This is the Chip Ingram Sermon Podcast, brought
to you by Living on the Edge. In this podcast,
you'll hear Chip's teaching unedited and from
beginning to end. And now here's our guest teacher,
Kyle Eidelman, with his message titled, Say It
Out Loud. I want to start off my message by telling
you something that's going to seem simple. And
some of you are like, well, yeah, that's kind
of your thing, Kyle. That's kind of what you
do. Well, I know it's going to sound simple.
It's going to sound simple enough that you'll
probably think to yourself at some point in this
sermon, does this really need to be a whole sermon?
They'll probably sound simple enough that you're
tempted to dismiss it and think, ah, that's interesting,
but I'll wait to hear what's next week. I just
think that what we're going to talk about in
these next few minutes, even though it's simple.
has the potential to profoundly impact not just
your relationship with God, but your whole life,
your relationship with other people, how you
see yourself. Here's the idea. Again, it's going
to sound simple. A word you speak is more powerful
than a thought you think. A thought that you
speak out loud with words is more powerful than
thoughts that just stay in your head. And we're
gonna see in a few minutes how science shows
this is true, that when you speak certain words,
your brain wants to believe what it hears you
saying. Your brain leans in differently when
it hears a thought spoken out of your mouth.
When my kids were young, I would... challenged
them to pay attention to the words they spoke
out loud about themselves and about their circumstances.
I remember taking my middle school daughter to
school one morning, and she was telling me on
the way to school about some drama in the friend
group the day before. And I was glad she was
sharing with me kind of what's going on in her
life. I want her to share her emotions with me.
But as we're driving, I start to hear her words.
turn on herself and she starts saying things
like that I'm just so awkward and no one really
likes me and I just don't fit in anywhere and
I said hey stop stop it I want you to tell me
how you're feeling but there are certain things
you can't hear yourself say about yourself because
what's happening there is you're not just making
observations you're programming your mind you're
creating neural pathways you're giving yourself
a road to think about yourself and so I tried
to tell her Like your brain's always listening
to what you say. And when you say those things
about yourself, you're teaching yourself to believe
those things, to think about yourself that way.
Look, honey, you're smart and you're kind and
you're beautiful and you're funny. But if you
keep telling yourself the opposite, then you're
gonna start believing the lies instead of the
truth. The words you speak out loud are more
powerful than just the thoughts that you think
in your head. And we're in this series called
Every Thought Captive. And we're being challenged
to take our thoughts captive as a way to break
down strongholds, as a way to be transformed,
as Romans chapter 12 says, by the renewing of
our minds. And yet, oftentimes the words we speak
kind of betray. We have these thoughts and we
say them out loud and those thoughts end up having
even more power over us. It's not just middle
school girls, right? Like last month, I was sitting
at a gate in an airport and I overheard a woman
on a phone and she was talking about, I think
a job interview probably that she just had. And
I heard her say, I completely blew it. I always
say the wrong thing in those interviews. I'm
not cut out for jobs like that. After teaching.
group of men a couple of weeks ago on strongholds,
a man came up to me afterwards, was telling me
about his marriage. And he said, I don't know
why my wife puts up with me. He said, I don't
know how to be a good husband. I find myself
just doing the things my dad did. It didn't work
for him. It's not working for me. She deserves
someone who actually knows how to make her happy.
I went to visit a man in the hospital a number
of months ago. And he said, God's punishing me
for something. Either that or he obviously doesn't
care about what I'm going through. Maybe he helps
other people, but God doesn't help me. And each
time, what I wanna say is, don't let yourself
hear you say that. Don't let yourself hear you
say those things. It might seem harmless, but
there's a difference between thinking a thought
and speaking a thought. And when you speak a
thought out loud, your brain pays closer attention.
So to help us kind of work through this and think
through this together, we're gonna look at an
unusual story in scripture out of the book of
Ezekiel. The prophet Ezekiel is in a valley,
the Bible says, full of dry bones. Everywhere
he looks, it's like desert, completely dried
out, death scattered everywhere. Starting in
verse one of chapter 37, the Lord took a hold
of me, Ezekiel says, and I was carried away by
the spirit of the Lord to a valley filled with
bones. This is some kind of a vision, I guess.
