Brian Guerin emphasizes the profound impact of our words in his sermon 'Power of the Tongue,' illustrating how the tongue holds the power of life and death. He warns that careless speech can lead to spiritual ruin and emphasizes the need for humility and integrity in our communication. Guerin shares personal anecdotes and biblical examples to highlight the importance of using our words to uplift rather than tear down, urging the congregation to be mindful of their speech. He concludes with a call for healing and transformation, encouraging everyone to seek God's guidance in their conversations.

So we'll jump in. A couple of quick announcements. And then I have a word that I'm excited about. You all hear that? I've got that one little spot. We're building out the event center. I was like, look man, we've got to put screws, extra liquid nails. I've got this one squeak spot. I'll be in the door and then I go... So we'll try to mitigate those next door. But man, you know they said with Azusa Street, like the front porch just about fell in. Pretty cool, so that's encouraging. Gloria will still move, you know, regardless. Man, so a couple of things. Really excited. Tomorrow is our first start of the fall trimester for Ascend Academy. And so expectant for what all the Lord's going to do. So we run in trimesters and tomorrow. You still have time if you're watching online to join us or in person. We'd love to have you. And I just got off the phone actually. You'll see it on social media tomorrow and everything. But right out of the gate, our first session tomorrow night is my dearest friend, best friend in all of the world, David Papavisi. And even better news, I got off the phone with him last night and last minute he's going to be able to fly in and be in in person. So all of you tell who you need to because it was initially going to be online. But he's like, man, I can wing it. He's rarely in the States. So many of you know, he's comes out of the gangs in Chicago, got born again. We got born again. I was 98. He was 99. And then we went to Bible college together in Pensacola. And sometime after he got thrust over to the mission field, the 1040 window, Iraq. And he's got to be pretty calculated on what all we share in locations and stuff. Because, you know, they're over there and some pretty heated elements, I guess, with the Muslims. But they're seeing crazy fruit. It's insane. It's like it's just common ground. Any week I could talk to him, he's like, yeah, we were over in so-and-so a city. One was a major ISIS hub before all that crumbled. But open air preaching, just bold and raw. I mean, you know, it's just awesome. I can tell you they've gotten governmental things, like when the stuff gets heated with the, you know, like things over there. Stuff that's on our news is just everyday headlines. It's pretty common ground. And but often they've got several times a governmental email. So you've got to get out now. And he's like, man, but I'm called here. You don't you don't then it makes sense to you when you're branded by the call. You're safer in the will of God than outside of his voice. You've got to know that. And he's got more grace. He comes to the States. He can't wait to get back over there because this doesn't feel home to him anymore. Super important. When God speaks to you, Abram, leave everything you ever knew. If anything in your heart still attached to what you think is right, what you know and want to adhere to. Knock yourself out. But life's not there. Life's where his voice is. Doesn't have to make sense. And so here he is, his whole family, children and all. And I could tell you he knows he's going to be a martyr for the gospel. We've seen it. We know it's going to be glorious. I'll tell you, I'm going to soak it up while he's on the earth and he's going to be a general in heaven. But but just one of the most lifeless men I know as far as eternity. He's got eternity. So real. His life is not his own. And I saw him go here. But but so he's been over there and it's wild how the Lord is rocking. I mean, blatant, hardcore Muslims. Of course, we are commissioned to preach the gospel. But the Lord's usurping the whole plan. He's going around it like they're just all of a sudden going into wild dreams. One not long ago, I remember John the Baptist came to one in a dream. And they have to find David them to figure out what they're seeing and why. I'll never forget. I told our students this. I can't remember if I shared it here, but I was actually with him. We were in Iraq and he gets a call. And there was there was a man. He kept seeing apparitions of the cross everywhere. And they know it's the Christian symbol, but they're, you know, Muslims. And it's a whole nother ballgame, just a different different thing. And so it's funny. Anyway, my mind's going on stuff. But so this guy calls me, says, man, I'm seeing crosses everywhere. I hear you. You are the people around here preaching about this cross. And he would literally be eating his dinner. All of a sudden he'd see through his plate, like a cross on his plate and everywhere. He couldn't get away from his apparitions of the cross everywhere. And but yet there's spies to like their social media. He would tell you everything's got to be super calculated, hidden undercover because they're. Yeah, you just got to watch everything you're doing. So you won't find it on Instagram. You can't because, you know. And so anyway. So I'm on the phone. I'm sitting in the car and I'm hearing the whole thing. And I'm like, bro, shut up, dude. That guy's not seeing you. I'm sitting here thinking, don't answer it. Dave's like, yeah, sure, I'll meet you. I'll meet you. I was flying out the next day back here. And so I'm thinking, bro, don't do that. You better hear the Lord. And so he meets with him. Sure enough, the guy was legit, like a Muslim, just wondering why am I seeing crosses everywhere? And I hear your young men around here preaching about this man that hung on that cross. What is going on? And so he preached the gospel to him, got born again when they baptize him. This is how they baptize. I don't know if our school members, Dr. Michael Brown recently. Yeah. When he said there's some missionaries we sent out and this is how they baptize me. He's talking about David. I talked to David yesterday. It was you want to go? Yeah. When they baptize him, they tell him, he says, are you willing to die? Because you might die for your belief because of the Muslims. They'll denounce you, kill you. He goes, you were not baptized unless you will die. Jesus says, take up your cross and follow me. This is where it's going, man. I love this bunch. I want to go more, not condemning if we're not. But let's just go more to the word. And, uh, but they know cause they can lose their life to convert to Christianity. So they'll dunk them. Boom. And, um, but I'm stoked. So he's flying in last minute. Be here tomorrow. And then, uh, yeah, come on, Jesus. That's going to be so good. And, um, I'll be Tuesday night. My session to start has got a lot of new students in person online. So excited, honored to have you all a little bit more of an orientation. So, uh, you know, that