(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

And the title of my sermon tonight is actions that change our heart, actions that change our heart. Obviously it's important for us as Christians to have the right heart, to be right on the inside. As we talked about last Sunday morning, the Bible says, Cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter that the outside of them may be clean also. And of course the Pharisees, they outwardly looked good, but on the inside they were rotten. God wants our heart to be right. We want to be right on the inside. We want to have the right attitude, the right spirit. We want to have a right love for God, love for other people. How do we get our heart right though? I mean the natural man, the Bible says, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Well one of the ways that we change on the inside is by doing right actions. There are certain actions that we can do that will change us on the inside. In some ways this should be obvious, that if we go out and do bad things, that's making us worse on the inside. If we go out and do good things, that's helping us to become a better person. But look at Revelation chapter 2 here. He talks to the church at Ephesus and he says in verse 1, unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write, These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil, and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars, and hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Now this church, they don't have their heart right, do they? I mean if you've left your first love, if you don't have the first love, that's a heart problem. That's a problem that's on the inside. Now these people are very busy, they're laboring, they're working, they have a lot of patience, they're good at exposing the false prophets, but they have a problem with their heart because they've lost the first love. What's the answer to getting the first love back? He says in verse number 5, Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent, watch this, and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. So how do we get the first love back? We get the first love by doing the first works. So this is another example of doing some action in order to be changed on the inside, right? Doing good works in order to get the love back. Now remember these people were doing work, but they weren't focused on the right things, they weren't doing the first works. Now there have been different people with different opinions about what the first works are. What were the first works that they'd gotten away from? I think that to any honest person, this is a pretty obvious answer that the first works have to do with preaching the gospel to the lost. And I don't care whether you approach this from a first as in chronological, or first as in preeminent, or the paramount, or most important works. Any way you slice it, it comes back to preaching the gospel to the lost being the first works. Because if you think about it, Jesus Christ, when he first picked the apostles, and he first recruited them, what did he say to them when they were mending their nets by the Sea of Galilee, and he comes to James and John, and he comes to Peter and Andrew, he says to them, follow me, and I'll make you fishers of men. That was the first work that he brought up to them. And then the last thing he said before he left this earth and ascended up into heaven was to go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. He told us to go preach the gospel to every creature. So it's what he started his ministry with. It's what he ended his ministry with. He said the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is lost. He said let's go to another village because that's why I'm here. That's why the Son of Man has been sent forth to preach the gospel. It's emphasized over and over again. And you can see how this would tie in with love for a couple reasons. Number one, obviously, love for the lost. I mean, if we love people and we want people to be saved, then we're going to pull them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. We are going to preach the gospel to them that they might be saved because we care about them. We love them. Our love for the Lord would dictate to us that we need to go out and go soul winning because of the fact that if he was willing to sacrifice everything in order to get people saved, if that's what he cares about so much that he's willing to die on the cross for us and pay the ultimate price, then we should be willing to make some sacrifices and do some work and put forth some effort for what is so important to him. If I love my wife and something is really important to her, then I'm going to want her to get that something or to achieve that something. If it's really important to her and I love her, then okay, I can show my love to her that way. Well, if this is what's important to Christ, winning people to himself, getting the gospel to the world to where he's willing to die and sacrifice everything, well then obviously, if we love Christ, we're going to go out and do those same works that he did himself and that he sent the apostles out two by two to go out and preach the gospel in all the towns and villages. So love for Christ, love for the lost. The Bible says the love of Christ constraineth us to go out and do what? To preach the gospel, to be an ambassador for Christ, to plead with people to be saved. And so this church was busy and folks, there are a lot of churches today that are busy with a lot of things that are not soul winning, but they're very busy with everything else, whether it's a music program, whether it's a children's program, whether it's other ways of helping the community. And I'm not saying that these are bad things, often they can be good things, but when you get so busy with just the social things and the charitable things and you just get busy with the music program and you get busy with the Bible study and everything else, you can often neglect the first works, going out and preaching the gospel to the lost. And so that's what this church had done. They'd gotten away from the first works and because of this, they lacked love in their heart. The first love was gone. How did they get the first love back? Do the first love? No, do the first works. If you go out soul winning, it will change your heart. It will affect your heart. When you go out there and you give the gospel and you see a person get saved, that will change you, that will transform you on the inside. When you've actually given the gospel to someone and see the tears come to their eyes or you just see the relief in their heart or just the joy of being saved, those are transformative experiences. It's not just transforming them into that saved, new creature, child of God that's on his or her way to heaven. It changes you as a person too because you're out there participating in the work. You're in the harvest. You're on the front line of a spiritual battle. You're pulling people out of the fire. Doing those first works will make you a better Christian. It will transform you on the inside. It will help you to love people when you get to talk to people and help people. If you would, go over to Proverbs 16, but not just soul winning. I'm just using that as an example because it's such a clear passage in Revelation 2 where he says you do the first works to get the first love. This is a great example of actions that change our heart. But any time we do good unto someone, that's going to change our heart. If you want to like someone, if you want to love someone, if you want to have a good attitude toward someone, how do you do that? You say, well, I just