesn't verse 6 sound... I mean, if you call somebody a dog or if you call somebody a swine, doesn't that sound like judgment? Remember when we were on this passage before, do not judge, that we did a little disclaimer then because I knew what was coming. We said then it doesn't mean that you lack discernment. It doesn't mean that you become gullible and believe everything you hear and everything you see. remember we said that judging had to do with a censorious attitude, the idea of condemning someone without knowing the facts?

16:09 Remember, Jesus knows all the facts. And he, like no one else who has ever lived, has the right to call anyone whatever he pleases because he knows the heart. And he knows in the hearts of some there dwells the animalistic attitude of a swine or the carnivorous appetite of a wild dog. And he's warning his followers to be alert, to pay attention to the people they're talking to and to realize sometime it isn't worth your effort to go any further. spurgeon put it this way saints are not judges but saints are not simpletons either we are not to sort of stumble our way through life kind of thinking i guess everybody wants to hear what i have to say they don't some people reject it willfully they will resist it and they will tear you to pieces if you continue talking about it Jesus says, when you come across folks like that, shut up.

17:20 You've said enough. Now understand when he refers to dogs, he's not talking about your pet or mine. We kind of resent that, don't we? We've all had little lap dogs that, I mean, many of you have. Our family never has had a lap dog that just sits there and quietly enjoys life. Ours is always all over you. But many of you have a little calm little pet and you enjoy that little creature and he just does everything you say. He sits up and begs for food and you say, go outside. He goes outside and you say, never make a mess. It never makes a mess. You have dogs like that. Must be wonderful. Anyway, dogs in Jesus' day were not like that. They were like wild packs, like wild animals, like hyenas that roamed the streets and fed on garbage and debris and they attacked people.

18:18 And that's the word he uses. Thank you. and then the word for swine is the word. That's the word for pigs, and he's got a contrast going for the purpose of startling the listener. You will encounter dogs. You will encounter swine. When you do, the pearls are too precious to feed them anymore.

18:46 Listen to this. listen to this in our evangelistic zeal we have cheapened the gospel by continuing to beg people indiscriminately and undiscerningly there's a principle here you know what the principle is? discernment must temper our declaration that's the principle you're committed to declaring the gospel good for you You're in the right camp. You've got the right goal. But keep your head screwed on straight. some are ready for it, some need to be prepared for it, but some have heard it and they've rejected it and they continue to reject it. Turn to those who are ready to hear it.

19:39 Jesus taught this, and he used no uncertain terms in his teaching. Did he carry it out? Well, let's see if he did. Turn from Matthew 7 to Matthew 10. this is when he takes his interns his followers and he gives them a Christian service assignment he says I've been doing this now all these months and you've been watching now it's your turn let's have you do it Matthew 10 verse 7 as you go preach saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand heal the sick raise the dead cleanse the lepers Cast out demons. Freely you received. Freely give.

20:26 Do not acquire gold or silver, copper for your money belts, or a bag for your journey, or even two tunics or sandals or a staff, for the worker is worthy of his support. Now watch carefully. And into whatever city or village you enter, inquire who is worthy in it. And abide there until you go away. And as you enter the house, give it your greeting. If a house is worthy, let your greeting of peace come upon it. Shalom, shalom. But if it's not worthy, let your greeting of peace return to you. Whoever does not receive you nor heed your words, as you go out of that house or that city, beg them. No, no. Shake off the dust of your feet. I say to you it would be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.

21:22 Now you don't hear this kind of preaching very much, do you? And so we are left spinning our wheels and wasting a lot of good time pleading and pleading and pleading with people who are down underneath resisting, rejecting, hateful, cynical, and closed. Now don't misunderstand.

21:45 This is not saying that at the first resistance you stop talking. This is certainly never saying that you stop living it. You continue to live it forever. But I take it that the dog and the swine in the story is the person who has heard and heard and heard, and there has been sufficient evidence in response that says to you, it's over, you've done it, you've done enough. Let God do the rest. was it carried out in church history? Well, we have a little history in the book of Acts, and it occurred to me that the Apostle Paul did exactly what Jesus admonished all of us to do. Acts 13, look at verse 44. here's the apostle on his early missionary journey taking the gospel to the to the heathen jews people who have not responded to the claims of christ who are of abraham verse 44 the next sabbath nearly the whole city assembled to hear the word of god what a crowd Enormous response.