It seems to be, he led me all around among the
bones that covered the valley. If you can picture
this, they were scattered everywhere across the
ground and they were completely dried out. And
then he asked me, son of man, can these bones
become living people again? And as you're reading
it, what you want to say to Ezekiel is, what
did you eat last night? Like what's the Taco
Bell late at night? Like what's causing that?
It just seems a little bit strange and unusual,
but pay attention to what, he's experiencing
in this vision. He's in this place of death.
And everywhere he looks is death. Everywhere
he looks is the message, it's too late. Things
are too far gone. You can't do anything about
this situation. And then the question comes,
can these bones live again? And that's the question
that I want us to think through as we talk about
the power of our words, that something may seem
beyond hope. It might seem too dry, too broken,
too bitter, too dead for too long to live again.
Maybe it's your marriage that feels lifeless,
desert. Or maybe it is... a relationship with
one of your kids that's on a respirator. Maybe
it's grief that has killed your joy, or maybe
it's a sense of self -worth that you used to
have, like this sense of purpose and identity,
but now it's dry and brittle. Maybe it's your
faith in God that is on life support, like it
feels like it's six feet under. Maybe it's the
hope you once had for the future that just feels
like it's dried up and blown away. And the question
that Ezekiel asks is the question, is it too
late? Can these dead bones live again? And God
promises Ezekiel that he's gonna put flesh and
skin on the bones. He's gonna breathe life into
them. And then he tells Ezekiel, okay, here's
your part in it. I'm gonna work in this powerful
way and here's what you need to do. Ezekiel,
I want you, here it is, to speak, to speak, to
say some things out loud. He doesn't tell Ezekiel
to pray or to... to visualize or to manifest
or to touch or to work or to glue some bones
back together or to sew. He says, Ezekiel, speak.
Listen to what I say and then you say what I
say. And I would argue, and we'll look at this
throughout scripture, there's supernatural power
when you speak God's word out loud. Ezekiel 37,
verse four and five. Then he said to me, speak.
Speak a prophetic message to these bones and
say, dry bones, listen. to the word of the Lord.
It doesn't say, listen to me, listen to these
thoughts I've been having, listen to my positive
thinking I've been practicing. None of that.
It's listen while I speak out loud the word of
the Lord. This is what the sovereign Lord says.
Look, I am going to put breath into you and make
you live again. Verse seven says, Ezekiel explained,
so I did it. I spoke this message. It didn't
seem to make much sense. It seems way too simple.
But God told me what to say and I said it. I
spoke it out loud. Suddenly as I spoke, as I
was speaking this out loud, there was a rattling
noise across the valley and the bones of each
body came together and attached themselves as
complete skeletons. Then I watched muscles and
flesh form over the bones and skin formed to
cover their bodies. And so you have this vision
where God is driving home a truth, real life
truth, that his word spoken out loud brings life
to valleys of death. The thoughts you speak out
loud have the power of life and death. We see
this from the very beginning. God has wired our
universe in such a way that words spoken have
power. And someone put it this way, that words
create worlds. Words create worlds. And we see
it right out of the gate in the book of Genesis.
When God speaks the world into creation, he does
it with words. He doesn't dream it into creation.
He doesn't draw it into creation. He speaks it.
Genesis chapter one, verse three. And God said,
let there be light. And there was light. God
speaks light into darkness. Power of the spoken
word over the universe. You read through the
gospels when Jesus brought dead people to life,
how did he do it? Did he smack them on the forehead?
Did he throw a handkerchief at them and they
fell low? No, he spoke. He spoke words. Young
man, Luke chapter seven, I tell you, get up.
Luke chapter eight, my child, get up. John 11,
Lazarus, come out. He's speaking life into death.
