Cornerstone Christian Center
Cornerstone Christian Center
Watch Your Mouth | Messy
Words can set a home on fire or turn it into a refuge. We trace the surprising power of the tongue through James 1 and 3 and show how small choices—listening first, slowing anger, and curating our inputs—redirect the big ship of our lives. Along the way, we share unfiltered stories, from childhood “soap in the mouth” lessons to singing worship through dust and mud in Mexico, to the daily temptations of sarcasm and road rage. Each moment points to one truth: blessing and cursing should not come from the same mouth, and with God’s help, they don’t have to.
We break down the images of bits, bridles, rudders, and sparks to explain why words steer outcomes far beyond the moment. If you repeat contempt, you start living it; if you speak faith, your steps begin to follow. That’s why mindset matters. Inputs shape the heart, and out of the heart, the mouth speaks. We look at how the Holy Spirit transforms speech—starting at Pentecost—freeing us to proclaim truth with love, not as noise but as healing. You’ll hear practical counsel on cooling conflicts before they blaze, replacing sarcasm with trust, and becoming the person others seek for steady, Scripture-shaped encouragement.
We close with three simple, demanding practices: speak faith over fear, speak the truth in love, and speak hope over your future. Break old labels, bless the people in your circle, and let new habits of speech pull your life into a new direction. If life feels messy, God can handle it—and He starts by changing what we say and how we say it.
If this resonated, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs encouragement, and leave a review so more people can find these messages. What one phrase will you retire—and what blessing will you speak—this week?
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Life is messy. And he would say yes to that. And since it is, watch your mouth. I know this is why you came to church tonight. To watch your mouth. We've been talking about this idea of the autumn season and fall. We've been talking about how it's a changing of leaves and that season of change. And and I would say, you know, as though we don't experience it here, we've talked about that. We just get a little bit browner, uh, you know, palm trees here and during fall, that's about it. But that season of change sparks something in us to reflect and to think about the things that God is doing in and through our lives. Uh, as we've been talking about this theme called Messi, the first week we came to James 1. And if you have your Bible, your tablet, your phone, let me encourage you to jump back into James today. We're going to be moving through it a little bit here. But we're starting here in James 1, verse 19 and 20. It says, Know this, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. And we are talking about this concept and this idea of being those who are in alignment with God and understanding that He is the one that forgives us, He's the one that washes us, and He's the one that does that work in us. So we need to be those who keep our anger in check. Similarly, last week we talked about this concept out of James 1:26. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. And we talked about how we need to be those who watch what we say, because if we're not careful, we'd be those who curse instead of bless. Now, I grew up here in the West Valley and I went to Villa de Paz Elementary right here in Phoenix. And in doing so, back then the edge of town was this was all fields and the edge of the desert, right? Like we were the edge of town. So we had lots of different families coming in at that time. So lots of Hispanic friends, and they were teaching me in third grade all the words that I needed to learn, which was all the cuss words first. How many people know what I'm talking about? And so I didn't really quite have a grasp of the power of this language, but I was using it nonetheless. And so I'm using it, I'm saying all these colorful words that I've been learning from my friends at school. And we had a wonderful sister of ours who's bilingual, and she heard what I was saying here at church, and she was like, Oh, you have a filthy mouth. And I was like, Oh, don't tell my parents. You know what I'm talking about? So I was trying to survive. And what I was saying was I was saying a bunch of curse words. And so she was saying, Hey, you have a filthy mouth. I knew what the punishment was for filthy mouth because back in that day, this is before you got a timeout, this is before they took away your phone. We got what? Whenever you said bad words, you got both smacked, and then also washed your mouth out with soap. That's right. You had the real soap. If your parents were really dedicated to you, then they would lather that bad boy up before they made you this. Physically, people under 25, put it in your mouth so that you learn the lesson about the words that you were saying. How many people know what I'm talking about? And there was some one of those where if they're a real gangster, they have you bite down and pull that soap out so you get it like this. You know, they got the soap flakes in there. You guys know