Words

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. So welcome. It's good to have you here today. And if you've missed the last couple weeks, we're in our third week of this series. One more week to go. And then actually, Billy, we're going to do something that kind of fits in with this again. I don't think we're, which is, I know it's called the Advent Conspiracy. And what we're looking at is as we prepare for Christmas, you know how many billions and billions and billions of dollars we spend on stuff that we really don't need to try to show love to people that it's not. Hey, I know I'm probably fighting against what my kids might get me for Christmas. But the point is, we're going to try to focus on how Advent, which is this period before Christmas and the coming of Christ, that we can conspire together. I know that sounds odd. I'm not into too many conspiracies, but I am into this one. Conspire together to make Christmas really matter and make a difference again. And by how? By spending less, by worshiping fully, by giving more and by loving all. Those are going to be the four emphases over a five-week period. We're just going to start out with the whole idea of what Advent is and how Christmas. Do you realize all the stuff we put on Christmas isn't Christmas? And the center of Christmas, it was funny the other day, who was it? Somebody came to me, I think I was at the pool at our clubhouse, you know, in our neighborhood. He goes, oh, yeah, what's it like to celebrate Christmas down here? And I said, probably a lot more like the original. And he looked at me and said, huh? Oh, yeah, Bethlehem had palm trees. And we don't know, but it's amazing how we think it has to have all this other stuff. And it's really about the Christ child, right? Who was born into poverty and who became, within weeks, a refugee. Hmm. Let's think through that one a little, shall we? Compassion, compassion, compassion. So anyways, I know I'm plugging something a couple of weeks away, but I think it's going to be good. So we've been in this series. And if you haven't been here. Hey, you can always look up on our app or whatever to get some of those messages back. But one of the main points that I just want to kind of reemphasize for us all is this, that it's often the small things that no one sees that result in the big things everyone wants. OK, the big difference in your life that you're looking for is probably in the small things that nobody sees, the private things that you do. And today we're going to talk about words and how words really matter. We also talked about over the last few weeks that you don't change by force, fear and facts. They don't work. You can try to create fear in people to try to get them to change. You can force them. You can even throw facts at them. That doesn't change. No, what really changes us is we are changed through the gospel and the gospel. Jesus Christ comes to us and relates to us on our level. He repeatedly loves us, forgives us, comes to us daily, and he reframes our entire life. And so the order of things that we've talked about at the beginning is it's really relate, repeat and reframe that changes our whole perspective. OK, and it's through the gospel, how the gospel comes to us. Well, today we're going to talk about our words and words matter. OK, and despite whatever, maybe this is a good week after all the politics and everything to come down to and realize words actually do matter. And how you speak and what you say actually does matter. So we're going to look at four points. I know four, but we're going to try to go through them quickly today. OK, one unbridled, two tongue tied, three shut my mouth and four hot lips. And you're going like, huh? OK, we'll get there. Unbridled. Which one are you waiting for? Hot lips. OK, it's in the Bible. It is. Well, I'll use that line. Well, I don't know if you want the hot lips that I'm talking about in the Bible to happen to you, but we'll see. OK, unbridled. You realize the average, the average, which I am so above average and how much I speak. How many of you like extrovert all over the place like me? OK, the average person. OK, speaks in a single day, a 50 page book. How many words? The average. And in a year's time, your words, the average person's words would write 200 books of 132 pages each. Now, most of the stuff I talk about shouldn't even be written down. It's not worth it. I have a lot of careless words. I have a lot of thoughtless words. I speak before I think anybody else do that once in a while. And I react and I just blurt things out and I want to take them back. But I can't. And then there are also words that are just harmful and hurtful and all that stuff. It's amazing what we do with our mouths. Right. And my mouth is, in that sense, unbridled that nothing seems to be controlling it. Now, Proverbs 18 says this about our words from the fruit...