WEBVTT 00:00:11.550 --> 00:00:14.669 Today, from guest teacher Kyle Eidelman. So there's 00:00:14.669 --> 00:00:17.070 this vision that Ezekiel has that's driving home 00:00:17.070 --> 00:00:20.469 this rhythm that God wanted for Ezekiel's ministry 00:00:20.469 --> 00:00:22.589 in life and God wants for you, that you listen 00:00:22.589 --> 00:00:24.769 to what God says, you speak what God says, you 00:00:24.769 --> 00:00:27.829 watch what God does. You listen to what God says, 00:00:27.890 --> 00:00:31.390 you speak out loud what God has said. With conviction 00:00:31.390 --> 00:00:33.729 and authority, you speak it out loud. With faith 00:00:33.729 --> 00:00:35.850 and confidence, you speak it out loud and then 00:00:35.850 --> 00:00:37.649 you watch what God does. You listen, you speak, 00:00:37.750 --> 00:00:42.460 you watch. The words you speak out loud are more 00:00:42.460 --> 00:00:45.399 powerful than the thoughts you think. Science 00:00:45.399 --> 00:00:47.600 is confirming what Scripture has always taught, 00:00:47.799 --> 00:00:50.880 that spoken words literally rewire your brain. 00:00:51.179 --> 00:00:53.759 Words of death will tear you down, but words 00:00:53.759 --> 00:00:57.000 of truth have the power to bring life. Today 00:00:57.000 --> 00:00:59.500 on Living on the Edge, Chip Ingram welcomes guest 00:00:59.500 --> 00:01:02.320 speaker Kyle Eidelman for a special lesson on 00:01:02.320 --> 00:01:05.579 renewing your mind by taking control over what 00:01:05.579 --> 00:01:08.840 you say. First, here's Chip with some background 00:01:08.840 --> 00:01:11.439 for today's study. A number of months ago, I 00:01:11.439 --> 00:01:13.980 was sitting on a porch with Kyle Eidelman, and 00:01:13.980 --> 00:01:16.459 we were talking about Christians living like 00:01:16.459 --> 00:01:19.420 Christians and why so many people struggle and 00:01:19.420 --> 00:01:22.200 our heart's desire to really help them in the 00:01:22.200 --> 00:01:25.120 areas where they're challenged and failing. And 00:01:25.120 --> 00:01:27.099 he said, you know, I was assigned to write a 00:01:27.099 --> 00:01:29.340 book by my publisher, and I'm going to talk about 00:01:29.340 --> 00:01:31.799 the role of thoughts, taking every thought captive. 00:01:31.840 --> 00:01:33.359 You know, Chip, out of 2 Corinthians chapter 00:01:33.359 --> 00:01:36.739 10. I got a copy of the book. Then he taught 00:01:36.739 --> 00:01:39.120 it live, and I said, Kyle, could we use this? 00:01:39.540 --> 00:01:41.459 This is what people need. I've been teaching 00:01:41.459 --> 00:01:44.219 about mind renewal, but you've brought some things 00:01:44.219 --> 00:01:46.540 to this that I've never heard. Would you let 00:01:46.540 --> 00:01:48.719 us use your teaching? And of course, he said, 00:01:48.840 --> 00:01:51.120 yes, and you are now the beneficiaries of this 00:01:51.120 --> 00:01:53.319 teaching. You're not just going to love it. It's 00:01:53.319 --> 00:01:55.560 going to change your life. Thank you, Chip. And 00:01:55.560 --> 00:01:57.459 now here's our guest teacher, Kyle Eidelman, 00:01:57.540 --> 00:02:00.739 with his message titled, Say It Out Loud. I want 00:02:00.739 --> 00:02:02.579 to start off my message by telling you something 00:02:02.579 --> 00:02:05.239 that's going to seem simple. And some of you 00:02:05.239 --> 00:02:06.379 are like, well, yeah, that's kind of your thing, 00:02:06.480 --> 00:02:09.479 Kyle. That's kind of what you do. Well, I know 00:02:09.479 --> 00:02:12.120 it's gonna sound simple. It's gonna sound simple 00:02:12.120 --> 00:02:14.000 enough that you'll probably think to yourself 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:16.120 at some point in this sermon, does this really 00:02:16.120 --> 00:02:19.740 need to be a whole sermon? They'll probably sound 00:02:19.740 --> 00:02:21.500 simple enough that you're tempted to dismiss 00:02:21.500 --> 00:02:25.800 it and think, ah, it's interesting, but I'll 00:02:25.800 --> 00:02:28.699 wait to hear what's next week. I just think that 00:02:28.699 --> 00:02:30.080 what we're gonna talk about in these next few 00:02:30.080 --> 00:02:34.409 minutes, even though it's simple, has the potential 00:02:34.409 --> 00:02:38.330 to profoundly impact not just your relationship 00:02:38.330 --> 00:02:42.009 with God, but your whole life, your relationship 00:02:42.009 --> 00:02:45.650 with other people, how you see yourself. Here's 00:02:45.650 --> 00:02:49.449 the idea. Again, it's going to sound simple. 