Freedom | Our Words

Good morning.

Welcome, welcome to Freedom Church.

I haven't had a chance to meet you yet.

My name is Jason.

I get the privilege of being pastor here.

And we are excited that you would uh join us.

Um especially just uh take time out of your weekend on a Sunday like this, especially with the weather's this nice to come and spend time here with us.

We never take that for granted.

In fact, you think it's a great time to be here.

We're we're this is week six of our series, we're calling freedom.

And I know for the majority of you in the room, you're you're all in, you're participating with this.

In fact, it's there's a few ways to participate.

Being a part of it on the weekend, grabbing a guide that we've had on sale out there in the uh in the lobby for the duration of the series, and then gathering with a group um um you know during during the week, discussing the material and the content of the week.

And all of this is culminating in a weekend experience that's gonna be coming up October 23rd and 24th.

And and I'll probably say it again at the beginning and the end of every service leading up to that point, just so that you will not forget that.

And so that's gonna be a key part of this uh series.

It's gonna kind of all culminate in that weekend experience.

And so mark your calendars for the 23rd and the 24th as a Friday and a Saturday.

And uh listen, this is this is what we call a spiritual journey.

We've been saying that from the beginning, that all of that this that this series is us as a church collectively saying, hey, let's look, we believe God's taking us on a spiritual journey, that there's more, there's more spiritually, there's more relationally for us.

And even though we we we attack the name freedom on the building, there's more freedom for every one of us.

And that's what we're that's what we believe that we're stepping into through this series.

And as you go along through this series, whether you're whether you're in a group or not, there are steps that you will be challenged to take.

That's just how God is.

God loves us so much that he continually challenges us to take steps.

And God's so gracious that he will actually challenge us to take steps that are like in our wheelhouse, maybe a little bit out of our wheelhouse, but not like crazy out of our wheelhouse.

You know what I'm saying?

Like I, he like the whole leap of faith thing.

It's usually not that.

It's usually just like a little baby step of faith.

That's usually, that's usually how God is leading us.

And so I know for many of you, you're taking steps.

In fact, one of the one of the steps I've heard so many people taking in their groups, I've heard several people that are praying out loud for the very first time.

You think you think, well, some people do that and some people don't.

No, no, no, no.

That's for everybody.

That's not a special people thing.

That's for everybody.

Even though you're like, everything in you is very uncomfortable at the fact that I even brought the topic up to begin with.

You're like, really, we gotta talk about that?

But it's like that's a but what we don't realize is that all these little things that kind of put us out of our comfort zone are actually key parts of our spiritual growth.

There is actually something deeply formational that's happening in those moments.

And there's there's several people taking different steps.

In fact, last week we had, I think, over a dozen people take a step to follow Jesus in water baptism.

How awesome is that! Here's some pictures right here.

How cool is this?

Yes.

I mean, this is what I love is that is that wherever you're at in your spiritual journey, like there's a there's a step for you.

And what I get so excited when I see these pictures is I just go, aren't you grateful to be a part of a church where there are people making decisions for Jesus and then modeling their life and taking steps to follow him in something as simple as water baptism?

Come on, isn't that awesome to be a part of this and to see this happening in people's lives?

This is your neighbors for a lot of you.

These are the people that are in your groups.

Lights, lights, there we go.

Thank you very much.

I was just blinded, you know.

Anyway, there you go.

There you go.

I mean, I'm so excited.

I'm so proud of all of you.

In fact, I can see some of your faces in here.

You, your families were baptized last weekend.

And um uh, can I just tell you just from just from person to person, my heart to yours?

I I like last weekend we got done with baptisms, and so many of the baptisms I'd ask them, like, when did you make a decision to follow Jesus?

Nearly every one of them was just well, it was here, it was somebody invited and they're pointing to people out here celebrating.

They have they that that person invited that person invited me, and I just I just I was riding the high of last Sunday.

I'm I'm still kind of riding it right now.

I'm just so excited and proud of you, and so thank you to all of you.

In fact, can we just do that?

Can we put our hands together?

Let's just know Jesus, thank you right now.

Thank you, Jesus, for what he's doing in us and in our church.

I'm so grateful for them.

Okay, well, over the last several weeks, we've been we've been we've been hitting some topics that quite honestly, they're they're they're they're they're tough.

Like they they kind of hit hit us like those parts of our lives where we're kind of like, maybe I can just like ignore this part of my life, you know?

Maybe if maybe I can get away with just not ever talking about this ever again.

And then we did a series called Freedom, and we're just talking about all your stuff, you know?