have a bad attitude toward someone. Here's how you can get a better attitude toward that person, serve that person, do good unto that person, be kind to that person, pray for that person. By doing good unto someone, you can actually change your heart toward that person and have a better attitude toward them. Let's say you have a bad attitude toward your spouse. Start doing nice things for your spouse. You have a bad attitude toward someone at work, be a blessing to them at work, do good unto them. I can't change how I feel. I can't change my heart. Yes, you can. By doing good, by blessing and helping and ministering, you're actually going to change your attitude. You say, well, I don't have the right attitude, so I'm just going to skip soul winning because I don't have a good attitude. No, go soul winning and get a good attitude. Think about that. You go soul winning and it gets you the right attitude. You know, Ezekiel, it talks about how he had bitterness in his heart. This wasn't in my notes. This kind of just popped into my head, but there's a passage, I believe it's in chapter three of Ezekiel, somewhere early in Ezekiel, three, four, somewhere around there. He has a bad attitude, but he goes and does what God wants him to do anyway, even though he has a bad attitude. Then he said, I sat where they sat. He sits down with the captives. He sits down with the Israelites there and then he gets a better attitude. And oftentimes I've gone out soul winning in a bad mood or with a bad attitude, but I came back rejoicing. You know, I came back with the right spirit. Sometimes I dragged myself to church with a bad attitude, but then I went home having the right attitude. So many times we have to do the right actions and let the good attitude follow. Instead of waiting until we have all the right feelings and our heart right, sometimes we just need to do what's right, whether our heart's in it or not. Just do what's right and then sometimes our heart will follow. Now this is where people, I think, get mixed up, is that the Bible says to cleanse first that which is within the cup and the platter, that the outside may be clean also. And some people wrongly interpret that as, hey, you've got to get your heart right and then you start serving God. But that's not what that's saying because when he talks about the outside being clean, the outside there isn't talking about doing the right things and serving God. He's talking about your outward appearance. Okay, the Pharisees had a right appearance, but they were rotten on the inside. He said, hey, get the inside right and the outside will follow. Be right, do right, and then you'll look right. That's what he was saying. Whereas the Pharisees, all they cared about was just looking right. Not being right or doing right. So here's the sequence, if you actually think about what the Bible's teaching, is that you do right, then you are right, and then you look right. So that's the sequence right there. But often we have to do the right thing even before we fully understand it. Think about when you were growing up as a kid, did you always understand why you needed to do the things that your parents were telling you to do? Was it often just emanating from your heart to brush your teeth or go to bed on time or, you know, be nice to your sister or share that toy or whatever? No, you do what you're told. You start out actually doing what you're told before you fully understand it. Mom and Dad tell you when you're two, three, four, five, do it. And you say, why? And they say, because I said so. And that's how it is with God, too. Sometimes God tells us, do this. And we say, why? Because I said so. Right? Thus saith the Lord. You just do it. Say, well, I don't know if my heart's in it. I don't know. Just shut up and do it, because God said to do it. And then by doing the right things, you get the right heart. The opposite is true. When you're stiff-necked and refusing to obey, your heart gets more and more rotten. Okay? Now look at Proverbs chapter 16, verse 1. The Bible reads, the preparations of the heart in man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes, but the Lord weigheth the spirits. Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established. So God can change our heart. And if we commit our works unto the Lord, then our thoughts will be established. You say, oh, man, I have such a bad thought life. I have so many bad thoughts coming into my mind. I'm having trouble thinking about the right things. I keep thinking about the wrong things. What do I do? How do I fix that? You know, you can't just exercise your will and just say, think the right thoughts, think the right thoughts, think the right thoughts. You commit your works unto the Lord, and your thoughts will be established. So even if your mind is going in the wrong places, do the right things anyway. And by doing the right things, doing the right things, now your mind will start to get right. Your heart will start to get right. So it's not necessarily free your mind and the rest will follow. It's more like do the work, obey, do what you're told and the rest will follow. The heart will follow, the mind will follow. Commit your works unto the Lord, your thoughts will be established. Turn to James chapter 4. So the Bible is teaching us you do the first works to get the first love. You commit your works to the Lord and your thoughts will be established. What's interesting is in areas of handwriting or body language or speech, there are actually specialists who analyze these things and make psychological profiles based on these things. People work for the FBI and they're trying to catch a criminal and let's say they get a ransom note or let's say they just look at the way the crime was carried out and then they'll psychoanalyze those things and say, okay, this guy is this age, he's from this part of the country, this is what his attitude is like. Why? Because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. And handwriting begins in the brain, okay? And so one time my wife had a friend who was analyzing handwriting, she was studying the science of handwriting analysis. So my wife said, hey, you know, give me a sample of your handwriting. So she handed me a piece of paper and I just quickly, I didn't even think about it, I just wrote down a few, hey, this is a sample of my handwriting, I'm of sound mind and I'm giving you permission to analyze this or, you know, I just wrote something silly. And I handed it to her and she gave it to this friend of hers that was studying this and this friend knew nothing about me, didn't know anything about me at all. And when I got the analysis back, I would say it was like 90% right. I mean, there were a few things that both my wife and I agreed, these didn't really apply to me and, you know, so I wasn't just being in denial, okay? She admitted that they didn't necessarily apply to me. But like 90% of it was dead on, it was pretty uncanny. And it wasn't really vague like a fortune cookie or something. She was actually, you know, giving concrete points about what kind of person I am and some things are positive, some things are negative, it just kind of explained what I'm like as a person, okay? And so handwriting analysis is a science that people engage in or just linguistic forensics of the words that people use. Everything about our words tells something about who we are. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh, right? In fact, we were just talking about this this morning about, you know, making references to different cultural things. You know, when I'm preaching, the people who kind of get all my jokes and understand all my references are people that are my exact age. And if they're my age and they're from California, then they really understand every reference and every little joke or thing that I throw out there because of the fact that those things, you know, tell something about who I am and who they are. People could listen to me and experts could say, this guy is from California. This guy is 37 years old or he's somewhere between 35 and 40 or whatever because he's using expressions from that time period or that geography or whatever. So our handwriting, our speech, these things tell us something about who we are. But what's interesting is that I read that if a person has handwriting that shows a bad character trait. Let's say there's something in their handwriting that says that they have this bad character trait. This is fascinating. If they change the way they write, like they get rid of that writing habit, it will actually change that bad character trait about them. So for example, sometimes people that are negative, they'll write with like a downward slant. People that are more positive and upbeat tend to do more of an upward slant, right, a little better attitude when they're writing on a paper with no lines I'm talking about. But supposedly, and again, I'm not an expert on these things, but supposedly let's say you have things in your handwriting that say that you're lazy or you're dishonest or whatever. And you actually learn better penmanship and how to write properly, it can actually get that attribute out of your life. Isn't that fascinating? And that kind of goes with what the Bible is saying is that if you get your actions right, that can help your heart. You can do the first works to get the first love. You can commit your works to the Lord. Your thoughts will be established. And we talked about this last week with clothing. Putting on certain clothing can change our attitude and change our outlook. If we put on casual clothes, we act casual. If we put on formal clothes, we'll act more sober and civilized. Our speech, our handwriting, okay. And then, of course, getting the sin out of our life is going to improve our heart. And committing sin is going to hurt your heart. And then again, I said this is kind of obvious, but look if you would at, did I have a turn to James? Go to James chapter 4 verse 8 and look at the order of this statement, draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands ye sinners and purify your hearts you double minded. You see how cleansing your hands helps you do what? Draw nigh to God. Cleansing your hands helps you do what? Purify your heart. Notice the order. You cleanse your hands and thereby you purify your heart. And then here's a verse that teaches the opposite truth. Proverbs 632, but whoso commiteth adultery with the woman lacketh understanding, he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul. So the one who commits adultery is destroying their soul. The ones who cleanse their hands are actually purifying their hearts, right? Because doing bad things is harming us in our heart and in our spirit and doing the right thing is improving our heart and our spirit. Now I'm going to focus the rest of my sermon on James chapter 3 because James chapter 3 is the main thing I want to focus on. Something else has kind of been introduction up to this point because I want to home in on one thing tonight. So we kind of talked about going soul winning to get a love for the lost, serving God in order to love God. Think about worshipping God, singing praises to God. That's going to help you love God more. How do you get filled with the spirit? Speaking to yourselves in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart. Lord, that's an action that you take, right? Singing praises to God and what does it do? It causes you to be filled with the spirit. So therefore the inside is being changed by the action that you've taken. Singing praises changes your heart to where now you're filled with the spirit. Now you're walking in the new man, right? How about reading our Bible? Isn't that an action that we take? If I said read your Bible, I'm telling you to do an action. Is that going to change you on the inside to read your Bible? Is that going to help you have your heart right and your spirit right? Of course. So what I'm preaching tonight should be obvious, okay? That if we pray, if we read our Bible, if we sing hymns, if we do good works, if we win souls to Christ, these things are all going to change our heart, change our spirit, change our mind. They're actions that change us on the inside, actions that change our heart. Now the one I want to focus on though is our speech. You know I mentioned earlier handwriting and clothing and those type of things. But what about our speech? What about the way that we talk? The way that we talk is a reflection of what kind of person we are because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. But not only that, the things that we say will actually affect what kind of a person we are. Now let me show you what the Bible says about this. James chapter 3 verse 1 says, my brethren, be not many masters knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. And obviously this is referring to the fact that if you're a leader, if you're a teacher of God's word, if you're preaching doctrine, you're going to be held accountable more than the guy who's sitting in the pew. I'm going to be held more accountable than you are because I'm up here teaching the Bible and if I get up and teach the Bible and then I go out and commit a bunch of wicked sins, I'm going to be held more accountable than the guy who's not teaching the Bible because I would also be a mega hypocrite at that point, right? So the Bible's telling us here, you know, don't just be ready to just jump into a position of leadership or teaching the word of God because there's a greater condemnation associated with that. You have to live up to a certain standard. And then he says in verse 2, for in many things we offend all. Now don't misunderstand the statement. This is not saying we offend all, meaning we offend everybody. All there is not the object. All is a positive restating the subject. What the Bible's saying here is for in many things we offend all, meaning all of us offend is what the Bible's saying here. We all offend would be the way that we would modern, in our modern vernacular we would express this. We would say in 2019 English modern vernacular, we would say for in many things we all offend is how we would say it. That's what this verse is saying. We offend all, okay? And if any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man and able also to bridle the whole body. I don't think you're misinterpreting that first phrase there. We'll stop and think about it. Do we really offend everyone? I mean I know I offend a lot of people, but do I actually offend everyone? Who here says, Pastor, you don't offend me? Whatever have you. Okay, see what I mean? So I don't offend all, do I? But we all offend, don't we? Offend here is talking about the fact that we do bad things, okay? So this isn't talking about offending people, it's talking about offending as in when we break God's laws, that's an offense. What's an offense? An offense is when we do something wrong. So do we all do wrong things? Yeah, because we're all sinners. We all offend. And I'll prove it to you. Look at the next phrase. If any man offend not in word, this is talking about someone who doesn't sin in regard to the words that come out of their mouth. They're not offending in word. They're not committing an offense with their mouth or with their words. But you say, well, you know, in many things we offend all, that wording is a strange order. But