Holy Conversation Psalm 50:23 Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and
to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God.
Our speech and our conversation are important to God. It is
also vital to our testimony before the world. The word conversation means more than just our words. It
is the whole way we live in public and in our private life. Our whole
conversation is to be holy to keep from becoming a reproach to the gospel of
Jesus Christ. Praise is reflecting what is in our heart. It is a confession of
what we believe about the one we are giving praise to. When we order our
conversation aright, we are choosing to live in a way that reflects what is in
our heart if our hearts are right with God. My main message though is the conversation that concerns
our speech. The words of our mouth that usually reflect what is in our hearts.
One of my favorite verses is this one. Psalm 19:14
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy
sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer. Here we see a prayer that not only our words be acceptable
in the sight of God but also the mediations of our heart. It is possible to be
skilled in saying all the right things in front of people but have a heart that
desires things that are compromising and downright evil. We may be two faced.
Being nice to people in person but stabbing in the back when they are not
around. We hope when the day comes that we stand before God that He says to us,
"Well done they good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord." I
believe in order to hear those words from our savior, we have to work on what we
say but make sure what we say is from a pure heart. God knows the mediation of our hearts even when others do
not see them. We may fool people but we cannot fool God. Now to get back to the words that we speak and how they
influence those around us. There is a great deal to be said about the words we speak.
In fact part of our salvation concerns our confession. Romans 10: 9 says, If thou shalt confess with they
mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God has raised Him from the
dead, thou shalt be saved. Although I do not believe the modern day name it and claim
it doctrine there is a lot to be said about the things we confess with our
mouth. If we go around talking negative and always complaining
about how bad things are and how bad they are going to be, that shows a heart
that lacks faith to believe God for miracles. How can we ask for healing if the
words of our mouth constantly confess doubt and unbelief? When we constantly say to ourselves, I'm never going to
amount to anything. I'm never going to get a good grade in that subject or I'm
never going to find a job, we most certainly will never find a job, never make a
good grade or never amount to anything. The words of our mouth are defeating
us. We could do the same thing in the spiritual. "That person is never going to be saved." God will not
heal him, he is too far gone." There is no hope for so and so. With that
negative talk, I doubt that we will ever see anyone saved or receive healing.
On the other had we can't go around confessing things if
God has not revealed in the spirit that those things will come to pass. This is
where the positive confession movement went wrong. In the charismatic churches
for a while was so bent on saying positive things that people were afraid to
make prayer requests because they feared speaking in the negative and God would
not answer their prayer. Some began to confess things without the spirit
prompting them and claimed things that were out of the will of God and they
didn’t come to pass. We can’t give people false assurances but we can say. I
believe the Lord can do things that are impossible to everyone else. There is a woman in West Virginia whose daughter went into
a coma. She was very severely paralyzed and the doctors gave no hope of
recovery. If she recovered she would be a vegetable. This woman wouldn’t
accept that verdict. She began to pray and call different churches and prayer
groups to begin to pray for the daughter. It didn’t happen at once but slowly
the daughter began to move her muscles and come out of a coma. She then began
to recover and walked out of the hospital. I have told this before. Something I never do is to tell
someone something will happen just as words of encouragement. One time a lady
was concerned that her friend was in a car accident and was not expected to
live. From her description it seemed a hopeless case. I never have done this
before but I told the lady that her friend was going to be okay. I felt in the
spirit that my words were true. This wasn’t an empty positive confession but
that which the Holy Spirit witnessed in my heart at the time and for that one
person. The preacher's wife looked at me very funny because she
doesn't believe in giving people false assurances. I later worried about it and
hoped that I was not in the flesh as they call it. Two or three weeks went by and I didn’t see the lady and
worried that her friend might have died and she stopped coming to church because
of my words. I saw the lady again finally. She mentioned that her friend had
recovered. You can only guess how relieved I felt for it would grieve my spirit
to tell someone something and it turn out not to be true. That kind of thing
never helps faith only hinders it when the positive confession turns out to be
wrong. But continual negative talk of doubt and unbelief also does not edify
the body of Christ and is very damaging to faith. Colossians 4:6 Let your speech be always with grace,
seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.
