Manage Your Mouth - Pastor John Siebeling

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] what's up everybody everybody welcome to the life church online great day to be together online with you we are broadcasting live from the houston levee location here in memphis tennessee and we got a great day ahead my name is parker this is chris chris tell us what we got to look forward to like parker said we got a great day planned we're gonna hang out right now for some pre-service play a game go into a countdown and then straight into some powerful worship after that we're gonna go into part four of our series brotherly advice pastor john has a great message planned and then right after that we got water baptisms actually happening this weekend it's a it's a big weekend so it's gonna be great make sure you stay throughout the whole service so that you don't miss anything absolutely one of the things we're gonna ask you to do every single weekend i promise you will never stop asking because it's the littlest effort for the maximum impact there's a few things i can think of that take less effort with more impact and that is sharing this service if you go on facebook or you go on youtube usually you can see a little arrow button find that arrow button wherever you can find it click it and send this thing out you can post it on your facebook timeline you can send it in a group message that's what i like to do actually is send it in a group message maybe you got a family group text and you know there's some people scattered around that aren't going to church today send them this link uh maybe you want to email it if that's why you got a big mass email list okay whatever you got to do but your share could change your life think about this picture this scenario somebody's scrolling through facebook it's 9 45 in the morning central time they're bored they got nothing to do they see a stream live of some worship and there's some lights it's like what's going on here and they click on it and they watch it they're like wow this is kind of engaging wow i'm experiencing god's presence wow god's word wow that's really helpful and all of a sudden you never know they could have their entire life changed because of one chair i know that may sound like i'm being dramatic but it's true that's how powerful one share can be so share the service it just takes a second and it can change somebody's life yeah i think that might have been the best share there we've ever had but yeah it's i'm passionate about it because it makes a difference we can tell not only do we want you just to share the service we want you want to we want you to comment below and let us know where you're watching from like one of my favorite things about the online campus is we don't have people who don't tune in just from the united states we have people tuning in really from all over the world so it's always really cool to see we're watching from i know we've had people tuning from hawaii i think denmark before denmark australia we've had people from all over so it's always really cool and it's we kind of consider our chat to be like a virtual lobby you can connect with other people with us we actually have facebook and youtube pulled up so we can see your comments so it's like yeah if worship's really good and you can throw some praise hands emojis or say wow that was really good we can see we'd love to shout you out in just a little bit but again comment say hello and let us know where you're watching from my ancestors are from the netherlands for real yeah fan blaricom is my last name it's a dutch name van means from blairacom is a city in the netherlands wow so if there's anybody watching from blair comm shout out to my family all right i don't know anybody that still lives there but uh wherever you're watching from even if you're watching from right here in the city of memphis tennessee comment let us know um and we'd love to chat you out hey speaking of around the world we started some a few weeks ago that we're really excited about they're called socials and they are groups of people communities of people that gather together to engage in our online campus wherever in the world that they are what i mean by that is it's easy to watch online from your house but it's powerful when you can watch online with other people because even though we are in this virtual world uh there's nothing that replaces that that that in-person community and relationship and so social's our way we still stay connected with everything that's going on with the life church but do it with your friends and family and so there's actually two socials that have already launched and are happening one in tipton county which is just outside of uh where we are here in the mid-south and there's one in nashville tennessee two socials that are happening during our weekend services and maybe you live near one of those and you're like that sounds good i'm just a few minutes away you can click the link that's going up in the chat with some more information about that if you're interested in maybe hosting your own social maybe you do live somewhere far away from a life church location and you're interested in forming your own social uh let us know we'd love to help you get that started and it can make a big difference in your uh not only your relationship with others but your relationship with the life church and with god and so i encourage you just to get involved in socials they're really making a difference oh yeah social so exciting we also have something super exciting coming up in just a few weeks and it's called leadership foundations and maybe you're watching and you're a part of our online campus and you're like okay i've done discovery online what's my next step i want to grow my leadership well leadership foundations is your best next steps it's a completely virtual experience it's eight weeks long it starts on september 13th and it'll really help you grow in your leadership develop your people skills and cultivate a spirit of excellence it's just a great way to connect with other people like you can connect with other people who are part of the online campus going through it you can meet some of our leaders and pastors it's just a great way to take some practical principles and apply them to apply them to your life and just really grow yourself as a leader you know i went through life leadership foundations and i learned stuff that i still use every single day so it's just a great way to develop yourself what i love about leadership foundations is obviously it's going to help you be a leader in god's house yeah it translates god's wisdom for leadership translates into all spheres of life yeah so we hear every year from teachers and business leaders and sales people and cars tax accountant whatever your field you're in this is going to help you grow in that field because god's wisdom again applies to every area of life and so sign up for that going to be exciting let's do some shout outs let's go to the chat youtube is hopping right now we've got deborah and ron faithfully tuning in we got rodney we got casey wendy she's watching from the smoky mountains let's go all right t richardson watching from drummond's tennessee wendy says her last name is scottish all right that's cool watching casey's watching for raleigh uh vernon watching from olive branch barbara we got james we got darren washington from cordova gwen hayley we've got a full group here watching we have trina we have cassandra we have uh trevlin oh wait that's right we got uh we got karita we also have darches she said good morning the live church family and friends from shelby farms area okay we also got curtis she's watching from nutbrush neighborhood let's go she said she loves live trips we got susan johnson watching she said good morning live church family and friends she's ready to worship let's go because we're ready to worship too early started worshiping in just a couple of minutes but we got a pretty big event coming up tonight we want to tell you oh yeah tonight we have encounter night yes it's going to be awesome it's at 6 00 p.m tonight and it's going to be yeah central stone central time it's going to be an incredible night we're going to have powerful worship pastor john is bringing an incredible word we're also going to have some special elements i'm not