think about we use this wording sometimes, this is an archaic wording. Like for example, we would say, you know, come one, come all. Or you know, I'm trying to think of a better example, but I know that there are other examples where we would put the all after. Somebody have an example for me? I'm drawing them. I had one when I was writing the sermon and I should have written it in my notes. But you know, what in the world? This is Arizona. Don't come at me with the y'all. I'm trying to think. I had a great example of this. It was from a song or something. It was from a poem or it was from some old, I had some old quote that had all in it like this. We offend all. I don't know. It's out there, friend. Okay. Somebody is going to leave it in the YouTube comments or something. No, that's not what I'm looking for. Let's move on. We're not going to get bogged down here. Anyway, that's what it means. Trust me. I'm right about this. For in many things we offend all means that we all offend. So what he's saying is look, you know, be careful just wanting to jump into a position of leadership because guess what? Everybody's a sinner. We all offend. We all make mistakes. We all do wrong and God's going to hold us more accountable than the average Joe. The pastor is worthy of double honor, but he also has a double expectation from God to do the right thing. So it's a two-way street. Yeah. There are blessings and privileges of being a pastor, but there's also a greater condemnation when you screw up. And that's why it's so ridiculous when pastors go out and commit heinous sins and then they want to be handled with kid gloves. You know what I mean? Like they go out and commit some horrible sin and then it's like, oh, give me a break. Cut me some slack. You're receiving a greater condemnation because you're the pastor. You know, if somebody goes out and commits adultery or gets on drugs or whatever, well then guess what? If they do that and they're a church member, there's not going to be as big of a backlash or a condemnation or humiliation or as big of a punishment as if a pastor's out doing those things. Well then guess what? He is going to have his whole name dragged in the mud and everything like that. And you know what? That's as it should be because of the fact that when you do those things as a pastor, it's a greater sin, you've betrayed people's trust, it's a greater condemnation. If a pastor goes out and commits adultery or does wicked things like that, you know, he needs to be publicly exposed for that. Not everything swept under the rug and everything like that. Now look, if Joe church member, you know, gets involved in sin, I'm not going to sit there and drag their name through the mud or make a public spectacle out of them. You know, you'd rather just restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, okay? You don't necessarily want to just broadcast that, right? But when a pastor does those things, he needs to be publicly condemned for that. Why? Because it needs to be clear that that kind of behavior will not be tolerated in the office of the pastor, okay? That others also would look at that and take an example from that and say, hey, if I'm going to be a pastor, I better make sure that I'm not going to go out and, you know, commit adultery, betray my wife, steal money from the plate or gamble, do drugs, get drunk, whatever the heinous sin, hey, it's not going to be tolerated. You say, well, what if it's your buddy? What if it's your pastor buddy? Well, you know what? God's not a respecter of persons and neither am I. I don't care if it's my buddy or my enemy. If a pastor is out committing wicked sin, he needs to be condemned for that. Now, it doesn't mean that he can't get right with God, clean up his life, repent and go forward, but he can't ever be a pastor again because of the fact that one of the qualifications for the pastor is that he's blameless. You're not blameless when you've committed heinous sins, okay? And blameless doesn't mean perfect or sinless, but it does mean that you don't have some glaring thing in your life like that you're an axe murderer or that you're, you know, going to prostitutes or something, okay? At that point, you're not blameless, period, and you don't belong in the pulpit. So he says in many things we offend all, all of us offend, everybody's a sinner. I mean, if any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man and able also to bridle the whole body. Now, it seems a little bit like a contradiction, doesn't it? Because he says basically we all offend, but then he turns around and says, well, if any man offend not in word, he's a perfect man and able to bridle the whole body. This is theoretical. This is like when he says walk in the Spirit and you'll not fulfill the lust of the flesh. That's theoretical because of the fact that nobody perfectly walks in the Spirit all the time and never fulfills the lust of the flesh, right? Because the Bible says there's not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. The Bible says that if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. We're all sinners. We all offend. We all do wrong. But the Bible is saying that theoretically if you could have perfect speech and offend not in word and everything you say is the right thing, then you would also be able to bridle the whole body. That's a pretty amazing statement. Now you could look at this a couple different ways. Number one is that the tongue is the hardest thing to control, so if you can control that, you can control everything. But I think it goes deeper than that, that actually by controlling your tongue, you'll actually change your heart and you will actually control your body. Let me prove that to you. Look at the next verse. Behold, we put bits in the horse's mouth that they may obey us and we turn about their whole body. What's the Bible saying here? That if you can control your mouth, you can bridle the whole body. I mean, he says, look, we put a bit in the horse's mouth, one little piece of material in the mouth and we control their whole body, their legs, their arms, their body. Everything is controlled by a bit in the mouth. And the Bible is saying that if you control your tongue, you will be able to bridle the whole body. And then he gives another illustration. Behold also the ships, which though they be so great and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm whithersoever the governor listed. Think of this gigantic ship, but what is controlling the direction of the ship? Just a little tiny rudder. And it's something that you don't even see. It's underwater. It's not a huge part of the ship, but it is shifting the giant weight of this megaton ship just by that one little rudder. The giant mighty muscles of that horse are controlled by the bit in its mouth. And God's saying the tongue here is a little member, verse 5, and boasteth great things. Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members that it defileth the whole body. So he's saying, look, you can either get your mouth under control, bridle your tongue, and control your whole body the right way, and be a perfect man able to bridle the whole body, or the opposite is true. If your tongue is saying the wrong things, if you're speaking wickedness, then actually that will defile your whole body. So don't just take this as, oh, because the tongue is so hard to control, if you can control that, you can control everything. There's deeper teaching here that's saying, look, if you control your tongue, that's a key to controlling the rest of your body, just as having your tongue wrong is going to defile or destroy your whole body and lead you into other sin. You see how important it is, what we say? Our tongue is very important. For every kind of beast and of birds and of serpents and of things in the sea is tamed and have been tamed of mankind, watch this, but the tongue can no man tame. It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison. So you say, well, this is kind of discouraging. He just told us, man, we've got to bridle our tongue, if we can control our tongue, we can control everything. And he's like, oh, by the way, the tongue can no man tame. But what we need to understand is that what he's teaching is, look, we all offend, we're all sinners, nobody's perfect, but theoretically controlling our tongue will get our life right. And so even though we're never going to be perfect, even though we're never fully going to control our tongue, if we were perfect, we'd be Jesus. Amen? We can't fully get the sin out of our life or control our tongue, but the more we do it, the better off we're going to be. So do we just stop trying to live a Christian life because we can't be perfect? That's silly, isn't it? If we were to have an attitude that says, well, we're all sinners, we're not going to be perfect anyway, so I'm just going to go out and drink and fornicate and gamble and party. Folks, that's stupid. The Bible says every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure. So we're in a process of sanctification, purifying ourselves, getting our hearts right. The Bible is just telling us over and over again that sinless perfection is a lie, okay, and that we're all sinners, nobody's ever going to be perfect. The apostle Paul talked about how he's not perfect. John talked about how he's not perfect. So the Bible wants us to realize that we're not going to be perfect, but that we should strive to control our tongue because if we can control our tongue, that's going to control the rest of our body. So the right action, what's the title of the sermon? The actions that change our heart. The right action will lead to the right heart, and the action I want to focus on right now is the action of what we say. What we speak and what we say, that's an action that we're doing, right? If I talk, if I speak, if I say something, that's me taking an action. Now that action is a reflection of what's in my heart, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh, but that action is also having a reciprocal effect on my heart. The things that I say affect my heart. So this can be a vicious cycle. I have a bad attitude, so I say something bad. Now my attitude's worse, and then I say something worse. Now I have an even worse attitude, and then I say something even worse, and now my attitude's even worse, because I'm telling you, it's not just your heart that controls what you say, it's what you say that controls your heart. This is a cycle, okay? So therefore, saying the right thing can help me do the right thing. Saying the right thing can help me have the right attitude. This is very important. In fact, go to Psalm chapter 62, Psalm 62. I heard a sermon that was similar to this particular point. Back about 20 years ago, I heard a sermon by Brother Hiles that was called, Say It Until You Believe It. The sermon was called, Say It Until You Believe It, okay? And his text was this passage I'm turning to in Psalm 62, because in this passage in Psalm 62 verse 6, we have the famous phrase, I shall not be moved. He only is my rock and my salvation, he is my defense, I shall not be moved. But what's interesting is that back in verse 2, it says, he only is my rock and my salvation, he is my defense, I shall not be greatly moved. Now notice, those sentences are the same, one difference. What's the difference between verse 2 and verse 6? He went from saying I shall not be greatly moved to I shall not be moved. What's he saying in verse 2? Well, I'm not going to be moved a lot. I shall not be greatly moved is leaving room for the fact that he might be moved a little bit. Well, I'm not going to be greatly moved, I might be moved a little bit, but I'm not going to be greatly moved. But by verse 6, he says, I'm not going to be moved at all. Now what comes between verse 2 and verse 6? The psalmist is saying, how long will you imagine mischief against a man, ye shall be slain all of you, as a bowing wall shall ye be and as a tottering fence. They only consult to cast him down from his excellency. They delight in lies, they bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly, Selah. My soul, wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, he is my defense. I shall not be greatly moved, no I'm not going to be moved at all. I'm not going to be moved at all. You see, after that little pep talk that he had in verses 2, 3, 4, and 5, now he's ready to just say, I'm not going to be moved at all, you know, King David here is speaking. You know, he starts out saying, I'm not going to be greatly moved, God's my defense, God's my, these wicked people, they're this, they're that, but you know what, God is my expectation, he's my hope, he's there for me, my soul, wait on God, it's not my strength, it's him, I'm not going to be moved at all, is what he's saying. Say it until you believe it, amen. Having a good attitude and saying, hey, God's going to come through for me, God's going to take care of me, God's going to supply all my need, God's going to keep his promises, the wicked are going to be destroyed, they're not going to win the battle, the Lord is on my side, you know, whom then shall I fear? You know what, that's a little pep talk where at the end of it, you'll believe it. Now we need to be careful about what we say and what we don't say because we're not just talking to other people, we're always talking to ourself. So let's say you criticize your spouse. Now criticizing your spouse to someone else is a wicked thing to do. Don't do it. You know, if there's something that you don't like about your spouse, you need to just keep that to yourself. Don't go get together with your friends and tell them, oh, my husband is X, Y, and Z. Or get together with your friends and say, oh, my wife is blah, blah, blah. Look, that's a bad thing to do. Don't talk bad about your spouse. You're supposed to love your spouse and whatever their faults are, you need to just forgive those things and let them go and not talk about them to other people. Now if you talk to someone of the opposite gender bad about your spouse, now that's doubly wicked. You know, if I get together with some other woman and say, oh, my wife's this, my wife's that, and start complaining about my wife to another woman, that's a recipe for adultery right there. Or you get together with other women and talk bad about your husband, okay, that's bad. But when you get together with some dude and talk bad about your husband, now you're just asking for a horrible sin to take place there. When you start teaming up with other people against your spouse, especially when they're of the opposite gender, okay. We shouldn't talk bad about our spouse to the guys either or to the gals either if you're a lady, right. We should just not say those things. And let me tell you something. Every time you talk bad about your spouse, you know what, you're going to end up loving your spouse a little bit less than you already do right now. Why? Because you're saying those things and they're affecting your heart. That rudder is controlling the whole ship of your tongue. So you start talking bad about your spouse and you know what, you're steering the ship toward not loving your spouse. But conversely, if you rise up and call her blessed, if you praise your spouse, say good things about your spouse, you know what, now you're steering the ship toward loving your spouse. And