*Coughing noises* Excuse me, sorry, just making noise.
Sorry, just making noise with my *coughing*... mouth...*coughing* ... sorry.
[indistinct statement] unfortunately
Hi, my name is Fr. Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents.
The power of the tongue—
and you know, it's so interesting, that Scripture talks about
how we use our speech a lot
and yet one of the things that I — I don’t know about you,
but I think that, sometimes we can overlook,
is the misuse of our words, a misuse of speech.
A few little examples for those of you who are like—this happens a lot— “Where was that in the Bible?”
and I'm like, OK, I’ll — I’ll thrown down with you. *Laughs*
First Peter, chapter 3, verse 10, he says —he's actually quoting a psalm— and he says
“Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and lips from speaking deceit.”
That is really powerful. I think Psalm 142 also has this prayer,
Lord, keep a watch at the door of my lips; set a guard over my mouth.
I love that, ‘cause it's just like, yeah Lord, please protect this from sayin’ bad stuff.
But James, I think chapter 3—it is because I've just looked at it—
James chapter 3 talks about the power of a tongue—
the power of the tongue, the power of words.
And it says the tongue is a fire.
Yeah, it can warm, it can also destroy really powerfully.
So just read James chapter 3. I'm not gonna read it all here online,
but I do want to talk about how do you know whether you should say something or not?
You know, we did a video about venting versus gossiping—how can you tell the difference.
I think that hopefully is helpful to people.
Here's another—it actually doesn't come from Scripture.
Actually comes from a guy named So-crates.
Um, is that—how do you say his name? Yeah, there's no one over there, I’m just pretending.
Anyways! Socrates!
At one point he had this thing —apparently—called the test of three.
It’s the story of someone saying “Socrates, I have this thing to tell you about one of your students.”
And he said, OK, before you tell me, I have three questions for you:
Question one: Is it true?
— Well, I'm not sure if it's true. I didn't check it out.
OK, so you're willing to tell me something about one of my students
that you’re not sure is true yet?
OK, test of truth.
Secondly, is it good news? Is this something good to know about my student?
—Oh no, no, it's not good at all.
Because, why would I tell you something good right?
Because that's when we—we like to share the—we like to share the dirt.
And we might sprinkle a little bit of goodness in it so that we don’t feel so bad
but the question, the test, the second test: Is it good?
—No it's not good, that's why I wanted to tell you.
OK, but, so you're gonna tell me something that's not good,
that you're not even sure is true? OK.
Third question: Is it useful? Should I know this?
— Like, no. Well, no it's just kind of a ... it's just a piece of information about this person.
Is it true? Is it good? Is it useful?
Whenever you and I are tempted to say anything—
we really do have to ask the question, “Is this true? I don't know."
Then you need to check it out. We need to find out if that actually is true.
Because—I—do you ever do this?
Where you're like, “OK, I heard that so and so ... ”
I mean, well, I might not do it with my friends, I might not do it with people around me.
I definitely am tempted to do it when it comes to celebrities or politicians.
“Oh my gosh did you hear what so-and-so ... ”
Well do you ... is that what they actually said? Is that what they actually did?
— Well I mean ... I think so. It said so on the internet.
*Sarcastically* Can't lie ...
Is it true? Is it good?
Why are we so fascinated by the bad news? We're weird. We're weird fallen people.
We're fascinated by the bad news as opposed to the good news.
So is it true, is it good, and is it useful? Do I need to know this?
If I don't—if it's not going to help me at all, you don't need to tell me.
If it's not gonna help you at all, I don't need to tell you.
And that's the test of three.
And it can be really helpful when it comes to taming your tongue.
Because that, as Scripture says, the tongue is a fire.
It can give warmth, it can give comfort, but it also can destroy.
From all of us here at Ascension Presents, my name is Fr. Mike. God bless.
Also! Like, subscribe, comment. Do all those things.
And, um, but when you comment,
make sure that your comments are true and good and useful.
And *clicks* God bless.
*Midwestern accent* That guy can talk fast, can’t he?
He sure can talk fast, oh gosh.