Good morning. Happy Mother's Day. It is uh it's good that as a as a nation we have a day to uh uh acknowledge moms. I mean, what an awesome role God has you in. And uh Jimmy. The um and we have such great moms, and it seems like we have uh more new moms all the time, but we really do uh appreciate you. Reading the one year Bible, if you're doing the one year Bible uh uh a couple weeks ago, it was the book of Judges, and it talks about a uh a mom. Actually talks about three women right in right in a row. Um the mom was a woman named Deborah. Uh originally when the the kingdom of Israel was established, um, it was there wasn't a king. There was God ruled Israel through a prophet. And that prophet was also the judge over Israel. And the fourth one of these prophets and judge was a woman named Deborah, and she uh God ruled Israel through her for over 40 years. And uh it's interesting because the only real story we hear uh about Deborah is when she declares war on uh their primary enemy and a commander named Sisera. And then she eventually leads um the children of Israel into battle. In Judges 5, 7 it says, there were few people left in the villages of Israel until Deborah arose as a mother for Israel. You know, there's a lot more to you, moms, than love and compassion, which is the most important thing. But there's a warrior, there's a fighter, there's a leader, and uh it's such a big thing. You know, Israel won that battle, and this uh evil commander, Sisera, he flees. And uh unfortunately he runs to a woman named Jael, unfortunately for him, because she takes a tent peg and drives it through his head and kills him. A few chapters later, there's uh a guy named Abemelech who's terrorizing the Israelites. And a woman on top of this tower drops a huge stone and hits him right on the noggin. Problem solved. Three stories in a row, three women in a row that just weren't loving and kind and gentle and compassionate. They were strong and resourceful and courageous, and they were fighters, and it takes all those things to be a mom. And so I just uh want you to know how much we appreciate you and that we see all of that in in you, and we're so glad God created you to have all that. Um so let's uh let's start with a prayer, and we'll certainly ask God to bless our moms. Father, I just thank you for being such a great God. Thank you for adopting each of us as your kids. I just praise you for that. Just thank you for that. Thank you for for the uh for the moms here. I just ask you to bless them in every way. Give them the desires of their heart, Father, and give them everything they need. Fill them with your supernatural love for their children. Fill them with courage and with strength and and with wisdom. And we praise you and we trust you for that. Be with us. Give us what we need this morning. Um please teach us from your word. We just thank you and trust you. In Jesus' name. Amen. So on Sundays, with a couple um slight pauses, we're talking about living a resurrection life. How uh um how Jesus came so we could have life, and so we too would be raised to a new life. And Susan mentioned uh baptism, that's such an important symbol. Um not just a symbol, it's a step. It's part of living a resurrection life. And so, along with her, I just encourage you, if you haven't baptized, take that uh take that step. It is it is not boring, it's not some dry root ritual. We'll be cheering and hollering and uh we'll have a uh blast, and the Holy Spirit's so powerful during that time. I I did want to mention, I don't know that if I mentioned it this time, but you can ask any believer to baptize you. You know, and in God there's no big hierarchy. You know, we're all we're all uh priests, and we all have direct access to God. And Jesus didn't baptize people, his followers baptized people. And so if there's somebody who's meaningful in your life that you'd like to ask them to um to baptize you, we've had um everything you can think of grandparents, friends, uh um children baptizing parents, parents baptizing children, spouses baptizing each each other. It um if there's someone like that in your life that you'd like to ask to uh to baptize you next week, please do that. Um of course I or anybody here would be honored to um do that as well. And you can uh sign up again for that at the info desk after uh we're done. I'm excited about this morning. I got a lot to share. I'm gonna try to maybe talk fast because I don't want to make anybody late for any lunch reservations. Um, but I think what we're talking about this morning can have a real impact on your life, the type of impact that you can apply immediately and see uh an immediate difference. The framework that we're using for talking about living this resurrection life is when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus had been dead for four four days. Uh he was a close friend of Jesus in John 11. It said, Jesus called in a loud voice, Lazarus, come out. The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen and a cloth around his face. He looked like a mummy, if you will. Jesus said to them, Take off the grave clothes and let him go. And so to his friends, he said, Take off the grave clothes and let him go. Jesus had saved him. Jesus had done the heavy lifting, but he was asking the people