 Amen, so keep your place there in James chapter 3. We're going to get to James 3 in just a moment, but James chapter 3 is talking about our speech and our tongue and the things that we say and how serious that can be. So we're going to talk about speech this morning, alright, and just a little introduction before we get into the sermon. You know, a lot is made today about the freedom of speech and that we can, we're able to speak whatever we want in this country and you know, we have, we don't have freedom of speech by the way. I'll explain that to you at the end of the sermon, but a lot is made about having how important it is to have freedom of speech. But turn to Isaiah chapter 59, you're going to keep your place in James chapter 3. Actually you turn to Leviticus chapter 24 and I'm going to read for you Isaiah chapter 59. A lot of Americans today are just like freedom of speech and you know, we're really up for the First Amendment and all that. But let me just show you, before we get started this morning, that freedom of speech, first of all, is not really biblical, alright. You know, in the Bible there are rules against saying certain things in even the Levitical law and I'll read one of those for you in Leviticus chapter 24. Look at verse 16 and then I'm going to read for you Isaiah chapter 59 as well. Leviticus chapter 24, look at verse number 16, the Bible says, and he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregations shall surely stone him, as well as the stranger as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord. So what does that blaspheme the name of the Lord mean? That means like speaking, that means things that you say your speech against the Lord. So that was in the civil law of the Old Testament, that was a capital offense, just speaking badly against the Lord. So there clearly wasn't freedom of speech just in anything in the Old Testament. Isaiah chapter 59, I'll just read for you in verse 13, the Bible says, you know, God is upset and he's going to judge for this reason. It says, in transgressing and lying against the Lord and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood, and judgment is turned away backwards and justice standeth far off. So here these people are speaking against the Lord, they're saying lies, they're just saying things. They're uttering things, the Bible says, and you know this is something that God is upset about, and he's upset that there's been no judgment here. He says, yea, truth faileth, and he that departed from evil maketh himself a prey, and the Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment. So here we're talking about just people speaking evil things, speaking lies, speaking against the Lord, and the Lord is upset that nothing is being done about it. So all that to say this, all that to say this, freedom of speech is not something that is biblical. Now in a non-Christian society, don't get me wrong, in a non-Christian society which is the one we are living in now, I am glad that we have the freedom to speak what we can speak today, mainly the Word of God, mainly the Gospel, in a pragmatic way, I'm glad that it exists today. But the point is, when God's run in the show, when Jesus Christ is ruling and reigning for a thousand years, we're just not going to have this freedom of speech to just say whatever we want, just to speak lies, blaspheme the Lord, those things will be cracked down upon. Look, I'm glad we have it today. But I'm going to show you how even the First Amendment today, even the First Amendment says, you know, Congress shall make no law establishing a religion or the free exercise thereof of religion. This is where we get our freedom of speech, our freedom of religion, our freedom of the press, you know, this is where we get this, that Congress shall make no law, meaning the government shall not make a law against these things. But I'm going to show you, you know, the work around that Satan has found when it comes to freedom of our, even our religion and able to, you know, our ability to speak the truth of the Bible today, alright? So all that to say this, go back to James chapter three, go back to James chapter three. The things that we say are very important in our lives. I mean, there's a little kid saying, they go sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me. That's just a lie that we tell little kids so they feel better about themselves. That is not true at all. I mean, James chapter three is talking about the tongue as a fire, is saying the tongue is a deadly poison. It is saying that the things that we say, the things that you say can be severely damaging to people. I mean, think about, think about just things that the Bible is against, like false accusations. I mean, can't someone speaking a false accusation against someone? Look, that can ruin someone's life. That can cause people to lose their job, even go to jail, you know, just because of a false thing that someone says. You think about things that are going on, on social media and things that, this is why we don't have comments on our channel. We don't allow comments because there's just all these, this nastiness and all this stuff going on and I don't want to give trolls and all these people that would just speak fire. I don't want to give them a platform. It's that simple. I mean, people have been trolled online to the point where it's gotten to a point where people have committed suicide over things like this. Tell me that words don't matter. Tell me that speech doesn't matter. Look, like I said many times before, the Bible is true whether we, you believe it or not. Words matter. Words are deadly poison. You know, the right words or the wrong words are deadly poison. Alright, so words matter and they can seriously hurt people. Look at James chapter three in verse number six. The Bible says the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity, meaning it's saying so much trouble can come from the words that we say. It's a world of iniquity, meaning a world of sin. Like just the things that you say can just open up all kinds of sin. So is the tongue among our members