Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Welcome to the World Changers Church Gold Coast podcast. Join us as we listen to today's message.
[00:00:05] Ah. How is everybody?
Yeah, we good? Are we awake this morning? I know that last song. That last song was powerful. Yeah. All hail King Jesus. It kind of puts us into that space of reverence, and then taking communion afterwards is just a fantastic way to remember Christ. But right now, are we alive in Christ? Yeah. Are we ready to receive a word from God? Are we ready to hear what he has to say to you? Because it's not me speaking today. I might have an accent, but this is the Holy Spirit that's speaking because I've got nothing to do with this. Yeah. Good. Happy with that. What we're talking about today is we're going to be talking about the power of words.
Words are interesting, aren't they? Yeah. Oh, no. Some people are thinking, uh oh. What did I say this morning? What did I say yesterday? How did I speak to my wife, me son, me husband, me uncle? Words are powerful. Yeah. We start off, words are the essence of creation itself.
Yeah. We always know when we talk about words. We know that God spoke the world into existence, so words are the essence of creation itself. So the universe is aligned with the word of God because it was created by the word of God. Now, when we talk about the universe, we can sometimes think too small.
We think about the universe, and we think about the galaxies, the stars in the sky that we can't name, that we can just about see. We think about everything unseen. We think about that vast space that he created, along with creating us here perfectly in perfect harmony.
That's the universe that he spoke into existence. Now, sometimes we think, you know, words are a declaration, but they are. They're a declaration of what we believe. And once released, words either work for you or they work against you.
It's your declaration.
Words either work for you or they work against you. Now, don't let the enemy bully you. And that's what a lot of people do. They let the enemy bully us out of the authority that we have in Christ. Now, there's going to be people on here today that know the authority that they walk in. There's going to be people here today that do not know the authority that they walk in. And there's going to be people here today that are journeying through the authority. They're learning more about what the authority is, and that's okay. But do not let the enemy bully you out of what you have been given. Through Christ on a cross, the devil can't stop what God has started.
Do we believe that? Yeah. The devil can't stop what God has started, but you can stop it. We either choose to speak life over ourselves, or we choose to speak death over ourselves. We either choose to surround ourselves with people who speak life unto us, or we choose to surround ourselves with people who speak death unto us. The devil can't stop what God started. He can't. He's defeated already. But you can.
By not knowing the authority that you have, by choosing to speak death over yourself instead of picking life over yourself, that's what you can do.
So, Father God, we just pray today.
We just thank you, Father, for a word that you're bringing for a word, Father, that you have put on my heart for weeks now, Father, and I just pray that I step out of the way as the Holy Spirit leads. And the Holy Spirit ministers to everybody here. To everybody that is going to listen to this in the future, Father, I thank you. That the Holy Spirit will convict them of the words they speak over themselves. To speak life, as we give this all over to you in your precious name, Jesus. Amen.
Oh, well, I tell you what. I am nervous today. I want to move this table because I am going to kick it right. Hold on a second. Let's put that over there. And let's put that there. Now I've got space to walk.
I love to walk. Walking is great. And it's actually quite a small stage, which is really good, because whenever I forget what I'm going to get to, then I come back to here. This is very good. Right? So, why did God speak the world into existence instead of thinking it into existence?
That's a question for you. Why do we have to speak?
We know it's a frequency. That's cool. Yeah, that is good. But we speak things out. But how many things do we think in our heads that we shouldn't speak out?
How many people remember it after they've spoken aloud? That they shouldn't have spoken aloud? Yeah, we know that one, don't we? You're like, oh, I want to rewind time. I want to take that back. But God spoke it into existence.
The words that we speak are powerful.
They create life or they create death. And I'm going to keep repeating that today. They create life or they create death. The words that you speak, God spoke. And so it was.
So. Genesis 1:26. Notice it says, God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Oh, I can see it down there now. Now that I look here.
So that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. Just as he had spoken to create everything else, God spoke man into existence with his words, essentially saying, man, be of my image.
The breath of life was spoken unto Adam. The breath of life that you have now today was spoken.
That's what we have, the breath of life. But we choose not to speak the breath of life. Sometimes we choose to speak death.
But the breath of life is in the words that God spoke. My God spoke the world into existence and the devil spoke doubt that led to us perverting God's word in our heart.
