OCT 21 2018 | The Tongue S1E3 | The Word of Encouragement

Sea Change Church · The Tongue · "The Word of Encouragement" Pastor Adam Stadtmiller · October 21, 2018
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Thanks, bro. And that was my beautiful daughter who just sang, who God is doing amazing things in our heart. And my beautiful wife, I'm Jason Belise. My wife and I are leading men's and women's skills here. So if you're not in it now, which not many people are, but next time we run it, I would highly recommend it. So here we go. Acts 15, 32. And Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, encouraged and strengthened the brothers with many words. Acts 9, 27.

And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. Deuteronomy 138. Colossians 3, 21. Our beginning of a 21-day cleanse of our tongue. And I don't know about you, but it is the first couple weeks. Rough, right?

Did you notice, like, how much stuff you say you shouldn't say? No one else? Just me? Just me? Okay. The rest of you are just amazing. Yeah, I just... How many times did I catch myself like, oh, don't say that? You realize how much gossip, how much negativity, how much negativity. But then again, when you get on the back end of it, I mean, you're on that broccoli, celery, broth, bone broth diet, you know, and your tongue's lost like nine pounds of slander.

And you've got like a pre-tongue picture. And you've got like a pre-tongue picture and a post-tongue picture that you've put on Facebook. And everyone's into it. When you see those things happen, it's powerful to see the effects. And I found that there actually is a real peace and joy that begins to come as we do that cleanse. So you can jump on that now. We've done criticism fast. And we're fasting from as much as we can.

And the hope to become a gossip-free church. I've been in the church a very long time. And I have never been part of a gossip-free church. And I really want to put that on the radar for us. Because the power of words is underestimated, I think, often. And as I'll say in a minute, I think that our miracle bar is way too high sometimes. We think we need to walk on water. We think that we need to, you know, ascend into heaven.

Angels need to come. There needs to be a burning bush. And we don't realize the miracle that can happen with a word that gives life or death. I told you I've had four times in the last year where people have said I was either having suicidal thoughts. I had one person. I would say the worst I heard was I was going to take my life last night. But I decided to wait out until church. It was in the morning. And I was going to take my life.

And I decided to come to church instead. That person's still with us. And because they knew, they said, I would hear words of hope. And I think we have way too high of a bar on what a miracle is. You can change someone's destiny with a word. Jesus spoke to people and changed people's destiny. And how important is a destiny? When you share the gospel with people and they get eternal life, that is a bigger miracle than the blind being, you know, able to see.

Because it is something that lasts forever. Eventually we all pass away. And Jesus knew this in the importance of words. And we talked about the overall 30,000 foot view of what words mean to God. In the first week of this series, if you've missed it, you can go back online and hear every series from this year. But this one on the tongue. We did that. And we're looking at a lot of different verses. The Bible, I was so overwhelmed with the counsel that the word of God has on words that I really felt limited in just bringing one particular passage, maybe out of James.

And so what I wanted to do is give the entire counsel of God's word. And when we were looking for direction in our life, we want to look at the entire counsel, the Old Testament, the New Testament. But what I realized is this is one of the most prolific elements. This is one of the most prolific topics in all of Scripture, this idea of the tongue. And so as we look at this, we're going to start with this idea now. After talking about gossip yesterday, I wanted to finish with a real encouragement to you that you would be strengthened, like the Bible says, and talk about encouragement.

And how you can become an encourager, and how you can become a builder, and how you can actually change the entire trajectory of not only your life and your heart, but of others by becoming a person of good report. Not that you're dishonest, not that you just are, you know, just trying to make everyone happy, and you never have a conflict, a healthy conflict. But actually learning how to be a person of good report, a person of encouragement, a person like we'll see here, a Barnabas.

If you open up your notes, you're going to see a definition of encouragement. And I thought, I looked through a lot of definitions. And the reason I picked this one was the second word in there, to in spirit. I love encourage. If you take the prefix there, it means to infuse with, you know, infuse as I am, but it means to put into, to infuse, to encourage, to put within, to steep something. If you ever steep water with a teabag, the water becomes, it can be the stronger and stronger, the longer it steeps.

