The Words We Say | Bro. Zach McGee

Well, praise the Lord church, the word is amazing, powerful,

wonderful. I would have never thought it

when I bought that first Bible at NYC, my first NYC and it's

just laid out in a way that just caught my attention.

I just read it, got more interested, read a little bit

more and a little bit more. And, you know, 17 years later,

here I am. Wow, That's more than I was only

like 1516 at the time. So that's more than twice my

life. That's time marches on.

It's brutal. Oh, yeah.

We give the Lord glory and praise through it all.

But tonight I want to give honor to God and all He has done.

I give honor to my amazing wife and beautiful daughters through

the chaos that I call home and I love coming home to them every

day. I give honor to Pastor and

Sister McGee, brother and Sister Mason, and Bishop and Sister

McGee. Our ministry team is amazing and

I don't want to forget about Brother Alex and Sister Grace.

They are absolutely wonderful and all they do and I'd love to

hear them sing and play and minister the Word just everybody

we have. I think it's absolutely

wonderful and and inspiring in many different ways.

Tonight. I just have one scripture to

start us off and it's in Ephesians 429.

Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but

that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister

grace unto the hearers. Let's just take a quick moment

here to pray to seek the Lord's help.

God, we love you. We give you all the glory and

praise. God, thank you for the chance to

be in your house tonight. God.

Thank you God for the word God and its power in our lives.

And I pray, God, you anoint my mind and my lips to minister

your word tonight. God, open our ears and our

understanding. Let us hear and receive your

word, God. Let it do the work that you have

sent it out to do. Lord, we pray tonight in the

mighty name of Jesus, Amen and Amen.

You may be seated. Now this message tonight, it

comes from a place of need I found in myself.

And I was talking with Sister Ray at work today and, and

telling her a little bit about what I was talking about and

thinking, I kind of need to put a mirror like right there so I

can just point to that mirror looking right back at me.

And I know I'm going to be stepping on my own toes tonight

with this word, but it's something that God brought to my

attention. I got, I got to repent of

mistakes and shortcomings every single day.

And my shortcomings are not justified, but I thank God for

his grace to receive the conviction and to get back up

when we realize we've been slack on some things.

And so tonight my message is the words we say because what we say

matters. What words we allow to pass our

lips matter. And even though it's not in my

notes, the words we allow to run in our minds that we think to

ourselves matter to your internal dialogue about

yourself. It matters to you don't want to

be speaking poison to yourself. You know the our worth is found

in Christ and who He says that we are and He the one who made

us and sustains us through every day.

He has said we are loved. He has said we are treasured.

He has said we are of great value.

He has says we are worthwhile. He said we were worth dying for.

So who are we to tell our own selves as if we know better than

Him that we are less than that? So what we say in our internal

dialogue about ourselves, it matters.

But to get on to my message and my notes.

So you know, what do words do? What is the purpose of words?

Words communicate. They make our thoughts and our

ideas known out loud where others can hear it.

In the very beginning, God used words to bring all of creation

into existence. He spoke, He used words and

everything that is was created the Word or the thought, and the

plan of God was made flesh. The Word Jesus Christ, God's

plan for our salvation manifested in the flesh.

The ministry of the Word instructs us and leads us to

salvation. Words literally from the very

beginning of creation and still today are powerful.

And the words we speak may not be on God's level.

You know, I can say, look, there be light all day long, ain't

nothing going to happen. But our words carry weight that

echo through the lives of all those that hear us speak, even

those when words is talking face to face and someone's just

passing by and here's a glimpse. Our words still echo in their

life. And now to be able to speak out

loud, we must be able to produce a sound.

Sound. It's just vibrations moving

through a medium such as air that is picked up by our ears.

We are able to produce certain tones of various links from our

throats which are able to be picked up by our ears.

And the meaning of the sounds understood with our brains that

process the stimuli of our eardrums being vibrated.

The spoken word is a physical force that can be felt.

It makes a physical impact and meaning behind those words

spoken. You know what the dad voice is,

right? You feel the impact of those

words, the character you can feel.

You can feel your body. You hear it.

You know the intent behind it. It is a wonderful thing and I

love the dad voice, but all I'd say the physical impact upon our

bodies, as much as it happens, it isn't, it isn't huge, isn't a

very big thing. It is a it is an amazing thing.

I think it's really cool the way sound works, the way our bodies

work and everything's orchestrated together.

