Taming the Tongue

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We hope you're encouraged by today's message.

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Today I get the great privilege of doing part five in our book of James series.

We are on chapter three today and this is again if you're new to the series.

James book is.

Our tagline is practical faith for practical living, one of the most very practical books in the New Testament and, honestly, it is a book that is in your face.

James is the half brother of Jesus.

Same mom, different dad.

Of course, jesus had the heavenly father as his dad, but this is a topic today that is literally in your face as we talk about the tongue, so you might want to pick up your toes.

I'm gonna pick mine up because I think the word of God is gonna step on all our toes today.

How many of you have ever said something and the moment it started to leave your mouth, you thought, oh, I desperately wish I could go through the air and grab those words and bring them back.

So it's like, oh, is this your grandpa?

No, he's my husband.

I was just joking with you, it's just great.

Or when you say hello, you're so congratulations, he is so cute.

That baby is so cute.

He's not a he.

That's why she has a pink bow on her head.

You know you keep getting all the gender wrong.

It makes me think I wish our mouths had the iPhone new ability to bring back a text.

You know you could unsend a text.

How many of you wish that you had that with your mouth.

Right, you're like I wanna unsend what I just said.

I had the opportunity a few years back to go on a retreat with several other pastors in Montana.

First time I got a fly fish.

That was a lot of fun and the pastor who was leading the retreat had, within a few years of that, had turned over his church to his son and his son is now the lead pastor and he is a very, very large church and his son was during Christmas services.

They have multiple campuses, multiple thousands of people and he's giving the announcement for the upcoming sermon series in January.

So packed Christmas season, Christmas services and going across to all the campuses.

And he's giving the announcement about the new series called Shift, with missing one of the letters in the series.

And there's how many of you know?

There's no taking it back.

There's no.

You wanna unsend the text, you wanna unsend what just came out of your mouth?

Well, james wants us to know that there is one member, one member of our body, the tongue that holds so much potential for good and so much potential for harm.

And so he spends 12 verses in chapter three teaching us of the importance of mastering the tongue.

What he teaches us is this if you master this, you master it all.

If you can master the tongue, you can master it all.

We're gonna look at James chapter three, first 12 verses.

Let's stand up for the reading of God's word today.

James chapter three, verse one through 12.

Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.

We all stumble in many ways.

Can someone say amen to that right there?

Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.

When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal.

Or take ships as an example.

Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go.

Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts.

Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.

The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body.

It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one's life on fire and is itself set on fire by hell.

James, just tell us like it is.

Come on, quit beating around the bush.

All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue.

It is a restless evil full of deadly poison.

With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father and with it we curse human beings who have been made in God's likeness.

Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing.

My brothers and sisters, this should not be.

Can both fresh water and salt flow from the same spring, my brothers and sisters?

Can a fig tree bear olives or a grape vine bear figs?

Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

I wanna talk on this subject taming the tongue.

Let's pray together.

Holy Spirit, you're the author of the word of God.

Thank you for inspiring James to write this in your face, literally scripture.

Today we ask for you to help my tongue to not be tongue tied.

We pray that you would help me to communicate this word, just like you want it to be communicated.

We pray that you will be the interpreter in the room, that you will speak to every one of us in the room and online, how you would want us to hear what you are saying to us, so that our lives will bear fruit for your honor and for your glory.

We pray this, all in Jesus' name, and everybody shout out amen.

All right, you may be seated.

Let me give you a few tongue facts for you this morning.

The tongue is made up of eight muscles.

Someone told me today it's the strongest muscle in the body.

I haven't looked that up yet, not quite sure.

If that's true, the average tongue is four inches long.

Don't stick your tongue out at me right now to try to test me out long your tongue is.

The color of the person's tongue does tell a story, though, and those bumps on your tongue they're not taste buds, but they actually contain and house the taste buds which cannot be seen by the naked eye.

So there's thousands of taste buds on our tongue anywhere between two and 10,000 taste buds, and some of our taste buds die off every couple of weeks and they are replaced with new ones.

So if things start tasting good again, there you go.

Some died off and some new ones came along.

I don't know if you knew this or not, but a blue whale's tongue is the size of an average adult elephant and weighs around 8,000 pounds.

You don't wanna be licked by a blue whale.

So those are some natural facts about the tongue.

