Proverbs: Words

Good morning, Radiant! Mike Young is teaching today. Continuing "Summer of Wisdom" in Proverbs: wisdom is rooted in fear of the Lord, fueled by a teachable spirit, and avoiding foolishness. Today: the incredible power of our words.

Scripture References: Proverbs 18:21, Proverbs (various), Matthew 12:33-37, James 3, Romans 8:9-11, Romans 10:9-10, Proverbs 6:16-19, Proverbs 11:13, Proverbs 16:28, Proverbs 12:18, Proverbs 15:1, Proverbs 28:23, Proverbs 16:24, Proverbs 25:11, Proverbs 15:4, Proverbs 10:19, Proverbs 17:28

Key Points:

• Words: Weapon & Divine Reflection:
  • Proverbs 18:21: "Death and life are in the power of the tongue."
  • Our words, unique to humans, reflect God's image. He spoke creation; we wield similar power.
  • Every word carries spiritual weight: fostering flourishing or destruction. Reckless speech yields bad "fruit"; Spirit-led words bring peace.
• Words' Source (Matthew 12):
  • Jesus: "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." (Matt 12:34). Words perfectly mirror our heart.
  • Bitter hearts speak cutting words; Spirit-filled hearts speak grace.
  • Jesus warns: "Account for every careless word" (Matt 12:36).
  • Jesus' "harsh" words (e.g., "brood of vipers") were perfectly aimed to expose hypocrisy, unlike our own. He perfectly tamed His tongue.
• Proverbs on Speech: Death-Bringing:
  • Lying (Prov 12:22): Erodes trust.
  • Gossip/Slander (Prov 11:13): Destroys relationships.
  • Hasty (Prov 29:20): Causes irreversible damage.
  • Contentious (Prov 15:1): Escalates conflict.
  • Flattery (Prov 28:23): Insincere praise entraps.
• Proverbs on Speech: Life-Giving:
  • Truthful (Prov 12:19): Established forever.
  • Gracious (Prov 16:24): "Like honeycomb, sweetness to the soul."
  • Well-timed (Prov 25:11): Precious, beautiful.
  • Comforting/Gentle (Prov 15:4): Bring healing; "a gentle tongue is a tree of life."
  • Restraint (Prov 17:28): "Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise." Silence can be powerful.
• Words Shape Eternity:
  • We can't perfectly tame our tongues; only Jesus did. He lives in us!
  • Rom 10:9-10: mouth confession saves. Rom 8:9-11: Spirit in us gives life.
  • God gives us words to proclaim the Gospel, bringing others from death to life. More than avoiding negative speech, actively bringing God's Kingdom.

Conclusion:

Our words hold incredible power. We're imperfect, but Jesus, the living Word, perfectly tamed His tongue to bring life, even through death. We now partake in His "fruit."

Call to Action:

At the table, confess foolishness/death-bringing words. Ask God for His ways. Then, stop talking and listen for His voice. Let the Holy Spirit transform your mouth to proclaim good news and bring life.

Transcript

Hey, this morning we have the privilege of Mike Young teaching this morning.(...) ( Applause )(...) There's some fans out there, Mike. Yeah.(...) Hey, the Youngs are such a gift to us, and it's such a privilege to have them here to speak. And I know Mike is,(...) well, I hope I don't misrepresent this, but you are just an unassuming guy. But you're a real special guy.(...) And we love you. And we just want to bless him this morning as he comes. Would you extend a hand? Let's pray for him. Lord, we thank you, Lord, for the gift and the call that Mike is and Mike has. And Lord, we just recognize that today. And Lord, we just ask, would you stir up faith in his heart?(...) Holy Spirit, would you lead him this morning? And Father, we just receive what Mike has to bring, what he's been sensing and hearing from you. And Lord, I just pray for shifts in our heart that are appropriate to what you want. So Lord, we just invite your voice. We invite your leadership today. And we just say, "Bless Mike," in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Danny, thanks.

