‘Sticks and Stones may break my bones,’ you’ve heard that before, but do you realize words have the power to not only wound but kill? This seems like an exaggeration, yet the Bible makes it clear; the words we speak, charter a course for either life or death. In this, the first of a three-part series, Carl shares the importance of the words we speak over ourselves and others. The Book of Proverbs describes our words as ‘choice fruits,’ which are either fresh or rotten. We choose the fruit of our lips and words spoken in jest or anger can sometimes have devastating consequences. Join Carl now for this insightful broadcast; the first in the series…
Here is a complete transcript of the broadcast (below)…
Friend, I want to welcome you to the first part of three parts of a message that I preached recently, live. And that is, Your Words Justify You. This, of course, is based upon Matthew 12:37, where Jesus said, “for by your words you shall be justified and by your words you shall be condemned.” Friend, words are so powerful, they are so important in our lives. And I give various illustrations in this sermon series. I’ll also add that I am speaking from a set of slides, which of course radio listeners cannot see. So that’s why I interject now and again, referencing what is in front of me. But friend, I hope you’re excited by the coming message in the next few days, Your Words Justify You. Let’s listen live. Folks, the title of the message is Your Words Justify You. Words have power, whether or not to prophesy. And in the purest form of the New Testament, to prophesy is to comfort and exhort one another, right? Encourage one another, to edify one another. That is what prophecy is in its purest form.
So how important are your words? Well, you know, I don’t believe in that word nonsense. I mean, is that in the Bible? I mean, Proverbs 18:21, “death and life are in the power of the tongue. And they that love it, the tongue shall eat the fruit thereof.” Wow, that’s pretty strong, isn’t it? Now out of the mouth of two or three witnesses, the word is established. So we’re not just going to give one scripture tonight, we’re going to give several. The question is, are you eating the fruit of what you’ve said over yourself for years? Beware of absolutes in your life. I can never do this. Nothing ever. Why can’t I? Things always. Whenever you say absolute, you’re building perimeters around yourself. You’re fencing yourself in. Do you know that God will actually honor our words? He’ll honor what we say.
Ouch. I don’t want that to be in the Bible sometimes, right? How many can relate? Because the flesh is involved, right? Proverbs 13:2 says, “a man shall eat good by the fruit of his mouth, but the soul of the transgressors shall eat violence.” Pretty strong stuff. The question is, what kind of fruit are you producing with your mouth? Because according to this, you’re going to eat off the tree. You’re going to eat off the fruit that you’re producing with your own mouth. Okay, so let’s look at the New Testament. Oh, that’s just the Old Testament pastor. Let’s look at the new. Okay, fair enough. James 1:26, “if any man among you seems to be religious and bridles not his own tongue, but deceives his heart, then his religion is in vain.” The reason we come to church on a Wednesday night is that we may learn something practical. I’m assuming everybody in here has a covenant with Christ.
In the New Living Translation, it says, if you claim to be religious, but don’t control your tongue, you’re fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. I mean, we’re a word-orientated people. That’s why we put words in contracts. And we say, this is my word. It’s binding. I’m going to sign it. You’re going to sign it. We’re going to go in contract together. And so, we take people at their word. We take the promises of other people very seriously. We need to watch what promises we make to other people, because there could be offense on the other side of that. Amen? I don’t believe in that blab it and grab it nonsense. I don’t believe in that name it and claim it junk. I don’t believe in the word police. But let’s forget about Copeland, Capps, Hagen, Osteen, Prince, and all of them for the moment.
We’re not judging those people. We’re just saying, let’s see what the word says. Let’s see what the word of God says about it, right? Some people have preconceived judgments against people, because they think their motive is impure. And we’re going to explore that. Some people don’t want to be told, watch what we say, because they think they’re being brought under the law again. Oh, no, that’s the law. I’m free to say what I want. Well, you’re free to say what you want. But there’s consequences for that. Amen? This is the tree of life. I found it on the internet. Disclaimer, this is not the tree of life. This is pastor’s vain attempt to try to find something that could encourage folk. But there’s lovely juicy fruit on the tree, right? I wouldn’t mind having some strawberries and melons and blueberries that all grow on the same tree. Pretty weird, I know. But Proverbs 15:4 says, “a wholesome tongue is a tree of life. But perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit.” Or the NLT, gentle words are a tree of life. A deceitful tongue crushes the spirit. Do we want to eat this stuff? No, we don’t. Look at it.
It’s hideous. I don’t want to be eating from the tree that’s corrupt. The tree that I have built out of my own words. You know, there’s very few things we can choose probably in life. We can choose to get out of bed or not. It was a struggle for me this morning, but I did. And after I got out of bed, then I could choose my words. We can choose our words, friend. We are supposed to be proactive with our mouth, not just reactive, right? Many people think their mouth is reactive, but it’s actually meant to be proactive. What did Jesus say about words? Isn’t the words of Jesus quite important? Yes? Matthew 12:35-37, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things. An evil man out of the evil treasure or what he has built up on the tree of life brings forth evil things.”
I am saying to you that every idle word men shall speak, they will give account thereof in the day of judgment. Oh, man. By your words, you shall be justified. And by your words, you shall be condemned. How many want to choose words that are going to justify you? I do. I do. This is an ongoing thing. This is something that we have to constantly watch. We don’t pass Word 101 and say, back in 1974, I passed the test for words. Amen? So where do good things come from? Disney World? Never Neverland? Where do good things come from? The heart. They come from your heart, right? A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth that which is good. Amen.
