MK040 Sermons
The Gift of Words (Audio)
We got us started with our new series entitled The Gifts of Christmas, and we looked at the gift of generosity. And this morning we want to look at a different gift, a different gift. When I was walking out of my bedroom yesterday, I happened to notice on the side of one of the dressers in our bedroom is a number of sticky notes that are on the dresser there. And these sticky notes are words that my wife wrote of affirmation to me at a season, or at one of my recent birthdays, and she put these in different parts of the house, and I collected them and then stuck them all there, and they're still all sticking there, just as a reminder to me. And they were meaningful words that she had written down for me. In my drawer in my office, I have a right on my top right hand desk drawer, I have a pile of cards and notes that people have given me, and they've written words that are meaningful to me, words of affirmation, they keep there, just as a reminder of words that have been spoken are written to me. And then just earlier this fall, I celebrate a significant birthday, and had some friends there when we were a part, when we were celebrating that, and these individuals each shared something about my relationship with them and why that was significant, and I treasured those things very greatly. And this morning, we're going to talk about words, words, and words play an incredibly powerful role in our lives. Words can lift us up, words can tear us down. Words can bless you, words can make you feel cursed, words can challenge you, words can be little you, words can embarrass you, and words can empower you, words can make you feel good, words can shame you, words can make you feel great, words can ruin your day, and words can even ruin your life. Words are something that define us, that define us. Take a moment and think about what words someone might use if they were to describe you. What would be two or three words they might use to describe you? Would they describe you as resourceful, as helpful, as kind, as athletic, as charming, as playful, as loyal, as generous, as wise? What words would they use to describe you? This morning, we're going to look at words, and words have an incredible power in our lives. And we're going to see why, and then talk about how to identify words that can be used in a meaningful way. For some of you might say, "Oh, that words don't matter," they're just words. I ignore them. I don't listen to what people have to say, either good or bad. But I want to suggest to you that words have a power in our lives that we cannot deny, we cannot deny. Only every person in this room can remember some words that were spoken to them that were of great meaning and great value that they still hold onto in treasure even to this day. On the contrast, you may recall, as I'm saying this, words that were spoken to you that were very painful, that were very damaging, that no matter how hard you try, you can't forget those words. Next week, Tim got us started with our series, "Looking at the Gift of Generosity," and there's some generous things that have been happening here at CCC that I wanted to tell you about. Our students, excuse me, last week, over the last two weeks, we collected over 1,800 pounds of food, and that food was taken and given to two food banks at two area churches in our community. And I happened to be driving through the town of Denver yesterday, and one of the churches was distributing this food, and I saw people taking literally grocery carts of food and putting that in their cars, people who were not able to, and that was a need that they had, and so we were able to bless many, many people in that way. On your way out, I encourage you to stop at the table, some of our kids from Studio 252 are back there, and they are raising money to purchase nets for children, specifically in the country of Africa, where they battle malaria. You have to ask the kids why they're collecting nets and why they need a net, and they'll tell you all about it. They're very well informed, that's very impressive with them, but I'll let you get the details from the kids, and so they're collecting money, and that's one of the projects that they are doing to give them a way to kids who are in need. And then our 56ers and our flip side and C3 students, they are collecting gloves and hats to give to an inner city school to children in inner city school up in Lebanon. So there's a lot of examples of generosity that are taking place here at CCC, and so our challenge for you is for that to continue in your life. If you weren't able to be here last week with us, I encourage you to go online and listen to Tim did a great job talking about that and challenging us to take that next step about generosity. And we talked about these gifts that we're going to be discussing each week. These are gifts that usually surprise us, gifts that we're not expecting that kind of come in a very unexpected way. And I have a gift that I want to give to someone this morning, Liz, who is the fifth person that you talked to this morning? Okay, where's Debbie? Come on up here, Debbie. Come here. You don't have to say anything. Just come here. I have a gift for you. So you didn't know you were going to get a gift, but because you talked to someone, there's a gift card for you to go to a Starbucks. So you can take one of your grandkids out to Starbucks. So, you know, this morning we're going to talk about the gift of words. And words are something that surprise us. You sometimes are surprised when someone says something meaningful or affirming to you. You're like, where did that come from? You're also surprised when someone says something that is cruel or that is hurtful. You're like, wow, I don't think I really deserve that. So why are words so powerful? Why are words so powerful? Well, I want us to go all the way back to the book of Genesis, and I want us to start by looking at the creation story, because in Genesis chapter 