I do like to do these kinds of things, you know, because I think it's important that people understand that I'm not just like fake diversity and fake inclusion. I am very grateful to call Rev. Val a mentor and also a friend. She keeps trying to get me to do the healing thing. Y'all I just ain't got there yet. The few of us who are here, y'all just kind of talk back to me and whatever they say online, but I am absolutely grateful for the ministry of Unity who literally came in and rescued the Hope Buss and has allowed us to operate and do outreach from here. I'm just very grateful for all faces that are on paper in the sanctuary. I'm thankful for Nicole who is literally my partner who's been on this journey. It is not been an easy one, but you know, we're here.
We'll get right into it. I have the privilege today of talking on a subject that I'm still learning myself. That's the power of words. I'm going to read a small passage from Luke 6:45 and I was so glad when I found out that unity was Christian y'all cause I was tripping a little bit, but I'm so glad that it encompasses all of it. Luke 6:45 says a good man or human brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart.
Here's my focus today, "For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of." We are going to talk about the power of words. I didn't write this down. Nicole gets nervous when I started doing the stuff that I don't write down, I do too. I'm going to say a couple of things and I guarantee you, the power of words and the things that we do say - I can say something like, "Oreos," and I know where a lot of people's minds went, right? We all went to Oreos and then some of us start thinking about how many we could eat before we had too much. Or we start thinking about things like food. With virtual church, with all these things, coronavirus, when you start saying things like you really understand the power of words. In the time of 2020, now going into 2021, when we really cannot physically be together, I think our words literally gained so much meaning that we never even thought they would have.
I don't know about you, but I've been in some tough situations and predicaments. I've also had my fair share arguments. Don't judge me. I like to argue, I like to debate. We all know how the typical disagreement goes: a few words back and forth. A few choice words sometimes are thrown around. Ypu know what I mean when I say choice. It's those other times where you worked up and out of nowhere, a cuss word or something just slips. You may act like you are perfect, but I'm just going to be real. A cuss word just slips, or better yet something unkind or something hurtful comes from your mouth. Sometimes you say to yourself, "Where did that come from?" Have you ever just said something and shocked yourself?
Have you ever said some things that left your lips faster than you could catch them, and the minute that it comes out you wish you could take it back. You start feeling regret, maybe shame. If you're like me, sometimes you're disappointed in yourself that you let yourself get so worked up that you would even let something like that come from your lips. After all, we do claim to be spiritual people. Maybe you've been in that situation before with your spouse. Maybe you've been in that situation before with your children. Rev. Val, maybe you've been in that situation before with Unity? I don't know. Maybe you've been in that situation before on your job, one where you can literally feel the sting of your words the minute it left your lips and landed in someone's ears.
See, it's been me before. If you can be honest, has it ever been you? If you sit next to the person who you had the argument with, you just keep looking at the camera, keep looking at the screen. If somebody says something to you, or you sit next to the person that offended you, you just keep looking away. Even after years and years of being told and reminded, "Think before you speak," my mom said it all the time, my godfather, my teachers. Knowing the impact and the power of our words, it seems that the rule doesn't stick to us when we need it to stick to us the most.
Where did these words come from? Why in intense moments or highly emotional moments do we use our words as weapons? If you asked my personal opinion, I think a few things happened. The first thing, I think we use our words as a weapon, because sometimes we get defensive. We immediately go into protection mode. Somebody might say something you don't like. Just the other day was a Facebook situation, somebody said something to Nicole. I almost lost my mind. I immediately went into defense mode. Like, "Hold on, you don't get to say that." We start to play these games with our words, and we use them as weapons toward each other. I think we do that because that's the first line of our defense mechanism. You're not going to get me before I get you.
If you're like me, you like competition. My mom used to say something like, "Do you always got to have the last word?" I think we like to win. It's sad because sometimes that winning comes at the cost of taking jabs at somebody you love or somebody you have to work with. The last word hasn't always really worked in my favor, but I think I am infamous for getting the last word. A couple of my school referrals probably said it.
The other thing is maybe it was something that we really wanted to say. We just needed the opportunity to say it I think that's the biggest one. Sometimes when our words slip, sometimes when we say things in the heat of the moment, sometimes we're just like, "Where did that come from?" You're just waiting on an opportunity. Sometimes it doesn't have anything to do with the situation, you were just waiting on an opportunity to say what you really wanted to say. You need to get that off your chest because you've been holding it for a long time. So you found this perfect high, emotional opportunity to really say. "I don't like you!"