00:02:50.430 --> 00:02:55.389 A word you speak is more powerful than a thought 00:02:55.389 --> 00:02:58.639 you think. A thought that you speak out loud 00:02:58.639 --> 00:03:00.819 with words is more powerful than thoughts that 00:03:00.819 --> 00:03:02.639 just stay in your head. And we're gonna see in 00:03:02.639 --> 00:03:05.740 a few minutes how science shows this is true, 00:03:05.800 --> 00:03:07.639 that when you speak certain words, your brain 00:03:07.639 --> 00:03:10.319 wants to believe what it hears you saying. Your 00:03:10.319 --> 00:03:13.319 brain leans in differently when it hears a thought 00:03:13.319 --> 00:03:16.379 spoken out of your mouth. When my kids were young, 00:03:16.460 --> 00:03:18.780 I would challenge them to pay attention to the 00:03:18.780 --> 00:03:22.099 words they spoke out loud about themselves and 00:03:22.099 --> 00:03:24.340 about their circumstances. I remember taking 00:03:24.340 --> 00:03:26.939 my middle school daughter to school one morning, 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:29.740 and she was telling me on the way to school about 00:03:29.740 --> 00:03:33.039 some drama in the friend group the day before. 00:03:33.740 --> 00:03:36.280 And I was glad she was sharing with me kind of 00:03:36.280 --> 00:03:38.620 what's going on in her life. I want her to share 00:03:38.620 --> 00:03:41.080 her emotions with me. But as we're driving, I 00:03:41.080 --> 00:03:44.080 start to hear her words. turn on herself and 00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:46.759 she starts saying things like that. I'm just 00:03:46.759 --> 00:03:49.800 so awkward and no one really likes me and I just 00:03:49.800 --> 00:03:52.479 don't fit in anywhere. And I said, Hey, stop, 00:03:52.659 --> 00:03:55.379 stop it. I want you to tell me how you're feeling, 00:03:55.479 --> 00:03:57.580 but there are certain things you can't hear yourself 00:03:57.580 --> 00:04:00.800 say about yourself because what's happening there 00:04:00.800 --> 00:04:03.500 is you're not just making observations. You're 00:04:03.500 --> 00:04:05.919 programming your mind. You're creating neural 00:04:05.919 --> 00:04:09.659 pathways. You're giving yourself a road to think 00:04:09.659 --> 00:04:12.699 about yourself. And so I tried to tell her, Like 00:04:12.699 --> 00:04:14.319 your brain's always listening to what you say. 00:04:14.400 --> 00:04:15.960 And when you say those things about yourself, 00:04:16.100 --> 00:04:18.759 you're teaching yourself to believe those things, 00:04:18.879 --> 00:04:20.819 to think about yourself that way. Look, honey, 00:04:20.939 --> 00:04:23.139 you're smart and you're kind and you're beautiful 00:04:23.139 --> 00:04:25.339 and you're funny. But if you keep telling yourself 00:04:25.339 --> 00:04:28.259 the opposite, then you're gonna start believing 00:04:28.259 --> 00:04:31.899 the lies instead of the truth. The words you 00:04:31.899 --> 00:04:34.480 speak out loud are more powerful than just the 00:04:34.480 --> 00:04:37.160 thoughts that you think in your head. And we're 00:04:37.160 --> 00:04:39.079 in this series called Every Thought Captive. 00:04:39.300 --> 00:04:41.860 And we're being challenged to take our thoughts 00:04:41.860 --> 00:04:44.800 captive as a way to break down strongholds, as 00:04:44.800 --> 00:04:47.319 a way to be transformed, as Romans chapter 12 00:04:47.319 --> 00:04:50.980 says, by the renewing of our minds. And yet, 00:04:51.160 --> 00:04:55.759 oftentimes the words we speak kind of betray. 00:04:57.449 --> 00:04:59.709 We have these thoughts and we say them out loud 00:04:59.709 --> 00:05:01.610 and those thoughts end up having even more power 00:05:01.610 --> 00:05:03.850 over us. It's not just middle school girls, right? 00:05:03.949 --> 00:05:05.709 Like last month, I was sitting at a gate in an 00:05:05.709 --> 00:05:08.009 airport and I overheard a woman on a phone and 00:05:08.009 --> 00:05:09.689 she was talking about, I think a job interview 00:05:09.689 --> 00:05:12.149 probably that she just had. And I heard her say, 00:05:12.329 --> 00:05:15.230 I completely blew it. I always say the wrong 00:05:15.230 --> 00:05:17.230 thing in those interviews. I'm not cut out for 00:05:17.230 --> 00:05:21.930 jobs like that. After teaching. group of men 00:05:21.930 --> 00:05:23.829 a couple of weeks ago on strongholds, a man came 00:05:23.829 --> 00:05:26.170 up to me afterwards, was telling me about his 00:05:26.170 --> 00:05:28.110 marriage. And he said, I don't know why my wife 00:05:28.110 --> 00:05:30.810 puts up with me. He said, I don't know how to 00:05:30.810 --> 00:05:33.410 be a good husband. I find myself just doing the 00:05:33.410 --> 00:05:35.389 things my dad did. It didn't work for him. It's 00:05:35.389 --> 00:05:37.350 not working for me. She deserves someone who 00:05:37.350 --> 00:05:40.230 actually knows how to make her happy. I went 00:05:40.230 --> 00:05:41.990 to visit a man in the hospital a number of months 00:05:41.990 --> 00:05:45.370 ago. And he said, God's punishing me for something. 