**Speaker:** Hey man, let's get some house lights up in here. Alright, here we go. I wanted the big reveal. Hey man, who would like this? Hey man, talk to my mom. So, I, uh, me and my beautiful wife, uh, the blessing of God, God, uh, we went on our anniversary trip this past week. Our anniversary is not till February, but if you know our life in February, sitting mid-February, our life is a life of not just God, not just work, not just our kids, but it's the life of what? Yeah, baseball. You're right. You got one kid in Texas Tech, right? That's gonna be playing all over the nation. Then you got another kid in Coeur d'Alene High School that's going to be playing all over Texas.
So, when that happens in February, yeah, our anniversary is... you know how many anniversaries I spent in a stadium? You know? But I love it. But it was like, "Hey, we're going to take..." Anyway, so I went on our anniversary trip, and when I came home, on my desk, this Buffalo, this American Bison, this bison was sitting on my desk, and it said, "Hello."
So, I just wanted to share this cool bison with y'all. In the sound booth, I gave y'all a few pictures a few weeks ago on my trip to Montana. I want y'all to pull up those pictures real quick of the buffalo that were in the valley. And then there's a buffalo that I described to y'all that was overlooking.
Okay, so here's in this valley, up in Wyoming, Montana. No, this one we was in Montana by the time. These are American buffalo bison, and this is just a portion of the valley. And they keep going. We see all of these. These were like, "Ah, this is awesome! This is cool!" Keep flopping, keep going. And they're all out there grazing, enjoying themselves.
And then up on this hill, hit the next one. He's laying down right here. Do I have another one? I can't remember if I do. Maybe that's the only one. But right here, he's laying down. The first time I saw him, this cat—no, not cat, he's a buffalo. Why do we do that? Why do we mislabel things that are not intended? I mean, surely that's not a cat, but it's a buffalo.
He was standing up there just like this when we drove by, and we was like, "Wow!" Then we had to turn around, and by the time we turned around and came back, he was laying down. But he's up on the mountain overlooking all of those buffalo.
And remember, two weeks ago, I was talking about that's like Jesus Christ, the great Shepherd, right? Who we're made in the image of Christ is overlooking, overseeing, and he's not going to let anything happen to us. You know?
And so, anyway, I just wanted to share that picture with y'all and share that with you, my beautiful buffalo that says "Drive." On there, I'm going to put a plaque right there, a little thing. It's going to be made out of bronze. It'll look... and it'll say "Drive."
So, thank you, Mom. Thank you. This is so cool. And you say, "Why are you talking about that?" Because these little things like this made an impression. I didn't have time to go find it. I know where it's at, but I didn't go grab it and find it.
It's like a statue, right? This statue, this trophy. When I was growing up, I grew up in an age that not every kid got a trophy. How many grew up in that age? Amen? Alright, praise God. You know, I remember playing... so when it was flag football, well, I remember playing soccer first, and I think we got last or next to last like two years in a row. We played on the Jets, and maybe that was the same as the Jets in football. I don't know.
Go Cowboys!
**Audience:** Too soon, Norm.
**Speaker:** No, anyway, anyway, that was pretty funny, but I liked it. Then the thing was, I remember all those times, and I remember my friends, they would come to school carrying these trophies because they got first place, right? They got first place, and so they received a trophy. And here we get last place, and you know what? We didn't receive a trophy. I got a little certificate, a little piece of paper that says, "Good on your participation." I got a... you know, that was it. I was like, "When do I get a trophy?"
But here's my brother. He's on Frank's Exterminators. What I mean, in his baby blue, they're winning first place. You know what? My brother's getting trophies, and I'm just like, "I'm going the same practice as you are. I'm working hard as you. I know we're on two different teams, and I'm playing. I don't get a trophy, but he was getting a trophy."
Well, sometimes you can work hard as you want to work, and you can think you're doing all the right things, and you're still not going to get a trophy. You're not going to get in first place.
Like, "Well, that's not very encouraging." Well, that's just the truth sometimes, okay? And it's not just because of you. It's because of who you're accompanied and associated with.