what I'm talking about. Or, next level, liquid soap. If they go liquid soap on you, you really said something bad. You probably disrespected your mom or something. I don't know what you're doing. You're willing to way too close to hell for that. They're lucky they hit you with the soap. That stuff would get in there, man. You would be at soccer practice later in the week drinking a Gatorade, and the soap would reveal itself again. You guys know what I'm talking about. This was like layers, layers of understanding. So, what the idea was is that they were trying to teach you to watch your mouth. Watch what you say, because your words have power. You know, we there was the little rhyme when we were little, sticks and stones will break my bones, words and never hurt me. But with the in with the invit with the in uh in with the using of the internet and so much of the words online, we find that the power of words are very profound and they very much are venomous, and they do hurt us as much as someone smacking us across the head. So we need to watch our mouths. Now, as we talk about this idea of messy, we have to understand that life is messy, but God can handle it. If we haven't met, my name is Jay, and we're so thankful that you're getting a chance to worship together, that we had this opportunity to come and worship the Lord here. If we haven't met and connected, Celeste and I have such a great opportunity to lead here in this community of faith, and we're blessed to do so. All of us are people who are not perfect. None of us is. All of us are in need of a savior. And since that's true, then we use this imagery of the disciples walking with Jesus because that's how we see ourselves as people who have not arrived, but are very much on that journey following Jesus. And so we're walking after him where he's leading us to go. It's our heart that each one of us, both personally and then corporately, we want to be more like Jesus. And so we do that throughout the week throughout the city in life groups, and we do that as we connect and grow and serve together. Those life groups are coming to an end this final week of life groups. In fact, if you're someone who is in that younger demographic, let me encourage you that this week, this Wednesday, is the young adults uh worship meeting they're gonna be having on Wednesday. So jump in with that, be a part of that. That's been a really powerful time for all that have been a part of it. That's one of those life group experiences, men's, women's groups, all sorts of groups have been going on. I know people are hiking a mountain this week, doing all sorts of things in life groups. So let it be a blessing to you. We start a new semester in the new year, so pre-decide that you're gonna be a part of it. Collectively, we love God, we make disciples, we reach the world. Now, a few weeks back, we were talking about the idea that everyone has dirty laundry. That means that all of us have sinned, all of us have messed up, and we're a little bit, you know, scared to bring our dirty laundry and air it out for the world to see. And so I think that's why people are a little hesitant to come to the Lord and try to work on some of this thing, but all of us have fallen short of the glory of God. None is righteous, no, not one. And so the idea is that each one of us are in this process. And we talked about this at a James 1, verses in two and three. And you pick it up here, it says, Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. We are talking about how none of us is perfect, we all will make mistakes, but it's the Lord who will help us even in the middle of times of trial. In the same way last week, we talked about it from the perspective of unfinished projects. And we are talking about how those things can get on top of us, and we need to be those who don't procrastinate, but instead are those who are setting aside what's most important, like our time with God every day, and then making plans for the things that we say yes and give our yes to. We talked about this out of James 1:22. But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. We want to be those who are doing what the word says and not just listening to it. Today we're gonna talk about this idea of your filthy mouth and my filthy mouth. The scripture is James 3, verses 9 and 10. Let me encourage you to highlight this today. It says, with it, meaning our mouths, we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God from the same mouth, blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not be so. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word, and we thank you, Lord, how you challenge us. Holy Spirit, how you breathe upon it and you make it alive and transformative. And so, Lord, we ask that very thing, Lord, that you would open our hearts, Lord, that we would be challenged to be more like your character. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. So the idea of messy life is messy. Now, I wanted to bring the story back to you. Some have heard this over time, but is back from whenever I was done with university, I kind of had uh an interesting year. I was supposed to go to law school, but instead had more of like a gap year. And I ended up going and moving to Mazatlawn after living in Santa Barbara and some other places. And as I moved to Mazatlawn, you know, there's this wonderful uh idea of like where it is and the sun and the reflection of the sunny coasts and all the great things. But that's not where we lived. We lived with the people in the middle of all the stuff, but we were working with teams in the in the golden zone, the zona dorada that was there, as well as in other parts of the city. So you can see this next piece, it's a beautiful place where lots of people will come. Uh, and that's it, tourism drives a lot of the economy there. But there's a whole set of people that live in difficult circumstances there. So we were helping to plant the the church there, Centro de Vida Mazatlan, uh, and as well as we were doing church in the prisons, we were doing church out at the city dump. And there were people that were there working amongst the the garbage, the refuse there, working there amongst it. It's dirty, it's filthy, the kids are walking around with no shoes on. It was a whole thing. And we would go, we'd take generators and string lights out, and we would plug in some amps and and we would play work worship music and then we would preach and pray for the people and minister to them, provide a meal. It was a powerful time. And it was one of those things that really, as a kid growing up here in the West, you know, I had a job since I was 15. I had pocket money, I got to buy stuff I wanted. And to see these kids who had nothing, it really humbled me and started to give me a real understanding of the blessings we have here in our country, the opportunity we have here, and more importantly, how these people who have nothing materially, they had the love of Jesus Christ. And so they still had a smile on the face, even though they lived in the middle of the city dump. And so it was something profound thinking about that in my own heart and life. Well, we were done with doing church there. We needed to go to the next thing we were doing that night. We had a bunch of things back to back. So we're loading the van. We load the team up, my friend Tim and I, and we load the van, we put the speakers back in the back of a truck. Remember when you used to sit in the back of a truck? You guys remember that? Back before they made you wear a helmet and a seatbelt and all that stuff. We were fine. So we were sitting in the back of this truck and we throw the last things in, and I'm holding Tim's guitar so it doesn't get messed up. We're throwing the last piece in. There's it's so packed, we just kind of pull the tailgate down and I hand him back his guitar. And I was the drummer at that time for us, and so we're kind of like just jamming out and we're singing a worship song as we pull out of this uh this area at the dump. Now, like anyone who grew up at the edge of the desert, the dump is full of loose dirt. And so as you peeled out of the dump, man, this huge cloud of dirt. It was like one of the dust storms we experienced, right? Or the haboob that comes through. This massive cloud of dust was coming off the back of the truck. And we're playing and we're singing in our terrible Spanish. We're having a great time. And you know, the song, it says, if you have faith like a mustard seed, you will say to the mountain, move and it will move. So lo dices, and notice what the Lord says to you, and you say, Se moverá, se moverá. You will say, Move and it will move. It's a powerful thing. And as we're singing this out, belting it out, dust everywhere, all around. I look over at Tim, and Tim, because of the amount of dirt and we're singing open mouth, is his mouth is full of mud that is now on his tongue and his teeth, and he's trying to speak Spanish and singing, and I'm over here, he's looking at me. I got the same thing going all up in my mouth. This is nasty, man. But I'll tell you, if you're gonna have a filthy mouth, let it be a filthy mouth like that. Where you're giving love and praise to the Lord and you're exalting the Lord with your filthy mouth, but your praise is coming out, it's not filthy. And so it's not about your dental hygiene, it's about what words you're using with you. We look to the scripture here in James, coming back to the word of God here today with this idea of a filthy mouth. James 3, 3 says, if we put bits into the mouths of horses, so they will obey us, we will guide their bodies as well. So it's continuing with this idea of watching and guiding your mouth, of controlling what you say. And anyone who's you know, worked around a horse, you understand that so much of the control of them is how you guide their head. And so you can put a bridle on them and you can guide them. And even with the bridle on them, sometimes they could be honry and want to bite you as you walk by or or do that. Anyone been bit by a horse, you learn that lesson one time. And that's one of those things where you keep your eyes open and you're like, wait, wait. But the thing is, you put a bit in that horse's mouth, and even a very cantankerous, cranky horse will do what you want because you can pull back on that bit and it will do what you say. And so it's interesting because I think so often, this is the very thing, is that if we