00:05:45.870 --> 00:05:48.089 Either that, or he obviously doesn't care about 00:05:48.089 --> 00:05:50.110 what I'm going through. Maybe he helps other 00:05:50.110 --> 00:05:53.250 people, but God doesn't help me. And each time, 00:05:53.250 --> 00:05:55.790 what I wanna say is, don't let yourself hear 00:05:55.790 --> 00:05:58.769 you say that. Don't let yourself hear you say 00:05:58.769 --> 00:06:01.670 those things. It might seem harmless, but there's 00:06:01.670 --> 00:06:03.670 a difference between thinking a thought and speaking 00:06:03.670 --> 00:06:07.110 a thought. And when you speak a thought out loud, 00:06:07.329 --> 00:06:10.620 your brain pays closer attention. So to help 00:06:10.620 --> 00:06:12.120 us kind of work through this and think through 00:06:12.120 --> 00:06:13.600 this together, we're gonna look at an unusual 00:06:13.600 --> 00:06:16.500 story in scripture out of the book of Ezekiel. 00:06:16.540 --> 00:06:20.060 The prophet Ezekiel is in a valley, the Bible 00:06:20.060 --> 00:06:23.100 says, full of dry bones. Everywhere he looks, 00:06:23.120 --> 00:06:26.160 it's like desert, completely dried out, death 00:06:26.160 --> 00:06:29.360 scattered everywhere. Starting in verse one of 00:06:29.360 --> 00:06:31.680 chapter 37, the Lord took a hold of me, Ezekiel 00:06:31.680 --> 00:06:34.379 says, and I was carried away by the spirit of 00:06:34.379 --> 00:06:36.620 the Lord to a valley filled with bones. This 00:06:36.620 --> 00:06:39.709 is some kind of a vision, I guess. It seems to 00:06:39.709 --> 00:06:43.610 be, he led me all around among the bones that 00:06:43.610 --> 00:06:45.329 covered the valley. If you can picture this, 00:06:45.389 --> 00:06:47.209 they were scattered everywhere across the ground 00:06:47.209 --> 00:06:49.389 and they were completely dried out. And then 00:06:49.389 --> 00:06:51.870 he asked me, son of man, can these bones become 00:06:51.870 --> 00:06:55.250 living people again? And as you're reading it, 00:06:55.290 --> 00:06:57.589 what you want to say to Ezekiel is, what did 00:06:57.589 --> 00:07:00.990 you eat last night? Like what's the Taco Bell 00:07:00.990 --> 00:07:03.470 late at night? Like what's causing that? It just 00:07:03.470 --> 00:07:06.910 seems a little bit strange and unusual, but pay 00:07:06.910 --> 00:07:09.860 attention to what, he's experiencing in this 00:07:09.860 --> 00:07:13.160 vision. He's in this place of death and everywhere 00:07:13.160 --> 00:07:16.120 he looks is death. Everywhere he looks is the 00:07:16.120 --> 00:07:18.319 message, it's too late. Things are too far gone. 00:07:18.540 --> 00:07:21.959 You can't do anything about this situation. And 00:07:21.959 --> 00:07:26.100 then the question comes, can these bones live 00:07:26.100 --> 00:07:28.779 again? And that's the question that I want us 00:07:28.779 --> 00:07:30.620 to think through as we talk about the power of 00:07:30.620 --> 00:07:33.060 our words, that something may seem beyond hope. 00:07:33.120 --> 00:07:35.300 It might seem too dry, too broken, too bitter, 00:07:35.339 --> 00:07:37.899 too dead for too long to live again. Maybe it's 00:07:37.899 --> 00:07:42.899 your marriage that feels lifeless, desert, or 00:07:42.899 --> 00:07:45.829 maybe it is a relationship with one of your kids 00:07:45.829 --> 00:07:47.910 that's on a respirator. Maybe it's grief that 00:07:47.910 --> 00:07:50.529 has killed your joy, or maybe it's a sense of 00:07:50.529 --> 00:07:52.410 self -worth that you used to have, like this 00:07:52.410 --> 00:07:55.410 sense of purpose and identity, but now it's dry 00:07:55.410 --> 00:07:59.629 and brittle. Maybe it's your faith in God that 00:07:59.629 --> 00:08:02.089 is on life support, like it feels like it's six 00:08:02.089 --> 00:08:04.949 feet under. Maybe it's the hope you once had 00:08:04.949 --> 00:08:07.250 for the future that just feels like it's dried 00:08:07.250 --> 00:08:09.870 up and blown away. And the question that Ezekiel 00:08:09.870 --> 00:08:13.560 asks is the question, is it too late? Can these 00:08:13.560 --> 00:08:16.680 dead bones live again? And God promises Ezekiel 00:08:16.680 --> 00:08:18.959 that he's gonna put flesh and skin on the bones. 00:08:19.040 --> 00:08:21.339 He's gonna breathe life into them. And then he 00:08:21.339 --> 00:08:23.319 tells Ezekiel, okay, here's your part in it. 00:08:24.040 --> 00:08:26.699 I'm gonna work in this powerful way and here's 00:08:26.699 --> 00:08:29.540 what you need to do. Ezekiel, I want you, here 00:08:29.540 --> 00:08:33.840 it is, to speak, to speak, to say some things 00:08:33.840 --> 00:08:37.320 out loud. He doesn't tell Ezekiel to pray or 00:08:37.320 --> 00:08:41.159 to visualize or to manifest or to touch or to 00:08:41.159 --> 00:08:43.710 work or to glue some, bones back together or 00:08:43.710 --> 00:08:47.409 to sew. He says, Ezekiel, speak, listen to what 00:08:47.409 --> 00:08:50.350 I say. And then you say what I say. And I would 00:08:50.350 --> 00:08:52.950 argue, and we'll look at this throughout scripture. 