it's not just what you say to other people, it's what you say in your heart. So if you're going around the house under your breath thinking, oh man, my husband's such an idiot, he's so lazy, he's such a jerk, he's so inconsiderate, he's so selfish and you're saying that under your breath, you know what, you're telling that to yourself too. And you're basically just steering the ship toward having a bad attitude, disrespectful, rude, right? But if you say to yourself, you know what, my husband's a good guy, my husband's a great provider, my husband's a handsome man. Just keep saying it until you believe it, you know, just keep telling yourself that. You know, if you say, hey, my husband is a great dad, he loves me, he's a good guy, you know, have those kind of thoughts. You know how the Bible says that Sarah submitted to Abraham? And it says, even as Sarah also obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, whose daughters you are as long as you do well and are not afraid with any amazement. Notice how her calling him Lord, you know what that did? That changed her attitude toward him because she's calling him that. And by the way, if you actually look back in Genesis to find the part where she called him Lord, it wasn't even audibly, it was actually in her heart. She said in her heart, oh, my Lord being old also. She talked about Abraham as her Lord in her heart. So that was her attitude, that's what she's saying in her internal dialogue and then she's held up as the model of being a submissive and obedient wife. You say, well, you don't know my husband. Well, you don't want to be married to Abraham either because he'll say that you're his sister and you're going to get abducted into some strange man's house. How do you like that husband? Abraham isn't the poster child for being a great husband. Now, he's a great man of faith, great man of God, but if you stop and look at him as a husband, boy, he made some pretty weird decisions. And he put his wife in danger a couple times. Okay, does that give her the right to just join the women's lib? No. He still was supposed to submit and obey him and part of her right attitude toward him had to do with the language that she used about him. So when you talk bad about your husband, even in your heart, and you're just constantly dwelling on the bad things, you are going to have bad actions. And you say, well, I just can't help but be disrespectful to my husband. Sometimes I just blow off my mouth. Well, guess why you're blowing off your mouth is because your heart's not right. And out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth's big. If you have good feelings in your heart toward your husband, that's going to come out of your mouth. And then the opposite is true also. You say good things to your husband, you say nice things to him, now you're going to start having better feelings toward him. And then we could flip this over and say the same thing to the men. You know, if you men are constantly talking bad about your wife, even in your own heart, you're just saying to yourself, oh, man, my wife is lazy, or my wife is ugly, or my wife is a jerk, or a nag, or whatever you say bad about your wife, or she doesn't this, or she doesn't do that. You know what? You're going to start to believe that stuff if you keep saying that. And then you're just going to feel worse about it instead of focusing on all the great things about your wife. And tell yourself, you know, I have a great wife. What a great mother for my children. You know, what a great Christian. What a godly person. You know, give yourself a pep talk about your marriage. Don't give yourself this down, negative, gloomy thing. And even when you go to pray, you know, now, look, if you're going to complain about your spouse to anyone, make it God, rather than your buddies. If you have to get something off your chest, tell it to Jesus alone, right? Tell it to Jesus alone, meaning only tell it to Jesus, right? But here's the thing, even that, if you can avoid doing that, I'd rather go to prayer and say nice things about my spouse than to say bad things, right? I don't want to go, God, why, you know, and just complain about my wife to God. Now, look, if I'm going to complain to someone, it's going to be God. But I don't even want to complain to God about my wife. I'd rather go to God and say, thank you, God, for my wonderful wife. And she's this, she's this, she's this. And you know what? That's how to have a good attitude and you can have that good action of praying for someone, blessing someone, saying good things about them, saying good things to them, it'll change you on the inside. Say, well, I don't want to be fake and say things I don't mean. Well, you know what? I'd rather say good things and then have it become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Say it, you know, hey, tell your spouse that you love them and, you know, until you do love them, right? If you don't love them. You should love them. Shame on you if you don't love your wife. Shame on you if you don't love your husband. But you know what? You should start being nicer and saying nice things. Why don't you say to your wife, hey, you know, you look nice today or you have done a good job here with the house or you're doing a great job with the kids or, hey, great job on the grocery shopping and great job on saving money, great job on, you know, cleaning the house or great job on this that you did or that that you did, hey, that's, you know, maybe she has some hobby or something and praising that and say, hey, good job on the artwork or good job on this or that or the other. You know, by praising your wife, you're going to have a better attitude toward your wife. And then same thing, praising your husband, hey, thanks for being a provider. Thank you for this. Thank you for that. Saying good things. This is going to help you have a better attitude toward your spouse. That's what Sarah did right, okay? So basically when it comes to church, when it comes to our marriage, when it comes to our parents, when it comes to anything, say the right thing. Whether you feel it or not, say the right thing and say it until you believe it. And you know what? When you're doubting God, then why don't you say the promises of God? Have you ever noticed this? You'll be having a bad situation in your life and you're down in the mouth about it and then someone else will have the exact same situation and you have all the answers for them. It's a lot easier to give other people advice than to advise yourself, isn't it? So let's say somebody else is going through a marriage problem, for example, boy, it's easy to tell them, well, the Bible's crystal clear what you're supposed to do. Ephesians 5, just do it, you know? But then when it's you, it's like, well, you don't understand my situation. But you know, sometimes giving other people the right advice can actually come right back at you and you can say, wait a minute, that's what I should be doing. You know, whatever I'm telling this person to do, whatever I'm, you know, thou therefore that teacheth another, teacheth thou not thyself. You know, when you give other people advice about how to live the Christian life, I hope you're listening too. When you tell people, hey, I mean, think about it, that maybe you're tempted to get out of church, right? But I'll bet if someone else were quitting the church, you'd tell them, hey, don't quit church, don't quit on God. You'd have all these verses to tell them why not quit serving God. Why to stay married, right? Why to keep soul winning? Why to stay faithful to the church? Why to endure the persecution? Well, you know what? You need to say those same things to