Sarcasm

Pastor Stan Mons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aTxHq9RYqE

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Sermon Transcription:

I was reminded as we were worshiping today of a very early on vision that the Lord gave me after I was saved. Most of you know the story of how the Lord did that. And most of you will know that it took two months before I met a Spirit-filled Christian that actually recognized, oh, you got saved. Initially, when I got saved, I was alone for the first two months, and everyone that was close to me or was in church didn't recognize what had happened to me to the extent that at that time the pastor of the church that I had attended up until that time actually sent me to a psychiatrist because he was very confused and didn't know how to deal and handle this guy that all of a sudden had become honest and just shared everything and talked about everything to such an extent that the concern grew to where I ended up seeing a psychiatrist.

But very early on in my journey with the Lord before I had other believers in my life that through their giftings of the Holy Spirit began to help build me up as a believer, the Holy Spirit was very gracious, very present, and filled in a lot of the gaps and really allowed me to never have to really miss out.

Not because I didn't want to be a part of anything, not because I wasn't a part of anything, but I was literally alone in the beginning, but with the Lord. And I remember him giving me a very clear vision. It is clear to me until this day and it is roughly going to be 16 years ago this year and it's as clear as if it happened to me yesterday. I was standing in a house, and in my hands I had this bundle of cloth. It reminds me of when from time to time I help my wife fold laundry, and I only get to do the towels. Every man said yes, we only get to do the towels, but then I still mess them up and she has to every time, no this is how we fold them in this house. But that's what it reminds me of, but it was a continuous cloth but it reminds me of a towel. It was a big bundle and a mumbling voice started to come from inside of that wrapped up cloth, a dark, a deep, a strange voice. And in the vision, I started to unfold this thing because curiosity was rising. And as I unfolded it, the voice became clearer and clearer. And it took quite a while.

It was a mess. And that voice became louder and louder and became very clear that it was a demonic voice to where when I was almost done, I was so excited to see it. And when I was almost done, it was screaming so loud and I couldn't tell you the words, but it was dark, demonic, and I was hecka interested because I knew Jesus now and this was not going to be a problem. And the moment I wanted to do the last fold, it literally threw me against the wall and was, you know, as if it were coming at me and I was keeping it away from me. And the Holy Spirit as clear as day spoke into my ears and said, "Now you call on the name of Jesus." And I began to just speak, "In the name of Jesus, I live. In the name of Jesus, I'm forgiven. In the name of Jesus, I'll be changed." And I just kept on going. It was awesome because I can't really speak like that, but in the vision it just worked and it was all the right words at the right time and it all just came to peace and calmness. And the Lord foreshadowed in that vision some of the things I needed to know because of the struggles and the challenges and the sanctification process that I go through in my life. But our life very often is similar to where it is this jumbled up laundry that really needs a good wash. And as you begin to unfold some of that stuff that is in need of washing in your life, or some of it is washed and some of it is kind of mixed up, sometimes you run into stuff you don't expect. Amen?

But then the truth and the name of Jesus will bring all of that stuff you didn't expect to find in your heart or in your journey in your walk. It'll all bring it back to peace. And tonight we're going to talk about one of those things that can sometimes just rub you in the face and kind of come at you and you can feel like, "Oh, I didn't know that this was actually this bad. I didn't know that this was hiding in my heart." And the moment that you're willing for the Holy Spirit to show you some of these things, all he wants you to do is start to take that thing and proclaim that Jesus is greater. That Jesus has paid for that mistake or that flaw in your character. That pattern that you've been walking out in your life that is just, I mean, you're not proud of it. You don't want to talk about it. You wouldn't want to scream that from the platform. And to begin to say that I believe with all my heart, Jesus is bigger. Jesus will deal with this. Jesus already loves me even though I'm still unfolding some of this stuff in my life.