around to set him free. And it's the same with us. You know, we all come with our grave clothes, stuff associated with our past, stuff in our lives that creates death, stuff in our life that creates uh destruction, things that we've done, things that have done to us, all that stuff, all that baggage, we can help each other get rid of those grave clothes and live that resurrection life. And so this morning I want to talk about one of those ways that we can help each other break free and live that uh that raised life. Jesus physically raised three people from the dead. In Luke 7, he raised the only son of a widow. Jesus said to him, Young man, I tell you, get up. In Mark 5, he raised the daughter of a man named Jairus. Jesus said to her, little girl, get up. The third is here, his friend Lazarus. Jesus said to him, Lazarus, come out. Jesus did a lot of different things in a lot of different ways, but the three people he raised from the dead, he spoke back to life. He spoke them back to life. And we can do a similar thing. The words we speak can bring each other back to life. Peter said to Jesus, you have the words of life. And what we're going to talk about is how our words affect each other. I guess to clarify, we're not talking about how our words affect God. Now, there are Christians, great Christians, friends of mine, that believe that our exact choice of words dramatically affects what God will and won't do. And what Jesus taught, however, is that God sees our hearts. He sees our hearts. And so when we pray, we don't have to say everything exactly perfect. We don't have to be all tense talking to God. You know, if we're sick, we can say, God, I'm sick. If we're afraid, we can say, God, I'm afraid. If we have doubts, we can say, Father, I just have all these doubts. We can be ourselves. God is not as safe, you know, and we're constantly trying to figure out the combination. And we get everything exactly right, you know, and then the doors open up. No, God's our Father. He has adopted us. He's our children. And so we can just go to our dad and we can we can talk to him honestly. He loves that. He loves that. With each other, however, how we speak, the words we choose, it makes a big difference. It makes a big difference. In Proverbs 1821, it says, Words kill, words give life. They're either poison or fruit. You choose. We talk about love a lot. You know, the two biggest things Jesus said was to love God and to love people. A big part of loving people is the words that we use. It's the words that we use. They either kill or they give life. They're either fruit or they're poison. And we get to decide. It's such a simple principle. You know, we see the good in people, we speak it out. We speak life into people, into all of our relationships, our family, our friends, our coworkers. It's such a simple principle, but it is difficult to do. And it is honestly rare. It's a rare thing. Philippians 4, verse 8, it says, summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious, the best, not the worst, the beautiful, not the ugly. Things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies. Seeing the best, not the worst, the beautiful, not the ugly. Things to praise, not things to curse. And I want to talk about four areas, I guess, of our lives that we can do that. Our families, our jobs, ourselves, and uh, and those around us. So we'll start with the hardest one first. Whenever we're talking about applying what Jesus taught, you know, the hardest place to apply it is our families. You know, when we're around each other all the time, we get on each other's nerves. And it gets difficult. Before long, we're seeing the ugly, not the beautiful. Before long, we're speaking curses, not praises. You know, about a month and a half ago, Shiloh Place was here. It was that Sunday morning that uh Trisha Frost spoke, and we were talking over that weekend about um just about how God loves us. And one of the things we're doing is speaking a Father's blessing over each other. And it's just speaking out loud how God, our Father, really feels uh about each other. And Susan and I were home that uh that Saturday morning, and we needed to get over here, and uh and we were talking, she said, you know, I've never really had uh a father's blessing, you know, spoke over me. And uh for some reason, I don't know why, because uh I got to to pray and speak with a lot of people that weekend. But you know how that is, it was just kind of an awkward uh awkward thing. Um but we but we did, and and and so I started speaking to Susan how God sees her, what she means, uh what she means to God, praising her with the truth, how much God loves her, how much care he took in creating her, how proud he is of her, um, how wonderful she is. And it was a simple thing, but we've been married, it'll be 27 years in August. That little piece of time on that Saturday morning, a month and a half ago, is one of the most beautiful moments we have ever shared. It was truly a supernatural moment. It was supernatural because when we speak God's truth over each other, we are partnering with God, and before long he's right there in it with us. Um Mark sent me, Mark Gonzalez sent me an email that same day, uh, and uh he said uh something uh something kind of cool happened. We're