You know you've heard the old saying: sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me? Not true, because long after the bones have been fixed, the words and names you've been called are still ringing inside you like a message that won't go away, defining who you are. You cannot let what other people say define who you are. Let God define who you are. He's designed you and through relationship with Him, you begin to embrace what He has to say, and your life comes up to a different level.
I'm going to be speaking again, carrying on where I was last week. We've been doing a series on the Power of the Tongue, and we did a series for about four weeks on Taming the Tongue, and all the different ways that people speak destructively, and speak words that impact negatively the lives around us. Then this last couple of weeks we've been looking at the Creative Power of the Tongue, how we can actually speak words that change our lives, change our environment, so we're going to just pick up with a couple of scriptures you're familiar with. I keep going through the same scriptures, because I know then you'll get them into your mind and heart.
Proverbs 18:21, how many can remember already what that is? Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it, shall eat the fruit of it. In other words, whatever words we speak, begin to shape what's around us, shape our relationships, shape the way we are, and we have a fruit from the things we say, so already you have a fruit you're eating from, the words you've sown into relationships, and have spoken over your life over times past. I was with one group of people the other day. We were just having lunch with a friend and as we were down there I was just looking around, seeing if there was anyone I knew, found someone I knew, went over and said hello - it was a birthday party so well, it was great. We congratulated them on the birthday and say well, we've got a tradition here, what we're going to do we're going to sing Happy Birthday.
We got everyone around who was anywhere near us, we all sang Happy Birthday out loud, and then I said we've got another tradition, and we're going to start it, and that is we like to speak words that impart honour and value into people. One of the family members - not my family - one of the family members immediately says oh, we don't do that our family! Isn't that amazing? Well that was your past. You can choose a different future, and it begins today, so I'll show you how to do it, and then you can be next [Laughter] and it changed the whole environment. Isn't it interesting how someone had got fixed in their mind, well we don't do things that way. Why would you ever agree with that, when you can disagree with it, and change it, change yourself, and change your future? We need to be willing to do that - so creative words. So it was just wonderful to see them begin to talk, and share words of affirmation that spoke value into that person.
So let's have a look in James, Chapter 3. I want to go back to that one again, and then we'll start off where we want to go today. So we saw that words have power in them. You know you've heard the old saying, sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me? That is not true, because long after the bones have been fixed, the words and names you've been called are still ringing inside you like a message that won't go away, defining who you are, and you cannot let your past define who you are. You cannot let what other people say define who you are. You must let God define who you are, and when you let God define who you are, and say what He sees in you, or what He's designed in you, and through relationship with Him, you begin to embrace what He has to say, and your life comes up to a different level. We're going to touch on that a little bit later.
James, Chapter 3, just go back there where we were, and He says this, Verse 3. Now we put a bit in a horse's mouth that it may obey us, and we turn the whole body. Isn't that amazing? Just one little part of the horse, you've got a hold of it there and control of it, you can control the whole horse. Then he says look at ships; though they're so large and driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder, wherever the pilot wants, so he uses two pictures real easy to see - a horse and a ship. It says both of them are controlled by something very, very small and then in case we didn't get it, he says it's the same with your tongue. If you can bridle the tongue, and begin to change the words you're speaking, you will change the course of your life. You will change the course of your life. You will change the course of your life. Not listening to lots of messages is going to change your life - it's what you do, will change the course of your life.