Words are interesting things, the truth is that words can be really helpful or some can stir up more trouble than can be contained. The married men here, actually any man who has ever been in a relationship would know that a response to a comment such as “the hairdresser didn’t style my hair the way I wanted” is not to agree and say “yip, it’s a shambles”, but to say something along the lines of “you look stunning though”.
I know myself that there have been times when words have built me up and at other times have cut me down.
I want to look at words today in relation to how we respond to God and how we can use words to grow in our relationship with God and with others.
If we look at a few verses for a start we see some amazing things. Check these out for size.
“That if you confess with your mouth that, ‘Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved’ and the scripture says, ‘Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.’ For there is no difference between Jew or Gentile – the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”
Salvation then doesn’t require multiple lessons and soldiership classes, you don’t have to have read the Bible six times cover for cover, or attended worship for eight weeks and had a talk with the Corps Officer about your views on the church. No, to be saved you don’t have to do any of that it’s about confession of faith, those words “Jesus is Lord” and that heart belief that “Yes, God raised him from the dead.” The heart in this case is the whole person, that as a whole person you believe that Jesus is alive, you are then justified with God, and in speaking out his Lordship you are saved. God will then start you on a journey as long as you start walking as he wills you to journey.
There are some really powerful words that Paul uses there also; “That there is no difference between Jew and Gentile – the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him”, Back in the day that would be for us today like saying there is no difference between an All Blacks player and a member of the Otago Girls soccer team. The two groups of people Jews and Gentiles prior to Jesus coming were poles apart and opposed to one another, enemies. But in coming to faith in Jesus it was seen by the early Christians that God blessed everyone who called on his name equally. Salvation was given to all who would call on his name.
Here’s another interesting passage. From Proverbs 18:21 “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” It does, our words can either bring life or cause massive destruction, in some instances death.
Or this from James letter to the early church. “If anyone considers himself (and I will drop in here herself) religious (and I will drop the word in here Christian) and yet does not keep a tight rein on [their] tongue, [they deceive themselves] and their religion is worthless.” (James 1:26) The tongue is a dangerous thing if it engages before the brain and a bit of common sense. Richard Steele said this about the tongue “Fire and swords are slow engines of destruction, compared to the tongue of a Gossip.”
As Christians we have a need to consider our talk not just in how we address others but how we talk about others when we are not present with them the idea that ‘if it could not be said about a person when they are with you, it should not be said when they are not with you,’ keeps us safe from gossiping and also safe from choking on our own feet.
The thing is that as we speak something out we give it power, we by using words give life to great ideas or foolishness, to harm or the possibility of help. James makes it quite clear in the third Chapter of his letter, verses 9 and 10; “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.”
Interestingly it was grumbling in the desert, about the desert, about the state of life in the desert that had the Hebrew people remain in the desert for forty years, do you remember the story? God had released these people, roughly three million of them from slavery in Egypt, he had taken them to the boarders of the Promised Land and had sent in twelve spies to view the land he was going to give them. God had already given them the land, a land that was rich, flowing in milk and honey. But out of the spies ten said we can’t take this land we’re not able to defeat those living there. But two Caleb and Joshua said we can go in. But what happened was that the people grumbled, “If only we had died in Egypt, or here in the desert.” (Numbers 14:2). So God granted their wish, everyone over the age of twenty excepting Caleb and Joshua died in the desert before entering this amazing land flowing with milk and honey, for forty years until all the grumblers died out they wandered in the desert.
How often in our grumbling about life and what God should be doing for us are we living a slow death in the desert. “If only my life was this or that, life was better back when this or that, if only I had the ability to do this or that” Stuck in a dry and desolate place because we are defeated by our own words even before we set foot or even get near to attempting this or that. We convinced ourselves that we will be defeated or are defeated by, by what? What often defeats us are our own words sometimes these are not even spoken but rest in this place inside us called ‘attitude’.
What we speak over our own lives can become a self-fulfilling prophecy either negative or positive.
So there it is we can be negative or we can be positive.
We are the most blessed of people, free from sin and death. Taken from the slavery that we were in our own personal Egypt. In reality do we have anything to grumble about? I’m not going to say that life will always be a box of fluffy ducks but in Christ we have so much that we can claim.
Promise after promise after promise. Here are a few:
Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future! ”
2 Peter 1:4
And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.
Matthew 11:28-29
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Philippians 4:19
And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.
John 14:27
“I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
These are great promises, this we can hold onto rely on, but how do we go about living in the promises of God? Well I’ve got one big idea here before I move onto some others and it is this, and it’s only one word, but the most important of all words in relation to living in the promises of God. Are you ready for it?
• Awareness
To live in something you need to know about it. You can have salvation and justification before God but if you’re not aware that God has made some promises it’s hard to claim the promise, it’s like someone who has won a prize and never claimed it. Imagine not knowing that we can have peace of mind and heart because we have never claimed the promise. Like that receipt from the super-market that gave you a number to win a car that sits in your wallet or handbag unclaimed. So how do you get aware, read the scriptures, get to meetings, talk to other Christians and then live in the promises of God…for his word and words over your life are most important.
I read an article the other day that said this: “You are looking at a copy of the Bay Psalm Book printed in 1640 that will be auctioned later this month. Sotheby's estimates it will sell for between $15 million and $30 million, and break records. Not bad for a small book of psalms.” The power point is of the book, I just wanted you to know what 15-30 Million Dollars, and that’s US dollars looks like and it will be sold on Tuesday. It’s interesting that it is a book of Biblical Psalms, and contained within that book are these words: It’s being sold on Tuesday!
Psalm 12:6, And the words of the LORD are flawless, like silver purified in a crucible, like gold refined seven times.
Psalm 19:9-10 The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the LORD are firm, and all of them are righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb.
Psalm 119:72, The law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold.
The words of God are more precious than much pure gold…the promises contained within are life changing, they change attitudes, they reform society, over turn dictators and relegate death to a doorway. What we speak over our own lives can become a self-fulfilling prophecy either negative or positive. I know for sure that in speaking God’s word over my life it is better than it would have been.
How is your awareness of God’s promises?
How do you live in God’s promises?
At the start of the sermon I talked about salvation, do you live in that promise? Biblically it means that when we have confessed Jesus as Lord; we have been saved, we are saved and we will be saved. Do you live in that promise?
How do we live in the other promises of God’s word?
• I know some people who write a promise of God and put it on their dresser or bathroom mirror. They wake and as they gaze past the fog of morning, they read, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” (Psalm 139:14)
• Do you praise God? For Jesus came to give us, “a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.” Isaiah 61:3 part
• We can declare that promise and the other promises of God out loud
• You can sing them also
• You can tell others what God has done for you, give your testimony
• There are some who really enjoy just praising God in shouts, whoops and yahoos and all the best to them too
• Prayer, claim those promises of God, thank him for what he has done for you
• Repeat the promises of God
• Encourage one another. Someone might be having a rough day, a completely stink day. What a time to remind him that he is fearfully and wonderfully made! The world does the opposite to this what an opportunity to encourage with these words
• Read scripture out loud
• You can also rebuke negative words, in the church we are called to encourage one another 1 Thessalonians 5:11 “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” If someone is being negative just say to them, “that’s not how we do it around here.”
The guts of living is that we can stay in the desert or live in the promises of God.
A we go into this week I encourage you to seek out those promises of God, so that you can live life in all its abundance, or if you are in a desert place to enter into the promises, claiming them until you see them come to be.
