The Power and Destruction of our Words

[0:00] Research has shown that for the average person, not for the extremely talkative person or the extremely shy person, but the average human being will spend one-fifth of their life talking.

[0:13] I don't mean one-fifth of life in conversation where you're both talking and listening, but a fifth of your life is speaking words, whether that's with your mouth or tweeting, texting.

[0:24] But we're communicating a fifth of our life. That is, again, researchers, they say, I don't know where they get all this stuff, but they found that in one year of our life, we will say enough words that it would fill 120, 200-page books of words, just your words.

[0:43] Which, if you live to be 73 years old and you learn to speak when you were three, that would mean you'd have said enough words in your life for more than 9,000 books of just you.

[0:54] And if words are such a part of the human experience of our lives, it makes sense to us that God has some things to say about how we should speak. And truly, he does.

[1:04] This summer, we're spending this whole summer through Proverbs. We've called it Proverbs, Ancient Wisdom for Postmodern World. And you'll find that in the book of Proverbs, there's all these various verses, these pithy sayings that are God's word, but in each chapter, it deals with a whole bunch of different issues.

[1:21] But there's this thread you can bring between the various chapters of the various themes that the various chapters address. And so, instead of doing what we normally do here at Church of the Messiah, going through a passage and unpacking it from the Bible, we're going through themes in Proverbs and picking these verses that speak to the same issue throughout the book of Proverbs.

[1:39] And so, to keep you from having to flip through your Bible back and forth and losing yourself along the way, we have this insert in your bulletin, and you can follow along. The verses that I speak from are going to be from here.

[1:50] They're all from the book of Proverbs. It would be really helpful for me if you can pull this out now as we dig into this. The Bible has a lot to say about the words that we speak. Proverbs 10, verse 11 says, The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.

[2:07] And at the bottom, on the other side of your insert, you'll see Proverbs 18, verse 21 says, Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits. The words that the scriptures have to say about words can seem so intense that it almost can seem exaggerated, especially when, as little kids, we may have said, when someone says something mean to us, the famous saying, Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words may never harm me.

[2:33] Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words may never harm me. That's one of the most ridiculous things a young child has taught, because words can have such devastation and have such potential for life.

[2:46] If you think about it, all that you understand about who you are, the good, the bad, all that you perceive yourself, last week we talked about how we see ourselves as we looked at pride and humility, all that we understand about who we are and in relation to other people and to God, and all of that has been shaped by words.

[3:01] We understand about our calling, our purpose, our value, all that stuff is by words. Words shape our lives. Words can also destroy our lives. I mean, any more evidence of this you can see in the amount of news stories that have come out in the past few years of young people who have taken their lives, who have committed suicide because of the relentless bullying.

[3:21] The bullying was not, normally it was not physical abuse, it was just words. Words that cut deep. Words that shape us. And so what we see from the book of Proverbs is that part of what it means to live life the way God made us to live, to live life the way we were designed to as human beings, is to be people who use our words with wisdom in righteousness for the glory of God.

[3:44] Now there's a number of different ways that we can misuse our words, and three of them, which I heard recently in a pastor's preaching on a similar theme, actually the exact same theme, I was visiting a church in Toronto, and he defined, he chalked these three different categories Proverbs deal with as jabber, lies, and gossip.

[4:04] And I'm going to borrow the same themes from him. We're looking today at jabber, lies, and gossip. So starting with jabber, again, this is the first page of the insert you have. Jabber is defined as those extra careless words, empty words, that we don't need to speak, that we speak anyways.

[4:21] And here's what Proverbs has to say about that. And this is only a small selection of what the book of Proverbs speaks to regarding jabber. Proverbs 13, verse 3. Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life.

[4:32] He who opens wide his lips comes to ruin. The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things. And these two verses are addressing not someone speaking filthy words that would harm people with the content of the words, but rather it has to do with this image of someone who is just careless with his words, who speaks a lot.

[4:57] I don't know if you can see because of the light shining on my face, but I'm blushing right now because this is one of the many things that I really struggle with. I told my roommates that I was speaking on this today, and their response was to laugh heartily, somewhat deridingly, as they joined me in amusement at, and in my case, just embarrassment for how I could speak about this.

