In the lifestyle of Christianity the most important tool is our words.

Tim Beal: 00:00 -video playing-

Tim Beal: 00:52 Oh, hey. How are we doing, Cornerstone?

Tim Beal: 00:58 So good to see you guys this morning. Nah, quit it. Great to see you this morning. Hey, if you're a guest, welcome. Man, if you're San Tan, Scottsdale venue, thank you, guys, for doing what you're doing. I wanted to do this before we jump in, and before we get started today, with Veteran's Day, and with Wes' story, as powerful as that is it, would you guys just, would you pray with me? I would love to just pray over our veterans and, right now just, the people who are serving, and there's people right now that are putting themselves in harm's way, so that we could have this freedom. And before we get too far into this, just would you pray with me, and let's just ask God to watch over us? So, pray with me, please? Jesus, thank you for today. God, I thank you for men like Wes. I thank you for men and women right now that are in places that just aren't safe. And, God, they're doing that, and they're risking their lives, so that we have this freedom. So God, would you watch over, would you protect? God, I pray that you would bless them. God, would you just, would you show up in powerful ways, around their lives, and God, would you bless them in just, just big ways? God, for the men and women who have served and are back home safe, God, I ask the same thing. Would you protect their hearts and their minds? And God, would you bless them? But Jesus, I thank you for the freedom that we have and for allowing us to live in the great country that we're in, and God, thank you so much for who you are. So use, use this time, God, in a way to honor you, but thank you for their lives, God. In Your name, Amen. Amen.

Tim Beal: 02:28 Hey, thank you, guys, for being here. Um, we're in a thing called "Dumb Things Christians Say". So, I was like, "Hey, what are some dumb things Christians say?" And, I ran out of space. Like, I just started writing stuff, and I was like, "Wow, we say some jacked-up stuff like how, why did, what's going on?" And so I thought today, rather than taking a specific, like, dumb things Christians say, like, phrase, I thought I would just take all of it, because I don't know if you've noticed this, but we say some really dumb things, and there's a lot of weight that goes with our words. When we say something, man, it has the power to cut people, and it can, it can cause scars, and it can be baggage, and it can be things that they get stuck carrying with them for the rest of their life. And some of the things that we say are harmful. Some are positive. But today, I just wanted us to look at, maybe, some of the things that we've said, and honestly by the time we get through today, probably to give each other a hug, but then to watch, maybe, some of the things we say.

Tim Beal: 03:23 About 25 years ago, I walked into a pastor's office, and I went up to him thinking, "Hey, I finally understand what I'm supposed to do with my life." I was so excited. I walked in, and was talking to him about, "Hey, I think I'm supposed to get a ministry." And I'll never forget this, this pastor, and I've been at his church for probably four or five years, I honestly don't remember anything that he preached about. Um, I was there every Sunday. Um, but I don't remember anything he ever taught. I remember he was bald, and I felt like he was angry a lot, and that's really all I remember from this guy, but I went in and was like, "Hey, I think I'm supposed to get in ministry." And I'll never forget. He looked at me and goes, "Tim, that's a horrible idea. You should never get in ministry, look at you." And I thought, I didn't know really how to handle that, but I've carried that with me. About eight years ago, I've known this guy since he was a sophomore in high school, he was a pastor at a church in town, and we were talking about ministry, and I was telling him, "Hey, I want to start speaking more." And I'll never forget, about eight years ago, this guy looked at me, and he goes, "Hey, Tim, I just need to tell you, dude. If you want to speak more, and you want to speak more powerfully, and you want to really, you know, have an impact on people's lives, you've got to change what you're doing, because you're just not relevant. The jokes are kind of cute and they're kind of funny, but there's no longevity in that, and if you want to do this for a living, like, you need to change your approach, and just how you deliver messages." And I've carried that with me, and I bet, if we were honest, if we would just really look, look at our lives for just a second, each and every one of us at one point in time, maybe it was a coach, maybe it was a parent, maybe it was a sibling, maybe a neighbor, maybe a friend, maybe a loved one, but I would bet that almost all of us, at one point in time, somebody has said something to you that just hurt. And sometimes, you see it coming. Sometimes, it's like a knife, like you can tense up and prepare for it, but sometimes, sometimes words are sneaky, like a sniper rifle. You never even hear the shot. You just feel the, the impact and the pain. This morning, I want to walk us through a passage of Scripture. Found in, and it's in a book called "James". So if you've got your Bible, man, jump with me to James. Um, if you're unfamiliar with, with the Bible, man, start to the right, and something that looks like a dictionary, and start working your way back to the left a little bit. What...