And it's a bit uncomfortable.

And so last week we talked all about forgiveness and what does that look like?

And what does that look like in terms of reconciliation?

And and and how do we how do we put that all together?

And you know, we got God's a forgiving God, and yet, and yet He's a protector, and and yet He He doesn't actually call us to a life where we're just like run over and taken advantage of.

So, but but then again, we're not called to like carry the burden of offense through our whole life either.

And so we've been we reconciled that this last week.

We talked all about that, and and I know, and again, just speaking of small steps and faith steps.

I mean, I hears I hear great stories of of several of us beginning to take a step toward forgiveness and receiving it, extending it, all of that.

I'm so proud of proud of you for that.

Today we're talking about our words, the power of our words, and and you know the words are words are one of those things that that I mean it's interesting, isn't it?

Because you can't see them.

You can't see them.

It's easy.

The words just could sort of come out of our mouths.

For some of us, it's a little easier than others, but they just sort of just kind of like come out, and and but all of us, if we think about times in our life, words are the thing that have marked most of us at one time in our life.

The words that have been spoken to us, whether it was something terrible, which unfortunately that tends to be the predominant thoughts that that come to our mind when we think about the power of words, but it isn't just terrible things, it's also good things as well.

Like words have a have this way of of impacting us in a way that that honestly we we can't even foresee.

You know, I mean, we've all been there, right?

You get down the road, you get down maybe 10, 20 years down the road, and you find yourself almost recalling conversations that you had just years and years ago.

Why is that?

It's because there's power in the words.

There's power there.

In fact, this is what Proverbs says.

It says, death and life are in the power of the tongue.

Death and life.

I mean, you talk about like high stakes.

That's that's not exactly a that's not exactly a small statement, is it?

Death and life are in the power of the tongue.

You know, I remember when I was in, when I was a kid, I was a teenager, I was in high school, and um, man, I was um, you know, I I was something what you would call a hothead.

That's what you would call me back then.

I in fact, I'd be playing golf, you know, and and I, you know, I I was all excited.

I was sem, I'm all I call myself semi-athletic, you know.

And so I was all excited getting, I was I felt like I was getting good at golf, you know, and then I'd go out and play with my dad, and I'd just lose my ever-loving mind, you know, out on the golf course.

I mean, you know, golf club in the tree, you know, that's fine, but you know, that's just a day at golf, you know.

It's just that's just 18 holes or hole three, whatever you want to call that.

And so, you know, and just be furious.

Chuck those, you know, it's just like I missed the pond.

I was aiming for the pond, but that's how bad my golf game was that day.

I couldn't even put the club in the water, you know.

And then then that would just fuel my fire.

I can't even, I can't even rage the way I want to rage, you know, much less hit the ball the way I want to hit the ball.

And it got so bad at one time, my dad was like, uh, I just need you to know I'm never golfing with you again.

I was like, wait, what?

You know, really?

And uh, you know, I I I remember it at one time I acquired the nickname uh Sailor, you know, and it wasn't because I said I was gonna join the Navy, it was because of the vocabulary I had adopted.

Yeah, that was real.

And and so this was my this is this was like a reality that I was living with for several years as a as a kid.

But I also remember this at the same time.

I remember, I remember being super involved in my church, and I remember like there was a part of that genuinely wanted to follow the Lord, but then I had this other stuff going on at the same time, and I and I remember kind of telling myself that that golf course Jason, Sailor Jason, you know, that's just the stuff that I'm working on.

The real me is youth group Jason.

That's the real me, you know.

This this Jason, that's see, that's the truest me right there, you know.

We will then we like to think that.

The worst versions of ourselves, that's not the real us, right?

The best version of myself, that's the real me.

Then you come to Matthew 12 and you gotta read verses like this, and you're like, For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.

My mouth is actually revealing what's really in me.

It's like maybe it's the other way around.

Maybe that is the truest version of who I am.

Words.

There's power.

They have the ability to speak life and death, and then at the same time, they become a window into the condition of our soul all at the same time.

Words are words are powerful.

I mean, you have the ability to change the entire environment that you work in, that you that you live in.

For some of us, if we if we begin to be more intentional about the words coming out of our mouths, the culture in our homes would would change radically over the course of just a maybe even a few weeks or a few months.

Just that our words carry this kind of of power.

But for a lot of us, we we kind of buy into this like idea.

We have this, there's almost, I don't know if it's just sort of like automatic.

I don't know if somebody like coached us along the way to think like this.

I don't really know.

I don't know where this is comes from.