way a lot of people know what direction we're going with everything. And it's going to be fun. It's like we have a pizza party that we normally started off with. It'll be fun. So love to have you still have time to register. And, um, we're going to hit the ground running next week's quarter. Also, it's loaded. Listen, it's loaded. Just get your Bible ready. Every highlighter pack you can find and, uh, let's just go for it. It's going to be awesome. So, um, we'll play that video, give you a chance to give. And, um, I think that will be it. Yeah. Oh, also Tuesday, just real quick for the students. We're going to El Salvador in two weeks. I'll be announcing that. Yeah. And, um, so excited. Hopefully you all can lay hands on us, send us out and it's going to be fun. And we'll be taking these trips every spring and fall. So if you feel that ever love to have students, students only, but it'll be good. So, um, if we could bring up the offering baskets, give you a quick chance to give. Thank you, sir. And, um, you should have offering envelopes or if you want to give online, Ascendchurch.com forward slash give, right? Yeah. ATL. Okay. Um, checks pay with us in church and we'll pray Jesus. Thank you so much for your presence. God, we love you. Thank you for just you. You're everything to us. Pray you transform us this morning. Have your way. Heal bodies, flow and power. Renew our minds. Make us one with you. In Jesus name. Amen. Awesome. We'll play our Academy video. Um, if you guys want to give during that and then we'll jump in the word. Thank you, Jesus. So good. It was awesome last week. You know, we had the potluck, so we stayed late later. Myself and my kids chatting. I was students. I was getting a car long thread long enough. Michael Miller and coolie. I also remember so funny railing me over our potluck. Michael Miller's like potluck. Okay. And, uh, and then you can imagine Michael Clarence, they're jumping in. I didn't see it till later. They're messing with a rookie pastor over here, but love them dearly. And it's like, you're, you guys are my heroes, but it's going to be good. Talk to Todd. I just remembered recently. He's going to be in person as well. It's going to just be crazy. This, uh, this trimester, a lot of others. I don't want to spoil it, but it's going to be so, so good. So let's, um, jump in the, uh, word of God today. And, um, I'm going to be quoting a lot of verses. Is that okay? So maybe a couple will read together, but a lot I'll go through quickly and shouldn't keep up too much of your time. Um, but look, I was sensing this in worship. It has been stirring within me. It doesn't really apply to the message, but, but for what it's worth, man, I can, I can tell you, like, I've just been sensing it. And it's a, it's a staple, you know, characteristic of God's word anyway. But, but I've been sensing, you know, more and more, uh, humility is the route. It's really the road you want to stay on this hour. I know it seems random and out of nowhere, but I was sensing it strong. Humility is not only the door you want to go to low right now through the door of humility, but then stay low, even down the path. A lot of people enter low, but start popping up later on. And, uh, and we've all been guilty of it. It's okay, but help us Lord myself included. It's very, very important right now. I was just recently, um, you know, I love Proverbs. It says, I quote it often the upright inherit the land, but integrity sustains it. Anybody can show up good on job day and interview day and upright and enter in and obtain the job, but six months, a year, three years down the road, integrity, staying true to how you started is what keeps it. And humility is so beautiful, rare. I pray we would all embody it more and more, but it's funny, super random. Um, recently I was, uh, YouTube just came through my YouTube feed. It's funny. I have my own little, little one. Now my main one, you know, that is our YouTube, my media team kicked me out of it. I don't have control of it anymore. I'm teasing, but to run it and all, I don't even know how to get into it. I don't, I don't have that one. So, uh, but the one that started from years ago, so I have this little kind of generic one to be able to listen to the word and worship and prayer and stuff. And, um, but this, this, this preacher sermon pop was in the feed. I don't ever listen to them. I know of them, but not a lot. Don't really go that route often. No personal reasons. And I felt the Lord is not trying to over spiritualize it, but I felt like the Lord, you know, like the spirit saying, I want you to listen to this. It was strange. And I'm like, in my mind, I'm like, I don't ever why. So I began to listen to it. And to be honest with you, even during I'm going, what am I trying to hear here? Like what, why I don't just, you know, and then all of a sudden the, the, the preachers well into the message and all of a sudden his voice went out. He went, he lost his voice. And I was like, and I felt it was almost like spirits that go back and see what happened. Why? And I was like, it's strange. And this is not, that's never happened before. I don't do, I don't sit here and do this. It was just very random. And so I rewinded in right when this preacher, he, he started taking glory and talking about himself a little bit and his voice went out instantly. And he started saying, I've been preaching a lot. It'll come back and it'll come back. And I'm going, and I, and it just things like this. And it, and it, and then I, it lifted enough. I felt like I still wanted to see, but I felt the Lord's like, look, this is not the hour. Stay low. This is not the hour to take glory. You know, you see, um, King Herod, is it Matthew 12? I forget in the gospels that he gave a speech and, uh, and people begin to cheer him as a God. The Bible says on and on and on. And he led them. He took glory. The Bible says an angel struck him on the spot. I know these are harder verses, but I kind of like them cause they're just Jesus. They're just the word, you know? And, um, I think kind of now's the hour not to steer away from the full word. And I've been sensing it more, almost like the, um, the ways of God as we're nearing the wedding feast are getting more narrow and decisions you make now costs more than they did prior. You remember Moses? He, he, uh, sorry. He hit the rock. The first time water came out. Second time. Um, the Lord said a little, little white feather that the second one, he, he said, uh, speak to it. Remember, uh, first time he hit it. Second one, he struck it again and it cost him the promise land. So even in the maturity with the bride, as it's increasing, the accountability is heightening. And I feel like what used to be a broader path and acceptable is getting narrower in this hour. And it's beautiful actually, because it's making the bride more potent, more yielded, more like him. But I feel like the path of the Lord is turning into like a tightrope, not to be scary or like, wait, where's my freedom? But like that is freedom. Jesus walks, he steps left. We step left. If he doesn't move, you don't move. If he, if he goes right foot, you go right foot. If he steps