The Power of Your Words

The power of life and death are in the tongue. That's Proverbs 18 21, and this is Destin for Victory. Always glad to have you with us. Coming your way next, Pastor Paul Shepherd shares his message, The Power of Your Words. But first, he joins me from his studio in California to talk about something vitally important to our ministry. You know, every day here on Destin for Victory, we ask people to stand with us financially. That's because we're a listener supported ministry.

Let me underscore that for a moment. That means the only way we exist is through the prayers and financial support of people just like you. And in 2021, our prayers that you might consider, if you haven't done so already, becoming a Destin for Victory partner. Partners are a special group of people giving a monthly gift of at least $20.

If you can make that commitment today, we have some special gifts that I'll tell you about in just a moment. But Pastor Paul joins me. And Pastor, take a moment, please, and tell us why partners are so important to this ministry.

Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up, Wayne. Partners are really the lifeline of this ministry. Without those people committed to giving regularly, we literally could not continue doing what we're doing.

I guess people hear that a lot, but it is really true. Without partners, we simply can't get the gospel out to the world. The gospel is free, but the plumbing costs an awful lot of money. And we want to continue preaching. In times past, we've got generations to reach that have never heard the gospel, and they misunderstand when they hear people talk about things like serving the Lord.

And we need to make it plain to them. The only way I can do it is with my partners helping us reach them through their generous gifts. I'm so grateful for every single partner. And I'm praying in 2021 that God will give us thousands more. We could take advantage of in our ministry, but the only thing that holds us back is lack of income. So I'm praying that God's going to touch the heart of many more people to realize that with just your gift of $20 or more, you can help us remain strong on the stations and outlets we're on and reach many more with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We'll send you with our thanks a couple of great gifts, including one of Pastor Paul's most popular CDs, The Best of Let My People Smile. It's a compilation of some of Pastor's most humorous illustrations and stories, something that will be sure to make you laugh and learn at the same time. So please call 855-339-5500 or mail your gift letting us know you wish to become a partner.

The address is Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538. You can also sign up by clicking become a partner right at the top of the homepage at pastorpaul.net. And if you're already a partner, Pastor Paul and I want to say heartfelt thank you and challenge you to consider becoming a legacy partner. These are special ministry friends that are able to support us with gifts of $2,500 or more each year. The details are available at the website pastorpaul.net or by calling 855-339-5500. And if you can't become a partner today but would like to offer a generous gift to Destined for Victory, we'd be glad to send you a booklet by Pastor Paul called Turning Your Test into a Testimony. That's turning your test into a testimony.

Request it today for your generous donation. Folks, when God gets you through, quit looking back. He got you through it. Oh, you'll know what I went through.

Yeah, but you came out. Let's not build monuments to pain when we can build altars of praise for God having gotten us through the pain. Moments of pain and altars of praise are both built by the same raw material, our words. Today on Destined for Victory, Pastor Paul reminds us just how powerful our words can be.

With this message, the power of your words, here's Pastor Paul Shepherd. Remember that God's grace is sufficient. When you're going through traumatic experiences, when you have difficult seasons that you've got to get through in your life, always remember that God's grace is sufficient.

He promised you that He will give you grace to get you through what you have to go through. We saw in the last message that Paul said in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, I had a thorn in my flesh. He said the messenger of Satan was sent to buffet me because of the abundance of revelation God had given me. There was the balance of this thorn in the flesh and this messenger of Satan that buffeted me and tormented me.

And he said, I asked God three times, please remove this from my life. And God's response to him was my grace is sufficient. And as is the case with Paul, so is the case with you that we too will find God's grace is sufficient for all that we have to go through. And if we will tap into it, we will find that God has the power to get you through what you have to go through.

Now, you got to cooperate with that. You can't tap into grace while you're doing the wrong things. For instance, there are a lot of people who just are kind of stuck in a place of depression, and you've got to decide, I'm going to ask God to give me grace about this, which I otherwise would be depressed about.

You got to choose. You got to choose to walk in the grace of God. If you choose to walk in depression, depression is going to overcome and overwhelm you.

If you choose to walk in anxiety, that's going to overcome and overwhelm you. For instance, in Philippians four, Paul said now about the problems in your life, he said, Don't worry about anything, but pray about everything. So you got to give it over to God. In other words, if you want to tap into a grace that's sufficient, you take what you would worry about what you would be depressed about what you would have anxiety about, and you pray about it, and you give it over to God. And then you say, Now, Lord, in exchange, I'm giving you my trouble.

And I want to ask you to give me your grace. And Paul said, we will discover that God's grace is sufficient. Let me give you that same principle from an Old Testament passage in the book of Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah speaking. On behalf of God said to Israel, Isaiah 43 and verse two, Isaiah 43 verse two, when you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned. The flames will not set you ablaze.

I love that promise God gave to Israel and gives also to you and to me. He said, when you pass through the waters. Now, I know some of us wish there was a translation, an accurate translation that said if you pass through the waters. But I want to let you know, I've checked it out ahead of time, there is no translation that does justice to the Hebrew that this Old Testament text is based on that says if every credible translation of the original Hebrew says when you pass through. You know what that means, ladies and gentlemen, that means that whether you like it or not, every now and then you're going to pass through some waters.