don't guard our mouths in what we're saying, then all sorts of other things will happen whenever we say things that are wrong. And I think so often that the enemy of our soul, he wants to use the words that we're saying to try to direct us a different way. He wants you to be a vessel used by him, so you're gonna be the one saying venomous things, or you're gonna be the one cutting on someone else. Friends, let's not be like that. Let's be those who only give our control of who we are to God and to him alone, so that we can be in alignment with him. It continues here and gives us an example in James 3, verse 4. It says, Look at the ships also, though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder, whatever the will of the pilot decrees. And we see this as well. We see someone who would be the captain of the boat, right? They're steering the boat, they're controlling the boat and where it's going. And in doing so, they're moving it from this place to that. And that's a powerful idea. It's a powerful image because we see, you know, Captain Jack Sparrow at the helm of his boat doing these things. We're like, wow, that's awesome. Not realizing that it's not really the wheel. The wheel is connected to the rudder in the back of the ship. And without that rudder, the ship is not going to go where the wheel goes. And so it's that little bit at the very back of our large vessel that directs the vessel back and forth. And that's very much like our tongue. It's like the things we say, is that we need to watch those things because they very much will dictate where we go and what we do. How many people know that if you say things long enough, you'll start to act on the things you say? And it comes from a mindset perspective. That's why we talk about having the mind of Christ, right? Having a perspective from God so we can have a mind of Christ, so we can make decisions that when we speak, we're not speaking ill or negative things, we're speaking truth and blessing. Because whenever we're speaking negative things, even over those around us or over ourselves, we start to follow those things because that's where the steering is taking us to go. Let's look again at the scripture here in James 3, now in verse 5. It says, So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire, and the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. It says it sets things ablaze. You know, so often we we interact with others and we don't realize that by saying things negative to them or by hitting them and not just what we say but how we say it. Any people know what I'm talking about? That's like when your kid says yes, mom, but they say it with attitude and you still want to slap them. You guys know what I'm talking about? You don't. But you could. But you know what I'm saying? It's because of how they say it back to you. It's because it's the the heart behind what you say. And whenever you have some heart behind what you say that's negative, it becomes like an emotional grenade thrown into that conversation, right? It starts to blow things apart, it starts to burn on each other. And if you're not careful, then the very closest people to us are the ones that we start to burn on the most. It's it's so often that we as pastors over time, especially over these years, we've we've interacted with people. Many times it, you know, it's it's not started overnight. It's been a long process there, but we kind of get to it right before it starts to really be devastating. And we get in the conversation there towards that end, and we're trying to put out fires because people are now using their words to burn each other. And they're cauterizing the very open hearts that they want to have towards each other in a marriage that they want to have with their their mom and their dad or their children, their grandchildren, and they're using these words and it's burning one another. And they start to pull back from each other, and so now they're breaking down in their communication, and in a marriage, they're breaking down in their marriage, their communication, and therefore their intimacy. And so they're no longer intimate, and then that makes a whole nother level of problems. And so what happens is that we it's all by not watching what we say. And we start burning on each other and picking up old stuff that we had already forgiven each other for and trying to get even or trying to get ahead, and we're burning each other down, starting a fire that we don't even understand how uncontrollable it can go. Because many times it just doesn't burn the person you're intending, but everyone around them that they're connected to, and then those things go on and go on and they grow. Friends, we don't want to be those set things ablaze. We want to be those who are, blessed are the peacemakers, those that instead put out that very flame and actually are looking to be those of healing. It continues here in James 3, 6. It says, the tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire, the entire course of life and is and set on fire by hell. You can imagine as a fire, as we have many uh, you know, brave firefighters here within our church community, how they, as we're running away from the fire, they run into the