talking about this father's blessing stuff, and I thought maybe I should speak a husband's blessing over Blanca. And so he did the same basic thing, with the same basic uh experience. Something powerful, something supernatural. Speaking praises, not curses, seeing the great, not the bad. You know, it it makes a huge difference. It's a it's a big deal. And in our marriages, it is so tough to do. It's you know, we just want to live at the the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You do this right, you do this wrong, you do this right, you do this wrong. God wants our relationship at the tree of life where we speak his life, his love, his truth, and it's free. And it's beautiful, and it makes such a difference in our relationships and soften our relationships. And we are partnering with God because we're speaking his truth. It's true with our children. It is so true with our children. There's a poem written decades ago. You've you've probably heard it.

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Livingston Lenard wrote it. It's titled Father Forgets. Um I'm gonna read it, and if you would, just maybe close your eyes and picture. This is uh this is a dad kneeling down over his little boy in his little boy's dark room at night. Listen, son, I'm saying this as you lie asleep, one little paw crumpled under your cheek and blonde curls stickily wet on your damp forehead. I've stolen into your room alone. Just a few minutes ago, as I sat reading my paper, a stifling wave of remorse swept over me. Guiltily I came to your bedside. These are the things I was thinking, son. I had been cross to you. I scolded you as you were dressing for school because you gave your face merely a dab with a towel. I took you to task for not cleaning your shoes. I called out angrily when you threw some of your things on the floor. At breakfast I found fault too. You spilled things, you gulped down your food, you put your elbows on the table, you spread butter too thick on your bread, and as you started off to play, I made for my train. You turned and waved a hand and called, Goodbye, Daddy. And I frowned and said in reply, hold your shoulders back. Then it began all over again in the late afternoon as I came up the road, I spied you, down on your knees playing marbles. There were holes in your stockings. I humiliated you before your friends by marching you ahead of me to the house. Stockings were expensive, and if you had to buy them, you'd be more careful. Imagine that, son, from a father. Do you remember later when I was reading in the library how you came in timidly with a sort of hurt look in your eyes? When I glanced up over my paper, impatient at the interruption. You hesitated at the door. What is it you want? I snapped. You said nothing, but ran across in one tempetuous plunge and threw your arms around my neck and kissed me, and your small arms tightened with an affection that God had set blooming in your heart, and which even neglect could not wither. And then you were gone, pattering up the stairs. Well, son, it was shortly afterwards that my paper slipped from my hands, and a terrible, sickening fear came over me. What has habit been doing to me? The habit of finding fault, of reprimanding. This was my reward to you for being a boy. It was not that I did not love you, it was what I expected. It was that I expected too much of youth. I was measuring you by the yardstick of my own years. And there was so much that was good and fine and true in your character. The little heart of you was as big as the dawn itself over the wide hills. This was shown by your spontaneous impulse to rush in and kiss me good night. Nothing else matters tonight, son. I've come to you bedside, I've come to your bedside in the darkness, and I've knelt there ashamed. It is a feeble atonement. I know you would not understand these things if I told them to you during your waking hours, but tomorrow I will be a real daddy. I will chum with you and suffer when you suffer and laugh when you laugh. I will bite my tongue when impatient words come. I will keep saying as if it were a ritual. He is nothing but a boy, a little boy. I'm afraid I have visualized you as a man. Yet as I see you now, son, crumpled and weary in your bed, I see that you are still a baby. Yesterday you were in your mother's arms, your head on her shoulder. I have asked too much, not too much. You know, as parents, to see the best, to see the best, not the worst, to see the beautiful, not the ugly, to find things to praise, not to curse. What a difference it can make in our children's lives. What a difference it can make. You know, as parents of grown children, there are always things that we wish we could, you know, go back and and uh and do over. And this is where I would start. Right here. I would laugh when they laugh, hurt when they hurt, and always see the good in them. And speak it. Speak it. Constantly speak it over them. It brings life to our children. Speaking life can dramatically affect our jobs. When I was 22, I uh literally begged my way into the lowest entry-level position there was in uh it was a company called Dun and Brad Street. I wasn't qualified for that uh for that job, but but I got a hold of one of God's principles and applied it. And it made so much, it made