Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Words can be difficult. We know that words and speech. You might hear the words, mouth and tongue used to refer to words in this lesson and throughout the Proverbs. We all know that this is very important because words are powerful. Even now, we are gathered here to listen to me say a bunch of words and then we'll gather into groups and say more words as we read words and use words to explain those words. Words are incredibly important and they're powerful. They can hurt others, they can hurt you, they can help others, they can help you, they can cause conflict and they can reconcile old friends. Words can succeed in their goal and words sometimes fail.
[00:00:47] The Bible puts a lot of emphasis on our words, again, sometimes referring to the mouth or the tongue.
[00:00:56] Sometimes our words are good, they benefit others. They deserve to have a microphone so more people can hear them.
[00:01:05] However, often we don't want our words to be amplified. We want the opposite. We ought to be muzzled. Our words harm us, they harm others, they cause conflict, they wreak all sorts of havoc in our lives and in the lives of others.
[00:01:22] Now we're going to bounce around the book of Proverbs to take in various pieces of wisdom regarding our words. But we'll focus on a couple of characteristics that we want to avoid and a couple that we want to exhibit and live out in our lives.
[00:01:39] Because words can be really good, that means they can also be really bad. The tongue, though it is small, you, you usually don't see other people's tongues unless they're sticking it out for some reason.
[00:01:52] It is magnificently powerful. It steers our lives. It's like a rudder that steers a ship. We read, they can bring great blessing to us or horrific failure.
[00:02:08] We need Christ to redeem our mouths as he redeems our hearts.
[00:02:15] If Christ has not redeemed your heart, then you should expect that your mouth is going to reflect that. So even as we think about this, I encourage you to think about what you say on a day to day basis. What things come from your mouth and what does that say about your heart.
[00:02:33] The main idea of the lesson today is in sin. Man or mankind is prone to babbling and, and harmful speech.
[00:02:45] So because of our sin nature, we typically talk too much and or we say things that are harmful. But wisdom requires that our words be beneficial and prayerful.
[00:03:01] We want our words to not harm, not be too much, but to be beneficial and to be filled with prayer.
[00:03:09] So our four points are going to be two characteristics to avoid and two to pursue. Point number one is words should not Be many.
[00:03:21] Words should not be many.
[00:03:24] So hopefully you're at Proverbs, chapter 10. Look at verse 19.
[00:03:31] When words are many, transgression is not lacking. But whoever restrains his lips is prudent. The tongue of the righteous is choice silver. The heart of the wicked is of little worth. The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of sense.
[00:03:50] Now, what do you think it means that transgression, which is another way to say sin, is not lacking when words are many? Well, it turns out we have an idiom for this. You might have heard someone talking about putting their foot in their mouth.
[00:04:05] It's a weird phrase. I think it originated saying, oh, yeah, he really put his foot in it. He stepped in something he ought not to have stepped. And now we have turned it into putting the foot in the mouth, which doesn't quite make sense. But basically, if you're not familiar with this term, it means you've said something stupid or embarrassing or inappropriate or rude or all of the above.
[00:04:27] You said some words, and it's almost like the experience of doing this is you say something and it's like you can see your words floating from your mouth right into the ears of others, and you hate it, and you just wish you could pull them back and that nobody could hear them because, you know, what you just said was so horrible.
[00:04:47] I once was having lunch with some friends from church when I lived in Stillwater. And while we were waiting to eat, I noticed on the table there was an orange juice bottle filled with flowers. And I think I made some sort of wisecrack about the orange juice bottle. I thought it was kind of silly that it was a vase. And I don't remember what it was. I was just yapping away, trying to be silly, trying to be funny. And as I was finishing my statement, I looked at my friend James, and he was doing kind of this thing like.
[00:05:21] And I clearly knew I had stepped in something I ought not to have stepped. He was trying to tell me to shut up because his girlfriend had given them those flowers in that orange juice bottle. And I think it was intended to be very kind and sweet, and it was.
[00:05:37] And I was hurting this poor girl's feelings just because I was yap, yap, yapping, trying to be funny. Now, it might be a silly example, but nonetheless, it came across as insensitive. And I wish I could have taken those words back. It definitely wasn't worth it.
