We'll be right back.
We'll be right back.
We'll be right back.
But when's the last time our voice was used for the purpose it was given to us, which is to raise a shout in victory and give God glory and act like what He said He will do is already done?
I don't know if you feel an ounce of what I feel, but I feel such a sense of excitement. It's like waking up from a long, dark night and wondering if it was ever going to happen.
I had someone tell me not long ago, they said, "Pastor, I've waited for 10 years." And I literally looked at him and said, "Well, I waited for 15, so shut up."
The night will come to an end. I want to say that to you again, and you know if it resonates with you. The night will come. The season of labor and of hardship and of sadness, yea, even of brokenness will come to an end. And when morning comes, joy comes with it.
I'm just inclined to say there ain't no God like our God. There ain't no God like the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the Father of my Lord Jesus Christ. And who's worthy of the praise we give to Him? None, absolutely none. We reserve praise and adoration for You alone.
For You are the healer of our body. Amen. You're the dreamer of our day. You're our destiny. And You prepare the way before us.
If you're wondering what I'm doing, I don't know. But I know that before my mama and my daddy ever met, God had a dream called Jimmy. Before I was formed in my mother's womb, He had already written out in the book. And my joy is to see that book fulfilled. And the same is true of you.
Before you were ever fashioned or formed in the womb, God danced over you. I want you to hear what the Spirit of Grace is saying right now. God celebrates your existence. God celebrates your life. Yes. And God stands in awe of your destiny.
He's like, "I can't wait to see him do what I formed him to do. I can't wait to see him become who I dreamed they'd become."
And let me say this to you. It's never too late and you're never too old to become who God has ordained for you to be. Forget about the time that's gone behind and look forward to the time that's coming.
And when you look in the mirror, don't cuss what you see. Celebrate it. And say, "God has dreamed a dream of me and I will walk it out and I will become that."
God is good. And God loves you.
Now, if you love God, give Him a shout real quick.
Here a little, there a little, and step by step, the transformation is taking place. Thank you.
So suddenly, suddenly, suddenly would be nice, but so subtly that you don't even see it. But trust me when I tell you your enemy sees it, your enemy knows that you're undergoing a metamorphosis, a complete and total transformation that step by step, you are becoming a shining one.
Yes, oh. We are becoming the being of dignity and even deity, not telling you you'll be God, but His life is in you and you share in everything but His glory. The deity of God will be seen and it'll be called dignity by men. That's a better way of saying it.
And the Lord God is saying to you, the journey may have been long, but it ain't over. Trust Him for the last chapter, even the last page. For you'll declare like Joshua who came long before you, "Not one dream, not one vision, not one word failed to come to pass. But everything that God spoke to me, God fulfilled. Every utterance, everything I heard from His mouth came to pass."
For these are the days that the Lord has made. And His people will be found rejoicing in it.
Hallelujah, Father. Hallelujah.
If we have any ushers in this place, would you come stand up here? And I don't know if we have any. Oh, you're back. Look at you. Did you eat some German food? Did you bring any home? You're a heathen.
Make some. I shouldn't say that in public, but it's the only way I'm going to get German food.
At RLC, listen, I want to make this abundantly clear. We're not coming to get your offerings. I said this last week, but I want you to understand we're trying to establish a culture. It may be inconvenient, but faith usually is.
So when we receive the offering, that's exactly what we're doing. We're giving you an opportunity to make your offering a part of your worship experience. Because all throughout the Bible, you'll discover the people brought. Everyone say brought. Ushers didn't come get. The people brought.
And the reason they brought it is in the act of bringing it. Sometimes you battle with yourself as you're bringing it forward. Is this too much? Is this too little? But it's a step of faith, and you're bringing your offering.
So at RLC, the reason we do it this way is twofold. One, always mix faith with everything you do for God. Don't give your offerings mindlessly out of religious duty. Mix faith with it. Make it a celebration. Make it a worship.
And then when you bring it forward, while you're here, why not stay down here and celebrate like a crazy person for a little while? Because here's what I got to tell you. We're a Pentecostal church.
So your Baptist friends already think you've lost it. So you may as well just jump all the way in. Amen?
Amen? So as we go into this song, here's what I want you to do. I want you to bring your offerings forward. Every step of the way, hold them up. Let God know you are celebrating His goodness, and you're doing this out of love, and you're doing it not out of fear, but out of faith.
Then when you get down here, if you want to stay and dance with me, just don't dance better than me. Amen? Amen.