See, I'm telling you, my brother wasn't the best soccer player on that field, but he was consistent, and he did his part as a team. And it wasn't because of my team. It wasn't because of our heart. It wasn't because of our drive. It wasn't because we didn't want to get out there and win and give it all. We just were ill-equipped. We did not have the right resources given to us through a coach, or we didn't have enough time to figure it out. We didn't get developed enough. At the end of the day, we just didn't win.
So that went on for a few years. My brother's starting to rack up all these trophies. I got a bunch of pieces of paper, right? That's what I had. And then we finally get to flag football, and I was nine years old the first time I get to play flag football.
And, man, that was so cool. That was fun. I played on the Cowboys.
**Audience:** Yeah!
**Speaker:** Thank you, Norm. And so I played on the Cowboys, and, yeah, I think we won two games. Two games? Yeah, just... yeah, it was horrible again. Horrible. This time, my brother still got another trophy. Oh man, he's racking it up, man. And I still don't have a trophy. I'm nine years old, started playing, I guess, these sports at six years old or so, and here I am, six, seven, eight, four years, I have no trophies, and my brother already has four trophies.
And sometimes we played multiple sports like baseball and soccer. And so my brother, he's playing baseball on, yeah, Frank's Terminators with Sean Camp and all this, and he's getting first place, taking names, man. Or DW Xon is the first team, and they're getting trophies. Here we are, my baseball team, we're losing.
Then I don't know if Dad just felt sorry for me. No, he didn't feel sorry for me. He wanted me to win. So my dad started coaching. He coached me and my brother the same year, and it worked. And it's the age group where you could because we're two years apart. Buddy, that was cool. We won, and that was a cool moment.
But before that baseball season, we go to football, and at the end, we go to Mr. Gaddy's. And I still have... I still... this is cool, and I'll go... I know exactly where it's at. It's in a Justin's boot box with all my certificates that I received my whole life and all my newspaper clippings. Yeah, I don't got a lot. It's in a little Justin box. That's it. Just... but I know where they're at.
And I remember going to Mr. Gaddy's on our end-of-the-year football party, Patrick, and I'm sitting there thinking, "Maybe I'm gonna get a trophy. Maybe we'll get a trophy. Maybe we'll get a trophy." And he said, "I'm just going to call everyone up name by name, and I got you a certificate." I'm like, "Man, man." And it was Coach McKin. That's who it was.
And Mick pulled me up there. He said, "Here, Brent, I'm giving you this certificate. You keep it up. Keep your head up. You're going to be great. Don't quit." And then on the back of that certificate, it chokes me up when I think about it. He took time, time, and he spoke, wrote him out, but spoke words of encouragement. He spoke words of destiny. He spoke words of winning to me as a nine-year-old boy, and it was a big impression on me.
And I can remember almost every word he wrote, and I was only nine years old. And it's not something I pull out and read every day. I'll pull it out maybe once every five years or so. You know, it's kind of like when you move, you find this box, and then you sit down for like five hours and get in trouble because you stopped working. Does anybody else do that?
**Audience:** Okay!
**Speaker:** Thank you. Thank you, man. That's... yeah. Are you saying, "Do you get distracted?" Yeah, I get distracted, but it's good distractions.
And so it showed me right there, and I think about that. And then to go back to the trophy issue, and over all these years of playing soccer and not winning, man, my dad, he went out, my mom and dad went out and got me a trophy. And it wasn't just the plastic trophy because that's all we got, right? It was bronze.
And at that time, I didn't understand what it was. It was on a nice pedestal, and it was a bronze, but it was a soccer trophy because I played soccer for three years and never got anything, which is fine. That's what I earned.
And so he got that. He says, "Son, I'm not getting you this trophy because you won. I'm giving you this trophy because you never gave up." I was like, "Now I get to sit here and tell you I'm giving you a trophy because you haven't given up." But I'm here to tell you, you are going to win, though, because you're going to win. You're more than a conqueror. You are the head and not the tail. You are above and not beneath.
