Sacred Speech

It's just great to have you all here however you're joining us. My name is René, one of the pastors here, and today I thought I would start with a funny video. Who's in the mood for a funny video? Because I am. This is actually a series of outtakes from a TV commercial. This couple owns a diner in Maine, and they were doing a kind of a family-oriented TV commercial for this diner, and the couple that owns it wanted to be in their own TV advertisement. Only grandpa kept forgetting the lines. Watch this. The line is baked in a buttery flaky crust. Baked in a buttery flaky crust. It's close. Baked in a buttery flaky crust. Baked in a buttery flaky crust. Baked in a buttery flaky crust. Uh, crust. Baked in a buttery flaky crust. Here we go. Baked in a buttery, crispy crust. Flaky. I like flaky out again. Ha! See, I should have had that. Baked in a buttery flaky crust. Baked in a buttery, crispy crust. Damn! Flaky! I thought I said flaky. Okay. You should have had me do that. Oh yeah, she thought that was that good. Baked in a buttery flaky. Baked in a buttery, crispy crust. Do we make any smells? In three? Baked in a buttery flaky crust. Baked in a buttery flaky. Flaky! Baked in a buttery flaky crust. Okay, here we go. Baked in a buttery flaky crust. Ah! Baked in a buttery, crispy crust. Ha! Yeah, that's a lot of fun.

So that video just proves the main point of the scripture that we're going to look at today. And it's this, "Words is hard." They just is. Say that with me out loud. Words is hard. Now you've got the big idea for the whole message. We're in a series we call "Every Day Sacred." We're going verse by verse through a book of the Bible called James. It was actually most likely written by the half-brother of Jesus Christ, one of the original disciples called James. And it's all about how our Christian faith should translate into everyday life. In other words, it shouldn't just be Sunday that's sacred. Every day should be sacred.

And today we're going to look at what James says about sacred speech. Bringing the sacred out of Sunday church and into our everyday conversation. And that's where he's going in James 3:2. He says, "Listen, we all stumble in many ways." Can I get an amen on that, by the way? We all stumble in many ways. Now he says, especially in this next area, and this next statement is sort of the thesis for everything that follows. He says, "If anyone is never at fault in what he says, then he's a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check." And obviously the text says "man," but this applies across genders. In other words, if you gain control of your mouth, you'll be able to keep your entire self out of trouble.

But this is so hard to do. Words is hard, especially even for professional writers. It's just so difficult to use words in a way that can't be misconstrued or can't offend somebody. I love this. There was an article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel called, "Flubs from the Nations Press." And this is about actual newspaper headlines that seemed right the first time they were written but turned out to be bloopers. And I want to just show you a few of these. I love this stuff. "Police begin campaign to run down jaywalkers." That is strict police work. "Red tape holds up new bridge." Doesn't sound very safe to me. "Local high school dropouts cut in half." Is that really necessary, because that seems harsh?

"Hospitals are sued by seven-foot doctors." Those are tall doctors. I love this one. "Include your children when baking cookies." Apparently from the Hansel and Gretel cookbook. "Related to this, did you know kids can make nutritious snacks? Just a tip when the cupboard is empty." Here's one more headline. "Milk drinkers turn to powder." That does it! I'm quitting today. But I love this correction column. "We apologize for the error in last week's paper in which we stated that Mr. Arnold Dogbody was a defective in the police force. The article should have stated that Mr. Dogbody is a detective in the police farce." I love these mistakes, but often our word mistakes aren't funny, they're destructive.

And in fact, when the Bible talks about holy living more than anything else, it talks about your mouth, your words. I mean, there isn't even a close second. And yet, when we think about holy living, often the last thing we think about is the mouth, right? We just think that mistakes that we make with words, they just are not a big deal. So what James does here in James 3 is he makes a case, like an ironclad case, about why you and I need to pay more attention to the words we say. He has three reasons we should pay attention to what we say, and each of those three reasons are illustrated by two word pictures.

This is fascinating writing, and I really pray and hope that this makes a difference to all of us, because when we watch what we say, and I might add, or type, when it comes to blog posts or social media posts or texts or emails, because these days some of you type more than you talk, actually. We need to watch what we say and type because it'll change our relationships, it'll change the witness that we have about what it means to be a Christian, it'll enhance your career, it'll change your life. If you learn to really value the words that you say or the words that you type.