To be instant in season and out of season is to be prayed
up and ready to give an answer to anyone with whom we may have a conversation
with about the Lord. It is true that we have to warn against false teaching and
even on occasion false teachers naming names also like the apostle Paul did in
order to keep people from being deceived but this must be done after much prayer
and with caution. We can't be always warning and negative without speaking
often on what God can do to fix things that are wrong. No matter how hopeless a
person seems, God still has the power to change lives, save souls and fix things
impossible to fix. We have the power to discourage or encourage with our
words. I’m not talking here of false flattery and vain empty man pleasing
words. The bible warns against those that use flattery to gain
acceptance and make people think we are their friend. In fact it says faithful
are the wounds of a friend. A friend will speak truth and not just tell you
things that make you feel better. Yet, we can over do that and fail to make
people believe that God has the answer to whatever it is that is easily
besetting them. We can be so overly critical that we discourage people. If we
constantly criticize and discourage people especially the youth and children, we
will destroy them. We need to correct in gentleness and patience, never with
harsh criticism and unfruitful bashing. We must strike a balance and seek to be
led by the Holy Spirit in matters of godly correction. No matter how bad things are, God has the solution if we
diligently seek Him for it. Wise counsel is good. Proverbs 11:14 Where no counsel is, the people fall:
but in the multitude of counselors there is safety. We need to talk to one another but even it that there is a
danger of winning people to ourselves and even our church instead of winning
them to Jesus Christ. Too much counsel and not enough praying gets people into
the “I need to talk to somebody mode.” This is a sure way to keep people from
running the Lord for answers. How many times to we run to the telephone when
something happens instead of running to the prayer closet. God should be our
first resort, not our last resort. This is where we need the Holy Spirit to direct our paths
and even our conversation with those that need our advice. The Holy Spirit will
lead people to Jesus Christ. Our flesh wants to lead people to ourselves and
cause them to look to us for help. The trouble with getting people dependent upon us is that
when we fail, they will fail. We need to seek God constantly that we are able
to preach or teach the word, give our neighbors encouraging words and then step
aside and allow people to find a one on one relationship with Jesus Christ.
Then we need to encourage them to seek the Lord and be filled with the Holy
Spirit so that they can learn to understand and follow His word. This relationship with Jesus Christ needs to grow so that
they can walk with the Lord even if they are separated from their church family.
I'm not getting away from the need of a good church
family. We really need that but there are times when we have to walk alone yet
not alone but with the Lord within us. We must guard ourselves from allowing any relationship with
a person even a good Christian person to get in the way of our personal walk
with the Lord Himself. I for one love to listen to anointed preachers of the
gospel but even that should not replace my private bible reading and prayer time
with the Lord. A couple of weeks ago I let this happen. I was listening to
one preacher after another over the Internet. I always pick ones I know ahead
of time are true and not into false doctrine but I was still feeling drained
spiritually until one preacher said that tapes and videos do not replace your
own private bible reading and prayer. I immediately saw what was wrong. I was
letting someone else do my worshipping, studying and praying. This leads to
spiritual laziness. I needed my one on one contact with my savior instead of
going through the Internet preachers. There was nothing wrong with the ones I
was listening to. I don’t listen to the charlatans. Because of the words of
the apostle Paul about how easily women are deceived, I will purposely not
listen to those that teach falsely even if it is for study purposes. I
recognize the fact that we inherited a weakness from Eve that we may be more
likely to be deceived so I avoid them. Even though I picked out the good ones,
it wasn’t a substitute for my own personal need for conversation with the Lord.
I love to talk to other Christians and have godly
conversation with them about the Lord but that still doesn't replace the much
needed time I need to spend with the Lord in private. Praying with others is vital. Concert prayer with other
believers need to increase rather than decrease but even that does not replace
our private time just with God. We need to hold conversations with God above all other
conversations. If we don't our first love just may be who we are spending our
time with instead of our first love being Jesus Christ. A hint as to whether or not we are walking in our first
love is this? What to we wake up thinking about? What do we think
about? What concerns us more throughout the day? What do we talk about? What
worries us the most? What do we think about when we lie down at night?
