Let Your Speech Always be with Grace Seasoned with Salt

 

Colossians 4:6, “Let your speech always be with grace seasoned with salt”

 “Speech”

Every time we talk we have always to be mindful.  Every word we say is heard by others who will judge us and then judge God.  If our words are kind then others will believe God is kind.  If our words are complaints or negative, people will believe God is negative.  If our words are angry, people will believe God is angry.  If our words are mean, people will think God is mean and not only will they run away from us but also run from His church and God Himself.

 “Always”

Always, always, always speak with grace.

 “Grace”

Can you give examples of speaking with grace?  For example, someone wrongs you and you say, “I forgive you”.  When I’ve been on the phone for 2 hours with Spark and they don’t help me, how do I speak with grace?  When your children, husband or work mates annoy you, how do you speak with grace?

 Mathew 12:34-37 reminds us that what is inside us will come out.  If we have a heart of grace, then gracious words will come out.  If we have peace, then peaceful words will come out.  If we have joy, then joyous words will come out.  If we have anger, then angry words will come out.  If we have bitterness, then bitter words will come out.  Unforgiveness will always show its ugly head.  Patience gives kind words.  Love produces loving words.  Hatred produces hateful words. Impatience produces mean words.  A negative attitude produces negative words while a positive attitude produces positive words.  Being stressed can lead to regretful words being said.

 One time when I was working in the laboratory, it was very busy and a girl in the team destroyed hours of work by not fastening the lid of the centrifuge.  She looked at me and waited to be told off but I said, “It’s ok”.  I had peace so I had the ability to speak with peace which meant my speech was seasoned with grace.  Because God is in my heart and He is peace, I knew that if I spoke badly, she would never discover God in me and could be put off forever.  We must remember that our words have consequences, they can either produce life or produce death.

 “Seasoned with Salt”

Salt is tasty but only as a seasoning (you can’t eat salt by itself).  We must season our words so people will listen to them, eat them, take them inside their heart and through those words be changed. 

 Food is good for us and doesn’t need salt to be good for us but salt makes it palatable.  For example, when giving advice to someone, we have to find ways that are palatable so they will take the advice.  Rather than pointing fingers take time and help the person slowly slowly.  Don’t throw a bucket of salt over them.  If we put too much salt, the food is inedible.

 For example, I knew someone who would greet people (non-Christians alike) with “Greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ”.  People would run away from him thinking he was crazy.  Start slowly and season your words.  For example, if someone is complaining, instead of saying, “Stop complaining” we could find the right time to talk to the person and can even say something like, “I keep complaining, I am wondering your thoughts on how I could stop”.  This might open them up to realise they also complain and together you could suggest to keep each other accountable.

 James 1:19 “Be quick to listen, slow to speak”.  

God Our Father

We are going to praise God because we were all born, including Adam.  As we sang and as we heard from the communion message, we are all sons of God.  This has nothing to do with gender.  We are children of God and it’s not a matter of being a boy or girl.

In the book of Mathew 6:9, JESUS was telling us how to pray and He started the prayer with “Our Father who art in heaven”.  JESUS’ advice is to start prayer with “Our father”.

Who is the father?  God is big, powerful and someone we fear with supernatural power but when talk about a father it is different.  JESUS told us to be like children to enter the Kingdom of God.  A child in front of a father will say, “Daddy hold me, daddy carry me, daddy I want this”.  A father can be in the middle of a meeting and the child can come in without reason and the dad will pick up the child and make sure he is safe.

God wants us to treat him like a father taking care of his children.  Do we really behave like children of God or like teenagers?  To be a child is good.  When I was a child, if I stepped on something dirty, my dad would clean my feet. Children are fed and the parents look after their children 24/7.

God is sufficient. God is Everything.  God is man and woman at the same time.  For that reason God created a human being in His image.  What is the image of God?  God has existed for eternity.  Genesis 1:7, God created Adam and Eve and then later in chapter 2 He came down and using His hands touching the dust, He then made Adam’s body.  The eternal life met with the temporary life. 

God decided to come down and meet with us and decided to create something that He will call son.  Adam and Eve were created on the same day spiritually before God created Adam and Eve physically.

If you look at our prayer that Jesus gave us in Mat 6, many people who speak Aramaic will start with Abwoon  which is a blending of Abba (Father) and Woon meaning Womb (Mother) because God is mother and father at the same time. 

When God created Adam He breathed into that body.  Eve was inside Adam.  As Adam was taking care of all creation, he saw that God created male and female animals but not human because the human being was given everything they needed in them.  God saw that Adam was lonely and bored so God decided to go down to separate Eve from Adam so that there could be companionship.  Woman was separated from Man.

Adam was the first man to give birth, from his side God took out Eve.  Adam wasn’t born and reflected that divinity and eternity.  He didn’t have mother or father.  This is another part of the image of God on earth.  When Adam woke up, he saw Eve and he said, “Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh”.  He knew that he was the image of God and therefore the self-sufficient and knew God had separated from him what was inside of him.  You can only be a child of God if you reflect God’s image in you.  Jesus taught us you must be born again.