that it defileeth the whole body. What does that mean? It means, here's what this means. It means what you say can literally ruin you as a person. The things that come out of your mouth can defile you as a human being. Someone could look at you and say that is a terrible person right there. Because why? Because the things that you say. Because the things that come out of, you know, this one member, not your finger, not your arm, your tongue, this tiny little member that's maybe, you actually be shocked how long your tongue probably is. But anyway, I mean just this little member can defile, can ruin you as a human being and seteth on fire the course of nature and it is set on fire of hell. That's some pretty strong words right there. What the Bible is saying is what we say matters. We should be careful about the words that come out of our mouth, which leads me to the title of the sermon this morning. The title of the sermon is the power of silence. The power of not saying anything. So this isn't even going to be a sermon about what you say. This is going to be a sermon trying to convince you to say less in situations. The power of silence. Look, I'm going to show you how silence is extremely powerful this morning. I'm going to give you four points and then I'm going to show you how silence and just the fact that things aren't being said is literally changing our culture and it's changing our society and it's going to change your kids if you let it. The power of silence. Why should we say nothing? Let's look at four reasons that you personally or four situations where you personally should say less or say nothing and how that could be extremely powerful in your life. So I'll give you four reasons where you should say less or say nothing and then we'll look at the overall cultural effects in America today on silence. The first reason is this. Go to Proverbs chapter 17. Why should I say nothing? What is one area where I should not say anything? Look at what Proverbs chapter 17 and verse number nine says. Look, silence is powerful and silence is powerful in this area. Look at Proverbs chapter 17. This is the first point this morning on the power of silence. Proverbs chapter 17 verse number nine, the Bible says, he that covers a transgression seeketh love. Now this isn't talking about transgression a sin. This isn't talking about covering up something that's secretive and that's damaging to people. This is talking about something that has already been taken care of. This is talking about something where there was a conflict, somebody did someone wrong and it's already been dealt with in a biblical way. It says, he that covers a transgression seeketh love. And we see, how do you say how do you know pastor that they're talking about that this has already been dealt with? Because look at the second part of the proverb. It says, but he that what? Repeated the matter, separated very friends. What this is talking about is somebody that would just constantly bring up past sins. Somebody that would constantly bring up transgression. Say two friends, two guys or buddies or whatever. And anytime the alpha buddy wants to get the beta buddy to do something, he just like, oh remember that time you did me wrong there? He just keeps bringing up something from the past constantly just to try to get his buddy to do something for him or make his buddy feel bad or whatever. This is a terrible thing for a marriage right here. This is a terrible thing for a marriage. When the Bible says to let not the sun go down on your wrath. Meaning when you have a argument or a disagreement in a marriage whether it be husband or wife or whoever did wrong, you should get that right, get that taken care of right away. And then that's it, that's over. This isn't something where the wife brings up to the husband two years down the road. Like oh remember that time you know jerk face where you did this or whatever. I mean that is wrong. That is wrong to keep bringing up transgressions from the past. So even when maybe there's a new argument between spouses or between friends or whatever and you're tempted to bring up how something else happened and you want to bring up the stuff they've done wrong in the past, the Bible says don't do that. The Bible says you should be silent there. Have discretion. Have discretion. You don't have to bring up everything that you know about people. This is just talking about having discretion. Maybe a friend, here's another example of this, maybe a friend told you something in secret or in private. Just saying a friend was confiding in you and maybe a friend told you that they're having problems with debt or they've got a bunch of credit cards and they're worried about it or something and then you get in a group of people and you're talking with a group of people and the subject of debt comes up and you're like yeah Bill has a lot of debt. He told me yesterday. This is what the Bible is saying not to do. It's like hey be silent just because you know things doesn't mean you have to bring up everything. You need to think about how your words will make other people feel. This isn't talking about covering up wicked things that nobody knows about. This is just talking about having discretion and being a polite person is what this is talking about. You don't have to bring up every little thing that pops into your head about somebody. Somebody you don't think their clothes look right or whatever and you're just like hey you should take care of that or you should get a better shirt or whatever. I mean some people literally just like if it comes in their brain they literally just say it and they offend everybody constantly. So that's what Proverbs 17 is saying. You need to think about how your words are going to affect or be received by other people and if you're not sure say nothing. You're not sure hey should I say this at this time? Would he take this the wrong way? Would she take this the wrong way? Should I bring this up? Say nothing. Default to say nothing. The power of silence. So the first one is just have some discretion. Turn to James chapter one. Turn to