Sunday Evening Worship Service

let me Echo the same sentiments and you can be seated welcoming the Huffs just the same it's an honor to have you all here with us and let me say brother O'Brien it's so awesome to have you back in the house with us in person seen you online all the time but it's it's awesome to be back together and all of those here with us we welcome you all those tuning in with us online and those that are unable to be in service with you maybe our Summit seniors or we're dealing with many that have illness or uh have been injured uh we want you to know that we're praying for you but you're right here in service and those traveling as well you're in service with us and we're excited about lifting up the name of Jesus as I mentioned at the beginning of the service what a word that we heard this morning and uh I'm I'm just so encouraged there uh nothing can do what the word of God can do and I I believe that so uh tonight I ask you to overlook the inadequacies of the speaker tonight and I uh never want to come to this Podium somehow thinking I deserve to be up here or I have some hidden message that uh that I've come to tell you tonight um my goal is to preach what this word says and when I'm preaching to you I promise prise you I'm preaching to myself even more and I believe that God's word has something for us tonight I'm excited to be in a church where just the words out of this book right here can get us to our feet that can cause us to praise can cause us to worship and we know where the answer for our life is so with that being said if you would turn with me to the Book of James 3 verse 1-14 and I'm going to let you be seated and I said all that to say this I have 14 verses of scripture to start out with tonight so if you get nothing out of the rest of the sermon at least you got some word to go home with and the church said amen James 3: one my brethren be not many Masters knowing that ye shall receive the greater con condemnation for in many things we offend all if If any man defend not in word the same is a perfect man and also able to Bridle the whole body behold we put bits in the H's mouths that they may obey us and it turned their whole body behold also the ships which though they be so great and are driven of fierce winds yet are they turned about with a very small hell wheresoever the Govern listeth even so the tongue everybody everybody say the tongue the t is a little member and boasteth great things behold how great a matter a little fire can kindleth and the tongue is a fire a world of iniquity so is the tongue among our members that it defileth the whole body and Seth on fire the course of Nature and it set on fire of hell for every kind of beasts and of birds and of serpents and the things of the sea is tamed Can Be Tamed named and halfth Be Tamed of mankind but the tongue no man tame it is an unruly evil full of deadly poison therewith bless we God even the father and therewith curse We Men which are made after the similitude of God out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing my brethren these things ought not be so do a fountain send forth at the same place Sweet Water and also bitter can the Fig Tree my brethren bear Olive berries either of Vine figs so can no Fountain both yield salt water and fresh who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you let him show out a good conversation of his works with meekness of wisdom but ye have bitter envy and strife in your hearts Glory not and lie not against the truth I want to speak to you for a few moments tonight on the time I speak Victory if you would just write where you're sitting and and let's let's pray one more time over this word Heavenly Father we thank you tonight Lord we thank you for what you've done we thank you for the mighty singing and praise that has gone forth Lord we know that you are here moving up and down the aisles we know that whatever we have need of just lies in being able to manifest our faith in this life Lord you know every need every situation we know there's situations tonight Lord where we need you to make a way when there is no way right now father we put these things in your hand and we ask that your word just go out tonight and give us the answers to Life's questions in jesus' name we pray amen for years one Minister kept a PL H plaque hanging on his pool pit so that every time he preached he would read it and it stated nothing has opened more time s by mistake than the mouth it was his way of reminding himself to be oh so cautious oh so careful and also studied with what he said Jesus taught that we will give an account for both what we teach and also what we do someone has said it seems the tongue can have a mind of its own the truth is that the tongue may be considered an extension of the mind and this scripture says for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks it has been said the secret of making another person feel important is to tell them a secret and he will feel so important when he shares it with someone else wow that may seem as a negative assumption about humanity and human nature it may be based upon genuine observation it does seem that people love to tell secrets and that is the tongue the love for telling of those secret that gets us often times in more trouble than anything else countries have gone to war over the words of a king or political leader marriages