The Transformative Power of Words in Our Lives

1. "The tongue is a small part of the body but it makes a great boast is the way the the new revised standard version puts it and what that means is that the tongue is small but it's powerful. The tongue is small but it can do great things. It thinks highly of itself and it it it can influence and and affect things in ways that sometimes we can't even imagine. The tongue is a small part of the body but it has a lot of power. It has a lot of power." [01:17] (27 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "Words can destroy. Did you hear what he or she said? But words can also build up. You did a great job, man. I thank you for being here. We couldn't have done it without you. Words can lift up. They can push down. They can destroy or they can build up. But regardless, words are powerful. They have power. And the Bible teaches exactly this. And it teaches us that as Christians, as followers of Jesus, we have to be aware of the power of words." [04:05] (35 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "What we believe has an impact or influences in a huge way how we live. And so if you want to know what somebody really believes, watch how they live. If you want to know whether what someone really believes, whether what they're saying they believe is what they really believe, then watch the way that they live their lives. And none of us is perfect, right? So everybody, it's normal that there are disconnects between what we believe and how we live sometimes, right?" [05:33] (31 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "The tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. And then he gives another example too. He says, consider, this is the second half of verse five, consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. So stop there for just a minute. So we get three sort of images, right? We get, we get a horse and a bit, right? And you put a small bit in this, in the mouth of this really big animal and you can force this really big, strong animal to kind of go more or less where you want it to go." [09:55] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "The tongue is like that. It can set a whole forest on fire. It can steer a life like a ship. It can move and move us in different directions. Tiny, tiny thing, but a lot of power. And the thing about the tongue, the, and I think it's true of Paul's examples here is it's not all bad, right? Sometimes you're using the bit in the horse's mouth to steer it in the direction. Maybe, maybe you're, you're riding the horse to go tell someone of an injury and someone's injured and we need to get an ambulance over here." [11:19] (33 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "I'd be willing to bet that a lot of us came to Christ because someone told us about Jesus changed your life, right? Maybe there's a few of us that saw a video or, or saw an image and it just clicked, but I'd be willing to bet most of us came to Jesus because someone said, Hey, here's what God did in my life. Here's what God could do in your life. And those words are powerful. Or maybe it was because someone said to you, you know, you're talking like you feel guilty about this, but there's nothing to feel guilty about. God forgives you." [12:44] (30 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "Do you use your words to build others up or to tear them down? Do you use others to condemn or to spread forgiveness? Do you use, and the words that you use in your day-to-day life with the people that you interact with, do you use your words to curse and push away? Or do you use your words to draw in and inspire hope? Because we all use words. Even the quietest among us talk sometimes. Sometimes silence is actually the strongest word." [14:15] (32 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "How can we praise God in church and then be rude to the waiter at lunch? How can we praise God at Bible study and then show contempt for our neighbors? How can we say that we love God, but mock the stranger and demean the foreigner and ignore the sick? How can we do this, James says? None of us is perfect. And James acknowledges it right up front. But as Christians, we will make mistakes. We'll say and do things that we shouldn't. But as followers of Jesus, we are called to do our best with the power of the Holy Spirit to be better." [20:20] (44 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "If God loves the messy, sinful world that we're involved in, then as Christians, we should too. And the way that we speak about it should refer to the Holy Spirit. So if God loves the messy, sinful world that we're that kind of affection rather than that kind of disdain. If God is gracious, we should be gracious too. And our words ought to reflect that. If God is holy, we should be holy too. And the way that we talk ought to reflect that. If God is the truth, we should be truthful too. And our words should reflect that." [21:59] (35 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10. "We live in a world that doesn't value the things of God. But the problem is that as Christians, we bought into it. We get sucked into it. We watch people from the world argue, and we think, okay, that's how we're going to argue. We watch the way people of the world behave toward one another, and we think, and so we bought into this argument that if someone hits you in order to have self-respect and dignity, you have to hit them back. If someone curses you, you have to curse them back. If someone does wrong to you, you have to do wrong to them back." [23:28] (28 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)