[5:20] Because I have been a man who I would define as someone who has let his lips just open wide. And what the scriptures are showing us here, and it was kind of miserable preparing this sermon because, again, there's a lot more verses than the few that I've chosen for you today, but in Proverbs again and again and again, it tells us that even if you're someone who's not putting people down, even if you're someone who's not speaking death into people's lives, if you're someone who has no restraint over your lips, and you just speak, then you are someone who's going to come to ruin for yourself and also harm others.

[5:51] It's not okay. Now, as we look at this, I've heard a number of sermons on words and speech throughout my life, and the way that I often hear it spoken of, and it's partly because James in the New Testament speaks about how it's just about impossible to tame the tongue, to change the way we speak.

[6:09] And so the way I often hear words preached about is, here is God's holy standard for words, and you and I are going to fail at that standard, therefore we need a Savior. That's why Jesus died, and then end of sermon.

[6:20] But the Scriptures, though, it does teach us that, that we won't obtain the holy standard, the perfect standard God has for us. The Scriptures don't simply teach us that we're always going to fail. The Scriptures also speak into our lives as to how we can actually change, as how we can actually have our words be words that bring life and only life.

[6:38] We're not going to be perfect at it. We'll always need a Savior, but the Savior not only saves us from the consequences of our sin, He also saves us from sinning itself. And so as we continue to live the Christian life and look to God in His Word, we're actually able to find hope and help to change.

[6:54] And I'd illustrate that by saying, if your house is covered in spiderwebs, you have two options. You can either always be trying to get rid of spiderwebs, which is what I've spent the last few decades of my life, just trying to deal with words and always failing, because there's always more spiderwebs, or you can go and get rid of the spiders.

[7:10] And as you get rid of the spiders, you can then get rid of the spiderwebs, and the spiderwebs are gone forever. I hope you didn't get lost in that. What I'm trying to say is, if you find, like me, that you are ashamed of your words, but you try and try, and you can't get rid of your foolish words, we're going to look at, how do we actually deal with the things that are driving those foolish words, or those lying words, whatever those words you're struggling with, what are the things that are driving that?

[7:33] And as we deal with that, we'll find actual help to change. In the Gospel of Luke 6, verse 45, Jesus says, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

[7:45] And so in order for us to change our words, we need to change our heart. We need to change the stuff that's in our heart, and in that we'll find hope. So we'll continue. Proverbs 17, verse 27, 28, whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.

[8:02] Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise. When he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent. Proverbs 29, verse 20, do you see a man who is hasty in his words?

[8:14] There is more hope for a fool than for him. Now as we read through these, and we're seeing in this, as Proverbs are speaking into how devastating it is for someone to just let their words run wild, sometimes we'll feel guilt about this type of thing, conviction from God.

[8:32] There's other times, at least a lot of my life, although I'll have a brief moment of feeling some shame over how careless I am with my words, and I just speak so many words. Other times, I don't feel any conviction over this.

[8:44] And I think some of you in the room could probably relate to me, that there are certain things that you read about how devastating it is to just let the open wide your lips, and you're like, really? In my life, I use a lot of words, and there's a number of my friends who think it's really funny, and that's part of why they think I'm a funny person because of this.

[9:01] It can actually, I'm sure some of my friends think I'm ridiculous for how many words they say, but other people find it funny, and it's one of those things that isn't necessarily something you're going to feel conviction of. But what we know in Psalm 119, verse 9, it says, how can a young man keep his way pure?

[9:17] As it says that, it's not just talking about how can someone stay away from sexual impurity. It means, no, how can you walk in life the way you were made for? And it says, by guarding your way according to God's word. By guarding our way according to God's word.

[9:30] If we're going to base our morality morality and the way we live life, not on our own feelings of what is right and wrong, but on God's word, then we see very clearly that jabber is something that must go.

[9:45] So how do we change that? Well, as I did some research on why people jabber, and it's not just Bible scholars or pastors who speak about this, but you'll actually be able to find a research from other academics about why people just speak and speak and speak.

[10:00] And there's a few reasons that I've found. One of them is that some people speak a ton because they don't think anyone else has anything to say of value. They always think that they have the answer to everything. I was at lunch with a few people, and there was two people in particular who were just talking the entire time, whether we were talking about politics or church stuff or sports.

[10:18] They had every answer. And there was someone else there who was a good listener. They were asking questions, and they never got to really say anything. And it seemed to me, I'm judging them, but it seems to me that it really seems like they have such confidence that their answers are the answer that they never stopped to ask this other friend what he thought about anything because it didn't seem like they really cared what he had to say.

