Breathing Fire

This morning we continue our study of James as Eric takes us through chapter 3.

The scripture is found in your bulletins, and if you'd like to follow along, I'll read from God's word.

Not many of you should become teachers, my brother, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

For we all stumble in many, many ways.

If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.

If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well.

Look at the ships also.

Though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.

So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.

How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!

And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness.

The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.

For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue.

It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.

From the same mouth come blessing and cursing.

My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water?

Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs?

Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.

This is God's word.

Please be seated.

Good morning.

As you heard, we have a nice, bright, bubbly, happy passage today that we're going to be talking about.

And, you know, the passage starts out in the most wonderful of ways for me, the guy who's going to be teaching it,

saying,

Not many of you should become teachers, for we know that those who teach will be judged by greater strictness.

So, you know, it's a nice, comforting thought to me as I get up here to teach on this passage

that everything I say is going to be judged by a harsher standard.

But if you don't know me, my name is Eric.

I'm the youth guy here at Watermark.

And I'm very excited to be able to share with you guys today.

The emphasis of our talk today will not be on that first verse, but on the power of our words in general.

And to start our discussion on words, I want to start not in James chapter 3, but in Genesis chapter 1.

James 3 · chapter mention Genesis 1 · chapter mention

Because if you look at the Bible, it starts the first three chapters with an incredible, incredible commentary on the overwhelming power of words.

At the start of the Bible, God speaks.

He says,

Let there be life.

And God's words create.

God's words bring life into existence.

God's words bring order out of chaos.

God's words bless.

God's words bring names to the animals.

And then, after naming all the animals, the man realizes that there's no match for him.

All the other animals have matches for each other, and he has no match.

And so God gives him a match for himself, the woman.

And when the man sees this woman, the man uses his words to worship God.

So we have an incredible commentary on the positive power of words.

That words can create.

That words can give life.

That words can bless.

That words can obey.

That words can worship.

And yet, words also have incredible destructive power.

In Genesis chapter 3, the serpent enters into the story.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

The serpent uses words to question the goodness of God.

To create doubt in the mind of the man and woman as to whether God was really good in the things that he had said to them.

The serpent uses words to tempt Adam and Eve to sin.

And after Adam and Eve listened to the serpent, they used their words to shift the blame and hide from the responsibility for what they've done.

And yet, God, being the awesome God that he is, uses his words again to seek out those who are lost.

After finding them, he uses his words to curse them and the world that he has created for their sin.

But he doesn't leave the story bleak and hopeless.

He uses his words to give them hope and promise a salvation that will come one day.

In these first three chapters of the Bible, words literally initiate the course of history,

launch the greatest rebellion in all of history of creation against our creator,

and alter the course of history.

Words are powerful.

And that's something that James wants us to see in this chapter.

The first thing that he wants us to see, like I said, is words are powerful.

He starts out by making this blanket statement of the power of words with no judgment whatsoever about the badness that we can use them for,

or the goodness that we can use them for.

He just says they're powerful.

And he gives us one statement and two illustrations to show us that words are powerful.

First off, in verse two, he says,

if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.

Now, we just had Charles read us this passage so we can look ahead and see,

oh, look, no one can control his tongue perfectly.

No one can control his entire body perfectly.

But James isn't saying that at this point.

All he's saying right now is the tongue is powerful enough and big enough

that if you can control it, you can control your whole body.

He's saying it has a power that is disproportionate to its size.

It is harder to control than you would expect it to be for its size.

It's a powerful tool.

And he gives us a couple other illustrations to show how powerful the tongue is.

He talks about bits that we can put into a horse's mouth.

A small little piece of metal.

But when you stick it in the right place in the horse's mouth,

a small child can control this great beast.

And again, he doesn't make any judgment on the morality of controlling a horse with a bit in the mouth.

They can be used for good.

They can be used for farming.

They can be used for transportation.

They can be used, if your city is under attack, to defend your city.

And they can be used for evil.

They can be used to trample on other people or trample on their property.

They can be used to attack others unjustly.

They can be used for good.

They can be used for bad.

He's not making a commentary on the morality of this use.

He's just saying the bit has a power that is disproportionate to its size.

And in the same way, the tongue has a power that is disproportionate to its size.

He gives us another illustration and talks about a rudder on a ship.

A huge ship can be controlled by a small rudder.

It takes huge amounts of wind.

Back in those days, now we have big engines that can power the ships.