00:08:53.149 --> 00:08:56.289 There's supernatural power when you speak God's 00:08:56.289 --> 00:08:59.789 word out loud. Ezekiel 37 verse four and five. 00:08:59.850 --> 00:09:03.110 Then he said to me, speak, speak a prophetic 00:09:03.110 --> 00:09:06.330 message to these bones and say, dry bones, listen 00:09:06.330 --> 00:09:10.070 to the word of the Lord. It doesn't say, listen 00:09:10.070 --> 00:09:13.279 to me. Listen to these thoughts I've been having. 00:09:13.320 --> 00:09:16.460 Listen to my positive thinking I've been practicing. 00:09:16.580 --> 00:09:20.399 None of that. Listen while I speak out loud the 00:09:20.399 --> 00:09:21.720 word of the Lord. This is what the sovereign 00:09:21.720 --> 00:09:24.340 Lord says. Look, I am going to put breath into 00:09:24.340 --> 00:09:27.840 you and make you live again. Verse seven says, 00:09:28.019 --> 00:09:33.840 Ezekiel explained, so I did it. I spoke this 00:09:33.840 --> 00:09:38.360 message. It didn't seem to make much sense. It 00:09:38.360 --> 00:09:42.990 seems way too simple. but God told me what to 00:09:42.990 --> 00:09:47.149 say and I said it. I spoke it out loud. Suddenly 00:09:47.149 --> 00:09:49.490 as I spoke, as I was speaking this out loud, 00:09:49.610 --> 00:09:51.230 there was a rattling noise across the valley 00:09:51.230 --> 00:09:53.070 and the bones of each body came together and 00:09:53.070 --> 00:09:55.710 attached themselves as complete skeletons. Then 00:09:55.710 --> 00:09:58.269 I watched muscles and flesh form over the bones 00:09:58.269 --> 00:10:01.629 and skin formed to cover their bodies. And so 00:10:01.629 --> 00:10:04.509 you have this vision where God is driving home 00:10:04.509 --> 00:10:10.659 a truth, real life truth. that his word spoken 00:10:10.659 --> 00:10:16.200 out loud brings life to valleys of death. The 00:10:16.200 --> 00:10:19.139 thoughts you speak out loud have the power of 00:10:19.139 --> 00:10:22.000 life and death. We see this from the very beginning, 00:10:22.120 --> 00:10:25.720 that God has wired our universe in such a way 00:10:25.720 --> 00:10:30.200 that words spoken have power. And someone put 00:10:30.200 --> 00:10:33.279 it this way, that words create worlds. Words 00:10:33.279 --> 00:10:34.879 create worlds. And we see it right out of the 00:10:34.879 --> 00:10:38.840 gate in the book of Genesis when God speaks the 00:10:38.840 --> 00:10:41.220 world into creation. He does it with words. He 00:10:41.220 --> 00:10:44.759 doesn't dream it into creation. He doesn't draw 00:10:44.759 --> 00:10:48.399 it into creation. He speaks it. Genesis chapter 00:10:48.399 --> 00:10:50.399 one, verse three, and God said, let there be 00:10:50.399 --> 00:10:52.720 light. And there was light. God speaks light 00:10:52.720 --> 00:10:56.419 into darkness, power of the spoken word over 00:10:56.419 --> 00:10:58.860 the universe. You read through the gospels when 00:10:58.860 --> 00:11:01.299 Jesus brought dead people to life, how did he 00:11:01.299 --> 00:11:04.940 do it? Did he smack them on the forehead? Did 00:11:04.940 --> 00:11:07.080 he throw a handkerchief at him and they fell 00:11:07.080 --> 00:11:11.740 low? No, he spoke. He spoke words. Young man, 00:11:11.940 --> 00:11:14.700 Luke chapter seven, I tell you, get up. Luke 00:11:14.700 --> 00:11:17.399 chapter eight, my child, get up. John 11, Lazarus, 00:11:17.399 --> 00:11:22.340 come out. He's speaking life into death. When 00:11:22.340 --> 00:11:25.080 Jesus is tempted in the wilderness, how does 00:11:25.080 --> 00:11:29.250 he? Does he do it by just thinking scripture? 00:11:29.629 --> 00:11:32.970 No, he speaks it. He speaks scripture. So every 00:11:32.970 --> 00:11:35.690 time he's tempted, he says, listen, he says something 00:11:35.690 --> 00:11:40.450 out loud. He speaks God's word out loud. And 00:11:40.450 --> 00:11:42.590 each time he does it, he begins with saying, 00:11:42.690 --> 00:11:46.590 it is written. He's not saying, here's what I 00:11:46.590 --> 00:11:47.950 think, even though he could have, because he's 00:11:47.950 --> 00:11:49.990 Jesus and everything he says is God's word. He's 00:11:49.990 --> 00:11:53.230 showing an example for us of this is how you 00:11:53.230 --> 00:11:58.279 handle it. You speak God's truth out loud. You're 00:11:58.279 --> 00:12:00.580 listening to Living on the Edge with guest teacher 00:12:00.580 --> 00:12:03.320 Kyle Eidelman. There's more just ahead, so stay 00:12:03.320 --> 00:12:05.940 with us. Today we continue our journey through 00:12:05.940 --> 00:12:08.639 a fundamental series called God's Dream for Your 00:12:08.639 --> 00:12:11.379 Life. And if you've missed any part of this study 00:12:11.379 --> 00:12:14.179 or want to find more Bible lessons, just go online 00:12:14.179 --> 00:12:17.929 to Living on the Edge. There, you'll discover 00:12:17.929 --> 00:12:20.990 a wide array of teaching content, downloadable 00:12:20.990 --> 00:12:23.710 materials, and daily discipleship with Chip Ingram. 