[00:05:55] The more you talk, the more opportunities there are for stuff like this to happen, for us to hurt people with our words or to say things we ought not to say.
[00:06:06] This verse is referring to someone who just sort of babbles, someone who likes to hear himself or herself just talk. He or she loves the sound of his own voice.
[00:06:18] This usually means that such a person who loves to talk and hear one's own voice also doesn't listen well. Those two things don't go together.
[00:06:28] Not listening and talking much are bad qualities.
[00:06:33] So when you're having a conversation, I want you, even now to think, when you have conversations, are you really listening to the entirety of what the person across from you is saying?
[00:06:45] Or are you spending a little bit more time thinking of what am I going to say next?
[00:06:50] What is your focus on actually listening or thinking of your own words? When we think of our own words, we're being selfish. We're not actually listening. You might think you can do both, but in reality that's really difficult.
[00:07:05] It's bad listening. In my experience.
[00:07:09] It's also never the people who talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk that everyone thinks is wise. Nobody looks at the babbler and says, oh, man, that guy is wise. I wish I was as wise as him. It is the person who chooses his or her words carefully and thoughtfully that people look to for wisdom.
[00:07:29] Proverbs 17:27, 28 say, Whoever restrains his words has knowledge. So? So restraining words equals knowledge. And he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding, even a fool. So we're talking about a fool now. Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise. When he closes his lips, he's deemed intelligent. Even a fool can be considered wise if he keeps his mouth shut. Now we have a modern proverb for this, too. We say, better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak. And to remove all doubt. You may have heard, we often like to fantasize about what we should have said, right? Maybe you do this. Maybe you're in a conflict of some sort. And afterwards you think of all the ways that, man, you really could have dug something in, or you really could have said this and made a better point. And you just kind of think about this and what you could or should have said, but you didn't.
[00:08:29] This is not the right attitude for us to have with our words. When Jesus was accused before pilate in Matthew 27 by the Chief priests and the elders, this is what we read. It says, he gave no answer.
[00:08:44] Certainly. Well, Paul's there. Certainly he could have given an answer. These charges were bogus.
[00:08:50] They made no sense. They were unjust. He gave no answer. Then Pilate said to him, do you not hear how many things they testify against you? But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge.
[00:09:07] So that the governor was greatly amazed.
[00:09:11] Jesus showed wisdom in restraint. For him to have answered would have perhaps covered over, not highlighted the fact that his accusers were ravenous liars. By not entertaining it, he highlights the ridiculousness of their charges as well. He pursues the will of God by being obedient. By keeping silent, his silence highlights their folly and highlights his wisdom.
[00:09:40] If you think your words might fail you, if you think your words might get you in trouble, you're not quite sure what to say. It's wiser to be silent. That's just a practical bit of wisdom to take into your life. If you're unsure, if there's any doubt, it's wiser to be silent.
[00:09:58] We can show restraint.
[00:10:00] Some of you, that's really easy to show restraint. Some of you naturally aren't going to make a comeback. You're going to stay quiet. But some of you, that's not the case.
[00:10:09] I'm maybe mostly talking to those of you who it's not the case for. It might be difficult for you to restrain. You have a quick wit, you're immediately ready to give an answer every time. But you can show restraint because Jesus did. And he had all the reason to respond and rebuke the people accusing him.
[00:10:31] And the Gospel is more important.
[00:10:34] Jesus knew that what he was doing, that he him being sentenced to die, though unjustly, and to raise again, was going to bring about atonement for all who believed.
[00:10:46] He knew that was more important than trying to justify himself so that there's no record of him being done wrong. He wasn't concerned with that. In the same way, we ought to be more concerned with the Gospel and how our life witnesses to the Gospel than defending our honor, than having the last word, than making a great comeback.
[00:11:08] The Gospel is so much more important than all of that.
[00:11:12] Words should not be many.
[00:11:14] Point number two. Words should not be harmful.
[00:11:19] Flip over to Proverbs 26. Now we'll start reading in verse 18, Words should not be harmful. Proverbs 26:18.