22:57 Big meeting. When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy. Watch it. Watch what happens. And they began contradicting the things spoken by Paul, and of all things, they were blaspheming. Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first. Since you repudiate it, Notice they've heard and rejected it. And since you judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, look at how he puts it, you judge yourself unworthy of it, behold, we're turning to the Gentiles. What a change in thrust. Thus the Lord has commanded us, I have placed you as a light for the Gentiles that you should bring salvation to the ends of the earth. When the Gentiles heard this, they thought, terrific. Now we're talking.

23:51 Gentiles heard it. They began rejoicing and glorifying the word of God. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. I don't know how many of you are preachers, and I don't know how many of you are evangelists and have been involved in working with groups, but it is remarkable how you can see response in various gatherings. I mean, some are on the edge of their seat to hear. some are on the edge of their seat thinking and questioning and wrestling with what you say some are going oh man when is he ever going to get through this is boring this is bad news and others are i have heard this and there is nothing to it that's the person you leave to god you pursue the one that's interested you pursue the one that questions you even pursue the one that's bored you do whatever you can to interest them in the things of christ i'm talking not about sermons here but about witnessing for the savior and you live it you keep living it but every once in a while and i think it's an exception rather than the rule you'll come across some like the apostle paul and you'll know in your spirit that's enough when your spirit says that then walk away.

25:12 Leave them to God. Let's be realistic. Some individuals are so impervious to spiritual things, so debauched, so cynical, so dark of heart that to continue pouring out the pearls is to waste them. is to even discredit them. By the way, there's something wonderful about dangling people with truth. I remember back in my high school years, we had a wonderful biology teacher. His name was Mr. Dunn. Mr. Dunn was a rather short, brilliant man who was a veteran from the war. He had been a Marine. He had a tattoo on this arm. It looked like Popeye on this arm and a tattoo up here. But did he know biology?

26:06 And here we came in the class sort of cynics, thinking we 10th, 11th graders, we really knew about this subject. And he hardly raised his voice. He said, I have some information that will transform your life, but I will never raise my voice. And I don't intend to plead for an audience, but if you will listen, you will never be the same.

26:31 Man, all of a sudden, what in the world is he doing? and he slices a frog open. There's not a kid in the high school doesn't want to see a frog slit open. And he says, now you'll know. And man, we are on the edge of our, it's a wonderful class. Wonderful. You learn techniques in presenting the message. You learn how to do it. You learn how to dangle. You learn how to make it attractive, make it interesting. That's all part of presenting the gospel. But with those that continue to sit in the back of the class with arms folded frowning, saying I don't want to have anything to do with it, you go right on. you go right on with those that are ready to learn and ready to respond.

27:13 Discernment must be accompanied or must temper our declaration. Remember that. By the way, I said earlier, and I want to repeat now because we turn back to Matthew 6 or Matthew 7. He talks about it. You keep praying. you keep praying. I think I may speak to a wife or two right now who's got a husband that's heard it and heard it and heard it and he doesn't want to hear it anymore. Well, I've got news for you wives. Stop telling him. Just start living. The wonderful sermon of a silent life. That's what 1 Peter 3, 1-7 is all about. husbands aren't encouraged to believe in the gospel because you leave little notes on their pillow and and you drop little tracks on their dashboard or slide little threats under the glass on their desk that that won't do it leave them to god and pray that's what verses 7 through 11 are about.

28:19 Ask and it shall be given to you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened to you. And look at the promise. Everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. And to him who knocks, it shall be opened to him. That wonderful stuff. It's so simple. Three monosyllabic words form three present imperatives. Keep on asking. Keep on seeking. Keep on knocking. Those are the commands. One quaint commentator said, a child will, if his mother is near invisible, will ask. If she is neither, he will seek. If she's inaccessible in her room, he will knock.

