Episode Transcript
Man, we'll be in Proverbs chapter 12 verse 25.
Proverbs chapter 12 verse 25.
The title of the message tonight is "A Good Word."
A good word.
You don't ever have anyone ask you, "What's the good word?"
I have people ask me that all the time.
And you know what they do when they ask me that?
I just kick the door right open for them.
I don't care if I'm in uniform.
I don't care.
I've told a lot of people, "What's the good word?"
I'm going to heaven.
Jesus died for my sins or whatever.
"Oh, okay."
But you know what?
It is the good word.
And we're looking tonight at a topic that I'm very much looking forward to teaching on.
And it's on this heaviness here in verse 25.
Heaviness.
The Hebrew word translated "heaviness" means anxiety.
And you ever want to deal with anxiety?
Everybody deals with anxiety.
And when we deal with anxiety, it gets worse and worse the older we get.
We do get wiser the older we get, but our nerves and our bodies get more frail.
And unfortunately, the anxiety, the issues that we deal with, they get heavier a lot of times too with age and circumstances.
But that's what this word "heaviness" means.
It means anxiety.
So the heaviness spoken of here is speaking about the weight because it does say heavy.
It's speaking about a weight.
It's not speaking about the weight of iron or some material object, but it's speaking about the weight or what we would call the burden that anxiety places on a person's heart.
Have you ever had to hold a heavy item for a long period of time?
Maybe you're walking somewhere with this heavy, heavy item.
And it may not be that far away, but if it's real heavy, it seems like you'll never get there.
You're just looking.
And finally, finally, you get to a place and after a while, the strain has become so great, you can't wait to put it down.
And when you finally do put it down, it feels so good to dump that weight and let it go.
And you remember how good it feels to dump that weight and let it go physically because it's going to play an important role in how we understand this text tonight spiritually.
Anxiety is a heavy object.
Like a heavy weight, anxiety should never be held for too long of a time.
And like a heavy weight, anxiety feels good when you finally put it down and let it go.
Weight creates an external strain on the body.
Anxiety creates an internal strain on the body and the soul.
Weight causes strain on the shoulders, the arms, the legs, and the back of man.
Anxiety causes strain, look back in your text, in the heart of man.
In the heart of man.
So we have anxiety, we have heaviness, we have weight in the heart of man.
Now I have a granite bar countertop at my house in my kitchen and it's just the right height to make my young grandkids.
Gabriel's too old for it.
He wouldn't try it.
But the younger grandkids, it's just the right height for them to reach up and grab hold of that granite stone that hangs out and try to do pull-ups on it.
And I have to really watch that because that stone wasn't fashioned to hold that kind of weight.
And that kind of weight could break the stone.
I wouldn't want that.
And there's a lot of heavy things that we have to deal with in life.
Much heavier than grandkids.
The suffering and death of our loved ones is a very heavy thing.
Family trouble is a very heavy thing.
War.
Thank God we've been spared from a lot of it in the past few decades.
But war is a very heavy thing.
Famine, heavy.
Economic distress.
Public corruption.
Personal attacks on us.
Attacking our character.
Attacking our personality or our physical attributes.
Heavy.
Legal trouble.
All of these things are very heavy and sin brought all of these heavy things into our world.
And that's just to name a few.
And it brought them to our world, we must understand, when?
After man was created.
Sin brought these heavy things into our world after man was created.
Brother Richard, why is that important?
It's because God designed Adam to live in paradise, not to live in turmoil.
He designed me and you to live in paradise, not to live in turmoil.
We weren't made to live with the consequences of sin.
And that's why the wages of sin is death.
Sin taking its toll on humanity is death.
Because we live in a sinful and chaotic world, our heart has to deal with very heavy concerns of life.
And the human heart, just like my granite countertop, the human heart wasn't built to hold that kind of weight.
Because it wasn't built to hold that kind of weight, the Bible says, "Heaven is in the heart," look back in your text, "maketh it stoop."
