TMI

You may remember several months ago, in our series Voice Lessons, we talked about speaking to yourself, to others and to God. Well, today we will be talking about what happens when we start saying more than we should and get into TMI territory. You know...too much information. Have you ever been on the receiving end of TMI? I have. Laura and I both have a problem hearing about medical stuff. If you spend any time around us, it won’t take very long to realize that we don’t have any tolerance for conversations concerning needles or blood. I love you, but I don’t want to hear the details of the surgery you had last year. Let me tell you how I first discovered this about myself. I’m actually getting a little queasy just thinking about telling you this story. A long time ago, when I was in bible college, I was attending a missions class. And this particular day we were watching this film about a tribe of natives somewhere in the world, and the subject of the film was about how they worshiped their gods. So in the film, they begin to show how the natives pierced themselves during their worship.

I’m not talking about earrings. One of these guys puts a long needle through his cheek and out the other side of his face. Of course, there was blood. Now at that point in my life I hadn’t realized that I had a weak stomach for those sorts of things, but apparently the girl sitting at the desk beside me had noticed something was wrong, because she looked over at me and said: Are you ok? I replied, Yes and thought that was a strange question. Then just to emphasize the point, the video shows that scene one more time...in slow motion. Now I’m sweating and things are getting kind of blurry. Well, the next thing I remember is waking up in the hallway looking up at the ceiling. I had no idea how I got there, but there was a guy loosening my tie and and another one trying to give me some water. Up to that point, I was a freshman and pretty much invisible at the school, but from that day forward I was well known as the guy who passed out during the missions movie. That whole story was probably TMI. Giving TMI can affect both the person hearing it and the person giving it. How much you say matters more than you probably realize. There are two main reasons we should avoid constantly giving TMI. The first reason is because your words are powerful. Proverbs 18:21 “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.” If you think that’s just a metaphor, I would encourage you to think again and reconsider your position.

Did you know that the one and only unforgivable sin is committed by using words? That’s right, the wrong words can cause you to spend eternity separated from God in hell. Jesus talks about it in Matthew. Matthew 12:31-32 “31 “Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. 32 Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.” That’s a very dangerous thing Jesus just said, and we should be very careful to understand what it means. Let me tell you what He meant by “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit”. Here is the context of what was happening when Jesus said this. Matthew 12:22-24 “22 Then a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus, and He healed him, so that the mute man spoke and saw. 23 All the crowds were amazed, and were saying, “This man cannot be the Son of David, can he?” 24 But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.” When Jesus talks about the only unforgivable sin, He was addressing some Pharisees who had just accused Him of casting out demons, by using Beelzebub, the ruler of demons. They had basically just said the Spirit that Jesus had in Him was not the Holy Spirit, but the devil, because the demons were obeying Him.

They just couldn’t accept that He was sent from God, so this is how they explained His ability to perform miracles. Jesus then tells them that they have just committed the one and only unforgivable sin. That’s why we have to be very careful when talking about the Holy Spirit. I know there have been those who say that people who speak in tongues are of the devil, but I believe that is exactly what Jesus is warning us about in this passage. If we don’t understand something spiritual, we should remain silent. Words matter. Matthew 12:36-37 “36 But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. 37 For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” The second reason we should avoid providing TMI, is that your words can reveal your weakness to the enemy, who will of course, use it against you. Let’s look at a couple of guys in the Bible who gave TMI to the wrong people...people who turned out to be their enemies. First we’ll look into Samson’s terrible track record with women who nag him until he finally gives up too much information that he should have kept to himself. The first one we’ll look at was his wife. Do you know the name of Samson’s wife? And before you answer...No, it wasn’t Delilah. The bible doesn’t give us the name of this woman. We only know that she was a Philistine and that Samson thought she looked good. That’s all it says about her background.

Samson saw her one day and went back to his parents and said: “I want her to be my wife...because she looks good to me.” Guys, the way to get in trouble with the wrong girl is to pick her based strictly on her looks. You have to search for a girl who will chase after God with you and support you in that. If she looks good to you...even better. I got extremely blessed to get both when God gave me Laura. Ok, back to Samson’s wife. This is what happened. Like I said, Samson had just seen her one day and so he went back to meet her. As he was traveling down the road to her home town, a lion attacked him, but the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and he was able to easily kill the lion. He meets her and they decide to get married. Samson goes back home while wedding preparations are being made. Then after everything was ready, he traveled back along that same road to go to his wedding feast. He saw the lion that he had killed before and in the carcass some honey bees had built a nest. There at the wedding feast, which lasted 7 days, there were 30 guys who were friends of the bride celebrating with the families. Samson decides to make a bet with them, that they couldn’t solve a riddle he came up with about the lion carcass and the honey bees. When they couldn’t solve the riddle they pressured Samson’s wife to get the answer from him. They told her if she didn’t bring them the answer that they would burn down her father’s house with her in it. So here is what she did.