families have been torn apart over the exchanging of words they are those that lie in an early grave tonight or sit behind the bars of a prison cell all because they were unable to control their tongue James 3:2 said ask how to conquer the small member of the body is a Monumental question but one that begs research he who controls his tongue is he whom the Bible says is a perfect man which is able to control his old body one angry individual told John Wesley my talent is to speak my mind Wesley replied God wouldn't care one bit if you buried that Talent James in our initial verse said we put bits in the H's mouths that they obey us and the ships which though they be so great driven by Fierce winds yet they are turned about with just a very small him even so the tongue is that little member something so small and boasteth though such great things can have such Monumental Consequence the top five deadliest animals in the world this is like the beginning of a Discovery Channel promo the top five deadliest animals in the world just gets your attention number five there's a whole week just dedicated to this number five are sharks and that's scary there's going to have to be one get some legs and come find me about 8 hours from the coast where we are at to come and get me number four the hippopotamus and that that is scary even scarier than trying to spell hippopotamus hippo for short number four four on the list the hippopotamus number three the crocodile yeah listen to that o top five deadliest animals number two no doubt about it the snake scary wherever you go watching where you step watching if it's camouflaged number one the oh so intimidating oh so fearful mosquito one of the smallest insects in the world there's no mosquito week there there are no mascots if you will for sports teams that are identified as the fighting mosquitoes maybe somebody will find one somewhere but kind of an unassuming thing to be listed as the number one deadliest animal the most dangerous animal in the world also the smallest or estimated to cause between 750,000 to 1 million human deaths per year they're a vector for many diseases that are deadly to humanity malaria Nile the zika virus some scientists have estimated that potentially half of all human death since the beginning of our species may be the result of illness transmitted not by sharks or Not by snakes or Not by crocodiles or hippopotamus or lions the king of the jungle but by the deadly mosquito even without such a wild historical estimate the mosquito has solidly cemented its place at number one on the list year after year something so small my point is so deadly our world was shut down just a few years ago and I won't go into all the details of it but a pandemic across the whole world over something that you needed a microscope to see Paris right now has being infiltrated but not by a neighboring Kingdom but they're worried about the Olympics coming up because the infestation of bed bugs something so now everybody's really scared now I should give the altar call right now something so small all right could have so such a magnitude of an impact oh the ability to speak volumes to speak nonstop oh I just have the Gift of Gab as we say in our culture but certainly it is no gift rather it is a lack of discipline a lack of self-control a lack of concern for the feelings and opinions of other moreover it is a failure to acknowledge the accountability that one must bear when he or she speaks in the epistle that bears his name John James admonished Christians be swift to hear but yet slow to speak virtually everyone says something at one time or another which we are sorry about whether it's an expression made in anger or simply an idle comment made with no forethought will have these cliches of oh I just I lost my cool in the moment or I stuck my foot in my mouth everyone has the ATT tendency in their flesh to use their tongue in regrettable ways on occasion and even an apology offered in sincerity however cannot always remove the hurtful remarks sometimes made some people actually Pride themselves on being oh so vocal I'm obviously not talking about speaking truth without regard for consequences in a serious situation but I'm talking about when the tongue inflicts unnecessary pain and anguish when tempers flare because of ill timed or crude remarks it would be better to be silent Bishop TD Jake preaches a message that is entitled shut up he said sometimes God is ready to work in your life if you'll shut up he said many of us would have more friends and we would be more respected if we would shut up he said some of you would get promotions and your career would Advance if you would just shut up he said marriages would improve if you shut up and then he said husbands and wives look at your spouse and say are are you listening is what he is how he set it up so I attribute every one of those statements to him tonight you can email Bishop TD Jakes for that but the message is true what God would do for us if we not only shut up but spoke well he would have us to speak Avid Bible students May pour over the volumes of Greek or Hebrew or ancient Aramaic seeking Mastery of an ancient language in the hopes that it will unlock some mysteries of God's word to them and find some hidden context that is not easily available on the surface but if the tongue cannot be combed it will do of little benefit the tongue has