Hallelujah, Father. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus.
Lisa, would you put the slide up on the screen about the very end? The various ways you can give, please. Leave that up there, because I got something I got to do.
Krista, come up here for a second. Yeah, you. Just stand right there. As soon as I walk down, I'm grateful for the Holy Ghost, but boy, sometimes He don't cut you no slack.
As soon as I stood down there, I hear the Spirit of Grace say, "So you're going to teach a sermon today on taming, taming the tongue." And you just called my daughter a heathen.
I wanted to say, "No, I didn't." And then this will be part of the sermon. I could have said, "Well, Lord, I didn't mean it." That's a careless word, and as I'll show you in a few minutes, you give an accounting for that.
And so since I said it publicly, I want to publicly say, I'm sorry. Now listen, you are such a devoted and beautiful follower of Christ. You're not a heathen. You're a queen. Hallelujah.
Okay. And I could have done it without somebody being so happy about that.
Oh, my goodness. Stretch your hands this way.
Father, we thank You for the generous heart You've birthed within Your people, that they do not need to be threatened or extorted from, but simply granted an opportunity to express to You, to no one else but to You, how grateful they are for all the good and perfect things that flow down from Your throne into our lives.
So, Father, I declare, sowers are reapers. Everyone say that with me. Say, "I am a sower, and I am a reaper."
When you sow the seed, look for the harvest. God is faithful, and He'll cause it to come back, but it'll never come back to you in the same measure in which you gave it. It'll always come back to you increased.
So much so that it'll be as if it were pressed down, shaken down, and still running over. And at RLC, we know this. If it's written, our uncertainty is unnecessary.
Give the Lord a shout of praise. Thank you, ushers.
Doesn't Eddie look good? Sherita, you look fantastic. You're beyond good. Okay. I like that. I got this one.
Hey, Eddie, you look good, but your wife looks incredible. Is it well with you this morning?
Yes. Amen. Hallelujah, Father.
All right. Give me a chance to compose myself here, and let's pray, then we'll get into the word. And of course, you already know what I'm preaching on, because I already had to repent about it. Amen?
Amen. Amen. Amen.
Father, as we approach Your word this morning, we don't do so irreverently. Irreverently. Yeah, that's it. We do so with awe.
For Your word is life, instruction, and hope, and so, Holy Spirit, we recognize You this morning as our teacher and we are all Your students.
So I pray that over, above, and beyond, and in between my words may Your voice be heard and may You create wellness with words for those who are dwelling in darkness. Turn the light on.
Amen, Father. For those whose bodies are aching, be the healer. Be all that You have declared and revealed Yourself to be so Your people can celebrate in the goodness and the glory of the risen King.
We thank You for it and we ask this in Jesus' name, the strong Son of God. And everyone said, "Amen and amen."
Today we're going to approach a subject that's very important, and I want to recognize the group I'm speaking to. This is a church, so hopefully not everyone is born again, but I know most of you are.
And as such, as Christians, our goal ought to be above everything else. We have lots of life goals, but the primary life goal should be to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
And a disciple is easily defined as a disciplined follower. Everyone say discipline. Discipline is the key word, and it's necessary to life. If we want to succeed in any area of life, it requires discipline.
And the first thing we have to know is success is not a bad word. Over and over again, in about as many ways as we can think He would do it, God has declared His commitment to our success.
God is not a God of failure. God is not a God of fatigue. God is not a God of weariness. Are y'all here this morning? God wants you to succeed.
He wants you to be blessed when you're coming in, blessed when you're going out. He wants you to be blessed whether you dwell in the city or you dwell in the country. He wants you blessed.
He said He wants everything you put your hands to, to be blessed. God wants you to have success.
I want you to look on the screen. It's been up there, Joshua chapter 1, verse 8. And I want to read it to you out of the New Living Translation because it's a little bit different.
But I want you to hear what is being said. Joshua chapter 1, verse 8. Study this book of instruction.
Now isn't that interesting right there? I love how it's, this is an instructional book, not a religious book. It's an instructional book to teach us how to live successfully in God and in life.
Okay? So study this book of instruction continually. That takes decades. Discipline. Everyone say discipline. Discipline.
In order to study this book of instruction continually, it requires of us discipline. Meditate on it day and night. That takes discipline.
So you will be sure to obey everything written in it. And that requires a whole lot of discipline. Yeah.