But let's talk about some spiritual truths about the tongue.

The first thought that I believe that James is wanting us to understand is the tongue may be small, but it is extremely powerful.

Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts.

So he gives different illustrations.

He says that boats are directed, ships are directed by small rudders, horses are directed by bits in their mouth.

So the tongue is a bridle, it's a rudder and it's a spark.

He gives these three different analogies of how powerful the tongue is.

And if you've ever made a mistake and you said something that you shouldn't have at work, your tongue is not the only part of you that gets fired.

All of you gets fired, right, because it affects all of our life.

How many of you recognize with me that our tongue can change the atmosphere of a room?

Our words can literally change the atmosphere of our home or our office or our neighborhood.

We can say things like this I am so proud that you are my son.

I remember when my dad had said that to me over and over again.

But I remember one moment, as I've told you before.

I was 18 years old and I was standing in the driveway of my parents' home and I remember a conversation that my dad was marking me with his words, telling me that, no matter what I ever did, you would always be my son.

And he gave examples and he said the worst things that human could do.

But he said I want you to know that I'll always love you and you are always my son.

It marked me, it did something in my heart and we can say things like this honey, I know we've been married for 29 years, but I still think it's the smartest decision that I ever made.

Words can be very beneficial and words can be very detrimental.

People can say things like I believe in you and I'm so proud of you, or they can say you'll never amount to anything or it's over.

I want a divorce.

Words are powerful.

The tongue is small, but it boasts great things.

I remember I've told you this story as well when I was 18 years old, I was graduating from high school, and one of the parents of acquaintance of mine I don't know if he was half drunk or not, I'm gonna just say that he was because of what he said to me.

But he just said, bob, you'll never be a leader, you've never been a leader and you never will be.

And I remember those words, but I remember them not sticking, I remember them not making.

It was like someone took a shot but they missed.

And I'll tell you why.

I'll tell you it's because of all those conversations I had with my dad.

It was because of all the words that my dad had said to me prior that had built a wall, that had built a wall over my heart, had built a wall over my mind.

And the power of the tongue I'm here to tell you church is beyond our imagination, and so we wanna be careful that we are a people that use this gift of the tongue with wisdom and with grace.

Can I hear an amen today?

Amen, the last illustration that James gives.

He says it's a destructive force of a fire.

What a great forest is set on fire by a small spark and we're all watching the news, even this week, as one of the deadliest fire in modern history is sweeping the island of Maui and destroying literally billions of dollars, and so far the count is 93 lives.

We don't know how this started, but fires usually start with just some sort of a spark.

One of Colorado's most dangerous fires ever happened because a estranged wife was so angry at her husband that she wrote an angry letter to him and then wrote out all her feelings and then, even though there was a burning ban at the time, she chose to burn it anyway, and in that burned thousands of acres.

How many lives have been affected because of the spark of one angry sentence?

James is letting us know that we need God.

We need God to bring about the change that we know that we all need, and I think that we've seen this maybe more in the last decade than in any other season of my life, where people just find the freedom to say and to type whatever they feel like saying and whatever they want to say at the moment.

But James is reminding us in today's scripture lesson that we have a power that we need God's help to contain, and when we learn how to tame the tongue, we have learned the secret to taming our entire life.

And so another truth that I think James is telling us today is that the tongue actually reveals our heart, because he says this can both freshwater and saltwater flow from the same spring?

What he's saying is is that it's the spring, it's wherever it's, whatever the source is.

That is determining what is coming out of your mouth.

So the real problem isn't our tongue, it's our heart.

The real problem is not the keyboard on our computer, it's our heart, and Jesus said it like this.

He said you, brood of snakes, how could evil men like you speak?

What is good and right, for whatever is in your heart determines what you say.

How many of you are an only child?

I just want to see how many of you are an only child in the room.

Okay, you don't understand this illustration, but everyone else in the room does, because everyone who grew up with siblings knows what it's like to have a sibling say Mom, dad, so and so, did so and so and so.

That's the problem with growing up all by yourself.

You didn't have anyone to tell on you.

You needed someone to tell on you.

But here's why it bothered us when our siblings told on us, because they were telling the truth.

They were revealing something that we actually did.

And so we go.

You are such a tattletale.

Let me tell you something about our tongues.

They're tattletales.

They tell us who you really are.