a tremendous capacity for Destruction with the tongue James wrote that the course of nature can be set on fire the course of nature refers to a person's natural state in the ungenerated natural state that person that we were before we were a new creation it said that we revert back to that sinful flesh fleshly nature a person filled with evil a person filled with hatred and when a follower of a Christ fails to control their speech and unwisely uses their tongue to speak hurtful words to speak manipulative words to speak untrue words it sets on fire their prior nature of of sin with his words they may also incite feelings and emotions of Vengeance or retaliation in another person we've all have those people in our lives where we might be dealing with something serious and we tell them and they're like well this is what I would do oh if I was in that situation I would have just told her thus and so I would have told him this you mean you didn't come back at them James said the tongue is as a fire and not only does it set others on fire but it's like a Fire Within and of itself it inflames both the hearer and the speaker though his choice of words a person can inflame himself and stir up old feelings of hatred and resentment because of unwise words of passion he may even lead himself to commit a terrible deed that a man can tame every kind of animal yet not exercise control of his own tongue is a phenomenon the Bible says it's not able to Be Tamed a lion and elephant a dolphin a serpent Can Be Tamed by Humanity but man is unable woman is unable to con be able to control their own tongue the Old Testament predicted not only the outpouring of the Holy Ghost but also the evidence which would accompany such event the evidence could be perceived by human senses in Isaiah 2811 for with stammering lips in another tongue will he speak to his people yes this prophecy had immediate application to the Israelites but it also had a predictive application to the New Testament Church God chose man's untamable member to use as an instrument in which to manifest the initial sign of his infilling of the Holy Ghost notice the initial sign yes repentance of sins baptism in the name of Jesus and he'll in fill you with his spirit and it will be evidenced by the speaking in another tongue and that's the initial evidence but what does the evidence look like among or so down the road after you've received the Holy Ghost or a year or so down the road or several years down the road is there still evidence and I'm not talking about speaking in a Heavenly language at this moment what what evidence is coming out of your mouth currently that you are indeed filled with the Holy Ghost because you on your own cannot control that smallest member words that are spoken have the capacity of providing Direction This is obvious when we look at the context of teaching whether in a classroom or in a church setting or in a family's living room even when the mouth is open to give instruction people can benefit learning what to do knowing where to go knowing how to get to a specific destination James compared the tongue in a person to the rudder of a ship or to the Bridal in a horse's mouth a ship without a Rudder is just a floating mass of Destruction looking for a target an unbridled horse might carry its Rider into a tree branch or barbed wire fence what a difference a small Rudder in a ship or a Bridal in the mouth of a horse so also is the importance of disciplined speech James taught us that a person who does not control his tongue is UN disciplined and out of control not knowing what to say not knowing what he or she truly believes not knowing where he or she is truly going not knowing what the mission is that they are set to accomplish on this Earth but he said through the Holy Ghost if your tongue can be edified it has the potential to be a Guiding Light and it has the potential to be the helping hand to others and as Jesus said some negative assumptions thus far but as Jesus said I don't leave you comfortless tonight the tongue for all its potential for harm and evil can also be the foundation for the miraculous we can refresh and Delight the weariest of souls by carefully choosing and speaking words that uplift Proverbs 2511 says a word fitly spok spoken is like apples of gold and pictures of silver and if you look at the context and the commentary of this verse it's actually talking about citrus fruit bright colored citrus fruit that would sit in silver gold uh silver bowls and on a hot desert day when you entered inside into shaded area you would see that uh that that that vehicle for one's hydration there just with the beautiful Citrus F fruits complemented by the silver gold and silver bowls and he said that's what a good word feels like it appeals to the senses and it can bring it it it can bring hydration to those that are thirsty William Shakespeare said that man that hath a tongue I say is no man if with his tongue he cannot win a woman I think that's in Proverbs somewhere and there was there was nothing more valuable that could exit out of your lips men than to edify your wife edify your family the the definition of masculinity should be how we treat and what we say that's to our spouse perhaps the most powerful commentary on the tongue comes from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah he said the Lord God has given me the tongue of the learn that