fire. And I was thinking about the hot shots that gave their lives for the safety of our state and and many others that would do this. And they can, you know, we've seen it happen, just a small cigarette butt out the window, or a small flame that's not put out properly at a campsite that starts this massive blaze. I've driven down the freeway when the flames were huge. They didn't shut the freeway yet. And the flames are huge, and they started to jump the median jump and start to catch fire on the other side. And even though you think that it's going to be safe, oh, it's contained over here. It's good, no, it's not. No, it's not. And the flame can jump. And that's the same thing whenever we start to be those that don't control what we say. And I'm the first to tell you, man, I don't always get it right. Many times we say things that we don't really mean, right? But we're saying those things and they're venomous, and it can't take it back. We can go and say, I'm sorry, will you forgive me? But many times the damage is already done. So we need to be those who are not just saying, I'm sorry, but then following up with our consistency and how we live behind the words we say. That's why the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, whenever the Holy Spirit's poured out upon the church, it says they were there as the Lord ascended back to heaven. He said, Go and wait for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to be upon you, and you will be my witnesses. He didn't say, Go be my witnesses. He said, Wait for the power to be my witnesses, and then go be my witnesses. And the reason is that the first thing the Holy Spirit did is that he showed that his power was upon them by using a signal of the flame of fire above their head. But also the first thing he did was control their tongue. And that by his spirit, says the spirit breaks the yoke of bondage off of people. That's why the power of the Holy Spirit is so profound, and that's why God wants to use our mouths to be those that are blessing others and speaking truth and love instead of cutting others down. That's why the first moment of the early church, empowered by the power of the Spirit of God, profess the wonders and proclaim the glory of God in all these different languages. Because he was saying, I will have my way in and through you, and you will be my mouthpiece to the world around you. Friends, that we would be those that watch what we say. And watch that we're not being those that cut others down. I can tell you that's a challenge. And if we're not careful, we will default into our old pre-the-baptistry personality types, right? Because what we're saying in a baptism is, Lord, I'm dead to sin, I'm alive in you. I don't want to be like my old self. Many times when we get pressed, we default back into what makes us safe, which is putting up the walls and keeping people at bay, right? As if a tiger was coming for you, you got that stick out with the flame, and many times it's the words we're saying towards others around us. That we instead would be those that understand that the living God who values you and knows your circumstances, he will speak to you in that way directly to you. He wants to use you to be the same kind of resounding, consistent encouragement to people around you instead of tearing others down. In scripture it says this, continuing here in James, it picks up and says, For every kind of beast and bird of reptile and sea creature can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. So often it's you know happens as we're trying to walk this tension out of serving Jesus, is that we sometimes can talk out of both sides of our mouth. And what I mean by that is that you say this one thing when you're at church and with your church community, and you say this one thing whenever you're around a different group of people, like maybe your friends or your work. And friends, we're not called to be those, but called to be consistent in what we say to others and what we speak out of our mouths. You know, you see this gentleman here, he's doing a pitch for somebody, he's obviously very prepared, but even in all his preparation, it won't keep him from his tongue being vile, because that's in the brokenness of who we are. That's why we can't do this on our own, and we have to go to the Lord and say, Lord, help me, empower me, Holy Spirit, guide me in what I'm saying. Tell me when to shut up. Don't nudge anybody. I saw people nudging people. Don't nudge anybody. Lord, help us to watch our mouths. Help us to be those that make a difference. You know, I love this picture of this woman smiling. It reminds me of some times that we had in ministry in Thailand. I was thinking about that with Pastor Angus and how we were in Thailand and amongst amazing people, and even in some of those communities, in the Filipino community, the Thai community, and others, man, such a genuine genuineness with them. They had such beautiful smiles, and it's part of their culture. They would lead with a smile. Whereas in the West, in some cultures, we're more stoic, want to, you know, keep the smile off your face, look tough, look cool, you know what I mean? Keep your hair slick back. What's up? It was so nice to have