1, verse 3, when the writer is describing the world being created, look how it describes. It says, God said, let there be light, and there was light. God didn't wave a magic wand, God didn't sprinkle some pixie dust, you know, there was no machine creating and it spit it out on the other end of the assembling line. There was no inventor in his workshop late at night. There was no one trying to follow instructions, okay, put this piece with this piece and this screw goes with this screw, and this size screw, and this size bolt, and that. No, there was none of that. How didn't light come into being? God spoke, it's all he did. He spoke. The account goes on to say that how was the light created, how was the sky and the dry land separated? God spoke. How was the sun and the moon created? God spoke. How were the fish put into the sea and the birds put into the sky and the animals roaming the land? God spoke. How was man given life? Simply God spoke. The world and all we know that came into existence simply by a word from God. And the Bible says that we are created in God's image, we're image bearers of humans, and if God has the power with his words simply to speak, why would we assume that our words do not have significance and impact and wait? God revealed himself to man through a variety of ways, throughout the Old Testament, sometimes it was through dreams, sometimes it was through visions. He actually had a donkey speak, but most of the time it was through prophets. And as prophet would make this statement, he would say, "Thus saith the Lord." And they knew it was a word from God. God had spoken, and it was his direction for them. And when Jesus showed up on the scene and he was God in the flesh as we're celebrating this Christmas season of him coming to this earth and taking on human form. When John, one of the disciples, writes about Jesus and describes him in John chapter 1, he says, "In the beginning was the Word," and the Word was with God and the Word was God. What we used to speak, what we used to describe, things that were important to us is how Jesus was described. Then John 1, it says, and the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We're going to talk about that in a couple of weeks saying that this Word that John was describing was Jesus himself. At the very end of the Bible, it says one day when Jesus will return in Revelation 19, it says this. It says that John is writing this as well. He said, "I saw heaven standing open, and there before me was a white horse, a rider on it's called Faithful and True." Then in verse 14, his name is called the Word of God. And again, he says, "When Jesus shows up in the end to right all the wrongs, to fix everything that's become a mess, he's showing up described as the Word of God." And so, if the words that God spoke had that level of power, and if the Word is what is used to describe Jesus himself, maybe our words carry a little bit more weight than we think that they do. James talks about this when he talks about what the capacity is we have inside of us. Look what he says in James chapter 3. He says, "The tongue is also a fire, a world of evil, corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one's life on fire, and it's set on fire by hell." Now, James is not talking about this, he's talking about this thing, oh yeah, he's talking about what comes out, our words. He goes on to say in verse 7 and 8, he says, "All kinds of animals can be tame, but no one can tame this thing, no one, no one." And in verse 9 he says, "This has the capacity to bless and curse, bless and curse." I think, wow, our tongue, our words are amazingly powerful. And sometimes things come out and we're like, "Oh, I didn't mean that, I don't know where that came from," and Jesus says, "Yeah, I came from inside here," because in Matthew 12 he says this, he says, "For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of." And so as we talk about this subject of the gift of words this morning, and as I challenge you about it, you say, "John, that's just not part of who I am, that's just not the way I communicate, you probably need to do a little soul searching and say, "Why not?" Because likely there's something wounded and hurting and broken on the inside that God wants to heal and transform so that you can offer this and your words can be used to bless other people. Solomon said this, he said, "Life and death are in the power of your tongue. Life and death, think about that, life and death are in the power of your tongue." Words have remarkable capacity, remarkable capacity. And what I want you to this morning to walk away with wrestling, remembering is that your words have weight to them, so weigh your words carefully. Your words have weight, so weigh your words carefully. Now sometimes you say words, you just toss them out, "Oh, I didn't mean that, I didn't mean that," and but those words have weight. Another time you say something, you want it to be meaningful and it doesn't really have any substance to it, and you want your words to have weight. I need help with the illustration. Can you two come up here and help me with something, so just come on up here. All right, which one of you is the strongest? Her. Okay, well then here, I need you to hold these two things, no, you hold these two things. Okay, now you put your hands like that, okay, no, no, no, no, no, keep your hands open like this. Now I need you to just do a little lap around the middle of the section there. Walk quickly, fast, fast, you gotta walk fast, fast, faster, faster, come on, faster, faster, faster. Nope, she's dropping some of her feathers, they're falling out, I saw one fall out. Come on, faster, faster. See what happens is when there's sugars, another one, there goes another one. If she walked a little fast, I was trying to get her to go faster, there you go. Now you're not going to forget how heavy these are, are you? No, and you lost a few flowers there, you can just drop them on there. Feathers, not feathers, thank