[10:41] So sometimes we find ourselves jabbering because we're arrogant. Others of us will find ourselves jabbering in times where we're, it's not that we're arrogant, we're actually really insecure, and we feel really nervous. And some of us, our default, when we're nervous, is to start speaking tons and tons of words.

[10:56] I do that. It's embarrassing, but I do. Others of us will find ourselves just speaking foolish words just because of lack of care. And I think that might be one of the issues with me where you're just used to just speaking because you just speak.

[11:08] You're not really thinking about it. In every single one of these three driving forces for why we speak so many words, the antidote to this is the fear of God. In the case of these arrogant people, they're not fearing God.

[11:21] They're so confident in themselves that they let their words be many. In the case of someone who's really nervous and jabbering away because they're so nervous, they're fearing people. They're afraid of what other people will think.

[11:33] But in both cases, as well as in the case of the one who's just careless and not thinking about life, as you turn to God and you fear God, all of a sudden, you'll find that your words begin to be less.

[11:45] And so, Andrew, if you could put up the first point, the heart issue we need to deal with is that through the power of God, I become free of being, I can't really, of jabbering words through cultivating a heart that fears God.

[11:59] Do you want to say that out loud with me, especially because I can't really see the screen? Together, through the power of God, I become free of jabbering words through cultivating a heart that fears God.

[12:12] The point is through the power of God because you and I can be like, okay, we're not just going to deal with the spider web of jabbering words, we're going to deal with the spider of lack of fear in God, so I'm going to really try to fear God.

[12:24] But if we try to do it in our own strength, we'll find ourselves failing. We get to cultivate a heart that fears God. We're able to have success in this through the power of God. And so, one of the ways we do that, obviously, is through prayer.

[12:35] We pray, God, help me to fear you. This isn't something I can do on my own, God. I know you deserve all the fear in the world and the holy fear, but I'm jabbering right now. What am I saying?

[12:46] So, the point is this, just pray for the fear of God. The second thing is you spend time in the word. You spend time thinking on the greatness and the power of God. That helps cultivate a heart that fears God as you understand who this God is that we're fearing.

[12:59] It's not a fear of like just being scared of him, but a fear of reverence, a fear of awe, and a concern that you care more about what he says, what he thinks, than what anyone else says or thinks.

[13:10] You're concerned about him and his evaluation. And as we cultivate a heart that is oriented toward God, we will find that are words that are so many become much less and that are words or words of wisdom.

[13:23] Now, the next theme that Proverbs speaks of regarding words is that of lies. Proverbs 12, verse 19, truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment.

[13:35] Proverbs 12, 22, lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight. There are times where lies seem so innocent, but Proverbs 12 tells us that lies are an abomination.

[13:49] Those white lies, we don't see that, don't trouble our conscience at all. God hates them. They're an abomination. This word is used for bringing something that is unholy into the temple and offering a blaspheming, unholy sacrifice in the temple of God.

[14:06] That is what words are like that are lies. Proverbs 14, 25, a truthful witness saves lives, but one who breathes out lies is deceitful. And then Proverbs 21, verse 6, the getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor and a snare of death.

[14:22] The way that I have sometimes looked at lies, and I think probably the way some of you look at lies, is that lying we often think of as something where we've said words that are not true, a fabrication.

[14:33] You've said something that's not true. And so the way that some of us play this game is that if we can say something that the actual words we say are not lies, then we think that we are okay on this one. And to illustrate how that looks in our lives, a few years ago, I think it was just last summer, I was with a really good friend of mine and we're going to call him Steve.

[14:51] And Steve and I were walking up the stairs of his house, the light was off because we just arrived, and as we get up, he was in front of me, as he gets up the top of the stairs, he put his hand on the little platform by the stairs, and we hear crash!

[15:03] And this beautiful, exotic vase that his wife's sister had bought for her in like turkey or something was now in pieces irreparable on the floor. This, regrettably, wasn't the only thing Steve had broken in their first seven months of marriage, so he was frustrated.

[15:18] He was actually horrified. No, what am I going to do? And I, being a clever chap, I'd like to think of myself, I pick up the pieces and I'm like, Steve, I got your back. Your wife is going to be so frustrated with you because you've broken a lot of stuff already and you're married to her and whatever else, but I, I'll be easily forgiven by her wife because she's like, oh, that's Daniel, whatever.