The same thing is true with encouragement. You can change the entire trajectory of your home. And I believe words need to be backed up by actions. And I believe that words will flow from the heart, as the scripture says. But I think we underestimate the power of what words can do. Imagine if a marriage that was in trouble committed to only speaking positive words to each other. And I'm not talking just making stuff up to say happy, nice things to each other.

But really, like, hey, I believe you can do this. I believe we can do this. Imagine if you fill your home. Imagine if you fill your child with words of encouragement, with words of truth. If you filled your life with those kind of words. You wonder why guys like Tony Robbins and Joel Osteen fill 50,000 seat arenas. Because they have mastered the value of hope. They have mastered the ability to tell people there is a new day coming.

You look at this and you see this happening. This over and over again. I think if you look at the black church, you're going to see this is one of the strongest things that the African American church brings to society. It's the ability to preach with hope. I will say that they preach with hope better than most churches that I am a part of. And there's other communities around the world and different things. But they have lived in a place, especially in this country, of despair.

And they receive the message of Jesus Christ. And when you are in bondage, like the Israelites were. And when you are in slavery and you are being yoked down. If you are going to have people press on to the next day while they are still in bondage. Because you have to remember that the African American church was accepting Christ. And writing words of praise while they were still in the fields. How do you live in bondage that is not of your own volition.

And yet live in a place where you are writing songs that will last a hundred years later. And encourage not just the African American church, but the whole church. Because they understood that there's a key component to putting the next foot in front of the other. And that is hope. Read the Negro spirituals. Read through and listen to the preaching. And you are going to see that it has the ability to not only affect a person, but to affect a nation.

To affect a group of people. To rise up and to stand up. And to have hope. So we see this and encourage means to in spirit. To hearten. To embolden. To fill with courage and with strength of purpose. And to encourage means to suggest the raising of another one's confidence. And to influence. Especially by an external agency. To in spirit. To instill life. Energy. Courage. Or vigor. Into something. You remember Braveheart.

As William Wallace was going. And he had the blue. Oh man, I just love that movie. You know what I mean? It was just so. Ah! You know? He had the blue, you know, makeup on his face. Or whatever it was. And he was writing. And all the men were discouraged. And what did he do? He began to ride back and forth. And encourage the men. If you look at movies. Some of the best movies. Are the one that have that speech. The one that have that moment.

We can do this thing. We will not fail. We will run into the battle. We live in a nation that needs a word of encouragement. We live in a nation that needs an army of people to rise up with hope. And we need to encourage the church. Especially to speak words of encouragement of hope. Not of death. The church is very good at speaking about the curse that we are saved from. And reminding people that you are in the curse.

But we often forget the hope of the gospel and the good news. Moving on here. I have three things about encouragement. One. Encouragement is fuel for the kingdom. Kingdom growth. It is fuel. It is like dry desert timber. That will burn so quickly. It is encouragement. It lights things afire. Encouragement is fuel for the kingdom. If you want to build the kingdom that God has put you in dominion over. And whether you believe it or not.

Each of you has a kingdom. It might be as small as only the kingdom of your own heart. Others of you have greater influence. And God has used you to move cities. Or as apostles. And some of you I know work in Africa. And work with nations. And we have Christine. Who works. And she is leading nations in a lot of ways. And God has given you different influence. But all of us have a dominion. And God wants to be the king of your heart.

And I want to say that encouragement. The word of God as well. Which is great for encouragement. Is fuel for building the kingdom. And are you building the kingdom? Starting with the kingdom of your heart. The first corner of four corners we work with here. Is the kingdom of your heart. The corner of your heart. How's it doing? Do you speak words of encouragement over it? Or do you speak words of death? Part of our fasting of the tongue.

It means no longer speaking words to ourself. That God doesn't believe about us. Speaking words of hope. The next thing is encouragement drives destiny. I believe that encouragement is what moves people into their destiny. We'll look at some biblical figures where we saw that happen. And number three. Encouragement allows you to live in the supernatural. Man I just got to say it again. Our bar of miracle is way too high.