In these stressful moments our words become our swords, cutting. Sometimes they cut so deeply and let's face it. Would you ever admit to yourself when you start saying stuff like that, you lost control? That wisdom and advice of choosing our words wisely seems to leave us when we start having debates and conversations, especially ones that lifts up our differences and literally cripples our ability to tap into our spiritual wisdom. Because honestly, we just need to get our point across at the moment. See those are the moments when our words expose our spiritual immaturity. This is where we are. Jesus being real like Jesus is, takes us through the long sermon. They call it the sermon on the plane. You know, Jesus goes all the way around a corner and gets back somewhere else.
Call into the forefront the things in which we need to mature, especially in our language. Here in this passage in Luke 6, there's a huge crowd - Jesus, wherever he goes, draws a large crowd - gathered in front of Jesus and they have come because they wanted to hear him teach, kind of like they do Rev. Val. They came to do two things. They wanted to hear Jesus teach and they wanted to get some healing. Jesus goes down the line. Read the whole chapter when you get a chance. He goes down the line. It felt like he just put everybody on the bench. "Sit here for a second. You need to hear some things like this." Jesus starts saying things in chapter six, like "Do good to those who do good to you." And if I was there, I would have be like, "Jesus, that sounds real simple, but you don't even understand some of the stuff I got to deal with." He started saying stuff like "Love your enemies and do good, giving without wanting something in return. Jesus is laying it on thick in Luke six. In verse 36, he is commanding them to be merciful and then comes in with the parable like Jesus, does about the blind leading the blind, and then give this infamous illustration about pulling the plank from your own eye before you try to remove the plank from your brother's eye.
Jesus kind of gives us the mama kind of thing in chapter six. Ultimately all of that brings us to our focal point. Verse 45, the dagger of all of our intentions - in verse 43 and 44, he lets us know that a good tree does not bear bad fruit nor does a bad tree bear good fruit and we are known by the fruit that we produce - then he goes for our language. Jesus expands the requirements of the law, shifting it from expectation to transformation.
He says that if we are good followers, good God people, good spiritual people, we should be responding to his words with action. Jesus summarizes his higher standard by stating, "The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good. The evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil." Then he comes with the thorn. "For out of the abundance of the heart, our mouth speaks." That hit me different. After reading all that together, I felt different. Fruit. What comes from my heart comes out of my mouth. What's in my mouth. All these things in the summary, "The mouth speaks what the heart is full of love." I had to pause and meditate on that for a second. Reverting back to what I was saying in the beginning, maybe I really did mean the words that I said. Could I have meant the evil when I said that? That's actually in my heart. This is a text about our words, but it's more about what's in your heart, because from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
In our culture, we believe that the heart houses these emotions and deals with these emotions isolated. We just think our heart is just a singular thing that is just not connected to anything else. I can rip my heart out but we think that the heart works alone, as a separate thing, away from the body. In the text, the biblical concept of heart doesn't stand alone. Its network is bigger than our emotions. It's wider than that. In this text or in the Bible there is no distinction between our minds and our hearts. Literally merging our mind, our will, and our emotions together with the language of an organ that can feel, think, and act.
When this fruit that Jesus mentions that we bear, it's not our works, but it's our words. I didn't think that's the fruit he was talking about. I thought it was like, if you raise your kids right, the kids grow up and do well. That isn't what he was talking about. The fruit the tree bears is literally the words from your heart that come out of your mouth. I feel like I need to hang there for a second. The emphasis belongs on the fact that the fruit we bear is not in our works, but it's in our words.
Christian works without Christian words is like having empty calories. We talked about the Oreos at the beginning. If you have tried to eat healthy, you understand that when it comes to food, empty calories means that the food contains little or no essential vitamins or minerals. In other words, these foods provide nothing of value to your body beyond calories that are excessive pounds. I'm going to say that again. Christian works, we can really do some good stuff without Christian words, spiritual words. It's like having empty calories. If you ever tried to eat healthy, you understand that when it comes to food, empty calories means that the food contains little or no essential value, no vitamins it can do nothing for you. It can give you food, but it can't do anything else. In oother words, these foods provides nothing. The only thing it does is add to your waistline and your legs, and that isn't really what you want.