When Jesus is tempted in the wilderness, how
does he? defeat temptation. Does he do it by
just thinking scripture? No, he speaks it. He
speaks scripture. So every time he's tempted,
he says, listen, he says something out loud.
He speaks God's word out loud. And each time
he does it, he begins with saying, it is written.
He's not saying, here's what I think, even though
he could have, because he's Jesus and everything
he says is God's word. He's showing an example
for us. This is how you handle it. You speak
God's truth out loud. God's truth spoken out
loud has the power to break strongholds in your
life and bring dead things back to life. Proverbs
18, 21, death and life are in the power of the
tongue and those who love it will eat its fruit.
Your tongue has the power to destroy or to build
up, to tear down or has power of life or death.
It has power over your circumstances, over your
future. Now, a lot of us would be quick to recognize
this when it comes to words that we speak to
others or maybe words that others have spoken
to us. Like we've experienced life because of
that. And maybe you had somebody speak some words
of life to you when you were young and the words
they spoke to you became words that you started
to speak to yourself. I had a teacher, English
teacher in the sixth grade who had a, was cutting
technology at the time, a label maker. Raise
your hand if you know what a label maker is.
All right. About half the room. So you type a
word in. It's like a little screen, like a calculator
type screen. And then it prints out on this little
sticker, piece of plastic, whatever word you
typed in. Just prints it out right there. It's
labels. And she loved her label maker. She would
label everything, like her stapler. She'd put
her name on the stapler with the label and graded
paper. She had a label for graded papers and
label for the snack drawer. And everywhere you
looked in her room, she loved her label maker.
She'd sit at her desk while we were working and
just make labels. But eventually she ran out
of things to label and she started labeling us.
And she would put some kind of word into her
little label maker and then she'd put it on her
shoulder. And I didn't think much about it, didn't
pay much attention to it. Until one day as a
sixth grader, she came by my desk and she stood
by me and she put some kind of word into her
little label maker and she tore it off and she
put it on my shoulder. And I acted like I wasn't
interested and I didn't care. But I looked over
and it said, creative, creative. Nobody ever
called me creative before. Never thought of myself
that way before. A couple months later, she's
walking down the aisle. She stops at my desk
again. This time she types another word into
her label maker. She tears it off and it says
leader, leader. As a sixth grader, having somebody
speak that word over me gave me a word that I
could use for myself that I really hadn't thought
of before. We wouldn't have had the courage to
speak, but somebody else spoke it. And then that
word became a word that I could speak over my
own life. Maybe some of you had that blessing
in your life. Somebody shared a word with you
and it brought you life. And their word for you
became your word for you. For a lot of us, it's
easier to identify the other end of that. It's
the words of death that got spoken. Those words
became your words. I asked some of my social
media friends about this. I said, hey, can you
just give me some examples of some hurtful words,
destructive words of others from when you were
young that kind of stuck with you. And what struck
me by these responses wasn't how many, like there
were hundreds of them, wasn't how many, it was
how quickly they came. It's very quickly, people
sharing some of those words. That was the worst
performance I've seen in 25 years. No one will
ever wanna be with you. You're damaged goods.
You're so lazy. You're just not smart enough.
Why can't you be more like your sister? You'll
never amount to anything. I wish you were never
born. And on down the list it goes. Proverbs
12, 18 says, the words of the reckless pierce
like swords. And so many times, these words spoken
by others became words that we just began speaking
over our own lives. Jesus warns against words
carelessly spoken in Matthew 12 as he's talking
to us about the power of spoken words. This is
out of the message paraphrase. Jesus writes or
says, let me tell you something. Let me tell
you something. Every one of these careless words
is gonna come back to haunt you. There will be
a time of reckoning. Words are powerful and you
need to take them seriously. Acting like it's
not a big deal, it's a big deal. Words can be
your salvation. They can bring life to you. Words
can be your damnation. They can bring death.