so much difference. In five or six years, I was responsible for all the sales offices they had on the eastern half of the country, and then eventually the western half of the country. Eventually started our own company uh in our basement, um, made the Inc. 500 in three years, you know, was able to sell it. And it's it's it's it's how we could do this. And I tell you all that to because I want you to understand that when God gives us principles and we apply them, they matter. You know, and in our careers and in our jobs, we ask God, bless our careers, bless our jobs, help me with my job. And then we ignore everything Jesus spent telling us to do to apply to our jobs. You know, he didn't spend the last three years here on earth talking to hear himself talk. It was for us. It was for our benefit. And so we can apply what he taught, and so we can impact our lives, so we can have that abundant life that he talked about. And when I started at DMB, I was given a book. It was a book uh uh by Del Carnegie. I'm sure many of you have read it, it's How to Win Friends and Influence People. Now, if you haven't read the book, it sounds like a really manipulative um title, but it's really not. It's a book that has a lot of God's principles in it about um about really listening to people, really seeing people how they are, really understanding what other people are uh uh their desires and what they're trying to accomplish. And the very first principle in the entire book, I can usually only can remember one thing. I'll read a whole book, I can only remember one thing. Principle number one don't criticize, complain, or condemn. Don't criticize, complain, or condemn. And for whatever reason, man, I decided that that's what I was gonna do. I wasn't gonna criticize, I wasn't gonna complain, I wasn't gonna condemn. I mean, you wouldn't believe what a difference that makes. In every organization, there is a big group of people that every day subtly or loudly criticize the boss, complain about their jobs, complain about the company, condemn co workers, condemn competitors, whatever it is. If you were to decide that you were never going to criticize, condemn, or complain. That you are going to see the good, not the bad. Speak blessings, not curses. You would not believe how you'll stand out in whatever company you're in, whatever organization you're in. If you have a company, how it will stand out amongst your competitors. Because it's God's way. It's God's way of doing things, of seeing things. Praise somebody at work and see what the reaction is. Find somebody that does a good job and send an email to their boss and copy them. See what the response is. See what the reaction is. How you bring life into them. The company that we started distributed insurance products. And what we did is we distributed, we worked for these large insurance companies. Our main one was the it was the second largest insurance company in the world. And we would take their products and uh and distribute them through independent financial planners, planners, and wealth managers. And so we had a lot of interaction with uh this insurance company, which you know we called the home office. And you know, nobody likes the home office. And um there's always this this uh this uh huge uh tension. Um one of the things I would do in my role is I would go up to the home offices in Minneapolis um at least every quarter. Every time I went up there, the first thing I did is I'd take three hours and I would go to every single department in that company. And I would tell every person I could find how much we appreciated them, how much they meant to us, how the little things they did helped us with our customers, how glad we were to be associated with them. Um and it made such a huge difference. And of course, you know, we got better service and all that, but it wasn't about that. It was about these people that are doing their jobs, that have other stuff going on. They've got sick kids at home, they've got they've got stress to come and just speak a little life into them. Tell them that they're valuable, what they're doing is important, what they're doing helps us, that we care about them, that we appreciate them. It made such a difference. Before long, I'm getting asked to speak to the whole company at once. Because it meant a lot to the executives that somebody would tell them how much that they meant, how much they were appreciated. And at the same time, I got to tell them about God. Because they wanted me to talk about you know being successful in business and being successful is applying God's principles and having Him part of your life and depending, you know, working hard and all that stuff, but God doing more. So anyway, it is uh it is such a big deal. We ended up selling our company to that company, and the chairman of that company told me the single most important thing that ever happened to their company was them connecting with our company because it changed their whole culture. Just by us, not just me, but everybody in our company, just seeing the good, speaking the good, not calling up and saying, do this, and we're gonna move our business elsewhere. You know, why do you always screw this up? Saying, hey, we appreciate you, you're doing a good job, you're making a big