But you just got to keep going. You got to move into your destiny. You got to keep on that divine destiny that God has for you. And you say, "How do I... but I just don't know my destiny. I don't know how to get to my destiny."
Oh, you will, and you do know what your destiny is. It is a destiny that you are here to be more than a conqueror, to have a life and a life more abundantly, to be in health and prosperity even as your soul prospers, to have a mind of Christ, to walk in love, forgiveness, peace, joy, Holy Ghost, walk in faithfulness. I mean, come on! Patience, love. I mean, that's your destiny. That's who you are called to do, called to be, to go into the world and what? Minister the gospel.
You say, "I'm not called to minister." Come on, man! Guys, if you've ever put a Band-Aid on yourself, if you've ever put a Band-Aid on your friend or your wife or one of your kids, you have ministered aid to somebody. You know how to minister. You know how to walk up to somebody and pat them on the back and say, "Man, you're doing a great job, Patrick. I see your faithfulness in your kids. I see your faithfulness in church. I see your faithfulness in your work. Look how long you've been in an establishment and how many takeovers that you've been in this company, but you just keep on rising to the top. You've been to every single area in that job, but buddy, you are the... I thank you for your faithfulness. You encourage me."
What did I just do? I ministered to him. That's ministering. See, you are all called to be ministers of the gospel. Go into the world and minister the good news. So let's start telling people good news. You got good news! Don't be swayed by what you see, but you got to be swayed by faith.
So in your destiny, he's like, "Well, I want to see it fulfilled." Well, here's the thing. I tell you the story about my dad giving me that trophy, and I'll bring it in. I'll bring it in so you can see it. And that trophy, I did it because I was faithful. I didn't quit. I didn't give up, and I kept the right attitude, and I received that prize.
And then I get the words from my coach at nine years old, and I read that when I was young, when I was in high school, when I was in college, even when I was an adult, even when I'm now. And those words speak life into my life.
See, your destiny... and if you got your cup, and if you haven't received one of your coffee cups that have the "Drive" on it, make sure you see the connect corner and get you a cup. We want to sew that into your life. On the way out, just grab it, get it.
But you're going to see on destiny that we're talking about today, what's the symbol, right? Past destiny, can you see it? Can you remember it? What is it? And it's not a coffee cup. No, it's a bow and arrow. Your destiny is the symbol of a bow and arrow. Your destiny is called to go forward, not backwards. A bow and arrow doesn't just go "woo." It's not a boomerang. It goes forward.
Once you propel that arrow, it doesn't come back. It stays out there. It's the same way with your destiny. You got to know when you start going in your destiny, you don't stop. You keep going. You hit the mark. You hit that target of what God has called you to do.
But there's something that we have to realize. You do determine your destiny. You do. Say, "What do you mean?" Proverbs says the power of life and death are in the tongue. Do you speak life to your destiny, or do you speak death to your destiny?
I grew up hearing this: sticks and stones may break my bones, but wow, how true is that? Not true at all, because I've seen more people hurt themselves by their own words than hurt by themselves by other people. You know what? Your words to me, yes, would it hurt me? But I'm not going to let it affect me because I get to choose that. Because I don't give you the right or authority to have that in my life. I give the right and authority to Jesus Christ. I don't give you that authority.
See, you have to take that back, and that's what God has given you, the authority of death, hell, and the grave through Jesus Christ. I am who I am because I know who the I AM says I am. I'm a child of God. You see? You see how that works?
Come on! At the same time, yes, sticks and stones may break my bones, but actually, I've hit sticks and I've hit stones, and they never broke my bones, all because of a praying mama. Not because I haven't tried, I promise you that.
But I'll say this: words, they have hurt me more than what other people's words over me have hurt me. You know what's hurt me most? What has hurt me most? My own words to myself. You are the one that keeps you out of your destiny. And the Bible says that very clear. You have to understand you're the one who speaks life and speaks death.