Tim Beal: 05:34 We're going to be in a book called James, Chapter 3. It was written by a man named "James". Um, he, obviously, didn't spend a ton of time on the title. James, um, wrote this book. James was Jesus' half brother, so that's kind of cool, and he wrote this book to first century Christians because, believe it or not, first century Christians struggled with their speech. They, they struggled with the things that they said, because first century Christians would say things, and then do something else. And they would say really great things, but then never put anything behind it. And so, James wrote this letter to them. And so, honestly, the whole book of James is kind of a Christian "How-To". If you want to follow Jesus with your life, read the book of James. This, this whole book is almost a step-by-step guide to being a better follower of Christ. So, he wrote this, and then he sent it out, and it was to help people be more like Jesus. So, we're just going to kind of read through, and as we read through it, just to unpack it a little bit, and kind of walk through, and then give each other a hug.

Tim Beal: 06:36 James 3, Verse 1. It starts with this, "Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers." That's hateful, right? Not many of you should be teachers." That's James, you know the whole, "It's not you, it's me." This is James going, "No, it's not me. It's you." Like, some of you guys shouldn't teach, um, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. And I just want to pause on that, because this is, this is personal for me, because this verse? This is me. This is what I do for a living. I speak, and this, this verse, I mean, it says a lot, because I talked to a lot of people and they're like, "Hey, Tim, it would be so great, man, to stand up, and to do what you do, to get on stage, and to speak." And I'm like, "Man, I don't know." This is just, kind of, between us. This really stresses me out, like, this, this keeps me up at night. Um, I was up, probably, I don't even know what time I went to bed last night, worried about today, and it's not that I'm nervous in this moment, because you guys don't make me nervous. I mean, most of us are friends. We like each other, for the most part. Um, I tell bad jokes. You guys laugh, and I feel good about myself. Um, so we, we feel, I mean, this feels good, and I'm comfortable with this. What, what stresses me out is what I'm doing right now. My job in the next few minutes is to help you understand this book more, and to make this book come alive, and to speak, in some way, that it's going to resonate with you, and you're going to take part of this book home. And when we leave this place, my job is for us to be closer to Jesus. That terrifies me. I'm scared to death of it. And any of you who stand up and speak, you know what I'm talking about, because I gain weight with the words that I say from the stage, because of the title that's associated with me on this stage. And I don't take that lightly, and I don't just run through that. I understand that you were expecting something, and so I get what James is saying that, "Man, not all of us should teach." We should really think that through.

Tim Beal: 06:56 And then the end of Verse 1, just just being honest, I have no clue what he's talking about. He says that we'll be judged more strictly. Man, I don't know what that means. Um, I don't know if when I get to heaven there's, like, a path for normal people, and then, there's a path for pastors. And I'm gonna walk through that, and Jesus is going to be like, "Hey, Tim, November 5th? Idiot, like, for real? Let me introduce you to my buddy Chuck Norris for the next 25 years, so he can talk to you." I don't know what that means. I don't know if I get beat up for 30,000 years. I don't know. I just, I know that there's gravity behind what I'm saying to you right now, and I don't take it lightly.

Tim Beal: 09:05 Verse 2. We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault and what, and what they say is perfect, "able to keep their whole body in check." Let that sit for a second. And, and honestly, let that kind of just marinate. Let me, let me read it again, and you just let these words just kind of pour over you, and think through what I'm what I'm saying to you, "We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who has never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check." I don't know if you, if you're picking up what James is laying down right here. He's saying that if we can control our speech, everything else is easy for us. Let me tell you why James is saying that, because one of the coolest things about this book of James is in every single chapter, James has a reference to our speech, to our tongue, and to the things that we say. And he, he does that, because James knew this one simple truth, and I don't know if this is because Jesus was his brother and because Jesus said this at one point in time, too. Jesus had mentioned a couple times that the mouth is the overflow of the heart. And what James is saying here is if we can control our mouth, everything else is easy. And he's saying that because he knew this, he knew that the mouth is the tattletale of the heart, that what's inside of here is eventually going to come out of here, and if you really want to know where someone stands, just listen to what they're saying. Because eventually, what's inside is going to come out. And James is saying, "Man, if we could just control our mouth, if we could just control our speech, if we would just watch the things that we say, and we could grab hold of those things, it's going to affect our hearts, because our hearts can't speak, so that it uses our mouth. And if we could just control our speech, everything else is easy.