That's where you're going to find the freedom. But it starts with the willingness to unfold some of that stuff and to say, "I know Jesus, so it don't matter what's hiding in here. We'll figure it out." We're going to talk about sarcasm tonight. Amen. Sarcasm. This is one of the teachings in the discipleship essentials series that I'm currently building. Again, it the name says it. These are the things that if I got to teach you for a number of months and never got to see you again at this point in my journey with what the Lord has taught me so far, this is what I would want to leave you with. And sarcasm is actually, funny enough, a part of what I would want to leave every person with that would ever give me the honor of speaking into their life. It's often overlooked as a sin or as a sin that has the capability of ruining our lives. It's really often overlooked and people make a joke and try to joke it away literally. And in all reality, sarcasm is really one of the silent killers in the Christian journey. And by the end of today, you're going to really see that.

No matter if you want to see it or not, you're really going to see it. And if you're willing to look at it, if you're willing to unfold things in your life, you may not deal with sarcasm. You may be able to pray or even help someone one day that does deal with it, but that's willing to see why they cannot keep walking with Jesus and keep this thing bundled up. If you're willing to see it, if you're willing to acknowledge it, I was talking to Nicholas. I love these kind of teachings. It's similar to the gossip teaching. If you're willing to see it in your life, 99% of the work is done. You're willing to acknowledge that thing, all you need to do is every time it comes up, you say, "Lord, here I go again." And he'll come and he'll help and he'll change. And before you know it, absolutely before you know it, calling on the name of Jesus, when every time you now see and recognize that thing, you're going to be changed. It's what he does. He buys old sinners and he recycles them and makes something beautiful out of it. It's what he does.

So we just say, "Lord, trash here. Go ahead. You recycle it." Sarcasm has motive. It's in your notes. Motive. Sarcasm has motive, and a motive can be pure. It can be noble. But in every sense of the word, a motive is generally a hidden intention. That doesn't always mean that every motive is bad. But generally the motive is not what is openly displayed. It is kind of hidden away. And sarcasm has that. It has a motive. Proverbs 16:2 reads this. "People may be pure in their own eyes, but the Lord examines their motives." In other words, you may feel like you're doing it right, but God actually looks at the reason you do stuff. On the surface, nobody may be able to come against you with words because you're so crafty and smart with your words that nobody can catch you and nobody can accuse you and you just get away with it because you're smarter with your words and you're doing it right and you can explain why. But that's not really what God addresses. He says, "I look at the motive, the hidden reason that you're speaking up, that you're saying that thing."

1 Corinthians 4:5 reads this. "So don't make judgments about anyone ahead of time before the Lord returns. For he will bring our darkest secrets to light and will reveal our private motives."

Then God will give to each one whatever praise is due. See, God is very interested with motives. We see Jesus skip over actions really quickly. Sits down with the prostitutes, hangs out with the tax collectors. He doesn't make a big deal out of it at all. But the motives he highlights the motives of prayer. We just looked at it when we talked about prayer. And Jesus in Matthew chapter 6 exposes that some people pray because they want people to see and hear them pray. Motive. He's very interested in motive, the motive of the heart. And right here we read in verse five that the intentions of the heart, the private motives that all of it will be made light, that it will be displayed, everybody's going to know. And then when the motives have been made openly known, then God will give to each one whatever praise is due. Going to be a special day. Amen?

Then God will give praise wherever it's due. When the motives have been put on display, not the works, not the actions, not how great a ministry was, not how many people your life touched, the motive as to why that one time you spoke into the life of a sinner. That motive is what you are going to be judged on. And why is motives, it's in your notes. Why is this so important to evaluate in our lives? I'm going to give you two main points on that. First one we find in Matthew 12:35–37. Here it comes. A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart. And an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. And I tell you this, you must give an account on judgment day for every idle word you speak. The words you say will either acquit you or condemn you. This is Jesus speaking.

He says, "I know what the judgment day is going to be like. Everything that you have said that did not need it to be said is going to be right there. And that is what is going to determine whether you're going to be acquitted by those words or those words are going to condemn you. That's what Jesus says. The motive of why you said what you said.