They tell us what we've really done.

Our tongues are tattletales.

They just say it like it is.

So today I want to deal with the tongue.

I think James wants us to deal with the tongue.

The Holy Spirit wants us to deal with the tongue.

So let's take the remainder of our time and talk about taming the tongue, the first thought I want us to get.

I'm going to give you four thoughts today.

I'm going to really focus on my last one Taming the tongue.

First thought is this listen to yourself, talk, listen to what your tongue is telling on you.

Listen to the tone, listen to what it, not just the words.

Listen to the attitude.

Anybody in the room today I know my toes are already getting stepped on too here's how he said he goes.

My beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear.

Let every person be swift to hear.

Why do we need to be swift to hear and to listen?

Because you will not confront or change what you are not aware of.

You will not confront or change what you're not willing to admit.

So we've got to slow down and listen to what is coming out of our own mouth.

Well, you say well, I'm just trying to be real.

I'm just trying to be honest.

I want someone to talk to.

I get it.

I'm glad that you're trying to be real.

But some of your friends need to be real with you because of all your negativity is not going to change your life.

All your negativity is not going to get you to where you want to go.

I know it feels like you're being real and I know it feels like you're just come on, I just got to get this off of my chest.

But here I'm here to tell you, just rehearsing bitterness and rehearsing anger and rehearsing gossip.

I'm here to tell you or slander.

It might feel okay at the moment like you're getting something off your chest, but you're actually not getting it off.

You're bringing a heavier burden on you.

So you got to slow down, be swift to hear what's coming out of our own mouth, because I'll never confront and I'll never change what I'm not willing to admit.

All right.

So if I'm going to tame the tongue, then I got to get honest with myself about what am I saying Am I full of negativity?

Am I agreeing with God or am I agreeing with hell?

Am I agreeing with the world or am I agreeing with heaven?

And so I think one of the other ways, when I'm being slowed and I'm listening to myself, let me give you some instruction of if you're going to slow down, think before you speak, and let me give you an acronym for think Before I say this is it true?

Now, for those who are saying well, I would just it is true, they treated me like this, or it's true, it's horrible, or it's true.

The world's going to hell in a hand basket, or whatever.

It might be Okay, but let's finish the word.

Is it helpful?

Well, it feels like it's helpful to me right now, okay.

Is it inspiring?

Well, it is to me.

Is it to everybody who's listening to you?

Is it necessary and is it kind?

If I'm going to slow down, then I got to think and I got to.

If I'm going to think about what I say, then let's go through this is it true and is it helpful and is it inspiring and is it necessary and is it kind?

And if not, then maybe I need to change what I'm dwelling on.

Like Paul wrote to the Philippians brethren whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, things are lovely, things that are of good report.

Is this a good report If there's anything, any virtue, and if there's anything praiseworthy?

Meditate on these things.

I think another thing that James is letting us know if we're going to tame the tongue, that we're going to listen to our self-talk and then we are going to need God's help, we're going to look to God for help and I like what the psalmist says help me, lord.

Help me, lord, to keep my mouth shut and my lips sealed.

Hey, come on, somebody needs to give that as a verse to somebody.

I mean, give it to yourself.

I'm not even meant to say we just give it to ourselves.

Help me, lord, to keep my mouth shut and my lips sealed.

See this, this is a prayer.

This is a prayer, god, would you help me?

I need help with my tongue.

I don't want to agree with the devil, I don't want to agree with my past, I want to agree with heaven.

And another prayer really made the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart.

See, they're connected, the heart and the mouth.

They're connected, because whatever words are coming out of your mouth or coming from whatever you're meditating on in your heart, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, lord, my rock and my Redeemer.

So if I'm going to tame the tongue, then I'm going to not just be slow and listen to what's coming out so I can confront it, but when I confront it, I'm going to then say, god, would you help me?

Because I'm going to come to a realization.

I obviously have some stuff in my heart that I need uprooted.

I need that negativity out, I need the bitterness out, I need the offense out.

I don't want it in my heart anymore.

So what's the next thing I do when I hear myself speak is I go to God in prayer and I say, god, would you help me?

And I just got good news for you today.

God loves it when we pray.

And I'm here to tell you, when you pray scriptures like this and you pray these kind of thoughts, how many of you think God actually wants to answer that prayer?