But we have this like thing in us that tells us like we got to be frugal with with like good things coming out of our mouth.

It's like I could build them up, but I want to be a little bit conservative, you know, because I don't want them to get a big head or anything.

Like we we like tell ourselves, like, well, I could say that, but you know, let's let's kind of bring it down a little bit, you know, kind of tone that down a little bit.

We get really frugal, really, you know, intentional about our timing.

It's like, well, I am proud of them.

I'm just not really ready to say that yet.

It's like, really?

Okay, that's interesting.

You know, we're we're frugal, but notice how we're also at the same time way too comfortable complaining and cursing and demanding and critiquing with no regard for the consequences that that might bring.

What is that?

I could tell you right now, it's a lie.

It's a lie, it's a subtle lie.

It's it's something that's sort of kind of laced in it, and we don't really think much of it.

It's it's it's not necessarily an outright lie.

Right?

It's not it's not necessarily the lie that when you're you're sitting there and it's just sort of the intrusive thoughts kind of lie, but it's a lie nonetheless, this idea that I need to be frugal with the way I'm building others up.

But but you know, it's of little consequence, or you know, that's just human, that's just what it means to be human, to sort of like let it fly when it comes to the critiquing and the complaining, etc.

etc.

And that's a lie.

Where does that come from?

Look at this.

This is John 8, 44.

It says, talking about the enemy, Jesus is talking about the devil.

He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding the truth, for there's no truth in him.

When he lies, he speaks his native tongue, for he is a liar and the and the father of lies.

Too many of us, when we think about spiritual warfare, when we think about, when we think about, you know, following Jesus and the void, the voice of our shepherd, not the voice of another.

This enemy that we have.

We we have this like pitchfork and and you know, painted red kind of like picture of like what like the devil's gonna come at us and it's gonna be this like you know, somebody's gonna start crawling on the walls or something.

We get like some, yeah, we get some like weird horror movie version of what we think it looks like.

And it's like actually, he usually just comes right at you with some words.

He comes at us with words.

He's a liar.

For most of us, we don't even we don't even think about our lies in terms of of spiritual warfare, and yet, and yet we are navigating, processing lies, oftentimes all day long.

Lies just coming at us, coming at us.

I think it's worth, I think it's worth even taking a moment and even reflecting on that.

It's like, are there lies that I believe?

Are there lies that I've been believing?

Are there things that I that I've just sort of like haven't really given a second thought to?

I've just sort of like identified with it, taken it on, and just assume, oh, you know, this must be true without any regard for where that came from.

Are there some lies?

I could tell you two for me personally.

I I don't know why I I don't know exactly how they started.

I guess maybe if we sit down and we do therapy for a minute, maybe I can figure out maybe like how that came about.

I don't know.

But I got like two, I got two predominant lies that I've dealt with my whole life.

And I I don't know why, but they've always been there.

And it's and they're one of those things where I've just sort of they're they're they haven't always been like on the forefront, you know, controlling, but they've always kind of been there.

They kind of rear their head a little bit in my life on occasion.

And what one one of them is one of them is you you don't work hard enough.

And the other one is you're never doing enough.

You just you just don't do it enough and you don't work hard enough.

And I've had those two lies just kind of come at me periodically for my for my as as far as the back as I can remember.

And you know, and those those two lies, there's been some seasons where those two lies have kind of motivated me to accomplish some things.

Isn't that funny?

It's like those lies, be honest with you, those lies kind of have gotten in me at a couple of times.

I remember doing some hard things in the Navy, and I was like, Well, how am I gonna get through this?

And I was like, Well, I'll tell you what I'm not gonna do.

You know, I'm not gonna prove whoever I thought told me those lies, right?

You know, like I just like they became like this like inner motivation.

You know, so it's you know, I go, well, it's not all bad, but yeah, but it it's a it's a lie.

And see, unchecked, those lies, when we allow lies to drive us, um it quickly morphs into something that's actually detrimental and hurtful, and not just to you personally at a soul level, but it'll eventually begin to like come out in the way that we treat the people around us.

You know, for me personally, I'm a little bit more like results-oriented, like accomplishment kind of minded kind of person, and the two lies that come at me, and it's just like those two lies, I'm gonna tell you right now, the pitfall of those two lies is everybody becomes an obstacle.

Everybody becomes somebody that's either you're either in you're either for me or against me.

You're either on the same team or you're on the other team.

You're either a you're either a catalyst for the future or you're a or you're a roadblock.

Do you see that?

That's that's the lies unchecked.

What kind of lies do we deal with?

