Cursing

Ben Woodman · Tidal Church Moncton · November 17, 2024 · You Can't Talk About That series

Ben Woodman explores the power of words, from God speaking creation into being to Jesus healing with a word. He offers practical ways to encourage others, invites us to receive encouragement graciously, and closes with John 1 and 1 John 3:1 on being God's children.

More from Ben Woodman · The You Can't Talk About That series

Topics: Identity, Relationships, Discipleship

Transcript

[0:00] Well, this is really fun 'cause I get to introduce you to my friend Ben. Ben is a beauty for so many different reasons. I've gotten to know him over most of my ministry career, actually. And what I love about Ben Woodman, he's from Vancouver. Have you been from Vancouver your whole life? Yeah, actually. That's cool. Were you born in Vancouver? I was. I was born in Vancouver. And so you get to experience the other ocean. It's beautiful here. And I've been here many times. Many, many times. It's starting to feel like, I'm not gonna say home. No, because your wife and your daughters, it's starting to feel like a family. Family. That's a good one. But Ben is honestly one of the most genuine and caring Christians that I know. He cares so much about making sure that people hear about the message of Jesus. Jesus has made a difference in your life. And so one of the things that I, the way that I've gotten to know you is because you launched the Alpha Film Series, and legitimately millions of teenagers around the world have heard the gospel message because of Ben, because of the team, and because of your willingness to spread the gospel in that way. It's been translated into dozens of languages.

[0:59] Yes. So many kids come to know Jesus. You've preached all around the world in all sorts of fun places, and this morning is gonna be the best place you've ever preached. 'Cause you're among it at Tidal Church. Let's give it up for my friend Ben. I can't believe it. I can't even believe it. Thanks, Jeremy. Thank you. Wow. Oh, well, it's great to be with you. Thank you so much, Jeremy, for the warm welcome, and thank you to the whole team here. So I'm in town for Jeremy, helps lead Youth Worker Community, which is an organization devoted to helping train youth leaders who are helping tell, teach kids about Jesus. What is it? Tell kids that they're loved. Tell 'em that God has a plan for their lives. And so we go across the country and we do regional events, and we teach, we're training and teaching youth leaders. And so all weekend here, you know, all day Friday and all day Saturday, we are here training youth leaders.

[1:49] And so that's what I'm in town for. And so, and all of my experiences so far have with the Tidal Church team have been really good. And I hope that's your experience of your visiting this morning. And for those of you who are here and you're a part of the Tidal Church family, thanks for being so welcoming, kind, hospitable for all of it. So thank you. I bring greetings from my wife. I'm married for 18 years, and Melissa and I, we have a little 2-year-old daughter. Her name's Olivia, like Olivia without the O 'cause we wanted her to have a name that she had to explain her whole life. But she's so precious. I can't even. Now I'm just thinking of her, I'm just like, I just want to eat her. You know, when they're little kids, you just wanna eat their feet and stuff like that. It's a weird feeling. Wanna smell their head and eat their feet.

[2:36] It's like, don't, you don't actually want to, you know, you know what I mean? You know what I mean? You felt it. When you get around those little ones, you're like, oh, ah, I just wanna squeeze you. But also, I mentioned I was, we've been married for 18 years. We have a 2-year-old daughter. So just to say that was a journey. We were trying to start a family for over 12 years. And so she's our little answer to prayer, and we're like so grateful for her. She's a little bundle of joy and she is too. So that's very difficult. So thank You, God. And thank you, Melissa, for being a great mom and helping us start a family. So, yeah, that's good. Yeah. I come from The Way Church in Vancouver, which is a great church. And so I send love from that church. My topic this morning for our time together is words, the power of words, blessings, curses, and I wanna speak to you.

[3:27] This is a topic that means a lot to me. I've been, I feel like we've all experienced the power of words. Proverbs says that death and life are in the power of the tongue. And we've all experienced that. I hope everyone's experienced that power of life in the power of the tongue. I know we've all experienced the negative side of it, right? You've, there's those things, right? We all know this. There's those words that have been spoken to us in a careless moment, or an angry moment, or a dismissive or intentional even moment, where that just stuck. They just started to shape our life and like, kind of crush us or like take the wind out of our sails. And what's interesting is, to be fair, some of those words that shape us, they come in a negative way, also come from ourselves, right? As I get older, as the way I look changes and has changed in different ways over the years, as my ability and have changed over the years.