But here's the promise. Only then will you prosper and succeed in some of what you do.
All. All. God is not anti-success. In fact, He's giving us a book of instructions on how to succeed. You can succeed biblically.
Now listen, you can succeed in the world, but that's not true success because you'll have it here and not have it here. You understand what I'm saying?
You might have money, but you're not going to have money, but you'll have a broken home. You might have worldly success, but you'll die early of disease.
God and God alone is the one who can give shalom. Nothing broken, nothing missing. Success in every arena of life. Your home life, successful. Your business life, successful. Your ministry, successful.
And all we got to do is have some discipline. Discipline is required in every area of life if you want to succeed.
To be a good athlete, you must have discipline. To be a good student, you must have discipline. To avoid being poor, you must have financial discipline. To be physically healthy requires... Ouch.
To be spiritually healthy requires discipline. Okay? One of the most important disciplines we can have in our lives or incorporate into our lives is the ability to tame our tongue.
And I want you to notice that the title is tame my tongue, not tame your tongue. My tongue. Some of us get too concerned about how everyone else speaks.
Well, you ought not to say that. Well, neither should you. We need to focus on our own tongue.
And so I want you to know what I'm preaching this morning and the verses I'm giving you are not so you can become a cop in everyone else's life and tell them how they should and should not talk. This is to give you what you need to tame my tongue.
You know, from time to time, and it actually happens quite a bit, people will tell me, "You don't look like a pastor."
And I choose to, like everything in life, I choose to take that as a compliment. You've heard me say it. You know, if you tell me I'm pretty annoying, all I'll hear is I'm pretty.
Because I choose to hear what I want to hear. This is, my name is Jimmy and this is my world.
And so if someone says you don't look like a pastor, I choose to take that as a compliment.
But this happens quite a bit, especially when I'm working with construction workers on a property or something, and they'll just be cussing up a storm.
And I remember one time in particular, I was standing with my general contractor and some other guy, and this guy was just mother effing this and mother effing that.
And I won't stop them unless they use the Lord's name in vain. That's where it's going too far.
But when they're doing all this other stuff, I'm just sitting there listening. And finally, my general contractor says, "You do know he's a pastor, right?"
And the guy's eyes got really big and his jaw dropped, and it was like he had saw the Holy Ghost or something.
And he's, "Oh, I'm so sorry." I said, "Listen, dude, it don't make no difference to me. I don't need you to pretend to be holy just because I'm in your presence. Because I'm not interested in taming your tongue. I want to tame my tongue.
Because it's my tongue that's going to liberate life or death in my life. Not mine. Not your tongue. Amen.
Let's go ahead and get started. And I want you to go with me to the book of James. And we're going to read out of James chapter three, beginning in verse two.
And I'm reading this to you out of the Passion Translation. James says this, "We all fail in many areas, but especially with our words.
Yet, if we're able to bridle the words we say, we are powerful enough to control ourselves in every way."
Do you hear what the scripture is saying? James is just, now listen, like me, James was talking to church folk. This was not written to unbelievers. This was written to believers, those who had given their lives to Jesus Christ.
And James is just keeping it real. He said, "We fail in many areas, especially with our tongue. Yet, James says, if we're able to bridle the words that we say, to exert the discipline necessary to speak properly, to speak kingdom, he said, we are powerful enough to control ourselves in every way."
What James is saying is, if you can't control your tongue, your whole life is out of control.
And you know, that's so true. Anyone you ever meet that they just fly off, they're out of control in almost every area, if not every area of life, because the foundation of a controlled life is a controlled tongue.
And that means, James says, our character is mature and fully developed.
Verse three, "Horses have bits and bridles in their mouths, so that we can control ourselves. Control and guide their large body.
And the same with mighty ships, though they are massive and driven by fierce winds, yet they are steered by a tiny rudder at the direction of a person at the helm.
And so the tongue is a small part of the body, yet it carries great power. Just think of how a small flame, one word misspoken, and anger, and resentment, and pain, can set a huge forest ablaze.
Y'all ever discovered that? One word can ruin a relationship. One word left unextinguished can split churches, destroy businesses, cause families to feud.
And the tongue, verse six, is a fire. It can be compared to the sum total of wickedness, and is the most dangerous part of the human body. Selah.
More dangerous than your kung fu kick. More dangerous than that iron fist of yours. Your tongue causes more damage.
It can be compared to the sum total of wickedness, and is the most dangerous part of the human body. It corrupts the entire body, and is a hellish flame.
