Wisdom for Living Well From Proverbs – Wisdom For Watching Our Mouth
Text for Sermon: Proverbs 18:21; 10:11; 12:18; 13:3; 15:4
Introduction.
Last week in my sermon on Proverbs 3:5-8 I challenged us to live Coram Deo, before the face of God. It means living your entire life—every moment and place, every circumstance and situation—under the conscious awareness of God’s presence with us and His knowledge of our every thought, word and action.
Ken Q, a member of our church, who is the middle school and high school band teacher at Lynden Christian School shared with me that every year for the past seven years he reminds his students to live that way. He made a big poster that hangs in his classrooms. He gave us a copy and we put one in all your boxes. Make it a conversation starter in your homes, around the table, during family devotions.
Are you willing to begin living more coram Deo, more consciously aware of the presence of God, living as if we are before the face of God?
Are you willing to let the book of Proverbs bring you into a deeper awareness of God’s wisdom and will for your life and for your family? Are you willing to come under the Word of God, to submit your will to it, to come under the conviction of the Holy Spirit of God?
How about if we start with our tongues? Why start with the tongue? Well, it turns out Proverbs has a lot to say about what we say, about watching our mouth. The subject of our tongue and how we use our words is one of the most major themes in Proverbs. There are over 150 proverbs that deal with our lips, our mouth, our tongue, our words.
Does that give you a clue our tongues and our words are exceedingly important to God, of more importance than we give it? God cares about what comes out of our mouths.
Words are powerful. We all have experienced the power of words. Every one of us, from youngest to oldest, has said things we regret, things we wish we could un-speak, take back. And every one of us has had things said to us that have hurt us deeply, things we wish we had never heard.
We have all been eyewitnesses (ear-witnesses) to others doing great damage with their tongue, violent outbursts, terrible displays of anger, out of control tempers. Many people carry emotional wounds for decades because of words spoken by parents, siblings, teachers, spouses, or friends.