Within my last week of being in Mozambique I felt the Lord put it on my heart to share at the church service we have with the boys. The church service isn’t anything big, just some worship in portuguese and english, then a sermon from whoever feels lead to share. But to me, this was a step in faith.
Coming into the World Race, I knew I was uncomfortable with, and not very experienced in, many different types of ministry. One of those many things I felt like I wanted to avoid was preaching, and so God called me to do it the first month.
When I was thinking about what to say, at first I was lost as to what to say. I didn’t feel like I knew what God had for me to say to these boys, or what He wanted me to speak into their lives. I came across my sermon topic by chance, or as much as you can call it “chance” when the Lord is involved. During church service the week before I was going to speak, one of the boys chose to share. He accidentally mentioned a different verse than the one he chose to speak on, and I felt in my heart that is the one God had for me to share about the next service.
It ended up being Matthew 12:36-37 “But I tell you that men will have to give an account on the day of judgement for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted and by your words you will be condemned.”
From there, God directed what He had for me to say, and as I was preparing it came flowing out of me. And when I spoke, I was not nervous.
I focused on the idea that words have power. They have the power to encourage and to discourage. I highlighted many different verses about the power of our words, specifically Proverbs 12:18, Proverbs 15:4, and Proverbs 18:21. I spoke about how the most obvious way words have the power is to encourage and discourage each other, like it says in Ephesians 4:29 “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”
Then, I included another idea, the less obvious way that I have seen how words have power in my own life: the words I say to myself. God not only hears the words we say to each other, but the words we say to ourselves. We will have to “give an account” of those as well, and they can also “crush our spirits.” I mentioned that for me, before I came to know Jesus, I was quick to say things to myself like “you’re not good at that,” “you can’t do that,” and “don’t even try to do it.” Once that habit starts, it is hard to stop, you can quickly become discouraged, especially if it has to do with something new. Once I did come to know Jesus, this habit bled into my relationship with him and when I was prompted to do something, especially if it was new, I would fall into discouraging myself. I said that negative words often ruled my life, instead of the truth of the bible like in Philippians 4:13 “I can do everything through him who gives me strength”.
I ended my sermon with this idea: Since we are made like God, we are made to speak. We have the power to speak life into things, to speak death over things, to create or to destroy, and to build people up or tear people down, including ourselves.
God is stretching me, already challenging me in so many ways, including speaking life to people as well as to myself. I will miss Beacon of Hope and the wonderful boys I got the chance to speak life over this first month, but I am excited for the challenges God has for me month two in Malawi!