[4:21] There's some, you know, internal scripts. Do you know that feeling? You know, the things we say to ourselves about ourselves, what I am capable of, and not capable of, what people have said to me. Thankfully, I grew up in a home where my parents were, I think they both had the gift of encouragement. My home, this is the best. This is like a real life. Just, isn't the world a crazy place? Isn't life crazy? My home had like, bankruptcy, alcoholism, adultery, all the good stuff. And my parents are like the most encouraging people in the world. Like, they're the best. They're like, they made me think I could do anything in the world. Like, I'm like, so my childhood was like totally a mess and totally beautiful. Isn't that like life? That's what I mean, right? It's like, ever, all the time in our lives, there's like, there's things, there's people in our family, in our church, people that we know, our friends that are, something's going good.

[5:12] And there's people in our lives and families and something's going really bad. That's just the beauty of life and the craziness of it all. My parents, I remember one time I was, I drew a cartoon caterpillar when I was a kid, and my mom was just like, this is amazing. You're such an artist. You could be a professional artist one day. And I was like, yeah, I was a good caterpillar, but it wasn't that good. And I was 16, not like six. Like, it was like, I was like, what is going on right now? But like, it wasn't just 'cause she was my mom, it's also 'cause she had the gift of encouragement. That's the kind of world she started shaping for me and saying, this is what I see in you. You could do this. My dad, I remember we were playing volleyball down at the park one day with my, and it was a co-ed game. And my friend Carrie was going, she's like really competitive. So she gets her serious face on and she's just going crushing balls in the volleyball court.

[5:59] And my dad was cheering from the side, and after the game, he was like, whoa, Carrie, you could be a professional volleyball player. You're such a good athlete. And I was like, I'm like, she's good, but she's not that. You know what I mean? I'm like, what is going on? But that's the way my parents see the world. And so I'm really grateful for the words that they've given me and shaped me over the years. But I know also that I can think to the moments where a friend, a leader, another adult, a teacher in my life has said those things to me that just like chained me up, trapped me, clipped my wings, crushed me. Just kind of nod if you can remember that you remember moments for yourself that someone just crushed you with their words. Yeah, there's a bunch of us. Yeah. So the power of words. We all understand the power of words. This is what I wanna do this morning. I wanna go through three movements.

[6:46] I wanna look at kind of, look at the Scriptures and almost like a theology of words. Like what is, how does the Bible deal with this topic of words? I wanna then go to just two topics of, like, talking about giving encouragement. I wanna give you my top tips, my 10 top tips for giving more encouragement, really practical. And then I wanna talk about receiving encouragement. We'll just spend a couple minutes 'cause for a lot of us that's tough to receive kind words, gratitude, encouragement, and we'll end by kind of reflecting and doing kind of a prayerful thought exercise. And we'll pray and we'll just ask God to remind us who we are and how He sees us. And so that's where we're going. I hope that sounds all right. So just to jump in, a theology of words, let me read this quote to you from a note from what Susanna Heschel said about her father.

[7:34] Abraham Heschel. Words, he often wrote, are themselves sacred. God's tool for creating the universe and our tools for bringing holiness or evil into the world. Words create worlds. He used to tell me when I was a child, they must be used very carefully. The book of Proverbs reminds us, he wrote, that death and life are in the power of the tongue. In the very beginning of the Scriptures, the book of Genesis, which means beginning, it talks about the creation of the world. And it says that the way that God created the there's a poetry in the beginning of the Scriptures. And the poet says, "And God said, let there be light." And that creative power was in God's words. And so all through the creation, God said, "Be light."

[8:22] Let there be animals. Let there be land and sea. Let there be sky, all and God spoke. Spoke God, "Let there be man." Let there be woman. And God spoke. And it was. And so all through the Scripture, right from the very beginning, we see that it's a big deal. Words have this creative power. If you fast forward to the New Testament, which our Christian faith is based on, and all, and the Old Testament is what the New Testament's based on, we find Jesus. And there's this, one of my favorite stories is an encounter Jesus has with a man who had the disease leprosy. And he came to Jesus and fell before Him and said, "Jesus, if You're willing, You can make me clean." And it says that Jesus reached out His hand and said to the man, "I'm willing. Be clean." He said, "Be clean," as He touched him. And it says instantly he was healed of leprosy.