Tim Beal: 10:48 Let me ask you this, and please don't answer out loud, because this will get super-shady for the people beside you. Um, how is your speech? Not Grammar, I mean, I'm not talking commas and sentence structure, because I'm the last person in the world that should even bring that up in a conversation, I'm saying your speech, the words that you say. How is your speech? Facebook has this really cool thing right now. I don't know what it's called, but I know it's real, because it's on Facebook. Um, and it's this deal, you put it in, and I think it's called "bubble", and it takes every word that you've said over the last several months, or something, and it puts them all into one little frame, and then, in the middle of that frame, it uses the word that you use the most, and it has that word printed there? I'm wondering what that would be for us, not on Facebook, because everybody makes up stuff on Facebook, because that's the perfect world, and this is real life, so I'm not talking about Facebook, MySpace, and any of the other good stuff. I'm talking. Yes, MySpace is coming back. I'm talking, I'm talking, this week, in your life. What would the word be? Parents, how was your speech with your kids? Kids, how was your speech with your parents? How was your speech with that coworker that drives you absolutely nuts, or the neighbor that has the dog that never shuts up? How was your speech? If we can control what we say, everything else is easy.

Tim Beal: 10:48 Go to Verse 3. When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships, for example, although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder, wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider when a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue, also, is a fire, a world of evil, among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one's life on fire, and, is itself, set on fire by Hell. I almost want to look at James and just be like, "Dude, for real, tell me what you're thinking. Like, quit beating around the bush, like, just get to it. Really, what do you think about this?" And look at some of the examples that he talks about for just a second, because he describes a horse, and you have this 900lb animal that's 90%muscle, and it's controlled by a four-inch bit that goes in its mouth; and you have this humongous boat, that steered by a little, tiny rudder that just barely shifts and the whole boat moves, and you have fires that are started by a spark. And James is trying to get us to understand the simple truth, one tiny, little word has the power to effect beyond anything that we can dream. One, one tiny little thing that we say, it has the power to travel, because words do that, they travel distance, and one small thing that we say, it can travel, and it can spin things that we don't even know were out there yet. And one small, little word, one small, little phrase, one small, little thing, from our voice, has the power to effect people.

Tim Beal: 14:24 And James is trying to warn us. He goes on in Number 7, just say all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and sea creatures are being tamed, and have been tamed, by mankind. But no one, no human being, contained the tongue. It's a restless evil, full of deadly poison. When I read Verse 7, I got excited, because if you know me, you know I love animals. My background is animal science, and I was, like, dude, I was reading that thinking, "Training animals? Now, we're talking, James. This I understand, and I'm thinking, man, I don't know if you've been to those places where they do the bird shows, and you're sitting there, and they have the bird that swoops over your head, and we all go... Because we're hoping the bird flips out and, like, get somebody because, right? That's why we're, that's why I'm sitting there. I'm waiting for it to swoop down and pluck out somebody's eye, because it's a bird, and it has huge talons and its big beak, and just by voice, it has been trained to travel, and it could fly away, but it's been trained to come back, and we can do that with our voice. We can go to animals, and we can train animals to do these amazing feats, and do these really cool things, but we can't control what we say. And too many times, we just vomit stuff out, without putting any thought to it. I love the words that James uses when he calls it "deadly poison". And, man, I'm thinking poison? That, that condemns on the inside it, it eats at you, and a lot of times when you're poisoned, it doesn't show physically until it damages internally. Kind of like our words, because the mouth is a tattletale of the heart, and what's in here, will eventually come out of here.

Tim Beal: 16:11 Verse 9. With the tongue, we can praise our Lord and Father, and with it, we can curse human beings who have been made in God's likeness. With the tongue, we can praise our Lord and Father, but with it, we can curse human beings that have been made in his likeness. I am... I hate grapefruit. Like, some of you all like them, I pray for you. They're, they're just gross. Um, I've got, like, fruit trees in my backyard, and the grapefruit tree is the only tree that produces fruit. None of them do. Like, my lemon tree, I get one lemon. My apple, um, my orange tree, I get one orange. Grapefruit tree? All year long. I got like 9,000,000,000 grapefruits, and they're disgusting, and it weirds me out that people make it into juice, just because somebody buys this stuff, and they try to make it sound better. I mean, it's pulp-free. Um, I don't know if that helps. Chocolate milk, though, Dude, come on, chocolate milk. Like, I get it, I'm 47, and I'm supposed to be an adult, and I... it's got gluten, so I know some of y'all, be careful. You know how I know it's got gluten? Not because I read it, because it tastes good. Oh, that's right, I'm going to die fat and happy and full of chocolate milk. Hmm. Oh, Dude. Look how happy the rabbit is? Like, even he knows. With our mouth, we praise God. And then, with our mouth, we curse those made in his image. Be thou my vision. Mmmm, Jesus. Oh, that's good.