Maketh it stoop.
I was listening to Brother Shepherd's Sunday school this morning.
And he was talking about trimming up his trees.
And when he started talking about making sure to trim the internal canopy, I thought, of course, that's what Brother Shepherd does.
He trims the internal canopy.
I didn't even know what that was, but I do now.
And I know why.
And I understood what he was talking about, but I just got the biggest kick out of that.
But I won't be using that too, by the way, Brother, in my daily description of things as I talk to people and make them think that I always talk that way.
But you've seen a tree as he was talking about those branches.
And they get longer and longer, and after a while, what happens?
They'll start stooping.
You start seeing fruit trees that haven't been pruned, and you see those branches.
They'll actually break.
They'll stoop because of the weight.
But God didn't create us again to live in turmoil.
When Brother Danny's wife passed away recently, he told the church that his heart was broken into pieces.
Broken pieces.
God never intended for us to die.
And because of that, the human heart was not created to say goodbye.
We weren't made to say goodbye.
There's nothing in the human heart that was designed to say goodbye for the rest of my life.
You're leaving me, and I'll never be able to see you again this side of heaven.
We weren't built to hold that kind of weight.
And that's why the heart breaks.
Now the heart here, of course, is not the organ of our body that pumps blood.
We have to remember that the heart is speaking about who we are on the inside.
Who we are on the inside.
And so heaviness, these heavy topics in life that we deal with that I had just mentioned, that heaviness inside us, that anxiety, it causes us to stoop on the inside.
And the whole person, the whole internal person, bends down, stoops down with the heavy burdens that they carry.
You know what happens when you put too much weight in the bed of a pickup truck?
Have you all ever done that?
Now I've put more than what I should have.
But if you keep putting that weight in the back of that pickup truck, you're going to break a leaf spring.
That's what's going to happen.
Because it's only meant to hold so much weight.
And when the heart, the human heart is greatly burdened down with care, with anxiety, it stoops.
And if there's too much anxiety on that heart or if that anxiety is on that heart for too long, like that pickup truck, that heart's going to break.
It can only stoop so low.
It can only stoop for so long.
And then it finally breaks.
Anxiety causes people to bend beneath its weight.
And if we carry it too long, we break.
Anxiety causes an enormous amount of health problems.
Enormous.
Stress sends people to the hospital.
Stress sends people to the grave.
That's just the truth.
Stress causes people to have emotional breakdowns.
And I believe that if we could eliminate stress in this world, then we would eliminate the majority of human disease.
I really believe that.
When a man stoops on the inside, he will eventually begin to stoop on the outside.
The inward man can only stoop long enough before the body physically follows after the broken heart.
When the heart breaks, the body breaks.
I remember when Miss Hensley lost a daughter.
And I remember watching her each Sunday.
I remember the Sunday after she lost her daughter, seeing her in church.
And I remember thinking to myself, "I'm probably going to watch her go through a great physical transformation."
And I did.
It went pretty soon.
And that's what happens when the heart breaks.
The body goes with that heart after a while.
"Heavenness makes the heart stoop."
Look back in your text now.
"But a good word maketh it glad."
Listen now.
"A good word maketh it glad."
Church, you need to hang on to this proverb here, because it literally is medicine for your soul.
And you don't need a prescription for it.
A good word.
What is a good word?
A good word is a truth that we're told about the goodness of God.
And there's a lot of them.
A good word is a truth that we're told about the goodness of God.
And all those good words are in the Bible.
A truth about the goodness of God, the Bible says, makes the heart glad.
In the Hebrew word that's translated "glad" here, is most often in the Bible translated "rejoice."
A good word makes the heart rejoice.
A truth about the goodness of God makes that heavy stooping heart rejoice.
Rejoicing is not heavy.
Rejoicing is light.
And that means if you've got a pickup truck loaded down with cross ties or sand or whatever you're putting in there that keeps running it down, and you put a good word in there, when you put that good word in there, that pickup bed just comes right back up.