So James says three things. First, my speech can number one direct where I go. The things I say actually have the power to change my whole life direction. And look at the two illustrations he gives of this. He says, verse 3, "For example, when we put bits in the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal." He's saying, "Picture a huge horse like a racehorse, probably weighs thousands of pounds." And a 95-pound jockey on his back is controlling them. Actually, not even the jockey. The jockey is controlling this massive horse by a tiny little piece of metal strategically over the horse's tongue called a bit.

And James is saying, "Your tongue is tiny like that bit in the horse's mouth, but what you say, how you say it, to whom you say it, absolutely changes the course of your life." And then he says kind of like, if you don't like that analogy, here's another one, verse 4, "Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they're steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go." Modern version of this, the largest cruise ship in the world is this, the Symphony of the Seas. Have you heard about this? It was just built last year. It is the length of four football fields. It has seven distinct neighborhoods, a park with 56 living trees in it, a boardwalk amusement park complete with rides, which is massive.

And you know what controls all of this? Actually not even a rudder, a joystick like a video game. The captain doesn't even turn a wheel anymore. The joystick controls a complicated system of jets and rudders and so on. And James is saying, "You've got to think of your tongue, your mouth, like that joystick. The size of the joystick or the size of the bit is insignificant proportionally to its influence on your life because we shape our words, right? You have total control over shaping your words, total control. And then your words shape you. We shape our words, then our words shape us. What you say to yourself is a huge part of whether you are happy or sad any particular day.

What you say to yourself changes your personality. If you're constantly talking about what you hate and about all the things that drive you crazy, you are creating a hateful, spiteful person. But if you're always talking about what you love and the character qualities you love and your friends, you are creating a loving person. Your words really change you and our words shape others. Do you agree with that? Your words shape your marriage. Your words shape your loved one's self-confidence and self-perception. Your words shape your kids' lives. So I need to treat my words with care.

I want to tell you just a couple of things. I had just spoken at a conference. I just ended yesterday up at Mount Hermon. It's starting another one tonight, so I appreciate your prayer about that. But a guy I met named Scott Shimada at the conference I was at yesterday told me on Friday about something funny that happened to him. He had heard in a seminar at the conference that you need to encourage your kids and tell your kids that they're unique so that they don't go around comparing themselves to other people. And so he got down next to his three-year-old daughter during lunch and he said, "Honey, I want to tell you, there is no one in the world like you. Don't you ever forget it." And she kind of nodded with big eyes, and he felt like, "Good, job well done." And later that night he was putting her to bed, and she just started crying inconsolably.

And she said, "Honey, what's wrong?" And she said, "Nobody likes me, no one." And he said, "Why? Who told you that?" And she said, "Well, you did, Daddy, today." He said, "What are you talking about?" She said, "Well, you told me at lunch. Don't ever forget. Nobody in the world likes you, no one." And he said, "Oh my goodness, sweetheart, what I meant was, you are so special." And she kept crying and said, "Is that why nobody likes me?" He said, "It's going to take me a week to unravel that, right?" Words is just hard. But your words can also encourage.

Last fall I showed some of you this. A little boy, a nine-year-old boy named Noah, saw this police officer at breakfast in a coffee shop. He had just received his allowance for the week. I think it was $10. And so he has an idea. He goes to the teller, asks for the officer's receipt, and he pays it with his own allowance. And on the receipt, he writes this note, "I want to be you when I grow up." And the officer, Eddie Benitez, was so moved, he asked to take the kid's picture, he takes a picture of the receipt, he posts it. It goes viral, millions of hits. So a reporter followed up on the story, asked him, "What did those words mean to him?" And listen to this. This is a grown-up man. He says this, "Those words meant everything to me. They meant that I'm supposed to wake up every morning. Those words meant that I'm supposed to put on this uniform. Those words meant that I'm supposed to go out there and do what I do. It meant I'm supposed to do this, to be an example to girls and boys like him." Those words, he's talking about those words. Those words in a nine-year-old child's scrawl meant that to Officer Eddie Benitez.