a warm smile, and and and you we knew the backstory. They weren't leading with their story. We knew the backstory because their pastor shared it with us so we could pray. They were going through lots and lots of difficult things. But they were leading with a smile because the joy of the Lord was their strength, even in the midst of difficult circumstances. They didn't let their circumstances dictate what they were gonna say to the Lord and how they were gonna handle their circumstances. And I love that because what happens if we don't do that, it becomes problematic. If we don't watch our tongue, then we become problematic in what what we do with our life and our witness to others. I'll give you an example. Um, you know, often the thing that I get challenged with is whenever I start talking to people in traffic. Now, I know no one else does this. This is just my problem. But you can imagine as you learn from my problem what I mean. You know, whenever I drive on the road, it seems like all the morons in the whole world are driving in front of me in front of my car. And I want them to leave. I'm not a moron, clearly, I drive very well. But others, I'm being tongue and mouth, obviously, I'm not calling anyone a fool. The idea is that when you, you know, sometimes you're in a rush and you don't have control over what others are doing, and you're just like, and you get mad, and I'm starting to talk at people in other cars. Saying things that I hope that they don't identify with the church sticker on the back of the truck. And I realize if I'm not careful that the very words I'm saying are gonna have actions that I can't undo connected to them. And it's gonna become way more of a mess than if I kept my cool and I kept my tongue in check. See, culturally, we grew up out here, man, like sarcasm was a love language, you know what I mean? You had the five love language book from Chapman, and the sixth love language was sarcasm. And that was like my favorite one. I was like, check mark, got it. You know, like we love being sarcastic, we burn each other down, all stuff. And it was like a sign of love. But I tell you this, it only works so long whenever you're immature. You get into mature relationships where you're going through something that's really there, and you start doing that kind of stuff, they can't trust you to bring you something serious. They can't trust you that you're not gonna burn them down when they're being vulnerable. So they'll keep that wall right up. And we'll keep that wall right up because we're also scared, and that's why we're using sarcasm as a defense mechanism to try to keep people away. But Lord help us that we would watch what we say, and by watching what we say, we watch what we think, and by watching what we think, we watch what the inputs are on our perspective, it will change everything. I can tell you, man, just by listening to something different when I'm driving, it affects my attitude when I'm driving. I can listen to the same genre of music. Maybe it's Christian metal and then other metal that's on. Maybe I just turn on the radio and it's a song that I knew from back then. I knew all the lyrics too. I'm like, I'll just wait a moment before I turn the channel back to the Christian station. And it's like, and I'm like, that's right, road rage. Whereas I could be listening to the same kind of music, like Jesus. I'm like, praise the Lord, praise the Lord. And then I turn on Sandy Patty, you know, oh the idea is that we want to watch the inputs that we have, and those who have a voice in our life, because it'll very much affect our perspective, which affects what we think about, which affects what we say. And when we change what we say, it'll change all of our actions around us, because our actions will follow what we say. We come back to the scripture here, and it says this in James 3, 9 and 10, meaning our mouths we bless with with it, we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not be so. So, friends, let us be those that speak blessing. So the people around you in your sphere of influence, they're blessed. Let us be those who speak the truth in love, not without love, because without love it says we're like a clanging symbol, that they can't hear the truth because it doesn't come with love. So let us speak the truth in love. Let us be those who are introspective and look at the plank in our own eye before we try to go for the speck in our sister's eye, and that we would be those who speak blessing and not curses. And guess what? Whenever we do that, even if we don't get it perfect, if we ask for forgiveness and come back to the Lord and ask for his empowerment, then the Spirit will do that very thing. It takes all the pressure off of us. Because then it starts being a new habit in what we say and how we say it. And then you don't have to worry that Pastor Celeste is there listening to you made cuss words. Because it's no longer a natural habit. And I can tell you, man, there's been seasons of life, especially when I was young, man, it was seasons of life where I was trying every cuss word out as if it was part of the, you know, just colorful language, just trying to just dress up the my sentences. And I think that can become a habit