going to spoil them for you you got to tune in to watch but it's going to be pretty awesome and maybe you live in the memphis area we're actually going to be having it right here at our uh houston level location it's actually where we broadcast from every single week and also at our awesome p location so if you live around we would love for you to join us in person but if not you can still join us right here on youtube and on facebook we're going to have an online experience it's going to be awesome we would love it if you would hang out with us it's going to be a great night tonight yes can't wait going to be fun six o'clock central time online or houston levy austin p we are closing out our series today called brotherly advice and it's a series all about the book of james james of course is the brother of jesus and so in honor of that we will play a game a game that we like to call make that match it's really simple here's how it's going to work we're going to test chris's ability to pair up a pair of celebrity brothers as james and jesus were brothers there's lots of other brothers i got brothers chris got brothers you probably got some brothers and so what we're going to do is give chris eight pictures of celebrities and they're four pairs of brothers he's got to mix and match them so that they correspond with each other if he can do it in 60 seconds he's going to be the winner while he's playing i want to encourage you comment a celebrity pair of brothers that you know or maybe your favorite could be actors athletes musicians let's go to chris chris you have the board right here you have these faces right here when we say go you have 60 seconds to put them in order you can play along at home as you see faces that you recognize but let's get started we're going to start in five four okay three two one uh you can put that mic down if it helps you might make you go faster the clock is started so every second counts that guy looks familiar um okay i think those are the hymns worse uh if you can see that picture right there like uh i think one of them's in the avengers mate one of them's thor okay those guys shuffled up and those guys are like royalty i think um princes and one of his name's harry i don't remember their names exactly but uh he's looking okay i'm just guessing yeah i mean it's not that difficult when you consider that it's hard to be a brother with a different race than you so uh all right maybe he's adopted he locked in his answers with plenty of time to spare i don't even know who that is i believe that is those are wahlbergs there's mark wahlberg and that's donny maybe is his name okay i don't know we got william and harry all right i got it we got um chris and liam and we got damon and marlon there you go you get more credit for chris than actually that was easy to match the faces i remembered all their names that's actually more impressive yeah congratulations chris you you accomplished the easiest game in history um oh yeah well hey we're about to jump into the servers we're gonna go into a two minute countdown and then get into some awesome worship so let's go and worship so so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Applause] all right good morning light church welcome now come on if you're not already standing stand up come on put your hands together as we watch you [Music] you can take together morning turn it into dancing lord take a broken bath so put it back together lord [Music] you can take the scars and turn them into something beautiful every moment you admit it that's just what your goodness does come on let's sing it all together [Music] shining like the break of day yes you do lord cutting through the silence i can hear the sound of change [Music] the things that have been pairing you are resurrecting here again every prayer [Applause] thank jesus [Music] and all things new yes you do lord and you make all things beautiful come on sing us out in jesus forever and he's making all things new yeah [Music] your blood has my future written yes you do lord your heart it loves with no condition and i'm invited [Music] mercy over [Music] oh yes it is [Music] [Music] is [Music] set me free [Music] is is [Music] is overcome yes it is [Applause] [Applause] now can you feel it now really crashing down set me inside of me [Music] is lord scott thank you jesus [Music] we're thankful for your presence jesus [Music] my father in head [Music] your kingdom come near and fill my heart i'm gonna sing that with me today my father in heaven holy [Music] your kingdom come here and fill my heart [Music] have [Music] for more [Music] [Applause] mercy your mercy brings down [Music] your everything oh my [Applause] i need you more [Music] your kingdom come your will be tired in my life as it is in heaven your kingdom come come sing it your will be done [Applause] right me [Applause] turn is [Music] is [Music] you lean through each bath and you deliver me yes you do by your power and glory you're forever [Applause] foreign [Applause] that's what we wanted to come here come and have [Music] [Music] hey life church family my name is brandy i'm so glad you're joining us online this weekend hey listen we're gonna jump right back into worship here in a few minutes but before we do i wanted to share just a quick thought with you this thought comes from hebrews chapter 13 and verse 15 and it's this one phrase that says continually give god the sacrifice of praise and i love that phrase the sacrifice of praise you know sometimes it's easy to praise god think maybe you're coming off this 21 days of prayer and you've seen god move in some amazing ways maybe you've seen your prayers answered financial breakthroughs relationship breakthroughs maybe your health is good and if that's you this morning hey we're praising god with you and we're saying thank god for his blessings in your life but maybe you're coming off this 21 days and there's still some things you are believing for maybe you're still believing for a breakthrough in your finances or in your job maybe you're believing for a breakthrough or healing in your marriage maybe you're praying for a family member or a friend to come back to god or come back to church maybe you're just looking at the world and just kind of feeling discouraged about some of the things that you're seeing in the news right now and i want to encourage you this morning to give god the sacrifice of praise and listen if you are still believing for something there's actually a link that's going to be coming up in the chat right now you can click on that link and link and let us know what you're praying for because we want to pray with you we want to extend our faith with your faith and believe that god can do those things that you're praying for but the second thing i want you to do though is intentionally give god the sacrifice of praise this morning and here's what that looks like it looks like saying hey god i haven't seen you move in this situation yet but i believe that you are moving behind the scenes on my behalf and so i'm going to praise you for that god i haven't heard from you on this i haven't heard your voice or your heart for this situation but god i do believe that you're speaking and i believe that even though maybe it feels like you're silent i know you're not absent from this situation and so i'm going to praise you for that you're not praising god specifically for the circumstance that you're in but you're praising him because of who he is in the midst of that circumstance so here's what i want you to do maybe you've just been sitting and you've been watching the service at this point kind of observing other people worship i'd love for you to stand up lift your hands close your eyes turn the music all the way up so that the music fills the room the worship fills the room and in that way you're stirring up your faith that sacrifice of praise does two things it stirs up your own faith in the inside and then hebrews actually says it's the kind of sacrifice that pleases god and moves the heart of god so while you're doing that getting ready to worship i'm just going to pray over you extend my faith with yours lord i thank you so much for what you're doing in the lives of the people us worshiping with us today online i thank you that you see the needs you see the things that they're asking for god and you are moving