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Have
you ever noticed how powerful music is? Music sells! Music can sell us on the
idea of romance; drama; impending doom; happy go lucky feelings; make us want
to dance; make us cry; encourage us to run faster; to sit and meditate; music
can calm us down or stir us up; music can frighten us or put us to sleep; music
can lift us up or make us want to hide our eyes … music sells! The problem is,
music doesn’t care what it sells … it tries its best to open our minds and make
us willing to believe. Once the music opens our hearts and minds, watch out …
here come the words!
Words
have power. Words just want to paint a picture and give it life. Words don’t
even care if the picture is right or wrong, the truth or a lie. Once the music
opens the mind, the words of a song are often deeply embedded. These words
heard, remembered and repeated often can shape our thoughts and control our
emotions. Have you ever heard someone attempt to describe a feeling or the
reason for their actions by saying, “it’s just like it says in that song …”,
and then they repeat a portion of their programming as though it explained and
excused everything?
One
of the reasons why we sing the school songs, the National Anthem or jingles for
our favorite products is because of the way it makes us feel. We even sing
songs in Church directly aimed at programming the soul with the Word of God. In
fact, the Bible encourages us to sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to
the Lord. Music sells … it doesn’t care what it sells, it just sells. God has
ordained this to be so – problems is … it works in both forward and reverse.
Songs can be our best friends or our worst enemies.
In
the same way, words create … they don’t care what they create. Words just want to
paint a picture and give it life. People believe words.
For
our Family Sunday message this morning, separate and apart from music and its
ability to set the stage, open the mind and program the soul, we are going to
focus on the power of the words we speak and the words we hear. Today’s message
will encourage us to pay greater attention to the things we say … even the
things we say to ourselves.
Our
Key Scripture
today comes from the writings of King Solomon in the Book of:
Proverbs 4:21 Death and life are
in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.
In
order to confirm and more fully explain this truth, we will take a brief
historical look at two Bible Stories. The first account took place during the
exodus of the Children of Israel about 1500 years before Christ. I’ll catch us
up on the story before reading from the Book of Numbers, chapter 14.
(Commentary
on the 12 spies and the negative affect of the majority report on the nation
when they heard their words.)
Numbers 14:28 “Say to them,
‘As I live,’ says the LORD, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will
do to you:”
Those
10 spies who said they were not able to defeat their enemies died without
victory. The 2 spies who said they were well able to defeat their enemies did.
There is nothing in the story to suggest any difference in what these two
groups of people saw only in what they said. One group believed God would help
them and the other group believed God would not help them. One group told the
people they were not able and the other group told the people they were well
able. The majority opinion prevailed and the people did not trust God and as a
result they all died without receiving the promise of God. The minority
believed God and received His promise. What they said made the difference not
only in their individual lives but also in the lives of those who heard and
believed them.
People
tend to believe either the loudest and most repetitive voice or the majority
opinion. However, Truth is not determined by a show of
hands. Truth is determined by the Word of God!
The
second account we are going to briefly survey this morning comes from the very
first verses of the Bible in Genesis, chapter 1. Let’s just read them and
attempt to understand the very first thing God reveals to us.
Genesis 1
1 In the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth.
2 The earth was without form,
and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of
God was hovering over the face of the waters.
3 Then God said, “Let there
be light”; and there was light.
The
first lesson of the Bible is a lesson on the creative power of words!