I never see any miracles. I want to say God has given you your tongue to be a miracle. You can change the world with a speech. We've seen it all over the world. You can lead nations. You can just. You can lead your home. You can lead your corner. You can lead the coffee house you go to. I love it when that person comes in. Because when they do. They have a good word upon their tongue. They speak a good word. And so we look at encouragement as the fuel for the kingdom.

Let's look at the first point of these three. And we'll knock it out. Now some form of the word encouragement. Looking at the book of Acts now. This is where we are in the book of Acts. Some word. Some form of the word encouragement is used eight times in the book of Acts. This is twice as many. According to the study that I found. As any other book in the Bible. And one third of all the scriptures entire use of the word.

Interesting. Not only does it have a word of encouragement. There's actually a guy named Barnabas who we'll look at. And it is the son of encouragement. Why would God infuse chronological history? Why would he infuse biblical narrative? With a huge season of encouragement. Right after he dies on the cross. Now there's other times where there's encouragement in the scripture. But if you look at just the biblical abundance of the use of the word.

And the writing of the scripture. And the sending of a Barnabas. And Jesus telling you to take heart. And these different things. And you see that in the Old Testament as well. But why would God bring it for such a time as that? Because they needed encouragement. I gotta say some of you need that encouragement right now. Some of you need to up your game in regard to encouraging your children. And getting away from a critical spirit.

The Bible talks in Proverbs over and over again about critical people. It says about critical people. You would rather be basic. I'll give my summary of it. You'd rather be 10,000 miles away. Than share a house with somebody who's critical. You ever have someone that's critical? You do something nice. They come home. You don't have to. And by the way. Don't do the whole thing of look at your partner and smile right now.

So just prepare yourself not to do that. Hey I cleaned the garage. You didn't do it right. I wanted that stuff over there. Or whatever it is. I told you my mom had her father tell her regularly. You'll never amount to anything. And she has disproven that. But maybe you've had those words spoken over you. And we see that encouragement is a fuel. In the book of Acts God uses it because he was building something. Because in the book of Acts he's building the new covenant.

He's building the new kingdom. And you realize that encouragement is a kingdom builder. Each of you has a kingdom. And perhaps it's the kingdom of your heart. Which has been besmirched with slander and lies. And guilt. And shame. And the word of God wants to soothe that. The Holy Spirit who is the comforter. Wants to come in and speak words of joy to you. Words of peace. Words of hope. And say it's time to rise up. To rise up your own heart.

Because that's where it needs to start. Let me say again that encouragement is a fuel for the kingdom. And you've got to take the kingdom that God has given you. Because each of you has a dominion. It might be this girls soccer team that you run. That you're the coach of. It might be the dog park where you walk. And you go to that dog park. Every week. But you know what? They know you. And you have friendships. And you have relationships.

Because of that. That happens. And God has said. I'm going to set you as an apostle. It's a dog park. But it matters to me. And it's part of your kingdom. And I'm giving it to you. Because the scripture says. I will give you wherever you put your feet. And only a tongue of encouragement is worthy to go and spread the kingdom. Or to walk in. Or do we walk in and bring the place down. That's key. That's important. What kind of kingdom are you building?

Acts 15.32. And the whole council of scripture says. And Judas and Silas who themselves prophets. Encouraged and strengthened the brother with many words. I love that. Proverbs also says. Where there is a multitude of words. There is no lack of sin. But it also shows. Because we're looking at the whole council of scripture. That you can have a multitude of words. And if you choose those words wisely. Wait on the Lord.

Lord give me a word in season. There was a man last night. That God I felt gave me a word of encouragement for him. And I prayed on it for a week and a half. Before I gave it to him. Because I don't want to just give everything that comes to me. Sometimes God gives me a word. And he says don't share it with people. But I went up and I gave it to him. And we saw later in the prayer in the night. That it felt as he prayed.

That that word landed. If it's a word from the Lord. That you give to somebody. And maybe it's a word for yourself. You don't need to hype it up. One of the things I learned in some of the Christian circles I've been in. It's like. The Lord saith. Thus saith the Lord. I've had people stand up and shout it out. And scream it out. What I've learned about a word from the Lord. Is you don't need to promote it. You don't need to add anything to it.