to the side, it's just wherever he's at. No questions asked pure obedience, pure yieldedness. And I feel like the highway of holiness is turning into the tightrope in this hour. If we don't pay attention to the details, you can miss it. You can lose your crown quick. Like, again, people don't like this preaching, but I feel like it's needed. It's definitely backed up by scripture and it raises up a quality company. You know, you can totally lose your crown. I was in, um, what was it? Um, judges recently reading about Samson. Sorry, none of this has anything to do with a message, but I was really feeling it. Uh, lately that, um, help us stay low in, in a lot of other things. I actually had a dream recently where, you know, the Bible says John the Baptist, there's the ax already set to the root of the tree. The Lord's looking for those bearing fruit worthy of repentance. And if you aren't bearing fruit worthy of repentance, repentance, sorry, the ax is at the root of the tree, meaning it he'll just uproot the tree. You can see it in Isaiah six, him cutting down the tree back to a stump, his Holy seed. And I saw a dream actually where it was now a chainsaw. This was a few weeks ago. Didn't share it really, but it wasn't that ax any longer. Things are speeding up. Uh, I have a chainsaw. I love it. But how many of you know, a tree comes down much quicker with a chainsaw than an ax and actually have to chop at it, take it back, swing again. It takes a little bit, but chainsaws fast. And all I think the Lord was meaning is he's looking, he's kind of like that fig tree. You're not bearing fruit right now. Worthy of him and his, his way and repentance. Things are coming down fast and I think we're going to see it kind of King Herod stuff. This is not the hour. Um, again, I know it's a little bit heavy, but I love it cause he's purifying. He's kind of, he's upping the stakes. And, um, so anyway, um, uh, I saw that through YouTube. I was like, man, that's super interesting. And, oh, and I was in, um, judges. Reading with Samson's mom, uh, Samson's mom. And, um, just awesome. Doesn't even have a name. So just a humble group. The Lord's raising up, man. She gave birth to a full out Nazarite intended to usurp the Philistines rule over them. Of course he had some hiccups, but a Hebrews he's still mentioned as a general through the new covenant lands. But, but, uh, sorry, just feel, uh, but as it just says, my Noah's wife, she never even got a name. Full out general. You wait till we see her in heaven. There was looking for people in this hour. They don't need a name. They just want what his will. I would rather give birth to what God's doing than you even know where it came from. I don't need my name recognized. And, uh, but what I love so beautiful, the angel came to her. And if you look closely, he says, observe carefully what I'm telling you, pay attention to the details. That was not the hour to just flippantly start to act like you're entitled and making decisions on your own. Pay careful attention. She runs back, tells my Noah, the data, uh, Samson, he goes, no way. I love it because the angel kept showing up to her, but no, but my Noah, he, he goes, um, wow. So the Bible says he prayed God sent the angel again, so we can know what to do is this to be. So the Bible says God heard him sent the angel again. And he says, um, wow. What is it? So what should we do? He's like, I already told her everything. That's what the angel says. Basically, ask your wife. I told her everything and it's a beautiful. So the angel appears to her right before that. And it says, she came and got my Noah. She runs to the angel and my Noah followed the wife, whoever's yielded most to the voice of God's leading. Uh, you know, I'm definitely about the correct leadership in the home, but all of a sudden I was following her because she's the one with the word of the Lord and knows where to go and all this. And it's just, there's so much there, but sure enough, they come back and the angel tells him as well. He says, everything I told her, make sure she observes carefully, pays attention to the details. And so that's really, um, I think the Lord's after it right now in the yielded people. So anyway, um, that was a free little side teaching, um, faith and Brett, what is up the Canadian glory carriers? Welcome back. When y'all get back. Wow. The border and all go smooth. Did you transport? Oh, it was smooth. Oh yeah. Okay. We'll clip that from YouTube. But anyway, I want to, uh, uh, talk to you this morning about, um, the, uh, the tongue. So, so good. How we use it, the word and I'm going to be good. And I pray, um, it would just renews our mind and, uh, helps us be more aware and really want to pull the rug out from under what I believe a lot of us are don't mean to all of us. I know I've been guilty of this, but to our own demise, what, what's going on. And it's all throughout scripture, all over the word, the Lord over and over again, James, I love it. And so just want to, um, go here. So we'll start Proverbs 1821. A lot of us know these verses, but I want to hit on it from a little different angle. Oh, look, I got a fun prop, super cheesy, but I'm just for a visual, a scooter wheel. It'll make sense in a second. Um, you should have seen me, man. I got it. So Amazon, it's pretty tough. I brought it in the house of bulls. I was like, he puts his ears up and does the sideways head. He's like scooter wheels. Whenever I can give visuals, it doesn't always work, but just for years now in our schools, I'll get menorahs, whatever, just out of gumball machine, one school and just something to hopefully give us a visual. It helps me at times, but watch this Proverbs 1821. Um, death and life are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat its fruit. So look at this and even did a little mini study on the tongue. Um, the Bible, basically you can look at it like this. The Bible says not death and life or, you know, produced by the tongue, but within the power of the tongue, basically it has inherent power and within it, it's only two things, death and the life. It's, it's interesting to the tongue. Literally, like if you study the organ, it's, it's made up of two parts to exact half. And I think it's just fun not to like super spiritualize it, but fun to look at the power of both are in it. And there's a line right down the middle of the tongue and it's made up of two parts, death and life. There's eight muscles in the tongue, which I think against ironic, my prophetic kind of wheels start turning. Eight is the number of new beginning. Eight people got off the boat of Noah to start a new beginning. And I believe God intended us, created us in their image with the tongue, just like he does intended to create new beginnings, life, always life. But in it, the Bible is clear. There's also the power within the power, the ability of the tongue is death as well. And I think far too often we let that power loose and don't realize it's to our own demise. And we're torching our life constantly, never even know it. We see it happen all the time. And so I pray it would help us like, Oh, Jesus helped me to realize and get better