00:12:24.009 --> 00:12:28.029 Find it all at livingontheedge .org. Well, now 00:12:28.029 --> 00:12:29.909 let's get back to our lesson with guest teacher 00:12:29.909 --> 00:12:33.350 Kyle Eidelman. God's truth, spoken out loud, 00:12:33.450 --> 00:12:35.649 has the power to break strongholds in your life 00:12:35.649 --> 00:12:38.389 and bring dead things back to life. Proverbs 00:12:38.389 --> 00:12:40.990 18, 21, death and life are in the power of the 00:12:40.990 --> 00:12:44.370 tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit. 00:12:45.399 --> 00:12:48.960 Your tongue has the power to destroy or to build 00:12:48.960 --> 00:12:53.120 up, to tear down, or it has power of life or 00:12:53.120 --> 00:12:56.159 death. It has power over your circumstances, 00:12:56.240 --> 00:12:59.019 over your future. Now, a lot of us would be quick 00:12:59.019 --> 00:13:01.379 to recognize this when it comes to words that 00:13:01.379 --> 00:13:04.480 we speak to others or maybe words that others 00:13:04.480 --> 00:13:07.700 have spoken to us. Like we've experienced life 00:13:07.700 --> 00:13:11.100 because of that. And maybe you had somebody speak 00:13:11.100 --> 00:13:12.899 some words of life to you when you were young 00:13:12.899 --> 00:13:14.899 and the words they spoke to you became words 00:13:14.899 --> 00:13:17.720 that you started to speak to yourself. I had 00:13:17.720 --> 00:13:20.000 a teacher, English teacher in the sixth grade 00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:24.620 who had a, was cutting technology at the time, 00:13:24.639 --> 00:13:26.840 a label maker. Raise your hand if you know what 00:13:26.840 --> 00:13:30.440 a label maker is. All right, about half the room. 00:13:30.679 --> 00:13:34.919 So you type a word in, it's like a little screen, 00:13:35.019 --> 00:13:37.200 like a calculator type screen. And then it prints 00:13:37.200 --> 00:13:40.029 out. on this little sticker, piece of plastic, 00:13:40.289 --> 00:13:43.110 whatever word you typed in. And she loved her 00:13:43.110 --> 00:13:45.470 label maker. She would label everything, like 00:13:45.470 --> 00:13:47.570 her stapler. She'd put her name on the stapler 00:13:47.570 --> 00:13:50.110 with the label and graded paper. She had a label 00:13:50.110 --> 00:13:52.509 for graded papers and label for the snack drawer. 00:13:52.830 --> 00:13:55.669 And everywhere you looked in her room, she loved 00:13:55.669 --> 00:13:57.889 her label maker. She'd sit at her desk while 00:13:57.889 --> 00:13:59.509 we were working and just make labels. But eventually 00:13:59.509 --> 00:14:02.710 she ran out of things to label and she started 00:14:02.710 --> 00:14:06.789 labeling us. And she would put some kind of word 00:14:06.789 --> 00:14:08.769 into her little label maker and then she'd put 00:14:08.769 --> 00:14:10.970 it on her shoulder. And I didn't think much about 00:14:10.970 --> 00:14:13.690 it, didn't pay much attention to it. Until one 00:14:13.690 --> 00:14:16.350 day as a sixth grader, she came by my desk and 00:14:16.350 --> 00:14:19.350 she stood by me and she put some kind of word 00:14:19.350 --> 00:14:21.710 into her little label maker and she tore it off 00:14:21.710 --> 00:14:24.570 and she put it on my shoulder. And I acted like 00:14:24.570 --> 00:14:28.009 I wasn't interested and I didn't care. But I 00:14:28.009 --> 00:14:31.929 looked over and it said, creative, creative. 00:14:33.059 --> 00:14:35.559 Nobody ever called me creative before. Never 00:14:35.559 --> 00:14:39.220 thought of myself that way before. A couple months 00:14:39.220 --> 00:14:41.679 later, she's walking down the aisle. She stops 00:14:41.679 --> 00:14:43.220 at my desk again. This time she types another 00:14:43.220 --> 00:14:45.980 word into her label maker. She tears it off and 00:14:45.980 --> 00:14:51.799 it says leader, leader. As a sixth grader, having 00:14:51.799 --> 00:14:54.620 somebody speak that word over me gave me a word 00:14:54.620 --> 00:14:57.480 that I could use for myself that I really hadn't 00:14:57.480 --> 00:14:59.820 thought of before. We wouldn't have had the courage 00:14:59.820 --> 00:15:02.090 to speak, but somebody else spoke it. And then 00:15:02.090 --> 00:15:05.289 that word became a word that I could speak over 00:15:05.289 --> 00:15:06.970 my own life. Maybe some of you had that blessing 00:15:06.970 --> 00:15:09.529 in your life. Somebody shared a word with you 00:15:09.529 --> 00:15:12.629 and it brought you life and their word for you 00:15:12.629 --> 00:15:16.889 became your word for you. For a lot of us, it's 00:15:16.889 --> 00:15:19.929 easier to identify the other end of that. It's 00:15:19.929 --> 00:15:23.169 the words of death that got spoken. Those words 00:15:23.169 --> 00:15:26.320 became your words. Jesus warns against words 00:15:26.320 --> 00:15:29.100 carelessly spoken in Matthew 12 as he's talking 00:15:29.100 --> 00:15:32.220 to us about the power of spoken words. This is 00:15:32.220 --> 00:15:34.519 out of the message paraphrase. Jesus writes or 00:15:34.519 --> 00:15:38.120 says, let me tell you something. Let me tell 00:15:38.120 --> 00:15:41.360 you something. Every one of these careless words 00:15:41.360 --> 00:15:43.539 is gonna come back to haunt you. There will be 00:15:43.539 --> 00:15:46.500 a time of reckoning. Words are powerful and you 00:15:46.500 --> 00:15:48.340 need to take them seriously. Acting like it's 00:15:48.340 --> 00:15:50.720 not a big deal, it's a big deal. Words can be 00:15:50.720 --> 00:15:52.860 your salvation. They can bring life to you. Words 00:15:52.860 --> 00:15:54.580 can be your damnation. They can bring death. 