on their behalf you're with them you're for them you're working it behind the scenes god we thank you for that thank you for your presence in their homes and here at the church in jesus name hey let's jump back right back into worship [Music] in and now my life is yours and i will see of your goodness forevermore and worthy is your name jesus you deserve the praise and worthy is your name and worthy is your name jesus and you deserve all the praise worthy is yours [Music] and now my shame is gone i stand amazed and we thank you for your grace cause your grace goes on and on and i will see of your goodness forever [Music] is [Applause] is [Music] so be exalted now in the heavens as your glory fills this place you alone deserve our praise you're the name of my name so be exhausted now in the heavens as your glory fills this place you is is is is is is [Applause] welcome to the life church on behalf of our senior pastors john and leslie sibling we're so glad you're here with us today each weekend we have services at multiple locations around the mid-south new york santiago chile and online where you can be a part of worship hear an encouraging message and enter an environment that is welcoming and friendly we have fun and creative services specifically designed for kids on our kids life youtube channel kids ages 5 years through 5th grade can also participate in online small groups via zune every weekend these age-appropriate small groups help kids engage their faith while building life-giving relationships with other kids and leaders you can register your child for a small group online at thelifechurch.com we're all about helping people get connected and move forward in life and one of the best ways to get started is by taking your next step stay connected and build life-giving relationships by joining an online life group we have lots of different options to fit a variety of interests and schedules just visit thelifechurch.com life groups to find a group that's right for you if you would like to know more about the life church or get involved our discovery experience is the place for you through discovery you will hear from campus leaders learn how you can make a difference and get planted in church you can register for discovery at thelifechurch.com god has an incredible plan for your life and we love for you to be a part of all that's taking place here at the life church have you completed discovery and are actively serving on a team then leadership foundations may be your next step leadership foundations is for anyone who aspires to leadership at the life church or is simply looking to develop their leadership skills this leadership experience is designed for those who are looking to grow in their capacity to lead sharpen their people skills and cultivate a spirit of excellence classes are held on monday nights and include teaching and training from the life church leadership team to get more information and to sign up for this leadership experience check out thelifechurch.com [Music] hey everybody so glad that you're online with us hope you enjoyed worship i know i did always love being able to worship our savior together and we got a great rest of the day ahead in fact we're going to jump into god's word here in just a second but we wanted to jump on and say hello and greet you if we haven't had the chance to yet my name is parker this is chris welcome to the life church online oh yeah welcome to a big welcome to anybody who's joining us for the very first time you're so important to us we're so glad that you joined us this weekend and it's it's already been a great day we got even more planned and we just wanted to say welcome to the live church and if you would click the link that's coming up in the chat and really it'll let us know that first that you were here this weekend it also will let us get a gift into your hand i heard that the gift is a pretty good gift so you want the gift to go ahead click that link and really on behalf of pastor john leslie sibling really our whole team welcome to the live church online family we're so glad that you joined us this weekend you know what it's a five dollar gift card all right sometimes we don't say it and here's the reason we don't say it i'm just going to we're just going to pull back the curtains because you know if you say like it's free five dollars you got people that aren't first-time guests acting like i'm a first-time guest it's for our first time guests those that are new with us today you've never let us know that you're watching today click that link we'll send you five bucks all right it's a gift card i think we'll share about it we'll check to see if they're actually i mean you can make up a name or whatever i don't give you ideas but we want to greet you if you're new so thanks for being with us a couple next steps maybe you've been watching for a little bit you've been a part of our online family for a minute you want to get more involved well i would encourage you to consider going through discovery discovery is the starting point for getting involved here at the life church it's a chance to learn more about who we are as a church meet some of our team and really discovery exists to help you discover your purpose we believe that every person has been designed by god to walk in a purpose and discovery is a part of helping you figure that out and so sign up it's online there's a qr code going up there's a link in the chat you can sign up for discovery and start whenever you want because it's fully online and then once you finish discovery you can join a team and begin contributing and being a part of the life church online family there's places to serve for you even online and then once you complete discovery you could consider taking another step which is leadership foundations great segue but yeah like like parker was saying maybe you finish discovery online and you're serving in a team and you're like okay what's my next step well leadership foundations is your best next step it's a great way for you to just develop your your skills just as a leader and just to really develop yourself you know the leadership pipeline here at the live church is awesome yeah and leadership foundations is a part of and it's such a great way to grow to grow and develop yourself sharpen your people skills and cultivate a spiritual spirit of excellence it's just a great way to get connect you know when i did uh leadership foundations i learned a lot of practical uh leadership skills that i still use every single day so it's just a great way to grow yourself and it's eight weeks long and it's all online all virtual so you can do it right here part of our online campus you can connect with other people you can connect with leaders and pathogens just a great way to grow yourself as a leader starts september 13th so go ahead click that link if you're interested and get signed up today it's going to be awesome yeah part of our vision as a church our vision statement says we are developing leaders we believe in the power of developing leaders and so the great thing about leadership foundations is not only will it help you develop as a leader in god's house but we've seen it translate into all walks of life that's the that's the reality of god's wisdom when it comes to leadership is you can you can apply it to every area of your life if you're a teacher you can be a better teacher if you're a business leader you can be a better business leader if you're a tax accountant you can be a better whatever it is that you serve in whatever field you work in this leadership applies even there so i encourage you to take that step if you want to be challenged if you want to grow it's a lifelong commitment to grow as a leader and we look forward to that we're going to get into god's word here in just a second before we do i want to mention one more thing uh encountering us tonight oh yeah we've got a great service tonight at six o'clock central time and it's online uh available online but also we're going to be live in person at houston levee and austin peay we'd love to see you i'm sure pastor john will talk about it here in a second but gonna be a fantastic night get your bibles get your notebooks let's join in for god's word let's go good morning everybody come on who's glad to be in church today on this beautiful sunday morning i want