by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Cause how many of us sometimes if you just go about it and keep doing it and stiff arming the conviction of the Holy Spirit, you can get calloused in areas and we just don't know we're doing it. But it's all throughout the word. Super healthy. Watch. Now I'm going to just start going quick if that's okay until we get to James three. If you want to turn to James three, you can meet me there. Matthew 12, 36 through 37. Watch Jesus. He says this. I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an account for in the day of judgment. Capital D. It's big man. James three, you'll see in a second. James is like, look, don't even, you don't want to be a teacher. Pick anything. Don't do that though. Because you'll be accountable for your words. Every man stumbles in his word life, the tongue and the maturity of a real Christian is really determined here. You start to see in the word. It's pretty wild. Amidst more, but I love this. Jesus says, I'll tell you that every careless word people speak, they shall give an account for it in the day of judgment. And it still applies. The thing I mentioned earlier, this tightrope of the Lord, he's starting to watch these things. And I think we need to start reeling it in. Help me. It'll get better. And I think it's easier to see when we start realizing that death power that we just let loose. So flippantly is torching. We'll see in a second, our life burning it to the ground in so many areas. Um, so watch James one 26, you don't have to turn there. Uh, James chapter one, verse 26. He says, uh, if anyone among you thinks he is religious, I love to put here like spiritually mature. If you think, you know, you kind of got it going on spiritually, have a little walk with the Lord running pretty deep and does not bridle his tongue. He deceives his own heart. And this one's religion is useless. Meaning in all of us could, could attest to this. All of us have done this. It's okay. So please always know my heart and love. And I'm trying, we're all like preaching each other, trying to get better at this. So never a condemning thing, but like help us be more like the Lord. He says, be perfect as I'm perfect. And, um, but if you ever start to see people that seem to have a depth of spiritual maturity in them, revelations and depth and all this and a good talk game, but, but then they don't bridle their tongue. The Bible says, James one says it's useless. Your spiritual maturity is deception unto you. You're deceived. So I've, I've started to notice this for years. I'll get around people. I don't care your status, your name, your, your sphere of influence, how big your platform is, how little it is, how many times you go to heaven a day. If you can't bridle your tongue, I'm good. Sorry, but you know what I mean? Do you really, you hear it? And then I'll start hearing the other. I'm like, no, I'm good, man. Nice, nice divided wall between you and I. I'm not running with you. Nothing personal, but I'm not covenant with you. No, sir. Because they torch their own life and then you get close enough to them and you start reaping what they already saw in their own. And it's nothing personal. You love and bless, but also if we, we've got to get better at this again, I'm preaching to myself like, help us Lord. Just this right here. This starts to yield more to the word. You'll watch your life come alive. Cause that power of life, the only thing being the spiritual mature, they always use the power of life, life, life, life, life. I don't know anything else that switch of death. Although that capabilities there, I'll pull that breaker out to where it can't even come on. We, we, we pull it out at the roots. But I love this. James is basically simply put saying, look, you think you're mature, but you can't bridle your tongue. You're deceived and your maturity is immaturity. You're not mature. But I saw this weeks ago in a prophetic dream. That's great. But the Bible says, if you can't bridle your tongue, you understand? So I'm going for like these things while we want the other, we teach and preaching, but, but help us Lord, all of us get better, you know? And I think, um, we'll, we'll get there in a second, but watch, uh, James three, one through 10. We'll read this together. James three, one through 10. This is where our little fancy wheels are going to come in, bro. Maybe Chris or Tom, we can roll it back and forth. Do it, do it, prepare for youth ministry forever. If it'll work. I just want a visual, but, um, look, man, it's awesome. How do you know children, you know, and, uh, we're, we're slowly getting there. It just takes time, but you know, their attention span is not always like very long and that's totally understandable. And it's awesome. It should be that way. Their children. So mission strips is funny. We, um, I mean, I'll preach out and look, if you can preach to the youth, you can preach anywhere, man, you got to keep their attention and it's awesome. So I'll do fun stories and all this and, and keep their attention. But my buddy, Sean, he would always do this. He won't be with us on this trip, but it's pretty cool. He would get a paper piece of paper and begin to teach them about their life. You're a member of the airplane. Yeah. And he would begin to tell them that every time they would go through something in life, it would create a fold in the paper and hurts. You know, they would, a bend would happen and then someone would speak against them, bully them, whatever. And it would begin to crumple it up. And, uh, but he would then get another paper and say, this is how God is. And when he speaks to you and he started folding it into an airplane, so he's got them glued the whole time, which is awesome. And what was always the big nervous buildup was like, was the plane going to fly? Cause we had some man, some were perfect. And they'd like, and then God will release you into destiny. You know, it's like, and it flies, but there's been the ones like, and then it's going to be amazing. God's going to make you a plan and you're going to fly. It's like, no, that was not how it's supposed to be, you know? But, um, if anyway, visuals, it'll be fun, but watch this. Uh, he says, uh, my brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we should receive a stricter judgment for we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. Indeed, we put bits in horses mouths that they may obey us. And we turn their whole body. Look also at ships, although, um, although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so, the tongue is a little member in both great things. See how great a forest, a little fire candles. The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. Somebody's alarm going on. Oh, it's okay. I was just thinking that was it? How long was it going to stop? I'm teasing. You're good. So, but watch this. The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire. The course of nature and is set on fire by hell. Let's back up. It says, basically, watch this. The tongue is so set among our members. I want to stop there. Meaning it's, it's a fixed point. It's guaranteed. It drives like the rudder drives a ship. So