yourself. And you need to say those things. So we need to be careful that we don't say stupid things because if we say wrong things, we'll start to believe those wrong things. And if we say good things, we'll start to believe those good things, right? Go back to James 3. We can control the whole body by controlling our tongue. They're actions that change our heart. We do the first works to get the first love. We commit our works to the Lord to get our thoughts established. Better penmanship, my friend, is what I'm talking about, you kids that are learning how to write. Better penmanship will make you a better person. Getting rid of bad character in your penmanship will get rid of bad character in your life. Getting rid of bad speech patterns, saying bad things will actually make you a better person when you stop saying stupid things or wrong things or hurtful things or bad things and actually start saying the right things. If there's something wrong about your heart and you know this is a wrong thing in my heart, then one of the ways to change that is to start saying the right things about that. Saying the truth will actually help you get that settled in your heart. The Bible says in verse number 8, but the tongue can no man tame, it is an unruly evil full of deadly poison. Therewith blessed we God, even the Father, and therewith cursed we men which are made after the similitude of God. Notice he says God, even the Father, because the Father is not the only one who is God. The Son and the Holy Ghost are also God, so he sometimes specifies specifically the Father when he says God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Did the fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries, either a vine, figs? So can no fountain both yield salt, water, and fresh. Who is a wise man and a dude with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, and devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion in every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. So in the heart we either have bitter envying and strife in our heart, or we have peace in our heart, where we desire peace, we want to get along and have peace and love people, or bitter envying and strife, where we want to fight about carnal things and envy other people, and as we would say in our modern vernacular, be jealous of them or whatever. But he says here that the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. And he talks about how if we want to have a right heart, right knowledge, peace in our heart, we're supposed to show our works with meekness of wisdom. So our works are a reflection of what's in our heart, but also our works will determine what's in our heart, because if we make peace, we're going to have peace in our heart. If we're a peacemaker in our works, in our actions, then we're going to have peace in our heart. If we fight and devour one another with our actions, then we're going to have bitter envying and strife in our heart, which is going to cause us to bite and devour one another with our actions, which is going to cause us to have even more bitter envying and strife in our heart. And it's a circle, friend. Our speech affects our works, and our works affect our speech, and our speech affects our works, which affects our heart, which, you know, it all is connected. Now, sometimes controlling your heart or your mind is a tall order, but we can all do what we're supposed to do. Anybody can do as they're told. A machine can do as they're told. An animal can do as they're told, right? So anybody can obey. And that's why, when a baby is born and grows into a toddler and a child, you know, what do they start out by doing? Understanding everything and having a right heart that just says, you know what? I understand the importance of sleep. I know how important it is to sleep a full night. You know, I understand the maxim, early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. So I'll be glad to go to bed, mom and dad. And you know what? These vegetables, I don't like them, but I'm going to eat them anyway because these are important to my nutrition. My heart is right about my food, my bedtime, my clothing. Look, I know that I've been wearing this same outfit every day this week and that that's not hygienic or sanitary. So even though it's my favorite outfit, I'm willing to wear something else. And you know what? I understand that we live in Phoenix and it's summertime and, you know, rain boots don't make sense. I want to wear these rain boots, but you know what? I'm going to do it right. Folks, this is not the way a child reasons. This is how you reason with a child, you're not wearing the rain boots. It's July. It's 115 outside, okay? You can't wear that outfit for the seventh day in a row. You need to branch out into other clothing, okay? Or you have to eat these vegetables. Why? Why? Because I said so. So what, in our human life, what did we learn first? Obedience or logic? We first learned obedience. And you know, even you teenagers are not fully logically developed yet. I know you think you're there, your brain is fully developed. I even had a friend of mine tell me, hey, you got to go easy on your teenagers because you have to understand their brains are not fully developed yet, you know? And they weren't saying that in a spiteful way, it's true. So therefore, they think that they're there mentally, but they're not quite logically there yet. So there's still an element of do it because I said so. And even us as adults, sometimes there are things that God asks us to do that we don't understand, but we do it anyway, right? So what came first? Obedience or having our heart right? Obedience or having our mind right? Obedience or having our spirit right? Folks, it started with obedience, okay? It starts out doing it because God said so, and then by having a habit of doing the right things, you know what happens? Our heart improves. Our mind improves. Our thoughts improve. Folks, if you get a child to just obey their parents and do what they're told, you know what? They're developing good habits, and then eventually they will have a good attitude that says, yeah, I'm not just going to eat ice cream and candy. I'm going to eat my vegetables. I'm going to eat healthy food. Why? Because they've been eating healthy food. You know, I'm going to praise the Lord. Why? Because you've been praising the Lord. Look, I'm going to read my Bible because you've been reading your Bible. It's not that my kids wake up every morning thirsting for God and hungering and thirsting after righteousness and saying I've esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food, pushing away the plate of breakfast and saying, hey, no Bible, no breakfast. Is that what my kids say to me? No. But my kids wake up and are told, read your Bible. Well, but is their heart in it? Well, I don't care. Read your Bible. Why? Because if they read their Bible, their heart's going to be in it. Eventually, if you love your wife and do good unto your wife and bless your wife, your heart's going to be in it. Eventually, if you serve your husband, treat your husband with respect, say the right things to him, you're going to believe it. And you know what? When you're rude to your husband, call him names or call your wife rude names and do it. You know what? That's actually changing your heart too. When you're disrespectful to your parents and say something disrespectful, mouth off your little snark or sarcasm that you give your parents, that's changing your heart too. Saying yes, sir, yes, ma'am, thank you, mom and dad, I'm glad to help, that's changing your heart too. You say, well, I don't really mean that. Well, say it until you mean it then, you