Was it an idle word or was it necessary? Was it from the heart of God or was it from your flesh? Out of which treasury did you speak? Did you live? Did you proclaim? Did you encourage? Why did you do it? You who are saved, here's the fill in the blank. You who are saved will be judged by your words. You're not going to be judged by my words. You're going to be judged by your own. And I will give you this on the side and you can write that in if you want to write it in. And you're going to also be judged by God's word. Jesus himself said, "I didn't come to judge." The word judges you. And then he also teaches us that our own words are also going to judge us.

And so we see this motive for speaking. And these words that follow, there's something really important with it to God. It's very important to his heart. It's very important. And he lets us know how important it is to him. Number two of why it is so important to evaluate our lives in the area of our speech and specifically today's sarcasm.

Number two, Ephesians 5 verse 1 to 4 in the ESV version. I will read it to you. "Therefore, be imitators of God". Try to behave like him is what it's saying. "Be imitators of God as beloved children". What does a child do? It looks papa and mama up and down and then tries to copy exactly what they're doing. Whether they got the strength, the ability, the size, they may be lacking it all. They're still trying. Right? And that is what the word is speaking about. Be imitators of God as beloved children. Look at him and it don't matter if you feel you have the strength or the size or the capability. Just go ahead and look at him and try to do what he does. Watch what happens. You're going to end up maturing, growing up, and you're going to become more and more like him. And the works that I have done, you will do also. That's what Jesus promised. Be imitators of God as beloved children. That's the assignment. Verse two, and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Love. That's what he says. And then here comes the contradiction. This is the opposite of what you could be doing.

Verse three, but sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you as it is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness, nor foolish talk, nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. Now, I want you to take a moment and look at the list of sins that foolish talk and crude joking is right at home in. Like, according to the word of God, crude joking and foolish talk belongs in a list like this. And sometimes we just have to let the word of God speak and redefine how we look at mistakes, right? Because everybody in their Christianity looks at a sexual mistake as one of the worst things they could have done. And God says, "Here, you've been talking." And maybe because you've been talking so much, now you're also struggling with sexual sin, because they're in the same list. They're in the same problem category. But you are so concerned with your sexual sin, and you're not even willing to acknowledge that your crude joking or your foolish talking is doing just as much damage. You don't want to let the word of God redefine how you think. Sometimes we get sucked into this list because we dismissed one of them and took it a little lightly.

That word crude joking in verse four in the Greek means a quick turning. It's witicism. Quick comebacks. And that word witicism really means biting irony. It stings. It hurts. Dictionary.com says this. Sarcasm is a sneering or a cutting remark. It cuts biting irony. Sarcasm being a cutting remark. Now, I want to talk briefly to you before we go any further about sarcasm versus irony because that is where I've heard a lot of people get really confused. So, let's make that very, very clear again in your notes. Sarcasm is a form of irony. Sarcasm is a form of irony.

Irony is not wrong. Irony can take many forms and does not have to be verbal. For example, I think this one is in your notes: a fire station burning down. That's irony. Words in irony can also be used to communicate what we call an opposite of reality or expectation. For example, someone may say, "What a beautiful day while it is stormy weather outside." That is irony. But you can use irony without being sarcastic. Now you can say, "What a beautiful day outside," in such a way that clearly you are very upset with God not giving you the weather you believe you deserve today.

So you can say that same sentence in a sarcastic way with a snare almost towards God who's really the only one that is giving that weather to you today, not a man that can interrupt or affect whatever God wants to do that day. Or you can, in irony with a smile on your face, say, "What a beautiful day today. Well, I wonder how this is going to end," without necessarily having a negative in your heart. However, sarcasm is always verbal. So, irony is more of a concept of opposites and sarcasm is always verbal irony that has the motive, there comes that word, that has the motive to be a cutting remark, not just a simple contradiction that may be funny. It is okay to be funny. God is very funny. Amen? Amen. Some people are like, I don't know if I can say amen to that. Listen, when Jesus by his Holy Spirit has inspired the scriptures and He puts stories in there that have just little remarks that are nothing except funny, He didn't need to do that. But He's revealing that God is not offended with things that are funny.