[00:11:31] Like a madman who throws firebrands arrows and death is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, I'm only choking for lack of wood. The fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases.
[00:11:46] As tropical to hot embers and wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife. The words of A whisperer are like delicious morsels. They go down into the inner parts of the body like the glaze covering an earthen vessel. Are fervent lips with an evil heart. Whoever hates disguises himself with his lips and harbors deceit in his heart. When he speaks graciously, believe him not, for there are seven abominations in his heart. Though his hatred be covered with deception, his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly. Whoever digs a pit will fall into it and a stone will come back on him who starts it rolling. A lying tongue hates its victims and a flattering mouth works ruin. Our words should not be harmful. And in these verses we encounter, by my count, at least four types of harmful words. The first type of harmful words are deceiving words.
[00:12:47] Deceiving words. Verse 28 is clear and straightforward. That was the last one. A lying tongue hates its victims and a flattering mouth works ruin. Lying is bad. Deceit is bad. Plain and simple. Not very controversial. I know we all know this, but we don't typically think of it this way. I think if you lie, you're revealing that you actually hate your victims. You're revealing a heart of hatred toward the one to whom you've lied.
[00:13:19] Now this should really cause us to think about things we might consider little or trivial lies.
[00:13:26] Are they truly trivial? Do they really not matter at all?
[00:13:31] When I was at the end of my college life, I was applying for some jobs before I had decided to go into the Christian ministry. And I ended up doing a polygraph exam with the U.S. secret Service. Now this is a very serious endeavor. The Secret Service people, they kind of take themselves seriously. And so I was, you know, they had me drive down to Dallas and I stayed at a place and I woke up and it was an all day affair. I'd love to tell you more about it. It was one of the worst days of my life. It was terrible, quite frankly. But at the beginning, for a couple, the first couple of hours, I sat in a room with an agent and he just went over all these sorts of questions. And the goal was for me to get everything off my chest.
[00:14:18] Everything terrible I've ever done needs to be in the air so it's not in my head when they strap me up to the machine. The polygraph exam is a lie detector test, if you're not aware.
[00:14:30] And there's this one question.
[00:14:33] This man had been very complimentary of me. He had really kind of gassed me up. He loved me, it seemed. He loved my answers. And then it switched Like a dime. He asked me, have you ever lied to someone you loved? And I clarified, in my entire life, I said yes to my understanding. I thought this was true for everybody. You know, I lied to my mom at some point when I was a child, I couldn't think of an exact situation, but I know it's happened, I'm sure it's happened.
[00:15:06] And he started screaming at me.
[00:15:10] Now he was certainly playing some kind of mind game to kind of throw me off because he kept going back and forth between being nice and being the worst person in the world. But he's right in a way. For me to have lied really is bad. Now he shouldn't have yelled at me, right? I'm not saying that's what we need to do, but it's true. It reveals a heart of hatred. And I genuinely felt bad thinking about how I had done these things. Though I say think they're little and everyone's done them, it's still wrong. It was still sinful for me to have done that. And according to this proverb, deceit in all forms is a form of hatred. So how could we ever lie to someone that we are to love?
[00:15:53] Now I should clarify when I'm saying lie or deceive. I understand according to a large number of Christian ethicists that lying doesn't necessarily mean everything. Every form of non truthful statement. I think you can tell something that isn't true, that isn't a lie. I know that sounds kind of funny, like I'm trying to tug my way out of it. Lying according to Christian ethics is telling a non truth for personal gain or to harm someone else.
[00:16:25] For personal gain or to harm someone else. So there are non malicious types of untruthful statements. You know, the classic example is telling Nazis that you aren't hiding Jews in your wall when you are. This is not a lie. This is not a sin against God. This is not proving hatred for your neighbor. This is doing what's right. It is protecting. It is not for selfish gain. It is not to harm another, it is to protect. So there are examples of things that aren't true, that aren't lies in this sense.
[00:16:56] Moreover, what we're getting at is that lies do not connote love. God cannot lie and God is love. It's because these two things cannot coexist. Because deceiving is bad.