How are they impacting us?

Because here's the thing is that when you can when you can get to this place where you can be honest enough with yourself about the lies that you're you're dealing with, one now we got something to work with, like God can heal that.

Like we can heal that, we can we can speak truth to that.

But here's the other side of it not only can we identify the lies in us, but our words, life, death, there's power.

We also have the ability to squash lies in other people.

You have the ability to identify lies in other people.

You have the God has given you the ability to go, that's a lie.

That's from the devil, that's from the enemy, that's not true, that's not your savior, that's not the heart of the Father.

Jesus doesn't see you like that.

Jesus doesn't think that about you.

He actually likes you.

Like to be words have this ability to change the entire environment that you find yourself in.

We've said over the the course of this series that we're you and I, like we are not just this like singular beings, we're three-part beings.

We all have a spirit.

We have a spirit that that has to be redeemed.

We we all have a a soul, and that soul has to be restored.

Like we don't, we get we follow Jesus, our soul isn't just like where it's supposed to be, our mind, our soul, like that has to be there has to be a restoration that begins to happen.

And and for most of us, that happens throughout our life.

It's a lifelong journey of our soul lining up with the condition of our spirit, and then and then we have a flesh, we have a body.

And our body has its own desires and inclinations and habits that it's been formed over the course of our life, and not to mention just the impact of sin over our minds and our bodies, and that flesh has to be surrendered.

It has to be surrendered.

That's the path.

That's that's the way, that's how you deal with your flesh.

You you bring it into submission and you you surrender your flesh and you get it aligned with the way of Jesus that's been implanted and imprinted in your in your spirit at a spirit level.

And your tongue has the ability to change everything, it has the ability to be a catalyst for somebody else's life.

Your tongue has this incredible power, incredible power for good and for bad, for life and for death, and our tongue becomes a source of life surrendered.

Surrendered, like laid down.

Not not not up to me, not not in my like laid down, surrendered.

How do we do that though?

How do we do that?

That's a lot easier said than done.

Come on, somebody.

James 3, verses 2 through 10.

James 3:2–10

You can open your Bible, or you can read along on the screen behind me.

James 3, verses 2 through 10.

James 3:2–10

It says, We all stumble in many ways.

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

I didn't say it.

Anyway, it's in the Bible.

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.

So y'all can just go home now.

There it is.

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.

This shouldn't be.

I mean, it's an incredible thing, isn't it?

Well, we've sent people to the moon.

I mean, this is just this is Bible talk about taming animals.

It's like we've we we we have like we've tamed nature in some ways.

Like it's just it's an amazing feat of accomplishments mankind has achieved even since this has been writ was written.

It's it's unbelievable.

I mean, the supercomputer in my in our pockets right now, which is mine's not on silence.

Let me fix that real quick.

There we go.

Like, this is amazing, you know, and yet, and yet we're still controlled by words because we're still staring at three little dots, wondering how they're gonna respond, or wondering maybe I shouldn't have said that.

It's amazing.

It still all just comes back down to this simple thing, the the the power of the tongue.

I think when we read something like this, I think for some of you that's probably new.

You probably haven't heard that portion of scripture before, but others of you, this is this isn't a new portion of scripture.

You've you've heard this before, you've you've read this, this idea, like a bit, uh, uh, a rudder, uh spark, uh Like the the the power the the the the the opportunity that the power that's that that exists inside of the tongue and then oftentimes when we read this we don't really know what to do with it exactly and so we just sort of like some of us we just sort of like relegated to something simple and we're just like don't cuss.

You know that's usually where our minds go.

I'd better clean up my language, you know.

This idea of like blessing and cursing, it's a it's a lot more complicated, it's a little, it's a lot deeper than just whether or not we're using profanity or not.

Like blessing and cursing.

Blessing and cursing.

You know, when you when you when you curse somebody, you know, it's this thing that we do where we manipulate our speech without any regard for the people who can hear us.

It's when we use our words to leverage the people around us for our own good, for our own ends, for our own desires.

That sounds extreme when I when I say it, but to be honest with you, for a lot of us, we just gotta do it without even thinking.

You know, it's the father vicariously trying to live through his son.

Or just a parent trying to live through their child in general.

You know this idea where it's just like I get again, again, I told you my lies earlier.

You start seeing people as hurdles and obstacles, and then eventually you start talking to people, not in a way that lifts them up, but in a way that, but in a way that gets them to do what you want to do.

Welcome, you have stepped into the cursing territory.

That's what it means to curse somebody.

See, to bless somebody means that your words are actually for that other person.