He asked the question. He manipulated the truth. The devil spoke doubt into our hearts.
From there, we live in this world, taken out of Eden, brought here after God spoke the world into creation. And the world is perfect. The world was created perfect for us so that we could rule over everything. That's the position that he gave us. That's the authority that he gave us. We allowed the devil to speak doubt into our hearts and now we continually allow the devil to speak doubt into our hearts unless we know the authority that we have been given.
What you believe in your heart dictates the words that you believe about yourself.
I'm going to be speaking a lot about words. I'm going to be speaking a lot about the heart. I'm going to be speaking a lot about life. And I'm going to be speaking a lot about death. There's a lot of speaking because you don't get what's in my head. I've got to put it down in here. I've got to let the Holy Spirit minister me. And then that's got to come out. So what I've got in my mind drops to my heart. What drops in my heart is what comes out of my mouth. That's what I speak because God has given it to me to speak. I either speak life or I speak death. What do you speak? You either speak life or you speak death. But the words you speak over yourself dictate who you are.
How are you today?
Some people are going to say, I'm good, I'm not bad, I'm fantastic, I'm great. I'm raised up, I'm lifted up.
Is there truth in what you say when you answer that question? How are you today?
What do we mean when we say it? How are you today?
Are you alright? Are you good? Are you feeling bad? How are you today?
What are you speaking over yourself, the self image that you have over you.
I'm not good enough. I'm not worthy. I can't do that.
We keep judging other people, and we keep looking at other people thinking, why don't I have what they have? Why can't I preach the way Pastor Kyle preaches? Why can't I do things that Jeremy does that I can't do? Why can't I do this? Because we're continually judging other people, and we're looking at other people instead of looking at what we've got. What have we got? Power and authority.
I can speak life over myself, or I can speak death over myself.
You can do the same.
Who are you? It comes into a completely different preach because we talk about identity and all the rest of that stuff. But it's something we have to grasp.
What we speak over ourselves, we become.
Proverbs 16:23-24 says, from a wise mind comes wise speech. The words of the wise are persuasive, kind words are like honey sweet to the soul and healthy for the body. Just jump back to 23 there, please.
From a wise mind comes wise speech.
Think about that.
You've got to be wise to speak wise, haven't you? Have we heard the fools out there in the world speaking foolish things? I'm sure everybody can attest to that. I've been one of those fools speaking foolish things. Been there, done that. I'm sure I'll do something stupid again. But, yeah, I've been there, and I've done that. How many times do we speak foolish things?
We hear things, and then we take things, and then we create more stories to it, and then we send it out there as part of gossip, as part of all the things. But a wise person will take those words, give them to God, wrestle there with God before they come out of his mouth what they're going to speak.
The NIV uses the word prudent, seeker of truth. Be truthful in what you say. A wise man will be prudent with his words because he will check them first before speaking them out.
How many times do we gossip? I've heard something from somebody and we thought, oh, that must be true. I always say it before. There's three versions of a truth, isn't there? There's your version, there's the other person's version, and then there's a truth slap bang down the middle, which has got no emotion attached to it. Yeah, but we hear one side of a story, and all of a sudden we jump on the bandwagon and we start speaking out that person's version of the truth.
But what if it's not the truth because we haven't heard somebody else? We have to be wise. From a wise mind comes wise speech. Words can carry life or words can carry death. Words can bless or words can curse. Words can build up someone or tear someone down.
Words can bring forth great things or words can be destructive.
Words can turn things around or words can build walls. Words can start fires or words can put them out.
Words can ensnare us or words can set us free.
When we fill our words with honesty, we will become honest.
When we fill our words with faith, we will become faith-full.
Think about it.
When we fill our words with faith, we become faith-full.
But I have to know the words of the Bible first. I have to know what God has spoken over my life first. I have to know Jesus first before I can speak faithful words.
It takes wisdom.
A foolish man will run out there and will just run his mouth.
A wise man will meditate on what he has and he will search God for it. And then he will find the truth, which is the word.
We will find it there.
It's God's word that sets a fire within your heart.
God's word, not man's word. We can be inspired by man's word because they tell a great story. They tell a great testimony. We can be inspired by what man has done. And that's fantastic. That is good.