to give a big shout out to all the locations that are joining us and especially uh our downtown location i think they're about a month in doing fantastic in downtown memphis come on houston levy can we welcome our downtown friends and all those that are so good to have you guys that everybody that's watching online let's get our bibles out everybody turn over to the book of james in the new testament new testament book of james we're going to get right into the message in just a moment a couple of things that i want to mention um first of all real important everybody say real important our service tonight encounter night uh starts at six o'clock we've got two locations that are going to be open for this service here at houston levy and also our austin p location it's going to be online as well and i'm really stirred about this service we're finishing our 21 days of prayer and i really have something in my heart that i want to impart to us and so um rarely will i say this but this is it's super important i'm really asking everybody to be here for this service tonight uh starts right at six everybody say six o'clock and uh it won't go on forever okay i promise you that we're gonna have great worship uh i'm gonna share actually my message is pretty short we're gonna have some prayer time we'll be done at 7 20 22 7 22. it won't be long all right so it's gonna be a great service really really uh i really need you to be here i think it's gonna be really important for us as a church as we close out 21 days and as we go into our next season as a church kind of has some prophetic things in my heart that i want to share so make sure that you're here for that i think we have food trucks and other things that we're going to celebrate after okay so um it'll still be light outside and it'll still be early enough right to get your your week ready for for school or whatever you have going on this coming week so encounter night i also want to say if you're new to life church maybe this is your very first time you've just been coming for a little bit we really value the word of god like the word of god scripture the bible is what we consider our standard for our righteousness for our holiness for our morality and it's a road map for us uh as believers as we're living out the life that god has called us to live and so one of the most important things that we do every single weekend is teach the word of god and we teach around sermon usually sermon series message series around a subject or around the book of the bible like we're doing right now with the book of james and so just want to encourage you a little bit the value of the word of god and what it builds into your life and how important it is for us and so we're in this series called brotherly advice we're actually finishing out the series this weekend brotherly because james was the brother of jesus and advice because the book of james is considered the most practical book in the new testament just packed with great great practical advice spiritual advice and so we've been unpacking sort of the big themes of the book of james and if you haven't read the book of james in a while let me just encourage you to do it it doesn't take long and it's really really good and so these these big themes that you find in the book of james we've we've been unpacking these themes teaching on these themes the first one we talked about is the importance of and james really presses this uh presses this in in his book that we need to face the challenges of life god's way we're christians we're believers as much as we want to try to fit in and as much as we want to try to take whatever's happening in the world and apply it into our lives actually we're going to be different we're going to be unique we've got the holy spirit down on the inside of us and so we will face we will face challenges differently we will look at challenges in a different way if you didn't get to hear those two messages let me encourage you to get on our website and and check out those two messages and then the second big theme that uh we we we touched on last weekend was this idea of proving uh proving your faith with with action come on how many of you know talk is cheap can i get an amen from the church it's not about what you say it's about what you what you what you do in terms of your in terms of your faith in terms of your spirituality easy to say and make declarations but are you living it out in fact jesus said you prove you prove that you're my disciples by the fruit that's in your life and so there's this whole idea of proving ourselves james is really really strong about that we're going to finish the series with this third uh big piece of advice and this is a big one this is a big one in fact we're going to read several verses james chapter 3. i'm going to read a whole section here and let's see if we can guess what we're going to talk about today i'm sure it'll become obvious in about one verse look at what it says in verse two james three verse two we all stumble in many ways anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect able to keep their whole body in check when we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us we can turn the whole animal or take ships as an example although they are so large and are driven by strong winds they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go likewise the tongue is a small part of the body but it makes great boasts consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark the tongue also is a fire a world of evil among the parts of the body it corrupts the whole body sets the whole course of one's life on fire and itself is set on fire by hell wow james tell us what you really think verse seven all kinds of animals birds reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind but no human being can tame the tongue it is a restless evil full of deadly poison with the tongue we praise our lord and father and with it we curse human beings who have been made in god's likeness out of the same mouth come praise and cursing my brothers and sisters this should not be can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring my brothers and sisters can a fig tree bear olives or a grape vine bear figs neither can a salt spring produce fresh water help us james obviously james is talking about something super important he's talking about our mouth he's talking about our words he's talking about the tongue and so here's our third big piece of advice write it down everybody we have to learn how according to the book of james to manage our mouth manage your mouth everybody say manage my mouth wow what a big subject and uh all over the bible we see verses about our words about our mouth here's some of the more famous ones you know this one proverbs 18 21 the tongue has the power of life and death and those who love it will eat its fruit here's the apostle paul wrote most of the new testament he is the great theologian our theology doctrine comes from his writings ephesians 4 29 paul says don't use foul or abusive language let everything everybody say everything everything you say be good and helpful paul is basically saying in the original greek um only speak words that build that that construct don't let your words be destructive and then of course jesus talked about our words really strong verse right here look at it with me matthew 12 36 but i tell you that for every careless word that people speak they will give an account of it on the day of judgment so um i think sometimes as christians as believers we are yeah we're counting on we're going to heaven and so it's like we're going to just you know slide right in and walk the streets of gold and you know enjoy eternity which we will however some of us don't realize that we will face we will stand before god and there will be a there will be a judgment for believers called the judgment seat of christ so we will um you know answer and jesus tells us right here we're going to answer for every careless word and so i was thinking about the life of jesus and if you will allow me to take about two minutes and because jesus is our example in everything and because he is on the inside jesus on the inside working on the outside since he is our model in our example if you will allow me to i would love to unpack how jesus modeled this idea of prudence and and