00:15:55.000 --> 00:15:59.360 It matters. The words you speak matter. What's 00:15:59.360 --> 00:16:02.000 fascinating is modern neuroscience has just discovered 00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:05.460 just what the Bible seemed to acknowledge long 00:16:05.460 --> 00:16:08.080 ago, that there's something remarkable that happens 00:16:08.080 --> 00:16:10.120 in your brain when you speak your thoughts out 00:16:10.120 --> 00:16:12.980 loud versus just thinking them. When you speak 00:16:12.980 --> 00:16:15.259 words out loud, your brain processes the information 00:16:15.259 --> 00:16:18.720 through multiple channels that more regions of 00:16:18.720 --> 00:16:21.899 the brain, get used when you speak your thoughts 00:16:21.899 --> 00:16:25.379 out loud. I could spend 30 minutes talking about 00:16:25.379 --> 00:16:28.179 how some of this works, but the point is that 00:16:28.179 --> 00:16:30.740 speaking your thoughts out loud engages more 00:16:30.740 --> 00:16:34.600 neural networks to create stronger and more lasting 00:16:34.600 --> 00:16:36.879 neural pathways than just the thoughts you think 00:16:36.879 --> 00:16:40.100 quietly to yourself. Like the neurological bottom 00:16:40.100 --> 00:16:43.200 line is that speaking truth out loud can literally 00:16:43.200 --> 00:16:46.299 rewire your brain more effectively than just 00:16:46.299 --> 00:16:48.580 thinking something silently. Let me give you 00:16:48.580 --> 00:16:54.909 an example. Our culture tells us one way to deal 00:16:54.909 --> 00:16:56.830 with your anger or frustration would be to vent 00:16:56.830 --> 00:16:59.190 your feelings. That's healthy to vent. Some of 00:16:59.190 --> 00:17:02.669 you are so good at it. Like you are a venter. 00:17:04.170 --> 00:17:06.589 And you think to yourself, the more I vent, the 00:17:06.589 --> 00:17:09.970 better I feel. I just get it all out. Or maybe 00:17:09.970 --> 00:17:12.309 you're a complainer. You think, if I just complain, 00:17:12.450 --> 00:17:14.130 if I just let people know all the things that 00:17:14.130 --> 00:17:16.549 I find wrong with whatever's going on in my life, 00:17:16.690 --> 00:17:18.769 I'll start being content. I just need to get 00:17:18.769 --> 00:17:20.410 it out. I just need to complain about it a little 00:17:20.410 --> 00:17:23.829 bit. But consistently, research is being done, 00:17:23.930 --> 00:17:26.190 some research out of Ohio State University recently 00:17:26.190 --> 00:17:29.750 by Brad Bushman was just affirming the fact that 00:17:29.750 --> 00:17:33.289 that's not how it works. Like when you vent, 00:17:33.369 --> 00:17:36.869 your brain hears you saying things out loud and 00:17:36.869 --> 00:17:40.230 your brain wants to look for reasons why what 00:17:40.230 --> 00:17:43.410 you're saying is true. It's a cognitive bias. 00:17:43.490 --> 00:17:46.150 It wants to look for evidence that backs up what 00:17:46.150 --> 00:17:48.750 it hears your mouth speaking. And so when you 00:17:48.750 --> 00:17:51.509 vent, you find more things to vent about. When 00:17:51.509 --> 00:17:53.529 you start complaining, complaining doesn't lead 00:17:53.529 --> 00:17:56.730 to contentment. Complaining causes you to find 00:17:56.730 --> 00:17:58.769 more things to complain about. When you start 00:17:58.769 --> 00:18:00.630 criticizing, you'll start seeing more things 00:18:00.630 --> 00:18:02.789 to be critical of. Like that's the way neural 00:18:02.789 --> 00:18:07.190 pathways work. And so the term for this is embodied 00:18:07.190 --> 00:18:09.890 reinforcement. Embodied reinforcement. When you 00:18:09.890 --> 00:18:14.710 hear yourself speak, complaints, criticism, when 00:18:14.710 --> 00:18:20.269 venting, it creates these pathways where your 00:18:20.269 --> 00:18:23.170 brain wants to reinforce what it's hearing your 00:18:23.170 --> 00:18:26.269 mouth say. So whatever words we speak, whether 00:18:26.269 --> 00:18:29.049 words of life or death are programming in our 00:18:29.049 --> 00:18:31.970 mind. Now, as we saw in Proverbs 18, we'll look 00:18:31.970 --> 00:18:35.029 at it again in a minute. Words are like seed 00:18:35.029 --> 00:18:38.029 that get planted. And we don't always recognize 00:18:38.029 --> 00:18:40.670 the impact of the seed that gets planted because 00:18:40.670 --> 00:18:43.089 there's a lag time between the time the seed 00:18:43.089 --> 00:18:45.210 gets planted and the time fruit starts to show 00:18:45.210 --> 00:18:47.269 up. And so we don't always make the connection 00:18:47.269 --> 00:18:51.019 like, oh, these words are. building up this garden. 