Living Worthy in Transformation
The Power of Declarations

This morning I am going to share with you a principle that is both powerful and dangerous.  This principle has the power to transform your life, but it also can be easily misused, misunderstood and misapplied with disastrous results.  Everything powerful is dangerous.  Let that soak in a minute.  Everything that has power can be potentially dangerous.  It is like… when I was in elementary school my parents bought me a soldering iron. It was pretty cool.  It was in the shape of a gun.  I used it mostly to burn things on wood.  With a little practice I could write my name in wood.  One day, as best I can recall, the memory is a bit fuzzy, I decided to open up the gun and see how it worked.  10 year-olds are curious.  So I got a screw driver and took out a couple of screws and saw lots of windings of copper inside the gun.  But I made a mistake.  I did not unplug the gun before I took it apart.  And sure enough the guts fell out of the housing and I reached to catch them as they fell.  I woke up on the other side of the garage.  The soldering gun was a powerful took but when mishandled it was also a dangerous tool.

All kinds of things fall into this category.  Fire can save a person from freezing to death or burn them up.  Dynamite can blow a hole in the ground to dig a tunnel for a highway or be a deadly bomb.  Gasoline can power your car or blow you into pieces parts.  I think you get the idea.  What I am going to share with you this morning has potential power but can easily be used to mess up a person’s thinking and their life. 

This morning’s principle must be used within the safety of our last three sermons.
® We are called to empty ourselves before God.  All of the desires of the stuff of this world must be poured out of our cup.  We must get the ice out of our Route 44 cherry limeade.  We must be empty of ourselves.  We must surrender our will. We must die to self.  We must not love the world or anything in the world.  I need to be clear here.  If you have not taken the safety precaution of emptying yourself before God, then today’s principle will be too dangerous for you to use.
® After being empty we must be filled with God.  Our heart’s desires must be for God.  When we look into our cups we see a burning desire to serve God above all else.  He becomes our one and only.  All that matters is that God loves me and I want to serve him.  Everything else in my life is a function of God’s will.  I love my wife because God says love your wife.  I preach every Sunday morning because God has called me to preach. I baby sit the grandkids because God’s love must flow through me to them.  I live for him. “His will be done in my life.” I am filled with God.  Unless you see only God when you look in your cup then today’s principle is going be too hot to handle.
® Upon being empty of self and full of God then we can listen to the Spirit.  We can learn to walk in step with the Spirit.  Isn’t that a wonderful analogy?  It is like a kid walking along side his dad.  And he is holding my hand and he walks as fast as he can to keep in step with his father.  I am holding on to the hand of God.  I am walking where he leads.  I am being filled with the Spirit so that I can hear him speak to me.  My heart is quiet so that I can listen to his directions in my life.  I am listening to God.  If I don’t listen to the instructions from the Spirit then I cannot safely use today’s principle. It will be too easily misused. 

I need to be heard here.  We all need to be on the same page.  We must be empty of ourselves, full of God and listening to the Spirit, before we speak the words of Jesus.
_____

It is like Acts 19.

Acts 19:13-16   Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, "In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out."  Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this.  One day the evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?"  Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.

There is power in words.  Words have the power to create.  Throughout the Bible, spoken words are amazing:

Genesis 1:1-3 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.  And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

Hebrews 4:12   For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

John 6:63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.

Do you remember the centurion of Matthew 8?  He comes to Jesus to request he heal a sick servant.  Jesus says sure I will be happy to go see your servant.  But the centurion says, "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.”  Jesus does.  His servant is healed.  And Jesus says of the centurion, “I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.”  The word of Jesus was powerful it reached across and healed the servant!

1 Thessalonians 2:13 And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.

The spoken word has power to change those who believe.  The word is life. The word is living.  The word works on our hearts to mold us into the people God wants us to be.  Words are powerful
_____

Here is where it gets dangerous.  We are made in the image of God.  Part of that means we too have the power to create.  Only humans can take paint and canvas and create a painting.  Only humans can take a lump of rock and create a statue.  Only humans can take raw materials and create beautiful architecture.  Only humans can take steel and cloth and rubber and create a 57 Chevy.   Only humans have the imaginations and abilities and inventiveness to create! 