Evil man out of the evil treasure of the heart brings forth that which is evil. For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Friend, what is in your heart is going to come out of your mouth eventually. We can try and kid ourselves, but it’s a fact. How do we express what’s in our heart? With our words. That’s how we do it. Now this is, I really want you guys to get this, okay? If you’ve never heard this before, I’m sure many of you have, but let’s look at it again. Mark 11:23-25, “Verily I say unto you, when he said verily, that means pay attention. I’m going to say something important. Whosoever shall say to this mountain, be removed and cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe those things which he says shall come to pass, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say unto you, whatsoever things you desire when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them.”
Okay? Is this allegorical or is this literal? Now Jesus isn’t saying we need to move the mountain peaks of Colorado. That’s not what he’s talking about. The mountain is the obstacle in your path. It’s the thing in the way of you. Everybody has a problem. If you’re living on this earth, you have problems and you have to manage through those problems and usually what happens is as soon as you get past those, some new problems turn up, right? But instead of wallowing in the problem, let’s speak to the problem. When I was in Amigos de Dios, volunteering on a Friday afternoon in about 2004, a lady came in and she said I had a brain tumor. And I’ll talk about this on the radio and to cut a long story short, I was ready to curse that brain tumor at the root. Remember when Jesus cursed the fig tree at the root? Okay, it wasn’t the time for fruit bearing at the time, but he cursed it regardless. Lord, the fig tree that you cursed, it’s dead. It’s withered at the root. Okay? So how many know that as soon as you speak to something, it starts dying, but the impacts of it are not always immediate.
You could have killed that thing at the root, but it can take a few days for it to be seen, right? If the root is dead, it doesn’t always show at the fruit level. When I prayed for this lady with a brain tumor, I was getting ready to command that brain tumor to wither and die. I wasn’t going to stand there praying saying, oh Lord, please, please heal Sister Mary. And you know, that’s nice and all, but it’s not scriptural to do that. A brain tumor is an obstacle. It was in her way. It could have caused her to pass away prematurely. Therefore, we curse that thing in Jesus name, and it withered and died. And lo and behold, it disappeared off the x-ray. Praise God. Now, I say all of that to say, what is your mountain? What is the obstacle in your life? Is it debt? Is it disease? Is it insecurity? Is it depression? Is it smoking? Is it dope? Is it trying to start a church on a Wednesday night? Who’d be crazy enough? What are the obstacles in your life? Right? Here’s the key. Going back to the brain tumor example, sorry.
When I got ready to pray for that lady, in my spirit, I heard unforgiveness. She has unforgiveness. I was about to pray again. It came up again. I said, Sister, do you have anybody you need to forgive? Yes, I hate my mother and I hate my brother. Okay, fair enough. At least you’re honest. Let’s deal with the unforgiveness. Because if you’ve noticed, in these two verses, God is speaking about the obstacle. But did you see this verse? Many people forget this one. And when you stand praying, forgive. If you have ought against any, that your father also, which is in heaven, may forgive your trespasses. Forgive, forgive, forgive. Friend, if you are speaking to that obstacle and it’s not going away, have you considered unforgiveness in your heart? It’s something to think about. Not saying necessarily that that is a problem in your case, but it could be. To successfully remove obstacles in our life, we need to walk in love. Because faith works by love, right? That’s how it works. If we step out of love, then we are in the realm of trepidation. Because we lose confidence towards the father then. Because there’s a barrier. Oh no, I haven’t really dealt with that.
I’m not sure whether God is going to hear me tonight. That’s the conviction of the spirit. Speaking to obstacles is how we address issues in our life that would come against us. Whether it’s debt, disease, insecurity, depression, fibromyalgia, celiac disease, Crohn’s disease. All of these things must bow to the name of Jesus. Amen? What are the impact of words on other people? Psalm 57:4 says, “my soul is among lions.” And this is David again, as you can probably tell. And I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men whose teeth are spears and arrows and their tongue is a sharp sword. Have you ever met anybody whose tongue is a sharp sword? Yes.
Yes, we have. We have. We don’t need to name them, okay? We don’t need to go into testimony time, but we all know people who can cut people down, right? And words really hurt people. The spoken word is very powerful. It’s powerful to do good and it’s powerful to do evil as well. Colossians 3:8-9, “But now you also put up all these things, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. This is New Testament again, folks. We can’t dodge the bullet. Lie not one to one another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds. Now take it for what it’s worth. Elvis Presley kept saying, I’ll never live past the age of my mother. This is documented.
He died before his mother at age 42. She was 46. President Abraham Lincoln was reported as saying, as soon as this war is over, I’ll be dead. He said it several times in front of his generals. He had a premonition, arguably, of his own death as well. The night of his assassination, he strangely told his security guard to take the night off. But instead of saying good night, he said goodbye. Strange. President John F. Kennedy seemed to have a premonition of his looming death when he said to Ken O’Donnell and his wife, if somebody wants to shoot me from a window with a rifle, nobody can stop it, so why worry about it? Documented, these aren’t things that have been made up. Your words can have an influence over your life. Beware of absolutes. Remember Jesus said, if you doubt not in your heart, but believe the things that you say shall come to pass, you will have what you say, and it will work for whosoever.
It doesn’t mean it has to be a Christian. It will work for whosoever. The world calls this the law of attraction. That’s what they call it. You image something, you speak it over and over until you believe it, and then it manifests. Fair enough. We don’t believe in the heebie-jeebies and the hoodoo-voodoos and whatever else. We go by the word of God. But if the world is tapping into this, then seriously, folks, this is a spiritual law. We need to pay attention to it, right? Friend, that’s all for today of part one of our series, Your Words Justify You, live in session. Friend, it’s very important to understand that when you’re speaking to the obstacle, the effects of your words may not be seen immediately. It can take time for the death of the root to be manifest at the fruit level. Be consistent by speaking the word of God over your life. Don’t quit. Until tomorrow, good night, God bless, and remember to spread the good news.
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