It releases a fire that can burn through the course of human existence. For every wild animal on earth, including birds, creeping reptiles, and creatures of the sea and land, have all been overpowered and tamed by humans.
But the tongue is not able to be tamed. It's a fickle, unrestrained evil that spews out words full of toxic poison.
Now, I want to stop right there because we'll come back to it, but every scholar that I've read after talks about this particular verse in the original language. What James is conveying is apart from the grace of God, you can't control the tongue.
But if you're in Christ, there's enough grace. If we will be disciplined, there's enough grace in Christ for you to control that tongue of yours.
You don't have to let it be unrestrained. If you're in Christ, you can stop those words before they come out of your mouth and destroy that destiny, destroy that dream, ruin that heart, destroy that relationship.
You can control it because you are in Christ and there's grace enough to control that tongue.
Verse nine, he says, "We use our tongue to pray for you and we use our tongue to believe you. We do honor you and we do pleasure you. Praise God, our Father, and then turn around and curse a person who was made in His very image.
Out of the same mouth, we pour out words of praise one minute and curses the next. My brothers and sisters, listen to what he says. This should never be.
Verse 11, would you look for olives hanging on a fig tree or go pick figs from a grapevine? Is it possible that fresh and bitter water can flow out of the same spring?
So neither can bitter spring produce fresh water. What he's saying is that Christ-like heart of yours ought to produce Christ-like words.
Yes, sir. And it's not enough. Listen to me. It's not enough to be better in your speech than the person sitting next to you.
Because the person sitting next to you is not your role model nor the standard by which we measure ourselves against. The Bible says we're not to compare ourselves among ourselves.
And the reason being for that is it will either produce a sense of guilt, a sense of shame because I'm not as good as you. Or it will produce an arrogance that's unrestrained because I'm better than you.
But if we do what the Bible says, then we fixate our eyes on Jesus as our role model.
Now, I want to say something here, but I want you to repeat what I'm about to say. Pretend. I'm only pretending what I'm about to say, so don't get all upset. This is pretend. Everyone say, pretend.
Let's pretend I'm holier than you are. In fact, I'm better than all of you in every way. I pray more than any of you do. I speak in tongues more than all of you combined.
I'm so anointed our house has no light bulbs because when I walk into a room, it just glows. I give more than you. I pray more than you. I memorize the Bible better than you could ever hope to.
I'm pretending. But even if this were true and my eyes were fixated on Jesus Christ, I could be all of that and still be humble.
Because I may be better than you in everything, but I ain't better than Him in anything. Amen.
So if I keep my eyes fixated on Jesus, it creates within me both a hope and a humility. The humility is He's the standard, so it doesn't matter who I'm better than.
And the hope is by His Spirit and through His word, I can become like Him. So I can remain humble and yet hopeful.
And I can be better than you, but still not be arrogant in your midst. So that's why it's so important that as church people, we don't compare ourselves among ourselves. We keep Jesus as our role model.
And with that in mind, I want to ask you a question. Was Jesus careful or careless with His words?
Look at John chapter 12. Put this up on the screen if you would. John chapter 12, verse 49. Jesus said, "Amen. I don't speak on my own. I say only what the Father who sent me has told me to say."
That's really careful. I want to say it again. Jesus said, "I don't speak on my own. I don't speak out of my emotional state. I don't speak out of my mental state. I only speak out of the spiritual state."
And this was the fulfillment of a prophecy that was given by Adonai, the Father, back in Deuteronomy chapter 18, verse 18. And look at this. This is what the Father says.
"I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you. And I will put my words in his mouth."
Now stop right there. Listen to what the Father is saying. The anointing was definitely in the hands of Jesus, yes?
But God didn't say that's the primary thing. He didn't say, "I'm going to raise up a prophet like you among your countrymen and I'll put my anointing in his hands."
He didn't say, "I'll put my glory on his head." He said, "I'm going to put my words in his mouth."
The foundational, the fundamental thing is I'm going to put my words in that prophet's mouth. And he will only speak to them all that I command him.
Jesus was very careful. And the Father wanted Him to be careful in what He said.
Now look at John chapter 6, verse 63. Jesus goes on to say this. "It is the Spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life."
Jesus was always giving, even in His reprimands, life-giving words. Words that emanated out of the Spirit.
This is why I've said to you before, you can't be emotionally led and spiritually led at the same time.