00:18:51.140 --> 00:18:53.940 These words are creating this fruit in my life. 00:18:54.079 --> 00:18:56.900 And whatever words you speak are creating fruit 00:18:56.900 --> 00:19:00.359 that you have to eat. And so I want us to take 00:19:00.359 --> 00:19:01.619 a few minutes. I want to show you another one 00:19:01.619 --> 00:19:04.380 of my little parables. I know these feel like 00:19:04.380 --> 00:19:08.279 children's stories, but my hope is that it helps 00:19:08.279 --> 00:19:11.640 us remember, that creates pictures in our mind. 00:19:11.680 --> 00:19:13.960 So we're not just consuming content, but that 00:19:13.960 --> 00:19:16.140 we're processing it. Like we're thinking about 00:19:16.140 --> 00:19:18.000 these things. So take a look at the screens. 00:19:18.920 --> 00:19:21.519 In a distant land, there was a mysterious garden 00:19:21.519 --> 00:19:24.319 known as the Garden of Words. It wasn't always 00:19:24.319 --> 00:19:27.059 called that. In fact, how it received that name 00:19:27.059 --> 00:19:29.720 is quite interesting. Every person in the nearby 00:19:29.720 --> 00:19:32.279 village had their own plot in this garden. Some 00:19:32.279 --> 00:19:34.960 were beautiful with flowers and vegetation. Others 00:19:34.960 --> 00:19:37.839 were overrun with weeds. The people of the village 00:19:37.839 --> 00:19:40.700 didn't realize that what they grew in their gardens 00:19:40.700 --> 00:19:43.180 was determined by the words they spoke. They 00:19:43.180 --> 00:19:45.680 didn't know that each word spoken was a seed 00:19:45.680 --> 00:19:48.730 planted in their garden. Words that were true 00:19:48.730 --> 00:19:51.390 and kind, excellent and praiseworthy, encouraging 00:19:51.390 --> 00:19:54.589 and compassionate became flowers and fruit trees. 00:19:55.009 --> 00:19:58.369 Negative, harsh, untruthful words became thorns 00:19:58.369 --> 00:20:01.490 and weeds. At the center of each plot stood a 00:20:01.490 --> 00:20:04.970 fountain called the RAS watering system. This 00:20:04.970 --> 00:20:07.490 fountain had an unusual way of watering. It would 00:20:07.490 --> 00:20:10.089 water whatever plants were most abundant in the 00:20:10.089 --> 00:20:12.549 garden. If there were more flowers, it would 00:20:12.549 --> 00:20:14.250 water the flowers. If there were more weeds, 00:20:14.329 --> 00:20:16.450 it would water the weeds, causing them to grow 00:20:16.450 --> 00:20:20.150 even more. One day, a young lady named Lily discovered 00:20:20.150 --> 00:20:22.529 the secret of the garden. She noticed that her 00:20:22.529 --> 00:20:25.109 plot, once filled with vibrant flowers, had become 00:20:25.109 --> 00:20:27.769 overrun with weeds. This was often something 00:20:27.769 --> 00:20:29.549 that people in the village noticed when their 00:20:29.549 --> 00:20:32.690 children became teenagers. She discovered the 00:20:32.690 --> 00:20:35.569 mystery of the garden one day when she was venting 00:20:35.569 --> 00:20:37.549 about all the weeds that had begun to grow in 00:20:37.549 --> 00:20:40.319 her plot. She yelled and screamed and cursed 00:20:40.319 --> 00:20:42.420 at herself for having such a horrible garden. 00:20:42.619 --> 00:20:45.339 And when she was especially letting herself have 00:20:45.339 --> 00:20:48.319 it, she happened to notice a small sprout appear 00:20:48.319 --> 00:20:51.599 from the ground. She repeated her words and another 00:20:51.599 --> 00:20:55.039 weed sprouted up. She wondered if there was perhaps 00:20:55.039 --> 00:20:57.559 some connection of the words she spoke to what 00:20:57.559 --> 00:21:00.480 was growing in her garden. She knew one way to 00:21:00.480 --> 00:21:03.670 find out for sure. Emily, she said to herself. 00:21:03.950 --> 00:21:06.069 Emily was her classmate and she was the kindest 00:21:06.069 --> 00:21:09.150 person Lily knew. Lily ran to Emily's plot and 00:21:09.150 --> 00:21:11.130 sure enough, it was full of flowers and fruit 00:21:11.130 --> 00:21:14.250 trees. She decided it was best to keep this secret 00:21:14.250 --> 00:21:16.769 until she knew for sure. For the next month, 00:21:16.869 --> 00:21:18.829 Lily began to be careful about the words that 00:21:18.829 --> 00:21:21.549 she spoke. She purposely would start her day 00:21:21.549 --> 00:21:24.490 speaking words of life and truth. She spoke kind 00:21:24.490 --> 00:21:26.710 words to others and even kind words to herself 00:21:26.710 --> 00:21:29.460 when no one was around. She prayed prayers of 00:21:29.460 --> 00:21:31.380 thanksgiving and made a list of things she