Not trying to leverage them for our own for our own ends.

We're not saying things in order to just get something out of people all the time.

How do we do this?

How do we actually surrender our tongues?

Because we just read that no man can do it.

It's like we can't do it.

It's not tameable.

We can't, you can't bring it down, like we can't do it.

And here's here's what scripture's telling us, and scripture tells us this in a lot of different places is that you and I cannot do it.

There you go.

You can't do it.

No, no amount of great talks, no amount of great books, no amount of self-disciplines, ice baths, and any other kind of thing, it's form of discipline you want to adopt for your life.

There is no amount of that that can actually get you in a place where you can start bringing your tongue into submission.

You can't do it.

That's what he's saying.

But that which is impossible for you and me is possible for God, which is why the answer to taming the tongue is not greater discipline, it's greater surrender.

Big difference.

It's surrender.

So, how do we do that?

How do we surrender our words?

Here's the first one.

We've got to start guarding our hearts.

Guarding our heart.

Guard your heart.

This is a this we've addressed this, I think, for a few weeks now through this series, and we're gonna address it again.

Guarding your heart.

For most of us, we kind of we we hear, we read scripture around guarding our hearts, and and our and our first thought is protection.

We think, we think, I gotta guard my heart against people, voices, groups of people, organization, whatever, whatever it is.

I gotta guard against that.

Like I I've been burned, I've been hurt, I got vulnerable, and I shared what was in my heart, and then somebody came and they squashed it, and it hurt deeply, and I don't ever want to go back there again.

So we think I gotta guard my heart.

And so we start putting up the walls and start guarding our heart against the potential threats, which got bad news, is literally everybody, potential threats that exist in our life, all in the name of guarding our hearts.

But as we said last week, when I when I put up a wall and I put the barred, the put the bars of my heart up and I put those up and I tell myself I'm keeping the world out of my life, I'm also keeping all the good things out of my life at the same time.

That's not what it means to guard your heart.

What it means to guard your heart is to be mindful of that which you start reeling around in your brain all the time.

It's the stories that we tell ourselves, it's the it's the habits that we make space for in our life.

It's the it's the media that we intake and we tell ourselves it doesn't impact us, and then we wonder why we're talking like the things that we intake.

That well, maybe well that sounds a little bit childish.

No, it's really not.

It's called guarding your heart.

It's about it's about you show me your friends and I'll tell you your future.

It's about it's about who's in your life, who gets to speak into your life, what what voices do you listen to, what what do you allow to influence you?

All of those things.

Those are the things that are that are impacting you and forming you, shaping you.

Our minds, we're it isn't static.

Our brains, the way we think, our soul isn't static.

We don't just take a time out.

We are being formed, we are moving in one of two directions.

We're either headed toward life or we're headed toward death.

We're becoming like Jesus or we're becoming less like Jesus.

That's it.

We're being formed.

And I'm telling you to surrender your tongue, to surrender your mouth, your words.

It's like we got to be more conscious and more intentional about that which we're allowing to get in us.

Here's the second one gauge your tongue.

Gauge your tongue.

If you want to gauge, is it's like you know what a gauge is, right?

Most of you work with gauges all day long, right?

You you you come and it tells you something.

And you you read it, it measures it.

You know that when it gets into the red zone, you know you got problems, right?

When it's down on this side over here, you know you got fixed.

You look at a gauge, you get a look at you get some ideas, right?

You know, it takes all the guesswork out of it for you.

Now, now I know.

I know what to do.

Our tongues don't come with that, do they?

No.

Our mouths, our soul doesn't come with that.

So you got to be intentional.

How do I start gauging my tongue?

How do I, how do I, when I see things, how do I respond, right?

You go to your work.

For most of you, when when the when the little hand gets to this mark over here, you know exactly what to do.

You you got a plan.

If you forgot, you got a manual.

You go back and you go, oh, that's what we're gonna do today.

You make a phone call.

How do I do right?

There's there's a plan there to gauge your your tongue.

This is Psalm 141, verse 3.

Psalms 141:3

Set a guard over my mouth, Lord.

Keep watch over the door of my lips.

There's this, there's this way that we respond with our mouth that that says that I don't just like I'm not a victim to my own like impulses.

Like I like I can I can take steps to begin to filter what might come out of my mouth, which means for a lot of us, we need to start making some pre-decisions.

Pre predecisions.

That's some of my best advice to teenagers.

Make some pre-decisions, you know.

Don't decide when you're gonna prioritize your purity.

It's like we're horizontal, it's at night, it's midnight.