It matters. The words you speak matter. What's
fascinating is modern neuroscience has just discovered
just what the Bible seemed to acknowledge long
ago, that there's something remarkable that happens
in your brain when you speak your thoughts out
loud versus just thinking them. When you speak
words out loud, your brain processes the information
through multiple channels that more regions of
the brain, get used when you speak your thoughts
out loud. I could spend 30 minutes talking about
how some of this works, but the point is that
speaking your thoughts out loud engages more
neural networks to create stronger and more lasting
neural pathways than just the thoughts you think
quietly to yourself. Like the neurological bottom
line is that speaking truth out loud can literally
rewire your brain more effectively than just
thinking something silently. Let me give you
an example. Our culture tells us one way to deal
with your anger or frustration would be to vent
your feelings. That's healthy to vent. Some of
you are so good at it. Like you are a venter.
And you think to yourself, the more I vent, the
better I feel. I just get it all out. Or maybe
you're a complainer. You think, if I just complain,
if I just let people know all the things that
I find wrong with whatever's going on in my life,
I'll start being content. I just need to get
it out. I just need to complain about it a little
bit. But consistently, research is being done,
some research out of Ohio State University recently
by Brad Bushman was just affirming the fact that
that's not how it works. Like when you vent,
your brain hears you saying things out loud and
your brain wants to look for reasons why what
you're saying is true. It's the cognitive bias.
It wants to look for evidence that backs up what
it hears your mouth speaking. And so when you
vent, you find more things to vent about. When
you start complaining, complaining doesn't lead
to contentment. Complaining causes you to find
more things to complain about. When you start
criticizing, you'll start seeing more things
to be critical of. That's the way neural pathways
work. And so the term for this is embodied reinforcement.
Embodied reinforcement. When you hear yourself
speak, complaints, criticism, venting, it creates
these pathways where your brain wants to reinforce
what it's hearing your mouth say. So whatever
words we speak, whether words of life or death,
are programming in our mind. Now, as we saw in
Proverbs 18, we'll look at it again in a minute,
words are like seed that get planted. And we
don't always recognize the impact of the seed
that gets planted because there's a lag time
between the time the seed gets planted and the
time fruit starts to show up. And so we don't
always make the connection. Like, oh, these words
are... building up this garden these words are
creating this fruit in my life and whatever words
you speak are creating fruit that you have to
eat and so I want us to take a few minutes I
want to show you another one of my little parables
I know these feel like children's stories but
my hope is that it helps us remember that creates
picture pictures in our mind so we're not just
consuming content but that we're processing it
like we're thinking about these things so Take
a look at the screens. In a distant land, there
was a mysterious garden known as the Garden of
Words. It wasn't always called that. In fact,
how it received that name is quite interesting.
Every person in the nearby village had their
own plot in this garden. Some were beautiful
with flowers and vegetation. Others were overrun
with weeds. The people of the village didn't
realize that what they grew in their gardens
was determined by the words they spoke. They
didn't know that each word spoken was a seed
planted in their garden. Words that were true
and kind, excellent and praiseworthy, encouraging
and compassionate became flowers and fruit trees.
Negative, harsh, untruthful words became thorns
and weeds. At the center of each plot stood a
fountain called the RAS watering system. This
fountain had an unusual way of watering. It would
water whatever plants were most abundant in the
garden. If there were more flowers, it would
water the flowers. If there were more weeds,
it would water the weeds, causing them to grow
even more. One day, a young lady named Lily discovered
the secret of the garden. She noticed that her
plot, once filled with vibrant flowers, had become
overrun with weeds. This was often something
that people in the village noticed when their
children became teenagers. She discovered the
mystery of the garden one day when she was venting
about all the weeds that had begun to grow in
her plot. She yelled and screamed and cursed
at herself for having such a horrible garden.
And when she was especially letting herself have
it, she happened to notice a small sprout appear
from the ground. She repeated her words and another
weed sprouted up. She wondered if there was perhaps
some connection of the words she spoke to what
was growing in her garden. She knew one way to
find out for sure. Emily, she said to herself.