discipline and humility with his words it's really fascinating he was the only perfect person who ever lived obviously but in the gospels and and and in the prophetic teachings about him we see that jesus used a great deal of wisdom and restraint and he set a he set a great model for us in john 14 verse 30 jesus is talking to his disciples and he said notice this he said i will no longer talk much with you for the ruler of this world is coming and he has nothing in me jesus is telling his friends his disciples this is going to be a very intense season for me the enemy is coming i'm going to be under a lot of pressure and so you won't hear much from me i'm going to choose my words carefully he says it's amazing he was beginning the most important season of his life his time of greatest pressures time of greatest suffering and he knew it would be wise to say less how many of you know when we're under pressure we tend to say things that aren't helpful we tend to say things that aren't helpful to us or to those around us and he knew when to stop talking he knew this is the season this is the moment when less words are are necessary and i think this is great advice for us today it really points back to the first piece of advice that we unpacked at the beginning of the series how to face life's challenges god's way oftentimes what we don't realize is um less words more strategic when we're facing challenges for many of us as life gets crazier our words get crazier right and our volume gets louder how many of you know somebody don't raise your hand when they're excited they get real loud so jesus is an example for us remember jesus on the inside working on the outside we we're christians christ followers and so jesus set a good example for us for example when we're offended by something or when we feel like we're being mistreated we speak up we defend ourselves it's really hard not to isaiah though wrote that jesus resisted that temptation isaiah 53 7 he was oppressed and treated harshly yet he never said a word he was led like a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep is silent before the shearers he did not open his mouth jesus never answered people who made accusations against him he he never really made an effort to defend himself that would be so hard that is so hard to do we feel like we want to set the record straight when someone has said something that isn't true about us we want to say no this is what is true yet jesus remains silent the the high priest the highest religious leader of the land was was accusing jesus it says in luke 23 he asked jesus question after question but jesus refused to answer meanwhile the leading priests and the teachers of the religious law stood there shouting their accusations and at the end of that story it says that the high priest stood up this is mark uh stood up before them and asked jesus are you not going to answer what is this testimony that these men are bringing against you but jesus remained silent and gave no answer if jesus was on instagram he wouldn't be down in the comments arguing with everybody that was posting a comment he he wouldn't have done it he would have resisted that temptation that is hard to resist so i want to kind of submit to you today that maybe the highest mark of spiritual maturity is maybe it's not what you know maybe it's not how holy you are maybe the highest mark of spiritual maturity is the ability to control our words so i was thinking about the millions of people that at any given moment are on a diet and i would be among those millions very often trying to control what right what comes into our mouth but if we're spiritual people and we're bible people then really what we're going to focus on is what's coming out of our mouth that that is more important than what goes into our mouth so that's what we're going to work on that's what we need to work on all of us every single one of us so three very simple thoughts i'm excited about uh having some water water baptisms in just a few moments and so very very simple very practical thoughts not easy but simple all right i want you to write these down if you're taking notes here's number one we need to think about what we're saying think about what you're saying think about what you're saying so when i was 22 and i was about to get married i took some time to work on my my money my money management was a mess had a lot of debt and i just wasn't good at managing money and so i just dove in to try to figure out how i could get better at this and i read this book that really helped me and and the thing he said the first thing you need to do he said is you need to um for 90 days you need to write down everything you spend money on so just the discipline of that was hard and i can remember the little white notebook i had i could still see it today and so for 90 days every single penny everything i spent money on i wrote it down not just one month because you know it could be an unusual month or even two months but he said you know three months 90 days and so at the end of those 90 days what happens is you look at what you spend your money on and it's pretty revealing and convicting and so then you know where you need to adjust and so i kind of think you know how powerful would it be if we really went on this journey and we took 90 days to really analyze and think about how we speak to people and what we say in our words and obviously it's going to be difficult to it's different than money's going to be much more difficult to do to write down every word you speak but the point i'm making is to be intentional to be really intentional to really stop and think about what you're saying so at the end of those the end of those 90 days at the end of that season you can ask yourself these kind of questions how much am i complaining how much am i complaining um and then what am i complaining about because it tends to be certain things for certain people um how often am i negative that's another question how often am i just i'm just negative i just let it rip and then what am i what am i being negative about here's another one how often do i talk negatively about other people it's called gossip it's in the bible it will impact you in a negative way if you are free with your words about other people again you'll be amazed at what you discover and instead of being overwhelmed and discouraged and and and condemned about it uh let the little bit of pain maybe that you you feel as you think about your your words let that convict you and move you forward into something new all right here's the second one write this one down number two pray about what you're saying pray about what you're saying really the bible says we're to pray about everything so let me give you a couple of good verses in the bible specific things that you can pray psalm 141 verse 3. boy if we can memorize this put this on a on a card put it on our on our phone put it somewhere to remember every day to pray set a guard oh lord over my mouth keep watch over the door of my lips now here's what you're doing when you pray this you're inviting the holy spirit to convict you when you say something you shouldn't say right does everybody see it keep it up there just for a moment psalm 141 verse 3. why don't we pray it right now come on can we do it everybody from the screens everybody that's watching uh psalm 141 verse 3 let's pray it set a guard oh lord over my mouth keep watch over the i noticed some of y'all didn't pray it okay and i understand because as soon as you start praying these kind of prayers you're going to feel different about the words that you speak and let me also say this if you're a christian if you're a believer you have the holy spirit on the inside of you so automatically you have a certain filter and you have a certain you know the holy spirit is our guide jesus said the holy spirit would convict us of our sin sometimes we look at people in our life who aren't believers and we try to judge them as as a believer but they're not a christian they don't have the holy spirit they don't have the conviction of the holy spirit working in in their life and you say well that you know they were raised as a christian but they're not engaged they're not living the life and they're not seeking the things of god so they're not allowing the holy spirit to convict them right here's