I think now I'll figure out whether or not I want to maintain my purity or not.

It's like that's a bad decision timing.

You know, that's bad timing, right?

Make some predecisions.

Make a pre-decision, you know, like next time my kids drive me off the wall, this is how I'm going to respond.

And make that decision before you're being driven off the walls, right?

You know, before I get in the car today, and I know how that intersection goes because it kind of turns like this, and everybody wants to go straight.

Before I drive over there, today, this is how I'm gonna respond.

Stay in your lane! No, okay, I'm done.

It's my second week to lament about traffic.

I'm sorry.

Forgiveness.

We're gonna go back and listen to last week.

Anyway, all right.

We gotta make some pre-decisions.

Make some pre-decisions.

Gauge our tongue, guard our heart, gauge our tongue.

Here's the third one.

Garnish your speech.

Guard, gauge, garnish, garnish your speech.

Garnish your speech.

What's that?

What does that mean?

I mean that's like that's what you put on the plate, right?

You make a meal, you garnish it, it's what you make it to makes it come, yeah, you make it pop.

Like if you actually, if you care about what your meal looks like, when you present it, that's what that is, right?

You it's just like you go to a restaurant, they garnish it for you a little bit, right?

We gotta do that with our speech.

This is Ephesians 4, 29.

Don't let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

Think about what I just said.

This is you go back to my previous verse.

Don't pull up my next one just yet.

Think about think about this.

He's saying, he's saying the words that come out of our mouth ought to be words that account for the people who can hear our words.

Think about this.

This is what we call we call this giving grace to the hearer, like extending grace to the one who can hear us, right?

It kind of like squashes the like, well, that's not what I meant.

It's like, well, that's what everybody heard, you know.

It's like, no, no, no, no, no, no.

It's it's my reason they were my words, which means it's my responsibility.

And if there's a chance you're not gonna understand that correctly, I need to I need to take a step to to formulate my speech in a way that extends some grace to the one who can hear me.

Do you hear this?

Like grace.

We have sense of grace.

And next verse, and don't grieve the Holy Spirit.

That's interesting.

Our speech, just the words we use, have the ability to grieve the Spirit with whom you are sealed for the day of redemption.

So, how do we not do that?

How do we not grieve the Spirit with our speech?

Next verse, get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander.

I love how the NLT says it.

It says harsh words, brawling and harsh words, along with every form of malice, every form of malice.

This is where, you know, you can talk, let's talk about profanity for a second.

You know, for a lot of us, we start talking about speech, and this is where a lot of us go.

We just go to like a very simplified version.

Well, is this word acceptable and is this word not acceptable?

And it's like, well, first of all, let me just say this.

I recognize for a lot of you, you work in environments where there is a certain vocabulary that is very much tolerated, and you're offending nobody with your language.

Welcome.

It's blue-collar environments.

I get that.

And they and as an adult, you know, there are times where you're like, you know what?

It's funny, nobody pays attention.

But when it was an emergency and I need to get everybody's attention, I said it this way, and my kids are grounded if they say it this way, but I said it this way, and suddenly I got some results.

This is re this is our world, this is how we live.

It's like, well, is this what we're talking about?

And and I want to elevate your thinking around this idea of how we use our language, how we think about profanity.

And and you know, first of all, I'm not advocating that you just throw off restraints.

It's like, well, I'm with the boys, nobody cares, just off with restraints.

It's like, okay, hold on a second.

No, there is such a thing as like spirit-empowered self-control over our lives and over our mouths.

Um, but go back to what we just read.

Um, our words are meant to build others up according to their needs.

They're meant to be words that benefit those who listen.

And profanity is an if is primarily an etiquette issue for a lot of us.

It's just a matter, it's a matter of manners.

Do we, are we, and you think, well, that doesn't really matter.

No, man, manners, etiquette matters.

Those things matter.

We don't really talk about that a lot in our culture anymore.

We don't, we sort of like celebrate when people throw off all their restraints and throw out etiquette and manners out the window.

But the truth is that it does matter because it's one of the ways culturally, culturally, it's one of the ways that we actually love our neighbors well.

That's how we love our neighbors well.

And so when you think, well, is this acceptable?

Is this not?

Well, I think you need to do some deep work of your soul work between you and Jesus about whether or not you're accounting for the people who can hear you, and whether or not that's actually building people up or not.

And so I'm not gonna sit up here and be like, every time you use that word, you need to get on your knees and ask God to forgive you.

It's like, well, that's a little bit, I don't know about that.

You need to go to the Lord about that.