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And thanks, Danny and Eric, for showing me that I didn't have the hardest job today. Good job, guys. That was a lot.(...) You guys did good. So we're in the book of Proverbs. If you have a Bible, good luck following along. I mean, it's going to—we're bouncing all over the place. Proverbs is—and by the time I finish reading the verse we're on, it'll be over. You won't—it's a short verse, so. But you can, if you want. I have a Bible. You can have a Bible. But we're going to be in Proverbs 18,(...) verse 21. When was the last time you thought about the incredible power of this thing that is so common, so normal, so just every day that it often gets overlooked? It's like a secret weapon we all carry around with us every day, which is our words. Our words,(...) they—I mean, they're happening all the time, and we rarely pause to think about how powerful they are. We use them constantly, effortlessly, and I think words is something that makes us special as humans. You know, we—you know, we have these syllables and sounds that are joined together in sentences that bring some meaning, but it sets us apart in all creation. You know, our words make us unique. We reflect God in a way that sequoia trees don't, and supernovas don't, and starfish don't. I mean, those are all wonderful, beautiful things, but they don't talk, and I—yeah, I get it. Whales communicate, I get it, but not like us.(...) And that's because we are image bearers of God. We reflect God in a special way, and that's why our words are powerful, because God's words are powerful, and we're the crown of creation. He set us in this wonderful universe full of beautiful, powerful, amazing things, but we are the most amazing of them all. And one of the reasons is, I think, because of our words, because how did God create that amazing universe with words?(...) He spoke it into existence, and because of that, we have this incredible power as human image bearers of God. So we're going to dive into this topic today, which is the next stop in this Summer of Wisdom series that we're on together. So, so far, we've seen that God in the book of Proverbs is teaching us a wisdom that's rooted in the fear of the Lord and fueled by a teachable spirit.(...) And as we looked at last week, David articulated so well how one of the results of that wisdom rooted in the fear of the Lord is that we won't live as fools with all the painful consequences that come with foolishness. So today, we're going to center on Proverbs 18, verse 21, which says, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue,

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and those who love it will eat its fruit."

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We're also going to take a wider look at the book of Proverbs, kind of scanning the different types of speech that Proverbs commands and the type of speech that Proverbs warns us about. And we're also going to get insights from the New Testament. That's where Jesus is in the Bible, and we're going to look at Matthew 12 a little bit as he demonstrates the power and the source of our words. So our focus today is going to be this. Our words have the power to bring life and death.

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Our words have the power to bring life and death, which I know can feel super heavy,

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but I hope that we see it's an incredible privilege that we carry, an incredible power, a responsibility to embrace, knowing that God desires to empower us to speak life,(...) to extend his kingdom on the earth.

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So that's my hope today, that we won't feel condemned, maybe a little convicted, like, you know, obviously, but not discouraged. I want us to be inspired to and equipped by the Holy Spirit to be conduits of life with our speech, with our words. It is an incredible power. Every one of us carries it today. It doesn't matter if you've been following Jesus for two seconds or two decades or not yet. You have an incredible power in your words. So I know we've been praying a lot, and if this is your first time, like, man, they pray for everything, but I'm going to pray again. Is that all right? Just because this is a big thing. So Father,(...) Jesus, Holy Spirit, we yield to you today,

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and we submit. We submit and surrender to you and to your word and pray you'd shape us.(...) Make us image bearers that reflect you rightly. Pray you'd fill us, fill our hearts with your glory today, that what would overflow from our hearts would be life and life abundantly.

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Come Holy Spirit, in Jesus' name,(...) amen.

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Amen. So beginning of our foundational verse, Proverbs 18, 21, in short direct to the point, death and life are in the power of the tongue.

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Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit. So this verse does not say that words can have power

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or that words might influence. No, it declares death and life are in the power of the tongue. This means that every word we speak,(...) every syllable we uttered carries a charge, a spiritual weight that can either bring death or life with it. Every utterance has the potential to foster flourishing and growth and healing and joy and all the wonderful things that come with life, or it can cause destruction, suspicion,(...) hurt,(...) division, despair. I don't think I need to go on, right? We've all experienced the power of words for both good and evil. Think about it, a word of sharp criticism can wound deeply or discourage, right? But a word of sincere encouragement can lift someone up out of despair and inspire them to achieve something great. I've been watching a lot of spring high school football lately as my son's playing that, and you can see how life and death are in the power of the tongue for sure. You can see the effect of a good coach and an not good coach on young people. You can see words that lift up and words that tear down out there.