another powerful prayer psalm 19 14 let the words of my mouth i try to pray this every day let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight o lord my rock and my redeemer and by the way by the way the most important thing you can do is when you find yourself triggered and saying certain things over and over again that are negative or hurtful or destructive what you really want to do is you really want to ask the lord lord what is it in my heart that's causing me to say those things because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks right everybody so really what you need is heart transformation if we're not careful uh as christians we can we can sort of focus on behavior modification meaning we're just working real hard on not saying and we're working real hard on habits and and and and you know we're we're trying to work our and exercise our own will instead of re really allowing the holy spirit to change our heart why don't i like this person why don't i like whatever it is why am i always criticizing them why am i angry right now about this ask yourself why am i restless right now and ask ask the holy spirit because david was wise enough to say the words of my mouth but the meditation of my heart see come on everybody we need heart transformation not behavior modification we need heart transformation as we raise our children right we focus on we focus on their heart we we have to work on their behavior right we have to do that but really we want to go deeper in our parenting and try to reach their heart and what is it about their heart that's causing them to react the way that they're reacting have you ever regretted something you said as soon as the words came out of your mouth of course you have we've all done that i told you the story about my friend good friend really godly godly man he said uh you know this is i don't know before i was married i was we were groomsmen together in a friend's wedding and we were back in the back about to go out to the wedding and he said something so so negative about me so hurtful i said bro what is what in the world and he just i could tell he just felt bad immediately got convicted and he said i call those words null and void i i canceled them in the spirit realm he had some kind of hocus pocus i said bro that that don't work you've already said it the seed has been sown and sometimes we want to get all spiritual and try to cancel and and and you know uh extract from the spirit realm and all those kind of things too late you said it you said it so we're going to pray and we're going to before we respond too quickly we're going to stop we're going to listen to what the holy spirit has to say about this situation have you ever reacted too quickly before you really heard the whole story just fired off that email and left that voice that voicemail got aggressive with your words before you realize the whole situation james says this james 1 19 let every man be quick to hear a ready listener slow to speak slow to take offense and to get angry wow some of us are quick tempered we react so quick and we would be good to lean into the holy spirit let the holy spirit work on our our heart and work on our mouth come on commit your mouth to god's will commit your mouth to god's will before you go out and face the day say lord i commit my mouth i commit my words to your will let me speak only words that are constructive watch how you'll see an increase in your own joy and your own personal happiness and then number three we're going to finish right here work on what you're saying we're going to think about what we're saying we're going to pray about what we're saying but then we do have to put a little work in so i'm going to give you a little assignment a little simple action plan all right very simple first of all focus on one thing you need to stop saying focus on one thing you need to stop saying i want you to really think about and if you're bold enough ask your husband ask your kids ask your your wife if you're bold enough ask the person closest to you what do i say a lot that isn't edifying that isn't encouraging that is negative it could be you're complaining or you're comparing yourself or you're gossiping about someone it could be as simple as you know every week when you have to go to kroger you you say i hate grocery shopping or maybe you get home and you're like i hate putting up the groceries and you're just it's just you're hitting that one and do you really hate grocery shopping maybe flip it and say thank god i got money in my bank account and i get to go to kroger today what is that one thing and then and then the other side of the coin really i mean it can't just be defensive but offensive focus on one thing you need to start saying now here's where i want to challenge you a little bit because both old testament and new testament we see this discipline of speaking god's word and how powerful it is for us as christians to speak god's word joshua the night before his greatest day the lord spoke to him and said be strong be strong and very courageous be careful to obey all the law this is the word of god that that my servant servant moses gave you don't turn from it to the right or to the left that you may be successful wherever you go watch this keep this book of the law the word of god keep it always on your lips always on your lips speaking god's word and then how about jesus in his darkest moment when he was being tempted what did he do over and over again to resist temptation what did he do he said it is written and he spoke the word of god sometimes we're trying to do it in our own strength but the word of god is what has power everybody and when we take god's word and we speak god's work so instead of just stopping the negativity you need to start the you start speaking positive things and the word of god can i give you a couple of examples can i give you a couple examples from god's word maybe you're feeling a little bit insecure about certain things in your life and maybe you just wonder does god really love me and you say here's what you say you'll say it over and over again i am loved by god john 3 16. for god so loved the world including me that he sent jesus god loves you god loves you can never doubt that come on everybody say i'm loved by gods and then how about this one sometimes we're we're discouraged maybe we're we're having some setbacks and we wonder about our future and we we're wondering about does god really see me and we have to remember first corinthians 2 9 and we say this when we say god has a great plan for my life when when we get passed up for that promotion and when somebody else gets chosen when we watch god prospering someone else when we watch you know our friend uh get married and another friend get married and we're still waiting on god to move in our life when it comes to his spouse you know what we're going to say we're going to say god has a great plan for my life first corinthians 2 9 what does it say eye has not seen ear has not heard neither has it entered into the heart of man the great plan that god has for those who love him god's got a great plan for your life come on come on i believe it more than you believe it about yourself god has a great plan for you he does how about this one i am forgiven first john 1 9 sometimes the enemy is really good at reminding us of our mistakes maybe you've just come out of a season of failure maybe just you've just followed you've just gotten back up and you just can't seem to get beyond the condemnation that you feel or the guilt that you feel about the mistake you made come on you need to say no i am forgiven because first john 1 9 says if we confess our sin he's faithful and just and will forgive us of our sin maybe you're struggling with your own identity and who you are and so you have to say i am made in the image of god come on genesis 1 27 i am made in god's image i don't need to be anybody else i don't need to act like anybody else i don't need to try to look like anybody else i am made in the image of god come on i am made in the image of god everybody's saying i am made in the image of god and then how about this one this is a great confession these are just examples there's hundreds of them in god's word [Music] joyce meyer's written a great little book little purple book about the confessions she's got i