29:14 And we've all seen it happen. We were spending part of yesterday afternoon with our older daughter and son-in-law, and they had their little one, Parker, with them. and Carissa made a comment to me. She said, you know, there are times, Dad, I just would like to have just two minutes all alone. And Parker is omnipresent. He's everywhere, everywhere. She says, sometime I'll just kind of slip in my room. Close the door. Mom, mom, mom. He's knocking. She opens the door. He says, hi. He doesn't want anything. He just wants her presence. You start by asking, and you keep on asking. And then you turn in prayer to seeking, and I think it's intensifying it here. I think there's an intensity in this.

30:10 Many of us go only as far as asking, and we stop. Even with the dogs and the swine. We need to keep seeking. But not them, God. We turn our attention and time from the person to our Father. And we say, Lord, I come back seeking that person's soul. I ask you to break that will. I ask you to invade that life, to bring that person to an end of himself or to an end of herself. And now I knock and knock and knock. And I won't rest until you bring an answer to me, Lord. I was reading just last evening in Genesis 32 about Jacob as he wrestled with the angel. You know what he wanted? He wanted a blessing from God. And he was in a wrestling match with this creature from heaven. And he wrestled till dawn.

31:07 Talk about asking, seeking, and knocking. And finally, finally you receive the blessing from God. Jacob's name became Israel, Prince with God. That's a lot better than chiseler, which is what Jacob meant. I'd wrestle too for a new name. Prince with God. But he paid off because he kept on knocking, kept on asking, kept on seeking. See the verse. Look at the promises. Ask, verse 7, and it'll be given. In fact, verse 8, you ask, you'll receive. Back to verse 7. Seek, you will find. Verse 8, he who seeks, finds.

31:57 And he who knocks, it'll be opened. Verse 8, it shall be opened. He says it twice. Now we're left to do it. Listen to me. There is no timidity. I mean, there is no piety and timidity in prayer. You're not more godly because you give up early in prayer. if there is one place we have the right to be bold before our God, it is in prayer.

32:28 God, I boldly come before you. I come confident that it's your will for such and such. I have no reason to doubt that. And I come to you for some answers. I seek your answer. I seek your invasion into that life that I can't handle and I can't change. and Lord I knock and knock and I'll be back tomorrow knocking and knocking again because I can't do this you can Ask. Seek.

33:01 Knock. One man writes convicting words about our times. The Western world is not characterized by prayer. By and large, to our unspeakable shame, even genuine Christians in the West are not characterized by prayer. Our environment loves hustle and bustle. Smooth organization and powerful institutions. human self-confidence and human achievement new opinions and novel schemes and the church of Jesus Christ has conformed so thoroughly to this environment it is often difficult to see how it differs in these matters from contemporary paganism I'll tell you some of the most convicting verses in the entire Bible appear in James 4 you do not have because you do not ask.

34:03 Nine words. you and I do not have because we do not ask. Maybe you need a little project. Focus for a few moments on that thing you've been carrying around in your mind for a long time. That thing that you can't change, but it's got to be changed. that person with whom you can't resolve the conflict, but it's got to be resolved. that circumstance that has you intimidated or threatened or fearful that you have run out of ideas to solve, you've got to solve. Here's your answer. I think of the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12.

35:03 How often did he pray for the thorn in the flesh? I wonder if he didn't first ask, and then seek, and then knock. And having finished the three over how long a period of time we're never told, God's answer was no, but I have something better. So my point in giving you that illustration is to keep you from thinking that if you do the ask, seek, and knock, you will always get exactly what you request. That's not true.

35:35 You will, in the process of asking, seeking, and knocking, become so dependent on God that his answer becomes the best, even if it isn't what you're requesting. In Paul's case, he learned, in weakness I am strong. It took the thorn to teach the apostle that.

36:00 Now, will your father do the same for you? Look at verse 9 and verse 10 of Matthew 7. Let's look at the dads. What father is there among you when his son shall ask him for a loaf? We'll give him a stone. cynical cruel thought daddy can I have a cookie and you give him a rock no father will do that no father will do that your boy's hungry you'll find a piece of bread to feed him and how about a how about one that requests a fish verse 10 if if he shall ask for a fish, he won't give him a snake, will he? Now the force of the argument is intensified in verse 11 by the words, how much more? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your father, who is good, implied there, give what is good to those who ask him?