Tim Beal: 17:49 Did you hear about Sam? Dude got fired. Like, you know why, he's, he's an idiot. He's a thief. I, you know, I don't know what he was stealing, but you know, he was stealing. Like, you can't trust Sam, that that dude's just gross. Like, you know it's true. Everybody knows it's true. Oh, wow. "Come now, found of every blessing." Mmmm, see this, Jesus got my hand. "Mmmmm. I'm gonna pray for you, it's all good. I can't believe the way she dresses, like, this is church, right? Who would dress like that to church? Who comes to church, and they look like that? Why would anybody do that? Doesn't she...she has kids, and then she says those things, and you should've heard the music that was coming out of her car when she parked. And she parked up close, so I had to... oh my, man, can you believe that? Who does that?" You get that this is what James is saying.

Tim Beal: 19:02 Out of the same mouth, we praise God, and then out of the same mouth, we curse, and we speak judgment, on people who look or, maybe, act or, maybe, sin differently than us. How are we different than the rest of the world? Did you see what James is saying? If we're going to have an impact on this planet, and we're going to do something to make this place better, and we're, we're getting to show people what it looks like to, to know Jesus, how can we praise God in one room, and then be vile in the next? Let me ask you again, how is your speech? When you're in situations where nobody else is around, and it's just you, maybe the people who go to church aren't there, how is your speech? You get that this is why most of you have taken so long to come back to this room. Okay, there's a lot of us in this room right now that didn't come to church for a very long time, because someone on the stage did just this, they praised God in one voice, and then they spoke filth with the same mouth, in another spot, and you heard it. Maybe they said something to you. Maybe it hurt your feelings, maybe it offended you? Maybe they spoke something to you directly, but regardless, you saw them as a... we have a beautiful word for it. It is so endearing... hypocrite? And many of you stopped coming to church, and it has taken a really long time to get back, and maybe the only reason you're back now is because your friend said, "Hey, let's get coffee." And you thought, "Starbucks." And they were like, "Ha, ha, sucker." And now, they brought you here, and it has taken us a long time to come back.

Tim Beal: 21:27 Go to Verse 10. Out of the same mouth, come praises and cursing. Out of the same mouth, come praises and cursing. This really seemed like a good idea. Look in Verse 10, get there with me. Out of the same mouth, come both praises and curses. Oh Gosh. My brother's, this shouldn't be, you see that? This doesn't get good. Do you see what James is saying? Brothers and sisters, this, this shouldn't be. And I love the words that James uses, and I love how he calls his brothers and sisters, because, to me, that means family. And he's looking at us as family, and he's saying, "Guys, that's family we, we've got to stop. At some point we've got to stop condemning people who sin and look and act differently than us. At some point, we've got to stop being judge and jury for people who don't know Jesus. At some point, we've got to stop and we just have to love people the way that God loves us. And at some point, we've got to use our voice that praises God in one moment, to stop tearing people down, and just start lifting them up. And there's no way that this place gets any different if we don't. There's no way that our friends understand what it really means to love Jesus, and to know Jesus, when we speak praise with one moment, and then speak curses with the next."