[9:10] And so this is kind of the popularity of Jesus began to grow, ultimately leading to the political and religious leaders of the day being like, "We gotta, we have to kill this man. We have to crucify Him." But that was all part of God's plan and Jesus. But He spoke to the man and it was instant healing. And there's another scene where Jesus is in a boat. I think it maybe happens a couple times. He's in a boat and there's a storm. Many of you know this story. And the disciples, His closest followers, they're with Him. They're afraid they're gonna drown. They're like, this is terrible. We're terrified. They say, "Jesus, don't You care if we drown?" And Jesus says, gets up. And He rebukes the wind and the waves and He says, "Quiet, be still."

[9:56] I think of, like, a mom with kids in the backseat, "Enough, stop it. Right? I'm gonna pull this thing over." You know, that feeling doesn't have to be just moms. I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to be, like, judgy or about moms, like, also dads, you know what I mean? Like, "Stop, enough." But I pictured Jesus like, "Quiet, be still." And it says, the wind and the waves stop at a word. And then it says, His disciples were like, "Who is this man?" That's when they start to go, "He's more than a man. He's more than a man. What's going on here?" Wow. So right through the Scriptures and then, and then through the letters of the New Testament, there's all these words of encouragement. It says, "Encourage one another daily, as long as it's called today, so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin."

[10:42] Encourage one another daily. And Thessalonians just talks about, make sure you encourage one another. In Galatians, encourage one another, all the way through. One of the main encouragements is to encourage one another. So it's like, this is how we put this into practice, the power of words, even in the words like "encourage," put courage into each other, impart courage into each other. And so that's, there's power in our words. I wanna move to the subject of giving encouragement. I'm gonna give you my top 10 tips. It's actually like 15 or 16, but it sounds better if I, with the alliteration, top 10 tips. But let me, first I wanna tell you about my Egyptian grandfather. I'm not Egyptian, but my Egyptian grandfather, like more than most people I ever met.

[11:28] He was so generous and with his affection, with his encouragement, and he had this way of greeting us, his grandkids. And the reason I call him my grandfather is because if you were close friends or if you were just anywhere in his orbit, I was close friends with his grandchildren. And so whenever Papa Naum would come around, he would greet us like we were his own very grandchildren. And he had this way of greeting his grandchildren. That was, like, different than anything I've experienced before. Well, actually, except for my Scottish grandfather. I'm not Scottish. But my Scottish grandfather also had a unique way of greeting. It was similar, but it's, and so they both had beautiful accents, right? The Scottish accent. And so Papa Naum would come and he would hug people, And then he wouldn't let you get away. He'd hold onto your shoulders. So he'd hug you, he'd hold onto your shoulders, he'd kiss your cheeks, he'd hold onto you, and he'd look you right in the face.

[12:16] And he'd say, "I love you so much. You're my precious, precious child. I'm so proud of you." And you kinda go, "Whoa." My grandfather, he came from a British background. And I remember one time I went in for a hug, and I was like, "Hey, Grandpa." And I went in for a hug, and he went, "Whoa." And he stuck out his hand to get the handshake. And I was like, okay. And so I had, my Egyptian grandfather was very affectionate. My, not Egyptian grandfather, was British. And so, but I remember it was like, "Whoa, that's a lot," right? I was like, whoa, he's, and so Papa Naum would come in, he'd grab you, and he had that Egyptian accent. So he'd grab and he'd kiss, and then he'd hold onto you. He'd look you right in the face, and he'd say, "I love you so much. I'm so proud of you. You are my precious, precious child." And like, from the side, it kind of looks awkward.

[13:02] But when it's happening to you, when someone's looking into your face and telling you they love you, they're proud of you, that you're precious to them, it's like, whoa. Kind of hits, it hits a deeper part of you. So a few years back, Papa Nasin passed away, and his memorial service, his funeral, was one of the biggest funerals I've ever been to. And it was auditorium similar to this, packed out, hundreds and hundreds of people. And it was one of the longest memorial services that I had ever been to, because every single person who got up on stage, they wanted to tell you and how much Papa Nasm loved them. It was like they were all trying to say, he, I was his favorite. I was sitting in the back and I'm like, "That's impossible, 'cause I know I was probably his favorite." Like, what's going on right now? But I, and he wasn't in any formal position of leadership.