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Gossip can tear down relationships, shatter trust, bringing death, but a word spoken in defense of someone else or a prayer offered for a friend in crisis, it can build people up, bring people together, mend things that have been destroyed. A lie can destroy a relationship or a business or a reputation,(...) but truth spoken in love brings clarity, restoration, freedom to our communities, to our churches, to our places at work.

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And the second part of this verse reveals the consequence of our words having the power of life and death. Those who love it will eat its fruit.(...) Those who love the power of the tongue will eat its fruit. If we love our tongue in the sense of indulging its impulses and speaking recklessly without a filter, without pause,(...) well then we're going to eat the fruit of that. We're going to eat the fruit of destruction. But if we love our tongue by respecting its power and the way that we reflect God with our words, if we love our tongue that way, allow the Holy Spirit to work through us, then we'll eat the fruit of peace and flourishing relationships and blessings.

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So we need to remember how the world that God has designed with wisdom at his side works. We want to work with the grain of the universe. That's what Proverbs is helping us with. How does the world work in general? And let's work with it. And I think one of the main goals of the book of Proverbs is that, to help us know how life functions best.(...) Now, obviously, there's people and examples of folks that use words recklessly, and their life seems to be going just fine. And that can be confusing. It's like, wait, Proverbs says this. But again, these are generalities. These are ways that the world generally works. But it's good for us to submit to this wisdom, especially when talking about how we talk. So God has a lot to say about our speech in the book of Proverbs.

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A hundred and fifty of these verses in the book of Proverbs focus on speech or our words. A hundred and fifty, which is one out of every six.(...) One out of every six Proverbs talks about how we talk.

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Said another way, 16% of the whole book of Proverbs focuses on this little part of our body that takes up what, like 2% of our body, maybe one and a half percent? I don't know. I didn't do the math, but small part of our body, a large chunk of Proverbs. God has a lot to say. And shout out to my good buddy Travis, who preached a like a perfectly sufficient sermon on this topic just like three months ago. So if you missed it, go look up Taming the Tongue from a few months ago. But I am banking on you not remembering any of it, because I'm definitely going to just repeat a bunch of what he said. But I would encourage you to revisit it and spend time in the book of James, chapter three. We're not going to get into James. James is awesome when teaching about speech. So spend some time in it.(...) At first I got the assignment. I was like, wait, we already talked about this like three months ago. Why do we got to talk about words again? Because I'm a disciple of the internet. I think just listening to something means I've learned it. But obviously we probably could handle to talk about this topic regularly. And honestly, speaking of getting this assignment, this is a struggle for me. I'm not good at this.

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I'm not good at this. My mouth gets me in trouble because I like making people laugh.

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Which means oftentimes I'm driving home from a social function with that familiar feeling of crap. Why did I make that joke?(...) Now I got to repent to that person. Some of you probably received that text at like 10 p.m. from me.

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And then I'm like, crap, why did I say crap in a sermon? I'm doing it again.

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My mom's here. I mean, it's just like--(...) So I just want to include a couple embarrassing stories about me to just kind of level set to help you understand that I'm right there with you, needing God to transform my mouth into an instrument of life. So the first story is an old one. It's kind of the origin story of Mike and his mouth.

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And I'll just start it by saying, sorry, mom.