But the word of God sets a fire on your soul because it gives you something. It gives you the knowledge of what God wants you to do for him in his life. He wants you to be more than what you're currently being. If you're struggling, he wants more for you. So the more that you fill your minds, the more that you fill your heart with his word, the more that it comes out. The more that it comes out of your mouth. The more you're speaking life over you. The more you speak life over you, the more you're doing what Jesus has called you to do without asking in prayer and petition God first. We will not find out.
To speak it out. I'm not going to sit and I'm not going to think.
You haven't got a clue what I've said. God wants us to speak.
Break my heart for what breaks yours.
That's what I want to know. That's the question that I'm asking God, break my heart for what breaks yours. But I have to ask.
We're either going to use words that are going to agree with God or disagree with God. You see, words are seeds and because they're seeds, therefore they produce a harvest in our lives.
It's an interesting one, isn't it?
Who wants to hang about with a person that's always speaking death? Who wants to hang about with a person that's always speaking negative things? Who wants to hang about with the person that's complaining about every single thing going?
Nobody really.
But who wants to hang about with somebody who's going to lift them up, that's going to encourage them, that's never going to speak down to them, but is going to speak life to them that is going to lift them up, that is going to push them forward.
That's the person that I want to be. That's the person that I want to be inspired by. That's where I want to be, with somebody who's going to challenge me, somebody who's going to push me forward, not drag me forward.
They're going to be behind me, pushing me, encouraging me all the way, stepping with me every step of the way.
I sometimes explain it. When you get people that come into your life, we always talking about walking a path and we walk a path that God has created for us and that's good. And you can have people sometimes who come into your life and they will walk beside you and then sometimes they will fall off that path. But I'm going to keep walking that path. And then sometimes these people that have fallen away from that, they come into shame, guilt and condemnation because they're thinking, I can't catch that person up. They're too far in front.
An easier way to explain it is I'm on just a running machine, just a walking machine. And I'm constantly putting one foot in front of the other that if you fall off, you're still right beside me. You can come back and ask for help at any time. I am never too far in front because that's not my place to be. I am there to help at any time because I have words of wisdom to give. I have gifts of prophecy of whatever that is, whatever God has imbued in me, I have got that to give to people. But I'm never too far in front. I am right there beside you.
That shame, that guilt and condemnation that should be lifted away and thrown away as we bring people closer to God. But words are seeds and because they are seeds, they produce a harvest in our lives. So what are you planting in your life today?
But more importantly, what are you planting in the lives of other people today?
What words are you speaking over other people.
We make a point every Sunday morning of praying over every seat here. So every seat sat in today has been prayed over.
Because we're a church that believe in praying. We're a church that believe in speaking life over people.
And we're a church that believe in growth and people coming through the door, that have not seen God, that have not felt God, that have not witnessed God yet, that they will come to a realization and understand, and they'll come to salvation through what God has done for them. Through Jesus on the cross, we speak life over this church, for you and for every person unseen.
The words that we use, the way that we speak, because of the sowing we will reap.
Think about it in your life today. What are you reaping?
But we have as it's just going to come up on here, death. We speak death over somebody. So an acronym for this death. People that have got death there, they have got destructive words, they have got empty words, they have got angry words, they have got toxic words, and they have got harmful words. Who wants that in their life?
We sit here consciously and we're like, no, we wouldn't want that in our lives. Of course you wouldn't. When you look at it on there, it's like, I don't want that in our lives. I don't want that in my life. But sometimes we leave here and we go back to a life that has that in it.
There's a choice that we make.
But if I was to speak life, life is very simple. John 14 :6 says, Jesus answered, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the father except through me.
This is Jesus speaking. He is the life. And life is love.
Words of love spoken over life is inspirational. The words that we're doing that we're using to inspire people to be better for Christ, not to be better for me, not to be better for Pastor Kyle, for Pastor Jeremy, not to be better for the church, but to be better for Jesus.
They are going to be faith filled words, because to be faithful, we're going to speak life naturally, and they're going to be encouraging words. We're never going to drag somebody down. We're not going to gossip about somebody. There is rebuking and correction. That comes in the spirit, and that is fine.
But we're not going to go whisper and gossip somewhere else. We're going to encourage people. How can we encourage you to be better? Well, we put stuff on. We do things. There's discipleship courses. There's Bible study courses. There's whatever you need to be better. We can provide, we can do, we can outsource. We can go to things, events. We can go to events. There's other churches within the kingdom that are doing things, that are encouraging people to come to things, that are speaking life.