This is a type of prayer that I promise you that God is not saying nah, I'm not going to help you.

He's not doing that he's like I'm going to be right there.

He's more than willing to answer our prayers.

All right, so we pray about it.

Now, if we have some stuff in our heart that is affecting the way that we're speaking and we've prayed, and then God starts uprooting stuff, that's good.

But stuff's going to get back in if I don't know how to keep stuff out.

So I gotta listen and then, when I become aware, I gotta repent and pray and say God, help this, come out.

But then I gotta look out for what I allow in my heart.

I gotta watch what I allow in my heart, because my heart is affecting my words, it's affecting what I'm saying.

That's why Proverbs tells us, above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from that.

So everything I'm saying, my life, how I'm living it, it's flowing from what I allow in my heart.

How do I allow things in?

Listen, you have eyes and you have ears.

I'm gonna call these gates.

These are gateways that you are literally allowing stuff in.

Hear this now If you constantly are watching and listening to negative movies and negative music and negative people, those things are making their way into your heart and they are influencing your tongue.

Because whatever I allow in my heart is making its way out and it's tattletailing on me.

It's tattletailing on me.

I got a sibling right here, a younger sibling that tells on me without my permission.

It just does all the time.

So I gotta guard what I allow in.

That's why it's so important that I think the majority, if not all, of your music that you listen to needs to be music that glorifies God, because that will get in your heart and it'll start influencing your speech, where you're like, oh, I'm giving God glory while I'm.

Why am I talking so much better than I used to?

Because you're listening to stuff that's better than you used to.

And the movies you're watching.

You gotta start watching some movies that are uplifting and not full of all kinds of crud.

Even me, I just did better saying crud right there.

Did you hear that?

That was good?

That was good.

Thank you, Jesus.

That's why you pray before you preach.

That's why you do that.

But I wanna spend the remainder of my time.

I wanna talk about this last thought.

So here we are, we listen, which makes us aware, and that makes us pray.

We say God, help me.

And he starts to help us.

But then we get wisdom and we say, okay, you took the stuff out.

I don't wanna have to always be letting stuff in, have to be aware, have to repent.

And then I let stuff in, I become aware, have to repent, and I'm just in this cycle.

Right, god doesn't want us in that cycle of negativity, so let's fill it, let's fill our hearts with so much good stuff that the bad stuff, the negative stuff, doesn't have any room.

Anybody in this with me?

I'm in Sarah's.

What I want you to do?

I want you to love life giving words.

I want you just to love life giving words, and I wanna tell you what those are.

I wanna show you some examples.

I wanna start.

Just maybe my tongue isn't used to life giving words and I'm just gonna start training and taming my tongue to start saying stuff.

That might not be my personality.

Some of you, you have a personality that is more this way and you already love life giving words, and some of you have personalities that aren't always that way.

But all of us, all of us can grow in loving life giving words.

Let me give you the first one I wanna say A life giving words would be words of affection.

Words of affection.

The New Testament is filled with words of affection.

You see the writers writing like I love you and the bride loving the bride and my prayers are for you.

You see all this affection going on and in fact it even talks about greet each other with a holy kiss.

It's like man talk about affection.

I mean that's great for that culture, that's awesome.

Um the but words of affection I love you, and brothers, we can, men can do this Like love you brother, I love you bro.

Now, for some of you that's hard.

Some of you, you literally can't say it.

You can't do that and it has it's tied up with so much of your past.

But what that does is is it makes us again listen to not only what's coming out your mouth, listen to what's not coming out of your mouth.

And if it can't come out of your mouth, then that's another issue and say, okay, god, will you heal my heart, heal my heart of my past.

Do you know that Jesus talked to God every day?

Right, he talked to his father every day and we have two recorded conversations in the scriptures, in the gospels, of what the father said to Jesus in his prayer time.

They say the same thing the two times in the gospels, where it shows us what the father said to Jesus is recorded for us, and he says this look at this.

As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water.

At that moment, heaven was opened and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and a lighting on him, and a voice from heaven said this is my son, whom I love.

With him, I'm well pleased.

God the father both accounts that are recorded for us of when he talked to Jesus, which tells me I'm gonna assume something here.

This is pretty much what God the father said to Jesus every day.

Oh right, and if he wants to say this to Jesus every day, does he wanna say it to you every day?