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So I went to college at a Christian university. It was my first experience with Christian education. I went to a public school and met Jesus at a public school. And I was used to being kind of not around a bunch of Christians all day. So I got to college and it was like church all the time, but with a cafeteria.(...) So it was basically like camp. And this weird thing would happen. I'd be talking to my friends or going to the cafeteria. We'd get our food. We'd sit down at the table. And all of a sudden, we're talking and my friends do this. I'm like, do they just fall asleep? Why do I keep making friends with all the narcoleptics on campus? Like, what's happened? What are we doing? And I figured out that they're praying for their food silently, which rubbed me wrong. It just bothered me. One, because it's breakfast and everybody knows you don't have to pray for breakfast. You only pray for lunch. And two, I'm like, all right, if we're going to pray, let's all pray. This is awkward. And so I decided in my very mature 19 year old way who would walk with Jesus all of like what, like six months. I was like, well, I know what I'll do. I'm going to show these Christians how unreligious I am. That was back in the day of relevant magazines. We're really relevant, you know, so like so what I'm going to do is I'm going to insert a well timed cuss word into our conversations. I'm going to show them how free I am and I'll make them laugh and make them uncomfortable. So yeah, this was a conscious decision, guys. This was like this is what I'm going to do to stop them from praying for their food.

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Oh, boy, this is embarrassing. I almost I was short on time. I was like, let's just edit. I'm going to edit this one out. But no.

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So then it takes like like two weeks of this and all of a sudden realize I can't control this. Like I intentionally started this fire. I think I would keep it in control. And now I'm dropping F bombs in all the wrong places and I got no control. And it took a lot of rounds of repentance. And I'm sorry to just get back to a normal level of cussing at that point. I just was like, I was a joke. You guys are sorry.(...) Maybe you don't know me. Sorry. I'm a little again. See above my mouth gets me in trouble. So but I also in prepping for this forest found an old video of me. I wanted this just from a few years ago just to show you kind of how far I've come from when I was 19 and and that. And so this is we were filming a radiant and rooted video to kind of help the church understand where we are as a church. So did you guys find it from the archives?

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Yeah. Our staff from the day to day ministry of radiant church. We have everything from part time and full time paid staff to volunteer stuff. We even have elders who serve.

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Just so you know, Forrest has a file called blackmail. He films everything.

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And just for the record, I wasn't actually cussing. He was just bleeping it out to make it funny.

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So Kelly, I should just stop the sermon now. You guys are like, what is this guy doing up here?

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So anyway, as you can see, life and death are in the power of the tongue. And I am very familiar with the struggle. I'm very much a work in progress because, man, words happen all the time. And a little tiny word can have a huge impact and it's it can be daunting and scary. So let's let's get to Jesus, shall we? Matthew 12, Matthew 12, verse 33 through 37 here. Jesus is pulling the curtain back to reveal the source of our words, because this is important. You know, if you read the book of James, you see he compares all these great analogies. The tongue is passive. You know, the tongue is not taking control of us. The tongue is being guided by our hearts. So the real problem is our hearts. Right. My problem in college was I was arrogant. And I thought, oh, I'll just be, you know, show them how great I am. That was my heart that got me in trouble more than my tongue. So Jesus, he just nails this in Matthew 12.(...) He says, either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit.

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You brood of vipers. How can you speak good when you're evil? For out of the abundance of your heart, the mouth speaks.

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The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good. And the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you on the day of judgment, people will give account for every careless word they speak.

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For by your words, you'll be justified, and by your words, you'll be condemned. That's Jesus.

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Jesus is shooting us straight here with the power of our words and the source of them. He uses a simple analogy of a tree and its fruit. It makes sense to us, right? Good tree brings forth good fruit.

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A bad tree makes bad fruit out of the abundance of your heart. Your mouth will speak. The importance is our hearts. This is so huge. Your words, my words, they're not random occurrences.(...) They perfectly reflect where your heart is in that moment.

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Your word guides—your heart guides the words out of your mouth. If our hearts are filled with bitterness and jealousy and arrogance and anger and unforgiveness and pride, what do you think your words are going to be sounding like, right?

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They're going to reflect that. They'll be cutting, cynical,(...) sarcastic, rude, impatient.

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Anybody else been there before? Yeah.(...) But if your heart's being transformed by the Holy Spirit, it's being filled with love and goodness and joy and peace and patience and kindness and self-control. As He's pouring that into your heart, your words will reflect that and be seasoned with grace and life and bring life to those around you. Jesus then issues this warning. He says, "I tell you on the day of judgment, people are going to give an account for every careless word they speak, for by your word you'll be justified and by your word you'll be condemned," which is super convicting and motivating for me to know that I'm going to have to own up to all my words to Jesus,(...) give an account for not just the good words or the ones I really thought through. He says, "Every careless word,(...) every careless word."

