Setting an example Part 1 "Speech"

"Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity." 1st Timothy 4:12
If you look around at today's teenagers, probably one of the things most well known for our behavior is gossiping and bad language. In today's message, my prayer is that the Holy Spirit will give me words in this series and that He will move in you and me. Amen!
1) Gossiping
My Science class recently just went over the respiratory system and how we talk. Think about it: God created all these things in our body such as a voice box, ect just so we can talk. He could have had us mute. But instead He gave us speech and we use it to gossip. I am a victim of gossiping, but I've also gossiped before. It breaks who we are. It makes us hard to trust anyone. By standing firm to the Word of God, we can have words to speak that will be good and pleasing to God. I know the world constantly tells us that its not that big of a deal to gossip, but believe me it is. When you gossip, it is like spreading a fire. Once you start the fire and spread it to one tree, it keeps spreading and the trees will be burned forever. So next time there comes a temptation to gossip ask yourself these questions:
- Is it pleasing to God?
- Will I be ashamed to tell the gossip victim what I said?
- If I was the one being gossiped about, how would I feel?
By asking ourselves these questions,we can be free and know that we aren't hurting anyone and are pleasing to God.
2) Bad Language
Bad language seems like it is everywhere these days. You can find it in music, books, magazines, movies, and even the driver right by you. Like gossip, it is self-destructing and strips us of being godly and instead makes us evil. When we first come to salvation, we should make it a point to make ourselves devoted to God, and being an example to others. How can we say we are followers of Christ Jesus when we have foul language streaming out of our mouths? By replacing a foul language word with a righteousness word we are setting an example.:)