I want to talk about the importance of words.
Words are actually the most valuable, important commodity,
not just in the Earth, but in the whole universe.
Words. That's why I don't I don't
believe that it's by accident that the Holy Spirit who
breathed on men and inspired the scripture and breathed on Ezra
to canonize the Old Testament put the book of beginnings,
Genesis 1st and Genesis chapter one first.
We just read Genesis 126, but it starts out and God was in the
beginning. But the first thing we find out
about him is that one, he's a creator and two, he talks, so he
says, then God said the first thing we find out about God is
he's a creator that speaks. And from that moment in the
history that we have of our beginnings, God continues that
theme of speaking and placing immense value on words.
Words are what shape our beliefs, our worldview.
They're actually what shape our circumstance when we're in the
middle of it. Think about it.
Your experience doesn't trump words because we can all
experience the same thing, but the words that are spoken in our
hearts and spoken to us in that experience will actually be what
shaped the result of the experience.
I couldn't help but thinking to my kids, you know what?
Has anybody in here that's raised young children has?
Have you ever had a kid that had to scrape their knee?
You realize all of us have done it.
We've all, we've all scraped our knee at some point in our life.
We've all had a child scrape the knee.
And you realize it's not the experience of scraping the knee
that will shape their memory of that.
It's going to be the words spoken over them when that
happens. Because you know, when whenever
one of my kids goes and scrapes the knee, I could go, oh, no, oh
God, what are we going to do? Oh, well, this is so bad.
It's so bad. What can we do?
And there's some parents that do that.
I've seen some Mamas. You're like, chill.
It's just a scraped knee. It's a little bit of blood, but
there's some parents that say what my brother over here say,
hey, you're OK, get up. Same experience, two different
responses with words, and those words shape the outcome of that
situation. Is there stress undue in the
life of this child because they're wondering, am I going to
be OK or do they have the confidence hearing the voice of
their parents saying you'll be all right, whatever this is,
you're going to be OK. Those words spoken over that
circumstance change the outcome internally saying I grew up and
that's what I heard. You going to be all right.
Remember one time I, you know, I don't know if this is not going
to be sent to the federal government, but I, I cut my
finger almost all the way off, jumping on the bed with my
brother. We're bouncing back and forth
and I hit, I had a flashlight in my hand.
I broke the glass Dome on the ceiling fan.
And I remember my dad told my brother, hey, go get a popsicle.
He goes there and in one bite, bam, eats that popsicle, snaps
it in half and puts 2 butterfly bandages on it and puts the
popsicle and wraps it up in tape.
And that's as close as I ever got to the hospital with an
injury. That's it.
I remember it. He's like, it's called a splint,
son. I was like, OK, it's orange.
It smells like orange. I don't know.
But in that moment there was no stress.
There was no breathing weird. It was it was the the words that
were spoken in their calm to that situation.
Any situation you deal with, what parent are you going to
listen to in the midst of that situation?
Are you going to let the world parent you?
Are you going to let politics parent you?
Are you going to go to your heavenly Father and say, what do
you have to say over me here right now?
Words matter. So, you know, words matter.
Whenever you all sudden you get a sore throat, you can go to
somebody that's anointed in the medical field like Miss Karen.
You can go and say, hey, I got a sore throat.
And she's probably going to say, listen, just pray over it.
Drink you some hot tea. You'll be OK.
And that gives you hope. But if you go to Web MD, you're
going to find some words. Could be throat cancer, probably
going to die and we can laugh. This is funny.
But you know, there's people that have real turmoil right
here because of that. There's people that read those
words and those words get stuck in there and they can't get rid
of them. And all the sudden they're
laying in bed at night wondering just feel swollen off.
It's a tumor. And they're, they're running
through a scenario in their minds because they've heard
words, because words matter so much that God says, listen, hear
my voice so much that Jesus when he was here, he said, I don't
even just speak and whatever I want to say, I'm careful to only
speak what my father tells me. In fact, there's only one thing
we know. We all sing about the name of
Jesus. We know Jesus's name is above
every other name, but there's one thing God honors above his
name. What is it?
His words, what he has spoken, what he has said.
Why is this? Because in a Kingdom, when we
read Genesis 126, God's original design was dominion on the
earth, that man would dominate and rule this Kingdom here on
earth, just like God rules in heaven.
And when a king speaks something, it becomes law and it
becomes definite in its territory and unchangeable.
So think about it. God says let us make man in our
image according to our likeness and let them rule.
But the first thing we learn about God every day of creation
before he says this statement is that God says let there be, and
then what happens? Then there is God says let there
be and then it happens. Then when we get to Genesis 126,
he says, and we've not listened. We've not exhausted the depth of
the first page of the Bible. OK, Whenever we come in together
and we hear this and we're like, oh, turn to Genesis 1.
Everybody's like, Oh my God, what are we going to talk about?