you. But the point is, I think that all of us don't, all of us want our words to be more like this than like this, right? Because those will just blow away, they'll be gone, you'll forget of them. But I think we want our words to be more like this. And so the question is, if my words have weight and I want my words to have impact, what do I have to do to have words that are impact, to have words that are impactful? I want to give you a couple thoughts on that this morning, and these words, these thoughts are going to come from, from the book of Proverbs, Solomon was a man who wrote often about this, Solomon was a prolific writer, and yet Solomon seemed to understand the value of words. And so the first thing about our words is weighty words are words that are honest. In Proverbs 16, 13, he says, "This King's take pleasure in honest lips. They value the one who speaks what is right." And King has no interest, no time for someone that is not going to be honest, but who's going to lie and deceive, or who's going to schmooze, or is going to say something simply so that you will get something said back to you. But a king is someone who takes pleasure in honest lips. Paul said that we should speak words of grace and truth. Grace and truth. Proverbs 24, 26 says this, "An honest answer is like a kiss on the lips." And most of the room, probably not all of the room, knows how enjoyable that can be. And that's when an honest answer is like. Verse 28, 23 says this, "Whoever rebukes a person will in the end gain favor. Sometimes our honesty requires us to say something that's hard to say. Say something that's truthful. Say something that might not be well received. But in the end, it will be, rather than the one who has a flattering tongue. Because the person who says everything is wonderful, and great, and spectacular to you, is that someone whose words you value, likely not very much. Because they say the exact same thing to the next person, and the exact same thing to the next person, and the exact same thing to the next person. Proverbs 27, 5 says wounds from a friend, better is open, rebuked, and hidden love. Words from a friend are wounds, words that can be trusted. And Paul's not talking about the fact that we bludgeon people with our words. Well, I'm just going to lay it out there, and you've got to take it, whether you like it or not. That's not what Paul is talking about. But he's talking about someone you have a relationship with, someone who cares about you, someone who's able to speak honestly with you. He says, "Let your words always be seasoned with salt." So the first question for you is, can you offer words that are honest, words that are honest? A little later in the service, I'm going to ask you to identify two people that you need to speak some words that have weight into their lives. And maybe as I mentioned that, someone comes immediately to your mind. Are there some things that are honest and true about this person that you can say? Some words that are honest and true that you can offer to them. The second thing about words that have weight, words that are weighty, are weighty words are few. Weighty words are few. Proverbs 17, 28 says this, it says, "Even fools are thought-wise that they keep silent and discerning if they hold their tongue." A fool is not someone that you should listen to. A gentleman in other places says, "Don't have a conversation with someone who's a fool. Don't even bother." But even a foolish person is thought-wise if they talk less. The truth is, the more you talk, the less, the more likely you are to say something, you will what? Regret. So if you struggle with sinning with your words, talk less in your sin factor, your sin quotient will go down right away. There's a few more verses, Solomon says this, he says, "The wise store up knowledge, but the mouth of full invites ruin." He says, "A wise person is someone who has a knowledge and awareness of what's going on in life, what they see and what they observe." And it's like they're storing those things up and waiting and we're going to see just in a moment for the right time to offer these things to someone else. Verse 13, "Those who guard their lips preserve their lives." Think about that picture for a moment, there's two guards in front of this. So this doesn't say things quickly or flippantly or loosely or casually, but there's guards in front of what comes out of here because what come out of here has power and it can make a difference and it can alter someone's life. Proverbs 10, 19, "Sin is not ended by multiplying words, but the prudent hold their tongues." Literally, they keep those words back, they keep those words back. I mentioned earlier that many of you may remember someone who's spoken a few words to you that have impact. Maybe it was a coach, maybe it was a teacher, maybe it was a supervisor. Maybe it was a parent, although that seems to not happen very often in my conversations with most people. Maybe it was a friend who spoke just a few words, but they had great impact for you personally. I think it was my senior year in college and I was talking with a prof of mine that I've greatly looked up to and respected, a man by the name of Gary Halk. Gary was telling me, he said to me, "John, I remember when you were in the first class I had with you back in your sophomore year. I remember sitting in the class and looking and seeing this red-headed kid sitting in the back of the class and he was struggling like you wouldn't believe just to stay awake. He couldn't stay awake to save his life and well now I know why, I have a sleep disorder, but then I didn't know that." He said that kid just wanted to pay attention and wanted to hear what I was saying, but he was struggling to do so and I just had this deep sense inside of me that God was going to do something significant with that kid's life. When I get choked up just even talking about that, just a couple words, but words that had an incredible amount of weight in my life because