whatever's happening here, and we know in the Bible, I'll probably quote it later. It says out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So the, the mouth is just the overflow of really what's in the heart, but whatever it's set on is gonna really dictate the course of your life. And the Bible, I love that, like that power of, of death and life are both in scripture. What fell on the day of Pentecost? Tongues of fire. But yet James says the tongue is a fire and he's using it in the power of death. And so does Jesus that you can see them both highlighted in the word. And that's what our, our wheels going to be here in a second. Cause that word course, um, in the Greek actually means a wheel. And the basic Bible saying your tongue is a wheel of fire. And if you're not careful, you'll let it loose. And it'll just, I'll probably just do this. So we don't, do y'all want to see a youth reenactment? You want us to roll it? You might knock something over, but it goes through the course and nature of your life. And then it literally says, and then not only is it, is it a fire and it sets the course of your life on fire, but in the end it itself is set on fire by hell. And again, I know this is a bit of a heavy one, but I think it's, it's good. It's in his love. Cause watch, I won't turn there for the sake of time, but remember in, um, no, let's do that. I want you to see it. It'll be good. Luke 16, watch this super interesting. Luke 16 verses 19 through 24 Luke chapter 16 verses 19 through 24. We'll all remember this passage. Watch this. There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus full of sores who was laid at his gate desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell down from the rich man's table. More of the dogs came and licked his sore. So it was the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. Verse 23 and being in torments and Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. Watch verse 24 super random and ironic. Then he cried and said, father, Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I'm tormented in this flame. Of all things that James says, though, not only is it a flame of fire that will torch your life if you let it loose, but in the end it itself will be burned in fire. And of all things, this rich man's being tormented in hell. He's saying, can he just cool my tongue? Actually, ironic enough to in that little study on the tongue, it's one of the most sensitive organs we have in our body, but it's major, major, major in the word. And so, again, I'm loving that the Lord's going after these things to better us. These deep places of our heart and what's going on within before him is so good by his grace and mercy. Man, I heard of a recent account that was so powerful. This really happened. There was a lady in a church meeting. Amazing woman baptized in water full of the Holy Ghost. Tithe shows up every Sunday. Godly woman. All of a sudden in a church service, this really happened in an account. She went into a trance and got thrown in hell. Didn't see hell. And again, I know some of this is heavy, but like, but it's the word. And I think we need more of this preached, man. How many of those are real hell forever? And if you don't repent, I mean, it's just, this is what it is. And so, um, she got thrown in hell, not, not some people go there and see it. It's like, whoa, to come back and preach. She got thrown in as, as the subject of burning in a trance trances. And it very basically, it means it's a state you get put in where your conscience gets thrown aside. Acts 10, Peter falls into one. And sometimes that can be, you know, not as deep as far as the experience. Some that can be so real. You're there. And she's feeling the torment, the burning, everything, feeling it. She's in, in, uh, in hell comes back, freaking out. Like what happened? She begins to ask God, why, what happened? Why did I get thrown there? And he showed her, he says, you have unforgiveness in your heart. Not fornication, not adultery, simple, the little things don't be deceived. I'm telling her to be shocked one day. And the Lord's raising the stakes. There's going to be people in here that will go to hell forever. Nobody likes this kind of preaching. You can tell I'm not trying to fill seats. I want Jesus, man. I want his word. I prayed. None of us would. He would that none, but I'm telling you, he's after a pure bride right now. He says, you have unforgiveness in your heart and the Bible. You know what it says? If you don't forgive others, he cannot forgive you. Hell awaits you. If you have unforgiveness in your heart, you will go to hell. I don't know what Bible you're reading. That's in there. Liars will not enter the kingdom of heaven will not. If you're in here and you live, you continually lie. Hell awaits you. Don't think you're, you're above the word. Are you kidding me? Not a chance. It's not going to happen. You know, I love you. I love the word. Sorry, but, but man, we got to hear, you know what I mean? And, uh, so, um, but you know, here this rich man is, and it's interesting of all things. He's like, let him touch my tongue. James talks about it. It's in there. And, uh, James is like, look, man, don't listen. We've got to reign it in, purify us Lord. And so it, but I love to point out now how it applies practically go back to James three. And, um, I should have preached this on the potluck, huh? To where we could have ate after together and yay. No, but, um, but watch this, see how great a forest, a little Kindle Kindle, um, a little fire Kindle, sorry. And the tongue is a fire world of iniquity. That word world means universe. That word iniquity in Greek means that which is not approved of by God. He just doesn't approve of it. It doesn't have to be anything blatant. And I'm gonna go through a list later, but I love to visualize this. So, so imagine first off a forest. It's it speaks of the new life side to things. Have you ever noticed all of nature? Where do they gravitate to the forest? You're never going to see deer and squirrels running around downtown in a concrete jungle. They're not there. They're where life is practically as humans. We figured out everything else, but in just the God's creation, that's what a forest speaks of. New life covering strong roots. The ground's always stable in a forest. It doesn't just wash out easily. It's all locked in by a stable foundation. There's vegetation, life, their moisture. Constantly, you're always covered in a shadow of protection. And this is interesting. It uses it in regards to torching that. And then it says it sets on fire the course of nature of your life. And so if you can imagine your life destiny, what God's called you into the forest of it, the precious covering where it's moist and stable foundation, the new things of God. If we're not careful, our tongue will begin to torch that. We often think that it's used against others and it's, it torches other people's lives, but the Bible is actually, it's backwards. Galatians six says, don't be a fool. God can't be mocked that which a man sows. He also reaps. So you'll have one person over here. That's a life empowerment. They use their tongue