37:14 I love that. I wouldn't, as a human father, think of turning a deaf ear to one of my children who was hungry. I would die for a way to find food to feed them. You and I, as dads, would give up whatever so that our family could be fed. And we do that being evil. We are, in our hearts, evil men and women. We are, by nature, depraved. yet we will give good things to those children who ask of us. Think of how much more our Heavenly Father longs to do for us and he is good. How much more? Some of you live with an unbearable situation at home. You face tragic situations with one of your children and you cannot change it. You can't manipulate it. You can't throw the switches. You don't know the person. You don't have the money, perhaps.

38:09 You cannot change this situation that's becoming virtually unbearable. I'm asking you to ask. I'm challenging you to seek. I'm pleading with you to knock. And to listen and wait and watch for God to work. here's the principle the first one was that discernment discernment must go along with our declaration we've got to put the two together here's one for prayer persistence must characterize our prayers persistence must characterize our prayers.

38:53 I probably need to add this for a disclaimer. Two things to keep in mind. Number one, God will answer our prayers his way. Remember the thorn? Remember the answer? God will answer our prayers his way. And you know the second, God will answer our prayers in his time. God has a timing that's different than ours We're so impatient. We pray, we ask, seek, and knock, and we expect it an hour and a half later. I remember in seminary needing certain things, and one time I recall desperately needing some money. And I was working, and we were raising a child and trying to get through that desperate third year. And I remember, I remember to this day praying, and right after I'd prayed, I went and checked my mailbox.

39:55 Right after, nothing was there. I thought as I closed that little combination box there at the school, I thought, how stupid of you. You can't necessarily check the box that day. In prayer, you see, you relieve yourself of the burden and you put it all on the shoulders of the one who can handle it. and then he mixes it with his perfect will and dispenses it right online when you need it the most or when he will be glorified the best.

40:33 Persistence must characterize our prayers. Now, here's a third one. Talk about words fitly spoken. Verse 12 is a distillation of the whole Sermon on the Mount in one simple statement. This is called the golden rule. whatever you want others to do for you, do so for them. This is the law and the prophets.

41:03 Let me read it again because there's something that you may have missed. Whatever you want others to do for you, do so for them. For this is the law and the prophets. Perhaps it's the most universally famous statement Jesus ever said. Most people could give you the golden rule. It's a surprise to some Christians to know that Jesus was not the first to present a thought like this. Done a little research and found that an Athenian in the 4th century B.C. said this, Whatever angers you when you suffer at the hands of others, do not do to others. That was four centuries before Christ was on the earth. In the apocryphal book of Tobit, written between the Testaments, years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, there appears these words, What thou thyself hatest, to no man do.

42:11 centuries before that time when Confucius lived, he said, what you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others. When's the last time you heard Confucius quoted from an evangelical pulpit, huh? Rabbi Hillel in 20 AD said, this is before Jesus' ministry on earth, what is hateful to you do not do to anyone else. This is the whole law, said Hillel. All the rest is commentary. Go and learn it. well then what makes Jesus' word so unique this is a very important point he's the only one that puts it positively you get that? good for you all the others do not do do not do, do not do sounds like your dad doesn't it, do not do Jesus says whatever you want others to do for you do Thank you.

43:19 Tremendous. You know what that says? It says, my goal every day is to do my very best to help another person. That's why servanthood always gets top vote in God's list of requirements. Be a servant. you have somebody right now that needs to be forgiven, somebody you know who's really blown it, and they are to be blamed. It's their fault. They were wrong, but they've acknowledged it. They've come full circle. They've come to terms with it. But they haven't heard you say, I forgive you.

44:12 Do that. just go that extra mile you may have been the one hurt the most but what they need is not your hurt what they need is the relief your forgiveness will bring do that The principle is modeling must accompany our message.

44:42 You wonder if it works? Look at the last part of the Sermon on the Mount, verses 28 and 29. Would that all sermons ended like this. The result was when Jesus had finished these words, the multitudes were amazed at his teachings, He was teaching them as one having authority and not as a scribe. He wasn't just rehearsing theology. He was talking truth and was living it. And they sat on that mountainside and they were amazed. You know why? Because so few lived what they taught. Nothing turns you off with a teacher like knowing that teacher isn't living what he's saying or what she's saying. See, this golden rule puts steel in your message.