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And just a side note here, just because Jesus says you're going to have to give an account for your words and your words flow from your heart, He's not trying to make us all sweethearts here, all right? Obviously, look at how He spoke. Did you pick up on that? He's talking about this and then what does He call the group of people?

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You brood of vipers. That is an unkind thing to say, right? That's not a compliment.(...) Jesus, in the same sentence as they were saying, "Hey, words come from your heart, you brood of vipers." It's like, "What?" Okay, so it doesn't mean like we're supposed to all be like, you know, say nice things, but the difference is Jesus' harsh words are perfectly timed and perfectly aimed at the people who deserve it. That's the difference between me and Him.

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His harsh words were perfect because He is saying this to a group of religious leaders who were throwing a fit that He was healing people on the Sabbath. He literally set a demon-possessed man free who couldn't speak or hear. Was it here? I can't remember. Sorry. I think He was deaf.

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And Jesus sets him free.(...) He can now hear and speak and the religious leaders are like, "Well, you know, Jesus is using the devil to do this, obviously, because it's on the Sabbath."

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That's what will get you called a brood of vipers.(...) Because Jesus is like, "Look, say what you want about me. Do not blaspheme the Holy Spirit. Do not speak against the work of God.(...) You brood of vipers."

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And Jesus was a man, the only man in all of history who perfectly tamed His tongue to make it a perfect instrument of life and death. And in this instance, He's bringing death. He's killing the religious spirit. Not to get cheap laughs from the crowd, but He's aiming His harsh words at these people who are keeping people in bondage with their religious judgments.

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What a perfectly timed word.

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So the potential for life and death are in our speech. The potential is guided by our hearts, right? The outcome of our words is going to be guided from our hearts. And in the book of Proverbs, we have a bunch of treasures for how this works to help us notice are my words being used to bring life or are they being used to bring death? So Proverbs 18, 21 is a masterclass on this, right? It is such a perfect summary of how our words work. Life and death and the power of the tongue. But Proverbs, like I said, has a lot to say. We're not going to go through all 150 verses, don't you worry. But just kind of a high level touch point of the type of speech that Proverbs is saying, "Avoid." And the type of speech that Proverbs is saying, "Hey, this is good. This is life giving speech." So we're going to fly through this. So forgive me, but it's the only way to do it. So here is the types of speech from the books of Proverbs that Proverbs is saying, "This brings death." These types of speech have the power of death. First lying lips.

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Proverbs 12, 22 says, "Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight.

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Always erode trust and foundations."

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Proverbs 6 verses 6 to 19 even lists things that God finds detestable, like the things that God hates right in there, a lying tongue. God hates a lying tongue. "Gossip and slander are speech that have the power of death. Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy and spirit keeps a thing covered." That's Proverbs 11, 13.

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Gossip is like a fire, right? It spreads quickly because it feels so good, right, in the moment. It just feels so good to say whatever you want. And so it just,(...) that's like things were going viral back in the day of Proverbs, guys. This isn't something we invented.

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A whisper separates close friends, Proverbs 16.

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"Hasty words also bring death. Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There's more hope for a fool than for him.

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Words spoken without thought in the heat of the moment can cause irreversible damage. How much would be saved if we just pause?" Like just pause, just three seconds, think.

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Think. Should I say this or shouldn't I? Hasty words can bring death. There's one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, says Proverbs 12.

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What an image.(...) Next, contentious words bring death.(...) A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

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Angry words escalate conflict. They don't bring things down to a more manageable temperature.

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Flattery. Flattery brings death, which seems positive at first, but Proverbs warns against insincere praise.

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Insincere praise or flattery brings death. Whoever flatters his neighbor is spreading a net for his feet.

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There's more. Obviously, there's 150 verses if you want to get in there.

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Google's really good at finding all of them real quickly if you want to spend some time soaking in this.

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I'm feeling convicted. I feel convicted as I read this list and realize the power that words can bring death. But what about the speech that Proverbs says, "Yes, yes, speak like this. These are the types of speech that bring life."