God gave us the ability to make jokes. God gave us the ability to make fun. God made it very healthy and science actually supports this. Very healthy for us to regularly have a good laugh. Amen? Now you talk about things like stress. Science agrees not very good for you. And God says cast all your cares on me. Worry for nothing. So as we study the word and even as we side by side study life and the word, we come to find out God is not a grumpy God who wants to take the life out of our day. He actually has best in store for us and desires for us to have the very best in our day that he can give us. But sarcasm is not part of it. Here's a general rule of thumb when you have a hard time figuring out if you are in irony or if you're being sarcastic.

A general rule of thumb is that sarcasm leaves a victim behind while plain irony does not. Now the victim may be you. You may be making sarcastic jokes and you may be the focal point of that joke. That doesn't make it not sarcasm. Sarcasm leaves a victim behind while plain irony does not.

Now the word sarcasm in the Greek actually literally comes from this: to tear the flesh. So we talked about a cutting remark, crude joking, biting irony, and now tearing the flesh. This implies what we would liken to like a dull knife. It's not properly cutting, but it's ripping through the flesh anyways. It leaves a different kind of wound to tear the flesh. You ever been there? If you're online, I don't know if you can see the example, but have you ever been there where you're peeling a piece of skin and you grab it and you think that just the small pieces coming off and you pull that sucker and it's way too long and all of a sudden you cannot move because you're tearing the tiniest piece of flesh, but it hurts so much. Who could have known that such a small piece of flesh could hurt so much? Amen? That's the kind of word that is used. It's not being cleanly cut. It's kind of tearing the flesh.

That's what sarcasm does. And people kind of laugh it away. But how many times have you been there where someone made a joke and that thing kept popping back up in your mind?

It kind of was about you. It kind of was funny. You even laughed, but that thing popped back into your mind sometimes for weeks, maybe longer. It tore through your flesh pretty deep. It left a victim. In common language, as we talk about sarcasm, it is the use of words that mean the opposite of what you really want to say. But so does irony. That can be irony as well. What makes it sarcasm and no longer irony is that motive. What is the motive? Here come some revealing points in your notes. They are fill in the blank. Sarcasm is spoken to insult someone or a situation. You can insult the situation. You can insult an achievement. You just graduated high school and somebody congratulates you and right away you say, "Well, it's not like I'm done with college." And you're making yourself the center of the joke as if the achievement was not worth it. As if it's not worthy to be celebrated. As if God himself didn't get you through it. Putting it down.

Now, we can often also do that with someone else. But it is insulting. It is declaring something lower than it actually deserves to be placed. Honoring it less than it actually deserves to be honored. The next one is to show irritation. Sarcasm is spoken to show your irritation. Let it out. Let somebody else know as well. The third one, sarcasm is spoken to be perceived as funny. People that want to be noticed as funny will use a victim and abuse the tool of sarcasm so that they are remembered as the funny one. It's a self-centered motive. The fourth one is to defend yourselves. Sarcasm is spoken to defend yourselves, to push back on somebody that is getting a little too close or a little too up and personal with you. It can be a defense mechanism where you don't believe God is going to be your defender, so I'll do it myself and I'll use words as my sword to cut somebody deep. Sarcasm is spoken to put on a mask, to hide insecurity or to hide pain. And that leads to the next point, point C in our study tonight. Passive aggressive anger.

Because you can use sarcasm to feed your flesh secretly. And if you feed your flesh, it will stay alive. And what does the Bible say? You will reap from your flesh corruption. So when we leave an area in our lives unwilling to declare the name of Jesus over it, unwilling for it to be changed, unwilling for it to be handed to God and for him to give us his best for our life, what ends up happening is that we feed our flesh and instead the flesh causes us to now begin to reap corruption. Now other areas of our lives begin to become affected and before we know it we go, "How in the world am I dealing with this? How am I struggling with this?" When all along the Lord goes back to the motive of why you may be speaking the way you do, joking the way you do, and sometimes maybe stay quiet the way that you do. Passive aggressive anger. Passive aggressive anger uses sarcasm to keep the flesh alive. If a person struggles with passive aggressive anger, they do not want to die to self. Every person that struggles with anger, whether it is passive aggressive or not, every person that struggles with anger does not want to lay down their life and follow Jesus. Every single Through sarcasm, people find a way as Christians, people find a way to act on their passive aggressive anger. In other words, nobody can really shut me down because I'm doing it jokingly. Nobody can really say I really said it because I'm actually saying the opposite and I can just talk. If somebody gets upset, I can just talk it away. Nobody can catch me.