But it takes huge amounts of power to make this ship go.

But once it's going, it just takes a little rudder to guide the direction that it goes in.

And again, no comment on the morality of steering a ship with a rudder.

You can use ships for good purposes, to transport people and goods, to go fishing and collect goods.

If your city is under attack, you can use your ships to defend yourself.

And ships can be used for evil.

Pirates use them to go rob people.

People launch unjust naval attacks.

Ships can be used for good.

Ships can be used for evil.

He's not commenting on whether it's good or bad.

He's just saying it has a power disproportionate to its size.

And in the same way, the tongue has a power disproportionate to its size.

So his introduction to the tongue is not some big, strong condemnation of the tongue's power,

but simply a statement that the tongue has an incredible power that is disproportionate to its small size.

But as he moves further into his discussion, he doesn't remain neutral in his discussion of the tongue.

He says how great a forest is set as blaze by a small fire.

Now again, fire can be good.

It can be bad.

Back in those days, fire was essential for life.

They needed it to stay warm in the winter.

They needed it to cook their food.

But the threat of fire getting out of control was a constant danger.

And when fire got out of control, there was no way that they could get it back under control effectively.

And so it could destroy villages.

It could destroy forests.

And James, in his discussion of the fire, doesn't remain neutral, but he talks about how great a forest is set on fire.

He's talking about a forest fire, something big, something out of control, something that destroys and kills and leaves a path of wreckage behind it.

He's not talking about a small little cooking fire, but a huge fire.

And therefore, the fire, the small fire or the spark that starts that big fire is not something that is neutral.

It's something that's bad because it has started such a destructive, powerful force behind it.

And he's saying that our tongues have this power in them.

That our tongues have the destructive power of a forest fire.

Something so small starts something so big, so destructive.

And he goes on as if there was any question left about what he's saying.

In verse 6, he says,

The tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness.

The tongue in itself is a world of unrighteousness.

The tongue is a fire.

We are like dragons.

We open our mouths and fire comes out.

I don't know how many of you have read The Hobbit or seen the movie The Hobbit.

But in The Hobbit, there is a dragon named Smaug.

And he comes in and he wants to take over this town because they have a huge pile of gold that they control.

And in order to take over this town, all he has to do is fly in there and open his mouth.

And fire comes out and kills everyone in his path.

So he just goes down to this town, opens his mouth and destroys, wipes out the town,

takes over this mountain of gold and lives there.

And James is saying, we are like that dragon.

All we have to do is open our mouths, fire pours out and it can consume everyone in our paths.

There is an incredible, powerful, destructive force behind our tongues.

And notice that I'm saying we.

Like this isn't something that I'm saying, oh, everyone else struggles with this and I've got it down.

No, this is something that we all struggle with.

James talks about that in verse 2.

He says, we all stumble in many ways.

He's including himself in this discussion.

I struggle with this.

I mean, I was reminded constantly this week,

I'd be studying and researching on the tongue and the power of it and how we need to use it for good.

And then, like, just a couple hours later, I'd be talking to someone and I'd catch myself trying to destroy them with my words.

And I thought, how messed up am I?

I'm getting ready to teach on how destructive our words can be and realizing how destructive they can be

and then going out and using my words for destructive purposes.

It's something that all of us struggle with, something that all of us need to work on.

And something that ultimately, in this lifetime, we're never going to get it perfect.

But we can make progress, I think.

But I want to look at why our negative speech is such a big deal.

I have two big reasons that I see in this passage.

First off, because we deceive ourselves.

And although we're using our speech destructively, we think that we're using it for positive means.

He says in verse 9,

With it, with the tongue, we bless our Lord and Father, and with it, we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.

Now, with James' audience, whenever they heard the name of God spoken,

culturally, what they would do is they would actually verbally say a blessing.

So if you're reading the Bible and it gets to the name of God,

everyone in the congregation says out,

His name be blessed.

Every single time the word of God is mentioned.

These people would never, ever, ever, ever have dreamed of saying something bad directly against the name of God.

They went out of their way to bless his name when they heard it spoken.

And they probably would have pointed to this and said,

Look, we're using our tongues for good.

We're blessing God.

But he says,

You're cursing people who are made in God's image.

If you were truly blessing God,

if you truly believed all this wonderful stuff that you say you do about who God is,

then you wouldn't be cursing man who is made in his image.

Because the way that we speak to and about people who are made in God's image reflects what we truly believe about God.

