1. Can you remember a time in your life when you heard some words that affected you deeply? 2. Do you know somebody whose life changed dramatically after hearing about what Jesus had done for them? 3. How has God been speaking to you about the way you use your words? 4. Where do you think the believers in the New Testament got the boldness to preach the gospel in the face of great persecution? Action Point: Ask God to put somebody on your heart this week that He wants you to speak worlds of truth or encouragement to, or pray for. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you boldness to do it!

hey guys and welcome back to this series on the power of words we’re now in episode two and in this episode i want to talk about flawless words this comes from psalm 12 6 it says and the words of the lord are flawless like silver purified in a crucible like gold refined seven times now can you imagine if you or i were able to speak flawlessly if we could find words that were crafted for every situation full of wisdom and giving life to everybody who hears them well that sounds like a bit of a dream doesn’t it but i think that by the end of this episode you will be a step closer to that and actually i believe that by the end of this series you will have taken many significant steps in that direction you see you and i can choose whatever words we want to use we’ve been given complete freedom when it comes to how we speak and sometimes we think carefully before we speak and other times it feels like words just pop out of our mouths and uh we wish we could kind of pull them back in like maybe a fishing rod reel it back in but we can’t it’s out we can speak truth we can speak lies we can speak words that hurt we can speak words that heal we can speak encouraging words we can even speak empty words and actually jesus spoke about that in matthew 12 36 he said but i tell you that everyone will have to give a count on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken so it seems that god and jesus take our words really seriously so here’s a challenge for you at the beginning of episode two how seriously are you taking your words are you sometimes using your words a little bit too casually or are you seeking to honor god with every word that comes out of your mouth perhaps some of us need to say sorry to god for some of the things that we’ve let out of our mouths i know i’ve had to do that many times but if we’re going to learn how to speak well we need an example and that example is jesus and i don’t know if you’ve ever thought about this but do you realize that when jesus was on the earth he never once spoke his own words look at this in john 12 49 he said for i did not speak on my own but the father who sent me commanded me to say all that i have spoken so jesus is saying everything that i’ve spoken is what the father commanded me to say do you realize jesus was completely under the authority of his father with everything he did and everything that he said now i would say actually that that is wisdom because jesus knew that his father’s words were flawless and so rather than choosing his own words he simply spoke the words that the father gave him and then we know that after jesus the holy spirit was sent to the earth to continue christ’s ministry and look at what jesus said about the holy spirit in john 16 13 he said but when he the spirit of truth comes he will guide you into all the truth he will not speak on his own isn’t that interesting he will speak only what he hears and he will tell you what is yet to come so let me ask you a question if jesus who was the perfect son of god chose not to use his own words but to only speak the words of god and if the holy spirit whose name is the holy spirit which means that he’s perfectly holy and another one of his names is the spirit of wisdom which means that he’s perfectly wise and full of wisdom if he chooses not to speak on his own but to only speak the words of god that have come from the father or the son how much more should you and i pay attention to what comes out of our mouths you see jesus and the holy spirit know who they are representing they know what it takes to demonstrate god’s love god’s character his power his salvation his healing in this world and they know that to represent him means to speak his words so here’s my question for you who are you representing whose words are you using and you might be thinking but david come on jesus was god the holy spirit is god we’re just normal human beings okay well let me ask you a question was jeremiah a normal human being in jeremiah chapter 1 verses 4 to 5 it says this the word of the lord came to me saying before i formed you in the womb i knew you before you were born i set you apart i appointed you as a prophet to the nations ah i can hear you saying ah see look god chose jeremiah before he was even born jeremiah was special and yeah i agree with you it’s special to be chosen by god before you’re even born but look at what the apostle paul says about all believers in ephesians chapter 1 he says this for he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight but you might be thinking but david it doesn’t only say that jeremiah was chosen it also says that he was appointed for a special purpose well look at what jesus said in john 15 16 he said you did not choose me but i chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit fruit that will last okay so actually we’re not all that different from jeremiah we’re normal human beings like jeremiah was we’re chosen and we’re appointed just like jeremiah was and and of course we may not all be called into the office of prophet in the same way that jeremiah was but he was not any more special or any more chosen or any more appointed than we are as children of god in fact just to be sure that you know that i’m not making this up look at what jesus said in matthew 11 11 he said truly i say to you among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than john the baptist yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he so actually we can’t use that excuse that the old testament prophets were more special or more chosen or more appointed or greater than we are so let’s go back to jeremiah and let’s see how he responded to god having chosen and appointed him as a prophet to the nations what do you think he said do you think he said god i am so ready for this i am so full of confidence that i’m gonna speak your words to the nations send me now well not exactly jeremiah 1 verse 6 jeremiah said alas sovereign lord i said i do not know how to speak i am too young so basically what jeremiah is saying is god i don’t have the ability to speak on your behalf so let’s go on verses 7 to 8 it says but the lord said to me do not say i am too young you must go to everyone i send you and say whatever i command you do not be afraid of them for i am with you and will rescue you declares the lord hang on a minute let’s just stop there for a moment does that remind you of anything because