Creation dominion? We're going to talk.
We've not exhausted the depths because when God said let us
make man in our image, in our likeness, he meant let us make
man operate like we do. So from the very start we find
God is a speaking spirit and creates man to be the same.
From the very start we see God is high King of heaven.
He rules in the heavens. Again in Anchor Faith Church we
read Psalm 1/15/16. The highest heavens are the
Lords, but the earth he has given to man.
So as God rules heaven, man was meant to dominate and rule
earth. The as God rules heaven, man was
meant to rule and dominate earth as God rules heaven.
The way God rules the way God operates.
We were designed to operate that way.
How does he operate? By honoring the Word and by
speaking and creating through words.
So James gives us some insight into this and this will be the
key text that we use throughout the rest of this this month.
But if we look at James chapter 3, verse 4, because again, God
has set us on this epic quest, this voyage to a destination.
He knows the whole plane. He didn't give you the whole
map, but I promise you, he gave you a bunch of waypoints to try
to find your path to the end. Then what he also did was he set
you to be the pilot of your own ship.
But if we look at what James says, he gives us some insight
into our words and the value of words.
He says look at ships also, though, as they are so great and
are driven by strong winds, they are still directed by a very
small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot
desires. So also the tongue is a small
part of the body and yet it boasts of great things.
Has anybody ever been on a ship before, A sailboat or a ship?
Have you ever been on one of those?
I know here at Anchor Faith Church, for the sake of those
who are listening to the recording, we are a coastal town
and we have multiple ship captains that come to our
church. So they're going to be back
there aiming at the loudest, I hope.
But whenever a ship gets on the water, you understand, it can
have wind, it can have a great headwind, it can have the the
current flowing in the right direction.
But what determines the absolute direction of that boat is the
rudder that's in the water. That compass does not determine
the direction. The compass that a captain holds
or a pilot holds only tells it where it should go.
The wind doesn't determine the direction.
The current doesn't determine the direction.
Those things can either help or hinder the journey, but in the
end, that final destination hinges on the pilot steering the
rudder in the right direction. So why would we have believers
that say, oh, I'm trying to do what God wants?
But it seems like they're always finding themselves washed up on
foreign shores. They're washing themselves up on
the shores of addiction. How'd you get here?
That's that's not where the king sent you.
That's not where you were supposed to steer.
They show up on the shores of heartbreaking relationships,
going from person to person to person.
That is not who God intended. How did you get there?
That's because God can set you on the journey, but he doesn't
say, hey, just jump on my boat with me.
He says I've given you everything you need to steer
yourself in the right direction. But I found the problem is a lot
of people shipwreck their life because they don't know how to
control their mouth. If a king was designed to decree
something and it become law and it become visible because they
create with their words. Oh my gosh, what have you
created with your words lately? The tongue is a small thing, but
it steers the direction of your life.
I'm telling you that that as the pilot or the captain, you can
you can steer in the direction, but the rudder itself is what's
going to carry you to your destination.
If you're writing things down, which I, I highly encourage you
to write things down tonight. Listen, I'm sorry I didn't have
you stretch before, but you know, you can take a second and
go like this because we're it's only getting faster, but our
lives move in the direction of our mouth.
Think about it. You're like, OK, well, you know
what about salvation? You can't be born again unless
your mouth gets involved. You didn't come into this
Kingdom without opening your mouth.
Romans 10/9 and 10 says how to be born again.
It says, listen, if you confess with your mouth and believe in
your heart, it doesn't say just believe.
In fact, you'll find that belief will result in confession.
Belief always results in confession.
You will say what you believe if you don't think words are
important. Let's look at let's look at John
chapter one, verse one. Let me give you, Let me, let me,
let me give us a few more to set the stage for how important your
words are. Because what I want you to do is
leave here. And the next time you just go to
say whatever comes to your mind, I want you to check it.
I want you to say, am I honoring God?
Am I honoring my dominion? John 11 says in the beginning
was the what the Word? In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Then verse 14 of the same passage says the Word became
flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus Christ is identified as
the Word becoming flesh. Is Jesus powerful?
Does God never fail? We just sang the song.
Oh my gosh. I figured somebody be like,
yeah, God never fails. He's never failed ever.
He's never gone into a battle and lost.
He's never showed up in a situation and his word fell
apart. No, every time God shows up, he
he succeeds. He's victorious.
He conquers. Why?
Because the word of God is what he is.
The word in your situation is what causes you to overcome and
conquer. OK, it'll get better.
Psalm 33 six. Psalm 33, six says, by the word
of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his
mouth all of their lights, by the word of the Lord the heavens
were made, and by the breath of his mouth you understand God
breathed into Adam in the beginning, in that thing He
formed man out of the dust of the earth, and then he breathed
his life into Adam. And whenever he commissioned
Adam to go forth and be multiplied, be fruitful, He also
gave him a mandate of what to speak.