for life. Their force is so plush ground, so stable, so moist fire won't, it can't catch flame in their life. So you can try and use it against them and your fire will stop. Try to start, but it just gets put out by the moisture of the spirit. It won't work. And, um, I love that the Bible says demons look when they're, when they're cast out of people, they look for dry. It's very peculiar passage, but they look for dry, arid places. Speaking of places where lack of the spirit is because they can torch that. If your life is full, full of the tongue being used for life and the spirit is so much moisture, it just won't catch when they'll bypass that and go somewhere else. And so, but in our world, you will reap what you sow. And so that wheel actually goes in our life and torches it. You can see it in the word. It actually defiles you. Jesus says, and, um, and it's pretty amazing, but watch this. Matthew five, 21 through 22 and we may hit the life side of it next week. We'll see where the Lord leads, but I like the new living translation on this one. Matthew five, 21 through 22 this is Jesus. He says, you have heard that our ancestors were told you must not murder. If you commit murder, you're subject to judgment. But I say, if you're even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment. Watch this. Here goes the mouth again. If you call someone an idiot, new living, you're in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell. That's Jesus. Ephesians four 29 love this. Paul says, do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth. But only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. You ever heard that saying, if you can't say anything good, don't say it at all. It's kind of biblical really. And again, if you mess up and have today, even no worries, there's no condemnation, but we're trying to get better going this way to know, oh my gosh, yeah, I got to realize in the power, the ability of the tongue is both death and life. And if I keep triggering that death one in the long haul, it's going to actually cause death in my life, not others. You know, I love that the moisture again and see the tongues of fire by the spirit are good. So it's even like this. Let's say in the power of fire. Is life and death. So in the power of fire, it's amazing. You can heat yourself. You can cook food, warm, full buildings, but also use false. So you can torch a building. You can burn down forests, things like this. And the power of water is life and death. You can clean yourself, hydrate yourself, use it to cook, have a pet fish in the water. I don't know. And, uh, man, me and my brother had two goldfish in college. They didn't last for like two weeks. We didn't do too good. They're like, man, he said he's pretty still. He wasn't be sleeping. I didn't know fish slept, but, um, but also water can drown things. You know, it's similar with the tongue and that we'd be getting better at it. But I love that. Um, Paul says, do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth only, which is helpful for building others up. So may we catch ourselves in something I want to point out as often, if we're honest, what we're guilty of is when we know when to use it tactfully in the right settings. When we're around Christian brothers and sisters and all this stuff, we'll watch it. But when we get behind doors around family members or friends that we're kind of close to, we kind of start to let it, let it loose. There goes the wheel of fire in your world. Did you hear about so-and-so? And there it goes. And then what you're going to wonder is why are you always in conversations about what about so-and-so you reap what you sow or ungratefulness, just comments, complaining, murmuring, and then just nothing flows smooth that you reap what you saw. A lot of what we walk through in life, we don't realize it, but we've been causing it by letting the tongue of fire loose. And it's just torching everything. Our course of nature, James says, he says, I'm telling you, it's a world of iniquity, a universe of ungodliness. And if you let it loose, it literally that word course means a wheel or even an access like the course of your life. It torches it. And then you find yourself all your day stepping into negatism, criticism. Well, have you been criticizing people? They're going to critique you all the day long. You're going to always be, it's just, and then the other people that are like life, life, life, and they're being criticized, but the fire hits them just goes out because they're like, you criticize me. You're amazing though. Love you. Life, life, unwholesome talk. No, not for me. No, that that's, we pull that breaker out that we don't want that on life. And again, it's not always easy. You know, we can, we've all been guilty of it. Need God's grace and mercy. James says it. He said, look, man, if, if somebody can bridle their tongue, they're perfect. But, um, I think far too often we let things loose and that's why the fear of God is so beautiful because the fear of God catches you when you're not around. You know, when you start to feel loose, kind of saying things and well, but did you, and the fear of God comes in the Holy spirit sits right there. He's like, really, that's up to you. The words out there. You just let another wheel of fire loose in the course of your life. Knock yourself out. But the others, I love that you can kind of see it in, um, when Elijah prophets of bail, the fire side of the Holy ghost is moisture and fire and it's life. It's empowerment fire. He calls for moisture on the sacrifice. Remember, I love, I think that's a beautiful picture of the moisture of the Holy spirit and fire. And, uh, but that's how we, we want our life like fully engaged. Matthew 1234 quoted it earlier for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Here's some more verses. I'm going to go quick. Proverbs 13 three, whoever guards his mouth preserves his life. This is a beautiful one. Watch this. He who opens wide his lips comes to ruin. You hear it there. Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life, but he who just lets it rip tater chip BSV comes to ruin that that wheel of fire goes in your world, your life. A lot of times we think, Oh, we're hurting others, but I'm, I'm safe because it's not about me. That's not the Bible. Bible says, go ahead and see how that works for you. You're torching the nature of your life. You start to wonder, where's my covering? Where's the moisture? Where are the roots? My ground's unstable. Something's not right. Oh, for about six months. Now you've just gone, just letting it, letting the wheels of fire go. Death, death, death. Proverbs 1031 the mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom, but the perverse tongue will be cut out. Proverbs 1914 let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight. Oh Lord, my rock and my redeemer. That awesome. You see it all throughout the word. It means so much. Um, Psalm 141 three set a guard. Oh Lord, over my mouth. Keep watch over the door of my lips, man, you know, make us this way. Lord, where people get around us like man, I'm a sin church folks. I don't get what it is. Their lips don't