When I went to my wife and said, "Hey baby," I didn't say it that way. I said it this way: "I love you. It's been one year. Will you marry me?" See, I spoke life to a marriage that I'm married to my wife, Jenny, now. No one else spoke that. I spoke life. Is it into my destiny that I was going to marry her? Yes.
And have you ever heard the expression, "Oh man, you were destined to win?" What does that mean? It was just in his destiny. What does that mean? What does it mean to you? See, I spoke life to being married to Jenny. Why? Because I said, "Will you marry me?" And she spoke life because she said, "What? Yes."
Have there been instances where we could speak death to our marriage? One thing my parents told me is like, "There's a word in a marriage that you don't speak about. It is a no-no, and that is the D-word: divorce." You start playing with that word, yeah, you're going to change the course of your life. You will, I promise. Why? The word says so.
And so, in these next weeks, we're going to talk about destiny, and today we're going to start unpacking what destiny looks like. So, me being a person that I like aid, I brought it. Yeah, it's... what is this? Anybody know?
**Audience:** A bow!
**Speaker:** Oh, you can tell the people who do know. It's a little something. I heard some people say it's a bow. Then I heard other people say it's a recurve bow. Very good. And this one was number 25 at $139. I'm not sure where... I just snorted. That was funny. Where it came from? No, I do know where this one came from. I got a lot of different bows. I don't know how many recurve bows. I actually got three really good ones. I got two cheap ones. And I all have them for a purpose. I have a couple compounds, long bows. I got some cool ones from Amazon. They're not really... I'm not going to go shoot something with them, but you know what? I'm not trained in those.
But it's the same concept. And so, I just want to introduce destiny to you in a way maybe you never thought about it. And I want to introduce destiny in the way that the Holy Spirit has given it to me years and years ago. And this is something that I preach. I don't know if you've been here long enough. How many of you seen me shoot a bow and arrow inside the church?
**Audience:** Oh!
**Speaker:** One cool... sweet! A couple of y'all have seen it. So, it's time for me to shoot a bow inside the church again. Amen? Not today, don't worry. They're like, "Man, I should have sat in the back." You know, we'll see how far this thing goes.
Growing up in life, I love watching cartoons, and I still enjoy watching cartoons. I found out yesterday, me and my daughter went to Walmart. If you haven't gone down the toy aisle, you need to go down. There's some really cool toys.
He said, "Why do you do that?" I said, "Well, because laughter does as good as medicine, and I want to keep my heart and my mind youthful and be that childlike faith." I want to be able to go down the toy aisle with my daughter and play with these little toys that take us 30 minutes to pick a toy for the one-year-old.
And I get so excited when I... my great niece and nephew, they're so much fun. You know why they're so much fun? I get to play with their toys, and it's great. I get so excited. "Did you not outgrow that?" No, and I refuse to. You say, "But shouldn't you just get bigger toys?" Yes, I've got bigger and a lot more expensive toys, and I get in trouble for it sometimes, but that's okay.
Like this one. But I get so excited about the toys. I get so excited about the simple things. I get so excited about coming to church on Sunday. I get so excited about opening up my Bible and reading my Proverbs for the day. I get so excited about listening to praise and worship in the car. I get so excited about reading a men's devotional every Wednesday morning at 8 o'clock.
I get so excited calling men of faith and women of faith and pastors that I know that I like to... that I enjoy speaking to. I get excited about that. I get excited when my neighbor comes over to my house, and we talk for a couple hours or five hours. But I get excited about it, and that conversation is maybe this much about work, but it's more just about what the word of God and revelation and truth on how we apply it in our life and things like that.
I mean, I get excited about going down the toy aisle. Just because I know about the toy aisle doesn't mean I stay away from it because I know already about it. You got to continue to invest in it, stay in it, and realize the importance of it.
I'm talking about our words. I'm talking about our heart. I'm talking about our faith. You say, "Pastor, you talk about it all the time." I have to continue talking about it all the time. That's what Jesus did. He spoke about it all the time.