Because a good word is not heavy.
A good word is always light.
Matthew 11, verse 28-30.
Jesus said, "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are..."
What?
Heavy laden.
Heavy laden.
You've got your pickup bed full of it.
You've got the burdens down on your heart and anxiety weighing down on your heart.
"Come unto Me, the Word of God, the living Word of God, and I will give you rest.
I will give you the ability to lay your heavy burden down and let it go."
And He's not talking about physical rest here.
He's talking about spiritual rest.
He's talking about the rest of the heart that affects the body.
He said, "I will give you rest."
He said, "Take My yoke upon you.
Put My yoke, put Myself in the bed of your pickup.
Let Me be the load that you carry."
He says, "Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me."
What happens when we learn of Him?
We start getting good words, don't we?
We start learning about the truth, about the goodness of God.
So, this is the key to taking the weight off the human heart so it won't continue to stoop and ultimately break.
He says, "Come to Me."
Then He says, "Learn of Me."
And then He goes, "I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest."
What?
"Unto your souls."
Same thing as saying, "You'll find rest to your heart."
Your heart will finally dump the burden and you'll get rest.
When you put Me on the heart, "You come to Me, you learn about Me."
And you know what's going to happen?
He says, "You're going to find rest unto your stooping hearts."
Verse 30, He says, "For My yoke is easy, and My burden, the weight that I'm asking you to put on your heart, is light."
It's light.
We come to Jesus through the gospel message.
That's the entry point of learning about Christ, is through the gospel.
And from there, we grow in grace in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
We get a good word, then we continue to get more good words and more good words.
But we come to Christ through the gospel message.
That's the ultimate good word.
And that good word removes our heavy burdens and makes our heart rejoice with gladness.
God commanded Israel to be glad.
Same Hebrew word.
He commanded them to be glad when they celebrated their exodus from Egypt.
See, so there's a connection here between the gladness, a good word makes the heart glad, it makes it rejoice.
There's a connection between that rejoicing of the heart and the deliverance that God gives us.
God commanded them to rejoice when they celebrated their exodus from Egypt.
God commanded them to rejoice when He brought them safely into the Promised Land.
And they commemorated their safe entrance into the Promised Land.
A good word makes the heart glad.
There are so many wonderful truths about the goodness of God in the Bible.
And when those truths are placed on our hearts, they lighten our loads, they alleviate our sorrows, and they give our weary minds and bodies rest.
You say, "Brother Richard, you don't know the load that I'm carrying."
I don't have to know.
It doesn't matter what load you're carrying.
The problem is you're carrying it.
That's the problem.
We all have a pickup truck, we all have a bed, we all have a heart.
It's what we put in the bed that counts.
It's what we lay on the heart that counts.
You can have the worst trials in the world, but that doesn't mean that that has to rest on your heart.
The good word belongs there.
The trial belongs on God's heart.
You see?
That's the difference.
A good word is a good way to lighten the load that people carry.
A good word can bring great relief to the human heart.
The word, again, translated "glad" is most often used to describe a joyful state of the human heart in response to the salvation that God has given us.
Psalm 33, verses 20 and 21.
Psalm 33, 20 and 21 says, "Our soul waiteth for the Lord; He is our help and our shield.
For our heart shall rejoice..."
That's that word, "glad."
"...our heart shall rejoice in Him."
You see the heart rejoicing?
Why is the heart rejoicing?
Because the Lord being their help and shield is what's on their heart.
Therefore, they have the trouble, you don't need help unless you have a problem.
You don't need a shield unless you need protection.
Something to be protected from.
So the person here has a problem and they have an enemy.
And so, instead of letting the problem and the enemy weigh down their heart, they put the help and the shield there.
And so, instead of fretting for the problem and the enemy, they start rejoicing for the help and the shield.
