It’s Your Choice pt6

. Thank you so much for joining with us again tonight, I hope your all safe and well. (any notices to give?)

. For those of you who have been joining with us over the last few weeks you would know that we have been talking about the power of Words, and the choice that God has given to each and everyone of us between life and death.

. and that its the words that we choose to speak that will determine the choice that we are making.

. The words that we speak will determine the course of our lives, and the words that we speak will determine the effectiveness of our faith, and our effectiveness as believers for the kingdom of God.

. We have also looked at how Jesus dealt with the same thing when faced with choice he chose life by speaking the words of scripture, THE WORD IS OUR WEAPON.

. and last week we touched shared on Acts 10 & 11 how Peter when presented with an opportunity by God to share with people, as he shared the truth of the Word of God, the people that he spoke to encountered the Holy Spirit and had their lives transformed and received the gift of salvation.

. and it was because Peter choose to speak words of life into these people. The scripture that we have been looking at all of this through is

Deuteronomy 30:19 NKJV

I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;

. So this week what i want to do is take more of a look into exactly what the words that we speak do to the people around us who hear them, looking again from the perspective of choose life over death as God hopes we would!

. We will be looking at two scriptures both found in Acts 15 the first is verse 24 and the second is verse 32.

. but first a little context, So the early church had been dealing a lot with false teachers, the apostles would go and spread the word of truth and people would understand and accept it, then they would move on to somewhere else to speak the word.

. and other people would come in and pretend to be teaches of the truth and sometimes lie and say that they were sent by the apostles, and they would share their own personal stance or their beliefs on how people should live and how they should love/ honor God.

. and in this case the false teaches were trying to force people who had been set free by Jesus to again live under the burden of the law, and follow all of the restriction that were over people according to the law given to Moses for the people of Israel.

. This in itself is a really interesting topic but not one that we have time for today, but to give you a scripture reference that makes this clear.

Galatians 2:16 NKJV

knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.

. So what these false teaches were doing was again trying to burden people with the things of the law that were not going to help them understand or know God more.

. So the apostles and disciples meet in Jerusalem and discus what they should expect from the church/believers.

So this leads us into the first of our scriptures which was a apart of the letter they wrote to the churches.

. remember we are looking at what the words we speak whether life or death do to the people who hear them!

Acts 15:24 NKJV

Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying, “You must be circumcised and keep the law”—to whom we gave no such commandment—

. “Unsettling your souls” That’s pretty strong language right there. Think about it though we are talking about people who had just received the truth of Jesus just encountered the presence and love of God the way that is was designed to be in the beginning by God.

. and now all of a sudden because of these words of death spoken by people who seemed trustworthy, their souls are now unsettled and distress has once again risen in theirs hearts.

. all because of the spoken words that came from somebody else!

. When i began this series on the power of words, I felt God impress on me that he wanted to continue to speak about this until it brought understanding and change in this area.

. Do you see how potentially dangerous and destructive our words can be when they are not guided by the word of Truth?

. This may push a few buttons but, even the way you speak about your “Church” experiences with those around you is potentially dangerous.

. Can i just be honest with you i know that people are not perfect and there are people in a church that may have hurt you or done something wrong to you and if that's the case im truly sorry.

. But you cannot use that to speak negatively to someone about the church or about God, because the possibility of unsettling their souls id to great of a risk.

. what you say about your church, your faith, God matters.

. i don't think any of us actually want to lead people to into bondage or death with our words but we need to be aware that if we don't speak the right words then that is a possibility.

. the second scripture i want to look at is verse 32

Acts 15:31–32 NKJV

When they had read it, they rejoiced over its encouragement. Now Judas and Silas, themselves being prophets also, exhorted and strengthened the brethren with many words.

. Judas and Silas where two of the men sent to deliver the letter to the churches.

. We can see immediately from reading this verse the different effect that the words of these two men had compared to the words of the false teachers.

. That these men spoke words of life that exhorted which means to encourage, counsel, advise. and brought strength to those who would hear them speak.

. brought peace again to those whose souls had been unsettled. and strengthened those who has become weary under the pressure that had been placed on them by words of death and false teaching!

. Do you see just how much the words you speak and things you speak into people lives effect them on such a deep level?

. this is not a game its not a lets just speak and hope for the best. We need to know and be aware of the effects that our words can and do have on those around us!

. and we need to ask the question am i bringing strength and encouragement through truth?, or am i unsettling souls?

. The choice really is yours!

. Pray

. Thank you and remember Sunday morning 10am live stream hope you have a great week and God bless!