August 23, 2026 | Traditional Worship | Kingdom Comm: Wk 1 - Matthew 12:33-37

Aug 23, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: When Trees Speak Louder Than Words

A healed mute man’s restored voice exposed hearts. Jesus rebuked religious leaders whose words revealed poisoned roots. Communication isn’t neutral—it broadcasts the kingdom growing within us or the thorns choking grace. Just as fruit betrays a tree’s health, our reactions to God’s work—celebration or cynicism—unmask our true allegiances. What harvest do your words cultivate? [50:52]

“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”
(Matthew 12:33-34, ESV)

Reflection: What recent conversation exposed a root of defensiveness or grace in you? How might your words today nourish or poison someone’s view of God’s kingdom?

Day 2: Listening as a Whole-Body Act of Love

93% of communication lives in tilted heads, softened eyes, and phones set facedown. True listening leans into silence before solutions. It fights the urge to correct, fix, or reframe. Like a musician interpreting notes into feeling, listening translates body language into empathy. To listen well is to incarnate Christ’s posture—present, unhurried, prioritizing connection over agendas. [42:03]

“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.”
(James 1:19, ESV)

Reflection: Which conversation this week needs your full bodily attention—eyes unglazed, shoulders turned toward, devices silenced? What might you gain by withholding advice?

Day 3: The Spiritual Weight of Unsaid Words

Every sentence carries a soul’s fingerprint. Words hoarded or hurled shape eternal trajectories—building bridges or burning them. The Pharisees weaponized interpretations; Jesus wielded truth as a scalpel. Our unspoken judgments, withheld encouragements, and muttered grievances hold power to resurrect hope or bury it. What tomb have your silences sealed? [49:11]

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.”
(Proverbs 18:21, ESV)

Reflection: What life-giving phrase have you delayed speaking? What destructive assumption have you allowed to linger unaddressed?

Day 4: Fixers Anonymous

Problem-solvers often amputate stories to reach solutions faster. Yet Jesus paused at wells, tables, and funeral processions to hear whole narratives. Listening to understand—not to correct or control—requires surrendering the idol of efficiency. What if our greatest contribution isn’t fixing broken systems but holding broken hearts? [56:31]

“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
(Philippians 2:3-4, ESV)

Reflection: When did your desire to “help” recently override someone’s need to be heard? How might curiosity soften your next crisis response?

Day 5: Your Mouth Will Tell On Your Heart

Our words tattle on our inner kingdoms. The Pharisees’ accusations betrayed their fear of losing influence; Jesus’ rebukes revealed zeal for God’s glory. Angry tweets, gossipy whispers, or patient dialogues all testify: we’re being formed either by reactionary culture or Christ’s redemption. What confession do your casual comments demand? [53:35]

“Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.”
(Colossians 4:6, ESV)

Reflection: What mundane conversation this week (grocery checkout, work call, dinner chat) most clearly revealed what’s ruling your heart? How will you surrender that territory to Christ?

Sermon Summary

Matthew 12 puts Jesus in front of a healed man and a hard-hearted group of religious leaders. Jesus heals a demon-possessed man who cannot see and cannot speak, and the crowd starts asking the right question: could this be the Messiah? The Pharisees see the miracle, but they do not celebrate the restored man. Their words try to redirect the whole meaning of what God just did. They cannot change what happened, so they try to change what it meant.

Jesus answers with strong words because their communication is not just bad technique. Jesus calls them a brood of snakes because their words reveal something wrong deep down in the heart. The tree is identified by its fruit, and the mouth eventually tells on the heart. Matthew 12 presses the pattern: heart, words, witness. Communication does not start with vocabulary, style, or winning the argument. Kingdom communication begins with what is forming the heart.

Love listens first. Healthy listening is a whole body activity, not just silence while another person talks. Listening includes posture, eye contact, presence, patience, and the refusal to jump in too quickly with advice, correction, or defense. Bad listening is easy to spot in somebody else, but harder to recognize when the bad listener is the one trying to respond, fix, control, or look right.

The tongue has the power of life and death, as Proverbs says. Words can create connection or distance, trust or suspicion, peace or tension, healing or hurt, grace or condemnation. The Christian’s words, tone, and posture can either reflect the kingdom of God or distort it. That makes communication a discipleship issue, not just a personality issue.