Whatever is upon our hearts may be what our first love is. We can say we love God first all we want, but God knows our
hearts. What we talk about unless we are good actors, often reflect
what is in our hearts. Philippians 1:27 Only let your conversation be as it
becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be
absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one
mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; Our conversation also means our conversion to our faith in
Jesus and then how we live. Still it also reflects the words that we speak. We
must speak things that becomes or reflects our faith in the gospel of Jesus
Christ. We have the power to bring reproach upon the gospel or be supportive of
the gospel with what we speak. 1Timothy 4:12 Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an
example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in
faith, in purity. The youth see and hear everything we say. In front of them
we may have to be careful even with joking and having fun. What we may be
kidding about, they may take seriously. I'm one that usually believes what a
person says and I take things serious. If you say you don't like me, I will
believe it even if you say you were just kidding. Some people cannot take a
joke and will take everything we say seriously. It depends on how they grow up. If we grow up around
serious minded people who do not joke and carry on, we will take people at their
word and take them seriously. There was a man when I was a child who liked to tease
children. He would threaten to cut off their ears in jest of course. I was
terrified of him and took him seriously. It wasn't until I was older that I
realized the man was just kidding. The reason I say this is because of another verse: Luke 6:45 A good man out of the good treasure of his
heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil
treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of
the heart his mouth speaketh. The reason I tend to take people seriously is because of
that verse. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So if a
person is "just kidding” they may be in reality telling all who hears what is
really in his heart. I pondered over this verse and thought, what about people
who deceive. They are saying things that are not in their hearts in order to
deceive. As I thought further on this I realized that it is out of the
abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. A deceiver has an abundance of
words in his heart but the words are not true. He has purposed in his heart to
deceive. In his case he is in reality speaking what is in his heart whether it
is true or not. Some people like to joke and kid around in innocence but
the listener may not take it that way. Still the bible says out of the
abundance of the heart the mouth speaks so I believe the bible. If you say
something and then say that you didn’t mean it. The bible says you should speak
truth and speak things that you mean but it also tells us to meditate on right
things so what comes out of our mouth is truth and not deception. So if someone says something to me that is very negative
and insulting, then says. I’m only kidding. I am going to believe what they
said first because according to God’s word, they are speaking from their
hearts. They may rethink what they said and be afraid of hurt feelings and
immediately say they are just kidding but it is too late. Because of God’s word
I will believe what they spoke the first time. Now I know there are the clowns
that like to joke and say things just for fun but in that we need to remember
what the word of God says. Out of the abundance of our heart, the mouth speaks
and work on that so that what is in our hearts is not all foolishness. If we let Him, the Holy Spirit will convict us if we say
the wrong things and if we meditate upon the wrong things. We should learn to
love it when He convicts us of something because it is better to repent and
change now than to face the Lord and have to give an account for every idle word
we speak. If we repent and turn away from it now judging ourselves, we will not
be ashamed when we face the Lord. Matthew 12:36 But I say unto you, That every idle
word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of
judgment. Idle means vain, empty words. Wicked or injurious words
meant to hurt in a way that is not fruitful correction or godly edifying but
does harm. Idle also means speaking without thinking and making sure our words
edify. See how much we need the Holy Spirit even when we speak.
Titus 2:7 In all things showing thyself a pattern of
good works: in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, Titus 2:8 Sound speech, that cannot be condemned;
that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say
of you. Now most of us know that we are to speak truth and not lie
but sometimes we get into foolishness and speaking things that are downright
silly. You have to judge for yourselves if this is right or wrong. I will only
judge myself in these matters. God doesn't let me get by with foolish speaking
but I'm not going to judge someone else. Maybe I'm around the type of people
that take me at my word and foolishness would be offensive to them. It is
better not to speak that to say things offensive and cruel and destroy those for
whom Christ died. Remember Paul’s words that if meat make my brother to offend,
he will not eat meat. That is godly love. If my words will make my sister be
offended, then I need to watch what I say. Its not worth it to destroy
someone’s soul or someone’s fellowship with believers. Again I repeat this doesn’t mean that we tickle the ears
and only say good things that make people happy. A thousand times no. Godly
edifying is our goal. Sound speech is our goal. What we say must bring forth
fruit. Cruel jesting is hurtful and does no good. I certainly do not want to cause unnecessary offense and
drive someone away from the Lord I claim to know and believe in by my harsh
words of cruelty. Yet sometimes we may mean no offense and someone take us the
wrong way and read something in our words that we didn’t mean. That is why I
like that prayer I spoke at the beginning of this topic. Let the words of my
mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight. If we do that, then we will begin to speak that which
edifies and brings forth fruit. Eph 5:1 Be ye therefore followers of God as dear
children: Eph 5:2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved
us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a
sweetsmelling savor. Eph 5:3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or
covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;
Eph 5:4 Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor
jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. What if we are eating in a restaurant and someone overhears
us tell an unclean joke or make fun of someone behind their backs. Then they
hear us speak of Jesus Christ in the very next sentence. We just ruined our
testimony and brought reproach upon the gospel we believe in. We even have to watch too much negative conversation. Like
I said before, we have to be careful to warn of false doctrine and teachers but
if we are around people who need to hear the gospel that will save their souls,
they do not need to hear all the faults and failures of our brothers and sisters
in the Lord. We do not have to brag and puff them up and make them seem perfect
and unapproachable but we are never going to win someone to Jesus Christ by
accusing the brethren in the same conversation that we are trying to tell them
the way of salvation. Speaking of puffing people up. We can go too far the
other way and keep speaking on how great a preacher so and so is and how we need
to hear him or her. The Holy Spirit is the real preacher, not the person. It
might be better just to say, so and so preaches the word and tells the truth.