James chapter one. The first one is just have some discretion. Not everything that you think needs to be said. Think about how your words are going to be received and taken by other people. If you're like I don't know how they would take that. Just flip yourself in the situation and think about how you would feel in that situation. That's a really quick mental exercise to do. How would I feel if I was him and somebody said that in this group of people or whatever. Go to James chapter one. Look at verse number nineteen. The second one is this. When should you say less or say nothing? The second one is this. When you're upset or when you are angry or when you are in a emotional state that is outside of normal. Alright? Look at James chapter one. Look at verse number nineteen. The Bible says this. It says wherefore my beloved brethren let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. This is a really interesting verse here because we see there's kind of a double slow here and there's one swift. So there's something you should be very fast to do and you should just be always quick and always willing to listen is what the Bible is saying. But it says be slow to speak and slow to wrath. The reason there's two is it's kind of like a double safety valve here. It's kind of like you know if one valve fails the other valve will catch it. So you're supposed to be slow to wrath. Meaning what? You're not supposed to just be this person that just gets angry just like I mean we all know those types of people. Any one thing goes wrong and you just snap and you just go crazy. And they just get go from zero to angry just like that. We all know those types of people and you should never be that person. You should be someone where it takes you know it takes a long time or you know it doesn't say never get angry. There's plenty of things that should make you angry but you should be slow to anger. But let's say that one fails and you do get angry and you do get to wrath maybe quickly or quicker than you should have. The Bible then says be slow to speak. There's your next safety valve right there. It says you should not just you should not be I mean the person that is the worst is somebody that is quick to wrath and quick to speak. Meaning what do they do? They just get angry right away and they just blurt out whatever comes to them when they're angry. That is a person who is going to just have a terrible time and people are going to have a terrible view of that person because when you're angry you are going to say what? You're going to say things that are not righteous is what the very next verse says. It says the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Meaning you're going to say things that you will regret later. I mean we all have done this. We've all gotten angry in an argument with whoever and said things that we later regretted. Why? Because we were angry and we weren't following this verse. We got angry and then we said things that we were quick to speak when we got angry. Look even if you are slow to wrath and you get to wrath you should still be slow to speak. You should still think about look that wrath comes that wrath comes look there is a righteous anger. Say you are righteously angry you should still be slow to speak. Somebody does you wrong. You get into some kind of confrontation or argument something. You should say the bare minimum in that case. Wait till you are not angry come back and address the situation. That's how you should handle those things. Otherwise somebody sins against me somebody does me wrong and then I go and I'm quick to wrath and maybe I am righteously angry over what has happened but then I'm quick to speak and I say a bunch of things now I'm at fault as well. Now I'm a transgressor in the situation it's better to say only what is necessary and address it later. Address it later on. There will be times of anger in your life especially in this society that we are living in. Somebody that never gets angry and never is upset over anything is you know that's not good. That is not good. Look at Proverbs 25. You say but somebody did me wrong and I just want to get them. I want to get them back. I want to tell them what I really think about them at that moment. I just want to board it all out and just tell them what I've been thinking about them for a year. Look at what the Bible says in Proverbs 25. And they deserve it. It's these times of anger when that happens. Look at Proverbs chapter 25. Look at verse number 21. You really want to get somebody back who has done you wrong. You really want to do the best you possibly can. Look at what the Bible says here. The Bible gives you a way to do this. Look at Proverbs chapter 25 but it takes some self control. Look at Proverbs chapter 25. Look at verse 21. It says if thine enemy be hungry let him starve. Yeah. It says no if thine enemy be hungry give him bread to eat. And if he be thirsty give him water to drink. This is somebody who is personally against you. This is somebody who is your enemy. We're not talking about enemies of God here. We're talking about somebody that you're in a conflict with. Somebody that's against you personally. It says hey give him water. Give him you know. Why? Look at verse 22. And this works by the way. For thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. And the Lord shall reward thee. So there's a double benefit for you right there. It says the Lord will be happy for you if you don't just get in the flesh and just attack them back and go after them with you know what you do and also what you say. It says you're just going to drive them nuts is what's going to happen. Somebody that's against you you know what that's saying? It's saying that somebody that's against you and is trying to provoke you into conflict. They want you to get down in the mud with them. They want you down in the dirt with them. It's their goal. But if you're just like oh you know you're just friendly to them. You're just you know what can I do for you and what can I do to make things better for you. You're going to drive them crazy and the Lord will reward thee. It's