But the message of our words is what is huge because the meaning

of our words we speak, or sometimes just the way we speak

it, it's going to influence thoughts, emotions, opinions,

moods, depending on what's said. With one sentence, we can change

someone's entire mood for the rest of the day.

Rest of the week, we need to talk.

OK, there, there goes your day. Your day is ruined.

I don't care if you had the best morning, you hear we need to

talk, you're done. That's it's too heavy, it's too

anxiety inducing, it is the worst thing and it's just 4

spoken words. We need to talk.

But the meaning is what carries all the weight.

Words, if I haven't said it enough, with only one adjective

to describe them, to describe them, are powerful.

And they are powerful because they influence, They have

meaning. There is intention.

Being able to speak, whether it is with spoken words, with

written words, or if you got a sign.

It's an enormous responsibility. Are we using it well?

Because no matter what reason we used to try to justify what we

say, what we say is what we have said.

It is our fault, our responsibilities on us, for

better or for worse. So are we using it while are we

speaking well? Ephesians 429 Let no corrupt

communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is

good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto

the hearers. But that which is good, you

know, the opposite of good. Obviously, being evil, it's

anything degrading. It's anything that is to bring

someone down because what we are to speak by the command of God

himself to us is that which is good.

That is to the use of edifying, which builds up that it may

minister grace unto the hearers. Our conversations and jokes.

They should never degrade someone or lead someone away

from Christ. What we say should always be a

blessing to the ears of the hearers.

That's a tall order. OK, that's not easy.

I'm not here to say that's easy. I'm just here to say that is

what we are called to do. And I I know because I'm

preaching this to myself. It's because of how God

convicted me and made me realize things.

I'm realizing I need to watch what I say so that it is a

blessing and not a hindrance. This world is full enough of bad

news, bad jokes, and bad conversations.

So let the words that I speak be full of integrity and grace.

And it's I don't want to say that literally everything we say

a joke about should be heavenly, so to speak, but there should

never be anything that contradicts Jesus that comes out

of our mouths. I want my words to be so

consistent and my jokes and what I laugh at, what I entertain,

what I listen to, I want all of my words to be so consistent

with Jesus that people aren't surprised when I say, yeah, I go

to church. I would rather it seem redundant

to say it because the more I gossip or make inappropriate

jokes, the more ashamed I am to admit that I love Jesus because

I feel like a hypocrite and a failure in my witness.

I've, I've had opportunities to witness that I have missed,

knowingly missed because I felt so ashamed of maybe the jokes I

was saying 10 minutes ago that I'm like, I'm just such, I feel

like such a dirty hypocrite. I can't, I, I just don't feel

like I can actually tell them about Jesus now or invite them

to church because I don't feel like I'm in the right.

I feel like it's like I just got this thing dirty.

Now I'm supposed to present it like it's clean.

It's like, who's going to buy that?

Psalms 1914? Let the words of my mouth and

the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord,

my strength and my Redeemer. Jesus is the standard.

He's the standard in every area of our lives, including what we

say and what we think. Whether or not other people

think it's OK to talk a certain way or joke a certain way, it

doesn't matter. Our standard is to think and to

speak in a way that honors Him. And again, I really wish I could

say I was imperfect. I was perfect in this and that

every one of my conversations glorify God and but I'm still

working on it. I could try to justify like I'm

a blue collar worker. Of course I'm going to be.

I can't justify anything because I am responsible for me.

So I'm working on it and thank God for his grace and conviction

because he didn't say you're doing wrong and slapped me down.

He said, Hey, you could do better.

And he's lifting me up. I will always be amazed by the

grace of God. It's, it's a wonderful thing.

And you know, it seems like even though I'm still working on it,

it seems like I'll do good for a while and then realize, man,

I've been, I've been messing up for, for a little bit now.

And you know this, I definitely would not say this in the

presence of God. There was one time I don't even

remember what was on TV. We were watching it.

I was like 1415. And dad walked up behind us.

And this time he didn't tell us to change the channel or

anything. He didn't say what to do.

He just said if Jesus was physically sitting right next to

you, would you still be watching this?

And then he walked off and I thought, I'm like, and change

the channel. It was hard, but, and I, I kind

of feel it's the same with our words.

You know, if, if Jesus was there participating in the

conversation with me, would these words still pass my lips?

And that's what I'm working on for me.

And, and I know I'm not very unique or special or different

from any one of us. I'm not calling anybody out

except myself, but we all need to look at it that way.