In fact, the first thing that God did with Adam is he spoke to
him words. And then we find the enemies in
the garden walking around looking to looking for somebody
to usurp their throne. Since he already couldn't do
that in heaven, which we see in Isaiah 14, he tried to usurp the
throne in heaven. He got kicked down real fast.
Then he's looking around in the garden and he's like, man, these
people operate like God. I recognize a speaking spirit
when I see it. So when he shows up in Genesis
chapter 2, notice that the serpent didn't attack the woman,
he attacked the Word. The first massive failure of
humankind was a battle of words. It was an allegiance.
To whose words do you believe the first thing he asks?
He says, hey, what did God say? That's a trap.
What did God say?
Why? Because the enemy went for the
most powerful thing. He his first attack, his most
potent attack, had to be on the most powerful entity in the
world, in the universe, which is the words of God.
So he goes, what did God say? Then he was like, oh, here's
what God said. Then what is his very next
statement? Listen, she said, yeah, we'll if
we eat of the fruit or touch the tree, we'll die.
And he said you surely won't die.
The only attack that he had was to come in and say the powerful
word of God is incorrect, don't trust it.
Twisted it from there. She believed his words operated
on and and and applied those words and in doing so forfeited.
Dominion. Forfeited or dominion.
Wow. Know this, the heaven and earth
both respond to verbal command and your dominion is dependent
on your dialogue. Adam was born to rule but lost
that rulership. Is God good?
Yes. Did God want him to rule?
Yes. Then why didn't he keep it?
Because God gave him the free will and the choice to choose
whose words will use. Not only believe, but whose
words will you obey and whose words will you speak?
And I'll tell you, this is going to be the pattern for us for the
rest of our lives. I'm going to say it again.
Whose words will you believe? Whose words will you obey and
whose words will you speak? That will determine the type of
person that you are. That will determine whether or
not you find this God-given purpose that He gave you in this
earth. That'll determine whether or not
you find your destiny and begin to operate in it.
Whose words do you believe? Whose words do you obey, and
whose words do you speak? When a king speaks, it becomes
law. God has this universal thing,
and this goes for all mankind, that what you say is what you'll
have. It's not just for believers.
This is what we would call an eternal law, just like sowing
and reaping. Just like sowing and reaping,
there's an eternal law that happens whatsoever a man sows
that shall he also reap. But we also understand whatever
you say as a speaking spirit created by God to be an entity
on planet Earth that says and then has what they say that
doesn't go away. That's why if words again, if
words aren't important, why does it say at the very end when he
gathers us all together after the after the catching away,
after all these things take place, He says he will, we will
give an account for every idle word we've spoken.
That's not just meaning like, oh, he's going to have a whole
list of all the cuss words you said.
Idle words are declarations that you made that you didn't honor,
declarations that you made that affected people's lives in your
influence that weren't his. It matters.
What comes out of our mouth matters.
Since we were made to be speaking spirits, I want to kind
of like give some insight into this.
I had done some studies several years back and read this book.
It was a secular book, but it was a scientific book talking
about the origin of species. And I know that specific phrase
there, you know, people that owns a place in people's minds.
But whenever they looked across and begin to study in the mid
1800s other the animal Kingdom and, and how it correlates with
mankind, they found that there's something that distinguishes us
from the animal Kingdom. And it's not poseable thumbs.
Because if you've ever had one of those little black and white,
you know, trash pandas, they can open lids, you can put, you can
put weights on top of your trash cans.
They'll figure out how to do it because they also have poseable
thumbs. We also know in the primate
world, they're in there, they got poseable, they got 4
poseable thumbs. How'd that happen?
You know, I can't, I've got, I can't peel a banana with my
feet. So that's not what distinguishes
either. No, when they went through and
searched the entire animal Kingdom scientifically, they
found the distinguishing factor of human beings from the animal
Kingdom is actually speech. That there's actually only, I
believe it's a handful. I'm not going to give a direct
number, but it's like a handful of primate species that have a
language amongst themselves where they can make a noise.
And that noise means snake, or that noise means danger, or that
noise means food, or they have a certain call that means like
they're calling a mate. But even in the midst of their
primitive layer of speech, they've never figured out how to
write it down for the next generation.
So we didn't evolve in speech. If in the very beginning it says
in the beginning God created, then it says and God said speech
was in the beginning that didn't come because of haphazardly a
bunch of cells started forming and and going to no speech was
there with the first man Adam that we have recorded in our
beginnings that Adam God says to Adam gives him words and you
know what Adam did understood language God established in the
very beginning because he knew it would be the most potent
thing that would last for all of eternity.
See, he says. Listen, heaven and earth will
pass away, but what stays? He said my words will remain how
long? Forever.
The word always lasts. So no, when you speak something,
it lasts. There's a lasting effect.
We know. We've heard the statements
before, like sticks and stones break my bones.