And so this is what we're going to speak about. We're going to speak about the bow and the arrow. A bow is... it's not useful. It's just the bow. I mean, yeah, you can beat... I've seen cool people on movies beat people up with the bow. That's cool. Cool ninjas and stuff like that. Yeah, I got it. They used it, but it wasn't intended for that.
But the bow is not useful unless it has the... what? Don't put the cart before the horse. Now, there you go. But you're right, the string. You got to have the string. But this string is not going to do anything without the bow. But if they're not put together correctly...
Okay, I got to get these out safe. All right, safety officer up here. Remember these, okay? Y'all just be careful of any kids that come up here. Do not let them grab some of these. Just safety, alright?
We'll just... we'll talk about this one. I like this one. It's the arrow. You can have the bow, the string, and the arrow. I got them all together right now. And if I was out hunting and I have the game, whatever, or I'm at a shooting match, and I'm Robin Hood, and I'm about to get Lady Marian out of the thing, you know? And that was one of my favorite cartoons, man. Disney's Robin Hood. Can't beat it, right? The cartoon?
Yeah, that's the best. I still think Robin Hood is a fox, and don't try to convince me otherwise. Now, the next one I believe would be Kevin Costner. Can I get an amen?
**Audience:** Amen!
**Speaker:** Alright, man, that's a good soundtrack right there. Man, you talking about playing that for my wife? I'd walk in the door and say, "Hey baby, is a smoke alarm going off? 'Cause you hot!"
Anyway, so speak life. You say, "What does that have to do with the Bible?" I'm speaking into my destiny, speaking to my destiny. And so you can have all of this, but if it's not put together accordingly, if it's not used right, it's not of effect.
It's not of effect. You can have an appearance of godliness but deny the power of it, and it's no effect. It can appear that I'm an archer because I have the right equipment, but if it's not led and done by the power of the Holy Spirit, it's not of effect.
When we all say the scripture, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me," yes, it's Jesus Christ who strengthens me, but it's by the power of who? The Holy Spirit. So we have to understand we have to put it all together the right way to be able to see the destiny to be fulfilled and the divine destiny that God has for us.
So we're going to unpack this. I'm not going to... we'll just go. We'll have fun. And I have a gift, a treat, something to sew into your life at the end of service, and I'm going to pass them out. In fact, let's start passing those out right now.
Just grab one from Hunter. What you're about to receive is you're getting your own little bow and arrow, okay? Y'all are so sweet. Y'all are all going to get your own bow and arrow, and there's two different bows and arrows in there. You got one that's like Cupid, then you got one like Last of the Mohicans.
So, I mean, there's two different styles. Just grab one and pass it down. Oh, y'all know how to work together. And then on the way out, there's another tub back there that has different key rings and stuff if you want to put it on a key ring. It doesn't matter.
So grab one bow and arrow, and I want y'all to keep that in your hand as we talk about it. I want this to be a part of remembrance. I want this to be a part that you can draw from and enjoy. Then next week, I got another thing that I already got for you, and it's going to... I don't know. Should I tell you what it is?
Okay, I won't. And so, it's going to be hard because I'm really bad at keeping secrets. So, I don't know if I will or will not tell you. I probably will end up telling you because that's how I am.
But as those are going around, the scripture that I want to talk about, one of the scriptures in Proverbs 18:21. Proverbs 18:21, it's a real short... I already said it to y'all. The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
You have to understand you got to love your tongue. You got to love the power and understand that you're going to eat the fruit of it. I want y'all to hear that again. The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
If I speak good health, if I speak good, and I speak life to that, I'm going to eat that fruit of that because it's coming out, and I like it, and I'm going to eat the fruit of the Lamb. I'm going to eat the good of God. But if I'm speaking death, and that's what's coming out, do I want to eat that? No.
But here's the thing: it's still going to be there. There's so much power in your words, in your tongue. I want y'all to see Jeremiah 9:8. I remember reading this scripture for the first time that really the Lord just expressed into me. Man, you take hold of this. It says, "Their tongue in Jeremiah 9:8, it says their tongue is a deadly arrow. Their tongue is a deadly arrow. It speaks deceitfully. With their mouth, they all speak cordially to their neighbors, but in their hearts, they set traps for them."