But secretly, I have a way to momentarily act out the passive aggressive anger that I have raging inside or that I'm feeling right now. It can be passive aggressive anger towards life or others, but they can do it now without having to engage in honest communication. And that is how passive aggressive anger uses sarcasm. They don't have to honestly communicate. They can communicate in such a way that they are now allowed. They have found a way to act on their passive aggressive anger. And in that simple case, that person has now found a way to keep their flesh alive. They don't have to die to self. They don't have to lay it down. They found a way to be a Christian, to be funny, and to not get caught so that I don't have to deal with the flesh and the pain that honestly I should be dealing with. I just found a loophole. That's what really happens when a person with passive aggressive anger begins to practice sarcasm.

Often when we have a root of anger in our lives, that doesn't mean nothing bad has happened. Doesn't mean that what happened to you wasn't real or you blew it up. But when we don't give that moment where we were maybe actually wronged, when we don't give it to God and say, "God, you forgave all my wrong. I'm going to agree with you that I have to forgive all wrong as well. I'm going to give my pain to you because you are my healer." When we don't give him our anger and we continue to hold on to that root of anger, we begin to want to express emotions without having to take responsibility for them because we end up in a life where the emotion doesn't go away. The anger doesn't go away. The root doesn't go away. No matter how much we express it, it's never done expressing because we're not giving it to God, and we're not giving it up because we don't fully want to forgive or we don't fully want to trust our healing unto God. And we end up having to live with this thing and it is so hard to keep under control that we want to find a way to express these emotions without having to take responsibility for them. And then sarcasm is used by people to express their negative emotions without having to deal with the actual confrontation.

It's really a form of manipulation. You're saying the opposite of what you mean while you want the person to respond as if you told them what you secretly have in your heart. Yet you who is being sarcastic can never be held accountable because you can always dismiss the statement with, "It was just a joke." They cannot be held accountable because they can always dismiss their statement as just a joke. Sarcasm sets you up for plausible deniability. What that means is the moment you start denying all of that, didn't mean it like that, didn't mean to hurt you, didn't mean to this, it is pretty plausible that that's true because you didn't actually say it. So people tend to give you the benefit of the doubt and kind of believe you quickly. Sarcasm is like a safety harbor for flesh to be allowed to stay alive inside of you because it sets you up for people to give you the benefit of the doubt. It is the shadow of life. So you don't have to be in the light, but nobody can say you're fully in the darkness either. Sarcasm sets you up for plausible deniability, allowing you to express your anger or disapproval without having to deal with the very problem that is inside of you.

Sarcasm is not your friend, church. Sarcasm will keep you in a place, will keep an area of your heart in a place where you will never ever change. Because sarcasm is so smart, so crafty, so easily laughed away that if you don't want anybody to touch it, more than likely nobody ever will. If you want to talk it away and make it disappear, you probably could for the rest of your life. Sarcasm is a tool designed to help you keep parts of your flesh alive so that you do not really become like Jesus in this world, in this generation. That's what it is made to do. And when we cling on to that tool, thinking that now I don't have to constantly keep all these negative emotions propped up inside, I can kind of blow off steam and let them out a little bit because nobody can really catch me and people even think I'm funny and nobody can really say I said it, but I can blow off that little bit of steam so I don't explode.

I can manage my anger better with this sarcasm. And we can take a hold of this tool that is offered to us so altogether different than what God has for us in the use of our mouths that we take a hold of a tool that actually imprisons parts of us and keeps us from being changed.

