good morning church would you stand with us let me say again we're glad you're here if you're new here to North Point we just start our first service we singing some songs about Jesus so let's sing this [Music] together I give you glory for all you brought me through and now I'm ready to do whatever you want to [Music] do I'm moving forward to follow after you and now I'm ready for whatever you want to do your presence is an Open Door we want you Lord like never [Music] before your presence is a
n open door so come now Lord like never before [Music] [Applause] in every season the Grace has been [Music] enough and I'm believeing The Best Is Yet To Come the cross before me my Hope on things above and you Jesus The Best Is Yet To Come Oh your presence is an Open Door we want you Lord like never [Music] before your blence is an Open Door so come now Lord like never [Music] [Applause] [Music] before I know a breakthrough is [Applause] coming I know breakthrough is coming by faith I see a mir
acle my God made me a promise that he won't stop [Applause] now I know breakthrough is coming by faith I see a miracle my God made me a promise and he won't stop oh know I know break was coming by faith I see a miracle my God made me a promise and it won't stop now I know breakthrough is coming by faith I see a miracle my God made me a promise that he won't stop now [Music] no I [Music] [Applause] know your presence is an Open Door we want you you Lord like never before Oh your presence is an op
en door so come now like never before it's your presence Lord your PR [Music] Jesus s moves sh the ground your back and bring the rain and Dr Your Glory SS the Earth around your whisper makes your fire [Music] fall there's no other name the name that stands through the ages there's no other name there's no other name like yours Jesus like yours Jesus there's no other name there's no other name like yours Jesus like yours Jesus [Music] the wind and waves your touch revives the [Music] sick the po
wer WS the de again your love destroys the gra [Music] oh your love destroys the grip of s no there's no other name there's no other name like yours Jesus like yours Jesus there's no other name there there's no other name like yours Jesus like yours [Applause] [Music] Jesus every knee will bow and every every tongue confess the name Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue confess the name Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue confess the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every song [
Music] confess more [Music] Jesus there no other name there's no other name like yours Jesus like yours Jesus there's no other name there's no other name like yours Jesus like yours [Music] Jesus [Music] Jesus Jesus Jesus there's just something about that name he's our Master the Master Savior and Jesus like a fragrance after the rain and Jesus and Jesus and Jesus let all Heaven and Earth Earth for clim and kings and kingdoms may all pass away but there's something about that name amen you can b
e seated amen uh hi everyone I am Leila down uh I get to tell everyone happy Mother's Day today so happy Mother's Day to everyone out there all the moms out there I am uh like I said Leila I'm the wife of Kevin and we have four awesome kids most days um they're in the back so I get to say that this service uh Audrey Ella Gentry and Jackson and I I did a little disclaimer with the first service and I think it merits this service as well if you see our third blonde curly hair running out of the bu
ilding please stop her um she's our she's our Wild and Free one but I I'm so honored that I get to tell all the moms here um happy Mother's Day uh and there's a spectrum for that right there's those of us who have who have kids biologically I friends in this church who are adoptive parents who foster kids um some that don't even have kids and yet choose to walk alongside many of our kids and mother them uh throughout uh their lives and so to to all of us and all of you just happy Mother's Day da
y what a day to rejoice and to celebrate um each of you as moms we know that our role is to like Point our kids to Jesus point the Next Generation to the king of kings and I'm reminded of a couple of instances where uh the slim time that we get it right we've gotten it right with some of our kids and our oldest Audrey was talking to Kevin the other day in the car and she said Daddy what does God look like and I and he said this is one of those parents moments where you're like well wasn't prepar
ed for this one and he said I don't know what do you think and she said I don't know but I bet he's really handsome when your kids Ponder the face of the Lord right that's what it's about pointing our kids to the face of the Lord and I think about Ella before she could put sentences together um one time she hit her head which still happens a lot um she hit her head really hard and she just ran over to me and with tears in her eyes she just said Mama pray and I was like yes when we're H it we pra
y and I think about another instance with Gentry she's our youngest daughter um she wouldn't sleep can I get an amen she was younger and I was in her room and and I was just tired I was you know as moms we wear all these hats and we just get tired and she would not sleep so much so that I'm sitting on the floor tears running down my face just literally praying God please help her sleep Lord I'm too tired I cannot do this it's about me I'm too tired Lord please just help her pray and plain as day
I saw Jesus sitting next to me and he just said Lea but it's not about you you're right it's about pointing to Jesus and I think as moms whatever kind of mom you are you sort of inherently know that I think God wired that in us that it's not about us it's about Jesus so to all the moms out there that are doing that just praise be to you you know we have examples of this in the Bible of of moms who trusted God we have Sarah who waited years for the child she thought she would never have but she