To make it stronger. It's a word from the Lord. If you get a word from the Lord. I can whisper it to you. And it is going to hit like a nuclear bomb in your life. Because it's a word from the Lord. I say in your prayer life. Ask God. God give me a word today. Give me a word from me. Give me a word from scripture. And if you don't trust your own heart. Then use scripture. Test a word. A word tested in season. A good word in season.

It says that it lands in a fitting place. That it will bring health to the bones. It will encourage people. Be an encourager. The book of Acts also introduces besides these words. A key figure by the name of Barnabas. Meaning son of encouragement. I love how the Bible changes people's names a lot. Peter gets his name changed. I think Jesus is just waiting on some of us to change our name. I just want to get in alignment.

I got a new name for you. You know in Revelations it says that there's like this white stone. It's a really unique. I mean the Bible has some trippy verses in it. I just got to. I mean I just got to be real with you. You know what I'm saying. And he comes and it says that Jesus has this white stone. And your name is written on it. Like your real name. So you got a name. I see Dane over there. He's got a name. His name is Dane.

My name is Adam. You know what I mean. You got Mike over there. You got everybody. You got you know everyone who's here friendly. But then there's another name that only God knows. And it's an intimate name. And when he speaks it it's going to speak in eternity to you. And when you get to heaven it says he's going to give you that white stone. And your true name is going to be on it. And I don't think he's going to run around heaven and tell everybody that name.

That's the thing of intimacy. Jesus. That thing is about secrets. That Jesus wants to say this is what you mean to me. My beloved. And as you get that stone everything will make sense. Because he will intertwine his name with your new name. As a word of encouragement. A word that speaks life and truth. And it has a name change. And I want to say I want to move closer to that name change. Because maybe there's a name and someone has put names on you.

Somebody has said names to you. You're no good. Or you're this or you're that. Or some of the curses that we use. Or that girl that woman's such a whatever. Or he's such a whatever. And when we do that we curse people. And Jesus looks at his little stone for that person. And he says you know I'm not in agreement with what you just said. And maybe you speak to yourself that way. You need to encourage yourself. Maybe you need to encourage your spouse.

Maybe you just need to cleanse your tongue. And say I will never speak words like that over my spouse again. Because I want to get a vision of who God says she is. Or the person you're dating. Or your children. Or your mother-in-law. Or your father-in-law. Or you. God give us a vision of who people are. If you have a vision of who people can be. You'll change your tongue. Acts 9.27 says. And when he had come to Jerusalem.

He attempted to join the disciples. Now this is Paul. Okay. This is after Paul had killed Christians. People are a little suspect on Paul. You know. He'd been doing some stuff that he shouldn't do. And he attempted to join the disciples. Because he met Jesus. Right. He's like I'm in. I'm boys. I'm in. He's one of the boys. And he shows up. And they're like running for the hills. We want nothing to do with you. Until one dude takes a chance on him.

You ever take a chance on somebody? You ever take a chance on somebody? We're always looking for the best and the brightest. This church is kind of a pirate ship. I don't know if you've noticed. You know what I mean? Like we just got a bunch of scullywags. And pirates. Like. Because I got to tell you. I was not the best and the brightest. I honestly was not the brightest. Potential is a great word. You know. But never living up to potential is a bummer.

And I remember I was. I was. I was. I quit drinking. But I was still. I was still smoking. And. And. And. You know. Doing. I had some other things that were going on. And I came to my. Pastor. And I'm like. Hey. I got this. I got to get this right before I can come back. He goes. Man. You just keep coming. I said. I can't come dude. I'm. I'm. I'm still. Going to Mexico on occasion. Or I don't know what I was doing. I was doing something.

And I just. I just wasn't a good gamble. I wasn't a good bet. But Pastor Dave rolled the dice on me. And then he said. You know what. And I wasn't ready to teach yet. And he said. I want. You know. I think you're supposed to teach. I'm going to. I'm going to teach a sermon. And we were doing a small group on Wednesday. And he said. You can sit by me. And I'm going to like. Pass it to you. For like three minutes. Like.