Jesus spoke the words of the Father. John 6:63 says, the spirit gives life.
The flesh counts for nothing.
The spirit gives life. That holy spirit within you. When you confess your sins and you accept Jesus as your Lord and your saviour, you have now the spirit, the Holy Spirit within that gives life, that brings life.
The words I have spoken to you, they are full of the spirit and life.
But what are the fruits of the spirit?
When somebody speaks in life, we see the actions. It's not the words they speak. We see the actions. And Galatians 5:22-23 says, but the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives.
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fullness.
I don't see any death words on there, do you?
[00:20:09] Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self control.
Self control is quite a bit, quite a key one.
We got to think about what we say, don't we?
Two ears, one mouth. We should listen twice as much as we speak.
So when somebody is talking, are we listening to answer or are we listening to hear?
If we're listening to answer, then we're listening to judge. If we're listening to hear, then the important thing there is that we're looking to hear from the Holy Spirit first.
John 14:10 says, don't you believe that I am the father? I am in the father and that the father is in me. The words I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, is the father living in me who is doing this work. Words are powerful.
Words have the potential to actually help us.
I can't help myself if I keep speaking death over myself.
When I change the record of what's going on in my life, I start to speak life over my life. There's a lot of lives today, isn't there? It's a lot of speaking, a lot of words. I actually went through this and I think I had about 70, 70 times the word "word" is in this. And now that I'm actually talking more, it's probably double that. All right, so we're saying a lot of words, and it's a lot of repeat words on this because the importance of words is the importance of what we speak.
[00:21:47] Psalms 141 :3 says, set a guard over my mouth. Lord. Keep watch over the doors of my lips. Why is that important?
Set a guard over my mouth. Keep watch over the doors of my lips.
The power of life and death is in the tongue, isn't it?
We can cut somebody down real bad just with the words we use, or we can lift somebody up and bring life into their lives by the words we use.
Set a guard over my mouth. Keep watch over the doors of my lips. See, God wants us to use his word and our faith to work with him when we start doing things in our own strength. We're not working for God then, are we? We're working for ourselves. We're speaking for ourselves. This isn't about being up on stage and being the person, the focus. It's like, oh, well, look at me. Look at what I've got to say. Listen to me. It's not about that. It doesn't make a blind bit of difference if you're up on this stage or you're hoovering or cleaning toilets. I do both.
It's not about me, never has been. But it's always about what he has done for me.
It's about the cross. It's about the resurrection. That blood that has cleansed my heart, my soul, my sin that is covered. It's all about that. That's what Jesus done for me. That's what gives me the ability to be able to share his love because of testimony. My testimony from death to life.
My testimony is of God's love, grace and mercy. Your testimony is of God's grace, love and mercy in your life, regardless of where you have been.
When you are saved and Jesus comes in and the Holy Spirit comes within, he has taken away all those bad words.
He's taken away all those wrong things that have been spoken over you from a young age. Your parents might have spoke the wrong words over you.
Your boyfriend, your girlfriend, your husband, your wife. They could have spoke the wrong words over you throughout your life. But that's not who you are, because in Christ you are redeemed. In Christ you are loved. In Christ you are saved. In Christ you are a new creation. And there is so much more that comes with that.
Say what you mean and mean what you say. Who's heard that one?
Say what you mean. Mean what you say.
It's quite interesting, really, the more I say it. Say what you mean.
There's some mean people out there, isn't there? Yeah, and they don't say very good things, but they mean what they say.
Be intentional with what you say. Yeah. Be intentional with what you say. It all comes back to death and life. If I'm speaking to you, I want to speak life in there. I want to speak love, encouragement, inspiration. I want to speak faith in there. Say what you mean, because I want to be intentional.
I don't want to be a mean person holding that stuff back.
I don't want to be a person that when you come and speak to me, I don't mention God, I don't mention Jesus, I don't pray. That's withholding everything that's holding it back here. I've got the ability to do that, but I'm a mean person if I don't even encourage that. Before we have a conversation, we're going to pray, we're going to invite the Holy Spirit into the conversation that we're going to have because we're both going to be led by him, not by me and not by you.