"...for our heart shall rejoice in Him, because we have trusted in His holy name."
One translation words it this way.
Talking about our text tonight, back in Proverbs 12, 25.
One translation words it this way, "A person's anxiety will weigh him down, but an encouraging word makes him joyful."
Here's another translation, "Weary is a heavy burden, but a kind word always brings cheer."
So there are two ways that you can lighten the load on the human heart.
First, you can lighten the load on your own heart by allowing your heart to carry a good word and allowing God to carry the anxiety.
Do you get that?
You can lighten the load on your heart by allowing your heart to carry a good word and allowing your God to carry the anxiety.
The Bible tells us to cast our care, to cast our anxiety where?
Upon Him.
He doesn't say, "Oh, I fully understand you have anxiety.
You've got some really bad things going on in your life."
He doesn't say that.
He says, "Yes, in the world you'll have tribulation.
Yes, you've got anxiety in life.
Yes, you live in turmoil, not in paradise like I designed you to."
And so because of that, you take the anxiety, you take the care that builds up on your troubled heart, and you cast it, you drop the load on me.
Here's a kingdom truth.
The only way to heal a stooping heart is to let God carry the bad news and you carry the good news.
The only way to heal a stooping heart is to let God carry the bad news and you carry the good news.
You say, "Well, Brother Richard, I learned that I've got six months to live.
There's no good news in that."
Oh yeah?
Six months, you're going to go to heaven if you're saved.
"Well, I'm not saved."
Hey, you've got six months to get saved.
I mean, Jesus died for you.
There's always good news.
The good news is whatever burden you face today is overcome through the death and resurrection of Christ.
It's overcome.
It's just a speed bump in the road of life.
And in the end, the Bible says God's going to wipe away every tear from our eyes.
Every one of them.
Every one that squeezes, every burden and weight that gets on our heart and squeezes the tears of our eyes, they're going to be gone.
The burdens will be gone forever.
Jesus bore them all and overcame them all at the cross because sin is what brought them into the world and righteousness is what's going to take them away.
Philippians chapter 4.
How do I let the good word be carried on my heart?
Philippians chapter 4 tells us.
Verse 6, "Be careful."
That means anxious.
We could say heavy.
Be heavy for nothing.
Don't be.
So, Brother Richard, I've got a heavy burden.
Why are you carrying it?
Don't carry it.
Be careful for nothing.
But in everything, everything, no matter what size weight it is, don't pick it up.
Don't carry it.
But in everything that you face in life, by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known unto God.
Put that burden on God's shoulders.
And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your what?
Your hearts.
The peace of God.
The peace that God made for us through Christ shall keep our hearts and minds.
How?
There it is through Christ Jesus.
It's not because Jesus is going to come down and touch your heart and give us a warm fuzzy feeling.
Does that feel peaceful?
That's not what Jesus does.
He keeps our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Christ, the anointed one, Jesus, thou shalt call him Jesus, because he shall save his people from their sins.
We're pointing back to the gospel.
The gospel is the cure for a heavy heart.
Man, when I think about health trouble, when if I have a health scare, if I think about something happening, if I think about my wife dying, if I think about me dying, I think about my parents dying, if I think about something horrible happening to me, do you know what cures every single burden on my heart?
The truth, the good word that the gospel overcomes it all.
God keeps my heart.
God keeps my mind.
How?
Through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
When we get anxious, when we let the burdens, when we let the stress and the pain and the turmoil that we're dealing with on a daily basis, and some deal with more than others, we have good days, we have bad days.
Some are in good health, some are in bad health.
But when we let those things weigh us down, it begins to affect the mind.
How you think, how well you can cope, and suddenly if you just let that weight stay there, you'll get in a fetal position emotionally, and you begin to break down.
And next thing you know, other people are having to take care of you.
They're having to make decisions for you.
They're having to think for you.
They're having to come around you all the time saying, "It's going to be okay."
And it may not be okay here.