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Truthful words, honest words, the lips of truth will be established forever.

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Isn't that amazing? The lips of truth will be established forever, but a lying tongue is for a moment.

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Gracious words.

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Proverbs 16 says, "Gracious words are like honeycomb,(...) sweetness to the soul, and health to the body."

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Wow, that sounds good. Nourishing words, strengthening words. How about well-timed words?

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A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver. I don't even—I don't understand jewelry, but that sounds pretty awesome. Right? That must have been a really good thing.(...) A word fitly spoken is just like something to marvel at.

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Comforting words bring life. The tongue of the wise brings healing. Proverbs 12, Proverbs 15, 4 says, "A gentle tongue is a tree of life." A gentle tongue is—I imagine Jesus was a lot like—I'd imagine all the moments that Jesus just had to tone it down for us, like a gentle tongue. We can hear that.(...) Harsh words we don't hear very well.

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I love this one. A lack of words is life-giving.(...) A lack of words. So I'm going to make this sermon even shorter, hopefully. When words are many, transgression is not lacking.

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You've been there, right? I mean, any parents in here that know the more your kid's talking are like, "Oh, buddy, just keep talking. Eventually you'll catch yourself in your own lie."

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But whoever restrains his lips is prudent.

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That's Proverbs 10.

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Proverbs 17, 20, it says, "Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise."

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When he closes his lips, he's thought intelligent. This is my strategy for meetings.

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Mike is so wise just nodding there.(...) Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise. Sometimes the most powerful words are the words we don't speak, the words we restrain,

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the words we limit and edit.

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So I want to give just a bit of space. I had like twice as much content in here, and I cut it out because I just felt like I don't want to leave here without just a minute to think and reflect. So hopefully when you came in, you got a little paper that was,(...) you're probably marveling at its design work. That was me on Google Docs, so don't blame our design team for that. Boy, it was hard for me. I was like, "I don't know how to do this." But anyway,(...) this isn't homework. I'm not going to make you turn to your neighbor and share this. I don't like when that happens in sermons, so you're not going to get it from me.

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But just for you, between you and God, just to take inventory, okay? Inventory of life. So there's a few boxes in there. One is what are your words directing? So like what are the things that are happening? Is it good things, bad things? What are you seeing? Or what are your words destroying? Those would be kind of the death type of words. Think about that.

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And think about maybe the phrases that are coming out of your mouth regularly. For me, things like, "I am so behind."

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I say that to myself like 10 times. It's like, "No wonder I'm behind." My words are directing that. My words are making that a reality.(...) So just a minute. I'll just play a little bit of soft music,(...) just like giving you the gift of three minutes.

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Really, you deserve that because I don't want you to go home and move on to your busy life and forget about this. And on the back too, if you want, there's also just ways to think about opportunities. Like today, what's an opportunity to bring life? Or maybe this month you have a big meeting coming up. What's an opportunity to bring life with your words? So you guys good with that? I'm going to do it too. So do you guys have some soft music?

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I'll stop talking. Let's

(Music)

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All right, grab your journal or a pen and paper and let's write down the answers to these questions. What are my words revealing about my heart and my thoughts?

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What are my words directing?

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What are my words destroying?

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What are the most common words, phrases that come out of me?

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And what are some opportunities to use my words to bring life to others today, this week, this month, at home or at work?

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Take some time and jot them down.

tongue to make it an instrument of life and not death is--

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even if you tamed it just to bring--(...) don't bring death into the world, that would be really, really hard. But to tame it to the point where it's an instrument of life, I mean, it's impossible.(...) To my knowledge, there's one man that has done it in all of history.(...) There's one perfect man who's tamed his tongue, and I am so grateful for him.(...) Who of us here is perfect? Who of us here has perfectly tamed our tongue?

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No one other than Jesus, who is very much here with us. But who of us here has Jesus?(...) I have Jesus. That's perfect. He's in me.