Listen, we, we. I've counseled many a person
that sticks and stones have absolutely wrecked their lives.
I've talked with many a middle-aged man that still is
recalling and remembering things his parents said to him when he
was a child. You don't think words matter?
OK, If if one of my kids came up here and they were standing on
the stage with me and they they tripped and fell, if I was like,
hey, that's OK, listen, walk with me.
You'll be all right. You'd be like, wow, what a good
dad. But if they tripped and fell and
I was like, hey, loser, get up, idiot.
God, I wish you weren't up here on the stage.
Do my words matter? Do you think they'll remember
that yet? How often do we flippantly speak
what's on our minds? Because what you can't do is say
something, then I'll bring it back.
What you say matters. It plants seeds in people's
hearts, in their minds and their ears.
When Jesus spoke, he said, I don't speak anything on my own
initiative. I just say what the Father says.
Then we got Christians running around going, oh, I just speak
my mind. I just say whatever comes to my
mind, and that's my personality. Danger, danger, danger.
And you're shipwrecked over here and we're trying to help bail
you out. Oh, it's just my personality.
I don't have a filter. Find one quick.
James tells us. Listen, the the tongue is a
small thing, but it determines your direction.
So if you can't control your tongue.
He also says the person who perfects their mouth is a
perfect person. There's no perfect people.
Well, that statement proves it. You're not one.
No perfection means maturity or somebody that has their life has
come together and become whole, mature, developed.
You cannot be a mature believer and be a believer that just says
whatever you want to say. Mature believers know what the
word says and they echo God's words in this planet.
Pastor Chase ministered a message, I think it was a couple
years ago. It's called the empty echo of a
quiet king, powerful. It's also the longest sermon
title that he's ever had. But in that you realize as kings
we were destined to give voice, and our voice would echo into
eternity and make waves and change and move things because
we said it. It's not arrogance, it's not
pride, it's understanding. That's how God established the
world to work. When you speak, creation stops
and says, yes, Sir, what is it? Yeah, we get loose in our in our
conversations. We get loose with our friends.
We get loose in what we're saying and start to begin to sow
out there stuff that we don't want to reap a harvest of later
and then wonder why we're frustrated.
For us to be made in God's image means, which includes
communication. They say, well, you know, I'll
just let other people speak for them.
Oh, I've got a unspoken prayer request.
I don't want to speak. No, get Don't let the enemy
quelch the most powerful weapon in your arsenal, which is your
mouth. When a circumstance hits you,
you'd understand everything screaming at you.
Why would we stand silently and let the doctors tell us
everything that they they want to say?
And yet we don't get to let the Kingdom declare something over
our situation. Why would we let financial
advisors come in and tell us how much we don't have or how much
we're going to owe or how much we're going to have to file for,
and then all the sudden we don't let the Kingdom get something on
it with some declaration? If anybody's ever been on a
boat, and you know how that rudder works, you realize just
one degree, just one degree adjustment changes the entire
destination. If anybody's ever driven a car,
has anybody ever driven a car? Have you ever gotten in your car
and turned it on and set back with the wheel and just let it
take you wherever it's going to take you?
Yeah. And all the Tesla owners are
like, yeah, sure not listen, No, when you're steering even in a
straight direction on US1 or a straight direction on 95, you're
making small adjustments the whole time to make sure you stay
on that right path. Yet whenever James compares our
mouth and our confession in the words we say to a rudder of a
ship, you understand even more. So how many small, fine
adjustments should you be making sure you're making the whole
time so you don't drift into a different place?
We find our lives drifting into frustration, Our lives, because
a ship is built to withstand storms.
Your life is built to withstand storms.
Jesus didn't die so that you would fall apart every time
trials came. In fact, he said trials and
tribulations are going to come. It's going to happen in your
life. And he had enough confidence in
what he gave you that he said, listen, you're going to overcome
because I overcome. Yet whenever we have those
trials happen, the winds and the waves are beating against the
ship and they're trying to get us off course.
Our mouth in the midst of the storm can determine the
direction we are come out on the other side.
Jesus gave us this whole this whole entire, you know,
historical account of him walking, being out on the the
waves with his disciples. And he's out there in the boat
asleep and the winds and waves are going up and down.
These people are professional fishermen.
They've seen high water before. They've seen rain before.
And something about what they saw made them think we're going
to die. This is dangerous.
And yet Jesus was asleep. So whenever he got up and said,
hey, this is crazy, you could die.
This is you know what, what are you saying?
He gets out there and looks at it and what does he do?
He says something to it. Even in physical danger, Jesus
stands up and says, peace be still.
Then it says the disciples marveled at him and they said,
who is this? You've been with them a while,
you've seen some stuff and then all of a sudden with this one,
they're like, who is this guy? If it was, if it was modern day,
they'd be like, surely is he not the goat, right?
But they looked at like, who is this?