And remember the list that this sin is in. You take a hold of that tool for that area of your life. Trust me, the other areas are going to follow pretty quickly. The flesh is never content. You can never feed the flesh a little. And it says, "Okay, I'll leave you alone. You go ahead and worship Jesus." It'll say that one, two, three days before it comes knocking on your door and says, "I need room to grow. I want some room to grow." Motives, words, using your mouth, right?

Here's a big statement. You cannot build anyone up through sarcasm. Not yourself. Even though when you're in it, you believe that you can use sarcasm, you're going to be perceived funnier.

It's easy to make friends. It's easy to be noticed. It looks for a moment like actually this is good for my case. I get to blow off steam when I don't know how to deal with my anger. I get to blow off steam while I figure out how to handle this anger problem. It seems to be good for me.

Listen, you cannot build anyone up through sarcasm. You included. It's poison. It's a tool designed to protect the flesh. It is using God's gift of words for the very opposite of what he gave us this gift for. That's what sarcasm does. It takes the gift of God. You ever thought about that? God made us in his likeness unlike the animals. And we're the only speaking creature on this planet. And God uses words. God used words before the first man was created. He already used words in creation and then he makes us and gives us the ability to use words as well just like him. And he used words to call things into existence. And then he gives us the ability of words. And he calls us to use those words to lift him up, to bless him, to praise him, to encourage and bless the people around us, to use our words for good and for truth, for love, for care.

You cannot build anyone up through sarcasm. Sarcasm is using that godlike gift that God gave us and using it for the very opposite of what it was designed for. Here's what God says in his word to you and I. Philippians 4:8. And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right and pure and lovely and admirable. Think about these things that are excellent and worthy of praise. See, the Lord tells us that in our mind we also think words. And the word tells us to fill our mind with specific words, things that are good and lovely and true and honorable and right and pure and admirable, excellent things, things worthy of praise. The word tells us to fill our minds with that. And here you go to your neighbor and you use words and put something else in his mind. And you can make it harder for a brother or a sister to walk this out. They may even have to take some distance from you because of the way that you use words and the way you put them on their mind.

Philippians 2 verse 1:3. Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? You know that's where all of our safe house sayings come from. It's a good day to be forgiven. That's just one of those benefits of belonging to Christ and us setting our minds on it and doing that with each other, for each other, sharing it with each other. Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose. Don't be selfish. Don't try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than ourselves. See, when you use words and with words you leave behind the victim, whether it's you or someone else, you can't live out these scriptures unless you learn to use your mouth right. Unless you learn to use this incredible gift of words to use it for following Jesus. It's a very simple question. Do you follow Jesus in the way you speak? Do you follow Jesus?

Now, Jesus called Pharisees snake eggs. You're allowed to use some sharp words from time to time. You're allowed to be funny just like the Lord is funny and had it written down. When the disciples came to Jesus, and he didn't need to write this in the word, we know who Jesus is. We know he knows all things. He had it written down anyways. The word says, "And the disciples came to Jesus and told him, when you called them snake eggs, did you know they were offended?" That's straight up funny. No, I didn't know. Thank you for telling me. I hadn't seen it on their faces. I hadn't read it on their mind. Duh. I publicly called them blood of vipers. I don't think they liked it. But what is the fruit of you using your mouth? Are you following Jesus with your mouth? Are you following Jesus in the way that you speak to people that do wrong? When people do wrong, what do you say to them? When people fall short or make mistakes, what do you say to them? Are you able to deliver a sharp word that is able to cut something, yet people grow and stand back up? Or do you mow them down and leave them right there to bleed out with a wound that ripped their flesh? Literally tore their flesh.

What happens when you get upset or caught off guard? We all get caught off guard. We all get angry for a moment. An anger struggle is different. When we get angry for a moment, our anger is the same size as the incident that just happened. When we have an anger struggle, we have anger bottled up. And when something unexpected happens or something that we feel is wronged towards us happens, all of the anger comes with that little bit of anger. And now your explosion is far greater than what actually just happened. It's out of balance. It's not the same size. That's an anger problem. That's an anger struggle. There's unprocessed, unhealed anger that you carry along. And you're going to be right set up to be a victim, to be attracted to sarcasm because it's like blowing off steam like a train does when the pressure gets too high and it just blows that whistle. We all know that old-fashioned whistle that as the train comes by it just a funny tool since we have to blow off steam anyways.