[00:17:11] Now I think verses 18 and 19 are interesting, right?
[00:17:16] You know, are we really saying that if you deceive and claim to be joking, then you're really like a madman? Shooting flaming arrows of death. If you play a joke on someone or a prank, it sounds like a serious charge. I think what's happening here is really someone who's making a poor excuse for actually deceiving someone. Not just playing a little joke, but moreover, when we do play jokes, we should be careful that we're not causing people to be laughed at, but we're encouraging fellowship and laughing with one another. That should be the goal when we are being humorous. Anyway. I'll move on to the second type of harmful words, which is defaming words. I said defaming. This is just another word for slander or gossip. I just wanted it to be a D word. Defaming words.
[00:18:07] This is what's getting across when we read those verses about the whisperer. The whisperer is a gossip.
[00:18:15] Therefore, verse 20 is saying that without a gossiper, fires go out.
[00:18:21] Without a gospel, fires go out. There's no fuel to feed them. Fights and quarrels go away. When there is not gossip, there's no air, it's choked out.
[00:18:34] Fighting and quarreling can just disappear that easy without gossip and slander. That's all it takes is what we're reading. But that's kind of the problem.
[00:18:44] Stopping gossip hard, because gossip is delicious to the sinner. We love to gossip when it's described in verse 22 as a delicious morsel. The Bible's not complimenting the words of a gossip. No, the Bible is telling how we love to indulge ourselves on forbidden things.
[00:19:07] It is a forbidden fruit. We love gossip and it shows.
[00:19:13] It shows in how we lack peace with one another. And we see also that gossip goes down into the inner parts of the body.
[00:19:21] That means it goes down into your heart, your soul, the deepest part of your body, even to the metaphysical part of your body. Your soul, your heart feeds on gossip and slander rather than feeding on the word of Christ. Rather than being satisfied with the bread of life, which we satisfy ourselves with hearing news of others and sharing it and passing it along to make ourselves feel greater and others lesser.
[00:19:48] These are defaming words that we can use. This is a harmful way to speak. Third, disguising words. We can use words as disguises, like masks to cover up what's truly in our hearts. Maybe you have hatred or bitterness towards another person, maybe even someone in here. I don't know when you flatter such a person, when you make them feel like things are okay when they really aren't. But you're harboring bitterness. You're hiding yourself when it'd Be better to confess and repent of those feelings and to seek reconciliation. That just means to make up, to become at least peaceful acquaintances again. You don't have to become best friends, but you can live at peace with one another.
[00:20:34] The fourth type of harmful words are disputing words. We won't spend much time on this. This is just words that cause fights and quarrels. It could be gossip or a number of other things.
[00:20:45] Proverbs 15:4 A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.
[00:20:55] Let not your words be perverse, because it hurts yourself and it hurts others.
[00:21:01] If we use our words to honor Christ, we read here that we can be like a tree of life.
[00:21:08] We can bear fruit and give life and help people, other people, to grow in Christ and grow strong, and to be encouraged. We should use our words to benefit. That brings us to our third main point. Words should be beneficial.
[00:21:24] Words should be beneficial.
[00:21:27] Go back over to Proverbs 15.
[00:21:31] We're going to look at the last four verses. So starting in verse 30, we read the light of the eyes rejoices the heart, and good news refreshes the bones. The ear that listens to life giving reproof will dwell among the wise. Whoever ignores instruction despises himself. But he who listens to reproof gains intelligence. The fear of the Lord is instruction and wisdom and humility comes before honor.
[00:22:00] Words should be beneficial. Now, there are a few lessons here in this passage. First, listening to good reproof, which kind of just means correction, is life giving and it is wise. So for one, you should listen when a fellow Christian, especially a parent or small group leader, someone that knows you well and cares for you, when they point out sin in your life, because this is to help you. It is to help you become wise. It is to help you obey Jesus better. But for our purposes, I want us more to think about how you can use your words in such a way, how you can give such life giving reproof. You can be the person that corrects someone for their own good.
[00:22:42] That is actually one of the best things we can do in the local church for one another, so long as we check ourselves first before we try to correct others. And this is because correction and discipline are deeply loving.