Think of it this way.

You're on a vacation to Thailand.

You fly in.

You go to the airport.

You convert some money.

You go.

You get settled at your hotel.

Somehow, during the course of this trip,

you've got it set up so that you get to meet the king of Thailand.

Really big deal, right?

And you are getting prepared for this.

You search online and figure out what are the right clothes that I need to wear.

You sit down and you write out a script of everything that you're going to say when you're with the king so that you do not mess up.

And then you go online and you do more research and realize maybe you should leave out that part about loving the king and I when you're talking to the king of Thailand.

Because that's generally frowned upon.

You do your research.

You get everything prepared.

You go.

You meet with the king and you nail it.

You know when to bow at the right time.

You know when to sit down, when to stand up, what to say, how to say it, what clothes to wear.

Everything goes perfectly.

You leave the meeting with the king.

You're going back to your hotel.

You stop by a street market.

You're trying to buy something from a vendor.

You get in an argument with this vendor over the price of something.

And you get really upset.

You pull out a piece of that Thai money that you got at the airport.

And to show how upset you are with this vendor, you rip it apart.

You throw it on the ground.

You stomp on it.

Now what's going to happen right there is the Thai police are going to come and arrest you.

Why is that?

Because the Thai money has the king of Thailand's face on it.

It bears his image.

And in Thailand, they believe that what you do to money bearing the king's image, you do to the king.

And so as the police are dragging you off to prison, you can scream all you want.

I just met with the king.

He loved me.

It went perfectly.

And they can say, you don't respect our king.

You don't care about our king because you just destroyed and stomped on his image.

And they will lock you away.

In the same way, we can say everything good that we want to and about God.

But if we do not back that up by saying the same things about people who are created in his image,

we show that we do not truly value God like we say we do.

And so we trick ourselves into thinking that we're using our words for good by blessing God

when in reality, we're using our words for destruction by cursing people around us who are made in God's image.

And the second reason that our negative speech is so important is because the words that come out of our mouths

are just a reflection of what is in our hearts.

Jesus himself says this in Matthew 12, 34.

Kind of cool.

One, two, three, four.

He says, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

The things that come out right here have their origin right here.

The words that we say are not spoken in a vacuum,

but they're a reflection of what is already inside us.

You know, one of the things that Tobin loves to fill his life with is Diet Coke.

Diet Coke. I'm sure if you've been here before to hear him preach, you've heard him mention that.

And let me tell you, if you've only heard him talk about that from the stage, you have no idea.

He loves Diet Coke.

He has this cup in the office that he fills with Diet Coke.

And he carries it around with him.

And I want you to imagine, Tuesday morning, we're getting ready for staff meeting,

and Tobin's walking from his office to the table where we have staff meeting,

bringing his cup because he loves his Diet Coke.

And as I am sitting at my desk, which he has to walk by to get to staff meeting,

I slide back my chair and go to stand up because I want to go to staff meeting too.

But at times, perfectly, so that as I go to stand up, my head bumps his cup.

Now, here's what's not going to come out of that cup.

Water, apple juice, Sprite, anything else not Diet Coke.

Because what has gone into that cup is Diet Coke.

So when we bump that cup, what is going to come out of that cup is Diet Coke.

And in the same way, when we get bothered, when we get irritated,

when we have life happen to us,

what comes out of our hearts is going to be what has come into our hearts.

What comes out of our hearts is going to come out of our mouths.

If we are filling ourselves with hateful, angry thoughts,

then what's going to come out is hateful, angry words.

Destructive words come from destructive hearts.

And that's what James wants us to see here,

that our words are powerful because they show what is truly inside us.

And we can let words out and say, I didn't mean to say that,

but in reality, the words only came from what was already inside our hearts.

And James, in his discussion of the tongue right here,

basically leaves us on a really negative note.

It's a real downer.

He talks about our hypocrisy and how, you know,

a saltwater spring and a freshwater spring can't be combined.

It's one or the other.

Yet we try and produce both from our mouths.

We're hypocrites.

And then he changes topics and talks about wisdom.

Sort of depressing if you just look at it like that.

But the thing that we have to remember

is that although the tongue has great power for destruction,

when redeemed, the tongue has great power for good.

James, in verse 8, he says,

no human being can tame the tongue.

We can spend our entire lives trying,

and we will fail again and again and again.

It looks hopeless for us.

There's no way that it can be fixed.