[13:48] He was just like, that's the impact he had. Pat, everyone was like, person after person, after person was like, "He loved us so much." So I left the memorial that day thinking, okay, how can I be more intentional with my words, be more intentional with showing my affection? And the first two people I thought of was my niece and nephew, Christian and Clara at the time. They were like six and four. This is a while ago now. And so now they're teenagers. And I remember about six and four, and I remember I was like, okay, I'm gonna go go do this with Christian and Clara. So I went to hang out with them, and I grabbed them and I tried to kiss them. I just tried to copy Papa Naza, right? I was like, I kiss them. And I was like, you know, I was, I love you so much. I didn't do the accent, right? I was like, I'm so proud of you, right? And they just squirmed away. They just got away. I was like, oh, that's not working. And I was like, okay.

[14:34] And then I realized, you know, sometimes when you imitate, you're like, oh, I shouldn't just copy. I gotta find a way that's true to me. So like, what's true to me? And I was like, I know, I'll yell at them. And so like a coach, like a friendly coach, okay? And so I, later that day, I was like, I said, "Hey, Christian." I was like, "Come look at my face." And he's looking, he is like, "What? What's going on?" "Come look at my face," right? He's like, "What's going, right?" And I was like, "Come here." So he comes over, I said, "Look at my face." He's really close. I'm still yelling. And I was like, "Look at my face." And I was like, "I love you so much." He looks away. "Look at my face. I'm so proud of you. Auntie Melissa and I love you so much. We're so proud of you." And I said, "You're such a good big brother." I just encouraged him a little bit. I said, "Hey, I saw your little sister. She was falling off the couch, but you saved her life, man.

[15:20] You reached out and grabbed her. You're such a good big brother. You're so creative. I'm so proud of you." And he was like, "Oh, okay." And he goes away. "Clara, come look at my face." So I started doing this, not every time I saw them, but a lot, especially when they were young. I would do it over and over and over again. I did it dozens of times. And so it became a thing where they knew. So I remember the day when I was like, "It's working." Because I said, "Christian, come look at my face." He comes running up. He's just waiting. He's just like, and I was like, "Oh my goodness, it's working." And I encouraged him, and I said, "Clara, come look at my face." She's sitting on the ground. I remember she looked up, like I said, and then I kind of got angry, like, "Come look at my face."

[16:08] She comes over, she kind of shuffles, like, total opposite. And I say, "I love you so much. I'm so proud of you." She goes, "I know. You always tell me that." And then, you know, let's be honest, like, oh, a little defensive. I said, "That's right. And I'm always gonna tell you that until I die, because I never want you to forget it." Okay? And so, but I was like, and then also like, I don't know if you've heard of the Five Love Languages, great book I recommended. And I was like, you know what? Maybe Christian's a words guy, and Clara needs some other forms of showing love and encouragement and affection. I was like, okay, mental note. But I, but through the years, I was like, okay, I want to be that voice of encouragement in their lives. And here's what's interesting to this day. Now that Christian's a teenager, I'll, it's more awkward.

[16:56] He's almost as tall as me now. And so to look at another man or young man and say, "Hey, I love you so much, I'm so proud of you," and say words of encouragement, it feels uncomfortable. And it's like, but part of what I'm glad, why I'm glad we're talking about it this morning, is because it's like, wait, but is it worth it? Like, it's actually difficult for me these days, even though I know he, at a deep level, he soaked it up. And at a deep level, I am a voice of encouragement in his life, and my words really matter in his life. But it's tough, right? Sometimes to like, say the things that are in our hearts, or say the things to tell people what we feel or think.

[17:42] It sometimes can be really challenging. And so, but I'm like, no, I'm committed to this, right? And I want all of us to be committed to this. I wanna invite you into like, I'm gonna grow at becoming better at giving words of affection, words of encouragement. And there's a number of, so the, let me give you my top 10 tips that are, again, it's about 15. But let me give you my top 10 tips for just, give an encouragement. Is that all right? Don't count. Okay. 'Cause I don't even know if it's 15. Number one, be generous with affection. Don't be stingy. Okay? Number two, express gratitude freely and often. And with specificity of things you see, things that were done for you, which is kind of closely connected to number three.

[18:27] Share how someone's actions have positively influenced you. Just get specific. Hey, you did this. Hey, I saw you do that. Hey, I saw you working hard at this. Thank you. Even just acknowledging work and effort that you see, and just in any form, just being like, I'm gonna say it. I see it, I say it. I see it, I say it. One of the big ones that I learned from my parents is apologize. Ask for forgiveness. Take words back. You know, a lot of times we'll say things like, well, you can't take things back. Well, yeah, you can't, but you can't, you know what I mean? I remember my mom would come, and again, we had this home full of all the craziness and beauty. And I remember she would come after we had a big fight or something, and we would kind of even sometimes raise our voices or yell or scream at each other.