little punk, you little snot. So anyway, actions that change our heart. So don't get so ephemeral and mysterious about how to become a better person. You know how you get righteous is by doing righteousness, even as he is righteous. Now obviously this sermon has nothing to do with salvation. When it comes to salvation, you believe on Christ to get saved. You don't start doing a bunch of works and then all of a sudden, wow, now I'm a great person, now God's going to be glad to let me into heaven. Because like we said, you offend all. Everybody offends. Nobody's a sinner. Nobody's ever going to be good enough to waltz into heaven on their own merits. The only way to go to heaven is through believing on Jesus Christ. But you say, well, does this sermon apply to that in any way? Well, the Bible does say that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. That's an interesting word order there. Because often when you're preaching somebody the gospel, they're on the fence. They're right there. They're in the valley of decision. When you're preaching someone the gospel, they're hearing the gospel. They're hearing the truth about salvation. They're understanding, okay, I'm a sinner, okay, Jesus died for my sins. He was buried. He rose again. I need to trust Christ as my savior. Once I'm saved, I have eternal life and all these different things. As all these things are being processed, there comes a point where there's a decision to be made. Am I going to receive this free gift of eternal life? Am I going to call upon the name of the Lord for salvation or am I going to listen to it, okay, that's nice. I'll think about this another time, think about it another day, or am I going to get saved? There's a decision, right? So what is it that seals that decision is when you basically say to that person, all right, do you believe this? And then they say, yes, I do. By saying yes, I do, now they've just basically solidified their decision a little bit more. And then when they bow their head and pray and actually confess these things to the Lord and tell him that they believe it and call upon the name of the Lord, you can see how these things are closely linked, right? Calling upon the name of the Lord and believing in your heart, why? Because calling upon the name of the Lord sincerely is an action that changes you on the inside. You confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. And then, boom, you're saved. With the heart, man believeth unto righteousness, with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. Now of course there are people who call upon the name of the Lord and they don't really believe. Even in our soul winning program, even if we do everything right and give a perfect presentation of the Gospel and the person says they believe it and pray, we don't really know that that person actually got saved, do we? There are going to be people who just go through the motions. But if they believe and they confess and believe, boom, they're saved, right? So it has to do with their heart but there's also an outward expression of that. And so when it comes to salvation, it's totally by faith. But guess what? Salvation is just the beginning. And 99% of people here are already saved. So we're not talking about salvation and we're talking about how to be a better Christian, how to be a better person. And by the way, being a better person and being a better Christian are the same thing. Can't be a rotten person and be a good Christian, right? Being a good Christian and being a good human being are both one and the same. And so how to be a better person after you're saved, right? You're already saved, you're already going to heaven, nothing can change that but how do you become a better Christian? How do you have a better attitude? Don't you want to have love in your heart? Don't you want to have peace in your heart? Don't you want to have joy in your heart? You know how you get joy in your heart? By singing at the top of your lungs. It is joy unspeakable and full of glory, full of glory, full of glory, it is joy unspeakable. The point is, you sing songs like that, you're not going to be in a bad mood long, right? You get in a bad mood, you start singing, this is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. You're not just going, oh man, I don't get to go on that vacation, I wanted to go on. The fact that you're praising God makes you happier and it also makes you love God more. Worshipping God makes you love God more. Praising God makes you love God more, why? Because you're saying it and then it's affecting your heart. You're turning the ship with the rudder of your mouth. Praising God is like, alright, let's turn the whole ship toward loving and worshipping God. Like talking about negative things and being down in the mouth and depressed and complaining, murmuring, oh man, I don't understand why, I can't get a break in life. It's just like turn the ship toward being a negative, angry, bitter person. So we can control the whole body, folks. Where do you want to go, folks? Do you want to be a joyful, peaceful, happy person who loves your wife, loves your children, loves your husband, loves your parents, loves your church, loves the lost, cares about people. You say, well, I want to get motivated to go soul winning. Go soul winning and then you'll get motivated to go soul winning, which will get you more motivated to do more soul winning. And then you'll get motivated and then you'll do the work. It's a circle, folks. So you're either going down the drain on this vicious cycle or you're climbing up the spiral staircase of this back and forth of say the right thing, have the right heart. Say the right thing, have the right heart. Do the right thing, have the right heart. Do the right thing, have the right heart. Do the wrong thing, but I just destroyed my soul a little more. Commit adultery, destroy your soul. Say something negative about your spouse, you don't love your spouse as much. Get bitter toward your spouse. Say something worse, get more bitter. Complain about the church, now I have a bad attitude toward church. Talk about what I don't like about the church. Get a worse attitude, which makes me say more bad things. And then I have a worse attitude, or I can say good things, have a good attitude. Be thankful, say thank you, now I feel better about it. Actions that change our heart. Well I just don't want to do the actions until my heart's in it. Okay, so the toddler's not going to eat their vegetables until their heart's in it. Toddler's not going to go to bed until their heart's in it. Let me give you a great reason to do the right actions, because God said so. Do it because God said so, and watch your heart get better as you do the right things. Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and thank you for this practical advice that you've given us about saying the right things. Even in our internal dialogue, help us to say the right things so that we can have the right heart and eventually do the right things. And Lord, help us to do the right things so that we can have the right heart and do more good things, Lord. Help us to realize that there are concrete actions we can take to have a better attitude, a better thought life, a better spirit, a better soul. By taking specific actions, help us to take these actions and not just sitting around waiting for our insides to change on their own, Lord. Help us to obey you as children, obey you as spiritual babes in Christ, spiritual toddlers, spiritual children, that we might grow in grace and actually come to do things because we want to, because we love you and have a right spirit. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.