45:44 It backs up words with a model. And there isn't a skeptic on earth that can deny the model. He may argue circles around your logic and your theology, but he can't deny the fact that you're different. You don't rip him off. you don't hold a grudge you don't seek your own glory you're not looking to win the argument he can't figure that out you're so different i put it down in a little simple step-by-step process here it goes when i think about carrying out the golden rule i i begin on this step first i think about a sticky situation most of us are in a little sticky situation in our lives and so i i envision the sticky situation that hasn't been solved hasn't been resolved second step rather than trying to find a rule to follow i engage my imagination now follow this i'm in a sticky situation and it isn't working out, it hasn't worked out, rather than thinking, let's see, where is that rule I've always lived by and I'm going to do it now?

47:03 Rather than that, I engage my imagination, and what do I do? I put myself in that person's shoes, and I ask, what would I need the most from his perspective? How would I like to be treated if I were where he is? then the final step is do it. Not too profound, is it? Just carry it out. Bishop Ryle says it settles a hundred different points. It prevents the necessity of laying down endless little rules for our conduct in specific cases.

47:53 I read years ago this little statement. Itsy-bitsy rules are for itsy-bitsy people. You know any Christians living by itsy-bitsy rules? Don't answer. A lot of itsy-bitsy rules, they're itsy-bitsy people. You know who it takes to live out the golden rule? Big people. Broad-shouldered people. he says this is the law and the prophets. This is it. In a nutshell, that's what 39 books are all about in the Bible. That's it. I have seen people who can argue till you're blue in the face the points of those 39 books of the Bible and they turned me off.

48:48 They hadn't gotten the distillation of the law and the prophets because they weren't applying the golden rule. In order for the message to make an impact, it must be followed with a model. Now, the greatest message we can communicate is the message of Christlike character from our lips, from our lives. you want to know how to make an impact in that office where it seems like nobody cares anymore about spiritual things speak like christ live like christ i guarantee you in a period of time it'll make a difference if they don't want to hear you just live like christ it'll make a difference i read this past week the only bible the world reads is the daily life of the christian And what the world needs now is a revised version.

49:47 how about offering a revised version of the scriptures? A revised version of the Christian. In the day and age in which the media has run wild with scandal and has left the non-believer with false impressions of Christians, this is a great day to write a revised version, to live a revised version. One quaint poet wrote, you're writing a gospel, a chapter each day by deeds that you do and words that you say. Others read what you write, whether faithless or true, say. What is the gospel according to you? If your life were the only gospel that someone was able to read, would he come to know Christ? You talk about words fitly spoken being powerful, let me tell you something more powerful than that.

50:48 A life fitly lived. Let's bow together, shall we? I want to talk to you while your eyes are closed and while your heads are bowed. Sometimes it helps just to kind of block all the visual stimuli that could interrupt our thoughts. words fitly spoken like apples of gold in settings of silver How about words like, I'm sorry, I was wrong, or better still, Lord, I am lost. God of heaven. I'm not in your will. I've never come to the cross, never, and turned my life over to your Son who died for me.

51:53 and how about this one Lord I believe those are like apples of gold in settings of silver if they're appropriate for you today, say them. Be man or woman enough to say them, Lord, I'm lost.

52:14 Lord, I believe. I believe the Lord Jesus Christ died for me on that cross. I believe his blood that went out of his body has washed away my sins. I believe he came back from the dead he is risen Lord I believe some Christians need to say today help my unbelief It starts with believing it and then it ends with living it. Christians you may have believed it but you got to admit you haven't been living it I plead with you get a revised version ask Lord the Lord for help today now come to Christ now Come now.

53:24 Father, I've been convicted as I have spoken today. I wish that I were a model of everything that I say I'm not. Nothing haunts me more than those areas of darkness in my own life. Help me in my unbelief. Help me with my quick tongue, with my lack of patience. Help me with my negative attitude. Help me with my resistance toward those who don't want to hear. Soften my spirit. Remind me, Lord, before anyone else of the importance of words fitly spoken. Help my words to help and not to injure. And now, Lord, as we have met around your word, may the truth continue.

54:27 May the light keep shining even though our words stop. And may there come as a result of what has been heard.