Emily was her classmate and she was the kindest
person Lily knew. Lily ran to Emily's plot and
sure enough, it was full of flowers and fruit
trees. She decided it was best to keep this secret
until she knew for sure. For the next month,
Lily began to be careful about the words that
she spoke. She purposely would start her day
speaking words of life and truth. She spoke kind
words to others and even kind words to herself
when no one was around. She prayed prayers of
thanksgiving and made a list of things she was
grateful for. When she would get ready in the
morning, she would sing worship songs to herself
to start the day. After the first week, she couldn't
really see much difference and almost started
to berate herself for not doing better. But instead,
she spoke words of grace and encouragement. Before
long, she started to see sprouts of beautiful
flowers. The RAS watering system in the garden
began to shift its water from the weeds over
to the flowers, and as they began to grow, the
weeds began to disappear. The people of the village
began to call the garden the Garden of Woods,
so no one would ever again fail to realize the
power of the words they spoke. And in time, that
garden became a breathtaking display of color
and fragrances. a paradise that people would
come from all around to see and admire. That
parable, I guess it's really more of an allegory,
but it paints a picture of what we read in Scripture,
that the thoughts we think become words we speak
that become seeds planted in the ground that
end up having incredible power over our lives.
Now, we tend to listen to that and want to use
it as a warning, like, hey, be careful. with
what you're saying because of this, like words
of death, which is a valid way to think through
this, but it's also a promise. It's an invitation
to use the power of words, specifically God's
word out loud to bring about transformation.
So I wanna talk to you about that, but look,
I'm not encouraging you to speak your own words.
This isn't a self -help. It isn't a power of
positive thinking message. It is the power of
God's word message. That when you identify God's
word and you speak that word out loud, it has
power over your life. Proverbs 18, 21, the tongue
has the power of life and death. Second part
of that is those who love it will eat its fruit.
Maybe you've heard the phrase. You're gonna have
to eat your words. This is where it comes from.
It's this idea that your words are seeds. Those
seeds create fruit and that's fruit you're gonna
have to eat. That fruit is gonna have to be consumed
by you. And so you have the power with your words
to plant seeds that will create fruit that you'd
love to eat or fruit that will create poison
in your life. And so our promise then from scripture
isn't about I mean, again, just wanna be so clear
about this. It's not about our words or our wisdom
or our positive thinking. It's about God's word
that we speak out loud. So Isaiah 55 speaks about
God's word as seed. The rain and snow come down
from the heavens and stay on the ground to water
the earth. They cause the grain to grow, producing
seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry.
And it's the same, God says, it's the same with
my word. This is how my word works. I send it
out and it's supernatural. It always produces
fruit. It will accomplish all I wanted to. It's
not just any word. It's his word. And it will
prosper everywhere I send it, he says. So what's
that mean? Well, it means instead of speaking
and saying, I don't have anything special to
offer. I'm not going to make a difference. You
speak out loud Ephesians 2 .10. You say, I'm
God's masterpiece. God's prepared good things
for me to do in advance. He's going to use me
to make a difference today. You say it out loud.
Instead of saying I'm defined by my worst sins,
you speak Romans 8 .1 over your life. There's
no condemnation for me because I'm in Christ
Jesus. I've been set free by God's grace and
his grace is enough for me. Instead of saying,
I'm just too tired and it's just all too hard.
You speak Matthew 11 and Philippians 4 over your
life. That when I get tired, I can go to Jesus
and I can find rest for my soul. I can be renewed.
And I know in him, I'll have everything I need
to do everything he's called me to do. Instead
of saying, I'm always worried, always anxious.
You say 1 Peter 5, 7, today, I'm not gonna be
worried or anxious. That's not who I am. I live
above fear. because I cast all my cares on God.
I know he cares for me. And you say that out
loud. Instead of saying, I'm all alone and no
one cares, you say Hebrews 13, five over your
life. I'm never alone because I know God will
never leave me or forsake me. And when you say
it out loud, you say it with conviction. And
when you do, your mind leans in and says, oh,
is that what we believe? Is that what's true?