But the thing we need to remember

is that although no human being can tame the tongue,

God can.

See, God is the one who made the tongue.

In that great creation narrative,

he spoke everything into being.

He made the world and everything in it.

He made man with a tongue.

And he called it good.

He didn't just make man and leave him there

and say like, oh, this tongue,

you know, it's such a bad thing,

but he kind of needs it to be able to communicate

with other people, so we'll leave it there.

No, he made it, he called it good.

Actually, he made one tongue,

and he said it's not quite good,

so he made a second tongue.

Then he said it's very good.

You can read into that what you want

about God liking things that require two tongues.

But anyways,

the tongue was created good by God.

But the tongue, just like everything else,

was subject to the fall.

When man disobeyed against God,

every part of our being was affected by that,

including the words that we speak.

And so the words that we speak now

are a reflection of this fallen state of our hearts,

the fact that we have rebelled against God,

and we speak words that reflect that rebellion against him.

But that's not the end of the story.

John chapter 1 talks about Jesus

John 1 · chapter mention

and calls him the word who became flesh.

Jesus came to die for our sins,

including the ones that we speak.

The word became flesh to die

and pay the penalty for our unrighteous words.

Jesus came.

He died.

He paid the price that we deserve.

And he is now,

the Bible says,

making all things new.

All things includes our physical bodies,

the physical world that we're a part of,

our tongues.

He's not concerned with just saving our souls,

but with making all things new.

The Bible says that one day

there will be a physical resurrection from the dead,

that those of us who have believed in Jesus

will physically live with him forever

in new resurrection bodies,

just like Jesus had.

And that body will have a tongue

and that those tongues will be used to praise God.

And we will not turn around and curse our neighbor

after we have praised God,

but that we will be new.

And it even says in Revelation 5.13

that we will bless God with these tongues.

It says,

I heard every creature in heaven and on earth

and under the earth and in the sea

and all that is in them

saying to him who sits on the throne

and to the lamb,

be blessing and honor and glory and might

forever and ever.

Every creature on heaven and earth,

under the earth

will bless God with our tongues.

God will finish this work that he has started.

He will make all things new.

He will take these tongues,

this power that we have used for destruction

and he will use it for good.

And the even crazier thing about that

is that this isn't just something we have to wait for

till we're dead.

Something that starts now.

Paul says in Romans 6.22,

but now that you have been set free from sin

and have become slaves of God,

the fruit you get leads to sanctification,

to us becoming more like Jesus

and to its end,

eternal life.

He's saying this isn't just something

that we have to wait for forever and ever.

Something that starts now.

This good news that Jesus came and died

and rose again for us

has power that transforms our lives right now today.

There is a now power to the gospel

so that even though we struggle,

we fight,

we still won't make it

to having perfect tongues today.

If we are Christians,

God is working in our lives,

transforming our hearts,

which will in turn transform our tongues.

The Bible says that he gives us fruit

to show that he is at work in our lives.

Things like love, joy, peace,

patience, kindness, goodness,

faithfulness, gentleness,

self-control.

God's not just waiting till we're dead

to make us new,

but he started that process now.

He is at work in our lives,

transforming us today.

And because it's God who's responsible

for transforming our tongues,

when we see our tongues being transformed,

that shouldn't be a source for pride

because of what we've done,

but a source of worship

for what God has done.

We talked a lot about

the destructive power of a tongue,

but when it's redeemed,

when it's made new,

the tongue doesn't lose its power,

but instead the power is transformed.

Instead of tearing down

and destroying

and killing

and bringing death,

the tongue is now able to build up,

to give life,

to worship,

to bless.

It's a flip,

a transformation.

And so as we close today,

I want to leave us with some questions

to think about

on our words.

First is,

how do we use our words?

Are we like dragons?

People don't want to stand in front of us

because they're afraid of the fire

that's going to come out of our mouths

when we open them?

Or are our words

a source of life

to those around us?

And

what is happening in our hearts

that's causing us to talk this way?

Are our words coming from hearts

that are insecure

and restless

and fearful?

Or are they coming from hearts

that are in love with Jesus,

that are being constantly transformed

by him?

What would it look like

if we were a church

that was known for blessing people

with our words?

Here at Watermark,

we talk a lot about

gospel,

community,

and mission.

It's a process

that we want people

to go on spiritually.

Gospel,

understand who God is

and what he has done for us

and trust in him.