Truthfully works rarely reveal the heart. You can do good works and that not be the matters of your heart, but words are. We can do all the community service we want. We can march in the streets all we want to. We can deliver thousands of meals all over the city of Louisville or wherever you may be watching from. We can open pop-up shelters. We can do daycares. We can build schools. We can write policy with all the good intentions. We can house the orphans. We can feed the hungry. We can clothe the naked and be full of works. At the end of the day, it's about the words that we speak, that reveal the true nature of our heart.
The reason our spiritual communities are struggling is because we've done something well for a long time, we've worked really well. We've done things really well, but it's really not been from the heart. The reason our spiritual communities are struggling is because we think because a person is gifted, or they're good at something because they can do it well. If we learn to listen to their words and the way that they speak about stuff or the way they speak to situations, we will find that they have proud hearts and not pure hearts. Proud hearts produce prideful words, but a pure heart produces pure words, pure intentions.
If I could for a second, just break down a couple of things. The difference between a prideful heart and a pure heart is a prideful heart always tries to turn everything back to them. I did this. The words they say always have a way of centering what they did, how they did, how well they did, what can they do? A pure heart works and doesn't need the recognition because we understand that it is our spiritual Christian duty to be on this earth and literally be serving leaders. We don't need the recognition. Prideful hearts center, their work, their feelings, and their thoughts, but pure hearts and words, center the need of others and what the need is at the moment. Prideful hearts and prideful words speak with arrogance. Those with pure hearts speak with spiritual awareness. Prideful hearts can cause negative conversations about others who don't work as hard as them or like them. Pure hearts understand the power of the community and the need for all of us to come together. We don't need prideful for hearts. We need pure hearts in this work. See prideful hearts and words can reveal a lack of contentment, but pure hearts understand that the call is to serve and literally be at the feet of those who we are serving. We are not better than anybody else.
That's not who we are. We are pure heart people. We are spiritual people. We are called to lead like Jesus with humility. We don't need recognition. We need people who are willing workers, who want to get the work done. Prideful hearts and prideful words express the need for power and control, but pure hearts understand the need and what we can do when we all come together. See we are not called to be prideful people or speakers. We are called to be co-laborers with each other faith members and faith communities. We are called to lead a life of solidarity, of unity, of true oneness. And if our words are full of pride and self gratification, it creates an interception in our oneness. That's what's wrong with us. Our onenes, our unity keeps getting intercepted by people who do go work, but it's prideful work. (I'm not fussing y'all I'm just passionate here.)
Selfishness and prideful hearts are a disruption to the work that we really have to do. It breaks our community. It's toxic. It is contaminating. If everything you speak starts and begins with you then it's empty calories. It has no place in this work. It's not healthy for the church. It's not healthy for the community. It's not healthy anywhere you go. If God, the spirit, lives in our hearts, then our words should reflect it. Our heart should be submitted to the spirit. Our words should reflect the true nature of a living God. Pride is not an attribute of a Christ follower. Pride is not an attribute of a spiritual person. Humility, that is what controls our words. The spirit that lives within us. We are the conduit. We are the carriers of God's spirit. And the power of our words shows the power of the spirit that is working within us. How do we know who you are standing with? We hear the words that you say. The Bible tells us from an evil man comes evil works, but from a good person, from a good human, comes, good fruit.
That's what a community is led by - the spirit. The mouth speaks what is in the heart. Proverbs says death and life are in the power of the tongue. How many people have you killed with your words? How many dreams have we killed with our words? How many jobs? What have we done to our community with the things that we've said? Because literally, the power is in our hand to literally speak death or life. So what are we speaking to our community? Are we speaking houselessness? Are we doing pop-up shelters? Are we speaking of poverty? Are we trying to create opportunity for people to be powered in economics? What are we speaking to our community? If the city of Louisville is dead, that means the spiritual leaders are not speaking life to it. I know the churches are closed, but the doors could still be open. What are we doing with our words?
Literally, Jesus ascended. And I know we ain't at Pentecost, but he left and said, "I give you this one thing, the power of the Holy spirit." With the Holy spirit, what can we do? It seems that we can do the things that Jesus did. Peter said, "Silver and gold have I numbered in the name of Jesus Christ. He grabbed the man's hand and said, "Get up and walk." It's the power of our words that will make the difference. The community we want to see, the unity we want to see, the justice that we want to see. Dying literally starts with the power. What are we speaking? Life or death?