I'm gonna start looking for evidence that that's
true. And you speak it out loud. Go back to Ezekiel.
After he spoke the first time, the bones come
together, muscles and flesh mold and are formed,
but there's still no breath. So God says to Ezekiel,
okay, now here's what I want you to do. I want
you to speak again. Look at verse nine and 10.
Then he said to me, speak a prophetic message
to the winds, son of man. Come, oh breath from
the four winds, breathe into these dead bodies
so they may live again. Ezekiel says, So I did
it. I spoke the message as he commanded me. I
heard what God said and I said what God said
and breath came into their bodies. They all came
to life and stood up on their feet, a great army.
And so there's this vision that Ezekiel has that's
driving home this rhythm that God wanted for
Ezekiel's ministry in life and God wants for
you, that you listen to what God says, you speak
what God says, you watch what God does. You listen
to what God says, you speak out loud what God
has said. With conviction and authority, you
speak it out loud. With faith and confidence,
you speak it out loud and then you watch what
God does. You listen, you speak, you watch. And
God brings life to a place of death and he's
not done doing that. I believe he still wants
to do it today. And I know some of you are skeptical.
I know some of you think this seems too simple.
But again, Ezekiel is told to prophesy. Prophesy
means that you're not speaking your word, you're
speaking God's word. that Ezekiel is a transmitter
for what God is wanting to speak into the world
and to speak over what he sees around him. Prophesied
means that you speak with authority. You don't
speak as a question like, well, I think so, or
wouldn't it be great? It's speaking with authority.
Like you believe it because of who God is. And
I just wanna be practical about this for a couple
of minutes here is I wanna challenge you. And
I know it's gonna be simple enough that you're
gonna feel resistant to it. I just wanna challenge
you to choose a specific place where you're gonna
practice it this week, where you're gonna identify
something God has said that applies to your life.
You're gonna speak it out loud and then you're
gonna watch what God does. You're gonna speak
it out loud. Maybe you do this in the shower.
I think the shower is a good place to speak things
out loud because you sound good in there. It's
got this Morgan Freeman authority to it. Like
you believe it. Like my brain believes what I
say in the shower more than it does when I speak
outside of the shower. So maybe that's you, that
you're in the shower, you're gonna declare God's
promises over your life and not timidly, but
with authority. So much so that some people who
live with you are like, is he okay in there?
Is everything all right? Is everything all right
in there? It's like with authority you speak
it. Or maybe it's on your commute. If you drive
to work, you turn your car into a mobile sanctuary
and instead of listening to news that fills you
with anxiety or podcasts that get you worked
up, you speak scripture out loud. You declare
God's promises over your day and your car becomes
a place where lies get demolished and truth gets
established. Maybe it's sitting on your front
porch. where you open up your Bible and you read
God's word, but you're not just reading it in
your mind. You're reading it out loud. You're
letting yourself hear you say some things out
loud. Or maybe it's when you look in the mirror
in the morning and you're getting ready for the
day and you look yourself in the eye and you
remind yourself who you are in Christ, that you
are chosen, holy, and dearly loved. You speak
truth to yourself. I don't know how Ezekiel felt
when God gave him the instructions. But I do
think he probably thought, this isn't gonna work.
This isn't gonna work. This is all too simple.
You're talking about something really complicated.
You can't just speak words over something so
complex. But he listened to what God said. He
said what God said and he watched what God did.
And I know some of you have been playing prophet
over your life, but you've been prophesying death
instead of life. You've been speaking death over
what God wants to bring life to in your life.
Stop speaking death over your marriage. To the
couple sitting here, you barely spoke on the
drive to church this morning. You can't remember
the last time you laughed together or were affectionate
with one another. And every time you say, I just
don't have those feelings anymore. Or I think
I married the wrong person. You're speaking death
over something that God wants to bring life to.