If Jesus was here in the conversation with me, James

three six through 12, and the tongue is a fire, a world of

iniquity, so is the tongue among our members that it defileth the

whole body. I can say that, like I said, I

feel like such a bad hypocrite. I can't do anything else.

I feel like all of me is dirty, when it was only my mouth that

did the wrong thing. But it defileth the whole body,

and setteth on fire, the course of nature, and it is set on fire

of hell. For every kind of beast, and of

birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea is tamed, and

hath been tamed of mankind. But the tongue can no man tame.

It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

Therewith blessed we God, even the Father, and therewith curse

we men, which are made after the similitude of God.

Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing.

We really haven't changed much in the last 3000 years, have we

my brethren? These things ought not so to be.

Doth a fountain send forth the same place Sweetwater and

bitter. Can the fig tree, my brethren,

bear olive berries? Either a vine, figs, So can no

fountain both yield salt water and fresh?

The Bible, the word of God, it warns us how difficult it is to

control our tongues. And yet God still calls us to

stop using our words for both glory and sin.

We can't be dirty and clean. It is our responsibility to be

mindful of our conversations so that we give God glory with our

words, even if it's not necessary, saying, you know God

to you be the glory. It's just that there's no

vileness, no evil, no wickedness that is found in our lips.

So it is our responsibility to be mindful of what is coming

out. I've had troubles.

I apologize. It just jumped right back up to

the top here. I'll find it, I promise.

OK y'all ready? Good.

OK All right. So, yeah, it is our

responsibility to be mindful of our conversations, that we give

God glory with our words while letting cursing and gossip and

perverse things to cease from our lips.

Ephesians 431 and 32. Let all bitterness and wrath,

and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you

with all malice, and be ye kind one to another, tender hearted,

forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath

forgiven you. Words have the power to shape

opinions and views. Even if we are right about the

facts. We are not in the right to speak

badly about one another, really about anybody, but especially

about your brothers and sisters in Christ.

Relationships are damaged and destroyed when we speak evil of

each other. Your view of your brother or

sister can turn sour after I talk about the negative views I

might have of them. You might have been fine with

them, but then my negative words influenced you to be like, we

know Jesus forgives and heals. You know I don't want to

downplay it because he does. He forgives, he heals, he

restores, and people on forgiveness, maybe from brother

to brother by sowing roots of bitterness and resentment.

Resentment, multiple parties, US venting our opinions about other

shortcomings may be the reason a soul leaves the House of God.

Oh, you know, sure, I I will preach about personal

responsibility a lot. And yeah, they are responsible

for their own actions and reactions.

But that doesn't leave us blameless for being the final

straw that broke them. Because the Bible does say, you

know, to bear your own burden. But the Bible also says to bear

one another's burdens. So we are responsible.

I'm responsible for me, but I'm also responsible for making sure

I'm not a hindrance to you, that I'd rather build you up.

Our anger at each other may even be justified, and a lot of times

it is. We're humans, we we hurt each

other's feelings a lot. It's going to happen.

But God commands this isn't just some person saying you ought to

do this. This is God himself, the one

from eternity, the one who spoke and things popped into existence

from nothingness. The one who we're going to stand

before someday and he's going to say welcome home or depart from

me. This is the one we're talking

about, the one that is saying to be kind and tender hearted and

forgiving to one another instead of using our words to cut

someone down, whether it's to their face or behind.

Let us first. You know, habits are hard to

break, I understand. But before we go to gossip,

first lift up that person in prayer.

Take the time to do that first, because after you've done that,

it's going to be really hard to speak badly about someone you

just lifted up in prayer. Because I know not everything is

just you're instantly a better talker.

Things happen over time. So just take at least take the

time, even if he it's just a split second while you're

thinking about it before you gossip and say Jesus help this

person. I guarantee you we are going to

find it so much harder to say what we were going to say.

There's a God. He's there to be vented to.

He is an amazing listener. I have unjustifiably, I was

angry at God, but regardless, I could vent that to him because

he is an amazing listener and there's no condemnation.

So you can vent everything you feel about someone to God

because he can take it. But don't forget also to pray

for them because he does command us to pray for each other, to

bless our enemies, to pray for them.

And you know, really, how can we do less when he hung there on

the cross And one of the most painful ways for a human being

to die, not only the physical pain, not only looking like

literal mincemeat from being whipped, but he also had the

full weight of the wrath of righteousness against sin

pressed down upon him. And even in that moment, he

said, God forgive them. They know not what to do while

they're sitting there mocking him.