I should know how to speak a word in a season to him who is weary every single one of us should learn to use our tongue to bless and to comfort our tongue should go through a filtering process with the Holy Ghost before anything exits my lips am I uplifting the person next to me am I being the example that Christ would have me to be and am I throwing out some seeds that are going to be planted and what's going to come up in that Harvest is it going to be bitterness is it going to be complaints am I affecting someone else who is looking to me am I being a minister to those around me or am I just spitting out fire here and there and things that will destroy things that will corrupt things that bring down everything in every person around me when a person uses their tongue to edifies others he has the capacity to refresh and to bring rest to the weary there are some people you can face the same situation and one person you go to is ready to give you a word of encouragement is can uplift your spirits and give you the courage you need to fight that battle and you can go to another person and you feel like you need to get a a uh pressure washer to take a shower after all the filth and the garbage and how far down they put you after you talked to them in difficult situations God does not ask us to do any more than to just pray and express our faith in him we must do our best to encourage and help others he doesn't expect us to have all the answers nor does he requ ire us to be the healer he takes care of that he enables us that which he have given us like our ability to speak as Pastor mul said this morning he has called us to be a tributary for him to work through and when we control our speech the tongue can give out refreshing water and it can and should bless others and that is exactly what God has called us to do do for what then should the Christian aim James lists eight qualities we should be pure we should be Peaceable we should be gentle we should easy to be intreated we should be full of Mercy we should bear good fruit we should be without partiality and we should be without hypocrisy the thing that needs to exit our lips is something that can edify the person next to me something that can build up those around me amen pastor Jerry Dean this is uh my in-law's pastor and I'm always such a blessing to have them with us he about dropped it I'm hope he's not watching us he saw my good hands there but he gave me a book early on in my Ministry before Kelly and I were even uh even married but it's God called God's creative power and he preached a sermon series from this it's a just a small about 90 pages and I would encourage everybody to get this uh the author is Charles caps Charles caps and he preached a sermon series from this and the statement that bears repeating uh I want to read to you it says he says Christianity is called the Great confession but most Christians who are defeated in life are defeated because they believe and confess the wrong things the wrong things are exiting their lips they have spoken the words of the adversary and those words hold them in bondage Proverbs 6 1-2 says Thou are snared with the words of thy mouth we are entrapped we're held to we're Bound by the things that exit our lips words are the most powerful thing in the universe faith-filled words will put you over and fear-filled words will defeat you man is a spirit being very capable he says of operating on the same level of Faith as God Mark 9:23 said Jesus said unto him if thou can't believe all things are possible to him that believeth do we believe that it's the word of God it's not some interpretation or in commentary cross reference Matthew 17:20 Jesus said unto them because of your unbelief for verily I say unto you if you have faith Faith as the grain of a mustard seed it's what he said ye shall say unto this mountain remove hint to a Yonder place and it shall remove and nothing say that with me and nothing something powerful can happen when you say it say and nothing shall be impossible to you this isn't some creative words I've put together this is something quip that I put together this is the word of God we believe it to be the infallible Inspire inspired word of God this is straight from the lids of your Bible Mark 11:23 says for verily I say unto you that whatsoever shall say whosoever shall say unto this mountain be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea and shall shall not doubt in his heart but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass he shall have whatever he saith this is spiritual law this is biblical precedent this is not a theory it is fact it's spiritual law and it works every single time it is applied correctly God never does anything thing without saying it first God is a faith God and God released his faith in words and Jesus answering unto them said have faith in God a more literal translation of this would be have the god kind of Faith or faith of God Ephesians 51 tells us to be imitators of God as children imitate their parents to imitate God you must talk like him you must act like him he would not ask you to do something that you are not capable of doing he said you shall receive power when the Holy Ghost comes upon you to imate God you must talk like him Jesus operated in the faith principles of Mark 11:23 and Matthew 17:20 we read biblical precedent now spiritual law we read that he spoke