Selected Passages
April 26, 2020
preached by Pastor Ryan Bouton
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Guide for Home Worship

Time of Reflection Quotations

“Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problem of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment [in Psalm 42] was this; instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself, ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul?’ he asks. His soul had been repressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says: ‘Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you’. Do you know what I mean? If you do not, you have but little experience. The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself…”

~D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cures

“When you draw on God’s grace to put off your self-centered attitudes and act on His principles, you put His glory on display. Your life points to His vast wisdom, compassion, and transforming power, and as you look for God’s glory, the impact reaches far beyond yourself because you give everyone around you reason to respect and praise God. Glorifying God is not about letting others see how great you are. It’s about letting them see how great the Lord is.”

~Ken Sande, The Peacemaker

“Self-expression is the dominant necessity of human nature.”

~Dale Carnegie

“Believing in himself is one of the commonest signs of a rotter. Actors who can’t act believe in themselves; and debtors who won’t pay. It would be much truer to say that a man will certainly fail, because he believes in himself. Complete self-confidence is not merely a sin; complete self-confidence is a weakness. Believing utterly in one’s self is a hysterical and superstitious belief…”

“How much larger your life would be if your self could become smaller in it; if you could really look at other men with common curiosity and pleasure; if you could see them walking as they are in their sunny sefishness and their virile indifference! You would begin to be interested in them, because they are not interested in you. You would break out of this tiny and tawdry theatre in which your own little plot is always played, and you would find yourself under a freer sky, in a street full of splendid strangers.”

~G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Sermon Passage

Selected Passages (ESV)

1 Peter 3

¹⁰ For “Whoever desires to love life
and see good days,
let him keep his tongue from evil
and his lips from speaking deceit;
¹¹ let him turn away from evil and do good;
let him seek peace and pursue it.
¹² For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
and his ears are open to their prayer.
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” 

Ephesians 4

¹⁵ Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, ¹⁶ from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love… ²⁹ Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

Proverbs 10

¹⁹ When words are many, transgression is not lacking,
but whoever restrains his lips is prudent.

Proverbs 12

¹⁸ There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts,
but the tongue of the wise brings healing. 

Proverbs 15

¹ A soft answer turns away wrath,
but a harsh word stirs up anger.
² The tongue of the wise commends knowledge,
but the mouths of fools pour out folly…

⁴ A gentle tongue is a tree of life,
but perverseness in it breaks the spirit…

Proverbs 18

² A fool takes no pleasure in understanding,
but only in expressing his opinion…

²¹ Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
and those who love it will eat its fruits.