Stop speaking death over your calling to the
person who feels overlooked at work or watches
others get promoted while you stay stuck. Maybe
your dreams are sitting in a drawer collecting
dust and you tell yourself, well, it's because
I missed my chance. It's too late for me to start
over. God doesn't wanna bless me. I've done too
much to offend him. He's not on my side. You're
speaking death over purpose that God has placed
inside of you. Stop speaking death over your
future to the single mom working two jobs, wondering
how you'll ever get ahead. To the dad who lost
his business and can't see a way forward. To
a student who's drowning in debt and loneliness.
You find yourself saying, it's just not gonna
work for me. I can never catch a break. You're
speaking death over a future that God has not
done writing yet. Ezekiel spoke the word of the
Lord. He prophesied over dead and dry bones.
And I wanna do that for you. and over you. I
want to speak prophetically the way that Ezekiel
does based in the word of God. But before I do
it, I know I need to address something for a
few of you. I know a lot of you don't. This won't
apply. But I know some of you might think, Kyle,
I'm a little uncomfortable with this message.
This is starting to sound like a name it and
claim it gospel, a name it and claim it theology.
And I get that concern. I'm not telling you you
can speak your dream car into existence. I mean,
you can try. I don't care if you try. But I'm
not telling you that that's how this works. I'm
not telling you that positive thinking is the
same as biblical faith. I'm saying that in this
world, you will have trouble. That's part of
living in this world. Jesus said it and it's
true. But I'm also telling you that's not the
end of the verse. Jesus said, I have overcome
the world. And so my concern for some of us,
and I put myself in this category, is that our
fear of the word of faith extremes and of preachers
who seem to promise sports cars and a life free
of sickness, and our fear of that, we've swung
so far the other way that we have forgotten the
power of speaking biblical faith out loud. We've
become so afraid of claiming something inappropriate
that we've stopped claiming anything at all.
We've become so worried about presuming upon
God that we've stopped declaring our faith in
God. And so what I wanna do here is not about
manipulating God's hand. It's not about speaking
things into existence through some human willpower.
It's about agreeing with what God has already
said in his word. It's about aligning ourself
with what he has said around restoration and
redemption and resurrection and renewal. It's
about speaking God's heart over our circumstances
and then trusting him with what unfolds. Word
of faith says, I can speak my will into reality.
Biblical faith says, I will speak God's will
over my reality. So when Ezekiel spoke to these
bones, he wasn't making up his own prophecy.
It wasn't wishful thinking or positive thinking.
He was simply declaring what God has said. And
so I just wanna speak some of that over you.
I just wanna give you some of those words because
you don't have them for yourself and nobody ever
said them to you. It's not presumption. It's
faith to speak this way. It's not hype. It's
hope in who God is and what God has said. It's
trust that even if things don't go the way we
want them to, our confidence is in him and his
promises and in eternity. So, to marriages hanging
on by a thread. You're still married, but you've
given up. I want to speak breakthrough. I want
to speak laughter back into your kitchen. I want
to speak romance back into your routine. What
God has joined together, let no valley of death
separate. To broken parent -child relationships
in this room, to the mom whose teenager won't
talk to her, to the dad whose adult son won't
return his calls, to the parent who feels like
a failure, I want to speak God's heart of restoration
over you. I wanna speak phone calls that end
with I love you. I wanna speak family dinners
where everybody wants to be there. To those battling
addiction, to the person who's hiding their bottles,
deleting their history, who makes promises to
themselves that they can't keep. So many promises.
They don't believe their own words when they
speak them. I want to speak. freedom over you
in the name of Jesus. I want to speak chains
breaking. I speak a day when you look in the
mirror and you see who God created you to be
instead of who the enemy has convinced you you
are. To those of you who are living with spiritual
dryness where your Bible has gathered dust and
your screen time is 10 times more than your prayer
time. To those of you who came to church here
but you don't really care and you're just going
through the motions, I just want to speak renewal
and revival over you. To those battling depression
and anxiety, You put a smile when you came in
here to church, but you cried yourself to sleep
last night in your bed. And you feel like you're
drowning, even though everything looks fine on
the outside. You wonder if darkness will ever
lift. I just wanna speak God's word of light
over you. I wanna speak his joy and his peace.