That's what sarcasm can become to you. That whistle on the train it's just a funny thing. It doesn't really hurt nobody. I'm just blowing off steam because I got a little too much pressure inside. There's too much pressure built up and we start looking for a way to manage it. Do you follow Jesus in the way that you joke? Can you be funny without leaving victims? Or do you need to be funny to blow off steam and victims? Yes, they fall. I need the funniness. It's not a social thing. It's not a loving thing. It's not a kind thing. I need to be funny in order to function.

God's directions will lead you into godly fruit. Nothing else will, church. If you use words the way God wants you to use words, it will produce godly fruit. He tells us what to do. Go and tell the nations. Go and tell them what? Go and tell them good news. Go and tell them that Jesus Christ has come, that he is born, that he has taken all sins upon himself, died on the cross, rose again. There's praise and worship, encouragement, sometimes a rebuke, sometimes a correction, sometimes uplifting words, sometimes you're asked to be quiet. There's all kinds of godly direction already for how we should use this gift of words and even being funny as a gift.

But God's directions will lead you into godly fruit. You try to do anything else, you're going to end up with a whole bunch of problems. Passing on God's direction always sets you up for sin. And sin when it conceives gives birth to death. And when death sets in, that area of your life begins to stink. It begins to bear the fruit of death. It begins to exemplify the presence of death. Don't pass by God's directions. Don't skip the little ones. Allow the Holy Spirit to build conviction in your life. You ever been there where you developed a new conviction? I see two, three, four hands. You understand that the moment you developed that conviction, you now realize you were wrong all of your life because this standard was the same all that time. You just were not willing to be taught by the Holy Spirit, either the word of God or a revelation of God. And you didn't live by that conviction for the last 30 years. Yet, it was always God's plan and standard. You were only now willing to be taught it to the heart.

When we get a new conviction, we now realize we've been wrong all of this time. That doesn't so when the word of God is preached or taught and it doesn't fully match up with your life but you say well I'm not convicted the word of God is not wrong you are. We have to develop conviction. How do we do it? What is the sword of the spirit? It's the word. Give the spirit something to fight with against all of the flesh in your life that tries to stay alive and fight for ground. Give the Holy Spirit something to work with. Read the Bible. Honor the scriptures and say, "Well, this is all about me. Am I living this? I know I can in Christ Jesus. If I'm not living it, am I really giving the Holy Spirit a weapon?" Or do I just want to feel his presence when I worship, but I don't want him to cut away some stuff? Here are four convicting truths about sarcasm. I teach myself. I read the Bible and then I teach myself very simple stuff I can remember. Like today is a good day to be forgiven. That's an example. Like that's something I learned from the Bible, but in one sentence I can remember it every day. Here are four that really work for me.

Convicting truths about sarcasm.

Number one, sarcasm is rooted in offense. You know, if you've taken offense, you're not going to heaven. I don't care how long you've believed in Jesus. I don't care how loud you pray in tongues. Jesus himself said that unless we forgive one another, our father in heaven will not forgive us. Sarcasm is rooted in offense. You can only live sarcastically. I understand that you can have a moment of making a clumsy, sarcastic joke once every I won't say how many times from time to time. I understand that can happen and you can be convicted in the moment and you apologize and you move on with life, you're fine. But when you are in sarcasm, it's hard to move away from it. It's rooted in offense. That means you really have to reconsider your life and make sure that you're actually right with God because you may just hold a grudge against someone or something or some people group.

Number two, sarcasm is insensitive to people's feelings, including your own. Sarcasm is insensitive to people's feelings. It cares more about a shallow laughter than about a deep cutting ripping wound. It's just a joke. And even when we make ourselves the target of that joke, you can hurt yourself by using words that God gave you against yourself. If the word of God is the sword of the spirit, then how are you using your words? What are your words cutting?