Every now and then you're going to pass through some rivers. Every now and then you're going to find yourself walking through some fiery trials. But look at the promise. The promise is when that happens, God says don't worry about the fact that you're in the water or you're in the fire.

He said, I am going to be with you. If you're in a bad place, at least have some good company. And if you're in a bad season of your life, just realize that God said, Don't worry, you're not in here by yourself.

I'm right here with you. And the Lord is never an innocent bystander. Whenever we find ourselves in a difficult place, and we are saying we walk with him, we know him as our Savior and Lord, he said, I will never leave you and I will never forsake you.

And one of the reasons you ought to get saved if you're not saved is because God says when you belong to me, I belong to you. And every time you go through the water, every time you go through the fire, I am right there with you. And I'm not there just to drown with you. I've never drowned and I'm not going to let you drown.

He said, I'm going to get you through. The waters will not sweep over you. The idea is for you to be so overcome by water like a person in the process of drowning until you can't surface and get to the place where you can get air. He said that'll never happen when you belong to me. I'll let you go through the water, but I will not let the water get into you.

That's a wonderful promise. Because you know, you don't drown because you're in the water. You only drown when the water gets in you. And God says, I'll let you get in the water, but I won't let the water get in you. I'll let you go through the trial, but I won't let the trial overwhelm you.

I'll let you walk through the fire, but I'm going to give you the ability to walk through without being burned. I don't know about you, but that's a promise I can accept from the Lord. And so we have to know that his grace is sufficient.

God says, I will get you through what you have to go through. And so Jabez's mother did not realize that God's grace had been sufficient. She didn't focus on the fact that God had gotten her through this experience. She focused on the pain of it. And look at what she did. And inadvertently, she has already come through the experience because she named the child after he got here.

So think this through now. She had an, obviously she had an awful childbirth experience, a traumatic process of getting this boy into the world. She must have been screaming and hollering and carrying on. But at the point of naming, she's gotten through it. She's gotten through it.

The boy is here now. The pain is subsiding. I know that maybe she wasn't all the way through, you know, still had some pain in the after effects. I get that, but it wasn't as bad as it had been.

Now think about it. Once you, you have had traumatic birth experiences, getting your children to the world. After it was over, you might have had some leftover pain, but it wasn't up at that same level. And so now she's got the boy holding him in her arms. And what does she do? Instead of thanking God for his grace and his provision and getting her through it, she looks back and she says, I'm going to name you, you cause me pain. Folks, when God gets you through, quit looking back. He got you through it. Oh, you'll know what I went through.

Yeah, but you came out. Let's not build monuments to pain when we can build altars of praise for God, having gotten us through the pain. We'll be right back with more of today's Destined for Victory message from Pastor Paul Shepard. Listen to the broadcast on demand at pastorpaul.net. That's pastorpaul.net, where you'll find a host of great resources at our online store, including books and DVD messages from Pastor Paul.

You can also subscribe to the podcast at Apple podcast at Spotify or wherever you enjoy your programs. Now here's Pastor Paul with the rest of today's Destined for Victory message. The power of your words. I'll talk more about that later in another point, but right now let me show you what she did was she did not honor the sufficient grace of God in the naming of the child. She could have named that boy anything. God brought me through pain. She could have named him praise God.

He's a deliverer. She could have named all God. I mean those Hebrew names.

They have some great significant names that give God praise God saves and God delivers and God heals and all that. She says you called me pain. And when you realize God's grace is sufficient in your life, realize that you have now the potential to move on and you don't have to turn around and reflect and remember. Oh yes, the testimony will be there, but make sure you shape the testimony in such a way that you are acknowledging I'm out of it now. I've come through it now.

Oh, it was rough, but by the grace of God, I have come through it. You know, that's what the old saints did. That's why I know some of those songs we grew up singing.

You might've taken them for granted now, but at a certain point in your life, you ought to look back and say, woo, they sang some good songs. You grew up in those churches like I did where they say the choir come in singing. We come this far by faith. Leaning on the Lord. I'd see them walking in cause I, you know, I grew up in church where the choir didn't just sing, they processed in, came down to center house. Some of y'all haven't been to a center house church. I grew up in a center house church. The choir came, they stood.

You'd see them standing there getting positioned and the organ would strike up and they would sing their way in. And one of the songs was we've come this far by faith, leaning on the Lord, trusting in his holy word. He has never failed me yet.

Oh, can't turn around. We've come this far by faith. Listen, you made it through by the grace of God.

And so you got to remember when you're in your traumatic experience, God says, I'll be with you and I'm going to see to it that you get through it. Now let's look at a second lesson we can learn. Cause again, you learn in scripture both from people's great example and you also learn from their mistakes.

The Bible says things written a forward time were written for our learning. You're supposed to learn from everybody in the scripture, things that people that did something right and people that did it wrong. And this woman, this was an ill-advised decision. I'm sure she meant well, but this was an ill-advised decision.