a double benefit for you right there. So look don't speak out quickly in wrath. When you're in an emotional state that is not normal where you're you know extremely sad or extremely mad or just something crazy is going on in your life you know wait don't say anything the worst thing you can do is just speak the first thing that comes into your mind. So that's the second reason to be silent right there. Turn to Proverbs chapter 25 look at verse 23. You're already in verse 22. Look one verse over. Here's another reason to be silent. Voicing disapproval. You say what? Voicing disapproval yes you can voice disapproval through silence. Look at verse 23 of Proverbs 25. The Bible says the north wind driveeth away rain. Sodoth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue. The Bible is saying here is that if you don't approve of what somebody is saying somebody is in a, you're in a situation where you're with a person or you're in a group of people and somebody says something inappropriate they're backbiting somebody it says just the look on your face is enough. This is one that goes with worldly situations that many times men will find themselves in at work, out in the world. You find yourself in a situation where you're in a meeting, you're talking to a bunch of people at your job or wherever it is and a bunch of people start talking about something inappropriate and guess what? Silence works. Just being silent and just leaving the situation speaks volumes in those types of situations. A lot of people are just like they're all upset people get in situations and people start talking about whether it be their weekends or just you know drinking it's always drinking. People start talking about just inappropriate things that they're into and people will think that oh I need to say something clever here. It's like you don't have to say anything. You don't have to say anything clever. You don't have to say something smart. The smartest thing is to be quiet and exit the situation and that speaks volumes to people. The best thing in many situations like that is to simply say nothing. What if somebody addresses you with something that is totally inappropriate? What if somebody comes up to you and just says what do you think about this and they show you something completely inappropriate? First of all like whenever somebody like brings a phone and like tries to say I don't like people showing me stuff on their phones before they even get to me. I mean not in church that's different but I'm just saying like out in the world I don't want to see it. I don't want to see it. But what if somebody addresses you specifically where like they're literally telling you something or asking you something. You know I have this saying that I'll say in situations like that where I'll just say nothing I could say would be appropriate right now and then I'll say that way I don't have to say really anything but they know that I do not believe that it's appropriate and guess what you do these things you express silence in these situations you express you know that you just you express with the countenance on your face with the silence and then exiting the situation people will stop doing these things around you. They may think you're boring or they may think you know you're rude or whatever it is great that's my view wonderful love it but you know you don't have to go out and just start lecturing people out in the world like these are worldly people people you work with are worldly people they're going to be world you know just I try not to get into personal conversations in worldly situations but every now and then you find yourself in one where it goes sideways or whatever I say nothing and I exit and it speaks volumes it speaks volumes so that's the third one if you don't know what to say something's inappropriate you can express your disapproval through the countenance in your face without saying a word turn to judges chapter 11 here's a big one here's another one you should be silent on this is a big one and this will affect you this will affect what people think of you this will affect your reputation this will affect your name turn to judges chapter 11 judges chapter 11 of course is one of the most messed up stories in the bible all the messed up all the really messed up stuff in judges but judges chapter 11 is a story of Jephthah Jephthah was a judge and he went to war and he made this promise he made this vow that if God would give him this victory he would sacrifice the first thing that he saw when he went home look at verse number 30 of judges chapter 11 the bible says in Jephthah vow to vow unto the Lord instead of thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands then it shall be that whatsoever come forth of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the children of Ammon shall surely be the lords and I will offer it up for a burnt offering so Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them and the Lord delivered them into his hands so Jephthah says to the God that I'm going to go he's about to go into this great battle and he promises to God I mean whenever we're going into tough situations in our life I'm sure that we I'm sure that we pray and say God if you get me out of this I'll do this and I mean this isn't an abnormal thing that he did here I mean he promises to just give God in a sacrifice whatever comes out of his house I don't know what he thought was going to come out of his house his dog or his cat or something I don't know in verse 34 the Bible says this it says Jephthah came to mitzvah into his house and behold his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances and she was his only child beside her he had neither son nor daughter and it came to pass when he saw her that he rent his clothes and said alas my daughter thou has brought me very low and thou art one of them that troubled me for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord and I cannot go back so the first thing that happened was my only child his only daughter and here he's saying now I have to sacrifice my daughter unto the Lord look