[00:22:56] They don't feel loving, but it must be. This is why parents correct and discipline their kids.
[00:23:02] Parents kids are the people on the planet who they love the most. And they correct and discipline them because it is an act of deep love.
[00:23:13] Have you ever used your words for this purpose? My guess is most of us haven't. Or if we have, it's been just like really little, maybe not so serious scenarios. But we should look for ways that we can do this. Jesus did this often. One example comes in Matthew 16, verses 21 through 23.
[00:23:34] From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed on the third day to be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, far be it from you, Lord, this shall never happen to you. But he turned to Peter and said, get behind me, Satan, you are a hindrance to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.
[00:24:02] Jesus rebuke of Peter points him in the right direction. It doesn't allow Peter to live believing in the delusion that Jesus is not going to be crucified, he's not going to be delivered over by the Jewish authorities.
[00:24:17] Jesus words were helpful even when they were rebuking.
[00:24:23] Can the same be said of our words? A lot of times, even if we're trying to do this, our words can be harmful.
[00:24:30] So many ways we can be harmful with our words. We can be contentious by using our words to stir up conflict for the sake of just disagreeing. We might use speech to call what is bad good. This is so prevalent that might be a little confusing. But you can think of how people affirm and defend sinful lifestyles, using their words to defend sin as if it's good. Sometimes people use speech to flatter. Flattery is just a form of lying, telling someone something good that you don't actually mean.
[00:25:01] We might also use speech to boast in ourselves and to brag.
[00:25:07] But Jesus never did any such thing. He never used words in any harmful way. No, his words were carefully chosen in every situation to honor God, to rebuke falsehood, and also to build up those whom he loved.
[00:25:26] Even when rebuking Jesus words were beneficial. That's why Proverbs 27:5, 7 say better as open rebuke than hidden love.
[00:25:36] Faithful are the wounds of a friend. So it is faithful to be wounded or hurt by a friend when they are rebuking you. It goes on saying, profuse are the kisses of an enemy, one who is full, loads honey. But to one who is hungry, everything bitter is sweet.
[00:25:54] Our words are so important, and therefore when we need to be careful that we may use them in a beneficial way, we need to consider whether in each moment we'd be better off being mic'd up so the world can hear. Or maybe we just need to be quiet. We need to muzzle ourselves because it reveals something. Matthew 15:18 20 is really helpful. Matthew 15:18 20 says, but what comes from the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person.
[00:26:43] In this passage, Jesus is saying that sin comes from the heart first and foremost.
[00:26:50] The heart is the factory of sin in you, but its presence in your heart is confirmed when you open your mouth. That's how we know what's there.
[00:27:02] If I were to pull this board around and write up there all the words you said today or in the last week, and we just read them all in the assembly, what would we conclude about your heart based on those words?
[00:27:18] And here's the thing that really just confirms it for us. God sees your heart before you speak.
[00:27:26] He knows your heart indeed better than you do.
[00:27:30] This is why the psalmist prays for God to search his heart, to help him know his own heart, because God knows it better than we do. Even before we speak, turn to James 3.
[00:27:45] This is in the New Testament. Toward the end of your Bibles, starting in verse five, we read so also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.
[00:28:01] How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire, and the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness.
[00:28:11] The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.
[00:28:23] For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed, and has been tamed by mankind. But no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing, my brothers. These things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening, both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.
[00:29:06] No human being can tame the tongue. We are hopelessly lost. Our tongues will win the battle, because no human being can tame the tongue. But Jesus did.
[00:29:19] This is good news for us. Jesus did. He exercised discipline over his words.
[00:29:27] And by trusting in Jesus through faith, he can take your heart and exchange it for a new one.
[00:29:35] He can Give you a heart through the Spirit that has the power to use words. Well, if we truly know the Lord, then He has given us the ability to tame the tongue. It is only according to our own flesh and our own power that we are unable to do it. But through Christ, it can be done because he did it. And he conquered all sin by his death on the cross.