if we're not careful. But it's not about the cuss words and being about, oh, this is this and this is this. No, no, no. What's your heart behind what you're doing? When you change the motivation behind your heart, then it will change the outputs from your heart. Because it says from the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So let us be those who watch what our heart is about. It takes all the pressure off how we live for God because now we're just in alignment with Him. And do like we talked about last week in James 1.22, be doers of the word, not just hearers of the word. And in doing so, we aren't going to deceive ourselves that we're following God correctly. No, friends, we know we will, because his word is what's being put into our hearts every day, and his word is what's coming out of our lips as we profess the love of God over our lives. Three takeaways today as we talk about this idea of messy, and in doing so, the first is this that we will be those who speak faith over fear. We are speaking faith over fear. The very thing that drives us many times that offensive measures or being those who tear others down is fear. It's a fear of the unknown, it's a fear of control, lack of control. Friends, we don't live in that. We have a God who is greater. It says, in him we are more than conquerors. We are more than conquerors, friends, because we belong to Jesus. So in that way, we can speak faith over fear, speak faith to our circumstances. Yes, I know what I'm going through. I'm not delusional, I'm pragmatic in the idea, but guess what? I still I serve a big God who can do the miracle in my life. I'm no longer who I used to be. I'm forgiven of those things. It's broken off of me. We left it in the tub when we were said we're dead to sin and alive in God. And so now I'm going to speak faith, not fear. The second is this: we're speaking the truth and love. We're speaking good things and the word of God over our friends and family. Let it be coming out of your mouth that you're the one who's encouraging. You're the one who's encouraging in your sphere of influence with your work group, with the people around you in your neighborhood, that you're using your voice to build each other up, that you're not tearing people down, but that they can come to you and they'll know they'll get sound advice. Why? Because you're speaking consistently over them with the word of God that's inside of you because of the Spirit of God is inside of you. Because the word of God that you spent time in your Bible is inside of you, and so it's coming out of you. And that's something that happens as we speak those things. See the impact that'll happen in your immediate life with your friends and family. The third is this that we would be those who are speaking that truth, speaking that love. We speak it over our future. That we speak to the future saying, guess what? I know what might have been spoken over me when I was young. Maybe someone said, You're not good enough. Maybe someone said, Oh, all you do is get it wrong. Maybe they said that you'll never amount to anything. Friends, let me tell you this. I break it in the name of Jesus Christ off of you right now. That is not who you are. That might be a past. That is not your trajection. I know what they're trying to do is they were trying to use it as a way to make you do better. And okay, I understand that, but listen, you are better than the brokenness that you came from because you're made whole in Jesus Christ and he has a future for you that is not your past. So as we walk in Jesus, as we walk in alignment with him, we see that we are no longer the character of the person we were before. And we don't have to live with that guilt upon us. Friends, that we would watch what we say, and that if we're gonna have a filthy mouth, let it be of one singing praise to God in the middle of a dirt storm, spitting mud out whenever we're singing bad Spanish, then let it be curse words or tearing someone else down. Let us be those who proclaim the love of God wherever we go. Friends' life is messy. God can handle it. Today we have this opportunity to respond to the love of God, and we do that, each one of us understanding that we're no better than anyone else. Accept that we've accepted the love of God's work in our lives, and He, it's His work in our circumstance that's made us clean. We said, Lord, I know I'm broken, I know I'm a sinner, I ask you to forgive me of my sin. And that's why each one of us has to answer this question of have you embraced Jesus? Already today, there were people who made a decision to follow Jesus. Encourage you to do the same. That if you haven't done so already, you would make that same decision to invite him into your heart and life, forgive you of your sins, start a new life in Christ, and live for Jesus today. See, for us, the symbol of the cross is one of profound freedom. It's one of forgiveness and liberty because the cross is the symbol of where Jesus took my brokenness and my sin. He took all of yours. And he took it and he died upon the cross with all the weight of the sin of the world upon him. That's why the cross is a symbol for us. It should be of terror for us, but it's not because Jesus took all