[19:13] I know that doesn't happen in your home, but maybe in my home. And we would yell at each other, and she would come back a few hours later and she'd say, Hey, Ben, I just wanted to come and say sorry. And she said, I said this and this and this and that. That's not true. I shouldn't have said that. I'm like, that makes an impact. I remember more than the things she said that were mean, I remember that she would come back and she would more than once. It was a regular thing. Both of my parents would say, Hey, I said that. I shouldn't have said that. I didn't mention my parents were Christians. We were church people. And so I believe that's like, they're emulating Christ, when they would do that, their humility to just say, no, that wasn't right. That's not how I wanna live. That's not how, that's not what God has for me and my family. And they'd come and they'd just demonstrate this beautiful, humble heart and say, I'm sorry.

[20:01] Would you please forgive me? That was wrong. That's not true. I shouldn't have said that. You can take it back. I mean, you can't take it back, but you can kind of try to take it back. Do you know what I mean? And so let's try to do it. I would say number five, if it's number five, limit flattery and hyperbole. I used to be really generous with hyperbole and flattery, flattery being like, you look so great. You're so beautiful. You're so awesome. Oh, you're amazing. You're awesome. Hyperbole. Just be exaggerating. Just, it's like, you know what? That stuff's less effective than specific things. Hey, I saw you working on your homework. I think that's real. That's awesome that you were working on your homework. Like, say, Hey, you helped set the table. I'm thinking of kids, right? It's like, thank you for doing that.

[20:46] That's way different than just, you're amazing. You're the best. It's like, I sometimes, you know, one of the points, next points is like, we gotta celebrate with each other. And so let's celebrate with each other. And so sometimes hyperbole and exaggeration is fun when you're celebrating. But it's like, Hey, but if you wanna get really good, right? I'm trying to give you 10 top tips. Like, if you're trying to get really good at encouragement, limit the flattery and the hyperbole and the exaggeration. Number six, celebrate milestones and progress. Anytime there's a big event, it's just like, you did it. You made it, you finished that. You got here. Acknowledge it with words. Number seven, remind others of their inherent worth and value. Just saying, you are loved.

[21:31] You are made in the image of God. You have value. I care about you. God cares about you. It's kind of the obvious stuff, you know what I mean? But it's like, what if we said it more to each other? Another one that I think is very powerful and very simple is, you're not alone. I'm here. And like, hopefully you're there when you say, I'm here. Like, it's not a text necessarily, like, I'm here, but you're like, not there. You know what I mean? But like, if you're like, what do I say in a tough situation? Just say, I'm here. You're not alone. This is a really tough situation. That's encouragement. You like, 'cause then you're like, I'm not in this alone. When someone says, I'm with you, I'm with you. Like, it's like, I wanna hear that from the people closest to me.

[22:18] A few more. You know, just some top tips. Send a text or send the email. Write it in a note, that's even better. Upgrade, right? Or a card, put it in the mail. Now we're getting really, that's like real, a lot of effort. I would say also take five minutes to think and pray for someone and see what comes to mind. Like sometimes it's like, if you're not naturally, like, if the words don't naturally come to you, if you just took five minutes to do it, like, it might come. Especially if you say a prayer. God will bring something to your heart. Bring something to your mind. I would say another pro tip is say things behind their backs. And another one is say to their face. There's a poem by David Gate, which is similar to this quote by Sammy Rhodes.

[23:04] Here's a quote that says, encouragement is the art of eulogizing someone while they're still alive. Here's a poem by David Gate. Be kind about the names your friends pick for their children. Praise their haircuts. Love their tattoos. It doesn't really matter if it's not what you would do. Like every selfie, all of them, clap their songs, cheer them on. You were born with a limitless supply of encouragement. Use every one of them. Don't wait for the eulogies to speak out loud that your friends are precious and they make you feel proud. I want to talk about receiving encouragement, but maybe I'll just throw in a prayer right here at this point. Is that all right if we just pray about this? Like, I want to grow in encouragement.