I wanna speak Jesus into the darkness to those
who are carrying shame from your past. The person
here who's haunted by mistakes you made years
ago, and you still live with the enemy's accusations.
Every morning you wake up, the accusations are
there and the guilt and the shame feels heavier
than you can bear. And every time you try to
move forward, you feel disqualified from what
God wants for you. I speak forgiveness over you
in the name of Jesus and redemption. He wants
to make all things new. He wants to work for
good in your life. I wanna speak beauty from
ashes. I wanna speak a future so bright that
your past ends up becoming the very thing God
uses to help others experience forgiveness. I
want to speak God's word over you. And my prayer
is that you would believe it, that you would
believe what he says. And I hear people say things
that are so contrary to what God wants for them.
And I'm like, that's not true. Stop saying that.
It's not true. And so I want us to close by practicing
this out loud together. I'm gonna lead us through
some just, Speaking out loud some biblical truths
together. And so I'm gonna ask you to stand up
for this. And I'm gonna read the first, there's
gonna be two statements that come up on the screen.
I'm gonna read the first part and then we'll
read the second part, which is just scripture.
Scripture is what we're reading out loud. We're
gonna declare scripture together. I just want
to challenge you to read this out loud with me
and do it with some conviction. So I'll read
the first statement and we'll read the second
together. When anxiety tries to overwhelm our
thoughts, all of us together, we cast all our
anxiety on God because he cares for us. When
discouragement whispers that will never change,
he who began a good work in us will carry it
on to completion. When distraction tries to pull
us away from what matters, We set our minds on
things above and not on earthly things. When
offense tempts us to hold grudges, we forgive
each other just as in Christ God forgave us.
When fear threatens to paralyze our faith, God
has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power,
love, and sound mind. When lies about our identity
try to define us, We are chosen, royal, holy,
and belong to God. Today and every day, we will
not be conformed to this world, but we will be
transformed by the renewing of our minds. God,
I pray that you would give us a deep conviction
in our hearts that what you say is true. It's
different than what we've heard others say. It's
different than words we've spoken over ourselves.
God, would you let us hear what you say and love
what you say and speak what you say and then
watch what you do. God, would you give us faith?
I pray in this sanctuary, just like in that valley
of dry bones where there's a noise of rattling
bones coming together. I pray, God, that we would
experience that together, that we would experience
your power at work, not because we say so, not
because of our own thinking, our own words, but
because of the power of your word. So God, let
us have faith. Give us faith. God, where we wanna
believe more, I pray that you would help our
unbelief, but God, would you move in the sanctuary
the same way that you moved in that valley of
dry bones? I pray for rattling, that would be
true because of your power and because we have
declared what you said to be true over our lives.
It's in Jesus' name. Amen. This is Living on
the Edge with Chip Ingram. Friend, for over 30
years, Living on the Edge has been committed
to one mission, helping believers understand
what it truly means to follow Jesus. Not religious
activity, not trying harder, but relational.
practical, measurable Christianity that transforms
every area of life. Messages like today's exist
because partners believe this mission matters.
When you give to Living on the Edge, you're helping
Christians discover God's power, peace, purpose,
presence, and perspective. You're investing in
clear biblical teaching that moves people from
confusion to clarity, from exhaustion to experiencing
God's best. Would you join this mission today?
Give online at livingontheedge .org or call us
at 888 -333 -6003. You can also mail your gift
to Living on the Edge, P .O. Box 3007, Atlanta,
Georgia 30024. Want more content throughout the
week? Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
Just search for Living on the Edge on Facebook
and Instagram. And then for all of our video
content, subscribe to Chip Ingram's YouTube channel
when you're there. Well, that wraps up today's
episode. Don't miss the next Bible teaching message
coming up here on the Chip Ingram Sermon Podcast.
Today's program is produced and sponsored by
Living on the Edge.