open unless it's life. I don't hear anything else come out. I don't know if they know anything else, you know? And when we messed up, no worries. We get it high, high grace, mercy. We all need it, need his help. But I think to see it through the words, beautiful. That would be like life and life alone. And if we don't have something good to say, then man, just, uh, you know, try and do our best to guard our mouth. Psalm 3413 keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies. I love to see this one from kind of the reverse engineering effect. First Peter three 10 whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil. That word evil there means to flow from bad character, keep it from that and their lips from deceitful speech. You know, the Bible talks about not bearing false witness. Actually, a lot of us think if we don't outright lie, we're good. But the Bible actually emphasizes deceitful misleading, false witness, not accurate. You know, and so Peter's basically saying, look, if you want to love life and see good days, keep your lips from this so you can flip it and say, if you don't keep your lips from this, you're not going to love life and you're going to see bad days. That's torturing your life. In it. Awesome. Isaiah six. Remember he has this powerful encounter. She's a train of the robe of the Lord filling the temple. Wow. Later, everybody's like, send me. I'll go, Lord. What was the first thing come out of his mouth? Remember? Whoa, I'm a man of unclean lips, baddest prophet in the land. And he says, and I dwell in the midst of a people with unclean lips. Remember that? It's what the Lord's after. He's trying to send angels. I'll never forget an experience. I've shared this before. I saw years ago by accident, um, where it was prophetic for that, that angel. And they were fixated on that coal, which is really the Lord. It's a picture of the Lord. He's the only one that can cleanse. And isn't it beautiful? The coal from Isaiah six, isn't it beautiful? It was mesmerized by it. And the cause of the Lord, he's the only one that can cleanse. But it's funny that Isaiah is like, Whoa, he gets near the holiness of the Lord. First thing that sticks out in his mind is like, I'm a man of unclean lips. And before the sending can happen, those have to be cleansed. Remember the angel took the tongs, the coal from the altar, touched his lips. And then he's like, whom can I send? Send me Lord. But if we want to be a people of unclean lips, sending will never happen. The prophetic will stay prophetic. The promises will stay conditional, you know, and, um, unlocked. Okay. I'm gonna start landing it, but a couple of examples. And there's many, uh, complaining, murmuring. You all know, they got stuck in the wilderness with complaining and murmuring. Just don't ever give yourself into it. Try more and more to lean away from it. You know, I just would encourage, it's not always easy, but if we can get away from that, you can start to walk in the promised land more and more. If you start just complaining about the slightest things, it really comes down to, um, a heart that's not filled with gratitude and thanksgiving. It can always be worse. But, um, I have ungratefulness comments that are not rooted in being thankful. This just lets the fire go slander. Bible super clear on it. Negatively defaming other people gossip. These things, they're all, all from the tongue. Um, another one, false accusation, very detrimental, false witness, um, sowing seeds of division and discord. This is a big one. Um, and again, people do it in the most spiritual ways. Man, you, we need to pray. Did you hear knock yourself out? I'm all you want to these go for it. And then you're wondering why is everybody talking about me and discord? My, my family's falling apart and you know, I'm praying and I'm doing, I'm so spiritual. I have these visions and dreams. You can't bottle the tongue though. Loosen these wheels of fire down the course of your life and mine. I'm talking to all of us. I don't want you to feel, you know, but watch this proverb six 16 through 19. I love this. Remember sowing seeds of division and discord. Um, these six things, the Lord hates. Yes. Seven or an abomination to him. Basically like six things he hates and all seven. He completely despises like all of them. It's a fancy way of saying, look, he can't send any of them. Um, a proud look, watch this, a lying tongue. God can't stand it. Uh, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift running to evil. Watch this. Here it goes again. Verse 19, a false witness who speaks lies and one who sows discord among brethren seeds of discord. Uh, God hates them. Abomination to him. Titus three, 10 and 11 says this regarding a divisive person. Paul writes it. He says, look, a divisive person, seeds of discord, warn them once. Paul says, warn them twice. After that have nothing to do with them. This is the Bible. What about the love of God? Brother? Titus three, 10 is the love of God. Cut them off. Cold turkey have no thing to do with them. That's just the Bible. You walk in what you want. I love the word, a divisive. The Lord hates it. Abhors abomination, a divisive person. Warn them once. He don't even do one, two, three strikes. You're out. Do you ever like raise your kids and do the count to three thing? Don't do that. Okay. Sorry. Sorry. It's okay. No, you can't. It probably works for you. But I'm like, look, look, I told you once my yes is yes. My nose. No, no. But I'm solely teasing. That's great. But Paul doesn't even do like three strikes. You're out. He goes once, twice after that. Cut them off because the Bible says they're self condemned. They're in sin and they're warped. They're warped. And in cutting them off, actually, you'll see in other writings, if you get the whole puzzle pieces together, he actually wants them to turn. You know, sometimes he'll leave somebody out there to be buffeted by Satan that they might be born against. It's really out of God's love. I'm just meaning God hates these things. So, but what I think is healthy to know is the more we let this loose, it's actually in our own life. You know, um, criticism, always criticizing others and put people down to put yourself up and things like this. You're going to be always the one getting put down. You reap what you sow. It's the way of the world, like putting people down so you can look elevated in a situation. Then you're wondering why you're always being lowered and people are being elevated around you because you let these loose, you know, and, um, uh, doubt, um, death, it can be, it can be used in so many different ways. Doubt, you know, where we begin to fuel it with our, our words, um, uh, death on things, just speaking. And again, I'm not like some name it, claim it guy, but also love the word. And it's, it's super vital how we use our tongue. I love that Jesus watch him when people die. He never says they're dead. He won't speak it. He says, oh, they're asleep. He won't speak death. He's life. He's like, oh, no, they're just asleep. Finally with Lazarus, his disciples like, no, what do you mean? He's like, okay. He finally had to speak the language. He goes, Lazarus