If you're a complete emotional being, you know what I mean by that? I mean, your emotions master everything. You get angry, everybody knows it. Three doors down.
Right? I mean, somebody cut, you can't control yourself. You road rage. You're not in control of your emotions. If you're emotionally led, you're not in control of your emotions. You're not spiritually led.
Because you can't be an emotional being and a spiritual being. Because if you're led by the Spirit, you're in control of your emotions.
Because your emotions were given to you to serve you, not master you. Your emotions are meant to enhance life's experiences, not contaminate them.
Well, I could stop right there. I could stop right there and that'd be good.
Matthew chapter 12, verse 36. And this is the one I had to repent of just right before service.
I remember one time when I was writing the book. I have a book that I'm rewriting right now. And it was originally called The Purpose of Patience. And I wrote it because I ain't got none.
And one of the things that the Lord told me in writing the book on the purpose of patience, He made a statement and I want you to hear this because it's true in every area.
Anything you do motivated by impatience will cost you more than you're willing to pay.
I want you to hear anything you do motivated because you've grown impatient will cost you more than you're willing to pay.
And as I was meditating on that, I could still I could take you right to where I was in Warsaw. I was in a street on a street in our Ford Mondeo green station wagon.
And I was meditating on this. Anything you do by impatience will cost you more than you're willing to pay.
And the dude in front of me turned on his left blinker and there was no left turn lane. So you know what that means.
I sit through like three lights for this dude to be able to make a turn where he's not supposed to make a turn. And I wasn't exactly road raging, but I was simmering.
I just told you I ain't holier than all of you. And so when he finally took off, I took off. And somebody I went. I got right in front of someone and they hit me, my fault completely.
And the Lord spoke to me. I just told you anything you do motivated by impatience will cost you more than you're willing to pay.
And being a foreigner, I had to pay what I call stupid foreigner tax, meaning I had to pay that person on the spot not to call the police.
I drove home with those words echoing in my mouth or my head and my mouth, anything you do motivated by impatience will cost you more than you're willing to pay.
That's why when I said what I said to Krista, I knew I had to repent because if it's written, our uncertainty is unnecessary.
And I would rather repent and make it right than be prideful and keep it wrong.
Matthew chapter 12, verse 36. But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.
Now let me ask you what type of word did He say we'd give an accounting for? A careless word.
How many of those careless words? Every careless word. That careless word is defined as this: listen to this, insincere, false, unprofitable, insincere language of a person who speaks one thing but means another.
So when you say it and then you go, "Well, I didn't mean it," that is by definition a careless word.
And "I didn't mean it" is not enough to repent of it. You hear what I'm saying to you this morning, sir?
That's an idle careless word, and it's the kind that you'll get rid of if you don't repent of it without giving an accounting for it means you'll answer for it for how many?
Everyone. Say, "Lord, help me tame my tongue."
Listen to this out of Proverbs chapter 18, verse 7. I want to read it to you out of the contemporary English saying, "Foolish things is like setting a trap to destroy yourself."
Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Saying foolish things is like setting a trap that's going to destroy you.
If we have a tongue, we have responsibility for how we use that tongue. And the responsibility of the tongue is literally life and death.
Y'all know this verse, but let's look at it again. Proverbs 18, verse 21. I want to read it to you out of two different translations.
Death and life are where? Whose tongue? Your tongue. Life and death are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
Let me read it to you out of the contemporary English. Words can bring death or life. Talk too much and you will eat everything you say.
I wrote this down. Words are free. It's how you use them that cost you.
You know, on the way to church this morning, and you probably have heard... No, keep that other slide back up there. Put that other one up there. That'll be good for this.
When I first got saved, and my wife can vouch for this, I ain't never been... I've known some hard times, but it wasn't because I was lazy.
I was called lazy as a kid, and I've worked my whole adult life to prove them wrong. In fact, my wife will usually tell me, "You need to stop," because she knows that when I keep pressing, pressing, pressing, that's when I either get sick or injure myself.
Because sometimes those words still haunt me, and so I'll work too hard to prove them wrong.
But when I first got saved, I didn't know how to do it. Dude, I redefined the word broke.
No, see, I turned broke into baroque, and I didn't understand why I never had money because I worked really hard.
And yet in this particular house, and I don't need to go into it, but I wasn't in the house I grew up in. I was with another relative, and I'd just given my life to Christ.