You're my son, you're my daughter, I love you, I'm so proud of you.

Wake up tomorrow.

You're my son, you're my daughter, I love you, I'm so proud of you.

Oh, tomorrow's another day.

Oh, guess what?

You're my son, you're my daughter, I love you and I'm so proud of you.

We can learn a lesson from our heavenly father that he loves life-giving words and he loves words of affection, words of affection.

What else are life-giving words?

Words of praise.

Good job, way to go, the New Testament.

You follow the writings of the authors and you see them doing things like this.

Paul writes to the Philippians and I just want you to see this.

Look at this.

He goes.

You know that Timothy has proved himself because, as a son with his father, he served with me in the work of the gospel.

What is he doing?

He's praising Timothy publicly.

Hey, if you're gonna talk about people, talk about people in their presence, with praise, rather than talk about people negatively when they're not present.

How about we tame our tongue and talk about people when they're present with praise?

Paul is doing that with Timothy.

He goes.

He's proved himself.

And look at this.

He talks that way about Epaphroditus, few verses later.

I think it's necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, co-worker and fellow soldier.

Do you see?

He's praising him.

He's going.

This is my brother.

This guy knows how to work.

This guy doesn't just know how to work, he's a warrior.

He's praising him.

He's praising him in Scripture, words of praise, who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs.

So then, welcome him in the Lord with great joy and honor people like him, because he almost died for the work of Christ.

He risked his life to make up for the help you yourselves could not give me.

What is he doing?

Praising publicly.

He's praising publicly, taming the tongue.

You've got to love life-giving words.

Now listen some of you again, this is hard because you've never received them.

You don't know how to give them because you've never received them.

The Father wants to talk to you.

Your heavenly Father wants to talk to you.

If your heavenly Father in your mind is always mad, always disappointed, not proud of you, something in our heart that we've allowed in that has now become a filter for how I hear God, how I hear everybody else, that is not clean Love, life-giving words, words of affection, words of praise, words of encouragement.

You can do it.

Don't stop.

Now.

There's a guy in the New Testament by the name of Barnabas.

His name literally means son of encouragement.

Everybody needs a Barnabas in their life.

Everybody needs somebody who just has a gift of encouragement.

Now we can all grow in it and we can all love these kind of words.

Some people are filled with them and some people have a gift, but all of us can learn to love them and to tame our tongue with words of encouragement.

And I want to show you what Barnabas did.

Now, before I read the Scripture, I want to remind you of who the apostle Paul was.

His name was also Saul, and he was the assassin of Christians.

He didn't like us.

He was a religious person and thought all the Christ followers were the enemy.

And so he would get permission from religious leaders and he would go and drag people from their homes, have them stoned to death, have them killed.

And then he was born again and became a great apostle writing much of the New Testament.

But he needed someone in that transition period from being hated by the church and all the church afraid of him to being welcomed by the church.

How many of you know it'd be a little difficult to welcome Saul into the house of God when every other meeting he's been in he's dragging people out and having them killed.

You'd be like, yeah, I'd rather if you went to Trinity Baptist first or you know there's a couple churches I'd recommend that.

I really think fit your theology better.

Look at what he did.

Look at this.

After he's born again, barnabas took him that's Saul and brought him to the apostles.

He told them how Saul, on his journey, had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him and how, in Damascus, he's already preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus.

What is Barnabas doing?

He's telling Paul in front of everyone else there's something special on this man's life.

Paul can do this.

I know that everyone is scared of you, paul, but you've changed and I believe in you.

And he is encouraging Paul publicly by taking him along with him, saying listen, you don't got to go to church alone, you can go with me.

What an encourager.

I don't know where Paul would be if it had not been for someone like Barnabas.

I don't know if we would have ever heard about Paul.

I don't know if he would have wrote letters of the New Testament if there wasn't someone who had words of encouragement that believed in him, brought him to the apostles and told them listen, he saw Jesus Right, no, no, no, he did.

And I've heard him preach and I'm telling you there's something special on the guy's life and you need to believe in him.

Words of encouragement I know we all sit here going.

I need all of these in my life.

Another one words of healing.

People are hurting.

We have the privilege to bring words that offer healing rather than continuing the pain and suffering.

Words of healing are like this You're more than the sum total of your failures.