of that brokenness upon himself. And when he died, he paid for that sin for everyone, for all people, for all time. And so when we place our faith and trust in Jesus, we're saying, Lord, I believe that your work upon the cross was for me, and that you, the holy sacrifice of God, the only holy sacrifice that the Father would accept, was made on my behalf. Apostle Paul, he writes it like this to the church at Rome. He says, Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, with the mouth one confesses and is saved. Friends, today, it's your opportunity to say yes to Jesus. To invite him into your heart and life. As Christians are praying for you. Friends, if you're online, wherever you are, just take a moment and pause to hear from the Lord who wants to speak to you today. Maybe you're here today and you've never made Jesus the Lord of your life. Today is your opportunity to make that decision. To ask him into your heart and life. Maybe you have made that decision in the past, but it's been a season where you haven't been living that for the Lord. Today, that you would make a commitment to recommit your life back to him. To say, Lord, that I you would be the Lord of my life, that I'd live for you. As heads are bowed and eyes are closed here. If that's you, you just want to be included in that prayer today. You just raise your hand and say, Pastor, that's me. I just want to invite Jesus into my heart and life today. I want to make a decision to follow Jesus today. That's you. If you just raise your hand with the eye, I see a hand that's here and a hand that's there, a hand that's over there as well. See a few hands that are there, other hands and other people making decisions for God. We see the hands that are here too. Thank you, Jesus. Those upstairs as well, guys. We see you. Praise the Lord. So many making decisions for Jesus today. I'm gonna ask if everyone would, if they would pray this prayer out loud after me, even if you're online wherever you are. You say, Lord, thank you for loving me. Thank you for sending Jesus. I believe Jesus died on the cross for my sins. I believe he rose again. Forgive me of my sins. I surrender my life to you. In Christ's name I pray. Amen. Amen. Friends, we rejoice if you make a decision for Jesus today. So many of you that raise your hand today. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Hey, if that was you, take a moment, both online or here in the room, take a snapshot of this QR code and follow it. And it'll give you some resources to get connected with us so that you don't do this life alone. We want you to be successful in following Jesus. You know, we have this opportunity right now, during this song, just to respond to the Lord, to come to this altar and to make a place with him. Maybe you're someone who just needs more of his presence in your life and in your situation that you can come and just make a place with God. We want to come and pray alongside you, agree with you, just asking for more of the Lord in your life. Maybe that's wisdom, guidance, maybe you need provision, maybe you need a new opportunity for work, or maybe you need just something together in your relationship with each other. Maybe it's a relationship with a parent or a child, a grandchild, whatever it would be in this season, that you would come and make an altar with God and draw near. As he draws near to you, you draw near to him. Thank you, Lord, for this opportunity. Thank you for your word which speaks to us. And Lord, we thank you for James and writing these things to us to challenge us. Lord, just like to the early church in which it's written, Lord, we too can glean from these truths. Lord, that you would help us, Lord, with what we say, with what we say and how we say it. But Lord, help us, Lord, to watch our mouths. Lord, that we would be those not with filthy mouths of curses, but instead professing the love of Christ. Lord, building each other's up, encouraging others in the word and in the Lord. Lord, that we would be those that even though we're in this messy life, Lord, you're helping us to deal with it. And you're we're walking alongside you to come to your altar, Lord, seeking more of your presence. And we do so in your precious name, Lord Jesus. Amen.
Celeste Brown:Next Sunday night, we are about to have a party in this place. We are gonna decorate the church for Christmas. So I would love for you to join us. It's gonna be fun. This entire place becomes very beautiful. And if you're one of those families that waits until the day after Thanksgiving, then you need to come here so you could do it first before Thanksgiving. But it's gonna be beautiful. Come and join us. It'll be a good night.
Jason Brown:Amen. Before we go, I'm gonna pray this blessing over us. The Lord bless you and keep you. Lord, make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. We'll lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Lord, I pray a blessing upon your church, your people. Well, you empower us by your Spirit to live your love out to those around us. Pray all this in the powerful name that is Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Know this. We love you very much here at Cornerstone. God bless you and have a great week.