Words change lives. They are so powerful. James is saying that the tongue, our words are such a small thing, and yet they're so mighty. But words not only direct where I can go, they also can destroy what I have. This is a big warning. Verse 5, James says, "Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark." The tongue is also a fire. And around here in California, we get his analogy. We've seen these giant fires burning thousands and thousands of acres, and they were all started by something this small. Just a little flame like that is what started the fire that you see on the screen behind me. And James is saying, "You've got to see your mouth like you see a flame." Flame under control can warm people, can comfort people, but flame out of control can lead to that.

And he says, "You've got to value what you say as having the same kind of potential." He says, "The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell." Wow, James, tell me what you really think, right? But what he's saying is you can scorch people like with your sarcasm. You know, while I was researching this this week, I read that the human tongue, I never knew this before, it's made up of eight different muscles, but they are unlike almost any other muscle in your body. Your tongue muscles, like your heart muscle, never gets tired. Some of you are thinking of somebody right now in your life who is living proof of this, but it is a very powerful muscle in many ways.

And he says, "The small body parts can end up impacting the whole person." He says, "The whole person." Now, what does he mean by your tongue can impact the whole person? Well, think of it this way, your mouth gets the rest of you in trouble. Andy Stanley says, "When your kid mouths off, you don't put the mouth in timeout. You put the whole kid in timeout." A mouth doesn't get divorced. The whole person gets divorced. If the mouth doesn't get fired, the whole person gets fired. A mouth can affect the whole rest of you. And more than that, he says, "Whole course of life." He's saying, "Words don't just kind of sit there. They create a chain reaction. In fact, they can even lead to war."

And then he paints another word picture. He's just like going for it with all these analogies because he knows people don't value the power that they have with their words. So he says, "Okay, if you don't like the fire metaphor or the horse metaphor or the ship metaphor, let's talk about a zoo." He says, "All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no one can tame the tongue." One of the things we don't really realize is back in the day, 2,000 years ago, in Roman arenas, they were famous for having all these trained animal shows. I mean, all kinds of different big cats from Africa and elephants and so on, they loved wild animal shows.

And they had wild animal tamers. Every king or queen had a wild animal tamer in their court. And so James would have seen these incredible tamed wild animals, and they had zoos and so on. When we lived in San Diego, my wife and I had zoo memberships. And the San Diego Zoo is famous for actually not having cages for most of their animals. They don't have bars. What they have is big landscapes that the animals live in, and they kind of disguise like moats and so on. So the animals are supposed to not be able to escape. But of course, animals are much more likely to escape from an enclosure like that than they are from cages, and they don't publicize it. But they do somewhat regularly have animal breakouts.

One of the most famous escape artists at the San Diego Zoo was an orangutan named Ken Allen. And this is a picture of Ken Allen. Ken Allen would escape constantly. He was so smart. He would wait until the keepers were out of sight so they could not figure out how he was doing it until they installed cameras. But what was funny was he wasn't trying to escape the zoo. He loved being at the zoo. What he would do is he'd go out of his enclosure and stand with the people looking into the cage. And he would put his arm around them and pose for pictures with tourists. And so people were like rooting for him to escape. A zookeeper I actually personally spoke with once said it would be so frustrating because she said we would leave for 60 seconds and come back, and there was Ken outside again posing for pictures with the tourists.

But the point is wild animals are liable to break out at any time. That's kind of what they want to do. And James says just like the tongue that's the worst. Your mouth is like a wild animal. It's just kind of like liable to break out at any moment. You got to always consciously keep it under your control. And he's not done. He says it's a restless evil. It's not just a wild animal. It's venomous. It's full of deadly poison. And it's true, isn't it? Standing up here right now I could ruin my career. I could ruin my entire livelihood with the next thing I say in the next sentence. Right? Some of you are going what's he going to say? But Mark Spurlock could stand up here next week and say you all remember René. You were here for what happened last weekend when he said that crazy thing, right?

Mark Spurlock actually told me how he used to do a talk every year when he was the director at Camp Hammer. This is such a great idea. He put a big cow tongue that he got from the butcher in a paper bag and he'd bring it up front with him, wouldn't show what was inside to the kids. He'd say, okay, kids, in this bag I have something that is very wild and very powerful and it can even kill people. What do you think it is? And they'd guess, and he'd pick a couple of the kids to come up and put their hands inside the bag and kind of feel what was in there. And then they'd say, oh, it's a bull, a constrictor. It's a dead snake. And then he'd take out the giant tongue, and the kids would scream, and then he would talk about the venomous human tongue.