at verse number 37 and she said unto her father let this thing be done for me let me alone two months that I may go up and down upon the mountains and bewail my virginity I and my fellows she's like let me just go hang out with my friends because if you're going to sacrifice me to the Lord I'm never going to get married I'm never going to have me go and mourn that situation and he said go and send her away for two months and she went with her companions her friends and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains and it came to pass at the end of two months a lot of people think what happened and she returned unto her father who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed he actually did it this guy actually went and he sacrificed his daughter to the Lord and she knew no man and it was a custom in Israel that the daughters literally to lament the daughter of Jetha the Gileadite four days in a year it was such a remarkable thing that happened not remarkable it was such a well known thing that happened that they literally mourned her every single year because her daughter killed her her dad killed her because of his vow now obviously you say that's a messed up story obviously you have to look at these stories just a side note you have to look at these stories in Judges in the Old Testament you have to realize that there was no king in Israel and every man did that was right in his own eyes so you got a bunch of people doing wrong things in the Bible this isn't what God wanted to happen God did not want Jetha to sacrifice his daughter so to make a vow that is against a commandment of God is obviously wrong he should not have followed through with this he should have you know confessed his fault to the Lord he should have made a foolish vow and he should have moved on with his life this is why you know in Matthew 5 and other places in the New Testament it says just let your yea be yea and your nay be nay then we'll be making all these crazy vows vowing on to heaven vowing on to all these things just do what you say and say what you're going to do simply ok but the point of trying to make is this you need to be careful another place to be silent in your life is with your vows it would have been better if Jetha said nothing if Jetha asked God to deliver him and didn't make some crazy vow like this because you have to understand that to vow and then to not follow through that's an extreme case but for a man to vow turn to Psalm chapter 15 for a man to vow and then not follow through I mean one or two times where you promise this happens very quickly where you are somebody that promises hey I'll help you with that or hey I'll be there and then you don't you will quickly be known as someone who your word just doesn't mean anything this is very important to understand look at Psalm chapter 15 in verse number 4 in whose eyes a vile person is condemned but he honors them that fear the Lord he that sweareth to his own hurt and changes not notice the last part of that Psalm right there you know a lot of people will promise things either to a friend or to family or whatever and they say hey oh I can do that or I'll give you that whatever it is they'll promise things and then a couple of weeks down the road maybe situation has changed or maybe it's just simply it's getting closer and they're realizing what they promised and they just don't want to do it anymore they don't want to help you out with that construction project or whatever it is because you know that was just kind of something that they said back then or maybe as in Psalm chapter 15 verse 4 says maybe their situation changed to help you maybe they had a few extra bucks a couple months ago but now when it comes to actually helping someone you know do that remodeling job helping someone build that fence or whatever it is maybe you just don't have that time you don't have that money but Psalm 15 is saying even to your own hurt you should do it he's saying even to your own hurt that is what God wants so it doesn't matter if it hurts you it's the best thing for you at that time it's better that you follow through on things and you're like well man I have a really hard time following through on things well guess what you should say less you should vow less because when someone's talking about trouble they're in or whatever things that they need it's very possible to just say nothing it's very possible just to offer condolences to fear or all come to that or whatever it is it's better to say nothing than to say something and not follow through on it because pretty soon I'm talking one or two times and you'll just be one of those people it's like oh yeah that guy just says stuff people will take your words and they won't even take you seriously it's a big deal that is just oh something came up and yeah something always comes up and that vowing less saying less is an option it's a better option to say nothing than to not follow through on things that you've said so look I'm trying to get you to understand this morning that what you don't say is very powerful what you don't say can be used to your benefit in many different cases and I'm going to explain something to you this morning even in our country today what is not said is much more powerful than what is actually said you say pastor what are you talking about I'm talking about the media I'm talking about propaganda I'm talking about these media companies that try to communicate to people they use the power of what you don't see to make it look like see what they're doing is you see this media you see this information out there and you see that there's this minority fringe opinion out there but it's really not the minority fringe opinion you say nobody's really saying this stuff and this fringe over here but many people are saying it's just being silenced they're trying to make it look like it's a fringe thing did you know that did you know that six companies six companies own almost every single media outlet that you could even think of right now I'm not talking about I'm not talking about just like news channels I'm talking about