Loose Lips Sink Ships

Well, if you weren't at church sunday morning, you missed a Tony message :) With Randy on medical leave right now, I am getting a chance to preach a lil' more frequent lately. This sunday we discussed some pretty heavy stuff! The txt came from James 3.2-6 focusing on how our tongues are very powerful. Just as a ship's rudder can change the direction of a giant boat, your tongue also is just as powerful! In berne, this is something that we all deal with because it's such a small town. One little thing can happen and we tend to drag it out for the sake that there is not much else to talk about! :) The problem is, this will keep us from growing closer to God! It is clear throughout the Bible that gossiping is not tolerated. The Bible defines "Gossip" as "one who reveals secrets, one who goes about as a talebearer or scandel-monger" Gossip is distinguished from sharing information in two ways: the intent, and the information you are sharing! Even Jesus felt strong about this! In Matthew 12.33-37 Jesus belts some "religious leaders" about the issue! His main point in the scolding was "whatever is in your heart determines what you say! A good person produces good words and an evil person produces evil words" So... What do we do about all this gossip? We have to ask ourselves, Why the heck are we gossiping? yes it is human nature, but if we want to grow closer to God, we have got to cut it out!!! If you have an issue with someone the Bible clearly gives us a procedure for taking care of it. First we need to go talk to the person, if that doesn't work, bring a few with you. and if the issue is still there, bring in the church leadership. The last thing we talked about was 3 things we need to think about before we start sharing our information. Perry Noble says before you go sharing... #1 make sure you have your facts straight. #2 make sure that your source is reliable and #3 Resist the urge to seem to be the person "in the know." This is some good food for thought for all of us and I do believe that it was challenging for many.