That even the winds and waves obey his voice.
The winds and waves obey his voice.
What Jesus said, even creation stopped and said, what is it?
That's why we don't just use the name of Jesus just flippantly.
You understand when you say in the name of Jesus and you begin
to declare something in this Kingdom realm, creation has to
stop and await command. Did you know your body is made
out of dirt? Now you can put whatever in the
dirt that you want. That should be a disclaimer
because some people are unhealthy because they have
personal responsibility of what to do to take care of their
bodies. But there are times when through
the fall of man and the the world we live in that sin comes
in. There can be some physical
ailments that try to hit you and some some symptoms that can come
on your body. But you know what?
You can say, Hey, in the name of Jesus, I will live and not die,
and your body has to hear it and respond to it.
A person who knows the word of God, who knows their authority
in the word of God, also knows the responsibility of their
voice with their authority. That's good, that's good.
Hmm. Hallelujah, Hallelujah. 2nd
Corinthians chapter 4, verse 13. We've got a long voyage ahead of
us for the next three weeks. Let's look at 2nd Corinthians
chapter 4, verse 13. It says but having this the same
spirit of faith according to what is written, I have believed
and therefore I what spoke and we also believe, therefore we
speak find it interesting that when we would consider ourselves
people of faith. Where does faith come from?
We know this all all the people that have been here for a while.
Where does faith come from? Hearing what?
You can't hear a word that hasn't been spoken.
So our faith hinges on words we've heard.
In fact, your faith is determined.
See, everybody can say they have faith.
Everybody does. Every other religion, in fact,
people that say they're atheists, everybody in the
medical field, everybody in your, your sphere of influence,
they all have faith. Faith is just a firm persuasion
based on something they have heard, based on a word somebody
says. Social media is full of it.
Somebody hears a word, they go out and they film themselves
repeating this word. Right or wrong, they're saying
it because they're fully convinced that what they heard
was right. Then they begin just spewing
their opinions because what they heard, whether it was right or
wrong, they just want to echo what someone else said.
Whereas believers, we don't just have faith because we just
believe whatever is God was pretty clear.
You need to have the faith of God.
What does God put his faith in his words.
Heaven and earth will pass away, but His word will remain forever
His His. His name is the highest of all
names, but He exalts His own word above His name.
So for us to have the same faith God has, we have to put our firm
persuasion on the same word. God has.
We tracking that. So then when we have our faith
manifest put that verse back up. Says, but having the same spirit
of faith, if we want the same spirit of faith, not only that's
in God himself, that was in Jesus Christ, but that was also
in the patriarchs, also in the disciples, also in all the
people that led in the early church up until now.
If we don't have the same spirit of faith, he says, I believe,
therefore I spoke so we also believe.
Do you believe? Are you missing the second part?
Raise your hand. Do you believe?
Then I would say the proof of your belief is in your
confession. It's the proof.
You can tell a lot about a person when they open their
mouth. In fact, you can tell a lot
about them by what they're saying.
Even if what they're saying isn't what you know to be true.
Just think about the value of words.
That words are so important that God had to put in His top ten
list that he gave Moses to the whole first covenant people of
the the nation of Israel hid in this top ten list.
He said you shall not lie. Then we find throughout Psalms
and Proverbs there's this pattern where God hates and it
says he abhors, which is this deep hatred of a lying tongue.
Can't stand it. The penalty for breaking the law
in the Old Testament was being stoned to death.
You understand one of those laws was don't tell a lie.
Why would a lie be a big deal? Because it's a manipulation of
true authority and true power. If the most powerful entity in
the universe is the word of God and it is you speaking out his
word, then why would the enemy not want to attack that the most
some people would boast me like, oh, I'm I'm pretty good at
lying. Listen, be better at truth and
be better at speaking what God says.
That's where true power lies. Lies manipulate people, but you
understand that truth manipulates creation to God's
will. Your faith is brought to
completion and proof through your speech.
Belief without confession is incomplete.
Just like at the end of service, we're going to have the
opportunity to take up an offering to worship the Lord
with our giving. And at Anchor Faith Church, we
always put up on the screen, we do a giving confession.
Why do we do that? So we can all chant together
like Gregorian monks. No, that's not why we do that.
Because there's this principle. It's not just enough to just be
like, oh, I'm just going to sow money into the Kingdom and then
just, you know, let it be. No, declare something over it.
If you look at what we say, there's scriptures that go along
with the giving confession that tell you where it's rooted in
truth. So as we all declare together,
no wonder God's doing mighty things in Anchor Faith Church.
We're not just looking for God to do something.
He's already doing powerful things.
I'm just honored to participate in it.
But that's because we have such a foundation of the Word, a such
a foundation of confession. That's why you can't be at
Anchor Faith Church long or hang out with somebody at their house
long without saying something squarely and then being like,
hey, I wouldn't say that. Why do you care so much about
what I'm saying? There's many testimonies.