You need to, you need to decide, is this is this what I'm doing with my tongue?

Is my tongue actually surrendered?

Is it surrendered?

Go back to Sailor days with me back in high school.

There was Sailor Jason.

And I remember being at youth group, I had my best version of myself that day, you know.

I was I was really, I just got done worshiping.

I was like, I I think I even have a word from the Lord today.

Like I was really, I was in the zone, you know.

You know, sailor he was I left him on the golf course that day.

I was now in church.

Best version of me was just living my best life.

And and then I remember my youth pastor, his name was Mike, Pastor Mike.

He came up to me out of nowhere, and now he had prophesied over my life at one time, and so I was feeling really good.

I was like, Oh, yeah, I can still tell you that.

He was like, You're gonna be the hammer that crushes the rocks of religiosity.

I was like, Thank you, Jesus, man of God, you know.

And so he came to me and he's like, I got something for you.

I'm like, Oh, bring it on, brother.

You know, I'm I'm I'm I'm here to receive, you know.

He's like, I got a verse for you.

You need to commit it to memory.

I was like, I will do that.

I will do that.

Proverbs 10, 19.

I was like, writing that thing down.

I was like, you got it, I'm gonna commit that to memory tonight.

I'm a man of God now, Pastor Mike, you know.

So then I went home and I started reading it, and it was something like this.

It was uh, in the multitude of words, sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise.

I think brother's trying to say something to me, you know.

Okay, check.

Okay, I got it.

I got it, you know.

Garnish your speech.

Some of y'all, we just need to stop talking.

That deeply, you know, spiritual practice of shutting up.

Guard our heart, gauge our time, garnish, garnish our speech.

You know, we we we usually we start talking about words like this, you know, there's we start thinking of it in kind of one or two categories.

Ironically, we're all in both categories, but we but we think about this in one of two categories.

We think about it in terms of some of us have been the recipient of really harsh words in our life.

All of us.

And then and then some of us have been the source of harsh words.

All of us.

And see, and and so I'm I'm sure for it's a mixed bag of feelings, it's a mixed bag of of emotions when we approach this topic.

Because we've we've all been, we've all we've all been wounded, and then we've all done the wounding ourselves.

We've all been there, we've been in both in both categories, and and the thing about the thing about pain and sin and the effects of sin in our life and what it how it gets in us, how it wounds us, how it, how it twists, how it twists what's in us, twists our soul, twists our minds, alters what we think is true and good and real and beautiful, and like all that.

The thing about that is like that which like comes in us, those things that sort of like if we don't process that out of us, if we don't let the spirit of God process it out of us, those are the things we will pass on to other people.

That's why we're all in both categories.

We've been recipients and sources both of harsh words in our life.

Why?

Because if it doesn't get processed out, we just pass it on.

If we don't allow the Spirit of God to redeem that which has been put in us, we'll just repeat it.

There's your options.

Process it, pass it on, redeem it, repeat it.

There it is.

And so we have to take a moment.

And this is the thing about iniquity.

This is a thing, because that's what this is.

That's what we're talking about.

We're talking about, we're talking about iniquity, we're talking about the sin that has been normalized and repeated and passed on.

And the Bible says things like, oh, the third and the fourth generation, you know what it means?

It means it can stop with you.

It means that can stop.

It means it doesn't have to keep going any farther.

And so, how do we do that?

How do we get to that place?

And we're gonna pray and we're gonna we're gonna spend just the last few minutes together, and we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna pray that we would be free.

That we would be free not just of the the conversations and the words that have been spoken over us, that I would imagine some of us were carrying and nobody even knows about it.

You don't even know about it.

That we could be free from the weight of that, but also that we could be free from that like that like that that part of us that just seems to like not be able to get our tongue under control.

That we could actually walk out of here more surrendered than we were when we came in.

We're gonna pray that we would be free.

And what this looks like is it looks like one looks like repentance.

That's the first step, repentance.

What are we repenting of?

Because right when we think of repentance, it's like, okay, that's for everybody who's been the source of harsh words.

No, no, no, no, it's for all of us.

It begins with repentance.

Repenting for the things that I have said, for the things that I've normalized, for the things that I've I've kind of given myself a pass on, repenting for for continually kind of rejecting the spirit, like putting off the spirit's influence in my life and allowing him to like help me bring my tongue under control, to surrender it fully to him.

I repent of that, but I also repent, and this is the part you probably didn't think about.

I repent from believing the lies that have been spoken over me, also.

I repent from that.

Mom, dad told you you were a loser.