You're better than that.

Proverbs tells us.

The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life.

Words of affection, words of encouragement, words of healing and words of faith.

Tell people what they could be, as if they already are, that God saw who we could be rather than just who we were.

I know who you really are.

You speak words of faith over people, some of you.

You need to start and practice this over your own life.

You need to speak words of faith over yourself.

Speak words of healing over yourself.

Speak words of affection Over yourself.

Say God loves me, even if you don't feel it, just believe it.

It's quote-scription.

Start declaring these words of life because you begin to love life-giving words.

I want to be like Caleb in the Old Testament.

When everyone else wasn't agreeing with words of life, caleb just quieted all those tongues and he said let's go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.

He included everyone else in his words of faith, not just well, I'm going to do it by myself.

Then it's like no, no, no, we're able.

He spoke words of faith.

When other people were speaking Words of unbelief.

He spoke words of faith.

So, in one sentence, what are we saying today?

We're saying this we shape our words, and then our words shape us.

We shape our words and then our words shape us, and our words shape others.

So let us hear what the writer is teaching us today.

The tongue may be small, but it boasts great things.

It's like a rudder, a bridle or a spark.

You can set something ablaze, in a good way or a negative way.

May our tongues fall in love with life-giving words.

Amen, thank you Lord.

Amen, thank you, lord.

I think we all need a moment to pray, so let's bow our heads and let's ask the Holy Spirit to highlight what he's saying to us.

Spirit of God, you're the great teacher.

As we open your word today, we know that you are emphasizing something for each of us.

Let it be embedded in our heart right now.

Let us know this is what I want you to do.

We take this emphasis by you, and now we ask for your help, lord.

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight.

O Lord, even though no man, no human, can tame the tongue, you, god, can change us from the inside, so that our tongues tattle tail on you, that they give words of praise to you, that they build others up, that our tongues are used in a way that encourages and strengthens and brings hope and healing to everyone that comes in contact with us With every head bowed and every eye closed.

The emphasis of this message today was that I need to be changed on the inside.

And if you're here today and you say, bob, I don't know if I've ever truly been changed on the inside, but I would love to be.

If that's you, what I'm asking is have you asked Jesus into your heart?

Have you asked Jesus to forgive you of every sin and made him Lord of your life?

Because only by doing that can we begin the process of which we talked about this morning.

If that's you and you say, bob, I'm not sure I'm right with God, but I know that I want to be.

I don't want to stay this way.

I need him in my life.

And if that's you, between you and me in heaven, I'm going to pray one more prayer and I want to know who, in this room or online, that would say, bob, I'm going to pray that prayer with you.

I'm not going to call you forward, but I do want to recognize who's going to pray that prayer with me, between you, me and Jesus.

Would you just look up at me, catch eyes with me by raising your hand, so I can just catch eyes with you.

That's beautiful.

That's wonderful.

I'm going to scan.

I see you back here.

Who else is here today?

I don't want to miss you.

I'm scanning across.

I see you back there.

That's great, I see you guys.

That's wonderful.

Now, if I missed you, heaven did not and I'm going to pray on your behalf and we're all going to come into agreement and just right there while I pray, just say yes, lord, that's me, jesus.

I come on behalf of my friends today that say I want you in my life.

I want you forgive me of every sin I've ever committed, every sin I ever will.

I want you to be the Lord of my life.

I want to be what the Bible says is born again.

Change me from the inside out.

I want to follow you all the days of my life, so will you put your spirit on the inside of me?

I pray all of this in Jesus' name and everybody shouted amen, amen.

I want to give Jesus a hand clap today.

We thank you for your word and your life changing power.

Thank you, god.

We hope that today's message encouraged you.

At Life Church, we believe that wherever you are in your relationship with God, there's always a next step to take, and we're here to help you find yours.

If you made the decision to follow Jesus today or you're simply looking to get more involved in this community, we invite you to check out our next steps page.

You'll find all the information you need by clicking the link in the description.

If this message impacted you in any way, we encourage you to do two things.

First, share this video with a friend.

It's a wonderful way to share the love of Jesus with someone that you care about.

Second, we'd love to hear your story.

Click the link in the description to share your testimony with us so we can celebrate all God is doing in your life.

We're excited to be on this journey of following Jesus with you and hope you have a great week.