And it wasn't until I looked at it in hindsight, I realized everyone was going to die, and I was going to die, and I was going to die, and I was going to die, and I was like, "Why am I doing this?"
And we thought it was funny to make fun of our financial lack by walking around the house and going, "I ain't got no money."
You know, it was kind of like, "What's up?" But it was pre-"What's up?" and "We ain't got no money."
And every time any... Well, you want to run to the store and get a Coke? "I ain't got no money."
You want to go out to dinner? "I ain't got no money."
It wasn't until years later when the illumination of Scripture finally got through, I realized why I never had no money.
Because life and death are in the power of the tongue. And I was giving poverty a foothold.
Now listen, I was working hard. But I kept prophesying my own lack.
Because I had an untamed tongue. I've known people that medication don't help them.
And they are in dozens of prayer lines with the most anointed of preachers, and they're still sick.
But if you listen to them, all they talk about is sickness.
I had a dear friend I went to Bible school with. When he started his church, I was his first board member. He knew the Scripture.
But he had a fascination. He had a fascination with death. He kept saying, "I'm going to die early. I'm going to die early. I'm going to die early."
And I was like, "Joe, what's wrong with you? I'm going to die early. I'm going to die early."
And then when my wife and I went to the foreign field and we were living in Warsaw, Poland, it took a while for us to get our phones and everything in.
But one day we got a phone call. And it was my friend's wife.
And she wanted to tell us, she said, "I've been trying to get a hold of you. I needed to let you know. I need to let you know Joe died."
He died, what, two days after we left to go overseas? He preached on a Sunday. He went home and he rested. He took a nap on the couch and he never got up.
And he was a young man. He might have only been in his 30s. He had no known physical ailments.
But he had a tongue that constantly said, "I'm going to die early. I'm going to die. I'm going to die early. I'm going to die early."
But the Bible doesn't say, "Thou shalt die early." Remember, we should only speak what He commands us to speak.
And He said, "With a long life will I satisfy you and show you my salvation."
He didn't say, "With a short life shall I kill you." He didn't say, "With a short life shall I kill you."
What Jesus was telling us in Matthew 12 is that our ability to use words comes with responsibility.
You can shape a dream or destroy a destiny with words. You can build faith or build fear with words.
The tongue has no bones, but it's strong enough to break a heart.
So be careful with your words because the tongue has power. Yes, it does.
Look at Proverbs 21, verse 23. Is this okay this morning?
Instructions on how to live a successful life. Quit talking defeat.
It doesn't matter if everyone in your family for five generations was diseased and broke and poor. You're in a new family.
Old things have passed away. And behold, I think it's written somewhere, "All things have become new."
I mean, I might be wrong, but I think it's in there, isn't it?
Proverbs 21, verse 23. "He who guards his mouth and his tongue guards his soul from troubles."
If it's written, our uncertainty is unnecessary.
To guard is to watch over and control. We already quoted it. But look again at Proverbs 18.
"A fool's mouth is his ruin. His ruin comes from his mouth. And his lips are the snare of his soul."
Now you notice his lips snare his soul.
Put your hand on your head and say this, "Father, help me understand."
See, some people want to say that all this is new age and metaphysics and mind over matter. And they want to dismiss it.
But they're victims of their own ignorance. Because it's written.
This isn't something some new ager came up with and wrote a book. And it's on the Barnes and Noble shelf.
Man, this is in your Bible. And it's been there before Barnes and Noble was ever launched.
No wonder David prayed this in Psalm 19, verse 14. David said, "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer."
I mutter that one as I go throughout the day. "Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart, my dreams, my imaginations, my fantasies, may they all be acceptable in Your sight."
And if any of them are unacceptable, let them be.
I wrote this down. I never met a great man. Now, I've met rich men who were careless with the words.
But I never met a great man. I never met a great man who was careless with his words.
Most of the truly great men, whether they're in business or in ministry, I'll discover if you ever sit with them, they're very guarded in what they say.
They don't just fly off. I mean, some of them, you've got to pry wisdom out of them. Because they're just very careful in what they say.
One of the things... It's okay this morning.
One of the things that I discovered, you never have to repent over what you don't say.
Case in point, right before... If you don't say it, you don't got to feel sorry for it. If you don't say it, you don't got to repent over it.
And if you don't say it, you don't have to give an accounting for it.
I never met a... I never met a truly spiritual person who was careless with their words.
Because as James told us, if we're out of control with our tongue, our whole life is out of control.