is dead. If you read it closely, he goes, he's asleep. Go. My friend's asleep. We've got to go now. And they keep like, what do you mean? He's like, okay. For layman's terms, y'all don't get it. He's dead. But he, you know, he won't speak, uh, things like we speak life. I mean, life and power. Do you act weird and you're in denial when things are, no, you know, you guys hear me, the balance of it, but there really is power of life and death. I saw this study once. I don't know science well, so I don't know how valid it is, but there's enough out there where they'll use it with plants. This is the world. Oh, have y'all seen these yet? This is the world. They're not even talking Bible. Look it up. When you have time on YouTube, they're sometimes trying to stop bullying in school and they've learned the power of words. And so they'll get plants, put them in the same light, same moisture, water, everything, same plants. One, they encapsulated in glass. It could still get the same amount of light and put a speaker saying, you're amazing. You're beautiful. It just life, life, life. The next one, you're ugly. You're horrible. You know, uh, death and the plants wither and die. And the other one just booms and it's beautiful. There's a little, there's power of life and death in the tongue. I'll tell you some fun ones. My kids know we just, again, we're far from perfect. Please hear me. We're all get it. Trust me. We're like always needing to get better. Want to be more like Jesus. Want to be more like his word. But the more we can find, we don't realize even over our kids, if you're not careful, like that was so stupid. And then you, you, you, you literally, you can imagine it like a, the path of your life and your kid's life and everything. You have this available to speak into. You're creating the pathway for your life, your children's life, everything that's in your world. However you want to empower it. You speak death. You're just destroying the blacktop of the path, busting up potholes. It's going to be rough. Or you can speak alive prophecies. Often this way you speak a life into it. You see the potholes, but you speak brand new blacktop and just starts paving. It's like, Whoa, when it corrects things, it's powerful. Well, so our, it's funny. Our dog, my kids will tell you bullseye since he was a puppy. You're so smart. Smart boy. Such a good boy. Smart boy. Good bullseye. Even though he was like, what is that? He's just like, he was doing the ears up. But, um, it doesn't matter. My kids or whatever. And he is, he's brilliant. I don't know a lot about English bulldogs, but let's be honest. They're not always depicted as the most bright dogs, but I was like, we're not having that in our house. So smart. And, uh, sometimes I'll say it in the same sentence. Good boy. Smart boy. Uh, and, um, he's brilliant. Brilliant. A hundred percent house shrine. It don't matter if Armageddon's happening outside, he's going outside. Did I have to discipline him? Oh yeah. But he, no mistakes ever. Never chewed on anything. Never had the crazy younger years where you chewing off like furniture legs and all. He doesn't do that. He just sleeps a lot, but snores really loud. Um, Jasmine will tell you he loves, uh, Jasmine, but he'll, he'll just snore man. And, um, but any, whatever you have the availability to with, with this tongue, like realizing like, oh my gosh, just real power. It's not some figurative thing. It's, it's, it's power. God said, let there be light. Let there be an expanse in the heavens. And, and we're created in his image. And so you can literally start to formulate your life in that way. And I pray more and more. We'd get away from what also is almost more, more emphasizing the word of the death side. The Lord's like, look, don't do it. It'll be burned. I need you to know that rich man's just trying to cool off his tongue for how he used it. James is like, look, it's a world of iniquity. Don't let it loose, you know, torch your life and end up being torched in hell. You know? So hopefully you hear me. I pray to get better. The conviction of Laura come back in those areas where we've gotten comfortable where nobody's watching. We're by our little us for no more. And we let it rip. Also, we feel the Holy spirit. Remember that wheel you don't, you want to let those wheels loose in your life. Those wheels of fire go for it, but the word's gonna happen. And, um, that we just be life bombs everywhere. Everywhere. Sorry, we'd go. It'd be so good. You guys want to stand? We'll pray. Anybody want to prompt anybody have a kids with scooter wheels, new scooter wheels? They're like, I don't want nothing to do with that. It'll be up here if anybody wants it. No more give them away. Go ball machines or whatever. Um, also I know William sense there was going to be healing. I don't know if he's still in here. Yeah. Right here. There'd be healing. Are you on the prayer team this week? Yeah. Yeah. And also our prayer team want to invite you. Um, I actually had a dream. Ironic. We didn't get to talk, but last night where it seemed like it even could apply to the healing of eyes specifically. I don't know who that may be, even if you know, the eyesight's not real clear or you don't want to wear glasses anymore. I think the Lord can restore these things. And some of you want to wear them cause they're stylish and that's awesome too. We like it all. But, but, um, I believe the Lord wants to heal you. So let's focus on Jesus. Thank you, Lord, for your word. Thank you for your presence. Prayer team wants to come. Please be awesome. And, um, yeah, be glorified this morning, Lord, through our lives. I pray you'd give us a grace to yield to your word. Uh, more and more conviction of the Lord. That's so beautiful. That would turn our hearts unto you would set in. And I, I just want to pray corporately too. It'll be, I just think a good prophetic thing, like the coal of the Lord to touch our lips together. So let's just in at home across the world. Let's just say this, say Lord Jesus cleanse my lips. Please watch over the doorway of my lips. Guard my mouth. Oh Lord. Take the coal from the altar and touch my lips. Even now in Jesus name. Thank you Lord. And I just received God. I thank you for purity and the area of our, our mouths. God, that we would use the power of life and no more death. That we would not set on fire the course of our life anymore, but we'd set on Holy Ghost fire. The course of our life, the empowerment of the ways of God, there'd be life, life, life, life, life, life, life, life, life, life, life. Like those plants that come alive. We speak life over our children, life, over our jobs, life, over our friendships, life, over our marriages and spouses, life, life, life, life, life. Life over our relationship with you, Lord, they would come alive life over those people that hurt us and spoke falsely about us a life of our enemies that we'd bless and not curse that we'd bless you God and bless one another. That out of our mouth would be a river of life. River of life flow. Use us Lord. May the words of our mouth and the meditations of our heart be pleasing to you. Oh Lord. We love you in Jesus name. Amen.