Tim Beal: 23:13 James goes on to say in Verse 11, can both freshwater and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water. I love what James is saying, and how many times he's talking about speech, because think with me for a minute, I mean, this whole world, this planet, begins with speaking that God says, the Bible says, that God spoke this world into existence. That with the voice, God created this place, and with a voice, we're tearing it down, because our words have power, and they travel. Parents, how, how is your speech? Twenty-five years ago, after, um, I don't know if he was my friend, I feel like I have to call him that because we're in church, um, the dude, he was like, "Hey, you should never do this. Look at you." I left his office, and I went to my friend, Troy. Troy is a youth pastor in the area, and me and him were pretty close, and I went to Troy's house, and I was like, "Troy, dude, I'm done. Like, I'm done. I don't want anything to do with church. I love Jesus, but I'm done. Like, this is what church is, it's judgemental. This dude doesn't even know me, and I blew up on him, and I just, like, vomited all this junk, and Troy sat there and listened, and at the end of me getting all that off my chest, he goes, "Don't give up, yet. Call John." And he handed me a phone number of a guy and he was like, "Dude, just don't give up. Call this dude." So, I did, because I didn't know what else to do. So, I called this guy, John, I went to his house, and John was a little, bitty, short dude, had a big mullet, which this was past the point of mullets being cool, so I was like, "Dude, rock on, baby, you got this." John was an evangelist, so he traveled around, and he talked to different churches and different places. He was also a chaplain for some sports teams, he was with the Cowboys for a little while, and then some college teams, but one of the best communicators I've ever heard. And I walked up to John's house, and I'll never forget, John walked out to greet me at the door, and he looked at me, and was like, "Get in the car." And I thought instantly, here we go. If he says one thing, I can, I'm beating him up, like, I can take him this. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna do this. And I got in John's car, and for the next, I don't know, two, three hours, he drove me around the city, and he used his words to speak life into me. He said things that I had never heard before. He said things like, "Hey, Tim, do you realize if you would stop running from God, and you would just give him your life fully, he has something huge for you, something bigger than you can dream? And why are you wasting your time on this? Why not just trust in who God is? Why are you trying to be like everybody else? God doesn't need an everybody else, he needs you. Stop being like everyone else. Be Unique, be you." And for hours, he drove me around the city and poured life into me with his words.

Tim Beal: 26:07 And I can honestly say, I would not be here right now, I would be in the back room of a zoo somewhere, if it hadn't been for John speaking life into me. And I say that to say this, because neither one of us knew what John was doing, we had no idea that this is where God was going to take me. I just know this, I know that you have the power, with your voice, to speak life into the people around you. And if we would use our words and stop tearing people down, but we would start pouring into people's lives, and we would start using our words, I, I think big things could happen. I want to give you this word in closing. I started this by saying some things that hurt me coming in. I want to give you something, and hopefully, it has the opposite effect. Hopefully, this is something, maybe a word that you've heard before, maybe you haven't. I don't know, maybe something that you can take and it could be luggage that you carry with you, that that relieves burden from your life, instead of heaping coal onto one, and it's simple. Well, it's simple to say, it's hard to understand, but it's true, and then this is a phrase that I've never struggled with as far as being truth. This is something, as I say it to you now, this is something that I have no doubt in my mind, 100% accurate, it is there. And because I've seen it on every page of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, this truth is found all through God's word, and it's simply this, "God loves you." He does, and it doesn't matter who you are. God loves you, in spite of who you are. It's not a performance-based love, it's not conditional. He doesn't love you only if you act a certain way. His love for you has nothing to do with you, and everything to do with him, because it's not performance. It's position. He loves you, because you're a child of the king of the universe, and it has nothing to do with you, and everything to do with Him, and you can't out-sin his grace. You can't out-sin his love. You can't out-sin his forgiveness, and he's not mad at you. He's not angry at you. He doesn't wish that you would be like somebody else. He loves you, and He passionately, desperately just wants to spend time with you, and it doesn't matter what you've done, it doesn't matter what you're doing, and it doesn't matter what you're going to do, you just haven't had time. He loves you. I wanted to give us something, as we walk out of this place, because knowledge is great, but knowledge without application, is worthless, so I wanted to give us something, as we walk out of this place. Maybe then, we could guard our words against, maybe, some, something that we could, I don't know, filter our words through, so that when we walked out of here, we could, maybe, get a handle on this, because remember what James said? If we can guard what we say, everything else is easy. So, I've got four little things that I think might help us with our speech as we walk out of this place, so I hope that they help you. Some of them helped me, and this is, this is, hopefully, something for you, when we walk out of this place today.

Tim Beal: 28:59 The first one is simply this. The things that we say, are they tearing people down, or are they lifting people up? When you walk out of this place today, and you have conversations with people around you, are you tearing them down or are you lifting them up? Cause sometimes, it's not what we say, it's how we say it. Because sometimes, we can say something really well and just be a jerk, and it destroys the fact that we said something.... So, are the things that we're saying, are we tearing people down or we lifting them up?

Tim Beal: 29:29 Second one is this, if you're saying something about someone, would you say it if they were standing beside you in the room? Like, if you're going to talk about someone, would you still say it if they were standing right beside you? If you wouldn't, um, that's probably a conversation that should be kept for your dog, when you get in the privacy of your own home? Tell him about it, and hopefully, he bites you. Um, hateful.