We don’t do it with the way God does it.  God speaks nothing into existence.  We have to use the stuff around us, but it is less in degree not kind.  We create.  And that is wonderful and that is scary.  The same mind that creates art, creates weapons.  The same mind that builds hospitals, builds torture chambers.  The same mind that envisions love also hates. 

Here is where we get to the point of the sermon.  We have the power to create with words.  Like God spoke the universe into existence we can speak many wonderful things into existence.  For example relationships are created with words.  Marriages are created with two words; spoken twice?  Countries are formed by words.  The constitution of the USA is words.  Teams are created when words are spoken and heard and agreed upon.  From one perspective businesses are groups of words which are agreed upon and formalized through words called contracts.  Think about it words have the power to create many things.

What I want to focus on this morning is the power of words to create new hearts.  Our words spoken through the Spirit, after being empty and then being filled and listening, have the power to transform who we are.  Our transformation begins with words.

Romans 10:8-10  But what does it say? "The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming:  That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

The confession of our mouths connected with the belief in our hearts and I might add obedience – in baptism - transforms who we are.  Words spoken have power.  But the power of the word to continue our transformation as Christians is found in an amazing passage of scripture.

Romans 8:13-16  For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live,  because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.  For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father."  The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.

®Emptiness – putting to death the misdeeds of the body
®Being filled – you will live
®Listening – led by the Spirit

And by him we cry (Greek is out loud or scream) “Abba, Father.”  Our spirit joins with the Holy Spirit and we speak the words which renews our hearts and makes us confident in our faith as God’s children. 

Words spoken with the Spirit have the power to transform our hearts.  It’s like a feedback loop; when the microphone gets to close to the speaker and you get that loud squawk.  As we believe we speak.  As these words are spoken our faith is empowered.  As our faith is empowered we speak more confidently with the Sprit and so on and so on.  Our hearts are renewed! 

This is a difficult sermon.  These concepts are counter-intuitive.  We want to say sticks and stone may break my bones but words will never hurt me.  We want to say words are just words.  They are unimportant. But words are amazingly powerful.  Words have the power to change our behavior.  When through our emptiness and listening the Spirit reveals a place in our hearts that is not in line with the will of God, some place where we are not being who God would have us to be; then we can speak with the Spirit to transform that part of who we are and make it who we ought to be. 
____

Now let me explain one of the dangers I talked about at the top of this sermon.  We can very easily take the concept of the power of words and make a formula of it.  We, humans, have a tendency to want formulas.  We like steps.  Don’t you like steps?  If you want to learn how to do something put it in steps.  If you follow these steps; if you have the right procedure, then you will be able to accomplish the goal.  So, we are tempted to say, “Ok, (1) be empty, (2) be filled and then (3) listen and then whatever you want all you have to do is (4) speak it and God will give it to you.”  If you have a problem just follow these four easy steps; empty, filled, listen and speak and God will take away your problem and all will be just like you wanted it to be.”  It can easily become the “name it and claim it” theology.  Whatever you want you can have if you follow this formula.

This is why voodoo and superstition and Mormonism and much of Catholicism and legalistic Church of Christ beliefs are all so tempting.  They offer a formula.  Here is what you have to do and God will give you anything. And that is dangerous.  Do you know why? Why formula is dangerous; because God is not a formula.  God is a being; a person. 

What I am advocating this morning is a relationship not a procedure.  Transformation occurs in relationship.  Words have power in relationship.  We can be renewed when we enter into a relationship with the God who loves us!  ®It is in relationship that we empty ourselves.  “I surrender. I give up my desires.  I am empty because I want to be filled with you.  I pour out the ice from my Route 44 because I want you, God.”
®It is the relationship of wanting God that is the meaning of being filled.  It is not a step on a journey, an ingredient in a recipe, or a checked box on a to-do list.  I want to be in a full wholly open relationship with God.  I want him to be the center of my life not something I have to do.
®I want to listen and speak with a real person.  Relationships are formed by words spoken and words heard and words agreed upon and consensus being formed and flow back and worth.  It is this exchange of words with God that is my transformation.   

Words are powerful.  They can create and they can destroy.  Words are how we form a relationship with God and words are the power of our transformation.  Jesus says,

John 15:7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.

There is power in words!