mean it's this thick with bible confessions about all sorts of different maybe it's something with your body and healing and you look up some healing verses and you start speaking healing over your life this one's this one's real practical right now everybody second timothy 1 7 i will not walk in fear as fear and anxieties all around us it's very easy to give into that it's very easy to find yourself starting to panic and starting to get worried about things but remember we're christians we approach life different we're not like those who who grieve we're not like those who who worry we're believers because we have the same spirit that raised christ from the dead down on the inside of us so i will not walk in fear come on everybody say it i will not walk in fear that's right second timothy 1 7 and then one more god will complete what he started in me i love that one god will complete what he has started in me philippians 1 6. if he started it he's going to finish it and if you feel like it's incomplete that means he's not done yet we're going to stay in faith and we're going to believe god for what he has for us come on can i get a good amen from everybody let's work on the mouth [Applause] there's enough anger there's enough hatred there's enough critical uh words and people tearing each other down come on let's be believers and let's be christians and let's speak life and let's be constructive with our words and positive with our words and encouraging come on let's be affirming to those that we love let's tell them you can do this god has a plan for you let's take those words and even speak them over our friends and over our children come on we're not going to walk in fear we're going to walk in faith we're not going to worry about we're not going to worry about tomorrow we're going to stay in a place of faith for what god has for us come on somebody come on let's do it let's do it come on can we all put our hands together and thank god for the word everybody come on yeah thank you jesus [Music] now i want to pray for us and i always like um to ask you to bow your heads and close your eyes because um in a sense what it does is it eliminates distractions it eliminates distractions very easy to get distracted you your phone buzzes or somebody says something you know next to you so in this in this one moment right now i want us to just be distraction free and think about our life one of the most powerful things that we can do right here at the end of this service is think about our life and ask god by the power of his holy spirit to move in our life father i pray in the name of jesus for every person i thank you for the anointing and the power of the holy spirit [Music] to touch us deeply in our hearts about our words about our mouth and i i know for all of us our words form our our world the atmosphere of our home and our job thank you for the conviction of the holy spirit may the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart be acceptable to you lord now just keep your heads by your eyes close just for a moment more because i'm going to lead us in what we call a prayer of salvation a fresh start prayer and for many of you that are here today that are struggling in your faith maybe you've never prayed this prayer you've never made a decision to be a christian it doesn't mean you haven't been to church doesn't mean you haven't read your bible but you've never made that decisive dedication of your life to the lord you can do it right now i'm going to lead us in this prayer for others of you maybe that's a decision that you made or a prayer that you prayed at some point in your life but to be honest if you're going to be honest right now you've fallen away from the things of god you're disconnected the bible talks about being disconnected from from the head who is who is the lord jesus you're disconnected and you need to come back and it takes a a step of faith all right it takes it takes walking through an open door and right now the bible the bible teaches right now even the lord is knocking on the door of your and he wants to come in because he wants a relationship with you and he wants to restore the things in your life that are broken he wants to reignite faith and he wants to do some things that you can't even imagine but you have to open that door and that's what this prayer is about so here's what we're going to do heads are about and eyes are closed in just a second i'm going to ask you if you're here and you want to be included in this prayer i'm going to ask you to raise a hand i'm not going to have you stand or call you down front nothing wrong with that but for our purposes today that uplifted hand is an opportunity for you to say yes to god and then we're all gonna pray out loud together you know it's like when you raise your hand it's like an action step okay it's like it's like you're saying yes and then i can see who i'm praying with we pray all together it's beautiful it's powerful wherever you're watching this you may be at home online one of our locations or here at houston levee you feel the presence of god reaching out to you and there's a conviction because you know you're not right with god and you need to turn away from the things that are going on in your life and turn toward him if that's you right where you're sitting no one looking around if that's you right where you're sitting i want you to boldly lift a hand and say yes that's me please include me in this prayer that's it lift them up high okay don't i'm not going to ask you to do anything else so don't do this in a half-hearted way this is it it's all about you pursuing the things of god and opening the door of your heart letting him in awesome anyone else i'm going to wait just a second more sometimes it takes a second don't get in your in your car okay and regret this moment i'm not asking you to join a church it's about you and jesus it's about the kingdom of god okay all right let's pray together everybody all together out loud even if you didn't lift your hand would you pray out loud in support of those who did all together say father in jesus name thank you for your awesome plan thanks for sending jesus to die on a cross and to rise again so i could have forgiveness and a new life and i ask you father in jesus name forgive me of all my sin cleanse me make me new come live inside of me and give me the strength to live for you in jesus name come on amen and amen can we put our hands together everybody come on wow what a powerful message from pastor john and hey a big shout out to anybody who made a fresh start that's the best decision you could ever make yeah it is the best decision we celebrate with you the bible actually says that when one person turns to the lord all of heaven rejoices so you can imagine that like just every weekend just heaven just goes nuts and so we celebrate with heaven we celebrate with you and we want to come alongside you and help you get this walk with god started we want to get a gift into your hands it's a book it's a free resource that pastor john wrote it's called fresh start with god and it's written from the perspective of someone who's making this decision to follow jesus and then ask him sort of like what are some things i need to do now like what what next and so it's seven simple chapters really easy to read and really easy to apply i encourage you if you prayed that prayer and you made that decision get this resource in your hands and use it even this week as like a devotional one chapter a day just taking a couple minutes and we want to give it to you today for free all you got to do is let us know you made that decision so simply click the link that's going up in the chat fill it out and say hey i prayed that prayer today i made that decision and we will get this book to you and we we believe it can be a jump start to your walk with god maybe for some of you it's it's you're starting fresh for the first time today or it could be that you're you're restarting your walk with god and so again we say congratulations we want to get this book to you let us know you made that decision and we are all celebrating hundreds of us online today celebrating with you uh for making that decision oh yeah so glad for you and hey we just want to give a big shout out to anybody who is joining us for the very first time we're so glad and so thankful