And he'd illustrate it this way. He'd take a volunteer from the audience and have him stand up next to him, and he'd say, kids, if I kind of punched him in the shoulder, I'm not going to punch him. But if I did punch him, how long do you think he would hurt? And the kids would shout out things like, about an hour, 30 minutes, five minutes. He'd say, what if I tried as hard as I could and really punched him in the shoulder like this? How hard would he hurt? How long would he hurt? They said, maybe a week. He said, okay, what if I didn't lay a hand on him, but I told him, I think you're a bad singer. I think you're a bad athlete, clumsy, ugly, nobody likes you. He said, how long do you think he would hurt then? And the kids all said, for his whole life. They got it. The tongue has venom.

And then third, James says, my tongue actually displays who I am. It reveals my true character, right? It reveals what's really inside of me. Verses 9 through 12, with the tongue, we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, people who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. He's saying, we come to the church on a weekend, we praise God, and then we walk out, get into the car, and on the way home, we curse out some other driver. And then James uses the image of a well. He says, can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? And again, around here in California, we know exactly what he's talking about because the wells near the ocean, like the ones that we get our water from here in Mid County, they're getting contaminated by salt water intrusion.

This is what James is talking about. And he was speaking to people who are living in a coastal community, in a Mediterranean climate, just like us. And when the salt water gets into the aquifer that the well draws from them, the whole well has gone bad, even if it's kind of mostly percentage-wise, still fresh water, a little bit of seawater intrusion makes the water brackish and it poisons the whole well, and words are just like that. A little bit of unwise speech poisons the well. And after that, everything you say is viewed with suspicion, like some cutting remark you made one day at work or one day in some relationship. Now for weeks or months or maybe years, it poisons all your future attempts at communication in that relationship. It can kill your reputation at work. It can kill a relationship. That's what James is saying.

And then James talks about trees. He says, "Look, my brothers, can a fig tree bear olives or a grapevine bear frigs? Figs, neither can a salt spring produce fresh water." He's saying, "It's just exactly like the fruit of a tree." You know, I'm not a tree expert. Some people can tell when a tree doesn't have any leaves on it or anything and what kind of a tree it is. I can do that maybe with two kinds of trees. Most of the time, I don't know if it's an apple tree or an orange tree or a grapefruit tree. I've got to wait until there's fruit on it. Then I can tell you what kind of a tree it is, right? And James is saying, "That's what words are like. Just like the fruit shows what kind of a tree it is, my words reveal what I really am inside."

Look at this chart. A man named Tom Holliday says, "A person with a harsh mouth may be revealing an angry heart. Negative mouth, fearful heart. Overactive mouth, insecure heart. Filthy mouth, impure heart. Critical mouth, bitter heart." And we could say the same exact thing about your texts, your social media posts, your emails. What does your mouth or your posts say about you? If I were to play back a conversation, every conversation you had for the last week, what would it reveal to me about who you are, what you value, or what about every single thing that you've texted and posted? It reveals what's inside of us.

So all of this, James is making a pretty ironclad case, right? That, "Wow, you know, when I think of holy living, I don't usually think of my words. I think of all kinds of other things." And he's like, "You ought to think of this first, because it's totally in your control. And yet if you're not consciously aware of this, it gets out of control real quick. So it begs the question, "Okay, I'm convinced, James. How can I manage my mouth?" Well, I think it's kind of funny that James actually just stops after these verses in the text in chapter 3, and he goes on to another topic. I'm reading it, preparing for the sermon, and it's like, "Here's a big problem, people. The end. Next topic." But I don't want to leave you. I don't want to leave today in despair. I want to leave you with hope.

Well, earlier in the book of James, right in the introduction, he gives some basic principles. Really, this is all you and I need to know in one short verse, James 1:19, very simple. So what I want to do in the few minutes we have left is look at the whole verse and then quickly take it apart in sections. In fact, let's read this verse out loud together. Can you read this with me? He says, "My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this. Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry." And really, his point is the last two lines of that one little verse. So let's just read those last two lines together again out loud. Let me hear you. "Quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry." If you forget everything else, if you've been kind of like zoning out for the rest of this message or something, if you just remember those two lines, you'll get the big idea of what James is trying to get across.