On earth, mother and fathers will teach us principles.  E.g. this is not a Kiwi way, this behaviour is unacceptable but for other families, it will be acceptable.  Families will teach you how to behaviour and what is considered normal but this might not be considered normal to other families.  When you marry, the husband will come with his own education and the wife will also have her own education.  Now they stay together, there is a battle.  What one believes is not what the other believes.  Therefore, God says, if you want the right education, read the Word of God and that is the perfect way to live, not what your mum or dad taught you.

If I go from the Word of God, I go astray.  Therefore, God wants us to be self-sufficient with Him and not separate from Him.  The day He separated Eve from Adam, Adam could not give birth anymore, he had to go to Eve.  Even if Eve wanted a child, she can’t without Adam.  They had to complete each other.  When we are trying to complete each other, there is a danger because the devil will try to destroy. 

Leah and Rebekah, they are children of Ange, who can separate that?  No one can separate it even if Angela is sick in hospital, she will still be mother of those children.  Nothing can separate them.  When satan came to meet Eve, he lied to Eve and mislead her.  Why did he mislead her?  Because God gave a big responsibility to Eve to be the one to produce life.  God said to both Adam and Eve, “You have to multiply,” but he gave Eve the capacity to hold life in her. 

You can see a very small lady can hold a baby in womb.  The baby can move around but the lady will hold that heaviness.  God has given hips to women to hold baby.  It would be a disaster if men got pregnant because we are careless.  Men can be stupid.  I’ve seen men going to jail because they have put children in a washing machine or something stupid like that. 

God trusted a woman and gave the job of giving life to women.  Satan realised by Eve having the ability to give life, he will lose.  The devil didn’t want women to conceive only life, he wanted them to also conceive sin.  Satan brought temptation.  The church is also a picture of women.  The church starts to stray from God.  We start to walk a life that we used to think was not a part of Christian life and it becomes a character of and part of our lives because we have walked away from will of God.

Adam and Eve stayed in the garden for a time but left when God put them aside.  Jesus came as a second Adam miraculously as well.  For God to produce a new woman, Jesus was pierced on the same side as the rib that was taken from Adam to create Eve.  This reflected the notion of God removing a rib from Adam and creating Eve.  By being pierced, the curtain ripped and a new woman was seen (the church) and through Christ, we have salvation.

The church treats God as God rather than our father so we don’t come close to Him and we don’t have time to come near Him.  I used to call my father sheriff because he had no jokes and if he sees you playing around, he will have a look and if you see him, you knew you would be punished.  We had rules and we weren’t allowed to do some things.

When I was around 8 years old, he asked for a cotton ball but he called it a name that I hadn’t heard of before and I had no right to ask what he meant.  If I came back without it, it will be punishment.  I couldn’t even check a dictionary.  Sometimes human beings can treat us harshly and let us down but God is telling us, you have to be born again, “You have learnt a lot of rules from your parents, you have been disappointed, come to Me and I will be your father and your mother, I will take care of you”.

Life has seasons as we all know.  In summer we wear light clothing but in winter you see people preparing for cold with warmer clothing.  Today the church doesn’t look at the seasons, we are just as we are. For example, if we have a nice top for summer, we wear it for winter because others like the top.  When the seasons are changing, we need to change and not stay in the same place just because others said we look cool.

Last year’s spring is different to this year’s spring.  Never put your trust 100% in other people but only trust in God our heavenly father.  If you put your trust in someone who is next to you like Adam put his trust in Eve, you will be misled.  How many times have you fallen into traps because you didn’t want to disappoint someone?  How many times did you sin because you didn’t want others to think you were different? 

Pride can make you become a fallen angel.  Arrogance can make you become someone who is not a child of God.  Sins come like a suggestion and you have the capacity to say no.  According to the education of God our father, you have to say no.

When Leah is at home she feels free but she won’t feel free at my place.  Leah can walk freely into Ange’s room but she won’t come into my house and go freely into my room.  Why do we limit ourselves to not access rooms of Gods Kingdom and all the corners of God’s Kingdom?   We try to reject God and consider more our friends.  Leah will have secrets she won’t tell her mum but she can tell her friends.  Friends with friends will mislead each other and do wrong things.

In 1 Cor 4:15 it says that you can have 10,000 of guardians but you don’t have many fathers.  My biological father is my guardian.  The people who surround us are just guardians and they can teach us but they are not our fathers.  We can go to church and listen to the pastor and read books, these people are guardians but not fathers.  Jesus reminded us in Mat 5, call no one your father but the one in heaven.

When there is a danger or challenge, children will go to their father but today we prefer to make our guardians our fathers and put our fathers aside.  We need to pray and ask God for direction.  If you are a child of God, you are not a boy or girl, you are self-sufficient with God because God completes you.  If you look at our blood, there is not feminine or manly blood.  A man can take a women’s blood and it won’t harm (provided they have the same blood type).  Women are not weak, in front of God, that is not true.

In the Kingdom of God we won’t have men or women in heaven.  We live like angels.  Why to make yourself look weak or think you don’t deserve because of your gender.  We need to move with God.  When you pray remember to call God your father.  Anything you wanted from your father, get it. Even when our fathers are wrong, they continue to be our fathers.  They can have rules which can be tough, they can have mistakes but they continue to be our fathers.