Tim Beal: 29:55 Third one is this. On an average day, we spend about 25,000 to 35,000 words, depending on our gender, that's funny because it's true, um, 25,000 to 35,000 words a day. How many of those words are godly? And, I get it. You don't ever, come on, every, every situation, every conversation, I'm not saying you walk into Chick-Fil-A, because that's where Christians eat, and you, you say, "You know, hey, I want the fishes and loaves." So, that's not what I'm saying, that's weird. You don't be that guy. I'm just saying out of the 25,000, or the 35,000, words that we use, how many of those words are we using to tell people about Jesus? How many of those words are we using to, to lift up who God is, and what he's done in our life? How many of those words that aren't necessarily about who God is, or what he's done, we're saying those in ways that it lifts people up?

Tim Beal: 30:52 Are we using those words wisely? And then, the last one is this, and this is one that you've heard me say the time... This is one that I'm working through still. With what you're about to say, are you saying it to be right or are you saying it to be righteous? Because there's a huge difference. With what you're going to say, are you saying it to be right, or you saying it to be righteous? If you're saying it to be right, you realize it does absolutely no good to anybody? You being right helps nobody in this world, ever, and the reason is, you being right... all it does is mean that you're right, and that's great, you're right, and everybody else is wrong, and they can see that, and it's so obvious. How did they not know that they're wrong, and I'm right? They should see that I'm so much smarter, so me being right makes sense, and everybody should know that, and it does absolutely nothing for anyone, but when we stop trying to be right, and we start trying to be righteous? You see, righteousness means that we've put that person in front of us. Righteousness means that whatever we're going to do, that whoever we're talking to, that we value their life, that we value their love, that we value what they think, that we put them above ourselves, that we think through what we're saying to them, because they have value. And righteousness means that we're trying to make them better, and not trying to be right. So, in what we say parents, when you're talking to your kids, are you trying to be right, or are you trying to be righteous? Kids, when you're talking to your parents, are you're trying to be right, or righteous? When you're talking to your spouse, are you right, or are you righteous? When you're talking to your boss, when you're talking to your employees, when you're talking to your neighbor, when we're speaking words, are we right, or righteous?

Tim Beal: 32:29 My prayer is simply this for us today, that we would walk out of this place, and we would use the words that God's allowed us to have. That we would use our voice, that we would open our mouth, and that we would speak life into people. That we would tell them who God is, and we would use the words that we have, and we would, we would love God through our words, and it wouldn't be something that we do here. It would be something that we do when we're not here, when we're in places that are different than this, when we're around people that are different than us, when we're next to someone who sins differently than we do, that we would speak life to them and we would love them with the same love, the same grace, the same forgiveness that God has given us. Because you never know who you're going to say something to that they're going to carry that with them, and 25 years later, they're going to be standing on a stage, instead of in front of thousands of people, telling them that God loves them. And if you were to go back to John and have that conversation, neither one of us had any idea that this is where it was going. Walk out of this place today, and speak life to people. Use our words, but let's don't be a cliché that some of their church uses in five years, of dumb things that we've said.

Tim Beal: 33:42 Pray with me. Thank you for today, God. Thank you for grace. Thank you for the simple truth that your love for me, God, has never, and will never, have anything to do with me. God, that you love me in spite of me, and it's only because of you, so God, would you let that truth ring loud to someone in this room today, someone that's hearing this, maybe, for the first time that, that you love them, and it's a desperate.... it's a passionate... and it's a forgiving, and it's a grace-filled love, and you, you just want to hang out with them. So God, would you let that truth, and that reality, right now, just, just be alive in someone? God, for the rest of us, as we leave this place, Jesus, would you allow us to walk out of these doors? Would you allow us to walk into the world, and God use the words that were given to tell people, God, who you are? God that we would, we would have conversations that are uplifting, and that that build people up, and we would stop tearing people down? God, that we would have conversations that, that forfeit our right to be right, because we're choosing to be righteous? And God, as our mouth is the overflow of our heart, would you change us, internally, so that when our heart, our heart has to speak, and it uses our mouth, that people hear and see you? Jesus, thank you for loving us and for putting action to your words when you said you loved us, and then you proved it. When you, when you laid your life on a cross, and you forgave us, give us that same strength, Jesus, and use us, so that this world is better because of you. In Your name, Amen.



Recorded in Chandler, Arizona.