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He is transforming me.(...) Romans 10, the apostle Paul writes that the word is near you. "In your mouth and in your heart," that's the word of faith that we proclaim, he says, "because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

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For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

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Being saved from death would be plenty of reason for us to thank Jesus for a billion years. I mean, that's enough. But he goes further than that. Earlier in the book of Romans, Paul also writes that you, Christians, followers of Jesus, are not in the flesh but in the spirit. This is Romans 8, verses 9 and 11. "You're not in the flesh, but you are in the spirit. If in fact the spirit of God dwells in you, anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

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But if Christ is in you, although the body's dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness.

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If the spirit who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you." Isn't that great news?

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Now, here's how this amazing truth progresses in my mind. So, as human beings, we reflect God's nature, right? Powerful words.(...) And God has put the word of faith in believers' mouth to proclaim the word of faith, the gospel, using their words to bring life. When another image-bearer hears that word and responds and saying, "I believe in that," how do they make that faith known?

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They speak it. You confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord.(...) And so they speak the words of life. They confess with their mouth that Jesus has been raised from the dead, which rescues them from death.

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And then he puts the word of faith in their mouth to go proclaim it so that more image-bearers can hear the word of life and respond with their mouths so that the Holy Spirit can fill them and make their mouths an instrument of life.

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Literally, your words have the power to save. I'm not saying that you're saved because you said something, but it kind of sounds like you showed that you were saved because you said something. You can't silently believe in Jesus, is what Paul's saying. You believe in your heart, and you confess with your mouths. And when we do the baptisms, that's why we celebrate it. That person's in the tank saying, "I believe in Jesus." Their mouth now is being an instrument of life, literally eternal life. Your words and my words have the power to shape eternal history. Are you kidding me?(...) God puts the words of life in my mouth to proclaim to people, to bring them from death into life? That is amazing. This is not about just cussing less, although you should cuss less.(...) This is not about gossiping less, although please stop gossiping, but this is so much more important than that. So much more important than just not bringing death into the world. We can bring life, the kingdom of life, through our words. Like tomorrow,(...) like next, like in 20 minutes at lunch, you can bring the kingdom of God through your words. Not because you're a genius,(...) but because the Holy Spirit is in you, bringing life to your mortal body. Isn't that amazing? Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it are going to eat its fruit.(...) So we're going to eat the fruit of that today. And the worship team, you guys want to come? We're going to come to the table and remember this incredible thing that Jesus has done.

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The only man in history to tame his tongue perfectly.

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The only man to do that and bring life is worth our attention today. Worth our praise. We all know how hard this is, right? You all know. It's impossible.(...) This should make us stand in awe like, wow, Jesus.(...) I mean, his words were written down like we studied them. Talk about pressure, right? He perfectly tamed his tongue to bring life.

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I love what he did and I want to eat the fruit of what he said.(...) Those who love the power of the tongue are going to eat its fruit. And we're going to do that today at the table because communing with the Father, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, communing with him is one of the fruits that happened because of Jesus's words. Jesus is referred to as the living word of God. He spoke things that have changed my life.(...) He spoke things that have changed your life.

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And we get to eat the fruit of that now at the table, remembering that we don't have to pay the penalty for our errant words.(...) All the ways that I've brought death through my mouth, I don't have to make up for it.

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I don't have to make up for it.(...) I simply say, "Jesus,(...) thank you.

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Thank you." And his perfect words, this man who perfectly tamed his tongue, as you can see, he was harsh to certain people and that harshness got him killed.

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These guys don't get killed like Jesus did. He spoke truth in love and he paid the price for it on the cross. And we're going to remember that today.(...) So would you stand with me?

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Would you stand with me and just say, in your heart or with your mouth, "I love your word, Jesus. I love your word, Jesus."

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Yes, Jesus.

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We just confess with our mouths that you're alive, Jesus.(...) And the things that you said, the things that you've said have transformed us.(...) And we want to eat the fruit of your words today.

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Not because we've earned it or did it, but because you did it, Jesus.

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So prepare our hearts now to receive you and welcome your presence in our lives. And I pray,(...) transform these mouths, Jesus.

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Transform our mouths to be proclaimers of the good news.

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Transform our mouths to tell others what you've done.

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God forgive us for being silent with the right things and loud with the wrong things. Forgive us.

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We repent today.

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We come to you today.

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