In fact, here's how much I want to remember this myself, and I want you to remember it. Let's do it with hand motions, like in vacation Bible school or something. Follow me. Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. Let's do it one more time. Quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. Now let's quickly examine these really important things. James says, "The first thing I need to do is learn to listen." Do you know how much pain could be avoided if we all practiced what James is saying in this verse? How much our relationships would be improved if we simply learned what he's saying here? Most of us don't really listen. We just kind of wait our turn, right? You're just kind of waiting for the other person to stop talking so that you can make your brilliant remark, right?

Have you ever been talking to somebody at church or somewhere else? They just introduced themselves. They literally just told you their name, and then you realize like ten seconds later you forgot. Has this happened to anybody else besides me? Because it happens to me all the time. Well, what I realized more likely was when they said their name, I never really heard it. I wasn't really listening. I didn't forget. I wasn't paying attention to begin with. And this really, really came home for me. When I saw a woman at church, this was years ago now, and I said, "You know, I am so sorry, but I forgot your name. I know we've met before. Can you please tell me what it is again?" And she said, "No." I said, "I'm not good with names. Can you please tell me your name again?" She goes, "I'm not going to tell you my name like for the fourth time because you didn't forget my name. You were never even listening when I told you." I said, "No, no, I was listening. Just please tell me your name one more time." She goes, "No, you weren't listening."

I said, "Really?" She goes, "Yeah, I'll tell you my name." I said, "Okay, what's your name?" She goes, "Well, it's René." Busted, right? That woman is now an atheist. No, just kidding. So I am learning this the hard way. I'm like in remedial level listening, all right? So I've learned a couple of tips. I actually got a book about the art of conversation, and these two things really stuck home with me, and maybe they will for you too if you're a remedial listener like I am. These are the two points that stuck with me. Number one is listen with your eyes. My wife used to tell me, she said, "René, you literally never make eye contact with anybody, not with the people that you're talking to, not with the people when you're talking to a crowd. You just kind of look at the ceiling. You look over everybody's heads. You're looking around like this."

And I said, "Well, part of it is I'm kind of uncomfortable. I feel socially awkward to look somebody right in the eye, and also I'm kind of like thinking about like how to put what I want to say." She goes, "Yeah, but you're not listening." So this guy says, "If you look at people in the eye," and now I literally will tell myself, "Look at them in the eye. Look at them in the eye. Look at them in the eye." Look, you know what? It really helps like double the things that I actually hear because I'm looking at people's faces. That's one thing. The second thing I learned from this book was what the author calls "completing the loop." Like let's say somebody says to you, "My name's Priscilla," and you complete the loop by saying, "Hi, Priscilla." You know, you kind of reflect it back to them. "I had to give my dog a bath yesterday." You complete the loop by saying, "You gave your dog a bath." You know, you're reflecting back to them what they said. "I just came back from vacation." "Oh, where'd you go on vacation?" "We went to Hawaii." "Tell me where you went in Hawaii." You're completing the loop by reflecting back to them what they're saying.

Those two things have taken me from being a remedial listener to being a beginner-level listener, but I am learning, and I know you can too. Now, then it gets harder, because number two, James says, "Weigh your words before you respond." Be slow to speak. How hard is this? Just another quick show of hands. Any of you here ever wish that you could take back something that you literally just said? Can I see a show of hands? Oh, good. I'm among friends. I heard somebody say, "God gave us all this button." The pause button. This was given by God to every single one of us, and it's right here. Any time we want, we can press pause on our mouths or press pause on texts and posts. Any time we want, he gave it to us for free. It is always available. It doesn't cost anything to use it. Unfortunately, most of us don't use the pause button, and we end up most of the time needing this button. Write the rewind button.

One day I came home, and Lori years ago had been watching Neighbor Kids and Our Kids and toys and stuff was everywhere, and I said something like, "What have you been doing all day?" Shooter press pause! Now I'm looking for the rewind button, and I don't have one! A guy I personally know says he came home one day, and his wife said, "I've been working so hard, I got half the house cleaned," and he thought it would be funny to look around and say, "Really? Which half? Should I press pause?" Now he's looking for the rewind button. But we don't get a rewind button on our words. They don't exist. But we all get the pause button. This isn't in your notes, but this verse applies, or what, Proverbs 16:23, "Intelligent people think before they speak. What they say is then often much more persuasive." I just wish I didn't have to keep learning this lesson.