Number three, it protects your flesh. Sarcasm protects your flesh. You choose sarcasm. You choose to keep the flesh. It protects your flesh. And number four, it keeps you from walking in the spirit. Sarcasm keeps you from walking in the spirit. You cannot use words, the gifting of God. You cannot use it and leave victims while the word of God himself, Christ Jesus, came into this earth. He became the victim. He became the sacrifice so that everyone else was rescued.

See, that's how God uses the word. He sent the word to rescue, to redeem, to save, and he didn't send the word to cut people down. Choosing sarcasm keeps you from walking in the spirit. It's all a little heavy stuff. So, here's E. Where's the hope? Where is the hope? As we're going to close, Proverbs 1:23. One of my favorite scriptures. If we ever have a quiz again about how well do you know your pastor, this one may just be on it. Proverbs 1:23. I don't even know the scripture. I don't even like this scripture. It's just easy to remember. One, two, three. No, I'm kidding. That's a joke. Proverbs 1:23. Incredible verse. If you turn at my reproof. Behold, I will pour out my spirit to you. I'll make my words known to you. One of my favorite promises. Stan, if you will just turn when I show you the wrong. I'll send you the spirit and I'll begin to speak to you.

See, the Lord never tells us turn and then make sure you keep walking out a sinless life and do it right. Better you do it right. No, he doesn't say that. If you turn the moment you realize you're in the wrong, I'll pour my spirit to you and I will begin to speak with you again.

Some of you, you may have been wondering why you don't really hear the Lord's voice in prayer or when you read the word. You can't really discern his voice. You can't really figure out how to hear his voice. You can't really dissect his word when you read it. And you're sitting here tonight or you're with us online and you realize, you know, something kind of I kind of a little bit new that my jokes sometimes hurt people. I haven't been turning. Even though the Lord has been trying to knock on my heart and help me see that it's not very nice when I talk like that or when I'm so quick and so witty to come back at people when I feel they come at me.

The Lord says, "If you just turn the moment you see it, it's fine that you run into trouble again. The moment you see it, if you turn, I'll pour my spirit and I'll begin to speak." I was talking with Nicholas at the beginning. I mentioned it. I love this teaching because the moment you see it, almost all of the work is done. The moment you now go out in your life, out and about, I'm telling you now, you will see the Holy Spirit bring parts of this teaching back to your mind when he is trying to show you how the word of God reproves what you're about to do or what you just said or what you just did, he's going to bring it to mind. And this is the promise. The moment that happens, the moment he brings it to mind, the moment you realize, "Oh, here I go with my words," he says, "If you turn the moment you see it, I'll pour my spirit, I'll begin to speak to you."

All you do is now recognize it and say, "God, that's I'm doing it again or I'm thinking it again. I'm not going to say it, but I'm thinking or I'm feeling it again." The moment you whisper that up in prayer, the moment you turn, when you see the wrong, God begins to pour his spirit, miracles, church, miracles begin to happen. Many of you, you know, the kind of stuff that I came from, the kind of stuff Jesus set me free from, that's not a special story. That's just what he does when you are willing to see what's wrong and just offer up a simple prayer. God help in the moment. Doesn't have to be any longer than a two-word prayer. God help. It's that moment that we recognize the reproof and we turn to him and say, "God, help." He'll pour his spirit. He'll begin to speak and before you know it, he leads you into the way everlasting. He begins to lead you into the life that he wanted to build in you, around you, all over you. He will do all of the work.

All we get to say is, "God, I'm willing to see it when you're showing it to me. And when I see it, I'll turn to you." All we do, you don't have to fix yourself. This is good news, church. This is a good place to clap. Let's give the Lord a hand for this is a really good place to clap. This means that nobody has a problem today. Do you understand that? Nobody in the world really has anything in their life that is a problem. Not since Jesus died on the cross. He dealt with the problem of going to hell. That has been wiped off the table. Everything else is peanuts. Amen.

So go take it to him. The moment you see it, offer it up to him in prayer. He'll pour his spirit. He'll begin to speak to you. Before you know it, you're testifying of how God got no clue how God did it, but you know who you turn to. And now you're changed. Amen.

-Pastor Stan Mons