these were words where someone said they believed in me and they saw potential in what God might do in my life. And so weighty words are also few. For some of you, you're not a person of many words. People have told you that, "I want to challenge you." You might wear that as a badge of honor, but likely there's some people in your life that need you to say a little bit more to them. When you speak they hang on every word because they don't hear much at all and so for you there may need to be a few more words spoken. For some of you who speak a lot, who talk a lot, who say a lot, the struggle is that when you say something of meaning and of value it gets lost in the flurry of everything else that's being said. And so maybe for some of you you need to dial it back a little bit and say a few less words. By the way, this is an individual's choice whether to say more or less, no nudging allowed in the rows this morning on that one. But weighty words, words are going to have impact. They're words that are honest, words that are true, there's few of them that are going to do this. And the third one is weighty words are the just right words, they're the just right words. And that what that means is that they're the right words for the right situation. You know, it's not going to be meaningful if you just had a conflict with your spouse or with your mom and dad and you say, oh and by the way, I appreciate you so much because of that, not going to go over real well, not going to go for real well. Proverbs 15-23 says a person finds joy in giving an apt reply in how good is a timely word. How good is a timely word? Proverbs 10-20 says the tongue of the righteous is a choice silver and Proverbs 10-32 says the lips of the righteous know what finds favor. And so the right word at the right time, the right word that's been thought about, the right word that's been reflected on, the right word that is true, that is spoken to the person who needs to hear that. So how do you come up with the right words? How do you come up with the right words? Well now we can put that verse, Proverbs 15-28, the heart of the righteous weighs his answer. But the mouth of the wicked just gushes evil. This is not always something that will come quickly, it may require some thought. To say something meaningful, to say something significant, to offer someone the gift of your words, is something you may have to sit with. Proverbs 26 says for the Lord gives wisdom from his mouth comes knowledge, and understanding Proverbs 16-1 says from the Lord comes the proper answer of the tongue. You may have to say God I need your help on this one, I need you to give me some words that I can offer to this person, give me some words that I can offer to them, and ask God to provide the right words at the right time for you to offer. I've talked about offering this gift of words, but I want to talk about what happens when someone offers this gift of words to you. Because some of you when you receive this gift of words, you receive this gift and you're like, oh thank you, that was so kind of you and so gracious of you, and you kind of wrap your arms around it, and you kind of get this big smile on your face, and it kind of warms you deep to your soul, and you kind of hold on to it, and you kind of think about it the next few days, but not everybody does that when they get the gift of words. Some of you when you get the gift of words, your face gets a little red, kind of embarrassed, you don't know how that happened, you're not really sure it's true. Some of you when you get the gift of words you're like, no, no, no, no, no, you don't really have to say that, you don't really mean that, you know you kind of put the gift aside, you don't take the gift, they give it to you and you just put it aside. Some people when they give you the gift of words, you just give it right back to them, no, right back at you, you know, here you go, no, you too, you too, I had someone do that to me on the phone last week, I was talking to them and I just thanked them for something that was really meaningful that they about who they were in my life, and they just said right back at you and they just gave it right back to me, they didn't even, they didn't even hold on to it, they didn't even touch it and feel it and shake it, they didn't do anything, they just tossed it right back to me, you know, some of you take it and you examine it and you think about it and you're like, I don't think this one's for me, it probably belongs to someone else, I'm not, I'm not like that, put it down, put it down, how to challenge you, that when someone offers you the gift of words, the only thing that you do is say these two words that are going to come up on the screen behind me, thank you, that's it, it's practice saying it all together, one, two, three, thank you, that's it. Now some of you as I've challenged you to do this and we've talked about the power of your words, some of you might go home and you actually might do this, but I don't want you to walk away not having put some time and thought into it, it's a busy time of year, it's a busy season and so I'd like for you to spend some time right now doing this. So I want everybody to take out something to write on and something to write with, if you don't have something to write on, our ushers are going to walk through with our programs and make sure they'll give you a program, there's a little sheet in there, you can take that out, so everybody needs something to write on and then they're also going to come through with pens, I hope we have some more pens, we've got a few, so they're also going to come through with some pens for you to write something right with, if you don't have something right with, you might have to borrow someone else's and what I want you to do is I want you to think of two people in your life, two people in your life that you need to speak some words of affirmation to, two people and I want you to write down three words, okay, two people, three