One thing I do not like to hear is how so and so really knows how to work a
crowd and get people to the altar. That really turns me off because we should
want the Holy Spirit to draw people to the altar, not any personality. If we
get people to the altar by hyped up music or a person who can work the crowds
the conversions we are seeing my not last. Our goal is to see the Holy Spirit
and His convicting power draw people to repentance. For so many years now we have watered down the plan of
salvation and told ourselves that the way to win the lost is just to live before
them and be kind to them hoping that by and by they will see Christ in us and be
saved. If the apostles would have believed that, we would never
have heard this gospel. The only way to win the lost is by telling someone face
to face how to be saved. I use the Internet for this since I'm terrible at one
on one conversation but I am planning on speaking to my neighbors. I’ve spoken
to them about my church but that is not sharing the gospel. I talk about God
all the time to my neighbors on the other side but they are already Christians.
People are not going to come to Christ just because we are kind to them.
Sinners know how to be kind too. Granted if we are unkind, we will turn them away from what
we believe but we are not going to win the lost by just being kind. They need
to hear the gospel if they have never heard. This is no excuse for not being kind though. If we have a
neighbor and we are unkind and they have another neighbor who is kind but is one
of the worst sinners on the earth, how is that going to make us look if we claim
to be a Christian? So it can result in someone accepting or rejecting the
gospel but being kind by itself without any presentation of the gospel will not
result in the salvation of the lost. There may be isolated cases but the gospel
message has to be given in order for a person to be genuinely saved. A lot of false religions give away food and are friendly so
that in itself is not the way to win the lost. We do not want to win them to us
but to Jesus Christ. If we win people just to us or to our church and fail to
get them to the Lord, we have failed in our calling. We will make mistakes and
disappoint people but Jesus will not make any mistakes. We got to get people's
eyes off us and onto Jesus Christ. This isn’t easy but that is why we have the
Holy Spirit. 2Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a
thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise,
and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that
are therein shall be burned up. 2Pe 3:11 Seeing then that all these things shall be
dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and
godliness, 2Pe 3:12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of
the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the
elements shall melt with fervent heat? Again I repeat, holy conversation is our whole lifestyle
and not just our speech but my message concerns our speech. What are we talking
about when we are out in a restaurant, working on the job, talking to a next
door neighbor, eating lunch in the cafeteria at school, or talking on the
phone? Are we complaining, are we just saying idle words, are we
tearing down with gossip, are we stirring someone up against another person by
telling them about a person who has done us wrong? Brothers and sisters I am
guilty of many of these things but I feel so strongly that the Lord wants us to
begin to edify and build up the church. I'm talking to myself here as well as
anyone who will listen. We can read the bible and even present the gospel but if
the rest of our conversation is filthy and unholy, we will not produce any
fruit. Our words will be empty and void. We may witness to a neighbor one day and the next day
complain about high taxes, high gas prices and criticize someone at church to
the same neighbor and I guarantee you that you will not win him to Jesus Christ.
This is a tough message but it is from the word of God.
You have heard the warning of touch not my anointed and having roast preacher on
Sunday will cause our children not to want to have anything to do with church or
even Jesus Christ but this doesn’t just apply to the leaders of our churches.
It applies to all our brothers and sisters in the Lord. We should avoid having
roast people for dinner. I believe we are all equal. Respecting leaders is
needful so that people show respect when the word is preached but that church
member that we bash and feel more comfortable criticizing because he is not in
the leadership may become our child’s youth leader or Sunday school teacher. If
the kids have heard us tearing them down, they will remember that, if that same
person later becomes one of the leaders. Then we wonder why they do not want to
show respect and listen to what they have to say. All backbiting is warned about in the word of God. Avoid
it like the plague. Don’t say anything behind one’s back that we wouldn’t say
to their face and if we have to confront someone face to face make sure that it
is private. We don’t have to tear people down in front of the youth and the
children. An exception to that like I said before is in the matter of false
doctrine or a child predator or someone who is spiritually or physically
dangerous to them. As a general rule though, gossip and backbiting will kill a
church and stop revival. 1Peter 1:15 But as he which hath called you is holy,
so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; This means more than the words that we speak but they do
include the words that we speak along with how we live. By our words we are
justified and by our words we are condemned. God can help us to have healthy, fruitful conversations if
we just sincerely ask Him and desire to obey His leading. If we want healthy edifying conversation we must first
receive good things into our hearts. Remember we usually speak of what is in
our hearts. In closing I want to quote the words;
Philippians 4:7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding,
shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Php 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things
are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever
things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue,
and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Rom 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the
mouth confession is made unto salvation.
If we constantly think about ourselves and how we look to other people, we may be
too self centered. Our idol may not be a person or possession but ourselves.
Sometimes our first love may be ourselves also. We are to love one another as we
love ourselves but our love toward God has to come ahead of that and be strong
before we can even begin to love anyone else.