Remember there was a gentleman that came in years ago and he
had lived as an alcoholic for so long.
Apostle Earl's testified of of his story many times from the
platform, but he lived as an alcoholic for the longest time.
He came in and said, pastor, pray for me, I'm an alcoholic.
That's all he knew to say. And God, God showed up in that
prayer, showed up in that moment and empowered him to throw away
his alcohol and not touch it again for decades.
Come on. But I remember on my side of
that story, I was here and I remember the next time that we
saw him, he said, hey, brother, the Lord, the, you know, the
Lord's doing work on me. I'm an alcoholic.
I said, no, you're not. Don't ever say that again.
Why would you identify with something you're not?
Did the Lord deliver you? In fact, some people come in,
they've got vices, they've got addictions.
They go, oh, you know, I'm just a smoker.
Well, are you smoking right now? So since you put the last one
out, you've been a non-smoker. Don't be a smoker again.
If God's put that in your heart and you're saying, man, I wish I
could be free of this financially.
I know there was a guy that that came for a long time, he was a
chain smoker and he's like, Lord, do you need to deliver me?
Because it's expensive. And this guy took his cash that
he would get out of his paycheck and buy cigarettes with the Lord
delivered him of it. He was able to go take it and
within one month he bought a laptop computer.
What are we doing able to change his whole life, but in his case
as well, he's begin to identify. I'm not a smoker anymore.
When somebody you a smoker. No.
Why? Because his words begin to
dictate the direction of his life.
That's why of all the nice things that I'm sure Alcoholics
Anonymous has done, the only major problem that it can still
contains is it makes you identify and say and confess
God, something that's not God. See, that's why.
But but yeah. And you're like, oh, Alcoholics,
not a lot of churches are have this problem too.
They just say, I'm just say sorry, Sinner.
Saved by grace. You have no idea what grace even
is. Grace doesn't save you to keep
you where you were. If you've been saved by grace,
God has empowered you to now be something and say something
else. If you talk like you did before
you got born again, the change hasn't fully manifested yet.
Somebody needs to write that down.
I don't know who it is. I don't know somebody, somebody,
somewhere. The spirit of faith is a vocal
spirit. Mark Chapter 11, verse 23.
Speaking of faith. Come on, are we people of faith?
That means we have heard a word that we fully believed.
We adhere our lives to it, but it's not enough just to believe.
Mark 1123. We all know this.
It's a faith scripture that we've heard for a long time.
It says truly. I say to you, whoever says to
this mountain be taken up and be thrown into the sea and does not
doubt in his heart but believes that what he says is going to
happen. It will be granted to him.
So we can sing songs about mountain moving faith.
We can sing songs about how God's able to move them out.
Our faith can move mountains. But you understand there's an
ingredient with your faith that that mountain won't budget until
you mix them both together. And what is that?
That whoever says to this mountain be thou removed, be
cast into the sea and has not doubted but believed in his
heart he that what he says is going to happen.
It will be granted to him. Jesus ties the outcome to the
conversation. He ties your outcome to your
conversation. Again, if we're look at another
example, sometimes you get up here like that.
Just I've read the Bible a bunch of times.
OK, so like I've got a lot of these stories that are in here
another, but Jesus at one point walks by and is looking, he's
hungry and he looks at this tree.
He's like, man, I need some figs.
I don't know if you've ever had figs before.
I've never had them right off the tree.
But apparently Jesus in this day didn't either.
There weren't any on there. And he goes, he's like cursed
are you? No one will eat from you again
and walks away. And his disciples are like, OK,
Then later on their journey when they come back by, that tree had
withered up. It didn't just not have figs.
It didn't just have the leaves fall up.
It says it withered at its roots.
The disciples were like, isn't that what the tree Jesus like,
spoke to? Like people, Are you paying
attention? How much stuff is he done?
He's open blind eyes. He's got raised people from the
dead. We got him speaking the winds
and waves, and they're like, blown away that a tree's dead.
They should come to my house. They'd be blown away at all the
plants. Listen, my wife does the best
she can. We're trying as hard as we can.
But the green thumb was not something that just came second
nature to us. OK?
We are plant Hospice. This is where plants come.
You bring them. We will ease their passing.
You would think we're walking around cursing all the plants in
the house. You're cursed.
You can look. You look.
Miracles everywhere. No, but again, Jesus speaks to a
tree and the earth, the tree, this thing of the planet
responded to His voice, responded to his authority.
He didn't just look at it and hope that it would.
When God wanted to create the whole world, he didn't hope it
into existence. He didn't just think it into
existence. He had a thought.
But then he declared and spoke over his world.
I'm glad that we get to have three weeks together because
that means this week you can go home.
I'm not going to give you an assignment like Apostle Marcy
always dutifully does. I'm not going to give you a
reading assignment, but your assignment.