[00:30:02] When our words are evil, they dishonor the intention God has with words. Because as his image bearers, our words should be lovely like God's word. God's word is his perfect Son. And when we have no place to go, when we see how great our sin is with our words and how we cannot conquer the tongue by ourselves, we must turn to Christ if we want our words to be beneficial. He is the source of everything good. He can give you a heart that doesn't produce only defilements and sin.
[00:30:41] We must live also in prayer. We must pray intensely for God to help us in this way. And that's why our fourth point is words should be prayerful.
[00:30:53] Now go back to Proverbs and look at chapter 28, verse 13.
[00:31:00] We read. Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper. But he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.
[00:31:10] So whoever conceals his, whoever hides his sin does not prosper. He who confesses brings them to light and turns away, forsakes, repents of them, will obtain mercy.
[00:31:21] Words should be prayerful. So confess your sins to God. Confess your sins to others so that your brothers and sisters can help you. But confess your sins to God first. This is how you walk. This is how you can walk with Christ. This is how your walk with Christ can begin.
[00:31:36] You confess.
[00:31:38] That means you repent or turn away from your sinful life, from your sin.
[00:31:45] That is what you do. You confess your sins to God and turn from them. You must completely reject your life of sin, acknowledging that you are in fact a sinner, that you fail with your mouth all the time and in every single way. You must look inward at your own heart, think about what your words and what your actions say about your heart. You must pray for help and see that you too are guilty according to God.
[00:32:11] But we don't need to worry. This is not the last word in the matter. Because if you confess your sins with a faithful heart, you will obtain mercy. That's what we just read in verse 13. Whoever confesses and forsakes will obtain mercy.
[00:32:29] So when God grants mercy, it means that Christ paid for your sin on the cross, the punishment that you deserve for that. Sin you certainly do deserve. Christ bore it already, and so his righteousness then covers you. That is the granting of mercy, and we can trust that this will happen. First. John 1:9 affirms that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So confess your sins today and trust Christ with them.
[00:33:07] You can be encouraged that if you trust in him, then you are counted among the righteous. And if you're counted among the righteous, he hears your prayers.
[00:33:19] Proverbs 15:29 tells us this much. It says, this is chapter 15, verse 29. The Lord is far from the wicked. He is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.
[00:33:33] He hears the prayer of the righteous. Now you might wonder, how can God hear our prayers if we are not righteous? If we can't earn our own righteousness, which according to the law, we know that we cannot do, we fall short each and every day. And James 2:10 reminds us, if you fail even in one way, you're guilty of failing the entire law. How can we be righteous if God is far from the wicked but hears the righteous, how can we be heard by God? How can we have any confidence that God hears our prayers?
[00:34:05] You must pray through the righteous one. Jesus Christ is why we so often pray in his name.
[00:34:14] He is the one who intercedes before the Father. He is the righteous One, and by faith in him he gives you his righteousness. He credits it to your account that you can boldly approach God the Father on the throne, asking for grace in time of need.
[00:34:30] This is how we can confidently pray to God and use our words. In that way you can be close to God in prayer through faith in Jesus Christ. But you need to confess the sins of your mouth and all other sin and use your mouth to profess your faith in Christ and pray through him in the spirit of God to the Father. That is how your words can honor God through the wisdom offered in Proverbs.
[00:35:02] In sin, man is prone to babbling and harmful speech. But wisdom requires that our words be beneficial and prayerful. So everyone be prayerful and thoughtful. Use your speech well and trust that Christ will help you even as he does. Now. Let's pray.
[00:35:27] Father God, we thank you for your word. God, help us to see the ways in which we fail with our words reveal sin in our lives. Help us to be honest with ourselves, to really be introspective, to think.
[00:35:43] Reflect on our hearts through our words.
[00:35:47] And Lord, give us the humility to confess those sins. Give us boldness to approach you in prayer, to ask for forgiveness, to have faith in Christ for the first time. For those who have not. Lord, help us to honor you with our lips. God, help us to recall your Word each and every day, that our words and our conversations would be peppered with your word rather than the grime and filth that comes from our own hearts. God, help us to be cleansed each and every day and made more into the likeness of Christ. And we pray this all in his wonderful name. Amen.