was 00:21:31.380 --> 00:21:33.740 grateful for. When she would get ready in the 00:21:33.740 --> 00:21:36.180 morning, she would sing worship songs to herself 00:21:36.180 --> 00:21:39.160 to start the day. After the first week, she couldn't 00:21:39.160 --> 00:21:41.240 really see much difference and almost started 00:21:41.240 --> 00:21:44.160 to berate herself for not doing better. But instead, 00:21:44.380 --> 00:21:47.759 she spoke words of grace and encouragement. before 00:21:47.759 --> 00:21:49.819 long she started to see sprouts of beautiful 00:21:49.819 --> 00:21:52.839 flowers the ras watering system in the garden 00:21:52.839 --> 00:21:55.160 began to shift its water from the weeds over 00:21:55.160 --> 00:21:57.720 to the flowers and as they began to grow the 00:21:57.720 --> 00:22:00.700 weeds began to disappear the people of the village 00:22:00.700 --> 00:22:03.299 began to call the garden the garden of woods 00:22:03.299 --> 00:22:06.579 so no one would ever again fail to realize the 00:22:06.579 --> 00:22:09.380 power of the words they spoke and in time that 00:22:09.380 --> 00:22:11.759 garden became a breathtaking display of color 00:22:11.759 --> 00:22:15.039 and fragrances a paradise that people would come 00:22:15.039 --> 00:22:20.059 from all around to see and admire. That parable, 00:22:20.059 --> 00:22:22.180 I guess it's really more of an allegory, but 00:22:22.180 --> 00:22:25.200 it paints a picture of what we read in Scripture, 00:22:25.359 --> 00:22:29.460 that the thoughts we think become words we speak 00:22:29.460 --> 00:22:32.279 that become seeds planted in the ground that 00:22:32.279 --> 00:22:35.140 end up having incredible power over our lives. 00:22:37.799 --> 00:22:40.660 That's guest teacher Kyle Eidelman. Wrapping 00:22:40.660 --> 00:22:43.200 up a remarkable week of Bible teaching here on 00:22:43.200 --> 00:22:45.680 Living on the Edge, Chip Ingram has some thoughts 00:22:45.680 --> 00:22:48.460 for us coming up in a moment. But remember, if 00:22:48.460 --> 00:22:50.720 you missed any part of today's lesson or just 00:22:50.720 --> 00:22:52.900 want to revisit what you've heard, you can always 00:22:52.900 --> 00:22:55.819 find these lessons online at livingontheedge 00:22:55.819 --> 00:23:00.660 .org. Words create worlds. That's what Kyle showed 00:23:00.660 --> 00:23:04.140 us today. And so does this broadcast. Every single 00:23:04.140 --> 00:23:06.740 day, Living on the Edge speaks the Word of God 00:23:06.740 --> 00:23:09.559 into lives that are desperate to hear it, into 00:23:09.559 --> 00:23:12.079 minds that have been running on lies long enough. 00:23:12.420 --> 00:23:15.519 For 30 years, that's been this ministry's singular 00:23:15.519 --> 00:23:18.339 calling, and it has always been made possible 00:23:18.339 --> 00:23:21.119 by the generosity of friends who give and friends 00:23:21.119 --> 00:23:23.920 who pray. And if you're ready to join that team 00:23:23.920 --> 00:23:26.460 today, we'd love to have you. Your gift of any 00:23:26.460 --> 00:23:29.099 amount keeps this teaching on the air and reaching 00:23:29.099 --> 00:23:31.960 people who need it most. Would you also commit 00:23:31.960 --> 00:23:34.680 to praying for this ministry? Pray that the words 00:23:34.680 --> 00:23:37.720 spoken here would land like seed in good soil. 00:23:37.980 --> 00:23:41.440 To give today, visit livingontheedge .org or 00:23:41.440 --> 00:23:43.640 send your one -time gift through the mail to 00:23:43.640 --> 00:23:57.190 You can also call us at Well, now here's Chip. 00:23:57.349 --> 00:24:00.369 Oh, I so appreciate what Kyle said today. It 00:24:00.369 --> 00:24:03.930 totally reinforces my biblical conviction on 00:24:03.930 --> 00:24:07.289 this important subject. Listen carefully. A word 00:24:07.289 --> 00:24:11.529 you speak is more powerful than a thought you 00:24:11.529 --> 00:24:14.430 think. When you speak thoughts out loud, your 00:24:14.430 --> 00:24:17.650 brain processes them differently. More neural 00:24:17.650 --> 00:24:21.390 pathways get activated, creating stronger patterns 00:24:21.390 --> 00:24:25.299 than silent thoughts alone. This is not about 00:24:25.299 --> 00:24:28.079 positive thinking or speaking your dreams into 00:24:28.079 --> 00:24:31.099 existence. This is about speaking God's Word 00:24:31.099 --> 00:24:34.740 out loud with authority and conviction. This 00:24:34.740 --> 00:24:37.740 week, identify one area where you need a breakthrough. 00:24:38.019 --> 00:24:41.380 Find a scripture that speaks to it, speak what 00:24:41.380 --> 00:24:46.220 God says, and then watch what God does. I'm Dave 00:24:46.220 --> 00:24:48.819 Drewy, inviting you back next time when we continue 00:24:48.819 --> 00:24:51.599 with our special study here on Living on the 00:24:51.599 --> 00:24:57.150 Edge. Today's program is produced and sponsored 00:24:57.150 --> 00:24:58.670 by Living on the Edge.