difference. It's it's finding the good, you know, speaking blessings, not um, not curses. Seeing the best, not the not the worst. Does that make sense? You know, I'm not sure me talking about me makes it harder to, you know, I don't know if that creates a filter, but that's my experience. And it wasn't me, it was one of God's principles that I was able to apply. And I'm telling you, when we do things God's way, it makes a huge difference. Seeing the best and speaking it. It's not enough to see it. Speaking it, speaking it, speaking it, praising people. Um, it's an overall way of thinking of thinking. You know, if we're when we're responsible for people, we're gonna have to do some coaching. We're gonna have to hold people accountable, those type of things. But still we can speak truth and love. We can we can bless more than we can curse. Ken Blanchard wrote a book, One Minute Manager, and he talks about catching people doing something right. And the idea is rather than always looking for somebody doing something wrong and correcting it, it's catch each other doing something right and praise it. That's God's way of doing things. Looking for the beautiful, not the ugly. Things to praise, not to curse. Benjamin Franklin said, I'll speak ill of no man and all the good I know of everybody. There's a widely held belief that cynicism and negativity is being real. Hey, I'm just being real, you know? I mean, it's like that that's that looking for good, overlooking faults, praising people, that somehow that's fake. But being critical and cynical is somehow real. You know, who is more real, God or Satan? Okay, they're both real. Trick question, I guess. They're both real. God breathes and speaks life and love. Satan is the accuser of the brethren. So the question really isn't what's real and not real. The question is what is true and not true. And when we see the good in people, when we see that they're important, we see that we're valuable, that we can do it with God's help, we are speaking the truth. And we're speaking life. God's life over people. So I guess that's a challenge, you know, and it's difficult, particularly if you if you're if you're in that habit. It's difficult. But if you'll make a decision to praise, not to curse, to bless, not to criticize, to see the good, not to complain, I'm telling you, it will make such an immediate difference in your whole life. And if you think that by being critical and cynical and pointing out the faults that somehow you're being real, I'm telling you, you are ruining your own life. You are ruining your own life. Do it God's way. Do it God's way. Follow Jesus, see the good, speak words of life. It is an absolute expression of love. When we see the good in people and we speak it, it is an absolute expression of love. In 1 Peter 4, it says, Everything in the world is about to be wrapped up. So take nothing for granted. Stay wide awake in prayer. Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything. Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless. Cheerfully. Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it. If words, let it be God's words. If help, let it be God's hearty help. That way, God's bright presence will be evident in everything through Jesus, and He'll get all the credit as the one mighty in everything. Encore to the end of time. Oh yes. You see, we don't have to just be generous with our time and our money. We can be generous with our words. We can be generous with everything God gave us. We can be generous with our words. Speak life. In our families, we can speak life. In our jobs, we can speak life. To ourselves, we can speak life. Most of the criticism that we receive in our lifetime will be from ourselves. You know, that negative talk where you're just like ripping on yourself. Sometimes we'll have those constant thoughts in our minds. You know, it uh I'm a loser, I'm worthless, nobody cares about me, nobody likes me. Uh I'm an idiot. I'll never mount to anything. You know, it's it's like maybe uh using the work analogy. You know, you got a big meeting of work. It's with, you know, it's a boss or it's an important potential client or whatever, and you totally just choke up, blow the whole thing, and you leave, and it's like, I'm an idiot, I'm a loser, I'm never gonna succeed. You're not an idiot. You're not a loser. You got nervous. You got nervous and froze up, you know? I mean, it happens. It happens all the time to everybody. It's not a big, it's not a big deal. You know, I you know, for whatever reason, I really fight this. And I usually fight it on Sunday afternoons because it because every Sunday afternoon there's something really important I wanted to say. And for whatever reason, the most important thing I always forget. You know, or I'll say things in a different way, or whatever it is. And it's like, you know, I'll be uh whatever, driving down the street. Oh man, I'm an idiot. And and you know, I just can't do that. And sometimes I can't help it, but I can correct myself. I can say to myself, that's not true, I'm not an idiot. I'm God's kid, one of his favorites, just like you. You know? I forgot something. It's not that big a deal. You know, if it's important, I'll mention it next week. You know, it's just it's speaking life over ourselves. No one