[23:50] Let's pray that, Father, we ask that You would help us grow in our ability to see and find the words, to encourage and show affection to the people we love and the people around us. Thank You. Amen. Let me speak to you for just a couple moments about receiving encouragement. Because first, a lot of us, it's not easy, right? It's whether it's, you grew up in a home where that just was not kind words, affection, all of that did not happen. Or maybe there's a discomfort or fear of vulnerability. 'Cause it does take a little bit of discomfort sometimes. Or maybe it's simply that you have, or we have low self-esteem. And so the idea of receiving words makes you almost feel ashamed.

[24:39] Like you feel ashamed to receive any gratitude or encouragement that I think some of these might be resonating with people, or there's something, maybe you've rationalized those discomforts or those feelings by going, "Oh, yeah, but like, it's almost this idea of, like, too much encouragement will make people arrogant or proud, or they'll stop trying and they'll stop working." And it's just not true. It's just not true. Too much encouragement does not, there is, yes, we can spoil a child, but it's like, I'm not talking about flattery, right? I'm talking about encouragement. I'm talking about gratitude, blessings. You cannot, you don't spoil people with that stuff. You empower them. You create their world. You launch them into what God has them. You help them know their identity in God, that they're loved, that they're known, that they have a purpose, that they have gifts for the world.

[25:30] Some ideas around this, maybe a question you could ask yourself is, if a close friend or loved one struggled to accept heartfelt encouragement, what would you say to them? And how would you help them understand the importance of receiving it graciously? Or imagine if someone offered you a gift, like nicely wrapped gift. Like, compare receiving encouragement to receiving a gift just as it brings joy to the giver to give a gift. And you don't reject it if there was a physical gift. It brings joy to the encourager when someone receives it. But we're so easy, so quickly, like, "Nah," we just kinda go, "No, no, no, no." "Oh, I never," or we defer, right? We go, "Oh, no, no, it was so and so. Oh, no, no, it was God. Oh, no, no, it was," and it's like, there's also a version where you can just say thank you. And you don't even have to reciprocate.

[26:15] You don't have to just 'cause someone says something encouraging or kind to you. You don't have to think of something to say to them. You can just say, "Thank you." That's the tip there. Okay? That's the pro. Just say thank you, and then go wrestle with all the discomfort of just what you did. And I wonder if we get better at receiving, if we actually get better at giving the new text. The New Testament talks about repentance. And one of the best descriptions I think of repentance is actually a rethinking that leads to a change, a change in thinking that leads to a change in living. And I'm like, oh, yeah, that's, so sometimes it might just be need to rethink this stuff. And the reason I bring in that kind of Bible word repentance is because there is something about, if like God says you're worthy of love, and you say you're not worthy, there's something that, there's something like, how dare you?

[27:11] Could I say that? It's like if the cross, if Jesus said, "I'll take all of it, all of your sin and shame and guilt on the cross," but you're saying, "Oh, but no, no, no, no. I'll hang on to some of the shame and some of the guilt and some of it." And it's like, what? Why are you looking at the cross and saying, you know, this doesn't matter. It's not strong enough, what You did, Jesus. You're like, you're saying something's true, that God is saying that's not true. So I think we need to kind of grab a hold of that gift of repentance being like, thank God He lets us change our minds and change our lives. Oh, thank You, God. Could I pause and pray again for that? And then I wanna lead you in an exercise. Let's pray for that. God, for a lot of us, it's hard to receive encouragement and gratitude. I ask that You forgive us for not allowing ourselves to receive the good things that those around us want to give us, for having a lower view of ourselves than You have of us.

[28:05] Thank You that You're so gracious. You're so kind. Give me wisdom and strength to receive and to continue to grow in my ability to know who I am in Your eyes, and to receive it from others. Amen. I wanted to end by another kind of like prayerful thought exercise. And I've done this many times and I've found it really, it's just a really beautiful prayer exercise. Maybe you've done it like a, it's, it's more of a thought experiment. And I think we can invite the musicians to come back out and we'll do, we'll just, we'll kind of, I'll walk you through it and it's like, I want you to kind of, it's like a thought experiment. I want you to imagine certain things and you can just walk through it as you're comfortable.

[28:51] If you're a follower of Jesus, I wanna invite you to just prayerfully go through this thought experiment with me. If you're new to church or coming back to faith, or coming to church for the first time or first few times, you're invited too, just to join in the thought experiment, the prayerful thought experiment. And I think God will meet us in it. So let me, this is what we'll do. Okay? I want you to, if you're comfortable, you wanna close your eyes. And even if you're listening online, you can, if it's safe for you, if you're driving, don't close your eyes, but if it's safe for you, isn't that funny? If you're driving, don't close your eyes. I hear people say that sometimes on podcasts. That's funny that of course they're not going to, right?