I had like a three minute window there. I'm going to let you do your thing. I'm like. Well man. I don't deserve to preach. I still got this going on. I got this relationship. And we haven't quite sorted that out yet. And yada yada yada. And you know. The whole deal. Coming out of that. PB lifestyle max. And the whole deal. And drugs. And he said. Man. Then you're under my covering. He said. You're under my covering bro.

I got you. And I will take responsibility. And you will teach under my covering. And I'm not letting you loose. But I'm not giving you too much responsibility. You do your three minutes man. And I would prepare for my little three minutes. And it was bad. He came to me one day. And he said. You know. You might want to use the scripture. When you speak about it. I had a great story. I think I went five minutes. It was about surfing.

And this whole thing. And at the end. He's all. You know. Relating what you said to the scripture. Would be really key. And those were early days. You know. I want to take. I want to take a risk on people. I want to take. I want to be that person. That says you. And you know. I think there's a lot of us. On staff here. That probably shouldn't have made it. To staff. Myself included. Because we've had hard times in our life.

But this is a pirate ship. And you know. I'm probably the key pirate here. You know. No. But we believe and we love each other. And this is what Barnabas did. Look what Barnabas did when Paul came in. Because Paul was not a safe bet. And they were all afraid of him. For they did not believe that he was a disciple. People tell you you're not a disciple. They don't believe you're a disciple. I had a person tell me not too long ago.

You're not a disciple. I said oh okay. Well I have to receive that. And they didn't like it when I didn't receive it. Not a disciple. Okay. Guess I'm not a disciple. Hopefully you know the root by the fruit. But Barnabas took him. And brought him to the apostles. And declared to them. How on the road he had seen the Lord. And Barnabas wasn't even there. Who spoke to him. He vouched for him. And how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus.

He said this boy is one of us. And I vouch for him. And I gotta say who are you vouching for? I'm saying you gotta you know. You gotta have a I think a safe. You take some safe risk. You know. But do we risk for anybody anymore? Do we stand in the gap? Or when they make one mistake like in our culture. You see one thing happen. And you know what? You're done for good. There is no redemption. High high moral. No moral calling in our culture right now.

And no redemption for anybody. I want to say. Are you going to reach out and say. You know what? This person right here. I'm calling them along. They're one of us. And I vouch for them. And I gotta say. I'm somebody who was vouched for. And maybe you've been vouched for. And maybe there's someone you need to vouch for. Encouragement. Be a Barnabas. Next one is. Encouragement drives destiny. The scripture is full of great stories of destiny.

That were written through words of encouragement. Destiny. Let me just read a couple. When you see. In the book of Esther. I believe it's Mordecai. Comes. And the nation. Of Israel. Is in the balance. And he looks. And Esther is given this word. For such a time as this. It was that rallying cry. Will you stand up. And meet the moment. I want to say. That was somebody's word. Who didn't have the authority. Who didn't have the ability.

Going to somebody. Who was going to be God's vessel. And encouraging them. To take a step. That could have led to their death. And encouragement. Led to destiny. I want to say. Are we overvalue. We have a. We have too high a bar. For miracles. That was a miracle. That came by words. Peter. Matthew 16. 18. Jesus looks at Peter. He gives him that new name. That one that you want. And he says. And I tell you. That you are Peter.

And on this rock. I will build my church. And the gates of hell itself. Will not overcome it. Love that. The gates of hell. Will not overcome you. I tell people this all the time. You could have been in the Bible. Like. We have too high a bar. Of who we think is in the Bible. You could have been in the Bible. The people in the Bible. Often were a mess. Moses. The murderer. Moses had an anger issue with God. And didn't actually get to go.

To the promised land. He didn't lead the people. To the promised land. And there's a lot of songs. About Moses leading people. To the promised land. FYI. He didn't make it. It was Joshua. Who took him in. Gotta change some old songs. I don't know if you've seen it. Ah. Moses lead us to the promised. He leads you to the edge of it. But he didn't take you in. Because he had issues. Wasn't a perfect person. Peter's not a perfect person.

But God is not looking. For perfect people. He's looking for people. That he can redeem. People that have issues. I talked to. To someone this week. They said. Can God really forgive me for that? I said. Absolutely. Absolutely. I said. It's a heresy to believe. That your sin is greater than Christ's blood. It is a heresy. And we begin to think. That God doesn't want me. God doesn't love me. He calls you his beloved. And he says.