That's bringing life. That's speaking life in. Luke 6:45 said, a good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.
It's got to drop from the mind into the heart, from the heart. When we fill that, it comes out the mouth.
It's either going to be good or it's going to be bad. Yeah, we know the fruits of the spirit. So the person has got the peace, the love, all the rest of the stuff that comes in there with the fruits of the spirit, that is fantastic. With the person that's speaking death, destruction over your life, that will be prevalent in the words that come out because that's what's in their heart.
Can we change that?
Can we change that? Yeah, through Jesus we can.
Through the acceptance of him as our Lord and our saviour, he cleanses that. He changes that. He makes me a new creation. Romans 12:2. He says, I've got to renew my mind every day. There's stuff that I have to do because I want to be better for the Lord so I can be better used for the Lord. That stuff that I do.
But when he comes in, he makes me new, which means all that stuff that I used to say, that person that I was is in the past, exactly where it should be.
I am dead to that person because I am renewed in Christ. I pick up my cross now and I follow Jesus because he brings life, because he brings love.
The comment there, a good man brings good and an evil man brings evil. It's not there to condemn you. So don't get that wrong, please. For anybody sitting there thinking, well, I tell you what, my heart hasn't been too good this morning. I swore to somebody that cut me up on the motorway on the way in or... I had an argument with the other half this morning and, you know, we're both just at each other and it's not going great and you know, my son just didn't do it. It's not there to condemn you. Please don't get that. It's there to challenge you. To have God in your life now is what you need.
We still get things wrong. Yeah, just because God's in there, just because the Holy Spirit is now within. He convicts, yeah, he convicts us. So we know that we do some things wrong. It's that "ahh", I shouldn't have said that.
Be quick to repent.
Be quick to repent.
Be quick to ask for forgiveness as you are quick to forgive others.
Yeah, be quick to ask for forgiveness as you are quick to forgive others.
But here's a challenge for you. You do it once, it's a mistake if you do the same mistake twice. It's a choice, there's something isn't it?
A mistake is once, a choice is more than once.
Does that condemn you?
Does that get you thinking, wow, I've done that same thing a couple of times. If you do it a few times and there's a choice in there, that's something that you've got to work on. That's something that you've got to put before the Lord. That's something you've got to speak out to him to ask for help with or to ask somebody else to help you with.
It's all about the words we speak. It's all about asking.
We have got a wealth of knowledge within here and within here. We have got a wealth of knowledge outside that can help with everything that you're going through.
That's why a church is a community, a community of experience, a community of people.
That's why were here, so that we can help everybody. But first and foremost it is through Christ.
Matthew 16:19 says, with Jesus in your heart, you have keys to the kingdom of heaven.
I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
You have the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
Why would we give those keys up, leave them up there and choose death?
Why would we choose to go down instead of up? Why would we choose to speak wrong over somebody versus life over somebody?
There are choices that we make in life.
Choose one path. Choose another path. Great thing about my God that I know is that he will work all things for good.
He will bring you back to the path that he has created for you.
When you ask, there has to be that full repentance of your heart, that full repentance, that full. Tell you what, God, I am giving it over to you. I am on my knees. I need you more than I need the world.
I am speaking words out for God to hear, and I am changing the actions that I am choosing so that I am all for God, not against God.
[00:30:26] It is not up to God to get the word inside you, though, is it?
What choice do we have?
God gave Jesus. He died on the cross for you. You choose to accept that or you choose not to.
You choose to do something with that knowledge, or you choose not to. Old saying, knowledge is power, but knowledge isn't power. Unless you do something with the knowledge. Then it becomes powerful because we're choosing to do something with it. Reverend Kenneth Hagen once said that this bloke came up to him and it kept coming up to him. And we get people come up to this, people come up to the pastor saying, pastor, I want you to give me a word. They come up to a prophet and say, excuse me, you're a prophet. You're a prophetess. I want you to give me a word.
They go up to an evangelist, I want you to give me a word.
Well, Reverend Hagen turned around and he said to this bloke, he said, tell you what, mate, here's the Bible.
It's full of words, all for you.
