Your Words Have the Power of Life and Death

In one paragraph

Pastor Ray was away in Costa Rica, so Steve Landis, one of the elders at First Baptist Jackson, brought the message. He drew on something God had been working on in his own life over the previous months, a conviction about negative speech, and used it as the entry point for a practical look at how conviction moves a person toward repentance and, ultimately, toward reproducing faith in others....

Read together

1. John 16:8 The Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment
2. 2 Timothy 3:16 All scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness
3. 1 Peter 3:9-10 Do not repay evil for evil; keep your tongue from evil to inherit a blessing
4. Ephesians 4:29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only what builds others up
5. James 3:9-10 The tongue praises God and curses men; out of the same mouth come praise and cursings
6. Luke 6 Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks; good stored up brings good out
7. John 15:16-17 You did not choose me but I chose you to bear lasting fruit; love each other
8. Ephesians 1:3-7 God chose and adopted us in Christ, blessing us with every spiritual blessing and redemption through his blood
9. Hebrews 10:14 Through one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy
10. 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 Anyone in Christ is a new creation; we are Christ's ambassadors of reconciliation
11. Revelation 17:14 The Lamb will overcome because he is Lord of lords and King of kings, with his called and faithful followers
12. Titus 2:11-14 Grace teaches us to say no to ungodliness while we wait for the blessed hope of Christ's appearing
13. 2 Thessalonians 2 The dead in Christ will rise first, then the living will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air
14. 1 Thessalonians 5:9 God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through Jesus Christ
15. 1 Thessalonians 1:10 Jesus rescues us from the coming wrath
16. Romans 5:9 Justified by his blood, we shall be saved from God's wrath through him
17. 2 Peter 3:1-13 Scoffers will deny Christ's coming; God is patient wanting all to come to repentance; the day of the Lord will come like a thief
18. Jude 1:20-23 Build yourselves up in faith, keep in God's love, snatch others from the fire
19. 1 John 5:11-13 He who has the Son has eternal life; written so you may know you have eternal life
20. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 Benediction: be joyful always, pray continually, may God sanctify you through and through

Talk about it

1. Steve said the Holy Spirit convicted him that his words had become negative and were tearing down rather than building up. Have you ever had a moment where God got your attention about something that had slowly slipped in your life? What did that look like?
2. Steve drew a distinction between conviction that punishes and conviction that comes from love, saying we should embrace it as evidence that the Holy Spirit is in us. How does thinking about conviction that way change how you respond to it?
3. The sermon pointed to Luke 6 and the idea that what comes out of our mouths reveals what has been stored up in our hearts. What are some practical ways we can be more intentional about what we are depositing into our hearts?
4. Steve described Joe Kravetsky as an ambassador, someone who was honest and sometimes brutally so, but who was compassionate and had a genuine heart for people to know Jesus. Who has played that kind of iron-sharpening-iron role in your life, and how have you seen it make a difference?
5. Steve said that remembering what God has done for us, our position in Christ, being chosen, adopted, redeemed, is what motivates us to change and to reach others. What truth about your position in Christ do you find hardest to actually live from, and why?