that you joined us this week you're now officially a part of the online life church family and we just want you to um if you would just click the link that's coming up in the chat it'll let us know that you were here this weekend you can also let us get a gift into your hands just to say thank you for joining us this weekend like you could have been doing anything you could have been watching netflix you could have been chilling but you decided to join us this weekend we're so thankful for that so again just click that link so we can get that gift from your hand and thank you for joining us for the uh on the live chat online yes thanks for joining us and uh chris is having a hard time here i'm very thankful hey we're gonna join back in for some water baptisms here in just a minute celebrate some change lives something that we do kind of once uh once every few months we have big water baptism weekends and so we're really excited to celebrate with some people who have made that decision to not only put their faith in jesus but also go public with that before we jump in and join for those baptisms though we're going to take a moment to be generous to bring our ties and offerings you can give right here online i'll tell you a little bit more about that in a second but when we give one of the values of our church one of our ten values we have these core values that sort of uh define and and and lead who we are as a as a church and one of them is generosity the reality is the bible says god so loved we quoted that verse in in the message for god so loved the world that he gave because when you love you give and so we believe as we love god we don't just give him our time although that's important we don't just give him uh like our thoughts although that's important we give him every part of our lives including our finances because everything belongs to him and so when we give we see it as not only an act of obedience and worship but also an investment in changed lives and that's the beautiful thing about giving to god's house is it goes to make a difference in the lives of people we get to do outreach every week and we get to see people like we just did make a fresh start in weekend services we have access on wednesday night for teenagers and kids life for for our young kids and all mission trips and campuses all over the world all the different things that we do are only possible because of two reasons because god's faithful and because the church gives and is generous and so thank you for being generous it's making a difference we put together a really short simple video kind of giving you instruction on how to set up online giving so let's watch this real quick as you prepare to give online giving is easy safe and convenient to give online click the link you see in the chat or visit thelifechurch.com giving and select your region you'll have the option to give one time or set up recurring giving to fit your preferences you can also give by mail address to 650 houston hill road eads tennessee 38028 all donations are tax-deductible we appreciate your generosity and thank you for investing in changed lives let me pray for you as you give god thank you for uh being so generous to us thank you for giving your best and thank you for being our provider we trust you today as we give that you provide everything that we need and we pray as we give today it's taken and used and multiplied used and multiplied to do something great for your kingdom uh thank you for it in jesus name amen and amen god bless you as you give we're about to jump into some water baptisms really exciting moment we do this all the time we get to celebrate change lives so i would encourage you if you're watching online with us celebrate in the chat throw some clap emojis some praise hand emojis if you see someone you know say shout out to them getting baptized always an exciting time and really water baptism is a symbolic sort of ceremony of basically what salvation is right when we go underneath in that water and we're sort of buried in the water it's our old life being buried out of the water a new creation and that's what these people are doing they're saying all right i'm not only making a fresh start i want the whole world to know that i'm following jesus and it's a symbol it's a symbol of our commitment just like this wedding ring right here is a symbol of my marriage water baptism is a symbol of our commitment to jesus this ring i could take it on or off and it doesn't change my marital status however it is a symbol of my marital status the same thing is true with baptisms water baptisms doesn't make you a christian it's a symbol though of your decision to become a christian and so we we celebrate these people just like we celebrate when people get married when we celebrate that ceremony it's always festive always exciting when people go through the ceremony of being baptized we celebrate with them so let's join in with them and let's watch these baptisms i want to thank everyone who's walked alongside me to teach me about god i hope to be a pastor one day and build god's house [Applause] ties today to show her relationship with god [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] this is kaya and kaya says i have learned about god and i love god i want to know i want to let others know that i love jesus is a plan for our lives [Music] [Applause] [Music] this is savannah and she wants to share with others that she has been saved [Applause] [Music] we have miss bobby and miss bobby says i love god and i want to be water baptized for a new walk with my father [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right this is myra and she says i want to commit to god and i'm ready for it [Applause] [Music] this is anthony and anthony says i am so excited to start a new beginning and walk with my lord [Music] [Applause] [Music] this is jennifer and she says the lord jesus christ is my lord and savior i can do all things through christ who strengthens me [Music] let's really celebrate yeah come on let's really celebrate everybody who was baptized this morning amazing yes i love baptists and weekends so cool come on so cool why don't you stand up as we close service no one leaving we have just a quick thing just something really quick yeah like pastor john said tonight is encounter night so it's going to be a really powerful night together starts at six o'clock we have food trucks after child care so be sure to come and be a part of it we would love for you to be there and i also want to give you a leadership next step yeah maybe you've heard about it it's called leadership foundations it's going up on the screen behind me but if you're here and you're saying hey i feel like i need to grow i want a challenge in my faith i need to take some next steps in leadership well this is for you whether you're looking to lead inside the church or or you just want to get better as a leader like the video said earlier this is a great environment for you it's only eight weeks long but it is packed with amazing leadership material it's going to take your relationship with god to the next level and you as a person to the next level i've heard so many testimonies about people who've been through foundations and said this made me a better employee this made me a better boss this made me a better mom dad business owner you fill in the blank so if you felt that stir towards leadership i encourage you scan the code go on the website and get involved and if you're watching online there's a link that's coming up a foundations link just click on that and you can get signed up as well well hasn't it been a great weekend in church let's go come on why don't we pray and then we'll be dismissed yeah lord we thank you for today god we thank you for such a powerful service in your presence thank you for a word that challenges us lord i pray that you would help us guard our mouths this week that we would be god the mouthpiece of your holy spirit lord i pray that you would protect us as we go god that you would shine your favor on us we pray we love you and we give you all the glory today in jesus name amen amen amen amen we'll see you on counter tonight [Music]

Channel: The Life Church

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Length: 93min 51sec (5631 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 29 2021