[15:38] So I'm going to break this again. I'm going to smash it on the floor. When she comes home, you can say, honey, the vase is broken, and she'll say, who broke it? And you can say, Daniel smashed the vase.

[15:48] It's a true statement. He's like, Daniel, you would do that for me? I'm like, yeah, man. Like, I'm a friend that's closer than a brother. Let's do this. So you take the thing and look at each other and then smash, I break it. I go home, and I'm like, yeah, man, I'm a good friend, and I'm a truthful friend.

[16:02] I'm like, this is going to be a true thing we say. So she comes home. She sees it. She's devastated. She loves the vase. It's irreplaceable. Her sister's not going back to Turkey anytime soon, and she says, who broke it?

[16:13] And Steve is like, I did. And then I got a text from him moments later saying, pray for me. My wife is so mad. And I was just like, man, we had a plan.

[16:23] It was a truthful plan. And he's just like, Daniel, you're actually, your plan that we made together was a plan of lies. I'm like, but no, I'm trying to challenge him on it. Like, it would have been a true statement.

[16:36] He said, no, Daniel, lying is not just fabrication. Lying is deception. Lying is deception. When we are telling, whether or not we're fabricating, we're able to deceive people intentionally by omission, by just avoiding saying a certain thing.

[16:52] We can lie by exaggeration. We can lie by emphasizing something. So we can lie by fabrication, omission, exaggeration, or by emphasizing something.

[17:04] And while we do those things, if we're doing, if we're playing word games in order to intentionally deceive someone, it doesn't matter whether the sentences we say are actually true sentences, we're lying. And to do that is an abomination to the Lord.

[17:18] In the case of my friend and I, who we're calling Steve this morning, Proverbs 21 says, the getting of treasures. And what Steve and I were trying to do is, we're trying to get a treasure, a treasure not of money in this case, or of a new vase, but we're trying to get a treasure of his wife not hating him.

[17:34] That's the thing we were going for. We're trying to get that. And we really thought that if we were able to play this game, that we'd get this treasure. But Proverbs 21 says, the getting of treasures by lying tongue is a fleeting vapor and a snare of death.

[17:48] I'm convinced that if my friend Steve had said that lie, which was, we thought, if he had gone that route, it would be the kind of thing that either would continue to build and have to keep lying, keep lying to safeguard that thing we were trying to get, that her not being mad at him.

[18:04] Or even if he was successful in it, it would be the kind of thing that just, that although he, although she would not be mad at him over the broken vase, it would be the kind of thing that would, in the back of his mind, be plaguing him, be plaguing him.

[18:14] And what he thought he had achieved through deception would be something that would actually be harming his friendship. And this isn't just my analysis of it. This is from the Bible, that lying lips bring death, that the treasures we get through lying is just a fleeting vapor.

[18:28] It's not something that can actually last. So if we're afraid, if we're afraid of reality and still we're lying, the deal that's going on right here is that we're not entrusting the one who is truth.

[18:40] God defines himself, Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And this is one of the many reasons that lying is, that deception is something that is so abhorrent to God, is that it is against his very nature and his identity.

[18:53] He is truth. And in any situation where you might lie, whether it is because you've broken a vase or because maybe your child is asking you if their painting is a beautiful painting and it's actually horrendous or you're trying to get into a baseball game and you want to get a student ticket and you're not actually a student, whatever it may be, whatever the thing that may be driving your lie, maybe you're at work and you're trying to cover your own back because you messed up on something.

[19:18] In every case, what we're doing is that we're not entrusting, we're not trusting the truth. We think that the truth is not a safe place for us and so we're trying to look out for ourselves as we lie or look out for a buddy as we lie.

[19:30] And so how we deal with the words of lying is by dealing with the heart that's not just trusting the truth. So if you can put up the second point. Thank you, Andrew. Let's read it together.

[19:41] Through the power of God, I become free of lying words as I entrust myself to the one who is truth. Through the power of God, I become free of lying words as I entrust myself to the one who is truth.

[19:54] And so if you find yourself being someone that lies, the thing to do is to go to God, confess it, every time confess it, but go to God and say, Lord, don't just change my words.

[20:05] Don't just help me stop lying. Help me to trust you who is truth. Help me to live in the truth. As we find that our hearts begin to trust God in the truth, we'll find that we're able to actually have the courage to speak the truth.