How can I do less? If we want to avoid most drama

in our lives, the best way to do is to always talk positive

things about people behind their back.

Be the one who is an advocate for people not part of the

gossip. Yeah, it's annoying.

It's annoying when you go to someone to gossip and they just

say good things. It's we just got to accept maybe

we'll be that annoying person for a little while.

But when it's known that you're not the one to talk bad about

others and you constantly point out the good people are going to

stop trying to gossip with you or get the bad news out of you.

But on that, they're going to not really have anything bad to

say about you. At least nothing honestly bad

and you become someone who is trustworthy, which is far

healthier mentally, physically, emotionally, relationship wise

in every way. And again, I know it's hard not

to gossip. We're human beings, we love, we

love bad news, we love juicy stories.

I'm guilty myself. It's just you hear something

like you know what they talking about.

It's part of our nature. It's not right.

I just understand the struggle and it's hard not to just

casually speak poorly of people behind their back because a lot

of times we don't even think about it.

It's just we're just talking like, yeah, I just don't really

like how they like the call of red so much.

I don't know. But you know, so I won't deny

how easy it is to to speak poorly.

But Jesus, he, he tells us to be kind and tender hearted to each

other, forgiving and moving on. So I pray, let my words reflect

that and let me rather bite my tongue than speak evil.

It's going to take an effort. It's going to feel like I'm

biting my tongue. You know, just don't say it.

Don't say it, be conscious about it.

And you got to do it on purpose for a while.

It's, it's growing pains. You have to, when you start to

notice them, you want to change. You have to do it on purpose for

a while. And as time marches on, you're

starting to realize it's the it's not an effort anymore.

It's just natural to speak good. And it just kind of like, let

the bad just wash away in one ear and out the other.

I mean, if we're honest, if we profess to be born again

believers, the words we speak must reflect that.

Because how can I claim to be a vessel of the Holy Ghost when my

words are profane or just starkly negative out of the

abundance of the heart our mouths speak?

Am I pushing the Spirit of God aside so that I can have my

jokes or so that I can gossip about the people in my life?

My words will reflect that which rules in my heart, that which I

entertain the most. My question to myself is, are

people hearing Jesus or are they hearing Zach?

Because I don't matter. I will die in two generations

from now. No one will know who I was.

But the name of Jesus will carry on.

And I want generations down the line, the name of Jesus, to

continue because of the impact I had in this short time that I

was alive here on this earth. Words have power.

Words are very powerful. With words God spoke all thing

and thanks into existence. With the word we are saved.

Words solidify thoughts and emotions, both good and bad.

A word of encouragement can help a person conquer their worst

fear, and a word of doubt can make the mightiest St. crumble

in despair. One word can lead a soul to

salvation. One word.

Sometimes that's all it takes to lead a soul to salvation.

And if you guys are like me, and again, I know I'm not unique and

I know a lot of us experience the same things, we worry about

being a witness because will they hear it?

Will it matter? Will they get angry that I'm

trying to witness to them? How will they take it?

We don't know. And a lot of times I know I

just, I find myself like holding back like, like I don't, I don't

know. And I'm not really sure how to

test the waters here. But sometimes it's just one word

and we don't know until we speak the word or something and they

don't want to talk about. I can bring it up, they can say

something where they clearly don't want to talk about it and

I move on. It's like, whatever, Why can't I

do the same about Jesus? They could hear that one word

that might lead them to salvation, whether the next day

or 10 years from now, who knows? But I just need to plant that

seed of a word. But also one word can turn a

soul away forever. What a great responsibility we

have, but are we using it? Well, our musicians can go ahead

and come. Luke 644 and 45 For every tree

is known by his own fruit, for a thorns.

Men do not gather figs, nor every Bramble Bush gather they

grapes. A good man out of the good

treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good, and an

evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth

forth that which is evil. 4 of the abundance of the heart his

mouth speaketh. If my words are a reflection of

Was it? What is in my heart?

What kind of witness am I being to my lost family and friends?

What are the God? What is the gossip and the bad

jokes and the bad conversations saying about what is really in

here? Do my words point to Christ or

do they just blend in with the lost and dying world so well

that it would be a surprise for my peers to learn?

I profess to be saved. So if we can go ahead and stand

and whether you just stay at your seat or you come to the

altar, find a place to pray and my prayer is this.

It's Psalms 19 and 14. Let the words of my mouth, every

word I speak and and my Redeemer.