news channels I'm talking about TV shows I'm talking about movie studios I'm talking about internet service providers I'm talking about six companies own hundreds of these media outlets I'll name you the six companies national amusements is number one they own CBS Paramount studios many others Disney is a huge media conglomerate you like the Disney channel on TV I don't know they own things like ABC they own things like first of all Disney is probably the most woke most perverted most pro LGBT that you can even think of all this list they own ABC they own the history channel you ever wonder why like during Easter Christmas there's all these attacks on the Bible coming from what the history channel they're owned by Disney ESPN you ever wonder why like all these sports stuff they're the tip of the spear with all the pride celebrations and all this kind of stuff why because they're owned by Disney Time Warner number three Comcast number four they own CBS NBC News Corp this is the Fox News National Geographic many others but they're still you saw what happened to people that are against the war and all these types of things and then Sony is the sixth one these six companies you take these six companies and then you take Google and you take Meta which is the Facebook company and you basically have all all the media all the information that is flowing into the homes 99% of Americans today now here's the thing there's all kinds of independent media out there it's just people are too lazy people are too lazy to go outside of this box to look at it so what you end up with is you know Twitter, Facebook, YouTube all these things they fall under this umbrella maybe Twitter's not as bad as it used to be but people are too lazy to actually go and follow independent media themselves and what they're getting a narrative put to them where they hear this silence in all these areas because they're making it appear that nobody is talking about these things so they're like oh there's silence and guess what people want to kind of be with the majority people are sheep people want to be with the majority anybody that is speaking against the LGBT community and their agenda against you know their agenda to women and just attack children today anybody that's talking about that stuff will be silenced you're like oh nobody's really saying anything about it but they'll be silenced anybody that's talks about the vaccines and the dangers of all the vaccines they'll be silenced anybody that's out there and is speaking the truth about this Russian war that's going on and the Ukrainian war that's going on and it's against the narrative that the US media is pushing they're basically speaking against the military industrial industrial complex anybody that does that is going to be silenced from these six corporations so they all may seem a little different but what they're doing is they're literally changing the culture of our country by what through silencing certain things through making it appear that there's no voice in these certain areas like this change in our culture it's changing our entire country watching it happen why? through the power of what is not said or what is appearing to be not said because people will watch this and they've been brainwashed by Hollywood for 70 years they've been brainwashed by TV shows for the last 40 years and they're being brainwashed by all these things and they're like oh this is just where things are going and they're like many people probably don't even know what's happening they don't even know that they're changing by what is not said by just truth that is being held back from people look by what is not said is extremely powerful folks not only for us personally but for our country especially turn to Colossians chapter 4 but this is the opposite of the bible the things that are not being allowed to be said today is literally the opposite of the bible it's the blasphemy that's allowed it's the perversion that's allowed it's all the you know the anti-god stuff that's allowed and the god stuff is silenced see it's an inversion of what god had in the bible only those anti-god perspectives are allowed today I mean it shows you who's behind it all it shows you who's behind the six companies and meta and google and all these things but see this is what's interesting congress hasn't passed a law congress passed no law we've enslaved ourselves we've enslaved ourselves by only by just being these people to just get our information from these sources we've literally enslaved ourselves and satan found a work around he's like you know what I'll control these few sources I will what integrate all these different sources into just a few different denominations sound familiar this is the same reason we're gonna always have independent churches the churches should be independent because denominations satan can just attack one corporation which is exactly what all of them are by the way it's interesting congress passed no law yet here we are today are you in Colossians chapter 4 let's go back to the benefits let's go back to the benefits let's talk about the benefits of saying less the benefits of silence for you personally look at Colossians chapter 4 the first one is this I hope I've convinced you so far this morning that silence is powerful what is perceived silence is powerful in our nation what is perceived from you as silence is very powerful as a matter of fact there's situations where you shouldn't be silent but if somebody is being attacked those are situations where it doesn't matter in the world somebody is saying something they're backbiting those are situations where I will not be silent but in a lot of situations silence is beneficial look at Colossians chapter 4 look at verse number 6 it says let your speech be all the way with grace that you may know how you ought to answer every man again that's the responsibility that you have with the speech that you say so your speech is always supposed to be with grace so if you're in a situation where you don't know what you're going to say is graceful say nothing don't say anything at all I don't know