We need help…

Another thing to do in managing our mouth is to ask CHRIST for help everyday.  We need help.

Psalm 141:3 (NIV) says, "Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD, keep watch over the door of my lips."  In other words, please, GOD muzzle my mouth.  Help me to watch and manage my words, to manage and master my mouth.  The Living Bible is so clear and practical:  "Help me, LORD to keep my mouth shut!"  That's about as clear as it needs to be.

You can't do that on your own power.  It's impossible.  You cannot manage your mouth by yourself.  Why?  The reason is because your mouth isn't the real problem.  GOD says when you've got a problem with your mouth it's not really your mouth.  It's your heart.  Out of the heart the man speaks.  The mouth simply reveals what's in my heart.  It is the window to my soul.  It is the displayer of my character.  How and what I say shows what I'm really like inside. 

JESUS said in Matthew 15:18 (NIV), "What comes out of the mouth comes from the heart."  Words reveal our character and they display the condition of my heart. 

When you go to the doctor the first thing he says is, "Stick out your tongue."  Somehow by looking at your tongue he's going to figure out what's going on inside of you.  Or he takes a thermometer and puts it in your mouth – hopefully.  Somehow by taking the temperature in your mouth he can figure out if you're sick or well. 

Whatever is in the tree is going to come out in the fruit.  You've never seen a cherry tree bear apples.  You've never seen an apple tree bear figs.  Whatever is on the inside is eventually going to manifest itself on the outside.  Out of the heart the mouth speaks.  My mouth eventually betrays what I'm really like.

I've heard people say, "I'm so ashamed of what I said.  It's not like me, I don't know what came over me.  It's not like me to say that kind of thing."  I want to look at them and say, "Yes, it's just like you.  It's exactly you."  We need to quit kidding ourselves.  When you say something mean it's because you're mean on the inside.  It just doesn't pop up.  It's an overflow of the heart. 

We’ve just been going a through problem here in LA of an owner of one of our NBA teams talking and showing that he was a racist.  A conversation he had was recorded and it has gotten him in big trouble.  What was in his heart came out of his mouth.

Just a thought from the front porch…