[20:19] Jabber, lies, are both things we can overcome as is gossip. Proverbs 11, 13 says, whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps the thing covered.

[20:31] Proverbs 16, verse 28, a dishonest man spreads strife and a whisperer separates close friends. Proverbs 17, 9, whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends.

[20:45] Again, we see that that whispering gossip not only has the power to keep people who could have been friends from being friends, but it is such a devastating thing, even though it might feel so good, that it has the power to separate even close friends.

[21:00] And I know there are people in this room who know these words to be true, and it's a devastating truth. Proverbs 18, verse 8, the words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels. They go down into the inner parts of the body.

[21:12] What this is saying is that gossiping words is something that can be so delightful, so enjoyable. It's like delicious morsels, it says, that go down into your body. It can feel so good.

[21:24] And truly, even jabbering may be something that just doesn't seem to bother us, and lies may be something we justify, but gossip is something that we can so enjoy. In fact, if you're a gossiper, there's a good chance that some of your friends actually value you for that.

[21:39] You're someone that they, like, I've been working in politics for a while, and when I talk to my friends who are interested in politics, they'll ask me, can you tell us some stories? And throughout the years, I'd have some juicy stories.

[21:49] There's some hilarious stories from doing interviews with politicians where they act in such a ridiculous and foolish manner in an interview. They give you this amazing story you can tell, and people will laugh with you at the story, and they want more stories, and I can produce more stories, and it actually makes you someone that people will actually want to talk with, and hear you speak because you have these juicy morsels that are so delicious to listen to.

[22:13] Gossip isn't just something that doesn't convict us. It's something that actually, that we can enjoy so much, and yet, gossip separates close friends. It devastates relationships.

[22:25] Proverbs 26, verse 20, For lack of wood, the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases. You'll see that in Proverbs, King Solomon chose to use the term whispering for most of his references to gossip.

[22:39] The reason I'm so thankful that he did that is that when we talk about gossip, it's easy for us to think of gossip as something that is motivated by spite, that is motivated by a destructive desire, and so I found it in my own life when I chat with my friends about maybe we should stop gossiping.

[22:58] People will often say things like, well, no, gossip is defined by its motivation, and we're not sharing this stuff because of an ill, for ill reasons, but in Christian circles, some of the gossip that we're trying to address is actually in the form of prayer requests.

[23:12] I was trying to say, hey, I think we've been sitting by gossip and sharing these things. It doesn't feel like it's gossip if it ends with, can you pray for them? That's often the case in church circles, but when King Solomon talks about whispering, he's saying that it's not just the motivation that makes it gossip, it's the information.

[23:29] It's the information that is not yours to tell, and one of the things that I noticed just recently, even as I was preparing for this, is that I received a text from a friend who said, hey, I'm going through some tough stuff.

[23:39] Can you pray for me? I wrote back, hey, do you want to be specific? And they said, no, I don't feel comfortable sharing what I'm going through, but can you just pray? God knows. And so I prayed for them. And yet, at the same time, I find that we can be, although so discreet about our own needs and our own situations we're going through, when it comes to someone else, it's so easy for us to just share all the dirt, all the confusion, all the stuff someone else is going through, being like, hey, can you pray for them?

[24:06] And I know that a lot of those times it's motivated by a good thing. We actually care about that person. And yet, for ourselves, we're discreet. For someone else, we're not. Whoever goes, Proverbs 11 again, whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps the thing covered.

[24:23] Every single one of us, as we live life, ends up with information about other people that we can choose to keep covered or we can choose to reveal. The person of God, the godly person will finish their life with a huge reservoir of things they could have said about people and chose not to.

[24:40] But the person who is not honoring God with their lips because they're gossiping is someone who just shares that stuff. Now, every single one of us should have stuff about people. Well, every one of us will have stuff that we can share about other people, but it'd be gossip.

[24:54] So if you and I don't know what it feels like to want to speak about someone's stuff but choose not to, if you know what it's like to sometimes like white bare knuckle gripping you, like I will not share the stuff, but you have the stuff to share, there's a really good chance you don't feel that because you're gossiping.

[25:11] If you don't know what it's like to have something that people would enjoy hearing but you're choosing not to say it, there's a really good chance it's because you're just someone who just gives into that desire and just gossips. I've been guilty of it and I believe many of us in this room are guilty of it.