words, it's like we might be a little short on pens, so if you have an extra pen available, if you have an extra pen available, pass those pens around, give them to someone else, it might be available, so you've got a pen, Rick, here you go, here's a pen, that's the only one I got, well here comes Ben with some more pens, he's got some pens, pens and something to write with, give them something to write with two men, if they need something to write on and something to write with, okay, I want you to think of two people and I want you to write three words that are true that you believe would be meaningful to them, I'll give you a couple of minutes to do that. If the words came to you very quickly, I want you to think also about why these words are true of this person, why these words are true, maybe jot down a couple words, why is this true of this person? Let's give you about one more minute to keep writing. Okay. Okay. Okay, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come Mel Dobb and Frank Martin and they were recently involved in experience with their small group in which They had an opportunity to do this in their group and I'd like to ask them to share a little bit of what that experience was like with you this morning Just to maybe validate some of what you're processing even just kind of thinking about doing this and preparing for it their small group is coming to a season in their group where the group is going to end and so as part of ending well The group went through an affirmation exercise and what they needed to do is they had to they had a sheet with about a hundred words One sheet for each person in the group and they had to circle a couple of those words And then they had to share those words with the individuals in the group meeting itself and so To get a start off Mel talk about what was it like for you preparing to do this? What was that like? Well at first it was overwhelming our group was pretty large and I think our original instructions were to come up with the top five off this list of attributes we see in everybody and so Because I I wanted the words to really mean something and I wanted them to be true I was worried that with our grouping so big I wouldn't maybe know everyone the best to give the best words and so When I sat down to do it, it took me a while And but as I prayed through I realized that I really as I sat and took the time I Things came to mind experiences I had and the ways I saw I saw those people so I realized that I didn't have any trouble really coming up with the Five words and then Matt changed it and said we could only do two and then that became a problem And to sit and rethink and I decided I couldn't really do that so I did five anyway So it's interesting because what you're saying is initially. It's hard. It's hard to get this process started It's hard to actually begin and some of you may have experienced that even sitting here thinking about that today But as you sat with it and prayed through it God kind of brought thoughts and ideas and experiences Yeah, I realized I knew more about Everybody than I maybe had thought just because when I'm busy I don't you know take the time to see and Just different interactions even outside the church would come to mind. Okay. How about you Frank? What was it like for you just on the preparing to do this? Well, I would say the same as she did when we first were sort of given this assignment It was like wow what about the people I don't know real well or the world or the quiet or people and I'm not I don't have much interaction with them outside of group I mean how because you want your words to not just be like oh, you're just kind and nice So what does that mean? You know me so not only do you have to sort of come up with a word But you had to sort of come up with a an example of why you would choose that word So yeah, you know to me it was like wow that that is not only gonna take time It's gonna take some emotional energy. I mean it's not like you're gonna sit down and do this in one in one evening For one thing our group is I would call it not a small group a community group because we have eight couples 16 people so that means we had to come up with 15 of these and So it was like yeah, a little overwhelming And so so the fact that I've only had them do two people that should be a piece of cake, right? Well, yeah, I mean you should be able to do that But but no if you did it just now When you start thinking about it to try to really make it be something that's worth saying It takes some thought take some thought so as Frank is saying that you know some of you may have John It's something down quickly today I want to encourage you to take that home and to sit with that and think about that Maybe kind of come back to that a day or two later and that's why I added Why is this true of this person? Because it allows you to think through some substance to those words that you offer This is what I see in you because of this This is what this is what I appreciate about you because for this reason so that's helpful So I want to show you also to share with the group so what was it like? When you offered these words to everybody and then what was it like being the recipient? So why don't you start with that one Frank? Was it like offering and then receiving can you put them like a little closer? Well, I would say to like Mel said, you know, you're concerned about you didn't know this person well enough So you said something they're sort of like No, that's I mean just like that. Let's give it back because that ain't me at all You know, I mean, I mean you mustn't know me or why do you pick that word or so? That was the the biggest concern the fear going in that was a fear going in the other the other sort of fear I think for me going in or and I think I've heard it from other people in the group was that it could be sort of embarrassing or sort of a Uncomfortable tell on this person face to face The reason why you think this and if you don't