And then the third point that James makes in this verse is refrain from rage. Quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. The problem is when your angry words come so easily. Ever notice that? When I'm mad, I'm brilliant! I think of the most clever, most sarcastic things to say, "Oh, I gotta say that, 'cause that's good!" Pause button, pause button, pause button! And you know what? You say, "Well, I can't press a pause button when I'm all upset." We don't like to admit it. We all have total control over expressing our anger. At all times, it's never out of your control. As proof, you ever been in a heated argument with somebody, let's say at home or in the office, and you're just giving them what for? And another thing, "Well, you say that, well, I'll tell you what!" And then the phone rings, you pick it up, "Hello? How's it going?" You have total control over tone and content.

So instead of putting people down, lift them up. Let me take you back to chapter 3. Remember, James says in verse 9, "With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse humans who've been made in God's likeness." Cursing here doesn't necessarily mean profanity, although it could mean that, but cursing in Bible times meant any kind of a personal or mental putdown. Any kind of a putdown is a curse. So if this should not be, then what should be, we should be lifting up those around us who are made in God's likeness. So let me give you a challenge. Everyone, you come into any length of personal contact this week, whether it's a clerk, whether it's a relative, whether it's somebody that you meet at work, look for some way to build them up with words, sincerely. You can do it. Don't put them down. Don't be sarcastic. Don't tease them. Build them up.

Now, look at this key verse again as we close. If you're like me, you're looking at this verse going, "I got a lot of room for improvement on this." In fact, you're probably thinking, "I need to get better in this or that area of my speech." Quick to listen. Slow to speak. Slow to become angry. So how are you going to change? Again, I don't want you to leave with despair about yourself. I want you to leave with hope in Jesus. And what James is getting at here, and this is hopeful, wait for it, he's saying the real problem is a heart problem. When he talks about the well, when he talks about the tree, the point is whatever's in the well comes out in the water, right? Whatever is in the tree comes out in the fruit. So my mouth problem is really a heart problem.

Like Jesus said in Matthew 12:34, "For out of the overflow of the," what? "Heart." The mouth speaks. Jesus explaining the Freudian slip centuries before Freud here. What's inside of you is what's going to come out. So it follows that the real solution is to change my heart. You know, let me just say this. I have personally learned so much from 12-step recovery groups like we have here at Twin Lakes Church. And just like somebody who is an alcoholic or an addict has to turn over control to God, a higher power than themselves in order to truly change, the fact is the same exact thing is true of you if you find that your speech is out of control.

Maybe today as you reflect on this, you're realizing your speech is actually revealing your need to totally surrender to the lordship, the control of Jesus Christ. Maybe for the very first time, maybe as a recommitment. So what I want to do this morning is to give you an opportunity to do that. This is very serious. Some of you have been in denial, but in fact, your speech has been out of control. You're like a negative speech-aholic. And you need to go, "God, I need to turn over control of my whole life." To you, my speech is just a symptom of what's going on in here. And this weekend we have a beautiful opportunity for doing that. Communion. A great time to say, "God, I need heart change, and I rejoice that Jesus Christ sacrificed on the cross for my sins." That covers all those sins with my words that I feel so stupid about. Jesus came to forgive them, and his resurrection from the dead means I can be empowered to really substantively change. And that's what we rejoice and revel in as we celebrate communion.

So let's prepare our hearts for that right now. Would you bow in a word of prayer with me? Lord, we realize that our words can damage, and we thank you for your forgiveness for our sins when they have damaged. But words can also delight. So God, we ask, please help us to use our words to bless. Help me to use my words this week to bless my spouse, to bless my children, to bless my neighbors, to bless the people I work with. Help my words to give light and warmth like fire under control. And with our heads still bowed, if you realize you need a new heart, that you've been kind of a negative speechaholic, maybe you can pray this prayer in your heart right now. "God, I want to turn over control of my life to you. I need heart-level change." So take control. Thank you that on the cross you gave your life to give us new life. And we rejoice in that now during communion. And help that new life I have through your resurrection to come out in living and positive words that I use to bless others. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.