[29:38] Don't close it. Okay. Sorry. Okay, let's, we're gonna close our eyes and I want you to, what we're gonna do is we're gonna imagine a place, we're gonna invite Jesus into that place, and then we're gonna have, do a little bit of a back and forth conversation with Jesus. And so I want you to imagine a place, it could be a geogra, and we'll have the musicians begin to play softly in the background to create a nice, just, nice space for us. So imagine a place, it could be real, might be a place on a beach or a cabin, could be indoors or outdoors, or it could be a made up place. It doesn't have to be a real place. A place that would feel safe, comfortable, relaxed. And picture it. What do you see? What are the sounds?

[30:23] What are the smells? And then I want you to invite Jesus into that place. And if you're new to faith, invite love itself into that place. Love personified. And just watch what love does. Watch what Jesus does.

[31:09] Maybe He approaches you. Maybe He sits with you. Maybe He welcomes you. And lemme say this as we continue, I don't think it's possible to imagine Jesus more kind or more loving than He truly is. I don't think He could do it. The depths that He's gone to to show His love for us. What does love do? What does Jesus do? And then here's what I'd like us to do. There's those words that have been said to us that may be names we've been called, labels or judgments that have been put on us, that are kind of over our lives.

[32:05] And when we think about them, it hurts. And you'll know what those are. When you think about them, the things that have been said to you, or the things that you say to your now, say to yourself, it hurts to think about them. And I want you in your mind to write it down or to say them out loud to Jesus. Just write it down maybe, or say it out loud. Imagine yourself doing that. And if there's more than one, write 'em down. It might be attached to something that was said to you that you always fill in the blank, or you never fill in the blank.

[32:53] So then I want you to imagine giving that paper, how you wrote it or how you said it, to Jesus. Give it to Him and watch what Jesus, watch what love does. What does He do with it? What does He do with the words that hurt us? And then I want to invite you to ask Jesus, to ask love, what do You say about me?

[33:43] Just a prayerful thought. Experiment. Jesus, love, what do You say about me? And if that's, I'll just pause for a moment just to say, if it's anything negative, like I'm disappointed in you, or if there's any sense of, like, like a, yeah, judgment or accusation, it's not, that's not Jesus. That's not how Jesus interacts with people.

[34:28] I know from the Gospels that tell us about how Jesus treated people. And right now, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I just reject anything and everything that's not truly like a godly thought. That's not true about You, Jesus, that's misrepresenting You. I reject that in this place and everyone who's listening to this, and we welcome the true Lord Jesus by Your Spirit to minister to us through this time. What do You say about us? And then this is where in your heart, you can say thank you. You can say, help me. That's hard for me to hear.

[35:15] It's hard for me to believe if that's true. For You, and say, thank You. Help me hold onto this. Help me live into this. Thank You, Jesus. You can open your eyes now. There's something really beautiful and powerful. I've done this exercise many times with many different people. If you had a hard time picturing stuff, that's okay. Sometimes I don't picture anything either. But for some of us in the room, some of us who are listening, you, did you, something came to mind.

[36:02] There was a whole scene playing out and Jesus took the thing and He destroyed it. Anyone, can you nod or put your hand up? Like Jesus destroyed it somehow, right? He burnt it, He ripped it, He ate it. Whatever He did, He threw it into the sky and shot an arrow through it. Whatever He did, like some of it gets creative and then sometimes it can be really moving. When we get a sense of what Jesus is saying to us, He says, I love you. You're my beloved child. And He sees us in a different way than we've ever let ourselves see ourselves. I wanna close by reading this as an end of my message. I wanna read to you from the beginning of John's Gospel. It says, "In the beginning was the Word," the beginning, like the beginning when God spoke and said, "Let there be light." It says, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God.

[36:49] And the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made. Without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life. And that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." Jumping ahead, it says, "The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world. And though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He's talking about Jesus. Says He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him. Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God. Children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or of a husband's will, but born of God."

[37:36] And in 1 John, verse or chapter 3, verse 1, it says, "Look at this love that God has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God, for that is what we are." Look at this love that God has lavished on us, and we should be called children of God. Father, thank You so much for Your great love for us. Thank You that You are so kind to us, and thank You that You wanna strengthen us and give us wisdom to become people who speak words of life. In Jesus' name, amen.