When Words Attack
Pastor Dan began a new sermon series called “When Words Attack” on Sunday, April 7, 2024. On that Sunday, the key passage was:
“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.” — Luke 6:43-45
What we learn from Jesus in the passage from Luke:
Fruit is an outward symptom of an inward condition. — The abundance of the heart comes out of the mouth. However, we should not make a judgment of a person simply based upon what comes out of their mouth/the fruit. The fruit is an outward symptom of something that is inward.
You can’t hide what you have inside. — Heat in our life, the right situation that causes tension/friction. You may think you can hide things inside your heart–complaining, bickering, gossip, slander–but given the right condition, it just comes out. You can’t hide what is going on inside.
The roots determine what comes out. — We need to understand that the soil that you’re putting yourself in is going to impact the way that you talk. The people I hang out with; the environment I’m in–that is the soil that I have planted myself in, and it is going to feed what is inside of me. So we better be careful what soil we’re planting ourselves in because, ultimately, the roots are going to determine what comes out of us because we put ourselves there; because we put ourselves around those friends; because we listen to or watch this. You can’t help that it affects you. Those things will impact us.
“Word problems reveal heart problems. The people and situations around us do not make us say what we say; they are only the occasion for our hearts to reveal themselves in our words.” — Paul Tripp, from his book War of Words.
Where we plant ourselves; what we feed ourselves; what’s going on inside of us cannot be hidden and is eventually going to come out. For some of us, maybe it’s behavior more than words, but no matter what, it’s going to be visible. It’s going to be seen, so we best be real careful.
The Point: You need to explore beyond words to get to the motivation of the heart.
This applies two ways:
1) When you’re dealing with somebody who is complaining all the time, gossiping all the time, slandering all the time, you name it; any of these word sins that we see throughout scripture are contentious.
It’s so easy for us to just judge a book by its cover. Let’s just attack that. But how much better, and how much greater is it for us to begin to ask questions of that person to really understand what’s behind that. You may be surprised to find it was an upbringing that they were in and this was just how they talked. We’re influenced by our upbringing. If you are the kind of person who just can’t help but complain about everything, I wonder, and I would be curious — was that the home that you were raised in?
We need to get to the motivations of the heart instead of just judging a person by their fruits. It takes a lot of effort and involvement for us, and sometimes we just don’t feel like doing this, but it’s important according to Jesus because until we know what the root is, we’re not going to understand that words that are coming out.
2) You need to get to the heart of why you say what you say.
Around the time that Jesus was teaching this, there was also another similar passage that says, how dare you tell someone to take a speck out of their eye, when you have a big, old log sticking out of your eye. If we’re going to talk about how other people talk and make our judgment calls, let’s begin with ourselves. If we begin to evaluate what’s really really bothering us, what’s really, really motivating us to gossip, if we begin to evaluate why we have to use some choice words from time to time, it’s amazing what God will begin to reveal about our hearts that we need to work on.
Paul Tripp gives us an great illustration of this in one of his books. He says the desire battles for control until that desire becomes a demand. The demand, then, is expressed as a need. My sense of need then sets up my expectation, expectation that if unfulfilled, leads to disappointment. Then disappointment leads to some sort of punishment.
Example: Begins with a desire: “I desire church to be done the way that I feel comfortable.”
That leads to a demand: “I must have church the way that I feel comfortable — the music I like, the preaching I like, the children’s ministry I like, the coffee I like.
That demand then leads to a need: “I will get it the way I want it.”
Which then leads to expectation: “You need to come around to what I think we should be doing for church.”
And that expectation then leads to disappointment: “You didn’t do it. How dare you. Don’t you know I need this?”
Which then leads to punishment: “Because you didn’t, I’m going to sit here and be unhappy. I’m going to withhold my tithe, or I’m just going to go to another church.”
See how this works?
Ultimately our words are controlled by what’s going on in our hearts, our passions. Our behaviors are determined by that and our actions come out. What you are stirring up inside of you.
The heart is the wellspring of life. You better guard heart because out of it will come what’s stirred up inside of you.
When the punishment happens, what gets blamed, “Oh well, it’s the situation’s fault.” Or, “it’s God’s fault that I’m not getting what I want.” Rarely ever do we say, “It’s my fault that I’m not getting what I want.”
It’s always easy to point fingers. That started in the Garden of Eden when Adam said, “God, the woman that you gave me, she made me eat the fruit.”
We never want to take responsibilities for ourselves. We never want to take responsiblity for what’s going on in our hearts. We always try to blame everyone else.
How do we remedy this?
“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts.” James 4:7-8
The only power the devil has on you is the power you let him have on you because he’s a defeated foe. He lost. We give in to him.
Start spending more time with God, in His word, in worship, and in prayer, and in service. When we do these things, we draw near to God. Our intimacy grows with Him, and He fills us up. That’s where we need our root system — in Christ.
Replace some of the junk in your life with stuff that’s actually uplifting and positive for us.
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:23-24