Go read it. Yeah. Why are we searching for somebody else to give us a word? If somebody brings you a word, receive that word gracefully, that's fine. That's good. But it's up to you to go find the word. It's here. It's up to you to go to Bible study. It's up to you to go to the discipleship courses. It's up to you to do something with the word that he has given you, to put it firmly in your heart, because there's one in your heart. It's what's coming out your mouth. And this is life, and life abundant. This is what we need. This is what we want.
It's up to you. Choice is yours. Oh, we done a series on that, didn't we? The choice is yours.
If your mouth isn't speaking, this one's challenging. If your mouth isn't speaking, then your faith isn't working.
If your mouth isn't speaking, then your faith isn't working.
It's a challenging one, that, innit? It's very quiet here today, everybody.
Am I speaking in tongues or is everybody getting this? Yeah, we're there. We're all good. Yeah, I know. It's warm in here as well. I can feel the heat up here. That's just the lights, one or two other. It's that time of year now where we start to get the air con on and then everybody's going to complain, it's freezing. And here, turn the air con off. Yeah.
If your mouth isn't speaking, then your faith isn't working.
Challenging, wasn't it?
When God gives you a word to give to somebody, do you walk wholeheartedly into it and go and take that word to that person?
When he tells you to buy somebody lunch and when he tells you to sit with somebody and speak and to give a prophecy that he's given, do you go and do that without hesitation when somebody says something to you? That's an inquisitive question. Do you have God front and center within your answer?
People say to me, they say, what brought you to Australia?
Simple answer, God.
Simple. Now that's either going to create a conversation or somebody's going to look at me and go, I'm not talking to you anymore, I'm off. But hey, listen, I'm fine with that. That's cool. If they don't want to have a conversation, because God hasn't ordained that conversation with there, with me mentioning his word, that's fine, they can go, but all of a sudden they've heard God's name.
It doesn't make me any better than anybody sat here. I have struggled at times. Whenever God has said, give a word, I've wrestled with him.
I've told the story before to some people. You'll probably hear this. I was at a worship night. We had the band in the center and everybody was walking around and they were singing and they were praying and I was just asking God, I said, look, if you've got something for me to give to somebody else, then just let me know what it is. Popped the word in my head. Fantastic, God, I'm happy with that. I've got my eyes closed, I'm walking about, I'm kum-ba-ya-ing on my fingers and stuff, and I'm loving it and I'm like, right, this is great, right? Who do you want this word to go to? And as I opened my eyes, I looked at a person, and I was like, not a chance. I'll send them a text.
[00:34:42] 15 minutes I wrestled with God. Nope, send somebody else. I'm not doing it. I'm not having it. It was a senior person in the church, and there was me, this lowly little scallywag who was cleaning toilets and stuff. I can't go and take a person like that a word. Who am I?
He said, you know exactly who you are. You're a child of God. Go do as you're told.
I walked over like a petulant little child. Seriously. I'm like, I've got a word for you.
I wasn't loving. I wasn't, you know, really forthcoming with it. One word. It wasn't a sentence. There was no explanation, just one word.
Well, this person broke down crying because that's the word that they needed.
And I walked away going, sorry, God, you're not perfect in what we do, but we have to speak what God has given us to speak. And one of the easiest things to speak is your testimony, to share your testimony. It doesn't matter how much you know this. You can know this inside out, upside down, back to front. You can recite verse after verse after verse. Theologically, you can know the history behind everything. In here, it doesn't matter.
It's what's in here. It's what comes out of your mouth. It's the love that you have. It's the testimony of transformation. It's the change that God has done in you through Jesus that makes a difference. To be obedient to him is to love him.
To be disobedient to him is a challenge, and we are in the flesh sometimes when we challenge him because we get scared.
But I have to speak my faith out.
Anytime that somebody is there, I have the opportunity to share Jesus, or I have the opportunity not to.
You take a choice.
You make that choice.
Psalm 53 says, in the morning, Lord, you hear my voice. In the morning, I lay my requests before you, and I wait expectantly. Psalm 17:6 says, I call on you, my God, for you will answer me. Turn your ear to me and hear my prayer.
God is listening to everything you say.
He knows everything you're going to say.
He knows you because he created you perfect for him, the hairs in your head, or lack of; everything.
But he wants us to speak with him. To him. He wants us to ask everything he wants from us, because he gave everything for us.
Jeremiah 1:12 said, the Lord said to me, you have seen correctly. For I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled.
