Good morning and welcome to the Berean Break.  My name is George Sinkie and I am so glad that you have joined me this morning.  This is the Fourth of July weekend and as we celebrate our liberty as a nation, we need to remember that there is an even greater liberty and freedom that we need to have.  That freedom is the freedom from sin and the death that sin brings, which comes only from serving God.  As we begin this morning let’s go to God in prayer.

Great God in heaven, We come before You now, and may each of us humble ourselves.  Dear God while Satan speaks of freedom to follow him brings bondage.  Only the truth that You give brings freedom.  As we humble ourselves may we obey Your will and have the freedom that You offer.  In Jesus’ name.  AMEN !!

     Today we are going to look at the question, “When Should I Speak?”  It seems like everybody wants to talk now days.  Have you ever just kind of stepped back and listened to a conversation among a group of people.  There will be several people in the group who want to talk.  They are always trying to finish the sentences that someone else begins – sometimes with the same idea that the original speaker had, but quite often with something entirely different.  It has been said that, “our nation is suffering from an overabundance of verbiage.”  We can observe this by talk shows on television – twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.  So many people want to speak, but very few people want to listen.  Stop for a moment — I mean really stop and listen.  Hear these words of Jesus from Matthew 12:36-37

   36 “And I say to you, that every careless word that men shall speak, they shall render account for it in the day of judgment.
   37 “For by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned.”

     Are you listening?  Some great advice to answer the question, “When should I speak?” would be, “Think before you speak.”  Playing off the word “think,” notice the following acronym.  An acronym is using the letters of a word to be different points of words.  So let’s “THINK” for a while this morning.

     T is for True.  I should Speak when it is True.  God does not want to find falsehood among people.  A “lying tongue” is one of the six things our Lord hates.  In Proverbs 6:16-19, it says,

   16 There are six things which the Lord hates,
        Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him:
   17 Haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
        And hands that shed innocent blood,
   18 A heart that devises wicked plans,
        Feet that run rapidly to evil,
   19 A false witness who utters lies,
        And one who spreads strife among brothers.

     Notice that three of the seven things listed deal with our speech.  Then in Proverbs 12:22, the wise man writes,

   22 Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord,
        But those who deal faithfully are His delight.

     But this is not just an Old Testament teaching.  Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:20-25, reminding the Christians in Ephesus of the difference in their lives , now that they had been baptized into Christ.  Here he says,

   20 But you did not learn Christ in this way,
   21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus,
   22 that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,
   23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
   24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
   25 Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth, each one of you, with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.

     Paul had already written for them to speak truth in Ephesians 4:14-16

   14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;
   15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ,
   16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

     And so we should speak when what we are going to say is true.

     H is for helpful.  I should speak when it is Helpful.  If my words are not helpful, then why speak them?  Paul said, in Colossians 4:6

   6 Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned, as it were, with salt, so that you may know how you should respond to each person.

     James warns against speaking words that are not helpful in James 2:14-17,

   14 What use is it, my brethren, if a man says he has faith, but he has no works?  Can that faith save him?
   15 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food,
   16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?
   17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.

     All people, but Christians especially, are to be a people with words that help; those that do not help, do not bring solutions, but only make problems.

     I is the next letter and it is for speaking when it is Important to speak.  We are encouraged to speak words in the “right circumstances.”  Proverbs 25:11 says,

   11 Like apples of gold in settings of silver
        Is a word spoken in right circumstances.

     We must recognize and discern that there is a time to speak and not to speak.  Solomon spoke of this in Ecclesiastes 3:7

   7 A time to tear apart, and a time to sew together;
        A time to be silent, and a time to speak.

     Some people think they need to talk all the time and it reminds me of an old saying, “Better to remain quiet and let people think you are a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.”  The Scriptures often show the peril of being a fool and yet consider the words of Solomon in Proverbs 29:20

   20 Do you see a man who is hasty in his words?
        There is more hope for a fool than for him.

     We need to make sure it is important to talk before opening our mouths.  This ties in with our next point which is:

     N for Necessary.  I should speak when it is Necessary.  Again Solomon gave some wise counsel on this when he said, in Proverbs 17:27

   27 He who restrains his words has knowledge,
        And he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.

     If what we have to say is not necessary, then silence should be our choice.  This is why James said, in James 1:19

   19 This you know, my beloved brethren.  But let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger;

     If words are not necessary, then they may very well be nothing but wind.  In Job 16:3, Job said,

   3 “Is there no limit to windy words?  Or what plagues you that you answer?”

     The Gentiles were known by their unnecessary words spoken in prayer as Jesus spoke of in Matthew 6:7

   7 “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition, as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.”

     The really interesting and sad thing about this section of Scriptures is that is following this Jesus shows His disciples how to pray and Satan has turned it around like he so often does and made the words of Jesus a vain repetition.  People repeat what they call the “Lord’s Prayer” over and over.  It is recited at weddings.  It is recited at funerals (three times they recited it at my grandma’s funeral).  At other gatherings and functions, it is repeated, and repeated, and repeated.  Most of the time there is more concern for saying it in the proper rhythm than for the words that are said.  Note what Jesus says in Matthew 6:8-9

   8 “Therefore do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need, before you ask Him.
   9 “Pray, then, in this way:  ‘Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name.’”

In the first part of verse 9, He says to pray “in this way.”  Jesus does not say, “here’s what to say,” but this is the way to pray.  Go ahead and read all the prayers that we see the disciples praying throughout the rest of the Bible.  NOT once will you find them repeating these words, but you will see prayers according to this pattern.
     The final letter of THINK is:

     K for Kind.  Mothers have long spoken this true message:  “If you do not have anything kind to say, then do not say anything at all.”  In describing the virtuous woman it says in Proverbs 31:26,

   26 She opens her mouth in wisdom,
        And the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.

     Cruel words hurt;  kind words sooth and heal.

     The next time you have an opportunity to say something, “think” and ask yourself these five questions:  Is it true?  Is it helpful?  Is it important?  Is it necessary?  Is it kind?  “Think” before you speak!