Mom, dad did said some things they didn't believe in you, grandma, grandpa said that, your best friend betrayed you.

You got people in your life that have did horrible things, said horrible things.

And even though in your brain you tell yourself, I know it's not true, but at a soul level, you've just adopted it.

It's in you, it's driven you, it's affecting everything, all your relationships, it's affecting you.

So, what do we do?

We repent.

I repent for actually giving that weight.

I repent for believing it.

I repent from that.

I repent from saying it.

I repent from repeating it.

I repent from being a source of gossip.

I repent from that.

And then and then we renounce.

We renounce its power in our lives.

We refuse to follow the lies.

We we invite Jesus to break the power of the enemy over those words that we've been speaking, our lack of self-control over our tongues and over the lies that have been spoken into our lives.

We invite by your spirit, break the power of these words in our lives.

Thank you for breaking the power of the enemy over this.

I'm no longer gonna be somebody who walks around timid and and beat down because I've been told a I've been sold a bill of goods about who I am at the core of my identity.

I renounce that.

I I thank you, Jesus, for binding that and breaking the power of the enemy over me moving forward.

I'm gonna move forward differently.

I'm gonna live my life differently.

Because Jesus can do that to you for you.

Jesus wants to do that.

That's what he did on the cross.

Break the power of the enemy over what's been spoken over you, and then we're gonna receive it.

Receive God's blessing.

Because he's got some things that are true that he wants to say.

And we go, I'll receive that.

What's it mean to repent?

It means to turn away from one set of lies and you start turning toward what's true moving forward.

And so we receive that.

Let's pray right now.

Jesus, we need this.

We this is for us.

We we want to be more free than we were before.

Jesus, we want this.

We repent right now.

We repent.

We repent of the lies that we've been we've spoken over other people.

We repent for those of us, for nearly all of us here at one time or another, have been a source of cursing.

We repent from trying to leverage the relationships in our life.

We repent from just from from throwing off restraints and just saying what comes to our mind all the time.

We repent from not inviting your spirit to influence our speech every day.

We repent from that.

We repent from from the things and the lies that we've been believing.

We repent for even giving those any kind of credence or any kind of attention.

We repent from that.

We turn away from that, and we just invite you by your spirit, Jesus, break the power of the enemy over these words that have been spoken in us.

Thank you for your cross.

Thank you for resurrection.

Thank you, Jesus, that we don't have to live like this.

I thank you, God, rebuke the lies of the enemy coming over our lives, coming into the intrusive thoughts that are continually tortured for some of us.

Honestly, a form of torture in our minds, losing sleep over it.

We renounce the power of the enemy over our lives and we receive what is true.

That we are sons and daughters of the Most High, that we are alive in Christ, that greater is He that's in us than He that is in the world.

That you, that there is nothing, that everything that dies in Christ has glorious resurrection on the other side of it.

And so we believe that we're in you, we trust you, we receive what you say about us.

Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you for loving us that much.

Thank you, Jesus, for setting us free.

Now I can pray all that.

I'm praying all that, and I can I believe right now, I believe some of you are getting set free right now.

I believe that some of you you're either going to walk out totally free or you just started a process of stepping into greater and greater freedom starting this morning.

I believe that, but here's the thing if you want that, the first step of repentance is actually turning your life away from following your ways and begin to follow Jesus' ways.

The only reason that there is power to break the power of the enemy over lies that have been spoken over us is because Jesus bore our sins, our pain, our shame, our brokenness, all of that, all those words, he absorbed it all.

And he went to the cross and he died for it.

He died for you and me.

And then he didn't stay dead, he resurrected, he came out of the tomb.

And that right there, that right there is the source of power that allows you and me to be free.

But if your life isn't surrendered entirely to Jesus, then you don't get access to that.

You got to say yes to the invitation.

Jesus is calling out to you and he's saying, Come, follow me, follow me, follow me.

This is your opportunity to say yes.

Just tell him in your own way.

Jesus, I'm all in.

Jesus, I want to follow you.

Jesus, I believe you died for me.

Jesus, I believe that you went to the cross, died for my sins, rose again on the third day.

You ascended to the right hand of the Father, you sent your Holy Spirit to indwell me, to empower me, to give me, to give me a uh, you give me a voice to lead me and to guide me and protect me.

I receive all of that.

I thank you that I am a new person in you and I commit to follow you from this day forward.

Thank you for saving me.

And it's in Jesus' name we pray.

Come on, everybody said, Amen.

Put your hands together, tell Jesus thank you.

Thank you, Jesus.