God our father has never made mistakes, He is sinless.  One time my father smacked my face because I didn’t notice a lady walking past and he thought I looked badly at the lady.  When he realised that I didn’t do wrong, he said sorry.  God will never punish you but encourage you not to sin.  Imagine if God could punish you like our court system, maybe every day you will be in jail and the list will be a long list of crimes.  From birth to now, how many mistakes have you made?

Easter

What does Easter mean?  Jesus was arrested on the Friday night, crucified and today He is alive.  Why was He arrested?  Why was He crucified?  Why did He come back to life?

The cross at that time was the maximum penalty, there was no worse punishment, it was the maximum pain.  Jesus accepted to go through that for us to be saved.  We believe in Jesus because He died for us. 

While on the cross, He said a few words and then at the end He said, “It is finished”.  Someone came with a spear and stabbed Him in the side after He’d already died.  Water and blood came out.  Usually only blood should come out.  The water was separated from the blood.  Miraculous.  This is only seen when a baby is born. 

When we trust in Jesus, when we go to the cross, we see our new birth, we are born again.  Repent, ask for Jesus blood to wash you and with that blood, we are born again.  Jesus accepts us as new children. 

One day we will die or Jesus will come back for us.  We need to be ready for that.  To be ready we need to:

1. Accept to know what is sin and try your best to live without sin and if you do sin, repent.  If you know how to repent and ask for forgiveness, this is a big step.
2. Feed your soul.  Read your Bible daily.
3. Actions.  On the day of judgement, Jesus will sit on the throne and you will be judged only by your actions.  If your actions are not good, fix them.  If you have a problem, fix that problem with that person. Mark 11:25, “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”  Don’t wait for the person to come to you, go to them. 

Jesus died for you to be saved and we can be children of God.  We must prepare our way for heaven.  The only thing you will take with  you to heaven is your soul and your actions so be careful with your actions.  Do you treat yourself as a Christian or not?  Am I a good Christian or not?  If Jesus comes back now, will He take me or not.

Wait on the Lord

 There are lots of verses that say, “wait for the Lord”.  We have discussed this many times before and all agree that it is not waiting “for” the Lord but rather waiting “on” the Lord.  There is a big difference.

If we go to a restaurant, the customer sits down and the waiter comes to the customer to “wait” on them.  The waiter asks the customer, “How can I help you? Would you like something to drink? Would you like to order your meal now?”  The waiter waits for the answer and then does what they are told.  It would be a disaster of the waiter came back with fish when the customer asked for lamb, especially if the customer was allergic to fish.  Everyone would wonder whether the waiter doesn’t listen or if they are careless. 

It is the same with God.  He is sitting on His throne and we come to Him to wait on Him.  Sometimes we might have to wait a while before He tells us what to do.  Sometimes we might ask questions, “Shall I do this or that?”  God gives us directions and we must obey.  We obey because we know it will be a disaster if we don’t.

It’s different with a café.  When we go to a café, the customer stands up and orders their meal at counter.  The customer goes to the shop assistant rather than a waiter coming to the customer.  The shop assistant waits for the customer.  God doesn’t work that way.  We don’t wait for God to come to us.  God is on His throne.  He doesn’t leave His throne to wait on us.  We have to come to Him.  “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you” (John 4:8).

We sometimes think that we can do what we want and God will come down and intervene.  We sometimes think that we can sit down and wait for God to come to us.  God won’t.  We have to make an effort to go to Him like a waiter.  We are His servants not the other way around.  We have to make the time for Him, to pray, read His Word, to listen to His voice.  He is the King above all kings.  We wouldn’t expect the Queen of England to come to us, we go to her.

In Ruth 1:1, “In the days the judges ruled”.  In the days that the judges ruled, “everyone did as they saw right in their own eyes” Judges 21:25.  Sometimes we do what we want instead of waiting to know what God wants.  Imagine a waiter at a restaurant bringing you something and you didn’t even ask for it.  You won’t be happy if the waiter brings you something you can’t stand to eat and then demands you pay for it.

In Ruth 1:1, Naomi and her husband left Bethlehem.  Bethlehem means the house of the bread of God.  Naomi and her husband left God’s house to do what was right in their own eyes.  We have to be careful not to leave God because that’s where we are fed spiritually.  We have to be careful not to do what is right in our own eyes but to seek God and wait for Him to lead us.

Once in Moab, Naomi’s sons married Moabite women which is against God’s law to marry a non-Israelite.  When we leave God’s house of bread (Word of God) and His presence, it is easy to make wrong decisions that are against His law.

Once Naomi’s husband and sons died, Naomi had to go back to the Lord’s house of bread.  The Lord’s bread didn’t come to Naomi.  She had to go back to the Lord.  We must always go back to God.  We must always be in His presence waiting on Him.  When we make the mistake of leaving and doing what is right in our own eyes, we have to make a decision to come back to God.  He won’t come after us.  Just like the prodigal son.  The father didn’t go after him, the son had to come back to the father.

Let’s wait on God.