James gives the kingdom pattern: quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger. The world trains people in the opposite direction, quick to speak, quick to anger, slow to listen. Kingdom communication wants to understand before it insists on being understood. That does not mean agreement, silence, or avoiding correction. It means curiosity comes before control, and love listens before it speaks truth.

The call is simple but not easy: begin with one conversation where the only goal is to understand. The right words matter, but the right heart comes first. Jesus calls his people to pause, get curious, ask “what else,” listen again, and speak from a heart being transformed by grace.

Key Takeaways

1. Love listens before answering Love does not rush past a person in order to make a point. The heart that listens first gives another person the gift of being truly heard, which is far deeper than simply waiting for a turn to talk. Kingdom communication begins with presence, because a hurried response often reveals a hurried heart. [41:21]
2. The mouth tells on the heart Jesus does not treat words as random noise or harmless mistakes. The fruit reveals the tree, and speech reveals what has been stored up inside. A person’s communication is not merely a skill issue, but a formation issue. [54:41]
3. Words carry spiritual weight The tongue can bring life or death, connection or distance, healing or hurt. Words are not spiritually insignificant because they bear witness to the kingdom that is shaping a person. A Christian’s tone and posture can either make Christ visible or distort him badly. [49:11]
4. Understanding comes before responding Kingdom communication is more interested in understanding someone than being understood by someone. That does not erase truth, correction, or challenge, but it changes the spirit in which those things are offered. Curiosity exposes control, and patient listening slows the anger that loves to react too quickly. [60:12]
5. One conversation can begin formation The practice does not start with becoming an amazing communicator overnight. One conversation can become the training ground where the only goal is to understand. A simple pause, a curious question, and the phrase “what else” can open space for grace to shape speech.

## [62:42]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[24:07] - Worship and Kingdom Come
[39:06] - Matthew 12:33-37 Reading
[40:09] - Everyone Wants To Be Heard
[41:44] - Listening Is Whole Body Communication
[44:08] - Communication As Discipleship
[46:32] - Words, Tone, and Posture
[50:08] - Jesus, the Healing, and the Pharisees
[53:58] - Heart, Words, and Witness
[58:23] - Quick To Listen, Slow To Speak
[60:12] - Understanding Before Being Understood
[62:42] - One Conversation To Practice Listening
[64:16] - Closing Prayer

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Matthew 12:33-37
“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” [39:06]

James 1:19
“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;” [58:23]

Proverbs 18:21
“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.” [48:59]

Observation questions

In Matthew 12, what had Jesus just done before he spoke about trees, fruit, hearts, and words? How did the crowd respond, and how did the Pharisees respond differently? [50:08]
What are some specific signs of healthy listening that were named, and what are some signs that a person is not really listening? [41:44]
According to Proverbs 18:21, what kinds of outcomes can words produce? What word-pairs help show how serious that is? [49:11]
In James 1:19, what three movements shape kingdom communication, and what opposite pattern does the world often train people into? [58:23]

Interpretation questions

Jesus says a tree is known by its fruit and that the mouth speaks from the abundance of the heart. What does that suggest about the connection between a person’s inner life and their everyday speech? [54:41]
The Pharisees could not deny that a man had been healed, so they tried to change what the miracle meant. Why is that kind of response more serious than simply saying something rude or mistaken? [52:27]
If words can bring life or death, connection or distance, what does that reveal about why communication is a discipleship issue and not just a personality issue? [46:32]
James calls believers to be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. Why does understanding someone first often lower anger and change the way truth can be spoken? [01:00:12]

Application questions

In what relationship right now is there a strong temptation to listen in order to respond, fix, defend, or win? What would it look like to enter that conversation with the goal of understanding first? [48:35]
When does the mouth most often “tell” on the heart in daily life—at home, at work, online, in conflict, or somewhere else? What tends to spill out in those moments that reveals what is going on inside? [55:34]
Think about a recent conversation where tone or posture mattered as much as words. What might have changed if there had been more presence, patience, eye contact, or calm? [46:16]
Where is there a habit of moving too quickly from listening to solving? How could a pause, a follow-up question, or “what else?” create more room for love in that conversation? [01:03:49]
Is there someone who would be surprised if they were fully heard this week by a Christian? What small step could help that person experience being heard instead of managed or corrected too quickly? [41:21]
What kind of words have been most common lately: words that bring peace, healing, and grace, or words that create tension, suspicion, and distance? What does that pattern suggest needs attention in the heart? [49:15]
What is one real conversation to practice this week where the only goal is to understand? Who is it with, and what would help keep that goal in front the whole time? [01:02:42]

Sermon Clips

53s

#WordsAreWitness

“Friends, the world though doesn't just hear Christians believe. The world watches how we speak. That's sometimes also the miss. It watches how we speak, and and our words are a witness. We need to understand that. It's important that how do how do we listen to somebody when we disagree with them? How do we respond when we're frustrated? How do we handle conflict? How do we speak truth without cruelty in a particular situation or context? And it's not, these aren't simply communication questions when I ask those of us or myself. These are discipleship questions.”