Judges 14:16-17 “16 Samson’s wife wept before him and said, “You only hate me, and you do not love me; you have propounded a riddle to the sons of my people, and have not told it to me.” And he said to her, “Behold, I have not told it to my father or mother; so should I tell you?” 17 However she wept before him seven days while their feast lasted. And on the seventh day he told her because she pressed him so hard. She then told the riddle to the sons of her people.” Samson loses the bet because he gave up TMI to someone who turned out to be disloyal to him. This is the event that started the bad blood between Samson and the Philistines. Have you ever given too much information to someone who you thought was a close friend, but it turns out that they were working against you? That only has to happen a couple of times before you start to guard your words. You don’t need to tell everyone you meet, everything going on in your life...that’s TMI. That sounds crazy, doesn’t it? No one would do that would they? What about Facebook? I see people do it all the time. Do you actually think that all of your Facebook “friends” have your best interests in mind? There are some friends who will use that information against you, as soon as it serves their purpose. Never tell your problems to someone who can’t help you solve them. If you are always telling everyone your problems, you are reinforcing them in your mind. That’s how your brain works. It creates a shortcut to thoughts you think often, because it believes you need to access them quicker. If you are speaking negative things over your life, you can expect those things to come to mind faster and continue to grow.

Have you ever said, “man, I’m always broke!”? How about, “I’ll never get over this heartbreak.”? Maybe you say, “I believe I’m getting sick.” Last week we talked about how the enemy will bring lies to your mind and if we don’t reject them, they will cause anxiety. Well, if you allow anxiety to build, soon you will find yourself beginning to reinforce the lie by speaking it out loud. And that’s when you cross over into TMI. When you speak the enemy’s lies out loud, you have come into agreement with him. You are partnering with him to bring about the problem you are afraid of. You are doing this because you are providing TMI. Remember, your words have power. And they can bring death or life to your situation. I met a pastor a couple of years ago, who had a great way of dealing with lies the enemy tried to tell him. He refused to come into agreement with them. He told me how he was once diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. When the doctor read him the report, he simply replied, “yep, that’s what it says.” He refused to acknowledge the lie while still acknowledging the facts. He was able to acknowledge the facts without agreeing with them. Instead, he set his mind to agree with the truth of God’s Word. It was a fact that the report said he had cancer, but the truth is that God is Jehovah Rapha our Healer. And that was the truth he decided to agree with and speak out loud. A couple of months later when he went back to the doctor, they were amazed the report no longer said he had cancer. They couldn’t find a trace of what they saw before.

When the enemy brings bad news, don’t agree with him. Don’t become his accomplice and help him try to destroy you. Do not to give the enemy too much information. I’ll say it again, your words are powerful. Life and death hang in the balance. Psalm 141:3 “Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips.” Now back to Samson. Let’s fast forward a little bit. It seems like he hasn’t learned anything from his experience with his Ex, because Delilah shows up in Judges chapter 16 and once again we find her constantly pressuring Samson to reveal TMI. A few minutes ago we talked about how His battle with the Philistines started, and a little later their leaders have conspired together and agreed to pay Delilah to discover the secret of his strength. So this is how she went about it. Judges 16:15-16 “15 Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have deceived me these three times and have not told me where your great strength is.” 16 It came about when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, that his soul was annoyed to death.” Well, you probably remember what happened before this. When she first begged for the secret of his strength, he lied to her a couple of times, and each time she sends his enemies to attack him...using the information he has just given her. Does he learn from this? No. Eventually, he gives in, tells her the truth and of course she uses it against him. But did you notice how Delilah started the conversation? She started it the same way Samson’s Ex did?

Her approach goes something like this “you don’t love...if you did, you’d tell me what I want to know.” She had already decided to sell him out because she valued the money over her relationship with Samson. So maybe it wasn’t Samson who wasn’t really in love. Anytime someone tries to use that kind of manipulation, you should already know to steer clear of that relationship. Delilah pretended to be upset because Samson had kept his secret from her...but what about the secret she was keeping from him? You know, the one about her side deal with the Philistine leaders. Samson kept drawing women into his life who were manipulative, because he was willing to share TMI and they could use it against him. Let’s quickly look at one more person who should have stopped talking before it led them into trouble. In Genesis 37 we read about Joseph giving his brothers TMI. The reason is because he was young, immature, spoiled and proud. Now, I did my share of stupid immature things when I was young, so I’m gonna give him a little slack on that. But Joseph was a little extra when it comes to being a brat, because in the first couple of verses we are introduced to him as being a tattle tale on his brothers. Let’s pick it up at verse three. Genesis 37:3-5 “3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons, because he was the son of his old age; and he made him a varicolored tunic. 4 His brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers; and so they hated him and could not

speak to him on friendly terms. 5 Then Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.” Joseph’s dream involved his brothers bowing down to serve him. And he couldn’t wait to tell them. How would you feel if your spoiled little brother told you that you would be serving him? Well, it made his brothers feel like throwing him into a pit and telling their father he was killed by a wild animal. Knowing when to keep your mouth shut takes wisdom, but Joseph didn’t have any at this point in his life. And despite that, God absolutely used Joseph’s journey to eventually save his entire family. Scripture tells us in Romans 8:28, “that all things work together for good, to those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose.” Is that a lesson we can learn from today? Yes, the principal is the same today as it was back then. God can use your past to accomplish His purpose for your future, regardless of how much you messed up. Proverbs 13:3 “The one who guards his mouth preserves his life; The one who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.” Do you struggle with giving out TMI? Have you been agreeing with the enemy and speaking his lies out loud? Has he been using your words against you? If so, this should be your prayer:

Psalm 19:14 “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.”