Community,

once you have believed in God,

enter into this body

and live life

as a part of this body.

And then mission,

go out and tell others

about how great God is.

And we've looked at

how the gospel

transforms our tongues,

how the work of Christ

is making our tongues new.

But once we understand that,

the way that we speak

fundamentally transforms

our community

and our mission.

Because words are,

at their heart,

communal.

They shape how we communicate

and relate to other people.

And so if we were a church

known for blessing others

with our words,

how would that transform

our community groups?

If we were a church

known for blessing others

with our words,

how would that transform

our interaction

with the non-Christian world

around us?

If we were a church

known for blessing others

with our words,

how would that transform

our families?

I had someone tell me this week,

today was a great day.

For the first time

in six years,

my mom told me

she loved me.

It was a great day.

That day,

that person's mom

used her words

to give life

to her son.

But I had to wonder,

what had her words

been doing

for the previous six years?

What have my words

been doing

for the previous

six years?

So as we finish today,

I want to leave us

with a challenge.

And here's the challenge.

Try and find

someone

that you can bless

with your words

each day

this week.

And Tobin said

we may even have

someone come up

and share about

this experience

next week,

so be ready.

And this won't be easy.

It's not something

that's normal

for us to do, right?

We live in Hong Kong.

We speak words

to accomplish tasks.

At work,

we tell people

what to do

so that they can

get the job done.

We go to a restaurant,

we tell the waiter

or waitress

what to get us

so that they can

bring us our food

and we can eat.

We get in the cab,

we tell the guy

where to go

so we can get home.

We get home,

we tell our kids

what to do

so that they can

get stuff done.

Our words

are all about efficiency.

And when we speak

words of blessing

to people,

they're not going

to be about efficiency.

But they will give life.

And so,

my challenge is

at least one person

each day this week

finds someone

that you can bless

with your words.

And it may not

get anything accomplished.

And you know what?

That's okay.

Because loving

our neighbors,

loving those

who God has created

in His image,

reflects what we truly think

and believe about God.

Let's pray.

Father,

we thank you

for your love for us.

We thank you

for creating the world

and for creating it good.

We thank you

that although

we have failed,

that you came,

that you are making

all things new,

including our tongues.

and that you have

given us

this incredible power

that we have

the opportunity

to use

for your glory.

So we pray

that as we go

throughout this week,

each of us

would be shaped

by your gospel.

We'd be shaped

by an understanding

of your love for us

and what you have

done for us.

We pray that we

would use our words

as a means

of blessing others

and giving life

and not as a means

of destroying

and tearing down

other people

who have been made

in your image.

God, we need grace

for this,

so please give it to us.

In your name,

amen.

How are you guys doing?

Thanks, Eric,

for bringing us

God's word

and challenging us

for this week

as we go out

to speak words

of life and blessing

to everybody

that we run into.

Pray and ask,

Lord,

what that looks like

for you and your family

and in your workplace.

We have a lot

of neat things going on

as we enter

into the holiday,

holidays.

If you live

in this area,

you probably received

something like this

this weekend.

If not,

you'll do it early

next week.

It's a flyer.

Statistics say

no matter what country

you're in,

that people are more

likely to go

and visit a church

on the holidays

of Christmas

and Easter.

People,

they're asking questions

and so we sent

10,000 of these

out to the households

in this area

but there are about

400 on the table

out there.

We want to ask you

to take some

with you

and give them

to your friends.

Not just throw it

on the desk

and walk away

but invite them

to come with you.

The reason we started

this church

was not to gather

people who were

already of faith

but was to reach out

to people who

aren't in the family yet.

And so that is one

of these things

that drive us

as a church

as we think about

planning other churches

and moving out

into areas where

people don't know

Christ yet.

So this is a great,

great opportunity

for you to invite

friends.

On Good Friday

we're going to have

a gathering

at the community

center.

We've done it

the last two years.

It's a very special

time.

It's a come and go

as you want time.

There'll be a small

program,

some worship

and fellowship

and it'll end

in doing communion

as a family.

So your family

will do the communion

with the elders.

It's a great opportunity.

And then on Easter Sunday

we're going to have

the outreach service

here at 1030

and then at 2 o'clock

we have 1,000 Easter eggs

and we hide them

in the podium

out there

and we're going to

do an outreach

to the community.

And so we'd love

for you to be a part

of that.

Community groups

are getting involved

and your community

group knows what

they'll be doing

in that time.