did to Hannah who prayed for a child she would give to the Lord and then we think about Naomi uh the Mother-in-law who shared her faith with her son's wives in fact after Naomi's husband and both of her sons had died one of her daughters-in-law Ruth refused to leave her side in Ruth 1:16 Ruth told Naomi where you go I'll go and where you stay I'll stay your people will be my people your God will be my God Naomi's faith and her faithfulness influenced Ruth and led to an incredible story that God
wrote for them Naomi knew that it's about Generations it's about pointing the Next Generation to the Lord and I have a special reminder of that this weekend on Friday we got to say our final goodbyes to Kevin's Grandma Corey um my kids great grandmother talk about a woman who lived faithfully and point at the Next Generation to Jesus and she lost her husband when she was 42 moved off the farm into town and raised four kids on her own and through all of those struggles all of The Valleys many mou
ntain tops at all those valleys that she had to reflect on in her life never once did I hear her speak poorly never once I hear say anything negatively about the life that she had she did so with such Grace and I know that the only answer to that is she chose to walk with Jesus and as a result of that it pointed Generations my kiddos to the Lord right that's what as moms we just know that so blessed to you who do that um in the moment the band is going to sing a song about those uh mountaintops
and those valleys and that ascent and may all of us Point our kids to Jesus and that they can walk with him through that Ascent would y'all just pray with me Heavenly Father God thank you for being a a faithful father um thank you for loving us and for equipping and empowering us as moms and dads to point the Next Generation to Jesus Lord on the hard days um some may find today hard some like my father-in-law just lost their mom who was 99 or think about my best friend Katie who lost her mom whe
n she was nine we know that today can be a hard day and would you just Comfort them and to those of us who are rejoicing as new moms or walking alongside new kids would you rejoice with them and bring an inner joy that only comes from the spirit God thank you for the moms here in this room and for the work and the labor that they do would you just bless them manyfold would you just turn it back to them manyfold Lord we love you and we need your help to point the Next Generation to Jesus God when
we fail as M moms and dads would you just walk alongside our kids and fill in those holes and those gaps God would would you help us to become all things to all people all of our different children and the ones that we walk by and walk alongside to to to point them to Jesus and that by all possible means we might save some can we do all this not in our own flesh not in our own might not in our own power but in your Holy Spirit God thank you for being a good god thank you for the women in this r
oom who mother the children of our church bless them walk alongside them and God thank you so much for them we love you we need you please help us it's in your son's holy and precious name we pray [Music] amen oh how high would I climb mountains if the mountains were where you hide oh how far I scale The Valleys if you Grace the other side oh how long have I chased rivers from lowly seats to where they Rise Against The Rush of Grace descending from the source of a supp cuz in the highs and the h
eart you neither more or less inclined I would search and stop and nothing you're just not that hard to [Music] find I will praise you on the mountain I will praise you in the mountains in my way you're the Su where my feet are so I will Praise You In The Valleys all the stre no less God within the Shadows no less faithful when the nights be astray you're the heaven where my heart is in the highlands and the heart go the same oh oh oh how far Beneath Your Glory does your kindness extend the powe
r from where I Fe rest of the sun rise to will you sweep the Sinners fast oh how fast would you come running if just to Shadow me through the night Chas my through all my failures and walk me out the other side who could dare a send that mountain that Valley H called calary but for the one I call good shepher who like a lamb was slain for me I will praise you on the mountain and I will praise you when the mountains end my way you're the some where my feet are so I will Praise You In The Valleys
all the same no less God within the Shadows no less fiful when the nights be astray you're the heaven where my heart is in the highs and the heart for the same [Music] oh [Music] oh whatever I whatever I make him over mountains whereever I stand whatever I walk through the valley of there I sing through the Shadows my song of sing Ever I walk through wherever I am Mo mountains wherever I stay I walk the valley of day sing through the sh song of [Music] [Applause] [Music] sing [Music] [Applause]
oh the greatest of all valleys come the pastures we call Grace a mighty River flow upwards from a deeper and see Gra I will praise you on the mountain I will praise you in the mountains in my way you're the and where my feet are so I will Praise You In The Valleys all the same no l God within the Shadows less faithful when the night leads me asay you're the heaven where my heart in the highlands and the heartache all the [Music] [Music] same [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh hi how's it goin
g morning wasn't that last song so good I feel like we could call it a day um I we just pray and go home like that was a message in and of itself right like I just yeah we have a we have an incredible we have an incredible worship team don't we like that the tech team yeah yeah the the thing the thing that I love about it is they don't like that you clap for them so they're just going to say hey thanks for praising God right and so but man that last song was so good um well as you can see I am n
ot Jeremy um I don't know if you caught on to that yet my name is John um but I'm one of the pastors here um Jeremy and his family headed to Indiana U many of you know that they've been on a really hard journey with his mom for the last several years and um the last few months it's kind of been clear that the cancer is back and um and basically his mom is moving towards hospice um so they decided that all of his brothers and sisters and their families would all come in town this weekend which is
such a cool thing to do on Mother's Day so they get to all be together and just kind of continue making memories together so um I just thought we'd start just by just by praying over them can we just agree and just pray comfort and peace over their time and it's a good time of Celebration too so let's let's just pray God thank you for who you are God thank you for thank you that you're a God that's present and active thank you that you're a God that's not far off Jesus you tell us very clearly
that you left us your peace and so God we agree as a family right now just for the for the whole car family that your peace would be very present and as they celebrate and as they enjoy your mercy as they as they lean into your hope that that Jeremy's mom knows you and I pray that you'd guide their time together that you'd bring thick Comfort over them right now and guide us together today Jes Jesus name I pray amen thank you I know he's very thankful for the care and the prayers that you've bee
n praying so just keep praying for them um I know they'll be back soon but um they it was just really good for them to get a chance um together um this weekend so hey happy Mother's Day um for all of our moms out there I think Mother's Day can be an amazing celebration and also really hard I kind of live in the um like the grief time right now my mom died five years ago right around this time and so this past week my my dad and my sister and I we travel together so her birthday was would have be
en last week so right near Mother's Day so this week right around Mother's Day we always do a trip together and do some of her favorite things so I just got back from that trip a couple days ago which is always just a neat time just remembering my mom so wherever you're at on that Journey um here's my here's my prayer is that all of our moms today my My Hope Is that you don't have to plan your own Mother's Day celebration okay that's it's the goal for you and I said that last service and there w
as a good 30 couples that the mom looked directly at the husband and I think they're still figuring that out during this service counseling is open and I'm kidding um so no but I hope you get to enjoy it was good I'm excited um to continue into this ever after series that we're in um because of this here's the deal we are created for relationships right and happily ever after it leans into kind of that marriage talk and marriage relationships but here's the deal you and I we were created for rel
ationship we have a God who loves relationship ship he he actually reveals him him himself to us in relationship he creates us for relationship and I think bear with me on this for a second I think at the very core of our being you and I are on a journey of learning what love is I think that's what life is I think that's it's us learning what love is I think we can all agree in this room that none of us have it figured out and if you do tell me now because you can come on up and just teach us bu
t we're all on a journey learning would you agree with that and so when we're studying this idea of relationships the thing that I love is just anything that will help us relate to each other anything that helps us in kind of a self-awareness to even know how we relate to ourselves and how we connect with others I think is a win and so today I thought we would just type in like just lean into one aspect of relationship that I think is key I think it's vital because here's the deal we know that r
elationships were meaningful to Jesus the way he did his life was all about relationships and he teaches us through the disciples and how he related to them he actually he actually like in his last week of life this is what he says to his disciples he says a new man a new command I give you and theoretically he's talking to us now too love one another as I have loved you so you must love one another by this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another that's a real really
hard command isn't it cuz he's not just saying like put up with each other he's not just saying love the easy ones he's not just saying love those people that you like he's saying love each other like it's not an if it's more of a when right and that's that's not always easy can we agree on that again we can agree on that because we're all what we're all learning what love is yeah so today I'd like to just talk about one little aspect of relationships just a a Teensy tiny thing called communica
tion it's easy right right right I mean things go sideways real quick because of communication I mean don't we know that right I mean here's the thing can we all agree on this words matter yay or nay words have a powerful effect yay or nay so what I'd love to do for a few minutes is just ask what are the words that we use and why do we use them and do they accomplish what we want to accomplish because very quickly words can have a negative effect have you ever walked into a room and made that on
e random joke and it was like you just sucked all the air out of the room have you ever done that we have a phrase for that right open mouth insert Nike store right and so or Foot Locker so I mean like you we am I the only one who does this am I the only one who puts their foot in the mouth that is that's that random thing everybody you're thinking of one right now right give me it no just kid so but also have you ever had that effect too where you say something Have You Ever Wanted to say somet
hing something positive to someone and when you say it it has a bigger effect than what you thought it would like you were just going to give that one little comment or that one little compliment and all of a sudden it was like the most meaningful thing to them words words matter they have this power I I I'll I'll tell you a story that one the one of the stories that I love where I saw this like I saw this as a as an opportunity where just words became this one little compliment open this door t
hat actually changed the trajectory of someone's life is this I have a friend who we were we were working together at a church in um in China and we just came off a strategy meeting okay now here's here's what this is the funny thing about this is we just spent a couple hours talking about how the church was growing and what we were going to do next and when you think about strategy meetings you think about okay this is what we're going to do this is how we're going to do it you have all of your
steps you have what you're going to accomplish everybody gets to to-do list and we go but there was one of our elders who throughout the whole meeting kept saying this one thing this is what he kept saying he's probably one of the most spiritual guys I know and I love him for this and he says this guys 90% of our relationship with God is just showing up which that sucks out the air of a strategy meeting right because basically he's saying all these plans you're putting into place 90% of it is j
ust showing up let's just show up and love God well one of the girls in the one of the ladies in that in that meeting she had just done a bunch of counseling with people she was kind of feeling exhausted and so she decided to take a two-day Retreat and just her and her friend they got a hotel and they just wanted to take a couple days to journal and just really spend time with with God and just say okay we just need a little little bit of a break so they went and did that and she went and she ke
pt mulling this over 90% of relationship with God is just showing up and she was like I kind of agree with that but aren't these these other things that we're supposed to be doing and so she spent the day well when they checked into the hotel they they were given coupons for like a drink down in the bar so they both spent like their day journaling and everything and they decided they would meet up over drinks and talk about kind of what what they were reading what they were studying so they do t
hat and they get down to the bar and there's live music playing so they sit down they get their drink and they start listening to this guy on the piano well she is blown away because the guy playing the piano is this phenomenal singer so they're just kind of enthralled and they're listening to this guy sing so after he finishes his set he goes and sits down at the bar and is like eating his food and they finish their convers station she was about to head up to her room and she kind of had this t
hought I need to go tell him how good he is which I mean he's a live performer so it could have been very easy to think I don't really need to do that he probably hears that all the time so what she does is she walks over and she says Hey I just need to tell you you are so good like your voice is amazing and then she said one of the weirdest things I've ever heard someone say and she owns this and she I don't think she said this to anybody else ever since she says this she says I go to this chur
ch near here and I would just I would love it if you could come sing at our church which is kind of hilarious right cuz she's see she's inviting the bar Hotel guy to come sing at the church right he just totally random and this is what happens he starts sobbing Like Elephant tears in his burger and fries and she have you ever had this reaction where you're like I don't really know why this is happening and so she's like I'm sorry I didn't I didn't mean to offend you I and just didn't really know
what say and then he says this he says 10 years ago I left the Philippines and when I W when I look when I left the Philippines I basically said no to God it was my time to walk away for the last 10 years I've been traveling and I've just done what I wanted to do and I've said no to God the whole time well the last few weeks I've started feeling empty started feeling really alone and all this weekend I have felt like I need God back in my life so last night when I got done playing I went to my
hotel room and when I was sitting in my room I started watching YouTube videos of worship videos because it was the only way that I knew that I could connect with God and at 6:00 a.m. this morning I went to bed and when I lay down on my bed this was my prayer God I want to go back to a church but I don't know if there are any nearby and here we are 12 hours later and you're telling me is there's a church nearby how amazing is that Isn't that cool now how easy would it been for her to be like oh
he's a live performer he doesn't need like he doesn't need to encouragement like he doesn't need to hear that right like she could have told totally s off giving him this small complim compliment what's neat is he actually became the worship leader at church for the next 3 years like it was like I'm telling you the trting of this was a m was a fascinating thing but all that to say this words matter words absolutely matter they carry a weight but I don't think it's something we think about very o
ften so what I thought we would do do today is just talk about communication for a second there's actually this book in the New Testament called James it's it's it's an interesting book because it's only five chapters it's super small but I guarantee you this if you read it it is the most practical book in the New Testament that you read it in every single chapter you're going to be like I needed to hear that I needed to hear that and immediately when you read it you're going to be like oh I cou
ld probably do better at that I could probably learn something from that the you it is so unbelievably practical and in the middle of the book James starts talking about our tongue and he starts talking about our words so here's what I would like to do is let's open the Book of James and let's dive into chapter 3 for a few minutes and see what James tells us about the words we use does that sound good does that sound like a plan sound good so here's what we're going to do I'm going to I I'll war
n you now we're going to live a little bit in practicality land and then I'm kind of like I like conceptual Theory stuff so we're going to jump out of that for a little bit and go kind of like heady and go into some theory for a little bit too because I think there's some fun stuff that comes out of this so if you want to use the chair Bibles it's page 9978 and we're going to go to James chapter 3 and I'll tell you right now verse one is the reason why this verse why this chapter does not get pr
eached very often because it says this not many of you should become teachers my fellow Believers because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly after reading that I automatically feel a lot of eyes on me during this message because not only am I teaching but I'm teaching on using words on a passage that talks about how we use our words so yeah that's going to be scary okay I feel like I should pray again now do you ever pray before a meal and then like the appetizer comes and t
hen all of a sudden your main dish comes and you feel like you need to pray again that's how I feel right now I'm just kidding okay but it is this kind of there's some truth here because when we teach we are responsible for what we say and I'll even be I'll even go a step further we're always responsible for what we say but but I think sometimes that's what we forget and that's what we're going to look at today the next verse says this we all stumble in many ways any anyone who is never at fault
in what they say is perfect able to keep their whole body in check so James starts out the message with this we all stumble in many ways and that's true well thankfully he acknowledges that right we all mess up but then he says this he kind of gives a benchmark anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect they're able to keep their whole body in check here's I'm going to I want to give you a quick point and then we're going to go back and unpack a word here so here's the thing I thi
nk words are a measure of our maturity I think the things that we say are a very clear reflection of our spiritual maturity because we're responsible for what we say and so if let's let's put it this way um if if I say I'm a good driver but I have a bunch of accidents and speeding tickets I'm probably not a good driver right if I say I'm not a complainer but yet all I do is complain I'm probably a complainer right so what we're going to do today is just offer a chance to say hey do we evaluate o
ur words that we use and are the words that we use what we're trying to accomplish because I think words are a measure of our maturity but I want to pause here because I want to make sure we clarify one word word can we go back to that verse two so it says in that like third line it uses that word perfect which is a really hard word for us because when you and I read that word today as like our industrious Western civil civilization when you and I read that we think of a few things that come to
mind perfect is an A+ it's 100% when we think of it spiritually we think of sinlessness we think of moral perfection right we think of doing everything right and it being fully correct that's what we think of perfect here's the hard part is in Greek that's not what that word is talking about that's not what it wants us to think of perfect and usually this is probably I don't if you're familiar there's this there's this amazing couple chapters in The Book of Matthew called The Sermon on the Mount
and perfect use is used several times in that as well it's the same exact word but here's so here's what you need to do is we need to change that idea that we keep with perfect because we're not thinking legalism we're not thinking of just acting right and making sure we have it all together the word actually means wholeness it means completion it means being totally whole and complete it's not moral Absolution it's not moral perfection it's not 100% And when we put that word on here we go a to
tal different direction because if we put that word as that we got to be 100% sinless in order to be be okay now what we've just said is now we have to make sure that all of our words are right and that's not what I'm talking about today actually it's not even what I'm interested in today because I like I I'll I'll be honest I'm not interested in the whole idea of like whether or not cussing is right or wrong because that's not what this is talking about because that is a cultural phenomenon rig
ht I can I can swear in seven different languages six of them you would laugh when I say the words because they sound funny now other people would be highly offended now I could I could swear in one language and probably there' be a lot of people offended in here I won't do it to make an example but it' be funny again no i' I'd rather keep my job but here's the deal that's not what I'm interested in and that's not what James is interested in we're not talking about language that's right and wron
g and just making sure we say the right thing or the wrong thing here's what I'm interested in is are the words that we use are they getting the point across that we want to communicate and are we willing to ask and evaluate what we say to a point to we say are we saying things that are helpful or not because I think that's what James is talking about here does that make sense yeah so as far as vernacular like I that that that's not what today is about I'm not talking about just making sure we'r
e saying right and wrong things um so I just want to make sure we we get that what I want to talk about today is the weight of our words and so James continues and he continues by giving us a word picture of the power of words but also what how words can destroy this is how he says it when we put bits in the mouths of horses to make them obey us we can turn the whole animal or take ships as an example although they are so large and are driven by strong winds they are steered by a very small Rudd
er wherever the pilot wants to go likewise the tongue is a small part of our body but it makes great great boasts another way we should read that is instead of but makes but it makes great boasts is it basically is it has a lot of power it contains a great power consider what a great Forest is set on fire by a small spark the tongue is also a fire a world of evil among the parts of the body it it corrupts the whole body sets the whole course of one's life on fire and itself set on fire by hell I
think we can agree words are powerful words have the ability words have the ability to destroy a relationship don't they like you can say a few words and a relationship is done at that moment on the other side of it you can say words and build someone up and relationships grow right so that's that's the weight of words it's the power that are words words words can destroy but also words can easily reflect Jesus's love we can bring words in and speak truth over someone or Grace over someone and
immediately we reflected Jesus love for them and it's an amazing thing that's what James is saying he's giving us word pictures to say hey words when they're used well can do amazing things words maybe when they're flipping or maybe when they're spoken out of a reaction can destroy I think every single one of us in here have that moment where you've said something and as soon as the words left your lips you wish you could take them back anybody have that give me a God we're all in that boat we w
e are all in that boat because we're all learning what love looks like we're all learning what it means to communicate well and today is not a chance to reflect on that and to feel bad for it what it is is a chance to say hey are we learning to use our words in a way that reflects God's love and James continues this he actually tells us very clearly that it's hard to control our words and he says it like this all kinds of animals birds reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tam
ed by man mankind but no human being can tame the tongue it is a Restless evil full of deadly poison well that's hope filled right but I think what what James is saying is let's be honest our words get us in trouble we've all been there none of us Escape it like we've all had times when you fly off the handle you get stressed and you say that thing that you're like ah I wish but also what James is saying is then we have to own it we have to at least be responsible for what we've said we have to
be responsible and own that thing and work through it I think also what James is pointing out here is that with God's help a lot can change because if you notice he's speaking directly to humans right but no human being can tame the tongue but I think God with God's help he can help you right I think it's an amazing reminder that we can be dependent on God we can be dependent on God's help in things Jesus actually gets really focused on some words and he's talking at one point he's talking to Ph
arisees he actually does this twice and he says some things about what we say and what they what they reveal about us and he says it this way which I really love he's talking to Pharisees and he says you brute of vipers okay he's talking to Pharisees not us which is a good thing right um You brood of vipers how can you you who are evil say anything good for the mouth speaks what the heart is full of have you ever said something and immediately like be like did I just say that did that come out o
f me like and all of a sudden you realize oh wow there's some stuff going on in here that I might need to address right like have you ever been have you ever all of a sudden been really angry about something but never really thought that you were that angry and you're like wow that just came out of nowhere those are chances to pause for a little bit and say there might be some evaluation I need to do of this right there might be some spelunking I need to do in my own heart to figure out hey what
's going on in here that this is what I'm saying Jesus to another set of Pharisees he says it this way he says what goes into someone's mouth does not defile them but what comes out of their mouth that is what defiles them it's because words matter it's because we're responsible for words and they have a purpose and they carry a weight James continues by saying this which I think is one of those like painful verses that as we read it I think we all have to either say Amen or ouch and we'll proba
bly all going to say ouch and this is what it says he says 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 can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring my brothers and sisters can a fig tree bear olives or a grapevine bear figs neither can a Salt Spring produce fresh water are we saying amen or ouch right we let's be honest
we've all done it right we've all we we we've been here we sing the songs we be reminded of what God like who God is and we sing the pra songs and then we go outside and that guy everybody knows that guy cuts us off in traffic and all of a sudden a whole new set of words are coming out right that aren't exactly praising God am I yeah it's like little things can switch and now our words totally take a different turn my goal today just so you know is not to make you feel bad about that my goal to
day is to just raise the like raise the conversation for a second and say are we in a such a place that we can reflect on the words that we use and say are they getting across what I want to get across okay I'm just going to war I'm going to go I'm going to go conception land for a second you ready because I I just finished a research project and during that I got to spend some time in this really neat theory that I just want to tell you about because it's helped me understand a lot more of the
words that I use okay I'll give you one kind of it's not I'm not going to give you all the definitions and all the new vocabulary but I'll explain it this way it's called Speech act theory is what it is it's this philosophy that kind of leans into this it says all of our words perform actions so whenever we speak we are actually doing things with our words let me give you an example when you go I'll give you a few examples just to kind of give you an idea what I'm saying when you go to a restaur
ant you usually say some words and you order and then your hope is that your food will come and then you'll get to eat that food right now would you get food if you did not order you need to perform the act of ordering to get the food would you agree with that okay so your words performed an action and that was called ordering let me give you another example is when you're at home so speech act Theory leans into this you got to take into consideration the context where you're at what's the situa
tion you got to take you got to take consideration The Authority present what's the authority present and are they able to use these words well okay and then the third thing is what is the force behind whatever you're saying so let me give you an example so you're in a home and let's say dades comes down we're we're going to not we're going to make dad's look like the bad guy today not Mom since is Mother's Day right so dad comes down and says child son or daughter whoever you need to go clean y
our room now what's probably missing from that is or else right like we usually don't say it but it's usually implied there right you need to clean your room or else you will lose whatever it is that you will lose right and so what what is a parent doing with their words they are warning their child that now is the time to go clean their room and if you don't you might not appreciate that decision right am I do you get me now is it the same situation if child comes to Dad and says Dad you need t
o go clean your room is it the same situation same context right you're in the family situation but the authority is different right children usually don't have that Authority and if you do that's a crazy house okay and so it doesn't make sense that way like what's going to happen there is laughter right because children usually can't tell their parents what to do now let me give you another example so let's say let's say a staff member in an office walks around the building and they have no man
agement they have they they don't oversee anybody they don't they basically have no Authority in that and they start walking on the office and they go into people's offices and they say hey you're fired hey you're fired hey you're fired what's the response laughter right like oh that's funny you tried to fire me you can't the boss walks through the office so Jeremy walks through the sorry I can use him he's he would have the authority right so he walks through the office and says hey you're fire
d hey you're fired hey you're fired what just changed those people's paychecks because he has the authority to do that right so speed check theory has this kind of premise that when you use words depending on the authority present you're responsible for that there's a force behind the words that you use I'll give you one more consider I'll just give you one more example because I think it's a helpful one to illustrate the point of what words do and that they do perform actions let's take a coupl
e for instance so a couple is on a long walk and they're walking they're taking the romantic night late night walk on a beach and they look at each other and they say I do which is kind of random because no one would ever do that but just but same words I'll just use the words they look at each other and say I do now it might feel romantic it might even feel somewhat committal and great they they had a nice walk on the beach take the same couple and let's change the context let's put them in fro
nt of a pastor with their friends and family and Witnesses present right after vows just got read and now each one of them say I do what changed their whole reality they're no longer single they've just now with those two words they've just entered into a covenant and their whole status changed right because of words and the force that we use them and the authority present our words matter and so the question then becomes is are the words that we're using are they the ones we want to use are we
accomplishing what we want to accomplish in a lot of ways what we've learned about social media media for the last 10 years is really true about our words and have been forever you know what we've learned about social media whatever you put out there you can't take away right whatever you put out there will be out there forever the internet does not forget guess what the same thing has been true for our words for generations and we know this every single person in here if if we sit down in a con
versation every single person in here I guarantee you could come up with two examples the first one you could tell me something that was spoken over you positively that you have held on to for years that one person that said that one positive thing and that has just encouraged you and continues to encourage you to this day am I right everybody in here could think of that person in those words you could probably even remember the space that I was set am I right give me a nod if that's true and th
e flip side of that is my guess is every single person in this room has that example when something negative was said to you and just like that it'll come back like a flood and you still live in those same words why because words have power so when we use our words there's a force behind our words all times and this goes into this goes into what we joke about this goes into the ways we encourage this goes into the ways We complain you ever have you ever sat with a complainer for a long time it's
exhausting isn't it have you ever been that complainer sorry I like don't agree with that but let's be honest when we sit there for too long and all we do is kind of spew the negativity it has an effect over every person around us right see I think we have an option I think we have an option to speak words that give life or words that Rob life and I think what you and I have to do is we have to evaluate the words that we use we have to to evaluate what are the words that we're speaking over peo
ple around us heck what are the words that we're speaking over ourselves I mean I'll give you a real quick example I spoke last service walked out and everything that I just preached on I ignored and I totally went through a different monologue in my head because I am my own worst critic so I will sit there and walk through the hall and be like oh that was horrible I didn't say this I didn't say this right I didn't want to say it and I am I'm repeating that in my head and my guess is as other pe
ople in this room do it too and every single time we do it we're bringing ourselves down because words words are powerful so my question for you is this what would it look like this week to spend some time evaluating on the words that you're using what would it look like for you this week to evaluate the jokes that you make those random comments that you think have no effect and say is that what I want to communicate is that what I want to say to them have you ever noticed I I've always been fas
cinated by this have you ever noticed that we always save the good things about someone into their funeral did you ever notice that it's like we wait to say all the good stuff about someone when they're dead I don't get it why is it easier to tear people down than it is to encourage i i i that still to this day fascinates me especially when we know our words matter so what would it look like this week to Speak Life over people what would it look like not just to think gratitude thoughts but actu
ally speak them over people around us instead of saying I really should thank them for that actually just saying the words and thanking them what would it look like to speak life and what would it look like to catch ourselves when we start speaking non-life words and saying maybe that's not when I want to communicate the implication for this I'm actually going to be talking to the high school group um this summer because the implication for this for prayer is also fascinating but that's a whole
another message and I know you guys want to get to lunch so I won't go there but the idea of how we pray being actions and performative actions that's a whole amazing concept and how we pray and what it means to actually talk to the god of the universe and use our words in ways that okay there's weight here I'm praying for this to move and I know that God who promises that he hears us will do something that's incredible but think about what we're going to do next we're going to close this servic
e with a Chance of worship and we we have an option right we have an option to stand up and and maybe just say the words are on the screen because that's what comes easy or maybe we have the opportunity to look at the weight of the words that we're about to pray and worship with and instead of just saying saying it like maybe we've done in the past what if we Proclaim it what if we take a minute and actually declare it as something we really believe and lean into would our worship change if we k
new that the weight of our words was that much would the songs that we sing even though we're singing it as a big group wouldn't that actually encourage us that like in agreement we are singing these truths about God so I encourage you this week take a few minutes and evaluate are the words that you're using what you want to be using are there different ones are there stronger ones are there words that could build up maybe instead of tearing down and see where that conversation with you and God
go can I pray for us let's pray together God thank you for who you are God I thank you that you're a God who knows us loves us thank you that you're a God who's close who's present who's living and active God I know that just even by talking about this I know what can come up in our mind are all those those times that we messed up those words that we might have spoken that we still regret so God I I pray that you would give us a boldness not to live in that space But to claim your forgiveness to
own maybe mistakes but also to move forward in ways that are Redemptive God give us words to Speak Life Lord if if there are hearts and Minds in this space right now that need life spoken over them I pray that you would turn up the very volume of your voice that we would hear the way that you see us God and then Lord I pray that you would Empower us with words to speak goodness speak to speak love over people around us this week Jesus name I pray amen would you stand with us let's sing together
can't go back to the beginning can't control what tomorrow [Music] willing but I know here in the [Music] middle is a place where you promise to be we mean it Jesus I'm not enough [Music] unless you come will you meet me here again it's all I want CU all I want is all you are will you meet me here [Music] again [Music] as I walk now through the valley Let Your Love R above [Music] every like the sun shaping a shadow in my weakness Your Glory [Music] Appears not enough unless you come will you m
eet me here again it's all I want all you are will you meet me here [Music] [Music] again all I [Music] want [Music] not for [Music] him was I forsaken the Lord is in this place the Lord is in this place Come Holy Spirit TR awaken the Lord is in this place the Lord is in this place not for come near him what I forsake Him the Lord is in this place the Lord is in this place Come Holy Spirit TR on to W it the Lord is in this place the Lord is in this [Music] [Applause] [Music] have I been for me I
'm not enough enough unless you come will you meet me here again you're all I want cuz all I want is all you are will you meet me here again I'm not enough enough I'm not enough enough unless you come will you meet me here again cuz all I want is all you areow will you made me here [Music] again amen thanks for being with us this morning thanks for singing with us worshiping with us God is good we'll see you next next week
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