know them real well, they'd be like Sort of like you might get it wrong. You might have it up. Yeah, so you mess it up or you or they just sort of think like You they don't know me very well. You're just not too intelligent, so How about you Mel, what was it like offering those? Yeah, I was a little nervous going and I think we all were But just as we started with the very first person and we had a cool chair that spun around in a circle So that was kind of fun everybody made a circle and then they got to spin But it wasn't if I didn't find it embarrassing at all I thought once we got started it was very easy to do it because I think that I had sat with the papers and the thought and So you believe this to be true. I did. Yeah, I did and so I was kind of excited. I thought it was You know, it was kind of fun to do it It's interesting because both of you talked about some of the the anxiety and just uncertainty of offering this You know, how's it going to be received? And I think that's just important for us to acknowledge that as we choose to use our words in a powerful way in someone Else's lives. There's an uncertainty in terms of how that gift like we talked about it will be received What was it like Mel talk about for a moment? What was it like when you when you were in the spinny chair and you were receiving? What was that like for you? Again, I felt like it might be uncomfortable But I really it was very affirming Did you like it? I did like it. Okay, that's what I wanted to know I did like it. It's okay to enjoy. I was nervous about what people might say because you You know, I you have a picture yourself. I have a picture myself the way that I would like To come across or the things I would like people to see in my life however, I know that because I'm in perfect. I don't always display those qualities and characteristics and so sometimes you know, just the fear or or the wondering, you know, am I Am I displaying what or am I being what I would like to be more of the time than I'm not so it was It was very good to hear and I didn't hear anything that I thought was weird or unusual that I would have thought I didn't want to be or that wasn't You know, I had a few moments of yes but kind of thoughts of yeah, I can be that way but not always but for the most part it was I thought it was true and Yeah, very affirming. I enjoyed it. How about you Frank? What was it like to be the recipient? Well, uh I I mean once we got started one of the thoughts going into it was too because we have 16 people that are going through this Uh the poor person the poor a couple people with the last, you know, it's going to be like everyone's going to be like You know while this is just boring Just get it over with but it was really amazing Everybody was very engaged up to the very last person because it was like Especially when you had picked out some words for these people And then you heard other people go around the circle and and say the same thing or come up with sort of the same Thought of why you chose the word you chose and the affirming part to me was We each got a paper with these you're supposed to pick out. Well, really the top two we went we went down to two because I sort of went to john and matt who is our escrow group leader who You know, he's been there for a long time. So I think he's going to be rewarded in heaven You know to be the president of the small group society for the next 110,000 years or something, you know but uh Anyway, I said, you know These words that you come around what I did was we take these papers and eat and we give them all the papers So we got 15 papers And so then when I went home, I was like, okay Is this is what you know in other words? I have this view like you said of who I am or what I want to be On my good days anyway But then you take those papers and you and you circle all the words and you see How many of them are the same and how many of them? Are are the higher numbers in other words, you might have two or three words, but when you have over five or Over ten a lot of the same word if you have ten of the same words. It's like wow. I mean that must be true must be what people see And so it gives you a better picture of what's really the reality of what what people imagine you to be Well, thank you guys for sharing that. Would you thank them for coming up and sharing this with us this morning I Ask them to talk about this experience just so that it would help give some perspective and validation on what this is like for you to Think about words that have weight To put some of these words down and then to offer these words And I hope as you head into this holiday season that that you think about is there someone in my life, maybe a couple people Maybe more than a couple people that I need to offer them the gift of my words And as you do that, I want to challenge you to think about words that are true Make them few And find the right time to offer them Would you join me in prayer as we close and just ask God to help us do that God, I thank you for The power of words Not only in Your creation of this world but the description of your son But the amazing way that we have the capacity with our words to impact people And god, I I know I don't always think about that. I don't always think through How my words that my words have that level of impact And god, I pray that as we walk away this morning that we would walk away challenged about what we do with our words For some of us god, we maybe have been real Flippant with our words and we need to think about what we say God, maybe for others, we think of a lot of things All the time we think all kinds of affirming things But they rarely come out and god, may you just give us a nudge to open our mouth and speak And let our words be used So god as we think about this gift as we walk away reflecting on the gift of our words help us to remember that our words have wait And to weigh them And to be willing to offer this gift to others this Christmas season.