[00:37:57] When I get to the gates of heaven, I want to hear, well done faithful servant. Do you? To be obedient to him, to do what he's called you to do, to ask the question. Sometimes we don't ask because we're scared of what he's going to say.
I was scared for a lot of years to step out into the calling that he has for me. What calling has he got for you?
Well done, good and faithful servant. That may just be looking after the one, that may be going and preaching to thousands. It doesn't matter. Well done, good and faithful servant.
What has he called you to do?
It may be to bring your child up in the way of the Lord, that your child goes and changes the lives of 100 people. A thousand people, 10,000 people, a million people. But you have nurtured the one. Well done, good and faithful servant, because you have done what I have called you to do. Sometimes as Christians, we get it lost. We get lost in the wrong path.
I'm called to this. This is what somebody told me that I was called to do, and I'm going to do it until the day I die. And when we do that, we forget that actually God can call us for a season and he can change things. He's God, not me. When he says put it down, put it down. When he says pick it up, pick it up, do what he says. When he says how he says, because it's his way, that is better for us, not my way.
Zechariah 4:6. Not by strength, not by might, but by the spirit.
Yeah, I'm gonna go straight to what it says.
The storms that you can calm are the storms you speak to.
The storms that you can calm are the storms that you speak to.
What storm are you speaking to or what storm are you ignoring in your life right now?
That's a question, not the answer. Now, I'm not asking for the answer. I'm asking you what storms are you speaking to in your life and what are you speaking over this storm?
What are you speaking over the storm?
Up here on a stage on a Sunday? We give you a message.
It's up to you to take that message now and run with it. You take that message and you run. You take that message and you take it straight back to God because you're asking, what did I hear in there? Lord, what are you speaking to me about?
The difference between where you are now and where God wants you to be is what you choose to do with the truth that has been given. Now, just because I'm stood up here today and just because I've recited scripture, do not take it as truth. It's up to you to go and test. Go and test it. Where does it resonate in here? Where is it challenging up here?
Take it to somebody. Speak to somebody.
It's up to you to take it. If you don't ask, you will never find.
Knock and the door will be open to you. Seek and you will find.
What are you doing with that knowledge that you gain from here? What are you challenging yourself with from here? Mark 4:39 says he got up and he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, quiet.
Be still.
This is Jesus.
Quiet, be still.
Does the Bible not tell us that we have the same authority that Jesus had when he was on this earth with the Holy Spirit within us? Do we?
Then if we have storms going on in life, why are we not speaking to the storms? Why do we not have somebody with us speaking into the storm with us? Where two or three are gathered, there I am. This isn't about you doing it on your own. This is about the Holy Spirit being with you that will bring you together with everybody else who will stand there for you and lift you up in life, not bring you down in death.
What storm are you speaking into?
What have you got going on in your life right now that you need to open the door to Jesus and say, please come in, my lord, my savior, come in.
Quieten the storm in me.
The storm can rage around, but quiet in the storm in me, you, so that I may know that you are my lord, that you are my savior.
The faith of God is a two part equation.
Faith is of the heart and is released through our mouths. 2 Corinthians 4:13 say, that is written, I believed, therefore I have spoken. Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak.
[00:42:53] It is written, I believed, therefore I have spoken.
Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak.
Comes back to that simple statement earlier on, doesn't it?
If your mouth isn't speaking, then your faith isn't working.
I don't even know where I am now, actually. I've just jumped forward and back. We believe and therefore speak.
I want to come up the end soon. I've actually got loads of notes on here and it's just like, wow, God speaks, not me. But I want to give you some equations.
B plus C equals S. Who's good at maths?
Oh, I know, Christina's over here. I challenged her with this the other day. You're not allowed to tell them the answer. B plus C equals S. There's one math equation for you. The second math equation for you is M equals H plus A. I had to think about that one.
B plus C equals S.
M equals H plus A. I can see Kritti there. She's trying to work this out.
We're just waiting for the answer. There's no point in trying to work this out. Absolutely none. We're going to jump to Matthew 12:34. In fact, knowing that, we're going to jump to Romans 10:8-10, please.
But what does it say? The word is near you. It is in your mouth and your heart. That is the message concerning faith that we proclaim. If you declare with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified. And it is with your mouth that you profess the faith that you are saved. So B plus C equals S is believing plus confession equals salvation.