So we're learning how to do it better. When we deal with our traumatic experiences, we don't want to make the same mistakes that J Bez's mother made. So remember that God's grace is sufficient.

Number two, and here's where I really want to park. Speak words of faith and conviction. Speak words of faith and conviction. When you're dealing with your traumatic experiences, when you're in the thick of something difficult, learn to speak words of faith and conviction. I am more convinced than ever that if we want to experience God's Canaan land, God's promised land, God's best for our lives, we've got to learn to speak in a way that is consistent with God taking us to such a place. I'm concerned that we have a generation of believers that speak doubt and unbelief and fear. We speak problems and we magnify all the wrong things and then we expect God to help us. When instead, we need to learn to get our mouths and our confession in line with the God we serve who has promised to take us to higher heights. Now, I realize there are people in the body of Christ, there are teachers in the body of Christ who overdo this business of confession. I know, I get it. I've heard some of them do real damage. I've heard some hyper faith teachers just talk about you have to be so very careful about every syllable that comes out of your mouth and all that. You know, some of them just take it to a hyper extreme.

I get it. I've heard some of that but I am suggesting that a lot of us have got to learn to speak right. Our language is doubt and fear. Our language is pain and past hurt and we need to begin to speak the language of forward thinking and forward movement and here's what God has done about what I'm going through and here's what God will do. I need to learn to say of the Lord, he is my refuge.

In fact, let me give that to you in scripture form. Psalm 91 verses one and two. The Psalmist says, he who dwells in the shelter of the most high will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust.

See, you got to learn to say what God says and the word of the Lord says, even when you're going through something tough, rather than spend all your time talking about the tough stuff you're going through, say of the Lord. Yeah, I might be in a storm but I found a refuge. You know, every now and then you walk in, you ever been walking and one of those deluge of rain comes and just it's pouring rain but if you find a little place with an overhang and you can just tuck yourself in there, for a while you'd rather not be moving out there where the wind is blowing and the rain is beating on you.

So you just get still somewhere but you're underneath an overhang and the storm is going on around you but right where you are, you're dry and you're protected. And that's what the Psalmist says, I found in God a shelter. King James says, he who dwells in the secret place. I found a secret place, other folks don't know it, they're out there walking in the rain, they don't know about it but I'm over here in a shelter in a secret place and I'm abiding under the shadow of the Almighty.

And the Psalmist said, while I'm here I'm going to say something, I'm not going to talk about how bad the storm is, I'm going to say of the Lord, he is my refuge. Thank you Lord that you're my secret place. Thank you Lord that I'm not losing my mind. Thank you Lord that I'm not going crazy. Other folk going through what I'm going through have lost their mind but God I thank you that you're keeping me in perfect peace.

I thank you that while I keep my mind on you, I have found a secret place. I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge, my God in him I trust. You got to learn to speak words of faith, conviction and blessing. We got to learn to say the right things. Some of us have jacked up language that is largely responsible for us staying in a bad place.

You're saying all the wrong things, you're bellyaching about all the problems instead of talking about the solution. And God is trying to move us on and we've got to learn to speak consistently with where we are going. Here's what Paul said in Colossians chapter 3, Colossians chapter 3 verse 17. Here's what Paul said, and whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Whatever you do in word or deed, whatever you do in word, your words do things. It's not just your deeds that do things. I want you to realize your words have more significance than many of us have ever thought about. Your words are making a difference for good or for bad. You already know at some level that your words can aid or they can hinder. Your words can heal or they can hurt. Your words can encourage and your words can discourage. Your words can motivate and your words can demotivate. Your words can instill hope and your words can instill despair. It's all a question of what you say.

And we know that. Think back on your own history. There are two categories of people who are easily recalled in our minds. People who spoke words that were helpful, encouraging, affirming, words that helped you get through some crisis, words that built you up when you were down.

Words that gave you fresh courage when fear was trying to envelop your heart and mind. We can all think of people who spoke words to us that were very helpful. And we can also all think of another category of folk who spoke words that hurt deeply, words that wounded. And we remember both categories of people. You might have forgotten a whole lot of folk you've run into in your lifetime, but those two categories you're going to remember.

The folk that helped you with what they said and the folk that harmed you. I can think of encouraging words, so can you. Somebody said something timely and they said it right. Shift over now to Colossians 4, the next chapter over, verse 6, and you'll find Paul saying, Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. That's the target. Learn to speak words of faith and conviction.

What are those? Those are words that are full of grace and they're seasoned with salt. Thank you for being here for today's message, The Power of Your Words. If you'd like more information about the Destined for Victory ministry or this month's special offer, be sure to stop by our website, pastorpaul.net.

That's pastorpaul.net. Sometimes compliments come from an enemy setting you up, but sometimes wounds come from a friend who's helping you heal. And they have to tell you something that's hard. You make sure your words are full of grace.

You make sure they're seasoned with salt. That's next time in Pastor Paul Shepherd's message, The Power of Your Words. Until then, remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory. .