And there's other scriptures, and we're going to explore all of those and unpack them all. But I want y'all to see the tongue is an arrow. And see, so when it says the tongue is a deadly arrow, that deadly arrow that speaks what? Deceitfulness.
Now, at the same time, if it's an arrow that's not speaking deceitfulness but it's speaking life, truth, honesty, that would not be a deadly arrow. That'd be an arrow of what? Life. Because the Bible says you speak life and death.
One translation, the New International Version says, "You speak life or death." Both translations are good, and they're right because you speak life to healing and death to sickness. I speak life to forgiveness and death to what? Bitterness. I speak life to faith and death to what? Fear. I speak life to a sound mind, and I speak death to a confused mind.
You see how that works? Or you can say, "I speak..." It's either death or life, which is true. Either you're alive or you're dead. I mean, this is how it is.
So I want y'all to see that your words are as arrows. And here's one thing that's really neat: these words that were written in Jeremiah over 2,000 years ago, an arrow back then is the same as an arrow today. See, God's word is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
We don't have to take some big theology class and history class on AD and BC and all of this to understand the context of an arrow. We understand an arrow, but we understand the word of God: out of the heart, the mouth speaks, right? Hide God's word in your heart that you might not sin against him. Let everything coming out of your mouth be uplifting, encouraging, and building up. Be fruitful.
So when you see your words, your words have to come from what? Your heart. Your arrows have to come from what? A bow that hasn't changed. They're one and the same. It's like salt goes with pepper the same way peanut butter goes with... or bananas, but it still goes with something.
Say, "Really? Try it. Tell me how you like it." If you don't like it, it's okay. Me and my mom, we'll eat it all day long. But wherever your arrows are, it has to be propelled and go anywhere with the bow and the arrow.
So our words do matter. Our words are important. Our words are very influential. Oh, Jesus, help me. Thank you, Lord. You hear people say things all the time. Yeah, I hear people say, "Man, this is going to kill me." Oh, Jesus, why? Why do you want to let it kill you? You say, "Oh, it doesn't matter." No, it does matter.
My brother tells a story about a guy. It's a true story that got stuck in a boxcar, basically. It was in a freezer boxcar. He got stuck in it, and he's like, "Oh my goodness, if we don't get out of here, we're going to what? We're going to freeze to death. We're going to freeze to death."
Man, this guy tried every way and everything to get out, and then he's finally, "Oh, the cold's coming in. It's coming. It's coming." Hours passed. Couldn't get out. Hours passed. He couldn't get out, right?
**Audience:** Preach on, baby! Preach on!
**Speaker:** The guy took his last breath, faded into the dark. Not moments after that, the door opens. They got in there. It was too late. But here's the kicker: they got the guy out. They went and did the autopsy because they have to say cause of death.
So you would say because he was in a freezer cart—not just a cooler, but a freezer—that he would die from hypothermia. Frozen up. He didn't die of that. That freezer cart wasn't even plugged in. It wasn't even 30 degrees in there. It wasn't even in the 40s. It was at a temperature that you could live and be sustained for hours.
And the clothes that he had on and the hydration, he would not have died. It wasn't the elements. It was his thoughts that he spoke, and that became his destiny. True story.
What you say, what you believe will set the course of where you're going to end up. So this guy, he didn't have to die. He thought he knew it, but he spoke, "Oh, we're going to die." You know what? He ended up dying.
I say that so we can understand and grasp how important our words are. Words are so important that for us to be on this earth, for us to be able to walk outside and know that it's daytime because there's a sun and a moon, to be able to walk outside and see the trees that blew all their leaves and we got to pick up every day over here, to be able to see the grass that's not growing, be able to see the dirt that becomes mud, to be able to see the water freeze on your pipes—all of that happened because God spoke.
Now you tell me words don't matter? Because when God said, "Let there be," there was. Words matter. When Jesus hung on the cross and he looked up to his father and he said, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do," you know what God did? He forgave us. Words matter.