what to say silence is the best option in that case so the first point is this if you do practice silence in these four areas that I told you this morning you will be likable you will not be someone that people dislike not that your goal in life should be to have everyone like you but your brothers and sisters in Christ it would be nice if they liked you so to be silent in situations of discretion in situations like we talked about be someone that always speaks with grace and people will like you here's a real big benefit right here people will actually think you're smarter than you are you're like I'm not that smart no problem no problem turn to Proverbs 17 no problem people can think you're smart even if you're not smart look at Proverbs 17 look at verse 28 you're like I don't know I'm a fool I don't know anything about anything and I'm always making mistakes and well this is for you look at Proverbs 17 and verse 28 Proverbs 17 verse number 28 the second benefit of being silent more often is that people will think you are smarter than you actually are look at Proverbs 17 and verse 28 the bible says even a fool he's using an extreme case here even a fool when he holdeth his peace is counted wise and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding you're in a group of people and people are talking about a bunch of stuff you don't know about and you're like man they're talking about a I've been in this situation in my life you're talking about you're in a group full of really smart people and they're all talking about all these technical topics and maybe you're not an expert on these topics and you know what you do you shut up and you listen you just be quiet you be quiet in Proverbs 29 verse number 11 it says you know the opposite of this in Proverbs 29 11 says a fool uttereth always mind but a wise man keepeth it until afterwards so it's saying the opposite of this you're in a group of people and they're all talking and you're not an expert on it the worst thing you could do is just start to pretend like you're the expert start to pretend like you know everything about it because everyone's just going to look at you and they'll be like this guy's a moron this guy doesn't know what he's talking about they're going to know right away so just be silent is all you have to do you don't have to think of anything smart to say you'll see that all the time people are trying to think of the smart thing to say it's like say nothing that's the smart thing to say in that case but it says a fool uttereth everything this is mine this is why you see kids they talk a lot kids need to be taught this kids need to be taught this I tell my kids all the time and I've told my even my older kids when they were younger hey when you sit down when you sit down in a group of older men you know kids that are seven, eight, nine years old whatever I think it's good by the way when the group of men sit around at late night at the church and a group of men sit around and they talk about things I think it's good that the young men sit down I think it's good that the kids sit down and listen to the things that the Christian mature men are talking about that's good that's a good thing but they should do what they should listen you don't have to teach your kids that because you know your kids will sit down in those situations when they're ten and the men will be talking about politics or whatever it is out in the world and all this and the kids will be like oh yeah well you know I drew that picture they'll just start talking about things you can go play that's fine but if you're going to sit down in this group of people you should listen I remember after like Thanksgiving dinners and Christmas dinners and things like that in my house when I was growing up the men, my uncles and my grandpa and my dad would always sit around for hours after the after the dinner was over and they would just sit there and talk about all these things and I'm just a little kid I'm just like what are they talking about I just remember the first time that I actually had the desire to sit down and listen and I just got to and I got to sit with them and I just you know but I didn't say anything I just sat there and I just listened and that's a good thing for young men to sit down and listen but they should listen they should not just sit there and kids will just by nature if they're not taught to listen they'll just utter everything in their mind they just have a thought come in their mind and they just utter everything but that's the nature of children they need to learn to be mature but you have an adult that does that type of thing the Bible calls that person a fool alright so we want to make sure our kids don't turn into that adult that just something comes into their head and they just utter it no matter what alright so look the takeaway this morning is that silence is powerful silence is powerful you do not have to be the one saying smart things all the time there are times in your life you don't have to come up with the the coolest quip or the best response to people and all this just move past that in your life just be quiet just be silent I mean silence is the answer to 99% of conversational difficulties that you have I don't know how to react I don't know how to this just be silent because it's much better to be silent than to say something that is wrong and walk away from conversations or walk away from somebody or walk away from an argument and be like I shouldn't have said that because you can't put that back in once you've said it once you've let the iniquity out now you're into Matthew 18 and conflict resolution and taking care of all these things which with your brothers and sisters in Christ should be completely possible to hey I'm sorry I said that the other day I'm sorry I said that you know I didn't like your shirt and that you know whatever you know I'm sorry I was angry and all this but there is ways to heal those situations but it's better to not get in them in the first place so that's the power of silence in your life let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer