November 17, 2025 • 38 mins
Words can set a home on fire or turn it into a refuge. We trace the surprising power of the tongue through James 1 and 3 and show how small choices—listening first, slowing anger, and curating our inputs—redirect the big ship of our lives. Along the way, we share unfiltered stories, from childhood “soap in the mouth” lessons to singing worship through dust and mud in Mexico, to the daily temptations of sarcasm and road rage. Each moment points to one truth: blessing and cursing should not come from the same mouth, and with God’s help, they don’t have to.
We break down the images of bits, bridles, rudders, and sparks to explain why words steer outcomes far beyond the moment. If you repeat contempt, you start living it; if you speak faith, your steps begin to follow. That’s why mindset matters. Inputs shape the heart, and out of the heart, the mouth speaks. We look at how the Holy Spirit transforms speech—starting at Pentecost—freeing us to proclaim truth with love, not as noise but as healing. You’ll hear practical counsel on cooling conflicts before they blaze, replacing sarcasm with trust, and becoming the person others seek for steady, Scripture-shaped encouragement.
We close with three simple, demanding practices: speak faith over fear, speak the truth in love, and speak hope over your future. Break old labels, bless the people in your circle, and let new habits of speech pull your life into a new direction. If life feels messy, God can handle it—and He starts by changing what we say and how we say it.
If this resonated, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs encouragement, and leave a review so more people can find these messages. What one phrase will you retire—and what blessing will you speak—this week?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jason Brown (00:00):
Life is messy.
And he would say yes to that.
And since it is, watch yourmouth.
I know this is why you came tochurch tonight.
To watch your mouth.
We've been talking about thisidea of the autumn season and
fall.
We've been talking about howit's a changing of leaves and
(00:21):
that season of change.
And and I would say, you know,as though we don't experience it
here, we've talked about that.
We just get a little bitbrowner, uh, you know, palm
trees here and during fall,that's about it.
But that season of changesparks something in us to
reflect and to think about thethings that God is doing in and
through our lives.
Uh, as we've been talking aboutthis theme called Messi, the
(00:41):
first week we came to James 1.
And if you have your Bible,your tablet, your phone, let me
encourage you to jump back intoJames today.
We're going to be movingthrough it a little bit here.
But we're starting here inJames 1, verse 19 and 20.
It says, Know this, my belovedbrothers, let every person be
quick to hear, slow to speak,slow to anger.
(01:01):
For the anger of man does notproduce the righteousness of
God.
And we are talking about thisconcept and this idea of being
those who are in alignment withGod and understanding that He is
the one that forgives us, He'sthe one that washes us, and He's
the one that does that work inus.
So we need to be those who keepour anger in check.
(01:22):
Similarly, last week we talkedabout this concept out of James
1:26.
If anyone thinks he isreligious and does not bridle
his tongue but deceives hisheart, this person's religion is
worthless.
And we talked about how we needto be those who watch what we
say, because if we're notcareful, we'd be those who curse
(01:42):
instead of bless.
Now, I grew up here in the WestValley and I went to Villa de
Paz Elementary right here inPhoenix.
And in doing so, back then theedge of town was this was all
fields and the edge of thedesert, right?
Like we were the edge of town.
So we had lots of differentfamilies coming in at that time.
So lots of Hispanic friends,and they were teaching me in
(02:03):
third grade all the words that Ineeded to learn, which was all
the cuss words first.
How many people know what I'mtalking about?
And so I didn't really quitehave a grasp of the power of
this language, but I was usingit nonetheless.
And so I'm using it, I'm sayingall these colorful words that
I've been learning from myfriends at school.
And we had a wonderful sisterof ours who's bilingual, and she
(02:26):
heard what I was saying here atchurch, and she was like, Oh,
you have a filthy mouth.
And I was like, Oh, don't tellmy parents.
You know what I'm talkingabout?
So I was trying to survive.
And what I was saying was I wassaying a bunch of curse words.
And so she was saying, Hey, youhave a filthy mouth.
I knew what the punishment wasfor filthy mouth because back in
that day, this is before yougot a timeout, this is before
(02:47):
they took away your phone.
We got what?
Whenever you said bad words,you got both smacked, and then
also washed your mouth out withsoap.
That's right.
You had the real soap.
If your parents were reallydedicated to you, then they
would lather that bad boy upbefore they made you this.
Physically, people under 25,put it in your mouth so that you
learn the lesson about thewords that you were saying.
(03:08):
How many people know what I'mtalking about?
And there was some one of thosewhere if they're a real
gangster, they have you bitedown and pull that soap out so
you get it like this.
You know, they got the soapflakes in there.
You guys know what I'm talkingabout.
Or, next level, liquid soap.
If they go liquid soap on you,you really said something bad.
You probably disrespected yourmom or something.
(03:29):
I don't know what you're doing.
You're willing to way too closeto hell for that.
They're lucky they hit you withthe soap.
That stuff would get in there,man.
You would be at soccer practicelater in the week drinking a
Gatorade, and the soap wouldreveal itself again.
You guys know what I'm talkingabout.
This was like layers, layers ofunderstanding.
So, what the idea was is thatthey were trying to teach you to
(03:50):
watch your mouth.
Watch what you say, becauseyour words have power.
You know, we there was thelittle rhyme when we were
little, sticks and stones willbreak my bones, words and never
hurt me.
But with the in with the invitwith the in uh in with the using
of the internet and so much ofthe words online, we find that
(04:10):
the power of words are veryprofound and they very much are
venomous, and they do hurt us asmuch as someone smacking us
across the head.
So we need to watch our mouths.
Now, as we talk about this ideaof messy, we have to understand
that life is messy, but God canhandle it.
(04:32):
If we haven't met, my name isJay, and we're so thankful that
you're getting a chance toworship together, that we had
this opportunity to come andworship the Lord here.
If we haven't met andconnected, Celeste and I have
such a great opportunity to leadhere in this community of
faith, and we're blessed to doso.
All of us are people who arenot perfect.
None of us is.
All of us are in need of asavior.
(04:53):
And since that's true, then weuse this imagery of the
disciples walking with Jesusbecause that's how we see
ourselves as people who have notarrived, but are very much on
that journey following Jesus.
And so we're walking after himwhere he's leading us to go.
It's our heart that each one ofus, both personally and then
corporately, we want to be morelike Jesus.
(05:16):
And so we do that throughoutthe week throughout the city in
life groups, and we do that aswe connect and grow and serve
together.
Those life groups are coming toan end this final week of life
groups.
In fact, if you're someone whois in that younger demographic,
let me encourage you that thisweek, this Wednesday, is the
young adults uh worship meetingthey're gonna be having on
Wednesday.
So jump in with that, be a partof that.
(05:37):
That's been a really powerfultime for all that have been a
part of it.
That's one of those life groupexperiences, men's, women's
groups, all sorts of groups havebeen going on.
I know people are hiking amountain this week, doing all
sorts of things in life groups.
So let it be a blessing to you.
We start a new semester in thenew year, so pre-decide that
you're gonna be a part of it.
Collectively, we love God, wemake disciples, we reach the
(05:58):
world.
Now, a few weeks back, we weretalking about the idea that
everyone has dirty laundry.
That means that all of us havesinned, all of us have messed
up, and we're a little bit, youknow, scared to bring our dirty
laundry and air it out for theworld to see.
And so I think that's whypeople are a little hesitant to
come to the Lord and try to workon some of this thing, but all
of us have fallen short of theglory of God.
(06:20):
None is righteous, no, not one.
And so the idea is that eachone of us are in this process.
And we talked about this at aJames 1, verses in two and
three.
And you pick it up here, itsays, Count it all joy, my
brothers, when you meet trialsof various kinds, for you know
that the testing of your faithproduces steadfastness.
(06:41):
We are talking about how noneof us is perfect, we all will
make mistakes, but it's the Lordwho will help us even in the
middle of times of trial.
In the same way last week, wetalked about it from the
perspective of unfinishedprojects.
And we are talking about howthose things can get on top of
us, and we need to be those whodon't procrastinate, but instead
(07:01):
are those who are setting asidewhat's most important, like our
time with God every day, andthen making plans for the things
that we say yes and give ouryes to.
We talked about this out ofJames 1:22.
But be doers of the word andnot hearers only, deceiving
yourselves.
We want to be those who aredoing what the word says and not
(07:22):
just listening to it.
Today we're gonna talk aboutthis idea of your filthy mouth
and my filthy mouth.
The scripture is James 3,verses 9 and 10.
Let me encourage you tohighlight this today.
It says, with it, meaning ourmouths, we bless our Lord and
Father, and with it we cursepeople who are made in the
likeness of God from the samemouth, blessing and cursing.
(07:46):
My brothers, these things oughtnot be so.
Let's pray.
Lord, we thank you for yourword, and we thank you, Lord,
how you challenge us.
Holy Spirit, how you breatheupon it and you make it alive
and transformative.
And so, Lord, we ask that verything, Lord, that you would open
our hearts, Lord, that we wouldbe challenged to be more like
your character.
(08:06):
We pray this in the name ofJesus Christ.
Amen.
So the idea of messy life ismessy.
Now, I wanted to bring thestory back to you.
Some have heard this over time,but is back from whenever I was
done with university, I kind ofhad uh an interesting year.
I was supposed to go to lawschool, but instead had more of
like a gap year.
(08:27):
And I ended up going and movingto Mazatlawn after living in
Santa Barbara and some otherplaces.
And as I moved to Mazatlawn,you know, there's this wonderful
uh idea of like where it is andthe sun and the reflection of
the sunny coasts and all thegreat things.
But that's not where we lived.
We lived with the people in themiddle of all the stuff, but we
were working with teams in thein the golden zone, the zona
(08:48):
dorada that was there, as wellas in other parts of the city.
So you can see this next piece,it's a beautiful place where
lots of people will come.
Uh, and that's it, tourismdrives a lot of the economy
there.
But there's a whole set ofpeople that live in difficult
circumstances there.
So we were helping to plant thethe church there, Centro de
Vida Mazatlan, uh, and as wellas we were doing church in the
(09:08):
prisons, we were doing churchout at the city dump.
And there were people that werethere working amongst the the
garbage, the refuse there,working there amongst it.
It's dirty, it's filthy, thekids are walking around with no
shoes on.
It was a whole thing.
And we would go, we'd takegenerators and string lights
out, and we would plug in someamps and and we would play work
(09:28):
worship music and then we wouldpreach and pray for the people
and minister to them, provide ameal.
It was a powerful time.
And it was one of those thingsthat really, as a kid growing up
here in the West, you know, Ihad a job since I was 15.
I had pocket money, I got tobuy stuff I wanted.
And to see these kids who hadnothing, it really humbled me
(09:48):
and started to give me a realunderstanding of the blessings
we have here in our country, theopportunity we have here, and
more importantly, how thesepeople who have nothing
materially, they had the love ofJesus Christ.
And so they still had a smileon the face, even though they
lived in the middle of the citydump.
And so it was somethingprofound thinking about that in
(10:09):
my own heart and life.
Well, we were done with doingchurch there.
We needed to go to the nextthing we were doing that night.
We had a bunch of things backto back.
So we're loading the van.
We load the team up, my friendTim and I, and we load the van,
we put the speakers back in theback of a truck.
Remember when you used to sitin the back of a truck?
You guys remember that?
Back before they made you weara helmet and a seatbelt and all
that stuff.
We were fine.
So we were sitting in the backof this truck and we throw the
(10:32):
last things in, and I'm holdingTim's guitar so it doesn't get
messed up.
We're throwing the last piecein.
There's it's so packed, we justkind of pull the tailgate down
and I hand him back his guitar.
And I was the drummer at thattime for us, and so we're kind
of like just jamming out andwe're singing a worship song as
we pull out of this uh this areaat the dump.
Now, like anyone who grew up atthe edge of the desert, the
(10:53):
dump is full of loose dirt.
And so as you peeled out of thedump, man, this huge cloud of
dirt.
It was like one of the duststorms we experienced, right?
Or the haboob that comesthrough.
This massive cloud of dust wascoming off the back of the
truck.
And we're playing and we'resinging in our terrible Spanish.
We're having a great time.
And you know, the song, itsays, if you have faith like a
mustard seed, you will say tothe mountain, move and it will
(11:17):
move.
So lo dices, and notice whatthe Lord says to you, and you
say, Se moverá, se moverá.
You will say, Move and it willmove.
It's a powerful thing.
And as we're singing this out,belting it out, dust everywhere,
all around.
I look over at Tim, and Tim,because of the amount of dirt
and we're singing open mouth, ishis mouth is full of mud that
(11:42):
is now on his tongue and histeeth, and he's trying to speak
Spanish and singing, and I'mover here, he's looking at me.
I got the same thing going allup in my mouth.
This is nasty, man.
But I'll tell you, if you'regonna have a filthy mouth, let
it be a filthy mouth like that.
Where you're giving love andpraise to the Lord and you're
exalting the Lord with yourfilthy mouth, but your praise is
(12:05):
coming out, it's not filthy.
And so it's not about yourdental hygiene, it's about what
words you're using with you.
We look to the scripture herein James, coming back to the
word of God here today with thisidea of a filthy mouth.
James 3, 3 says, if we put bitsinto the mouths of horses, so
they will obey us, we will guidetheir bodies as well.
(12:29):
So it's continuing with thisidea of watching and guiding
your mouth, of controlling whatyou say.
And anyone who's you know,worked around a horse, you
understand that so much of thecontrol of them is how you guide
their head.
And so you can put a bridle onthem and you can guide them.
And even with the bridle onthem, sometimes they could be
honry and want to bite you asyou walk by or or do that.
(12:51):
Anyone been bit by a horse, youlearn that lesson one time.
And that's one of those thingswhere you keep your eyes open
and you're like, wait, wait.
But the thing is, you put a bitin that horse's mouth, and even
a very cantankerous, crankyhorse will do what you want
because you can pull back onthat bit and it will do what you
say.
And so it's interesting becauseI think so often, this is the
(13:14):
very thing, is that if we don'tguard our mouths in what we're
saying, then all sorts of otherthings will happen whenever we
say things that are wrong.
And I think so often that theenemy of our soul, he wants to
use the words that we're sayingto try to direct us a different
way.
He wants you to be a vesselused by him, so you're gonna be
the one saying venomous things,or you're gonna be the one
(13:35):
cutting on someone else.
Friends, let's not be likethat.
Let's be those who only giveour control of who we are to God
and to him alone, so that wecan be in alignment with him.
It continues here and gives usan example in James 3, verse 4.
It says, Look at the shipsalso, though they are so large
and are driven by strong winds,they are guided by a very small
(13:58):
rudder, whatever the will of thepilot decrees.
And we see this as well.
We see someone who would be thecaptain of the boat, right?
They're steering the boat,they're controlling the boat and
where it's going.
And in doing so, they're movingit from this place to that.
And that's a powerful idea.
It's a powerful image becausewe see, you know, Captain Jack
Sparrow at the helm of his boatdoing these things.
(14:20):
We're like, wow, that'sawesome.
Not realizing that it's notreally the wheel.
The wheel is connected to therudder in the back of the ship.
And without that rudder, theship is not going to go where
the wheel goes.
And so it's that little bit atthe very back of our large
vessel that directs the vesselback and forth.
And that's very much like ourtongue.
It's like the things we say, isthat we need to watch those
(14:43):
things because they very muchwill dictate where we go and
what we do.
How many people know that ifyou say things long enough,
you'll start to act on thethings you say?
And it comes from a mindsetperspective.
That's why we talk about havingthe mind of Christ, right?
Having a perspective from Godso we can have a mind of Christ,
so we can make decisions thatwhen we speak, we're not
(15:03):
speaking ill or negative things,we're speaking truth and
blessing.
Because whenever we're speakingnegative things, even over
those around us or overourselves, we start to follow
those things because that'swhere the steering is taking us
to go.
Let's look again at thescripture here in James 3, now
in verse 5.
It says, So also the tongue isa small member, yet it boasts of
(15:28):
great things.
How great a forest is setablaze by such a small fire, and
the tongue is a fire, a worldof unrighteousness.
It says it sets things ablaze.
You know, so often we weinteract with others and we
don't realize that by sayingthings negative to them or by
(15:51):
hitting them and not just whatwe say but how we say it.
Any people know what I'mtalking about?
That's like when your kid saysyes, mom, but they say it with
attitude and you still want toslap them.
You guys know what I'm talkingabout?
You don't.
But you could.
But you know what I'm saying?
It's because of how they say itback to you.
It's because it's the the heartbehind what you say.
And whenever you have someheart behind what you say that's
(16:13):
negative, it becomes like anemotional grenade thrown into
that conversation, right?
It starts to blow things apart,it starts to burn on each
other.
And if you're not careful, thenthe very closest people to us
are the ones that we start toburn on the most.
It's it's so often that we aspastors over time, especially
over these years, we've we'veinteracted with people.
Many times it, you know, it'sit's not started overnight.
(16:35):
It's been a long process there,but we kind of get to it right
before it starts to really bedevastating.
And we get in the conversationthere towards that end, and
we're trying to put out firesbecause people are now using
their words to burn each other.
And they're cauterizing thevery open hearts that they want
to have towards each other in amarriage that they want to have
with their their mom and theirdad or their children, their
(16:58):
grandchildren, and they're usingthese words and it's burning
one another.
And they start to pull backfrom each other, and so now
they're breaking down in theircommunication, and in a
marriage, they're breaking downin their marriage, their
communication, and thereforetheir intimacy.
And so they're no longerintimate, and then that makes a
whole nother level of problems.
And so what happens is that weit's all by not watching what we
(17:20):
say.
And we start burning on eachother and picking up old stuff
that we had already forgiveneach other for and trying to get
even or trying to get ahead,and we're burning each other
down, starting a fire that wedon't even understand how
uncontrollable it can go.
Because many times it justdoesn't burn the person you're
intending, but everyone aroundthem that they're connected to,
(17:42):
and then those things go on andgo on and they grow.
Friends, we don't want to bethose set things ablaze.
We want to be those who are,blessed are the peacemakers,
those that instead put out thatvery flame and actually are
looking to be those of healing.
It continues here in James 3,6.
It says, the tongue is setamong our members, staining the
(18:05):
whole body, setting on fire, theentire course of life and is
and set on fire by hell.
You can imagine as a fire, aswe have many uh, you know, brave
firefighters here within ourchurch community, how they, as
we're running away from thefire, they run into the fire.
And I was thinking about thehot shots that gave their lives
(18:26):
for the safety of our state andand many others that would do
this.
And they can, you know, we'veseen it happen, just a small
cigarette butt out the window,or a small flame that's not put
out properly at a campsite thatstarts this massive blaze.
I've driven down the freewaywhen the flames were huge.
They didn't shut the freewayyet.
And the flames are huge, andthey started to jump the median
(18:46):
jump and start to catch fire onthe other side.
And even though you think thatit's going to be safe, oh, it's
contained over here.
It's good, no, it's not.
No, it's not.
And the flame can jump.
And that's the same thingwhenever we start to be those
that don't control what we say.
And I'm the first to tell you,man, I don't always get it
right.
Many times we say things thatwe don't really mean, right?
But we're saying those thingsand they're venomous, and it
(19:08):
can't take it back.
We can go and say, I'm sorry,will you forgive me?
But many times the damage isalready done.
So we need to be those who arenot just saying, I'm sorry, but
then following up with ourconsistency and how we live
behind the words we say.
That's why the Holy Spirit inActs 2, whenever the Holy
Spirit's poured out upon thechurch, it says they were there
(19:30):
as the Lord ascended back toheaven.
He said, Go and wait for theempowerment of the Holy Spirit
to be upon you, and you will bemy witnesses.
He didn't say, Go be mywitnesses.
He said, Wait for the power tobe my witnesses, and then go be
my witnesses.
And the reason is that thefirst thing the Holy Spirit did
is that he showed that his powerwas upon them by using a signal
of the flame of fire abovetheir head.
(19:50):
But also the first thing he didwas control their tongue.
And that by his spirit, saysthe spirit breaks the yoke of
bondage off of people.
That's why the power of theHoly Spirit is so profound, and
that's why God wants to use ourmouths to be those that are
blessing others and speakingtruth and love instead of
cutting others down.
That's why the first moment ofthe early church, empowered by
(20:14):
the power of the Spirit of God,profess the wonders and proclaim
the glory of God in all thesedifferent languages.
Because he was saying, I willhave my way in and through you,
and you will be my mouthpiece tothe world around you.
Friends, that we would be thosethat watch what we say.
And watch that we're not beingthose that cut others down.
(20:37):
I can tell you that's achallenge.
And if we're not careful, wewill default into our old
pre-the-baptistry personalitytypes, right?
Because what we're saying in abaptism is, Lord, I'm dead to
sin, I'm alive in you.
I don't want to be like my oldself.
Many times when we get pressed,we default back into what makes
(20:58):
us safe, which is putting upthe walls and keeping people at
bay, right?
As if a tiger was coming foryou, you got that stick out with
the flame, and many times it'sthe words we're saying towards
others around us.
That we instead would be thosethat understand that the living
God who values you and knowsyour circumstances, he will
speak to you in that waydirectly to you.
He wants to use you to be thesame kind of resounding,
(21:22):
consistent encouragement topeople around you instead of
tearing others down.
In scripture it says this,continuing here in James, it
picks up and says, For everykind of beast and bird of
reptile and sea creature can betamed and has been tamed by
mankind, but no human being cantame the tongue.
(21:45):
It is a restless evil full ofdeadly poison.
So often it's you know happensas we're trying to walk this
tension out of serving Jesus, isthat we sometimes can talk out
of both sides of our mouth.
And what I mean by that is thatyou say this one thing when
you're at church and with yourchurch community, and you say
(22:07):
this one thing whenever you'rearound a different group of
people, like maybe your friendsor your work.
And friends, we're not calledto be those, but called to be
consistent in what we say toothers and what we speak out of
our mouths.
You know, you see thisgentleman here, he's doing a
pitch for somebody, he'sobviously very prepared, but
even in all his preparation, itwon't keep him from his tongue
(22:28):
being vile, because that's inthe brokenness of who we are.
That's why we can't do this onour own, and we have to go to
the Lord and say, Lord, help me,empower me, Holy Spirit, guide
me in what I'm saying.
Tell me when to shut up.
Don't nudge anybody.
I saw people nudging people.
Don't nudge anybody.
Lord, help us to watch ourmouths.
(22:52):
Help us to be those that make adifference.
You know, I love this pictureof this woman smiling.
It reminds me of some timesthat we had in ministry in
Thailand.
I was thinking about that withPastor Angus and how we were in
Thailand and amongst amazingpeople, and even in some of
those communities, in theFilipino community, the Thai
community, and others, man, sucha genuine genuineness with
them.
They had such beautiful smiles,and it's part of their culture.
(23:14):
They would lead with a smile.
Whereas in the West, in somecultures, we're more stoic, want
to, you know, keep the smileoff your face, look tough, look
cool, you know what I mean?
Keep your hair slick back.
What's up?
It was so nice to have a warmsmile, and and and you we knew
the backstory.
They weren't leading with theirstory.
We knew the backstory becausetheir pastor shared it with us
(23:35):
so we could pray.
They were going through lotsand lots of difficult things.
But they were leading with asmile because the joy of the
Lord was their strength, even inthe midst of difficult
circumstances.
They didn't let theircircumstances dictate what they
were gonna say to the Lord andhow they were gonna handle their
circumstances.
And I love that because whathappens if we don't do that, it
(23:56):
becomes problematic.
If we don't watch our tongue,then we become problematic in
what what we do with our lifeand our witness to others.
I'll give you an example.
Um, you know, often the thingthat I get challenged with is
whenever I start talking topeople in traffic.
Now, I know no one else doesthis.
This is just my problem.
(24:17):
But you can imagine as youlearn from my problem what I
mean.
You know, whenever I drive onthe road, it seems like all the
morons in the whole world aredriving in front of me in front
of my car.
And I want them to leave.
I'm not a moron, clearly, Idrive very well.
But others, I'm being tongueand mouth, obviously, I'm not
calling anyone a fool.
The idea is that when you, youknow, sometimes you're in a rush
(24:37):
and you don't have control overwhat others are doing, and
you're just like, and you getmad, and I'm starting to talk at
people in other cars.
Saying things that I hope thatthey don't identify with the
church sticker on the back ofthe truck.
And I realize if I'm notcareful that the very words I'm
saying are gonna have actionsthat I can't undo connected to
(25:00):
them.
And it's gonna become way moreof a mess than if I kept my cool
and I kept my tongue in check.
See, culturally, we grew up outhere, man, like sarcasm was a
love language, you know what Imean?
You had the five love languagebook from Chapman, and the sixth
love language was sarcasm.
And that was like my favoriteone.
I was like, check mark, got it.
You know, like we love beingsarcastic, we burn each other
(25:22):
down, all stuff.
And it was like a sign of love.
But I tell you this, it onlyworks so long whenever you're
immature.
You get into maturerelationships where you're going
through something that's reallythere, and you start doing that
kind of stuff, they can't trustyou to bring you something
serious.
They can't trust you thatyou're not gonna burn them down
when they're being vulnerable.
So they'll keep that wall rightup.
(25:42):
And we'll keep that wall rightup because we're also scared,
and that's why we're usingsarcasm as a defense mechanism
to try to keep people away.
But Lord help us that we wouldwatch what we say, and by
watching what we say, we watchwhat we think, and by watching
what we think, we watch what theinputs are on our perspective,
(26:03):
it will change everything.
I can tell you, man, just bylistening to something different
when I'm driving, it affects myattitude when I'm driving.
I can listen to the same genreof music.
Maybe it's Christian metal andthen other metal that's on.
Maybe I just turn on the radioand it's a song that I knew from
back then.
I knew all the lyrics too.
I'm like, I'll just wait amoment before I turn the channel
back to the Christian station.
And it's like, and I'm like,that's right, road rage.
(26:26):
Whereas I could be listening tothe same kind of music, like
Jesus.
I'm like, praise the Lord,praise the Lord.
And then I turn on Sandy Patty,you know, oh the idea is that
we want to watch the inputs thatwe have, and those who have a
voice in our life, because it'llvery much affect our
(26:47):
perspective, which affects whatwe think about, which affects
what we say.
And when we change what we say,it'll change all of our actions
around us, because our actionswill follow what we say.
We come back to the scripturehere, and it says this in James
3, 9 and 10, meaning our mouthswe bless with with it, we bless
(27:09):
our Lord and Father, and with itwe curse people who are made in
the likeness of God.
From the same mouth comeblessing and cursing.
My brothers, these things oughtnot be so.
So, friends, let us be thosethat speak blessing.
So the people around you inyour sphere of influence,
they're blessed.
Let us be those who speak thetruth in love, not without love,
(27:31):
because without love it sayswe're like a clanging symbol,
that they can't hear the truthbecause it doesn't come with
love.
So let us speak the truth inlove.
Let us be those who areintrospective and look at the
plank in our own eye before wetry to go for the speck in our
sister's eye, and that we wouldbe those who speak blessing and
not curses.
And guess what?
Whenever we do that, even if wedon't get it perfect, if we ask
(27:54):
for forgiveness and come backto the Lord and ask for his
empowerment, then the Spiritwill do that very thing.
It takes all the pressure offof us.
Because then it starts being anew habit in what we say and how
we say it.
And then you don't have toworry that Pastor Celeste is
there listening to you made cusswords.
Because it's no longer anatural habit.
(28:14):
And I can tell you, man,there's been seasons of life,
especially when I was young,man, it was seasons of life
where I was trying every cussword out as if it was part of
the, you know, just colorfullanguage, just trying to just
dress up the my sentences.
And I think that can become ahabit if we're not careful.
But it's not about the cusswords and being about, oh, this
is this and this is this.
No, no, no.
What's your heart behind whatyou're doing?
(28:34):
When you change the motivationbehind your heart, then it will
change the outputs from yourheart.
Because it says from theabundance of the heart, the
mouth speaks.
So let us be those who watchwhat our heart is about.
It takes all the pressure offhow we live for God because now
we're just in alignment withHim.
And do like we talked aboutlast week in James 1.22, be
(28:57):
doers of the word, not justhearers of the word.
And in doing so, we aren'tgoing to deceive ourselves that
we're following God correctly.
No, friends, we know we will,because his word is what's being
put into our hearts every day,and his word is what's coming
out of our lips as we professthe love of God over our lives.
Three takeaways today as wetalk about this idea of messy,
(29:18):
and in doing so, the first isthis that we will be those who
speak faith over fear.
We are speaking faith overfear.
The very thing that drives usmany times that offensive
measures or being those who tearothers down is fear.
It's a fear of the unknown,it's a fear of control, lack of
control.
Friends, we don't live in that.
(29:39):
We have a God who is greater.
It says, in him we are morethan conquerors.
We are more than conquerors,friends, because we belong to
Jesus.
So in that way, we can speakfaith over fear, speak faith to
our circumstances.
Yes, I know what I'm goingthrough.
I'm not delusional, I'mpragmatic in the idea, but guess
what?
I still I serve a big God whocan do the miracle in my life.
(30:03):
I'm no longer who I used to be.
I'm forgiven of those things.
It's broken off of me.
We left it in the tub when wewere said we're dead to sin and
alive in God.
And so now I'm going to speakfaith, not fear.
The second is this (30:16):
we're speaking the truth and love.
We're speaking good things andthe word of God over our friends
and family.
Let it be coming out of yourmouth that you're the one who's
encouraging.
You're the one who'sencouraging in your sphere of
influence with your work group,with the people around you in
your neighborhood, that you'reusing your voice to build each
(30:36):
other up, that you're nottearing people down, but that
they can come to you and they'llknow they'll get sound advice.
Why?
Because you're speakingconsistently over them with the
word of God that's inside of youbecause of the Spirit of God is
inside of you.
Because the word of God thatyou spent time in your Bible is
inside of you, and so it'scoming out of you.
And that's something thathappens as we speak those
(30:58):
things.
See the impact that'll happenin your immediate life with your
friends and family.
The third is this that we wouldbe those who are speaking that
truth, speaking that love.
We speak it over our future.
That we speak to the futuresaying, guess what?
I know what might have beenspoken over me when I was young.
Maybe someone said, You're notgood enough.
(31:18):
Maybe someone said, Oh, all youdo is get it wrong.
Maybe they said that you'llnever amount to anything.
Friends, let me tell you this.
I break it in the name of JesusChrist off of you right now.
That is not who you are.
That might be a past.
That is not your trajection.
I know what they're trying todo is they were trying to use it
as a way to make you do better.
And okay, I understand that,but listen, you are better than
(31:41):
the brokenness that you camefrom because you're made whole
in Jesus Christ and he has afuture for you that is not your
past.
So as we walk in Jesus, as wewalk in alignment with him, we
see that we are no longer thecharacter of the person we were
before.
And we don't have to live withthat guilt upon us.
Friends, that we would watchwhat we say, and that if we're
(32:03):
gonna have a filthy mouth, letit be of one singing praise to
God in the middle of a dirtstorm, spitting mud out whenever
we're singing bad Spanish, thenlet it be curse words or
tearing someone else down.
Let us be those who proclaimthe love of God wherever we go.
Friends' life is messy.
God can handle it.
(32:24):
Today we have this opportunityto respond to the love of God,
and we do that, each one of usunderstanding that we're no
better than anyone else.
Accept that we've accepted thelove of God's work in our lives,
and He, it's His work in ourcircumstance that's made us
clean.
We said, Lord, I know I'mbroken, I know I'm a sinner, I
ask you to forgive me of my sin.
(32:45):
And that's why each one of ushas to answer this question of
have you embraced Jesus?
Already today, there werepeople who made a decision to
follow Jesus.
Encourage you to do the same.
That if you haven't done soalready, you would make that
same decision to invite him intoyour heart and life, forgive
you of your sins, start a newlife in Christ, and live for
(33:06):
Jesus today.
See, for us, the symbol of thecross is one of profound
freedom.
It's one of forgiveness andliberty because the cross is the
symbol of where Jesus took mybrokenness and my sin.
He took all of yours.
And he took it and he died uponthe cross with all the weight
of the sin of the world uponhim.
That's why the cross is asymbol for us.
(33:29):
It should be of terror for us,but it's not because Jesus took
all of that brokenness uponhimself.
And when he died, he paid forthat sin for everyone, for all
people, for all time.
And so when we place our faithand trust in Jesus, we're
saying, Lord, I believe thatyour work upon the cross was for
me, and that you, the holysacrifice of God, the only holy
(33:53):
sacrifice that the Father wouldaccept, was made on my behalf.
Apostle Paul, he writes it likethis to the church at Rome.
He says, Because if you confesswith your mouth that Jesus is
Lord, and believe in your heartthat God raised him from the
dead, you will be saved.
(34:13):
For with the heart one believesand is justified, with the
mouth one confesses and issaved.
Friends, today, it's youropportunity to say yes to Jesus.
To invite him into your heartand life.
As Christians are praying foryou.
(34:35):
Friends, if you're online,wherever you are, just take a
moment and pause to hear fromthe Lord who wants to speak to
you today.
Maybe you're here today andyou've never made Jesus the Lord
of your life.
Today is your opportunity tomake that decision.
To ask him into your heart andlife.
Maybe you have made thatdecision in the past, but it's
(34:57):
been a season where you haven'tbeen living that for the Lord.
Today, that you would make acommitment to recommit your life
back to him.
To say, Lord, that I you wouldbe the Lord of my life, that I'd
live for you.
As heads are bowed and eyes areclosed here.
If that's you, you just want tobe included in that prayer
today.
You just raise your hand andsay, Pastor, that's me.
I just want to invite Jesusinto my heart and life today.
(35:18):
I want to make a decision tofollow Jesus today.
That's you.
If you just raise your handwith the eye, I see a hand
that's here and a hand that'sthere, a hand that's over there
as well.
See a few hands that are there,other hands and other people
making decisions for God.
We see the hands that are heretoo.
Thank you, Jesus.
Those upstairs as well, guys.
We see you.
Praise the Lord.
So many making decisions forJesus today.
I'm gonna ask if everyonewould, if they would pray this
(35:40):
prayer out loud after me, evenif you're online wherever you
are.
You say, Lord, thank you forloving me.
Thank you for sending Jesus.
I believe Jesus died on thecross for my sins.
I believe he rose again.
(36:01):
Forgive me of my sins.
I surrender my life to you.
In Christ's name I pray.
Amen.
Amen.
Friends, we rejoice if you makea decision for Jesus today.
So many of you that raise yourhand today.
Praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord.
Hey, if that was you, take amoment, both online or here in
(36:25):
the room, take a snapshot ofthis QR code and follow it.
And it'll give you someresources to get connected with
us so that you don't do thislife alone.
We want you to be successful infollowing Jesus.
You know, we have thisopportunity right now, during
this song, just to respond tothe Lord, to come to this altar
and to make a place with him.
Maybe you're someone who justneeds more of his presence in
(36:45):
your life and in your situationthat you can come and just make
a place with God.
We want to come and prayalongside you, agree with you,
just asking for more of the Lordin your life.
Maybe that's wisdom, guidance,maybe you need provision, maybe
you need a new opportunity forwork, or maybe you need just
something together in yourrelationship with each other.
Maybe it's a relationship witha parent or a child, a
grandchild, whatever it would bein this season, that you would
(37:08):
come and make an altar with Godand draw near.
As he draws near to you, youdraw near to him.
Thank you, Lord, for thisopportunity.
Thank you for your word whichspeaks to us.
And Lord, we thank you forJames and writing these things
to us to challenge us.
Lord, just like to the earlychurch in which it's written,
Lord, we too can glean fromthese truths.
Lord, that you would help us,Lord, with what we say, with
(37:28):
what we say and how we say it.
But Lord, help us, Lord, towatch our mouths.
Lord, that we would be thosenot with filthy mouths of
curses, but instead professingthe love of Christ.
Lord, building each other's up,encouraging others in the word
and in the Lord.
Lord, that we would be thosethat even though we're in this
messy life, Lord, you're helpingus to deal with it.
(37:48):
And you're we're walkingalongside you to come to your
altar, Lord, seeking more ofyour presence.
And we do so in your preciousname, Lord Jesus.
Amen.
Celeste Brown (37:57):
Next Sunday night, we are about to have a
party in this place.
We are gonna decorate thechurch for Christmas.
So I would love for you to joinus.
It's gonna be fun.
This entire place becomes verybeautiful.
And if you're one of thosefamilies that waits until the
day after Thanksgiving, then youneed to come here so you could
do it first before Thanksgiving.
(38:19):
But it's gonna be beautiful.
Come and join us.
It'll be a good night.
Jason Brown (38:23):
Amen.
Before we go, I'm gonna praythis blessing over us.
The Lord bless you and keepyou.
Lord, make his face to shineupon you and be gracious to you.
We'll lift up his countenanceupon you and give you peace.
Lord, I pray a blessing uponyour church, your people.
(38:46):
Well, you empower us by yourSpirit to live your love out to
those around us.
Pray all this in the powerfulname that is Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Amen.
Know this.
We love you very much here atCornerstone.
God bless you and have a greatweek.
Life is messy.
And he would say yes to that.
And since it is, watch yourmouth.
I know this is why you came tochurch tonight.
To watch your mouth.
We've been talking about thisidea of the autumn season and
fall.
We've been talking about howit's a changing of leaves and
(00:21):
that season of change.
And and I would say, you know,as though we don't experience it
here, we've talked about that.
We just get a little bitbrowner, uh, you know, palm
trees here and during fall,that's about it.
But that season of changesparks something in us to
reflect and to think about thethings that God is doing in and
through our lives.
Uh, as we've been talking aboutthis theme called Messi, the
(00:41):
first week we came to James 1.
And if you have your Bible,your tablet, your phone, let me
encourage you to jump back intoJames today.
We're going to be movingthrough it a little bit here.
But we're starting here inJames 1, verse 19 and 20.
It says, Know this, my belovedbrothers, let every person be
quick to hear, slow to speak,slow to anger.
(01:01):
For the anger of man does notproduce the righteousness of
God.
And we are talking about thisconcept and this idea of being
those who are in alignment withGod and understanding that He is
the one that forgives us, He'sthe one that washes us, and He's
the one that does that work inus.
So we need to be those who keepour anger in check.
(01:22):
Similarly, last week we talkedabout this concept out of James
1:26.
If anyone thinks he isreligious and does not bridle
his tongue but deceives hisheart, this person's religion is
worthless.
And we talked about how we needto be those who watch what we
say, because if we're notcareful, we'd be those who curse
(01:42):
instead of bless.
Now, I grew up here in the WestValley and I went to Villa de
Paz Elementary right here inPhoenix.
And in doing so, back then theedge of town was this was all
fields and the edge of thedesert, right?
Like we were the edge of town.
So we had lots of differentfamilies coming in at that time.
So lots of Hispanic friends,and they were teaching me in
(02:03):
third grade all the words that Ineeded to learn, which was all
the cuss words first.
How many people know what I'mtalking about?
And so I didn't really quitehave a grasp of the power of
this language, but I was usingit nonetheless.
And so I'm using it, I'm sayingall these colorful words that
I've been learning from myfriends at school.
And we had a wonderful sisterof ours who's bilingual, and she
(02:26):
heard what I was saying here atchurch, and she was like, Oh,
you have a filthy mouth.
And I was like, Oh, don't tellmy parents.
You know what I'm talkingabout?
So I was trying to survive.
And what I was saying was I wassaying a bunch of curse words.
And so she was saying, Hey, youhave a filthy mouth.
I knew what the punishment wasfor filthy mouth because back in
that day, this is before yougot a timeout, this is before
(02:47):
they took away your phone.
We got what?
Whenever you said bad words,you got both smacked, and then
also washed your mouth out withsoap.
That's right.
You had the real soap.
If your parents were reallydedicated to you, then they
would lather that bad boy upbefore they made you this.
Physically, people under 25,put it in your mouth so that you
learn the lesson about thewords that you were saying.
(03:08):
How many people know what I'mtalking about?
And there was some one of thosewhere if they're a real
gangster, they have you bitedown and pull that soap out so
you get it like this.
You know, they got the soapflakes in there.
You guys know what I'm talkingabout.
Or, next level, liquid soap.
If they go liquid soap on you,you really said something bad.
You probably disrespected yourmom or something.
(03:29):
I don't know what you're doing.
You're willing to way too closeto hell for that.
They're lucky they hit you withthe soap.
That stuff would get in there,man.
You would be at soccer practicelater in the week drinking a
Gatorade, and the soap wouldreveal itself again.
You guys know what I'm talkingabout.
This was like layers, layers ofunderstanding.
So, what the idea was is thatthey were trying to teach you to
(03:50):
watch your mouth.
Watch what you say, becauseyour words have power.
You know, we there was thelittle rhyme when we were
little, sticks and stones willbreak my bones, words and never
hurt me.
But with the in with the invitwith the in uh in with the using
of the internet and so much ofthe words online, we find that
(04:10):
the power of words are veryprofound and they very much are
venomous, and they do hurt us asmuch as someone smacking us
across the head.
So we need to watch our mouths.
Now, as we talk about this ideaof messy, we have to understand
that life is messy, but God canhandle it.
(04:32):
If we haven't met, my name isJay, and we're so thankful that
you're getting a chance toworship together, that we had
this opportunity to come andworship the Lord here.
If we haven't met andconnected, Celeste and I have
such a great opportunity to leadhere in this community of
faith, and we're blessed to doso.
All of us are people who arenot perfect.
None of us is.
All of us are in need of asavior.
(04:53):
And since that's true, then weuse this imagery of the
disciples walking with Jesusbecause that's how we see
ourselves as people who have notarrived, but are very much on
that journey following Jesus.
And so we're walking after himwhere he's leading us to go.
It's our heart that each one ofus, both personally and then
corporately, we want to be morelike Jesus.
(05:16):
And so we do that throughoutthe week throughout the city in
life groups, and we do that aswe connect and grow and serve
together.
Those life groups are coming toan end this final week of life
groups.
In fact, if you're someone whois in that younger demographic,
let me encourage you that thisweek, this Wednesday, is the
young adults uh worship meetingthey're gonna be having on
Wednesday.
So jump in with that, be a partof that.
(05:37):
That's been a really powerfultime for all that have been a
part of it.
That's one of those life groupexperiences, men's, women's
groups, all sorts of groups havebeen going on.
I know people are hiking amountain this week, doing all
sorts of things in life groups.
So let it be a blessing to you.
We start a new semester in thenew year, so pre-decide that
you're gonna be a part of it.
Collectively, we love God, wemake disciples, we reach the
(05:58):
world.
Now, a few weeks back, we weretalking about the idea that
everyone has dirty laundry.
That means that all of us havesinned, all of us have messed
up, and we're a little bit, youknow, scared to bring our dirty
laundry and air it out for theworld to see.
And so I think that's whypeople are a little hesitant to
come to the Lord and try to workon some of this thing, but all
of us have fallen short of theglory of God.
(06:20):
None is righteous, no, not one.
And so the idea is that eachone of us are in this process.
And we talked about this at aJames 1, verses in two and
three.
And you pick it up here, itsays, Count it all joy, my
brothers, when you meet trialsof various kinds, for you know
that the testing of your faithproduces steadfastness.
(06:41):
We are talking about how noneof us is perfect, we all will
make mistakes, but it's the Lordwho will help us even in the
middle of times of trial.
In the same way last week, wetalked about it from the
perspective of unfinishedprojects.
And we are talking about howthose things can get on top of
us, and we need to be those whodon't procrastinate, but instead
(07:01):
are those who are setting asidewhat's most important, like our
time with God every day, andthen making plans for the things
that we say yes and give ouryes to.
We talked about this out ofJames 1:22.
But be doers of the word andnot hearers only, deceiving
yourselves.
We want to be those who aredoing what the word says and not
(07:22):
just listening to it.
Today we're gonna talk aboutthis idea of your filthy mouth
and my filthy mouth.
The scripture is James 3,verses 9 and 10.
Let me encourage you tohighlight this today.
It says, with it, meaning ourmouths, we bless our Lord and
Father, and with it we cursepeople who are made in the
likeness of God from the samemouth, blessing and cursing.
(07:46):
My brothers, these things oughtnot be so.
Let's pray.
Lord, we thank you for yourword, and we thank you, Lord,
how you challenge us.
Holy Spirit, how you breatheupon it and you make it alive
and transformative.
And so, Lord, we ask that verything, Lord, that you would open
our hearts, Lord, that we wouldbe challenged to be more like
your character.
(08:06):
We pray this in the name ofJesus Christ.
Amen.
So the idea of messy life ismessy.
Now, I wanted to bring thestory back to you.
Some have heard this over time,but is back from whenever I was
done with university, I kind ofhad uh an interesting year.
I was supposed to go to lawschool, but instead had more of
like a gap year.
(08:27):
And I ended up going and movingto Mazatlawn after living in
Santa Barbara and some otherplaces.
And as I moved to Mazatlawn,you know, there's this wonderful
uh idea of like where it is andthe sun and the reflection of
the sunny coasts and all thegreat things.
But that's not where we lived.
We lived with the people in themiddle of all the stuff, but we
were working with teams in thein the golden zone, the zona
(08:48):
dorada that was there, as wellas in other parts of the city.
So you can see this next piece,it's a beautiful place where
lots of people will come.
Uh, and that's it, tourismdrives a lot of the economy
there.
But there's a whole set ofpeople that live in difficult
circumstances there.
So we were helping to plant thethe church there, Centro de
Vida Mazatlan, uh, and as wellas we were doing church in the
(09:08):
prisons, we were doing churchout at the city dump.
And there were people that werethere working amongst the the
garbage, the refuse there,working there amongst it.
It's dirty, it's filthy, thekids are walking around with no
shoes on.
It was a whole thing.
And we would go, we'd takegenerators and string lights
out, and we would plug in someamps and and we would play work
(09:28):
worship music and then we wouldpreach and pray for the people
and minister to them, provide ameal.
It was a powerful time.
And it was one of those thingsthat really, as a kid growing up
here in the West, you know, Ihad a job since I was 15.
I had pocket money, I got tobuy stuff I wanted.
And to see these kids who hadnothing, it really humbled me
(09:48):
and started to give me a realunderstanding of the blessings
we have here in our country, theopportunity we have here, and
more importantly, how thesepeople who have nothing
materially, they had the love ofJesus Christ.
And so they still had a smileon the face, even though they
lived in the middle of the citydump.
And so it was somethingprofound thinking about that in
(10:09):
my own heart and life.
Well, we were done with doingchurch there.
We needed to go to the nextthing we were doing that night.
We had a bunch of things backto back.
So we're loading the van.
We load the team up, my friendTim and I, and we load the van,
we put the speakers back in theback of a truck.
Remember when you used to sitin the back of a truck?
You guys remember that?
Back before they made you weara helmet and a seatbelt and all
that stuff.
We were fine.
So we were sitting in the backof this truck and we throw the
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last things in, and I'm holdingTim's guitar so it doesn't get
messed up.
We're throwing the last piecein.
There's it's so packed, we justkind of pull the tailgate down
and I hand him back his guitar.
And I was the drummer at thattime for us, and so we're kind
of like just jamming out andwe're singing a worship song as
we pull out of this uh this areaat the dump.
Now, like anyone who grew up atthe edge of the desert, the
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dump is full of loose dirt.
And so as you peeled out of thedump, man, this huge cloud of
dirt.
It was like one of the duststorms we experienced, right?
Or the haboob that comesthrough.
This massive cloud of dust wascoming off the back of the
truck.
And we're playing and we'resinging in our terrible Spanish.
We're having a great time.
And you know, the song, itsays, if you have faith like a
mustard seed, you will say tothe mountain, move and it will
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move.
So lo dices, and notice whatthe Lord says to you, and you
say, Se moverá, se moverá.
You will say, Move and it willmove.
It's a powerful thing.
And as we're singing this out,belting it out, dust everywhere,
all around.
I look over at Tim, and Tim,because of the amount of dirt
and we're singing open mouth, ishis mouth is full of mud that
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is now on his tongue and histeeth, and he's trying to speak
Spanish and singing, and I'mover here, he's looking at me.
I got the same thing going allup in my mouth.
This is nasty, man.
But I'll tell you, if you'regonna have a filthy mouth, let
it be a filthy mouth like that.
Where you're giving love andpraise to the Lord and you're
exalting the Lord with yourfilthy mouth, but your praise is
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coming out, it's not filthy.
And so it's not about yourdental hygiene, it's about what
words you're using with you.
We look to the scripture herein James, coming back to the
word of God here today with thisidea of a filthy mouth.
James 3, 3 says, if we put bitsinto the mouths of horses, so
they will obey us, we will guidetheir bodies as well.
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So it's continuing with thisidea of watching and guiding
your mouth, of controlling whatyou say.
And anyone who's you know,worked around a horse, you
understand that so much of thecontrol of them is how you guide
their head.
And so you can put a bridle onthem and you can guide them.
And even with the bridle onthem, sometimes they could be
honry and want to bite you asyou walk by or or do that.
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Anyone been bit by a horse, youlearn that lesson one time.
And that's one of those thingswhere you keep your eyes open
and you're like, wait, wait.
But the thing is, you put a bitin that horse's mouth, and even
a very cantankerous, crankyhorse will do what you want
because you can pull back onthat bit and it will do what you
say.
And so it's interesting becauseI think so often, this is the
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very thing, is that if we don'tguard our mouths in what we're
saying, then all sorts of otherthings will happen whenever we
say things that are wrong.
And I think so often that theenemy of our soul, he wants to
use the words that we're sayingto try to direct us a different
way.
He wants you to be a vesselused by him, so you're gonna be
the one saying venomous things,or you're gonna be the one
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cutting on someone else.
Friends, let's not be likethat.
Let's be those who only giveour control of who we are to God
and to him alone, so that wecan be in alignment with him.
It continues here and gives usan example in James 3, verse 4.
It says, Look at the shipsalso, though they are so large
and are driven by strong winds,they are guided by a very small
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rudder, whatever the will of thepilot decrees.
And we see this as well.
We see someone who would be thecaptain of the boat, right?
They're steering the boat,they're controlling the boat and
where it's going.
And in doing so, they're movingit from this place to that.
And that's a powerful idea.
It's a powerful image becausewe see, you know, Captain Jack
Sparrow at the helm of his boatdoing these things.
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We're like, wow, that'sawesome.
Not realizing that it's notreally the wheel.
The wheel is connected to therudder in the back of the ship.
And without that rudder, theship is not going to go where
the wheel goes.
And so it's that little bit atthe very back of our large
vessel that directs the vesselback and forth.
And that's very much like ourtongue.
It's like the things we say, isthat we need to watch those
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things because they very muchwill dictate where we go and
what we do.
How many people know that ifyou say things long enough,
you'll start to act on thethings you say?
And it comes from a mindsetperspective.
That's why we talk about havingthe mind of Christ, right?
Having a perspective from Godso we can have a mind of Christ,
so we can make decisions thatwhen we speak, we're not
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speaking ill or negative things,we're speaking truth and
blessing.
Because whenever we're speakingnegative things, even over
those around us or overourselves, we start to follow
those things because that'swhere the steering is taking us
to go.
Let's look again at thescripture here in James 3, now
in verse 5.
It says, So also the tongue isa small member, yet it boasts of
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great things.
How great a forest is setablaze by such a small fire, and
the tongue is a fire, a worldof unrighteousness.
It says it sets things ablaze.
You know, so often we weinteract with others and we
don't realize that by sayingthings negative to them or by
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hitting them and not just whatwe say but how we say it.
Any people know what I'mtalking about?
That's like when your kid saysyes, mom, but they say it with
attitude and you still want toslap them.
You guys know what I'm talkingabout?
You don't.
But you could.
But you know what I'm saying?
It's because of how they say itback to you.
It's because it's the the heartbehind what you say.
And whenever you have someheart behind what you say that's
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negative, it becomes like anemotional grenade thrown into
that conversation, right?
It starts to blow things apart,it starts to burn on each
other.
And if you're not careful, thenthe very closest people to us
are the ones that we start toburn on the most.
It's it's so often that we aspastors over time, especially
over these years, we've we'veinteracted with people.
Many times it, you know, it'sit's not started overnight.
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It's been a long process there,but we kind of get to it right
before it starts to really bedevastating.
And we get in the conversationthere towards that end, and
we're trying to put out firesbecause people are now using
their words to burn each other.
And they're cauterizing thevery open hearts that they want
to have towards each other in amarriage that they want to have
with their their mom and theirdad or their children, their
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grandchildren, and they're usingthese words and it's burning
one another.
And they start to pull backfrom each other, and so now
they're breaking down in theircommunication, and in a
marriage, they're breaking downin their marriage, their
communication, and thereforetheir intimacy.
And so they're no longerintimate, and then that makes a
whole nother level of problems.
And so what happens is that weit's all by not watching what we
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say.
And we start burning on eachother and picking up old stuff
that we had already forgiveneach other for and trying to get
even or trying to get ahead,and we're burning each other
down, starting a fire that wedon't even understand how
uncontrollable it can go.
Because many times it justdoesn't burn the person you're
intending, but everyone aroundthem that they're connected to,
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and then those things go on andgo on and they grow.
Friends, we don't want to bethose set things ablaze.
We want to be those who are,blessed are the peacemakers,
those that instead put out thatvery flame and actually are
looking to be those of healing.
It continues here in James 3,6.
It says, the tongue is setamong our members, staining the
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whole body, setting on fire, theentire course of life and is
and set on fire by hell.
You can imagine as a fire, aswe have many uh, you know, brave
firefighters here within ourchurch community, how they, as
we're running away from thefire, they run into the fire.
And I was thinking about thehot shots that gave their lives
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for the safety of our state andand many others that would do
this.
And they can, you know, we'veseen it happen, just a small
cigarette butt out the window,or a small flame that's not put
out properly at a campsite thatstarts this massive blaze.
I've driven down the freewaywhen the flames were huge.
They didn't shut the freewayyet.
And the flames are huge, andthey started to jump the median
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jump and start to catch fire onthe other side.
And even though you think thatit's going to be safe, oh, it's
contained over here.
It's good, no, it's not.
No, it's not.
And the flame can jump.
And that's the same thingwhenever we start to be those
that don't control what we say.
And I'm the first to tell you,man, I don't always get it
right.
Many times we say things thatwe don't really mean, right?
But we're saying those thingsand they're venomous, and it
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can't take it back.
We can go and say, I'm sorry,will you forgive me?
But many times the damage isalready done.
So we need to be those who arenot just saying, I'm sorry, but
then following up with ourconsistency and how we live
behind the words we say.
That's why the Holy Spirit inActs 2, whenever the Holy
Spirit's poured out upon thechurch, it says they were there
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as the Lord ascended back toheaven.
He said, Go and wait for theempowerment of the Holy Spirit
to be upon you, and you will bemy witnesses.
He didn't say, Go be mywitnesses.
He said, Wait for the power tobe my witnesses, and then go be
my witnesses.
And the reason is that thefirst thing the Holy Spirit did
is that he showed that his powerwas upon them by using a signal
of the flame of fire abovetheir head.
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But also the first thing he didwas control their tongue.
And that by his spirit, saysthe spirit breaks the yoke of
bondage off of people.
That's why the power of theHoly Spirit is so profound, and
that's why God wants to use ourmouths to be those that are
blessing others and speakingtruth and love instead of
cutting others down.
That's why the first moment ofthe early church, empowered by
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the power of the Spirit of God,profess the wonders and proclaim
the glory of God in all thesedifferent languages.
Because he was saying, I willhave my way in and through you,
and you will be my mouthpiece tothe world around you.
Friends, that we would be thosethat watch what we say.
And watch that we're not beingthose that cut others down.
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I can tell you that's achallenge.
And if we're not careful, wewill default into our old
pre-the-baptistry personalitytypes, right?
Because what we're saying in abaptism is, Lord, I'm dead to
sin, I'm alive in you.
I don't want to be like my oldself.
Many times when we get pressed,we default back into what makes
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us safe, which is putting upthe walls and keeping people at
bay, right?
As if a tiger was coming foryou, you got that stick out with
the flame, and many times it'sthe words we're saying towards
others around us.
That we instead would be thosethat understand that the living
God who values you and knowsyour circumstances, he will
speak to you in that waydirectly to you.
He wants to use you to be thesame kind of resounding,
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consistent encouragement topeople around you instead of
tearing others down.
In scripture it says this,continuing here in James, it
picks up and says, For everykind of beast and bird of
reptile and sea creature can betamed and has been tamed by
mankind, but no human being cantame the tongue.
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It is a restless evil full ofdeadly poison.
So often it's you know happensas we're trying to walk this
tension out of serving Jesus, isthat we sometimes can talk out
of both sides of our mouth.
And what I mean by that is thatyou say this one thing when
you're at church and with yourchurch community, and you say
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this one thing whenever you'rearound a different group of
people, like maybe your friendsor your work.
And friends, we're not calledto be those, but called to be
consistent in what we say toothers and what we speak out of
our mouths.
You know, you see thisgentleman here, he's doing a
pitch for somebody, he'sobviously very prepared, but
even in all his preparation, itwon't keep him from his tongue
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being vile, because that's inthe brokenness of who we are.
That's why we can't do this onour own, and we have to go to
the Lord and say, Lord, help me,empower me, Holy Spirit, guide
me in what I'm saying.
Tell me when to shut up.
Don't nudge anybody.
I saw people nudging people.
Don't nudge anybody.
Lord, help us to watch ourmouths.
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Help us to be those that make adifference.
You know, I love this pictureof this woman smiling.
It reminds me of some timesthat we had in ministry in
Thailand.
I was thinking about that withPastor Angus and how we were in
Thailand and amongst amazingpeople, and even in some of
those communities, in theFilipino community, the Thai
community, and others, man, sucha genuine genuineness with
them.
They had such beautiful smiles,and it's part of their culture.
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They would lead with a smile.
Whereas in the West, in somecultures, we're more stoic, want
to, you know, keep the smileoff your face, look tough, look
cool, you know what I mean?
Keep your hair slick back.
What's up?
It was so nice to have a warmsmile, and and and you we knew
the backstory.
They weren't leading with theirstory.
We knew the backstory becausetheir pastor shared it with us
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so we could pray.
They were going through lotsand lots of difficult things.
But they were leading with asmile because the joy of the
Lord was their strength, even inthe midst of difficult
circumstances.
They didn't let theircircumstances dictate what they
were gonna say to the Lord andhow they were gonna handle their
circumstances.
And I love that because whathappens if we don't do that, it
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becomes problematic.
If we don't watch our tongue,then we become problematic in
what what we do with our lifeand our witness to others.
I'll give you an example.
Um, you know, often the thingthat I get challenged with is
whenever I start talking topeople in traffic.
Now, I know no one else doesthis.
This is just my problem.
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But you can imagine as youlearn from my problem what I
mean.
You know, whenever I drive onthe road, it seems like all the
morons in the whole world aredriving in front of me in front
of my car.
And I want them to leave.
I'm not a moron, clearly, Idrive very well.
But others, I'm being tongueand mouth, obviously, I'm not
calling anyone a fool.
The idea is that when you, youknow, sometimes you're in a rush
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and you don't have control overwhat others are doing, and
you're just like, and you getmad, and I'm starting to talk at
people in other cars.
Saying things that I hope thatthey don't identify with the
church sticker on the back ofthe truck.
And I realize if I'm notcareful that the very words I'm
saying are gonna have actionsthat I can't undo connected to
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them.
And it's gonna become way moreof a mess than if I kept my cool
and I kept my tongue in check.
See, culturally, we grew up outhere, man, like sarcasm was a
love language, you know what Imean?
You had the five love languagebook from Chapman, and the sixth
love language was sarcasm.
And that was like my favoriteone.
I was like, check mark, got it.
You know, like we love beingsarcastic, we burn each other
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down, all stuff.
And it was like a sign of love.
But I tell you this, it onlyworks so long whenever you're
immature.
You get into maturerelationships where you're going
through something that's reallythere, and you start doing that
kind of stuff, they can't trustyou to bring you something
serious.
They can't trust you thatyou're not gonna burn them down
when they're being vulnerable.
So they'll keep that wall rightup.
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And we'll keep that wall rightup because we're also scared,
and that's why we're usingsarcasm as a defense mechanism
to try to keep people away.
But Lord help us that we wouldwatch what we say, and by
watching what we say, we watchwhat we think, and by watching
what we think, we watch what theinputs are on our perspective,
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it will change everything.
I can tell you, man, just bylistening to something different
when I'm driving, it affects myattitude when I'm driving.
I can listen to the same genreof music.
Maybe it's Christian metal andthen other metal that's on.
Maybe I just turn on the radioand it's a song that I knew from
back then.
I knew all the lyrics too.
I'm like, I'll just wait amoment before I turn the channel
back to the Christian station.
And it's like, and I'm like,that's right, road rage.
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Whereas I could be listening tothe same kind of music, like
Jesus.
I'm like, praise the Lord,praise the Lord.
And then I turn on Sandy Patty,you know, oh the idea is that
we want to watch the inputs thatwe have, and those who have a
voice in our life, because it'llvery much affect our
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perspective, which affects whatwe think about, which affects
what we say.
And when we change what we say,it'll change all of our actions
around us, because our actionswill follow what we say.
We come back to the scripturehere, and it says this in James
3, 9 and 10, meaning our mouthswe bless with with it, we bless
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our Lord and Father, and with itwe curse people who are made in
the likeness of God.
From the same mouth comeblessing and cursing.
My brothers, these things oughtnot be so.
So, friends, let us be thosethat speak blessing.
So the people around you inyour sphere of influence,
they're blessed.
Let us be those who speak thetruth in love, not without love,
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because without love it sayswe're like a clanging symbol,
that they can't hear the truthbecause it doesn't come with
love.
So let us speak the truth inlove.
Let us be those who areintrospective and look at the
plank in our own eye before wetry to go for the speck in our
sister's eye, and that we wouldbe those who speak blessing and
not curses.
And guess what?
Whenever we do that, even if wedon't get it perfect, if we ask
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for forgiveness and come backto the Lord and ask for his
empowerment, then the Spiritwill do that very thing.
It takes all the pressure offof us.
Because then it starts being anew habit in what we say and how
we say it.
And then you don't have toworry that Pastor Celeste is
there listening to you made cusswords.
Because it's no longer anatural habit.
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And I can tell you, man,there's been seasons of life,
especially when I was young,man, it was seasons of life
where I was trying every cussword out as if it was part of
the, you know, just colorfullanguage, just trying to just
dress up the my sentences.
And I think that can become ahabit if we're not careful.
But it's not about the cusswords and being about, oh, this
is this and this is this.
No, no, no.
What's your heart behind whatyou're doing?
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When you change the motivationbehind your heart, then it will
change the outputs from yourheart.
Because it says from theabundance of the heart, the
mouth speaks.
So let us be those who watchwhat our heart is about.
It takes all the pressure offhow we live for God because now
we're just in alignment withHim.
And do like we talked aboutlast week in James 1.22, be
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doers of the word, not justhearers of the word.
And in doing so, we aren'tgoing to deceive ourselves that
we're following God correctly.
No, friends, we know we will,because his word is what's being
put into our hearts every day,and his word is what's coming
out of our lips as we professthe love of God over our lives.
Three takeaways today as wetalk about this idea of messy,
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and in doing so, the first isthis that we will be those who
speak faith over fear.
We are speaking faith overfear.
The very thing that drives usmany times that offensive
measures or being those who tearothers down is fear.
It's a fear of the unknown,it's a fear of control, lack of
control.
Friends, we don't live in that.
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We have a God who is greater.
It says, in him we are morethan conquerors.
We are more than conquerors,friends, because we belong to
Jesus.
So in that way, we can speakfaith over fear, speak faith to
our circumstances.
Yes, I know what I'm goingthrough.
I'm not delusional, I'mpragmatic in the idea, but guess
what?
I still I serve a big God whocan do the miracle in my life.
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I'm no longer who I used to be.
I'm forgiven of those things.
It's broken off of me.
We left it in the tub when wewere said we're dead to sin and
alive in God.
And so now I'm going to speakfaith, not fear.
The second is this (30:16):
we're speaking the truth and love.
We're speaking good things andthe word of God over our friends
and family.
Let it be coming out of yourmouth that you're the one who's
encouraging.
You're the one who'sencouraging in your sphere of
influence with your work group,with the people around you in
your neighborhood, that you'reusing your voice to build each
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other up, that you're nottearing people down, but that
they can come to you and they'llknow they'll get sound advice.
Why?
Because you're speakingconsistently over them with the
word of God that's inside of youbecause of the Spirit of God is
inside of you.
Because the word of God thatyou spent time in your Bible is
inside of you, and so it'scoming out of you.
And that's something thathappens as we speak those
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things.
See the impact that'll happenin your immediate life with your
friends and family.
The third is this that we wouldbe those who are speaking that
truth, speaking that love.
We speak it over our future.
That we speak to the futuresaying, guess what?
I know what might have beenspoken over me when I was young.
Maybe someone said, You're notgood enough.
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Maybe someone said, Oh, all youdo is get it wrong.
Maybe they said that you'llnever amount to anything.
Friends, let me tell you this.
I break it in the name of JesusChrist off of you right now.
That is not who you are.
That might be a past.
That is not your trajection.
I know what they're trying todo is they were trying to use it
as a way to make you do better.
And okay, I understand that,but listen, you are better than
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the brokenness that you camefrom because you're made whole
in Jesus Christ and he has afuture for you that is not your
past.
So as we walk in Jesus, as wewalk in alignment with him, we
see that we are no longer thecharacter of the person we were
before.
And we don't have to live withthat guilt upon us.
Friends, that we would watchwhat we say, and that if we're
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gonna have a filthy mouth, letit be of one singing praise to
God in the middle of a dirtstorm, spitting mud out whenever
we're singing bad Spanish, thenlet it be curse words or
tearing someone else down.
Let us be those who proclaimthe love of God wherever we go.
Friends' life is messy.
God can handle it.
(32:24):
Today we have this opportunityto respond to the love of God,
and we do that, each one of usunderstanding that we're no
better than anyone else.
Accept that we've accepted thelove of God's work in our lives,
and He, it's His work in ourcircumstance that's made us
clean.
We said, Lord, I know I'mbroken, I know I'm a sinner, I
ask you to forgive me of my sin.
(32:45):
And that's why each one of ushas to answer this question of
have you embraced Jesus?
Already today, there werepeople who made a decision to
follow Jesus.
Encourage you to do the same.
That if you haven't done soalready, you would make that
same decision to invite him intoyour heart and life, forgive
you of your sins, start a newlife in Christ, and live for
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Jesus today.
See, for us, the symbol of thecross is one of profound
freedom.
It's one of forgiveness andliberty because the cross is the
symbol of where Jesus took mybrokenness and my sin.
He took all of yours.
And he took it and he died uponthe cross with all the weight
of the sin of the world uponhim.
That's why the cross is asymbol for us.
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It should be of terror for us,but it's not because Jesus took
all of that brokenness uponhimself.
And when he died, he paid forthat sin for everyone, for all
people, for all time.
And so when we place our faithand trust in Jesus, we're
saying, Lord, I believe thatyour work upon the cross was for
me, and that you, the holysacrifice of God, the only holy
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sacrifice that the Father wouldaccept, was made on my behalf.
Apostle Paul, he writes it likethis to the church at Rome.
He says, Because if you confesswith your mouth that Jesus is
Lord, and believe in your heartthat God raised him from the
dead, you will be saved.
(34:13):
For with the heart one believesand is justified, with the
mouth one confesses and issaved.
Friends, today, it's youropportunity to say yes to Jesus.
To invite him into your heartand life.
As Christians are praying foryou.
(34:35):
Friends, if you're online,wherever you are, just take a
moment and pause to hear fromthe Lord who wants to speak to
you today.
Maybe you're here today andyou've never made Jesus the Lord
of your life.
Today is your opportunity tomake that decision.
To ask him into your heart andlife.
Maybe you have made thatdecision in the past, but it's
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been a season where you haven'tbeen living that for the Lord.
Today, that you would make acommitment to recommit your life
back to him.
To say, Lord, that I you wouldbe the Lord of my life, that I'd
live for you.
As heads are bowed and eyes areclosed here.
If that's you, you just want tobe included in that prayer
today.
You just raise your hand andsay, Pastor, that's me.
I just want to invite Jesusinto my heart and life today.
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I want to make a decision tofollow Jesus today.
That's you.
If you just raise your handwith the eye, I see a hand
that's here and a hand that'sthere, a hand that's over there
as well.
See a few hands that are there,other hands and other people
making decisions for God.
We see the hands that are heretoo.
Thank you, Jesus.
Those upstairs as well, guys.
We see you.
Praise the Lord.
So many making decisions forJesus today.
I'm gonna ask if everyonewould, if they would pray this
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prayer out loud after me, evenif you're online wherever you
are.
You say, Lord, thank you forloving me.
Thank you for sending Jesus.
I believe Jesus died on thecross for my sins.
I believe he rose again.
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Forgive me of my sins.
I surrender my life to you.
In Christ's name I pray.
Amen.
Amen.
Friends, we rejoice if you makea decision for Jesus today.
So many of you that raise yourhand today.
Praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord.
Hey, if that was you, take amoment, both online or here in
(36:25):
the room, take a snapshot ofthis QR code and follow it.
And it'll give you someresources to get connected with
us so that you don't do thislife alone.
We want you to be successful infollowing Jesus.
You know, we have thisopportunity right now, during
this song, just to respond tothe Lord, to come to this altar
and to make a place with him.
Maybe you're someone who justneeds more of his presence in
(36:45):
your life and in your situationthat you can come and just make
a place with God.
We want to come and prayalongside you, agree with you,
just asking for more of the Lordin your life.
Maybe that's wisdom, guidance,maybe you need provision, maybe
you need a new opportunity forwork, or maybe you need just
something together in yourrelationship with each other.
Maybe it's a relationship witha parent or a child, a
grandchild, whatever it would bein this season, that you would
(37:08):
come and make an altar with Godand draw near.
As he draws near to you, youdraw near to him.
Thank you, Lord, for thisopportunity.
Thank you for your word whichspeaks to us.
And Lord, we thank you forJames and writing these things
to us to challenge us.
Lord, just like to the earlychurch in which it's written,
Lord, we too can glean fromthese truths.
Lord, that you would help us,Lord, with what we say, with
(37:28):
what we say and how we say it.
But Lord, help us, Lord, towatch our mouths.
Lord, that we would be thosenot with filthy mouths of
curses, but instead professingthe love of Christ.
Lord, building each other's up,encouraging others in the word
and in the Lord.
Lord, that we would be thosethat even though we're in this
messy life, Lord, you're helpingus to deal with it.
(37:48):
And you're we're walkingalongside you to come to your
altar, Lord, seeking more ofyour presence.
And we do so in your preciousname, Lord Jesus.
Amen.
Celeste Brown (37:57):
Next Sunday night, we are about to have a
party in this place.
We are gonna decorate thechurch for Christmas.
So I would love for you to joinus.
It's gonna be fun.
This entire place becomes verybeautiful.
And if you're one of thosefamilies that waits until the
day after Thanksgiving, then youneed to come here so you could
do it first before Thanksgiving.
(38:19):
But it's gonna be beautiful.
Come and join us.
It'll be a good night.
Jason Brown (38:23):
Amen.
Before we go, I'm gonna praythis blessing over us.
The Lord bless you and keepyou.
Lord, make his face to shineupon you and be gracious to you.
We'll lift up his countenanceupon you and give you peace.
Lord, I pray a blessing uponyour church, your people.
(38:46):
Well, you empower us by yourSpirit to live your love out to
those around us.
Pray all this in the powerfulname that is Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Amen.
Know this.
We love you very much here atCornerstone.
God bless you and have a greatweek.
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