But again,

we ask you to pray

and pray that God

would move in people's

hearts and people

would come to know

Christ and they would

fall in love with Him.

So there's a lot

of really neat things

and opportunities

for you to invite

and engage people

in your world

to invite them

to come here

about Christ

in that part.

Also,

Tuesday night

is the men's gathering

at the community center

so if you're a man,

be there.

We have had

great fellowships.

We've been doing it

every other week

and so it's this Tuesday

at 730.

Food is provided.

It goes until about 9.

It's a really good gathering.

You know,

when we started the church

we don't ask for money

in offering in front.

The fact that the offering

baskets are off to the side

and we ask for you

to give as God

impacts your heart

because we feel like

that's a great indicator

for us as an understanding

of the gospel.

One of the things

we did as we started that

is we talked about

these things a lot

but we also make known

our needs.

And so when we fitted out

the community center

if you've been there

no money was raised

for the community center.

One Sunday,

the very first Sunday

I came up and said

hey,

we need toilets

with seats,

we need chairs,

we need these things

and the next week

people gave those things.

I came back the next week

and said okay,

we need 100 chairs

and we need some projectors,

we need some air conditioners

and the next week

the church family

gave those things.

And so as we continue

to pray and think about

that there are a couple

needs that we have

we want you to pray about

and one of them

is just housing.

We have interns coming in

and we're looking for people

who have extra flat

that the church,

we don't want it for free

but we want to be able

to rent it from you

in this area

so we can house

the interns

that are coming in

because we have a lot

of neat opportunities

with people coming in

to serve the church

in the next couple months.

So if you have extra space

available,

please contact me

or in the office

because that's just

a need we have

for that issue

for serving the church.

Also we're looking

for people who have

office space

around this part

of Hong Kong

because as we're growing

we're starting Bible studies

and gatherings

and community groups

and so if you have

extra office space

that's available

anytime during the week

even if it's 8 o'clock

at night

just send us a short email

here I have an office space

that can fit 25 people

8 o'clock here

and you can use it

just let me know

because we're thinking

as we grow

we're just looking

for places to grow

and we're just trusting

the family of God

to provide those places.

Okay?

Is that good?

So be praying about that

and that is a huge thing

as we continue

this step of faith.

Let me pray for us.

Father we just

we come before you

and as the passage said

as we heard

the thing that we're called

to do is impossible

on our own

and I think that

for many many years

for many of us

we've been trying to do

the impossible

in so many ways

and the passage says

clearly that unless

the perfect man

your son comes in

and makes all things new

and changes all things

that there's no hope

it was that way

from the garden

and it's that way

today.

So we come to you

as your people

and we worship

that perfect person

your son Jesus

and as we sing

Hosanna Lord

please come

we pray Lord

that you would

continue to show

yourselves to us

as a people

and as a church

Father we surrender

our hearts to you

we surrender

our lives to you

Lord we surrender

our resources to you

because they're

already yours

we surrender

our tongue

to you

fill our heart

with things

that are worthy

enough to speak

help us to be

a people

and a church

that are of your word

and speak words

of life

and wisdom

and grace

to everyone

around us

Lord help us

to realize

no matter how

much we try

behavior modification

that our problem

is still there

and the only solution

to that problem

is Jesus

and so we come

before you

and desperately

beg you

to enter into

our life

and we repent

of our selfishness

Father we pray

for this part of

Hong Kong

in these next

couple weeks

with so many people

even just right

next door in Bel Air

who don't know you

who don't come to church

we pray for the flyers

that went out

we pray for us

as your church

to go out

and to walk

with courage

as we talked about

last week

with Rahab

and Abraham

and to trust you

and to invite friends

into this community

so they might see

your son

and fall in love

with him

Father we pray

for the money

that we take up

right now

we pray that

as it goes

to a large port

to outreach

that you would

bless it

and multiply

the tithe

that we give back

to you

so that we would

use it to honor

you in all things

and Father we just pray

for that little grassy area

over there

from 2 to 4

next week

but 2 weeks from now

but so many other days

that your spirit

would be there

and the people

wandering through there

would find something

besides an Easter egg hunt

they'd find people

who love you

they'd find your son Jesus

so Lord we come before you

this morning

and we just thank you

and we worship you

and we need you desperately

we pray these things

in Jesus name

Amen

God bless you

we'll be back here again

next Sunday

right here

grab some drinks

on the way out

and we'll see you

have a great week