Would be internal and say look at your life and look at where
you are and what have you said that brought you here, positive
or negative? Because we'll see next week.
Life and death are both in the power of your mouth.
Both. See, we think that we have
neutral gear in the Kingdom. We don't have a neutral gear.
People are like, oh, it's, it's there's there's three options.
I can do what God says. I can do what I say or I can do
what the enemy says. You know, I'm not going to
choose the enemy, but sometimes it's just going to do me.
No, that's neutral gear. We don't have that with your
confession. You're like, oh, you know,
sometimes it's just, I'm just saying stuff and you know, I
don't really mean it. Be weary of somebody who says,
oh, I don't really mean it. Be weary because whether they
mean it or not, they're saying it.
And if they're saying it, it's going to happen.
Now, I guess I should give the disclaimer here.
If somebody's saying something over you, they don't have
authority over your life. That's why God was able to tell
Abraham. He said, listen, I will bless
those who bless you and I'll curse those who curse you.
Just because somebody's cursing you doesn't mean you have to
receive it. You're going to, you direct your
own ship. Somebody can bring their own,
their own, their ship all up alongside you and try to ram
into your ship, but in the end, you direct your own.
But I think too often we let other people guide the direction
of our lives. Again, if, if a parent says
something at a young age, if you were told when you were a child,
you know you're never going to amount to anything.
You came into the Kingdom and got in your own boat.
The king gave you a brand new heading.
You got to let that one go. If somebody came in and told
you, man, you're just stupid. You just you, you, it's like you
can't understand what's happening.
You were told that as a child. Listen, I'm telling you your
your heavenly Father didn't say that.
But too often the enemy wants you to put faith in those words
that were spoken negatively over and you be firmly persuaded that
you are that person when you need to be firmly persuaded of
what God says about you. You can tell someone's self
worth by how they talk. That's why humor, it's a it's a
dangerous, it's a slippery slope.
I saw a a meme the other day that I sent to my mother that we
both found hilarious. He says, wow, you're so funny.
And the guy was like, thanks. My parents used to meet about
what to do with me. You'll get that later, I guess.
But self deprecating humor, you can find people that they're
always making jokes and always making jokes about themselves.
And if you listen a little bit longer, maybe they believe in
that about themselves too. Maybe they're concerned that
whenever they start making jokes about themselves that they'll
make so much fun of themselves that you won't because they're
afraid you will see them the way they see themselves.
Most people aren't. Most people aren't just what
they are and what they think they are.
Most people are what they think others think they are.
Does that make sense? Most people are and believe
about themselves, what they think others think of them, what
other people have said about them.
It's why in the Kingdom we've got to hear the word of the
Lord. We've got to be people of the
Word. We've got to be people that read
our Bible. I'm telling you, you can't make
it. I'm going to tell you right now
how good God is, how great your purpose is, how powerful this
Kingdom is. You won't make it if you don't
get in the Word. If the most powerful thing in
the universe is the word of God, how can you make it without it?
Somebody's like, oh, I've read enough of the Bible.
I get, I get the gist of it. Like, I've got it.
Yeah. And your life looks like you
kind of got some of it. Come on.
True victory is going to come from us hearing the word of God.
Faith comes by hearing. Hearing is a perpetual thing.
It says ING in every translation.
It doesn't say as as my father used to say, all grown up.
Faith doesn't come from having heard, comes from hearing a
perpetual hearing, staying in the word of God.
What is God saying? What does the Scripture tell me
about me? What does the Scripture say
about my circumstance? What should I declare?
If the doctor says you're going to die, don't just repeat like a
parrot, I'm going to die. Then everybody go, well, they
were such a strong man and woman of God.
Listen, I've been in this thing for a while.
I've seen people come and go. I've seen people have ailments
that were healed and whole of stuff that was incurable and
I've seen people die of stuff that was incurable.
I've seen people that said I believe in God, I believe in
him. I trust him at His word.
He's my healer. But you know what I didn't get
to see? I didn't get to see what they
were whispering in their bedroom when the lights went out and
they were in pain. I didn't get to see that.
But I know how things work. I know that life and death are
in the power of your tongue. I know that God is the healer.
I know that he has given you free will that you can declare
over your circumstance what you want.
So if a believer says I'm believing God, I'm believing,
all of a sudden you find out. Oh, so and so passed away.
How could the Why did God let him down?
No, no, no, no, no. What did they say?
What do they say when they're in
the depths of their pain? They said, Lord, just take me.
I just can't handle this anymore.
That sentence matters. That's why you won't ever hear
any, any of us going, oh, man, this is killing me.
Half the stuff people say, oh, this is killing me about is like
pitiful stuff. You want me to put that in your
gravestone? My kids saying, Mama, Mama,
Mama, it's killing me. I'm going to put that on your
tombstone. Mama, Mama, Mama did me in.
That's pitiful. You're you're a warrior.
