What You Should Not Say - Choose Your Words Carefully
VBC Albuquerque · Apr 13, 2025
This sermon focuses on the power and responsibility of speech in the Christian life. The tongue is a small member but has tremendous power to destroy or build up lives. We must choose our words wisely, truthfully, kindly, and constructively to serve God and love others.
The opening section presents the main theme about the power of speech and the tongue in human life. According to Matthew 12:34-37, our words reveal what is stored in our hearts, and we will be judged for every careless word on the day of judgment. Proverbs 18:20-21 reminds us that life and death are in the power of the tongue, and whoever loves it will eat its fruit. The sermon affirms that the tongue is a small member but capable of controlling the entire body, like a small rudder steering a large ship.
The second section develops three great powers of speech: control, destruction, and nourishment. Thoughtless speech is like a sword that pierces (Proverbs 12:18), but the tongue of the wise brings healing. James 3:5-6 describes the tongue as a fire of evil, a world of evil among the members, capable of setting one's entire life ablaze. However, speech also has positive power: gracious words are like honeycomb, sweet to the soul (Proverbs 16:24). The sermon presents six qualities of good speech: truthfulness, kindness, wisdom, straightforwardness, brevity, and honest words without deception.
The third section applies the message to practical life by showing how to speak good words instead of evil ones. We must speak kind, merciful, pleasant, and gentle words instead of mockery, curses, malice (Ephesians 4:29). A gentle answer turns away wrath, but harsh words stir up anger (Proverbs 15:1). The sermon emphasizes that we should speak less rather than more, for when words are many, sin is not absent (Proverbs 10:19).
The fourth section reminds us that speech reflects the condition of the human heart. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (Matthew 12:34). Therefore, to speak good words, we need to accumulate goodness in our hearts through Bible reading, prayer, and meditation. The sermon concludes that speech is not trivial but a manifestation of Christian faith and character, and we must be ready to honor God's name through truthful, kind, and constructive words.