When a man is in a tomb for four days and he's already stinking, and Jesus walks up and says, "Lazarus, come forth," and he comes out, words matter. When a Roman centurion comes up to Jesus and says, "Master, you just need to speak the word, and it'll be okay. You don't have to come, but speak." That Roman centurion understood words matter.
Peter understood words matter. "Lord, if that is you, tell me to come." If he didn't speak that, he would have never heard the word "come." Words matter. Joseph had a dream. He had this dream, but before he got this dream, he had to tell this dream to somebody.
And as much as he loved his soon-to-be wife, Mary, as much as he was infatuated and loved her and knew she was the one that God had for her, that dream did not start being fulfilled and propelled until he did what? Spoke it. He spoke it out.
The same way Mary had to do the same thing with her encounter. We all have encounters with God, but it's time for us to speak these encounters out. It's time to encourage people on how to see the goodness of God. Speak life. Speak blessing and death to poverty. Speak health, death to sickness. Speak strength and death to weakness. Speak good behavior and death to what? Bad behavior.
Speak life to control and speak death to uncontrolled. Speak health to a strong marriage and speak death to divorce. It's not in my vocabulary.
When I think about our words, I never seen a shot or never seen an arrow hit something without being shot. I never seen an arrow just come out of a quiver and just... and I'm not talking about some Harry Potter movie. I'm talking about... I've never seen that.
I've never seen an arrow just come off the ground and stick into an animal or in battle, stick into a person. I've heard the expression, "All these guns are killing people." No, guns do not kill people. People kill people. It was their choice to squeeze that trigger is what caused the death.
Just the word doesn't kill. A person kills people. Just the word doesn't encourage somebody. It doesn't move them to their destiny. It's when it is spoken is when it works. It's when it's spoken is when there's life and death happening.
I think we understand that. Matthew 5:18, it says, "But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these can make a man unclean." Words are just words until they're put together in a sentence or phrase or just that word, and then it goes into motion.
I've never picked up my dictionary. Some of y'all never picked up a dictionary, but this thing called a dictionary, it's a book. It's about this thick, and it has the majority of all the words in there, and it tells the definition and the origin and the meaning and if it's a verb, adjective, and noun. And don't ask me about those too much because I get those confused.
Not really, but I do. And I've never seen words jump off a dictionary and just go and do something. I've never seen a dictionary come off my bookshelf in my office and teach my son how to tie his shoes. When I had dogs, I never saw my dictionary that's on my phone teach my dog how to sit.
It was the words that come out of my mouth. So when people do say words don't matter, and you do walk around or people walk around like, "Well, this is just du du du duh," well, you're speaking life to that. But you got to remember you're speaking that life out of the heart. It's coming out from the bow.
It's not just the word that did it. It's the heart that propels it. It's the heart that takes it out. But things that come out of the mouth come from the heart. Spend enough time with somebody, you know how their heart is. You'll find out if their heart is hardened. You'll find if it's healed. You'll find if it's bitter.
I mean, you will find out their heart. All you got to do is listen to their speech. For instance, I speak... if I'm around somebody that's using a lot of words, and they're American, but they use a lot of French, is that a good way to put it? They use a lot of French.
You're going to say, "Man, this guy talks like a sailor." Someone said, "Army talks like a sailor." Because you spend enough time around people, you understand their heart. You understand where they come from. You understand the origin of those words.
It's very important. It takes place in your heart. Matthew 12:34, it says, "For out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks." Wow! For I tell you the truth, out of the overflow of the heart, Matthew 12:34, for out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.
The overflow, the good man brings good things out of the good that was stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that man will not give an account or give an account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.
For by your words, you will be acquitted, and by your words, you will be condemned. Matthew 12:34-37. Our words reveal the condition of our heart. How does that play out in your life every day? Does it play out in negative words or positive words? Are they words of faith? Are they words of fear? Are they words of manipulation, or are they words of destiny?
What are those words? We have to understand how to do it to understand that out of the heart, the mouth speaks. And see, without... here's the thing I love, and I got more scriptures, and I'll show you everything that you say that comes out of the heart. The Bible says everything you do, you have to do it out of what? Faith.