Because we bring ruin to everything we talk to. And nobody likes you on the job.
I wonder why. When you come home, your cat hides.
Why? Because, listen, sometimes some of the people in our lives never know what's going to come out.
Is he going to praise me or hit me? Is he going to cuss me or bless me?
James said, and it was the very first verse, it ought never to be. No one ever need be uncertain of how we're going to speak to them.
Because our role model is Jesus. Even our rebukes have kindness.
And they have the motive of pulling out greatness. We're always speaking life.
Are we perfect? No, James said we fail in a lot of ways. And especially with our words.
But failure doesn't have to become a lifetime experience. It can be a learning experience.
Where we can say, I mean, I wish the Holy Spirit had let me have you as an illustration.
But we can say something carelessly. Even in jesting and joking.
But when the Holy Spirit speaks to you and says, "You shouldn't have said that."
One of our, my wife and I, our favorite preachers, most anointed guy you'd ever meet. He's now in heaven.
But he used to, as a point, he would say, he would kind of jokingly say, "You little flesh creature."
And that was just his way of saying, you know, you can be spiritual, you can be flesh, you can be fleshly.
And one day the Lord, he said the Lord rebuked him and said, "Don't call my people flesh creatures. They may not be perfect, but they are born of the Spirit."
And Pastor Dave had to start speaking over his congregation the way God spoke over his congregation.
And God always speaks to us words of life and light and love born of the Spirit.
So we need to work on being disciplined and tame my tongue. Amen?
A sanctified tongue. Listen to this.
No one can tame the tongue. It's a restless evil and full of deadly poison.
This is what James said. We bless God on Sunday and curse people on Monday.
The same mouth we praise with, we complain with.
And according to what James wrote, I love you, but that's a sign of immaturity.
Where you can cuss and bless in two second intervals.
If we are Spirit-led people, listen to this. If we are Spirit-led people, it will be heard in our words.
Before it's ever seen in our actions. Only through the power of the Holy Spirit can our words be truly redeemed.
But if we submit ourselves to the Lord, He'll correct us. He'll do it lovingly.
And He'll do it quickly. And He'll change us.
He'll say, "You ought not to prophesy poverty all the time."
He'll say it so encouragingly. But He'll say, "You ought not to say that you're cursed when I've blessed you."
You ought not to say you're sick when I've already healed you.
You ought not to give death authority in your life when I've released life into your life.
Is this okay? Because the Bible says He gives us abundant life.
Abundant. Everyone say abundant.
You can't be abundant without abundance. And that's abundance of every good thing.
Is this okay? Psalm 141, verse 3, and I'm bringing this to a close.
Which is not a careless word, just a meaningless one.
Psalm 141, verse 3 says, "Set a guard."
And I like how the psalmist said, "Oh Lord."
He didn't say, "I set a guard." I set a guard over my mouth.
He said, "Set a guard, oh Lord, over my mouth. Keep watch over the door of my lips."
Keep watch.
In closing, this is what we need to do. We need to do two things.
And this is something that all of us should do on a continual basis.
Number one, reflect on how you've used your words.
Just think about, at the end of the day, how did you use your words?
Because these words of yours are powerful.
And I can't get into it right now because I already told you I'm closing.
But do you know, God created everything that is not by thought, not by waving His hands.
Everything that is came to be because God said, "Let there be."
God said, and it... There's power in our words.
And to deny it and to deny it and to deny it and to deny it and to diminish it, you do so at your own peril because it's like the law of gravity.
It's there whether you want to accept it or not.
You know, I don't know. Maybe I'm the only one, but I know when I was a kid, I used to get up on our shed because I was a big comic book nerd.
I still believe I'm Batman. But Spider-Man really had better powers.
I didn't set my goal so high to be Superman.
But I would get on my shed and tie a beach towel around my neck.
And I jumped. The cape did not give me power. It just flapped as I fell.
And I remember I didn't jump feet first. I did.
And you want to talk about... I wish I was fat back then.
You can deny a spiritual law. You can deny a natural law.
But if you stand up on a tall enough building and leap off, and you can say all the way down, "I don't believe in that gravity stuff. I don't believe in that gravity stuff. I don't believe in that gravity stuff."
In Jesus' name, there ain't no gravity. In Jesus' name, there ain't no... You're still dead.
And you can deny the spiritual law of sowing and reaping. You can call it all kinds of bad names. It still works.
You can deny the law of your words and it still works.