You got more you got more in you than that.
Oh, man, it's 9:00 to 5:00. It's just killing me.
There's been a lot of people die on the nine to five job.
Don't say it. Watch your mouth.
Even Jesus again, I'm forecasting some things for the
for, for the future weeks that we'll really break into.
But when Jesus goes to the centurion, he needed a miracle.
And the centurion is like, listen, Jesus said, I'll come,
I'll go there. You're like, who's going to deny
Jesus? And the centurion had the guts
to look at him and say, you don't have to.
All I need you to do is give the most powerful thing that this
earth has seen in 500 years. Jesus said the earth was dry and
deprived of the word of God for 4 to 500 years before Jesus
showed up. From the time the last prophet
spoke to the time that John the Baptist was born, the earth was
void of the word of God. It was only in memory.
But then Jesus shows up. John the Baptist shows up and
declares the Kingdom of God is at hand and quotes Old Testament
prophets. Then Jesus shows up and begins
to declare the word of God. He opens up the book of Isaiah
and declares that word. So then the centurion has heard
all of these things and he realizes where Jesus's true
power was. It was in his mouth.
That's when Jesus declared the word of God over something.
Things happened. So he says just speak the word
only and it'll be done for my servant.
Jesus goes, I've never found so great a faith.
Hallelujah. Great faith is directly
connected to value of words. Great faith is directly
connected to the value you have and the honor you have for
words. So Jesus goes and declares the
word of God over that that servant and that person was
healed just by his words. The power of God rests in his
words. So you understand, let me say
this, and I've heard, I've heard this growing up in the, in the,
you know, the, the circles we've been in, the ministers that
we've had even come to this church.
And this bears repeating that the word of God in Jesus's mouth
has the same power as the word of God in your mouth.
God's word does not diminish in its potency or its authority
when you speak it from the time that Jesus spoke it.
If Jesus says peace be still, and if you say peace be still,
the same response should come. See, sometimes I think whenever
we go to lay hands on people, Jesus said before he left, he's
like, listen, I've done, you've seen the works I've done, but
greater works will you do because I'm going to the Father.
So greater things will you accomplish.
If Jesus was able to speak to the winds and waves, he expects
you would be able to. He people were healed because he
said be made whole. Yeah, we come in and we think,
man, if somebody's sick, I don't know, Lord, you know, what are
we going to do? I need to have a very poetic
prayer. Father God, with your bounty and
your beautiful blessings, will you please come upon this
person's life? God's just looking for you to
declare something. It's just as impactful for me to
come into Gabriel's, you know, hospital room and look at him
and say in the name of Jesus, get up that it is for me to go.
God, our heavenly Father, who art in heaven, let your healing
be in this room. You don't have to do all that.
Let your mouth do the faith, let your mouth declare the Word, and
you'll find the end result is God is faithful and has never
let His word go out and return void.
We'll close with this passage here.
Pick up here again next week too with Proverbs chapter 18, verse
21. We quoted it before, but we're
going to look at it together. There's a reason we put these
words up on the screen so that you can see this isn't just
something that's being said. You don't have to believe
anything that somebody says in this, in this pulpit.
What you have the obligation to do is go back and search the
Scriptures, verify that what was said was true to Scripture,
rightly divided, and then believe and place your whole
trust and life value in the word of God.
Don't leave and say, oh, because Pastor Josh said that ain't
going to get you anywhere. But if you leave and say the
word of God says that's going to be the most powerful thing you
can do. So it says life and death are in
the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat its
fruit. Those who love it will eat its
fruit. So again tonight I'm not going
to lay hands on you because I can't give you a blessed a word
blessing, a tongue blessing. Lord bless their tongue that it
wouldn't cause any more problems in their life.
But what I can do is just say you can make an eternal
commitment and say, Lord, check me, Holy Ghost, do your job and
be the the one who leads me and guides me into truth.
That's my helper that comes alongside me and tells me, do I
need to adjust my words? The Holy Ghost will come in.
He'll start meddling in your life and he'll say, hey, the way
you're talking to your wife ain't right.
Maybe you argue all the time because your mouth is always
saying that you're always arguing.
Oh, Lord, you know those, those kids?
I got their little little hellions, man.
I don't know. I've been in this Kingdom thing
a long time. But when somebody starts talking
about their kids like that, you're like somebody goes, oh,
you know what, I'm in. I'm in the terrible twos phase.
You know what? I never confessed over my kids?
They'd have terrible twos. You know what?
They came two years old and became three years old and you
know what? We never had terrible twos.
It's amazing. It's like it works, but maybe
you have what you have because you've been saying it, but it
should be said, and I don't want to end tonight without saying
this. All of these principles are for
people that are in God's Kingdom.
You can't confess right. You can't truly know God.
You can't know what's right from wrong without the Spirit of God
within you and being born again and coming into this Kingdom.