The words I use can reveal whether I'm walking by my own strength, or if I'm walking in the spirit through connection to the mind. I can do good work and not be connected to God. I could do a whole lot of good stuff and not be connected to God. I get passionate about this stuff because it's a whole lot of people doing good stuff because they are gifted, but nothing is changing because their hearts are not in it. It's for something. But what can we do Unity? I'm just a part of the flock. What can we do? We can open a pop-up. We don't complain about what the government does. We aren't going to complain about what they can do. We just go do what we can do. We come together and we can do it. We literally speak life into the world, a little bit of hope.
What does it mean to have the words of the spirit? What does it actually mean to be moved by the power of words? How do we build God's beloved community with the power of our words?
I ran a pop-up shelter with Leah for seven days and all I kept hearing Leah say was unity. We are about empowering language. That's what it is. It's posted all around here. It's about empowering language. You know what I'm about. Ain't no power like the power of the people, cause the power of the people don't stop when you lift people up. We ran a pop up shelter where all we could do was give people what we had. Do you know what it meant for people to say, "I'm just glad to feel human?" What did we do? Nothing. Called them by their name. What did we do? Fed them really good food. What did we do? Let them have as much as they want. What did we do? We can't do everything, but we can do something.
Are we empowering people? That's the first thing we need to do. What kind of language? We need empowering language, language that literally lifts people, gives people a hand up and not a handout. That's what hope is. We need to empower people with our words. When you see somebody who does not look like you, when you see somebody shaking a bucket on the corner, understand, you might not have money to give them but what you can say is I see you. Call them by their name.
First thing we need to do is having empowering language. The second thing we need to do, we need to have edifying language. The process by which one gains a greater understanding of something. Someone should have a better idea of how to be spiritual or how to be a community because they came in contact with you. What is edification? We mature together as a community. The third thing, I wasn't even going to say this one, but a language that literally exalts our spirituality and exalts our God.
I don't know about a whole lot of solutions. Now Nicole, she likes policies and the government. I don't policies, none of that. Our solution for our world right now is a unified church, a unified faith body. And you know what I like to say, it isn't just Christians. It's going to be some Jewish people. It's going to be some Buddhists. It's going to be some Muslims. It's going to be some atheists. It's going to be some stuff I don't even know anything about. We're going to need some African diaspora, we're going to need some ancestors. We're going to need a whole lot of spiritual people to come together for this work. We are not each other's enemy. Injustice is our enemy. We're not each other's enemy. These policies that are racist and literally keep people marginalized and oppressed, those are enemies, not each other. We got to exhort our God in our language. "Silver and gold, have I none, but in the name of Jesus Christ, get up and walk." But he grabbed his hand. God asked Ezekiel, "Can these bones live?" Ezekiel, like a regular person looked back at God and said, "You're God, can they?" What did God do? "You tell them to live?"
Language must be spiritual because that's where our power comes from. We don't have government powers. We got God powers. We got spiritual powers. The last thing, we need to have an eternal language. a language that speaks to building the kingdom of God and seeing the benefits of it here on earth. I don't believe the kingdom of God is far away. I believe that the kingdom of God is us in the making. It's us doing it right now. It's the work that we're doing with some white people, some black people, some Latinx people, and all of us come together and literally say, this will be our language as a community. Uplifting us, building us, strengthening us, strengthening our community.
That's our language. Does it serve humanity? Then we can't do it. Does it serve humanity? Then we shouldn't say it. Does it uplift people? We shouldn't say it. Does it empower people? Nope. We shouldn't say it. I'm passionate about this work. God is using spiritual people to reconcile this work, to redeem this world. We are the conduits. We are the conduits by which God puts his spirit through and it goes to the world. But then we become the carriers of the Holy spirit. When somebody gets next to you they shouldn't even feel the same.
Your words have power. I'm choosing heaven today by loving. I'm choosing heaven in my language. In my language I'm choosing heaven today. The way I talk to my brother, I'm choosing heaven. When I speak to my spouse and they make me mad, I'm choosing heaven today. When my kids work my last nerve, I'm choosing heaven today. When I see the homeless man on the street who hasn't had a shower, I'm choosing heaven today. I'm choosing empowering language. I'm choosing edifying language. I'm choosing a language which exhalts God and spirituality. I am choosing internal language because that's God's loving community. That's what we're trying to get to. That's the power of our words. Amen.