to the wind and he spoke to the Sea he spoke to the demons and he spoke to the Fig Tree he spoke to things that were dead the wind the sea the tree the demons even the dead were obedient to what he said God released his faith in words John 14:12 said he that believeth on me that Works shall he do also and greater what does that mean to us we who have repented of our sins we who have gone down in his name the name of Jesus the image Bears of Jesus Christ The Invisible God manifest in through our walk being filled with the Holy Ghost that means we are to be imitators of God so what we speak out is the determination of what takes place God released his faith in words these principles of Faith are based on spiritual laws they work for whosoever will apply these words these laws and you set them in motion by the words that come out of your mouth so I ask every individual here tonight what are you confessing what are you saying are you reciting what the enemy is saying are you reading off the negative report or are you saying Mountain get out of my way what would your vocabulary be tonight if you knew what you said was going to come to pass Matthew 16:19 said I give you the keys to the kingdom whatsoever you bind on Earth will be bound in heaven whatsoever you loose on Earth will be loosed in heaven Psalms 11989 tells us forever oh Lord Thy word is settled in heaven this is a spiritual law and I ask every individual under the sound of my voice what are you confessing tonight are you just rehearsing and reciting what the enemy has said unto you or are you speaking victory in the face of your adversary are you walking up to the mountain in your life and saying Mountain get out of my [Applause] way musicians come on up here what God Said is already established what do you have to say about what you're facing now I I know we have prayer Partners prayer warriors we have those that we go to that give us great guidance and counsel we have men and women of God in our lives we have pastors and teachers in our lives not what are they saying what are you saying God gave you the Holy Ghost God gave you power God has his name Jesus on your life what are you saying all right God will not alter what he said Psalms tells us my Covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips spoken words program your spirit or your heart either to success or defeat words are containers that carry Faith or they carry fear and they continue to produce after their own kind so when Faith Romans tells us cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God faith comes more quickly when you hear yourself quoting faith comes more quickly when you hear yourself speaking that's why sometimes I Pastor wa Pastor Whitley gets up here and he'll say you you cry out to him right now cry out his name to the extent that you can hear yourself praying because the enemy hears what you're saying and faith is released in the words that come out of your mouth and and you will more readily receive God's word into your spirit by hearing yourself say that rather than someone else and that creative power that Mr caps talked about is released he said my word is not void of power the word is not void of power Pastor Huff told us earlier there's no expiration date on God's spirit on God's anointing on God's healing on God's provision on the blood of Jesus Christ on your on your life he hasn't stopped working miracles this book he is not void of power but often times his people are void of speech so I ask every person here tonight who is ready to say something who's ready to say something if you're ready to say something why don't you stand with me right now and I might not have a formal altar call like we normally do but I want you to get a situation or a circumstance in your mind it could be something recent it could be something that you've been praying for for a long duration of time whatever it is hallelujah sometimes by looking at the circumstances in our life we can lose sight of the word we can rehearse and recite what the enemy is saying and by doing so we can destroy our own inheritance by corrupt communication of fear and unbelief it's a spiritual law now when you study the life of Jesus we look at biblical precedent that caused him to overcome the world overcome the Flesh and the devil first off he spent much time in prayer he spoke accurate never crooked speech and his conversation always consistent Ed of what God said he did not confess the present circumstances he spoke the desired result number three he used the written word to defeat Satan the word of God conceived in our heart formed by the Tongue and spoken out of the mouth can be that creative power that you could look at that mountain in your life and say get thee to a Yonder Place go out into the sea as we mentioned at the beginning of service I can step into the shadow of that giant and he can come to me with all of the militaristic tactics of this world with every resource available in this world but I can come unto him and say I don't come to you in the things of this world I come to you in the name of the Lord and I am professing victory in the midst of defeat as I mentioned also so I believe this is a congregation who can be stirred and convicted and called to action by the mirr I shouldn't say mirror because it's not mirr by the reading of the word of God I'm going to read some verses here from the Old Testament