that reminds me of something in matthew 28 jesus spoke to his disciples and he said therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit and teaching them to obey everything i’ve commanded you and surely i am with you always to the very end of the age you see god says exactly the same thing to us as he said to jeremiah he says i am with you and you know that sentence i am with you i believe is designed by god to deal with all of our fears all of our objections all of our concerns about what other people are gonna think what will people think of me will they reject me if i stand and represent god and i i speak for god all of our reservations those words are designed to deal with all of those things surely i am with you but there’s more god hadn’t actually finished speaking to jeremiah so it goes on in verses 9 and 10 it says then the lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me i have put my words in your see today i appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down to destroy and overthrow to build and to plant you see god took an ordinary human being like you or me he chose him he appointed him and he said to him i have put my words in your mouth look guys we don’t need god to put his words in our mouths in the same way that he did with jeremiah jeremiah was called to write the bible okay you and i are not called to write the bible we already have the word of god but are we filling ourselves with it are we making sure that what comes out of our mouths are his flawless words you see i believe that jeremiah is such a good example for us in this look what he said in in chapter 15 verse 16 he says when your words came i ate them they were my joy and my heart’s delight for i bear your name lord god almighty have we understood like jeremiah understood how glorious how delightful how life-changing the word of god really is you see the word of god so transformed jeremiah that he literally could not hold it in in chapter 20 verse 9 he says but if i say i will not mention his word or speak any anymore in his name his word is in my heart like a fire a fire shut up in my bones i am weary of holding it in indeed i cannot i know this is challenging but you know jesus also sometimes spoke things that were so challenging that people literally stopped following him look at this in john 6 maybe you guys some of you are thinking i’m ready to turn off this video i’m ready to stop watching this series now this is getting challenging in john 6 66 to 69 jesus had said some really challenging things and it says from this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him you do not want to leave too do you jesus asked the twelve peter answered him lord to whom shall we go you have the words of eternal life we have come to believe and to know that you are the holy one of god you see some of us have had our eyes open to who jesus really is and the true power of his words and if you are one of those people i want to remind you that you have a calling from god you have been chosen and appointed to represent him on this earth to demonstrate his love to declare his truth to see his power at work healing people and setting the captives free and i want you to know that if you want to be involved in god’s purposes on this earth you must learn how to speak his words why well because god’s word not my words or your words but god’s word always accomplishes his purposes look at this in isaiah 55 verses 10 to 11 it says as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater so is my word that goes out from my mouth it will not return to me empty but will accomplish what i desire and achieve the purpose for which i sent it we read didn’t we at the beginning of this episode that jesus said that we will have to give an account for every empty word that we speak and here’s isaiah saying that the word of god will not return to him empty so here’s a key if you don’t want to speak empty words if you wanna on the day of judgment have god say to you well done you spoke my words that achieved my purposes then we are learning in this episode that what that might look like now the thing is that if you and i are going to speak god’s word more and more and less of our own words then there will be some pruning that needs to take place in our lives because the reality is that often the words that we are speaking are not his words at all actually sometimes quite the opposite and often our words are not having the impact that god would want them to have and therefore we are way way less effective and less fruitful in our christian lives than we could be so here’s my question for you at the end of episode two do you want your words to be effective for god’s kingdom do you want to see lives changed and transformed around you do you want to walk in that peace and that joy and that delight that jeremiah was talking about and if so are you willing to undergo some correction do you want to be equipped to fulfill god’s calling on your life if you do if your answer is yes to all of those things i really want to encourage you to watch the whole of this series because as we go on i’m going to get really practical and i believe it’s going to make a tremendous difference in your life and i believe that you’re going to start to see and experience some of the things that i’ve been talking about so let’s pray father we just want to thank you so much that your words are flawless lord we just want to come before you and in humility and just say sorry lord because we know that we’ve spoken words that have not been anywhere near flawless lord we’ve spoken empty words we’ve spoken words that have damaged the people around us we’ve reacted in anger and frustration and we’ve said things that we know we shouldn’t have said and we just want to come before you right now lord and say that we’re sorry and father we want to say sorry for every opportunity that we’ve had to speak your words into the life of another person and we’ve chosen not to we’ve chosen to keep our mouth shut or we’ve chosen to use small talk or we’ve chosen to to talk about a topic that is not encouraging and uplifting and doesn’t bring salvation healing freedom and life into the people around us we want to say jesus thank you that you came on the earth and you demonstrated what it meant to speak the words of your father and we want to thank you holy spirit that you are here right now with us that you are speaking to us even you’ve been speaking to us in this episode through your word and you are transforming our hearts and we just want to surrender to you and say lord we want to learn how to speak your words and we give you full permission would you come and prune us would you come and take out of our lives those things that are stopping us from being effective for your kingdom and fulfilling our calling and we just commit ourselves fully and holy to you right now and we say teach us the power of words and teach us how to have your words in our mouths in jesus name amen and i’ll see you in episode three.