But just like gravity, if you learn how it works, baby, you can fly.
If you learn how it works. You learn how your words work and you reflect on them, you can change them.
And you can start seeing things change in your life.
Because the first thing that a successful person does is they tame their tongue.
So two things. One, reflect. Number two, repent.
Repent. Tell God you're sorry.
If you're able to, tell the person you said it to, you're sorry.
But reflect and repent. Repent doesn't mean just feel bad and then say it again. Right?
I'm trying to bring this to a close. But it doesn't mean you insult somebody, say I'm sorry, then turn around and insult them again.
You know, you're bonehead. I really love you and I'm sorry, but you're such a bonehead. That ain't repentance.
So we reflect, we repent, we tame our tongue, and we find that suddenly we get in control of every area of our life.
Everything starts to work out and pretty soon we got shalom in our lives.
Not because our words are the only thing. Oh, no, no. We got to put our hands to things and there's other things we got to do.
But the first thing we got to do is tame my tongue.
Stand to your feet this morning. Good, man.
Hallelujah, Father.
I hope you got something out of that. You know, it took me years to understand. I mean years.
I wished I was quicker. Man.
But you know, when I first got saved, I was raised Roman Catholic, so I was just taught what the priest says is so.
And you don't ever have to look up anything to try to counteract what they say. And don't try to contradict them.
And so when I got saved, I didn't know any better. Right?
So I thought, I read the Bible, but I believe the preachers.
And Brother Hagin once said that sometimes people with PhDs, that just means they're qualified to be post hole diggers.
Just because somebody went to seminary doesn't make them spiritual.
And if there's a religious person in your pulpit, they're going to make you religious.
And so when I first got saved, they just made... They insulted the word of faith people. They insulted, you know, faith.
They talked about hyper faith. And you know, you have too much faith.
And it wasn't until years later I thought, how do you have too much faith?
But they leveraged so many insults that I had so many barriers that even when people told me I preach like so-and-so, my wife can tell you, I got angry.
I had someone tell me one time, an older lady, she said, "You know, your husband preaches like Brother Hagin."
Now I would take that as like the utmost compliment. But my wife said, "Don't tell him that. He'll get angry."
Because I had a preconceived idea.
And just remember, you can't be prejudiced even in the area of the word and never grow.
When you're unteachable, you're untouchable. Don't think you know it all.
And sometimes a sign of wisdom is to admit that what we know is wrong.
It took me years to come in a lot of Bible study to just break the bricks down and to realize I had been, you know, Jimmy had a lot of problems and Jimmy caused them.
And so are many of your problems caused by you.
You know, the devil don't even got to oppose us, man. We just do it ourselves.
And but when I saw that I had been my own worst enemy for so many years and had dragged my precious bride along into my idiocy, I repented and I changed and I started to speak words of life.
And I'm going to tell you, it changed things. It did. It changed.
The first thing it changed was my attitude.
Because the greatest prophet you'll ever meet is the person you see in the mirror every morning.
You believe your own words.
And so they become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
And so if you don't like the way your life's going, quit talking the way you're talking.
And it'll begin to change. Amen. Amen.
All right, lift your hands to the Lord. And if I can have our prayer team forward.
If you're here this morning and you don't know Jesus as the Christ, if He's not your personal Lord and Savior, this is your moment.
There's not a better thing you can do than to be born again. Let Him recreate you.
So as we pray as a congregation, if you need prayer for salvation, for healing, baptism, baptism in the Holy Ghost, anything, you just need a word of encouragement.
Your success is our honor. And we want to be a part of your story and help you along the path.
And you can learn from our mistakes, not repeat them.
For the rest of us, we're just going to pray a simple word and be dismissed.
Father, we thank You for the word this morning.
I thank You, Father, for this congregation that we call Real Life Church.
Father, our heart's cry is that they would know success every day for the rest of their lives.
And Father, may our hearts and our souls be open to the instruction that was given this morning.
By Your Spirit of Grace and Your word, You instructed us to tame our tongue.
And so, Father, we say to You with all sincerity, we will exert the discipline necessary and with Your help control this tongue of ours.
And so we pray like the psalmist, "O Lord, set a guard over my mouth and watch over my words."
In Jesus' name. And everyone said, "Amen and amen."
Give the Lord a hand clap of praise.
So if you need prayer, it's open. If not, love on somebody around you and then go and make a difference in your world. God bless you.
on Nov 17, 2024
