Toxic Words | Pastor Chad Dingess | 05/04/2025

Words can be life-giving or life-destroying. (MULTILINE)

Proverbs 18:21
The tongue has the power of life and death. (MULTILINE)

Our working definition of toxic…anything containing poisonous material capable of causing serious sickness or even death. (MULTILINE)

Proverbs 12:18
Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the words of wise people bring healing. (MULTILINE)

Proverbs 15:4
The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit. (MULTILINE)

Words have the power to direct our lives. (MULTILINE)

James 3:2-5 (Phillips Translation)
If a person can control his tongue, he can control every other part of his personality! Men control the movements of a large animal like the horse with a tiny bit placed in its mouth. Ships too, for all their size and the momentum they have with a strong wind behind them, are controlled by a very small rudder according to the course chosen by the helmsman. The human tongue is physically small, but what tremendous effects it can boast of! (MULTILINE)

Words reveal who we are on the inside. (MULTILINE)

Luke 6:45 (GNT)
A good person brings good out of the treasure of good things in his heart; a bad person brings bad out of his treasure of bad things. For the most speaks what the heart is full of. (MULTILINE)

1. Guard your heart against toxic words. (MULTILINE)

Proverbs 4:20-23 (GW)
My son, pay attention to my words. Open your ears to what I say. Do not lose sight of these things. Keep them deep within your heart because they are life to those who find them, and they heal the whole body. Guard your heart more than anything else, because the source of your life flows from it. (MULTILINE)

Take out the trash. Embrace the truth. (MULTILINE)

John 8:32 (NIV)
You will know the truth and the truth will set you free! (MULTILINE)

Romans 3:4
Though everyone else in the world be a liar, God is not. (MULTILINE)

2. Speak life-giving words to others every chance you get. (MULTILINE)

Ephesians 4:29 (GNT)
Do not use harmful words, but only helpful words, the kind that build up and provide what is needed, so that what you say will do good to those who hear you. (MULTILINE)

3. Speak life-giving words to yourself and to your circumstances. (MULTILINE)

Psalms 42:5 (NIV)
Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God. (MULTILINE)

Psalms 103:1-2 (MCT)
Hey, soul, praise the Lord! Hey, soul, don’t forget all the Lord has done for you. (MULTILINE)

Mark 11:23
If anyone says to this mountain, “Go throw yourself into the sea and does not doubt in his heart but believes what he says will happen, it will be done for him. (MULTILINE)

James 3:2, 8 (GW)
All of us make a lot of mistakes. If someone doesn’t make any mistakes when he speaks, he would be perfect. He would be able to control everything he does. Yet, no one can tame the tongue. It is an uncontrollable evil filled with deadly prison. (MULTILINE)