You may not get better, but in Christ Jesus you will.
And that's the peace that God gives the heart that can then make the mind say, "It's going to be okay in Christ."
That's the way grown-up Christians have to look at things.
That's the way little children have to look at things.
It's going to be okay in Christ.
What if I die?
We're all going to die.
We're all going to die.
And as soon as we do, we'll be more alive than we ever have.
So he goes on to say that it'll keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
God's peace will.
Verse 8, "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise..."
Look at that big word, "Think."
Do you know what happens when you think?
Do you know where the thoughts reside?
That's right, Sister Elizabeth.
They reside in the human heart.
You're thinking.
Your mind is your heart.
It's the internal man, the internal soul.
Think.
Put these things on your heart.
Those are the good words.
Think on these things.
And when you think on those things, you let yourself carry the good word, and you let God carry the burden.
Sometimes you just have to turn the news off, and you have to turn on some good Christian music.
You do.
Well, I tell you what, man, I've had stuff on my mind before, and I thought, "You know what?
Turn on BBN Radio 89.1.
Listen to them sing about the Lord.
Sing about what He's done for us."
I'm not talking about some of this light stuff.
You can't tell any difference between that and pop music, and the words are light.
I'm talking about truth, good words.
It doesn't matter what the tune is.
It matters what the words are.
And you get that in your mind, and suddenly you're letting God carry the burden, and you're carrying the good word.
And you think on that, and you know what happens?
As you begin to think on those things, you only have two hands.
You only have one mind.
And so, if I'm carrying one thing, I'm not carrying the other.
And so, when you start thinking on those things, you're letting the big heavy rock go, and you're taking in the truth of Christ.
Now you've got peace in your heart, and sanity in your mind.
And these are things we need to deal with, because this is real life.
Sometimes you have to let go of the heavy you can't control, and just meditate on the goodness of Jesus Christ.
Put the burden out of your head, and put the scriptures there instead.
Sometimes if I just get a scripture, and I meditate on it, it doesn't matter how bad the day is going.
I've got a good word in my mind, and it's so comforting.
Lastly, you can lighten the load, not just on your heart, you can lighten the load on another person's heart, by speaking good words that they can rejoice in.
Not just by saying everything's going to be okay.
We can't say that.
The Bible says in Colossians chapter 4 verse 6, "Let your speech..."
Your speech is what's heard.
What's heard is what's thought in the person's mind.
What's thought is on their heart.
"Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt."
We like things salty.
We like food that has flavor.
We need words that have flavor.
Words that are easy to take in, and that taste so good in the human heart.
He says, "Let your speech be always with grace," Colossians 4 verse 6, "seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer or respond every man."
Don't let your speech be a burden on someone's heart.
Let it be a blessing.
And in closing, I will close with one of the, or the finest example of letting your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt.
Finest example of alleviating another person's burden.
It's in John 15 11, Jesus said, "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy or gladness might remain in you."
That's the heart.
"My joy might remain in you, and that your joy therefore might be full."
Isn't that good?
It starts off with his joy, and then when it sits on your heart, it then becomes your joy.
And then it's full.
He spoke these things to us.
He spoke these words to us, that our heart may be full of joy.
There is the medicine for the heavy heart right there.
Let Jesus carry the burden, and you carry those joyful words of what Jesus has done for you.
That will take you through every aspect of life.
It'll take you to your deathbed.
It'll take you all the way to heaven, until your joy is truly full.
Father, we thank you so much for your very practical word, that heaviness makes the heart stoop, but a good word makes it glad.
Thank you for giving us the good words.
We have plenty of them.
We have more good words than we do sorrows.
We have more lightness and joy than we do heaviness and sorrow and grief.
And Father, I pray dear Lord God, that these words will be taken by each one person here tonight, and not just thought upon for a moment, but applied for a lifetime.
Applied, Father, when the burden is extra heavy.
In Jesus' precious name we pray.
Amen.