Matthew 12:34. You brood of vipers. How can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.
We keep coming back to what is in the heart. The mouth speaks. Yeah, but if we look at John 15:7, it says, if you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. M equals H plus A, mouth equals heart plus abundance.
Just two little gizzards for you. That's your maths. Is your maths homework done? Dusted. Passed.
Our mouths never function on their own. It's connected to our hearts. And many of our problems come from the inability to control our mouths.
Realistically, that's what happens when we can't control our mouths. We say something wrong, we get ourselves in trouble. Yeah. The mouth equals heart plus abundance. When I have the Lord within me, when I am working for him, abundance will overflow out of you.
So it's just. It's not just a little bit of a word. This is an overflow. This isn't me giving you something from me that drains me down. This means that I am given everything extra because the Lord has given me an abundance, an overflow. And that's what spills out. I never give from an empty cup. There's no point.
If I give from an empty cup, I become empty.
If I give from a full cup, I eventually become empty. If I give from the overflow, I will never be empty.
[00:46:59] Fake it till you make it. Won't work. Because faith has to walk out and believe in God, our father, giving us abundance.
This isn't today, again about-miraculous. 100%. There you go. You're changed. Some people will get that sometimes. That 1% change per day for a year is so much more.
The old question used to be, would you rather have 100% change now or 1% over a year?
1% over a year is 365%. Three times more. I'll take that.
You don't have to run out today and be perfect. We're not calling you to be perfect. We're not asking you to be perfect. Jesus was perfect. We're not.
But we're asking you to change.
We're asking you to let the Holy Spirit in. That will change you, that will convict you. That will bring forth good words for your life. Not bad words.
So as we come to a close now, I just ask that if there is anybody here that has been challenged by this, that is not saved, something has been prodding here within your heart.
It's time to take a step of faith.
It's time to take action. It's time to step up and it's time to step out.
[00:48:31] So we're just going to pray over this. And if that is you, I just want you to raise your hand. Just let us see your hand. And we want to pray for you afterwards. But as every head has bowed, right here, right now, if this message has spoken to you, if there is a change that you want to do in your life by asking Jesus to be your Lord and your savior, then just raise your hand and I'll see your hand.
Thank you.
If right here, right now, you're called to be better.
If right here, right now, you're challenged that you haven't been doing enough, you've been challenged by not giving everything to God-for God. Challenged that actually you've just taken a couple of left or right steps off that path that he has called you to be on.
And it's time to come back to that path.
It's time to get on your knees before him.
Then I just want you to come to the front.
I feel at the minute we gotta go into prayer.
I feel at the minute we just gotta go into-we gotta war prayer over people's lives.
If you've got something going on in your life right now that you want prayer for, then come to the front. It doesn't matter what it is, it doesn't matter who you are. This is where you need to be right now. Because we have prayer that we're gonna go to God with. We are gonna speak life over you. If that is you, then come; right here, right now. Come.
Don't let God be at the back. Keep him at the front. There is no embarrassment with stepping up to the front for prayer. I need prayer in my life right now. I hold my hand up saying, yeah, I tell you what, I'm one of those that need it. I'm one of those that want it. And it doesn't matter who's looking at me.
I only know that it's God within me, the Holy Spirit within me that convicts me. So if you want prayer, come. We've got a team.
They're here and they're ready.
[00:50:47] It's all a bit quiet, isn't it?
It does not matter one little bit.
Prayer now, prayer afterwards, doesn't matter.
The words you speak will change your life.
Speak wisely, speak life, speak love.
Father God, we thank you, Father God, we honour you and we just lift you up. We give you all the glory. We give you all the praise.
What has seemed a challenge, what has seemed heavy today, Father, take it and just work with people through everything that they're going through. Father, make it light.
Show them your love through everything that people are going through right now. Let them have ears to hear your message, Father. Let them ears-have ears to hear your word, words of life and love of encouragement to inspire them to a better life. Thank you, Jesus, as we give this over to you, Father, in your precious name.
Amen.
[00:52:05] Thank you for tuning in to today's message. To connect or find out more, you can reach us online at (worldchangers.life). Remember to subscribe for more uplifting messages from our pastoral team and may you continue to walk in faith and transformation until we meet again.