Come sit with me. And let me encourage you with that. He wants to sup with you. And there is nothing. That you have done. That his blood. Cannot conquer. It's a word of encouragement. From the Lord. And Peter became. A rock. Now the rock. Was a. That was actually. He was building his life upon. Was the truth. That he had confessed. That Jesus Christ is Lord. That is the rock. But he became a rock. In the. In the temple.

That was being built. Which was the complexity of the gospel. In Joshua. Moses says. To. Or God says to Moses. When he says to Joshua. Because Moses has to hand it over. He says. But charge Joshua. And encourage and strengthen him. Joshua 1.9. Be strong and courageous. And encourage him. And strengthen him. Do you know your words. Can strengthen somebody. Give strength to their bone. Give strength to their soul. I know we got some football players.

In here today. They know what it means. To give that talk. You know. At the line of scrimmage. You see it all the time. You see when we talk. The words. Encourage. One person. To take another step. In the right direction. Or some of you are warriors. And you've been in the battle before. You've been on the battlefield. And you've seen things. I know. CP is here. Who was at D-Day. On day one. Came off the boat. Into. To rescue a nation.

To rescue a world. The words of encouragement. If you can imagine. What he experienced. Waiting there. And you've seen the movies. CP was the movie. Be the movie. Stop going to the movie. Be the movie. Jeff goes and gives sight to the blind. I could call you guys out all day. Because this church. It's like. People of encouragement and hope. Attract people of encouragement and hope. If we were all about damnation. Then we'd attract that.

But we don't attract that here. And I could go through one. One after another. People that are going all over the world. Or on their street corner. Or into the rest home. Or into the schools. Here in this congregation. That said. I want to be the movie. I don't want to watch the movie. I want to be the movie. Be the movie. With Christ as the star. With you co-starring with Christ. And his encouragement. Going on. Says put him.

Encourage him. Strengthen him. For he will go over and head this people. Because encouragement is infectious. And if you get encouraged in your heart. You're bringing somebody with you. And he shall put them in possession of the land that you shall see. Moses just got to see it. He actually ended up there by the way. If you know. Because of the amount of transfiguration. Who's there in the promised land? Elijah and Moses.

So you're going to make it. You just might not make it here. And as far as you want to go. Sometimes it's just up to us. And the different ifs in our lives. Encourage you. Go towards the promised land. And the final thing after that. Is encouragement. Allows us to traverse the supernatural. Actually I skipped a couple verses. I want to say something in the contrary quickly. About when we don't encourage people. Each of these stories shows how we use words.

We're used to alter individual and corporate destiny. But words can also destroy. And some of you know that. A soothing tongue is a tree of life. A tree of life. Look at the analogy. That is meant to. Allude to the tree of life. In the garden. That wasn't just. Oh that's a good analogy. Let's use tree of life. No. They're immersed in the scripture. They're talking about the very tree of life. Of God. Says. Is a tree of life.

But a perverse tongue crushes the spirit. Colossians 3.21. And this. This is in particular. For some of you that need to hear it. Myself included. Fathers do not embitter your children. Or they will become discouraged. Encouraged. Words rooted in right actions. Can save a childhood. Can save a marriage. Can save a family. Can save a life. And the final point is we circle the tower. Encouragement allows us to traverse in the supernatural.

Let me say that again. We got a lot of miracle seekers in the world. We have different denominations. And that's awesome. I'm glad. They just run after it. But we have too high a bar of the supernatural. Your tongue can usher in the supernatural. Says. We often have too high a bar. We consider a miracle. The effect and influence of a good word in season is eternal. Proverbs 10.11. The mouth of the righteous is a well of life.

A well. Proverbs 21.10.21a. The lips of the righteous feed many. Are you feeding people? Life. Proverbs 15.23. A person finds joy in giving an apt reply. And how good is a timely word? How good is a timely word? I want to say this. You are God's beloved. And he wants to write you in as the author and perfecter of your faith. To write a story that the gates of hell cannot come against. Rise up and encourage those around you and change the world.

Amen.