is going to speak as much to us in our lifetime as we do. And so don't get in the habit of speaking curses over yourself. Do it God's way. Correct yourself. Speak the truth, speak life over yourself. And finally, quickly, we want to speak uh words of life over everyone. In Ezekiel chapter 37, God shows the uh the prophet Ezekiel, this valley. It's like this great picture, and it's just this big valley, and it's full of bones. Nothing but bones, and they're sun-bleached, you know, and they're and they're totally uh dry. And what God tells Ezekiel is he says, speak life to those bones. Prophesy life to those bones. And in uh verse 8 says, I prophesied just as I've been commanded. As I prophesied, there was a sound and oh, rustling. The bones moved and came together, bone to bone. I kept watching. Sinews formed, the muscles to the bones, the skin scratched, stretched over them, but they had no breath in them. He said to me, Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, tell the breath. God, the Master, says, Come from the four winds, come breathe, come, breath, breathe on these slain bodies, breathe life. So I prophesied just as he commanded me. The breath entered them and they came alive. They stood up on their feet, a huge army. Then God said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Listen to what they're saying. Our bones are dried up. Our hope is gone. There's nothing left of us. Therefore prophesy. Tell them. God the Master says, I'll dig up your graves and bring you out alive, O my people. Then I'll take you straight to the land of Israel. When I dig up graves and bring you out as my people, you'll realize that I'm God. I'll breathe my life into you and you'll live. Then I'll lead you straight back to your land and you'll realize that I am God. I've said it and I'll do it, God's decree. We live in a valley of dry bones. People whose all their hope is gone. And it's our opportunity to prophesy life. It just means to speak, to speak life over those bones. God's going to bring you out. God's going to bring you alive. God's going to bring his breath into you. You're going to make it. You're going to get through it. God loves you. You matter. And the sinews stretch, and the muscle comes on, and the skin comes on, and people come alive. A whole army of people. Because we spoke life. Because we spoke life. Proverbs says, Words kill and words give life. You choose. Let's choose life. Let's choose life. Let's speak our spouses to life. Let's speak our children to life. Our jobs. Our coworkers, our friends, our neighbors, everyone around us. See the good, not the bad. Speak blessings, not curses. That's how we can take the grave clothes off and we can bring each other to life. Speaking life. God's life. So if the worship team comes up, we're gonna stop uh there. It's such a simple thing. But like the most important things, this is one thing I've noticed in uh applying what God teaches us. The most important things are always simple. And the simple things are usually difficult. And this is a simple thing. But it is difficult. And so we're gonna pray and we're gonna ask God just to help us, to fill us, to change. You know, that's what he's talking about. He says, renew our minds. Change the way we think, change the way we see situations, change the way we see people. See things God's way. Speak God's words, God's life. It makes uh it makes all the difference. The greatest, why don't we stand up? Is that all right? We'll get ready to sing one last song together. Thank God for being such a great, loving God for Jesus come and demonstrate in it. One of the greatest truths, one of the greatest life that will speak over each other is the absolute truth that God loves you. That he loves you. He created you in his image. You mean the world to him. He's not mad at you, he's not disappointed in you, he absolutely has not given up on you. Just the opposite. He wants to breathe his life into you, he wants to bring you to life, he's gonna get you through it. You're gonna make it. He loves you. It's why Jesus came. To show us what he's like and connect us back with our Father. And so all we have to do is turn to him. It's not a combination to unlock, it's just the words of our heart. I need you, Jesus. You know, I'm I'm giving up, I'm giving in. Whatever. I'm turning to you. I need you. And he will come in so fast, he will uh make your spirit inside of you come alive. He will save you, and then he'll start transforming you. And he'll use each other, he'll use us to help each other, but he'll transform us from the inside out, and we will have life, real life, a resurrection kind of life. And so let's pray and ask him to do that. Father, thank you for being such a great God. Thank you for loving us enough to show us how to live. Thank you for teaching us how to live. Thank you for teaching us how to speak to each other, how to see things, and what to say. And so, God, we just ask you supernaturally just to fill us, to fill our hearts with your supernatural love, to change us, rewire us, help us to see people as you see them. Give us the words of life, God. Give us the words of life. And help us to speak them over everybody around us. We thank you for that. We trust you for that. In Jesus, it's in your great name we pray. Amen.