You have to do it out of faith. See, you can do it out of fear. You can do it out of faith. Which one are you going to do it out of? There's a... I don't know if I want to... how good this string is. We'll see.
You can have all the knowledge in your heart because the Bible said, "Hide God's word in your heart that you might not sin against him." I got about 20 other scriptures about the heart and words, and I'll give them to you next week. But we have to get this foundation.
I'm going to do it the other way. Just... yeah, do it the right way. Well, wow, it could be deadly, huh? Your heart has to be lined up with your faith. God has given you a measure of faith, but if you don't control that heart and deal with the issues that need to be dealt with, you're going to end up hurting yourself before you even speak anything to somebody.
You got to take care of the bitterness. You got to take care of the unforgiveness. You got to take care of that for you to be able to go and start really walking in true faith because God... faith works by love. Nothing else causes faith to work but love.
And when love's attached the right way to your heart, when faith is attached the right way to your heart, baby, everything that you say and everything that you speak, it will hit the mark. It will not... here's the thing: the Bible says my word will not return void.
So when I shoot that word of life, that you're a good son, you're a smart son, you're a beautiful wife, when I speak that, "It's a beautiful day," when I speak, "This is the day that the Lord has made," that word's not going to turn back to me, and it's not going to return void. It is going forth.
That is your destiny. Speak life into your destiny, your heart, and your faith. Every one of you got a bow. Every one of you have an arrow, and it's all put together. But I want y'all to keep that and know that this is what destiny looks like.
Destiny looks like... don't worry, I'm not going to pull it back. I don't want to get tackled or everyone jumping out of the way. They're like, "What's he doing? What's happening?"
I'll just do it like this. I'm not going to go like that. Oh, uncontrolled words, uncontrolled words. They have to go together. You say, "Pastor, that just seems too simple." I feel like maybe in kids' church... this is elementary.
Go back down the toy aisle, guys. You got to go back down the toy aisle. You got to continue to have that childlike faith. You got to continue to come to Christ as babes, as children. The Bible says sometimes we try to overcomplicate it by all these self-help books and all these seminars and all of this stuff.
And hey, guys, let's just do this book first called the Bible, and I think we'll be okay. See, 1 Thessalonians 5:11, and I'm closing, says this: "Therefore encourage one another, build each other up just as in fact you are doing."
And the next week, we're going to talk about the arrow. The arrow has different sides. It has different parts. It has a broadhead. It has fletching. It has a shaft. There are two sides to that arrow, and we need to understand really what that means.
Proverbs 15:4 again: "Gentle words cause life and health." The message says this way: "Kind words heal and help. Cutting words wound and harm." James understood this. There are three different tongues that you have, three different things that happen when you speak.
You got a tongue that is controlled, and James 3:2-4 talks about that. It says, "For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, also able to bridle the whole body. Indeed, we put bits in a horse's mouth that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. Look also at a ship. Although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires."
See, it's true. We've all stumbled in areas in our life, but you're going to stumble in the areas when you're speaking. He reminds us that we've all sinned, and the tongue is no exception.
See, you have to be able to control it. The word talks about the tongue that no one can tame. The scripture is very clear. The Bible says you cannot control, you cannot tame your tongue.
You say, "Well, then I'm just going to live a life of sin." No, the Bible says the Holy Spirit is the only one that can do that. That's when the Bible says you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. It's Christ inside of you that tames your tongue, that gives you the power and authority to do that.
James 1:19: "My dear brothers, take note: everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry." You have to understand when James says there's a small rudder where the pilot desires, it will steer it the same way your words are steered by just a little bit of self-control, a little bit of tone.
It's all controlled by that. James 3:5-8 goes on to say this: "Even so, the tongue is a little member, and it boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles. A forest fire, a tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body. It sets on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil and full of deadly poison."
Once a tongue is out of control, it's like a forest fire, man. It's like a...
on Jan 22, 2024