60s

#HeartBeforeWords

“And so kingdom calm or communication doesn't, again, begin with having just the right words. It begins with having the right heart. We're not gonna hear that out in the world. We're not gonna hear that in the Christian culture either. But I'm gonna say it again. It doesn't begin with having just the right truths or words. It begins with having the right heart. And so, friends, my prayer for all of us is to just pause in the middle of a very busy life or conversation. Get curious. Why is somebody saying that? Ask them, what else? Let's hear more about that. Listen to them again. Begin to try to understand them and have some empathy or sympathy, and then simply speak because love listens first.”

49s

#WordsHavePower

“Words have the capacity to bring life or death or connection or distance or trust or suspicion or peace or tension or healing hurt, grace or condemnation. Our words have that ability, which means our words are not spiritually insignificant. Right? That, I mean, they are spiritually significant for sure. And so do your words sound like the kingdom you're claiming to follow? Or do they sound like some other kingdom? Do they sound like the kingdom of Christ? Or do they sound like your own kingdom?”

47s

#SpeechRevealsHeart

“While we don't just start with techniques of communication, our problem isn't merely, hey. I need to learn how to communicate better or I need to learn how to argue truth better. That's not the church's problem. It's usually not our own problem. The deeper spiritual question is is what is happening inside me that is producing the way I communicate? The words that I'm using. The reason for the words that I'm saying those things as well. And so if I believe in Jesus, my communication reveals my formation. My mouth eventually tells on my heart. And so that's important for us to understand that.”

72s

#QuickToListenSlowToSpeak

“The kingdom communication pattern James gives us is quick to what? Quick to listen. Right? Slow to speak, slow to anger. Now we live in a world that totally trains us totally different, doesn't it? It it just flips it. It it communic we're supposed to communicate in the opposite way. It's like quick to speak, quick to anger, slow to listen. I mean, I get it all the time as a as a public communicator. Right? You wanna tell me you're quick to tell me exactly what I should say if something happens in the world. Right? And I haven't even discerned what that is. I don't even know what you're talking about. But you want me to be angry about it. Right? And I'm just not angry about it yet. You know? Plus, you know me. I'm a pretty cool, calm, collected guy most of the time. But the world is filled with reaction and reinterpretation of things and defensiveness and assumption, and we become angry before we understand.”

56s

#UnderstandBeforeResponding

“I wanna be understood by people. I wanna be understood by the for the decisions I've made, the words I've said, and the processes I've put in place. But you know what? I need to understand someone sitting there and talking to me too. do not get me wrong. That does not mean I'm gonna agree with you. Right? It doesn't mean I have to agree with you. It doesn't mean that I'm not gonna correct you when you've missed something or you are not walking in truth. It doesn't mean I won't challenge you if you need to grow in something. What it means is, personally, God is working on me to understand before I respond. And so I don't know where God is gonna work on you as we go through the series. But this is important stuff. Love listens first.”

52s

#ChurchKnownForListening

“as followers of Jesus, we shouldn't simply be known as people who have something to say. The followers of Jesus should be also known for people who know how to listen. Could you imagine that? That would be a game changer. You know? It would. Our words are a witness. Yes. But it's a game changer. A world changer to understand that how this would affect our marriages, our families, our friends, our community, our culture, how people hear the gospel. I mean, if what if church became known the people who truly listened?”

53s

#WordsBringLifeOrDeath

“Love listens first. It's not easy to do this. This is, again, it's not natural for us to always listen to understand something. A lot of times what we're doing is we're listening to respond. We're listening to fix something. We're listening to defend ourselves or validate ourselves or to win an argument or to look cool, whatever it is. But scripture clarifies some things more and more about our words if you read it. In Proverbs chapter 18 verse 21, it even says the tongue can what? Bring death or life. Those who love to talk will reap the consequences. Death or life, that's serious. That's spiritual Seriousness. I mean, that's the spiritual serious truth.”

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