and the New Testament and if there's a situation in your life I want you to step forward to this altar Psalms 1072 says let the redeemed of the Lord say so I want you to know right now this altar is open for somebody who would like to say something about it whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy and gathered them out of the lands from the East and from the west and from the north and from the south they wondered in the wilderness in a solitary way they found no City to dwell in hungry and thirsty there's so fainted to them but then they cried out unto the Lord in their trouble and because the redeemed of the Lord said so he delivered them out of their distress when Jesus came into the coast of cesaria Philippi and Matthew he asked his disciples saying who do men say who do men say that I son of the man I am and they said some say thou art John the Baptist some say that you're Elias others Jeremiah are one of the prophets and then he said unto them who do you say that I am and Simon Peter answered and said Thou Art the Christ the son of the Living God and Jesus answered and said unto them blessed art thou I want to invite every single person tonight whatever situation or circumstance that you're facing I want you to speak out right now by faith and tell that mountain and that giant to get out of your way not somebody else saying the prayer for you I'm talking about you speaking out where you can hear yourself saying it professing victory in the face of defeat professing abundance in the lack of drought saying I speak victory in this situation Mountain get out of my way what are you [Music] confessing power on my yes Jesus Jesus is BR Bren the curse he has never L battle why don't you try it try speaking it out you great say it just say it are you great who are you great who are you great B who are you great B what do you have to say about it what's the Holy Ghost Inside you have to say about it what's him working through you have to say about it that's [Music] Jesus are you great mountain of depression who are you great mountain of sickness you are you great Mountain you great are you great are you great should not follow you should not follow Jesus defe the T J [Music] defe oh why don't you give him some praise some praise in advance he never will and he never will he never will what do you have to say who do you say that he is what do you say about his word what do you have to say tonight you will never will never will and he never will will never will never will we never will never will never will you never will you never will you never [Applause] I want to cut all the music in the singing just for a moment and every praise team member every musician all the technical staff no matter where you're at in this building there going to be one giant Altar and we're going to lift up our prayers to heaven and I want you to pray a focus prayer on what whatever it is that you need God to do in your life and I want you to pray out nobody listening to someone else but I want you to cuz you should be praying for yourself pray out where you can hear yourself praying over that situation why don't we do so right [Music] [Applause] now hallelu [Applause] hallelu [Applause] [Music] [Music] healing is happening right now I believe answers are being given right now would you pray would you take it just a little bit higher right now would you take it just a little bit higher right now oh could we reach out to heaven right now oh I believe his spirit can just come down in this place and provide answers right now can provide Victory right now God break through right now break through that ceiling right now oh step out of your comfort zone for just a moment oh I believe Heaven's coming down right now Jesus would you reach over now and pray for somebody else would you reach over now and pray for somebody else make this place an altar God we need you to do a work right now Lord God you know the needs you see the healing you see the Brokenhearted you see the oppressed right now father God I ask for your hand to reach down and bring Comfort to those in need God I ask you to give provision to those in God refresh the soul God streng to the weak CH God oh Jesus oh if you got the Holy Ghost let that untamable member be controlled yes Jesus my brother right now [Music] in [Music] would you speak victory in this house right now now would you speak victory in this house right now let it come from your mouth I speak victory in my life I speak victory over the enemy I bind the powers of the enemy in Jesus name Hallelujah in Jesus name I speak victory over every situation hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah Glory Glory Glory Glory Glory [Music] M thank you Lord thank you Lord thank you Lord thank you Lord now we need to go from this place claiming it in jesus' name claiming Victory in Jesus name man oh man to quote TD Jakes devil shut up just just just you know the Bible does say I believe it's in first Thessalonians to study to be quiet oh yes and to do your own business that's right you know I believe we've got a special Revelation tonight we need to be speaking Victory and telling the enemy to be quiet we need to study on speaking Victory and telling the enemy to close his mouth and quit speaking defeat into our ears and into our life you're victorious in Jesus name I said you're victorious in Jesus name hallelujah hallelujah