The Power of Words

[This is a sermon I gave at the Missouri Veterans Home on Sunday, August 9, 2009]

I want to talk about words – the power of words. How many times in your life have you said something and then fervently wished that you could take it back? – far too often, I’m sure, if you’re like the rest of us. It’s those words that we speak, sometimes thoughtlessly but sometimes intentionally, that cause so much trouble in our lives.

The Message Bible in modern English says this in James 3:2-10, Quote - “We get it wrong nearly every time we open our mouths. If you could find someone whose speech was perfectly true, you’d have a perfect person, in perfect control of life. A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything – or destroy it! It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell. This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can’t tame a tongue – it’s never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women He made in His image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth!” Unquote.

Yes, our problem is words – words that are out of control. We who have accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord of our lives must begin to talk differently than the rest of the world around us. We’re so casual with our words, and we don’t realize or understand the impact that our words have on those around us. There’s power in the positive to loose God’s full power in your life, and there’s also power in the negative to bind and to burden and to prevent the flow of God’s power through your life.

There is a scripture that explains this but some have been confused and even exasperated by what Jesus said there. In Mark 11:23, Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, that whoever shall say to this mountain “Be removed and cast into the sea!” and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things that he says will come to pass; HE SHALL HAVE WHATEVER HE SAYS!”

Jesus said a very remarkable thing here, but we usually miss it because it’s hidden underneath that mountain moving business. It seems that when we read this verse and get to the part about that mountain, our minds just snap shut like a trap – because we think nobody can move a mountain without a fleet of bulldozers. We just don’t get the point that Jesus was really trying to make by using exaggeration. Jesus used exaggeration all the time. He talked about cutting off your hand or plucking out your eye if they caused you to sin.

Let’s just pick up that mountain and set it out of the way, then look underneath that mountain and see what it was that Jesus said.

Jesus is not just talking about the supernatural power of prayer which, of course, does exist in God’s children. We pray for what we desire spiritually and God answers in His own way and time.

But there is more to this verse buried under the mountain: The verse says, “whoever shall SAY” and “those things that he SAYS” and “he shall have whatever he SAYS”.

Get this: Your Father is going to give you whatever negative things you say with your mouth, because that is what your mind is really expecting.

We overlook this divine principle regarding the use of words, and we just foolishly and thoughtlessly say things that mess us up and put our lives behind the eightball instead of building it up.

Take a minute and check out your speech patterns. How often do you say, “I’m afraid that such and such is gong to happen!” I’m telling you, you have what you say! Fear is going to rule your life.

You turn to your spouse and say, “You don’t love me anymore,” or “You don’t care about me,” or “Nobody loves me” Well, you made it so. That’s the way it’s going to be. You’ll never see the truth of the situation, no matter what it is. You’ll never feel loved – as long as you keep talking that way. You make it that way with your lips. Your own words bind the love that should be flowing between you and your spouse.

How often do you say, “I can’t do anything right,” or “Nothing ever goes right for me”. Well, you have what you say. You just locked your own life onto a track of failure.
How often, after you’ve prayed for healing, do you keep saying, “I’m sick, I’m sick”. Well, that’s what you’re going to be. With your own lips you nullify the prayers and you nullify the claim of God’s word.

How often do you say, “Every time the flu comes along, I get it”. There are people who say that expression over and over. You say, “Every bug that comes along, I catch.” And you do! You bring it to pass with your own lips – “HE SHALL HAVE WHATEVER HE SAYS.”

This isn’t limited to ill health. For instance where wives suppose that there’s something they don’t like about their husband. How often do they have coffee with their girlfriends, then let their hair down and open up and begin to tell them, “O Frank is so thoughtless; he doesn’t care about me at all.” Then they wonder why their relationship with their husband gets worse and worse. They made it that way – you believe it in your heart, and you spoke it into being.
The same thing applies to husbands and their relationships with their wives. Too often you hear men say, “I can’t get along with my old lady; I just don’t feel anything in my heart for her. We’ve got to go on together, we’re stuck together, but there’s no love there.” – and there won’t be either. Your lips determine the way it’s going to be.

Instead the wife or the husband should be making positive statements about what can happen in order to make it happen.

Veterans – let’s get down to where you live. You live in a home where your needs are tended to. But how often do you say, “That attendant isn’t taking care of me the way she should.” or “I don’t like all the meals” or “They don’t answer my buzzer as quick as they should.” I’m sorry, folks, but when you think that way, YOU SHALL HAVE WHATEVER YOU SAY.

Maybe it’s not the big-crisis thing in your life; even in the little things, what you say has its effect on those around you. How many times have you made some real cutting, sarcastic remark to or about someone, then laughed and said, “O, I was only kidding!” The Bible has something to say about that in Proverbs 26: 18-19 (also in the modern Message Bible) – “People who shrug off deliberate deceptions, saying, “I didn’t mean it, I was only joking,” are worse than careless campers who walk away from smoldering campfires. When you run out of wood, the fire goes out; when the gossip ends, the quarrel dies down.” That’s what the Bible says about that kind of playing around with nasty, sarcastic remarks.

Your words will also strengthen other people and hold them up. When Job’s friend went to comfort Job, seeing the great trial that Job was in, the friend began to talk to him and use words. As he looked over Job’s past life, he had to admit to Job, “In the past, you have told many a troubled soul to trust in God and have encouraged those who are weak or falling, or lie crushed upon the ground or are tempted to despair.”

That’s the kind of testimony we should all have. By our words we hold each other up. Let is be said that we didn’t tear each other down.

But you might say about positive expressions, “But I’m still sick, and to say I’m healed would be lying.” Or “Things are still going bad in my life and to say that Christ strengthens me is lying.” My Christian friends, the only truth is what God says in His Word. What we see visibly and in our time is not necessarily what is true invisibly and spiritually in God’s time.

There is a thing which my wife who is gone now did which I really appreciate: she has placed Bible verses at various places in our home. When I shave in the morning, there next to me is a small framed Romans 8:28 verse: “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God and who are called according to His purpose.” When I shave, there’s life speaking to me in the bathroom.

When I go to the kitchen, I see: “Give us this day our daily bread.” There’s life speaking to me in the kitchen.

When I go into the living room, I see: “The Lord is my Light – Psalm 27:1) embroidered into a chair throwpiece. There’s life speaking to me in the living room.

So, in the future, when you come across those phrases in the Bible concerning getting what you speak, remember that this is about more than asking God for something good in prayer. It is about simple, everyday speech also. Remember what’s hidden under that mountain to be moved. Let it be said of each of us the words of Matthew 26:73 – “You were with Jesus of Nazareth, for your speech betrays you!’

Let’s pray: Father – we know our mouths get us into trouble. Jesus, strengthen us to overcome our “foot in mouth” disease. Make our speech positive to build up and not negative to tear down. We can’t pull it off in our own human strength, but we have much more than our own human strength through Jesus. We thank you for your love and care in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ – Amen.

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