Have you ever had a word, whispered from someone: Lift you? Crush you? Stir you? Our words can create worlds...

Words impact us - for positive or negative. They impact our relationships around us and can influence within ourselves.

“The tongue has the power of life and death.”
-Proverbs 18:21

Truth: Our words determine the directional trajectory of our lives…
(see James 3)
3 words that really matter: PLEASE, SORRY, THANKS

Quote:
Few words resonate with more power than please, sorry, and thanks. They sing in three-part harmony. A pretty please opens hearts and minds and doors. A simple sorry can mend broken relationships. A heartfelt thanks is the flywheel of gratitude. -Mark Batterson

Review from last week (PLEASE)

"LIVING BLESSED"

BE A PERSON Living under the Blessing of God (asking him please; we can ask)
Be a person who is a BLESSING to those around (seek to help others)

Concept tonight around the word (SORRY):

"Living Unoffended"

SORRY needs to be a part of our DNA & our core makeup.

Broken people, break relationships continually.

We do things that cause harm and thus SORRY can begin the relational repair work. Is it a normal part of your vernacular and heart?

It is very easy in our culture of offense — to always be on the look out of being offended.

In our cancel culture, we very quickly can draw up the battle lines. It is very easy to become offended — it is NOT very easy to say Sorry or to seek out relational restoration. But that is what Jesus calls us toward.

In order to more fully understand what forgiveness IS, sometimes we have to first understand what forgiveness is NOT:
-Forgiveness is NOT saying that what that person did to you, or what you did was okay or alright. Some of you have suffered harm at the hands of others and it’s NOT OKAY. It is what it is, but it doesn’t mean it’s okay or alright.
-Forgiveness is NOT giving permission for that person to do that again; it’s not insinuating that we must become a ‘doormat’ and let people walk all over us; We CAN engage and learn to set healthy and appropriate boundaries
-It is possible to forgive an offense - that would be impossible to forget.

Forgiveness is:
-Choosing to let go of the offense and not carry it around…
-Choosing the sacrifice of Jesus paid that debt…Jesus had to die for that wrong. Taking them off the hook of your heart & letting them be on God’s hook.
*Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. -Romans 12:19

This notion of: forgiving others – is not a decision we’re to perform just when we feel like it, it’s a habit Jesus desires to form within our hearts. It actually begins with a PRE-DECISION — we’re choosing the best we can, to live unoffended...

Forgiven people, forgive people.

*see Matthew 18:21-35

Here’s the words of Apostle Paul…
"Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others."
-Colossians 3:13

Living un-offended -- don’t have a Velcro soul, have a Teflon soul...

Quote:
“When I genuinely forgive, I set a prisoner free and then discover that the prisoner I set free was me.” -Lewis Smedes

Forgiven people, forgive people.

The flow of forgiveness is to flow within our hearts and out into our relationships.

Q)
Who do you need to give forgiveness to this week?
What would it look like to take the first step? To say SORRY?

Words Create Worlds

2 KEY ?’S: when it comes to evaluating our own words and how our words are creating worlds around us…

What do you need to STOP SAYING?
What do you need to START SAYING?

Thanks for joining us as we launch into the new year together!

Join us next weekend as we wrap up our Words Create Worlds series...

Have a blessed week friends!