Treasure Island Baptist Church

OKEECHOBEE – Ephesians 4:29: Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

Good Day, Okeechobee. I will remind you, it is a good day. I love America; it is the greatest country in the world in which to live. It has its flaws, but then again, who doesn’t? Romans 3:10 reminds us, “As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one;’” Knowing this we shouldn’t have such volatile division in our country. Why are we so divided? Why do we carry on always seemingly pointing out each other’s flaws as if we have none? Matthew 15:19 says “For out of the heart come evil thoughts - murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.” Everyone wants to be heard. Everyone has an opinion. Everyone thinks they have something unique to add to the conversation.

May I remind you the scripture also says in 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.” For some reason we believe that not only our temptations, but our problems are unique. Obviously that’s not true. We all face temptation. We must all deal with our sin, and the sin of others. We are all disenfranchised, or labeled at one time or another in our lives.

Let me give you an example. As a pastor, myself, a faithful friend and my 13 year-old foster child of mine were handing out invitations to our church in a local development. While walking we were confronted by an individual who obviously knew of our mission (we had been canvassing this development for weeks). As we approached the individual’s section of the area he began yelling obscenities at us. To avoid confrontation we got into our vehicle and started to leave. At this point the individual, with a loaded gun (It was confirmed to have been loaded by the authorities), ran in front of our vehicle and pointed the gun directly at us and demanded us to leave. We obliged.

I must first say I became a follower of Jesus at the age of 32. Jesus Christ influenced me in a profound way. How? Well let’s just say the love, compassion and heart God gives you for people can’t be simply put into words. You must have that relationship with Jesus to know exactly what I mean. The point is that Jesus confronted me with all of the scriptures I have already shared with you and showed how desperately I needed Him. Upon receiving Him he opened my eyes to the reality of how desperately we all need a relationship with Him. This is what led us to simply pray for the individual. As my friend, my foster child and I prayed, I realized I didn’t know that person’s hurts, pains, and/or struggles that may have led to this kind of behavior and then I thought of Ephesians 4:29 among other scriptures.

I continue to pray for the opportunity to have a discussion with this individual one day. Why? To give him a piece of my mind? No: To build him up, to tell him I forgive him. To tell him what I’ve told you today. We all fall short of the glory of God. The problem we face today is that as soon as someone doesn’t grasp our position as we believe they should, our talk becomes unwholesome. The other party automatically get labeled as haters, wicked, and an enemy - and the name calling begins. If we keep the discussion, as the scripture says, focused on encouragement and building each other up, focusing on trying to understand, then we can advance the understanding of both parties. But notice the second part of the verse: “that it may benefit those who listen.” There is another element to simply keeping our words wholesome and trying to understand other’s needs, and that’s being willing to listen.

In a day of social media where we often post whatever we want and expect everyone to agree and if they don’t, simply block them, we have become a society that can’t have productive dialogue. So the alternative seems to be that whomever can yell the loudest and be more ‘in your face’ wins. Well, before we condemn that we must realize it is true. Wholesome discussion only benefits those who listen. My boss once said to me that I needed to take the cotton out of my ears and stick it in my mouth. And he was right. All this to say, I believe there was a time when we respected each other more. When we loved each other despite political affiliation, or societal issues. One thing I know for sure, I wasn’t able to fully grasp this and have the love and compassion this requires until The Lord came into my life. You don’t have to agree with me, but I am more than open to have an honest, open, loving conversation about it. And if we don’t agree I promise to love and respect you anyway.

Philippians 2:3-4: Do nothing out of selfish ambition or empty pride, but in humility consider others more important than yourselves. We should all look not only to our own interests, but also to the interests of others.