[25:26] So why do we gossip? What is it in our hearts that allows us to gossip or drives us to gossip? From the little bit of research I did, it seems that a lot of times we gossip because of insecurity in our lives.

[25:39] Sometimes we'll gossip because we want to put someone else down so that people will think of us as being a better person. Sometimes we gossip because we're insecure, we don't have anything really meaningful to say and so it's just easy to revert to gossip.

[25:52] Again, it's another type of insecurity. And then other times we can gossip just because, again, it's being motivated by a concern to have people pray for something but you're just not truly loving, caring for that person.

[26:03] And so, one of the ways we're able to deal with that spider that's driving gossip is, if you can put up the next point, that through the power of God I become free of gossiping as I find my identity in God.

[26:17] That the antidote for insecurity that would drive gossip is that we become more secure in who we are in God. So we need to prove ourselves to people by putting others down. So if you'd read it with me, through the power of God I become free of gossiping as I find my identity in God.

[26:33] So that's something to pray for if you find yourself. This is something I've wrestled with in the past bunch of years where I found in high school I was incredibly insecure and it would manifest itself sometimes in gossip.

[26:46] And so in God's grace by his power I'd pray that God would you help me to see how you see me? Would you help me to stop being insecure? And over time seeing, it's still something a work in progress but seeing God actually bring such security such freedom such a sense of belonging in God and value in him and there's freedom from gossip in that.

[27:06] And then another thing to pray and it's not on the screen but if you find yourself that you're praying for someone gossiping not motivated by anything ill or anything insecure but actually maybe motivated by a good thing you want people to pray for people's stuff and you're just careless and sharing other people's stuff that's embarrassing for them or it's just not yours to share I'm just praying God, would you help me to be someone who's walking in wisdom?

[27:27] Would you help me maybe that first thing about jabbering to be someone who's living in the fear of you that as you fear God you're able to get victory over this stuff. Death and life are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat its fruits.

[27:46] Whether what you and I are struggling with is gossip or jabber or lies it can be so difficult to get victory on this stuff and so I hope that there's encouragement in the message today as we look to God for these various heart issues that we can find victory over these things.

[28:01] But the greatest hope we'll find is actually for me at least is in the beginning of the Gospel of John verse 1 it says these words in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God He was in the beginning with God all things were made through Him and without Him was not anything made that was made in Him in the Word was life and the life was the light of men the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.

[28:29] This word that the translators are putting into English is the Word is the Greek word logos which means communication it means to communicate something they're translating as the Word and as I was preparing for this message I was just getting so discouraged like man I've tried to change my words so many times and as I stopped trying to prepare the message and started just praying and asked some friends for prayer like I don't deserve to preach this message I can't speak as someone who has mastery over all this I can speak as someone who wants mastery over this and as I was preparing this and looking to what does the Bible not just Proverbs what does the Bible say about words we see that God himself is the Word that God himself is communication and so I want to invite you to join me in praying to the one who is the Word that we would have victory over our words that we would be people not only looking to God for forgiveness for our wrong words but that we would be a church that is looking to God for our words to be words exclusively bringing life how wonderful would it be that in every one of our lives and as a church as a church community church Messiah would be a people who use their words to speak encouragement sometimes we're necessary to speak rebuke that brings life to be people who are affirming and encouraging and exhorting each other walking in truth walking in restraint walking in life and love for each other and we find that as we look to him who is the Word so if you can put the final point up

[29:55] Andrew read this with me I receive the power of God over my words and my heart as I look to the Word Jesus as we speak about we're able to find freedom from bad words through the power of God dealing with our hearts we receive the power of God the true and living power of God the power that spoke the world into existence we receive that power as we look to him from whom the power comes to the Word Jesus so let us look to him now in prayer would you bow your hearts with me Heavenly Father I pray that as we go out from here today in a few minutes that you would help us not to just be those who just try a little harder to get our words right but that you would help us to be a people who are living life by the power of God by your power that you would help each one of us deal with the heart issues that are driving those those empty words those jabbering or those lying or gossiping words Lord I pray that if the if the heart issues aren't the ones we've spoken about today but our other driving forces for why we're speaking words of death that you would minister and speak into our lives about those things that you would make each one of us as individuals and as a community a community and a people whose words bring life and not death that you would help us without your help we will not tame our tongues we will not have victory lasting victory but Lord by your power by you who is the Word you can transform us so would you transform us for your glory and our good in Jesus' name

[31:35] Amen Amen