Words Can Water a Weary Soul | Love Languages: Words of Affirmation | Kate Downing

So Yeah. Well, good morning Battle Creek Church. What a joy to join you this morning. My name is Kate Downing and I have the privilege of getting to serve as the student director here at Battle Creek. And what that means is I get a front row seat to what God is doing in and through our students. And let me tell you, God is working in some really incredible ways in the lives of our teenagers, but he's not just doing things in them. He's also doing things through them to be the very ministers of the gospel of reconciliation that are helping their friends and their families, their teammates, even their teachers know and walk with Jesus. And so it is such a joy and a privilege to get to be a part of what God is doing here at Battle Creek Church and our students. But also this morning, I'm so thankful for pastor Alex and his leadership and the opportunity that he's given for me to be here to open up God's word alongside of you today. As we get ready to do that, there's been a verse I've been pondering and kind of meditating on over the last few weeks. And it's in Hebrews 13. He was 13, 15 says, therefore, let us offer through Jesus, a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name. So this morning, as we get ready to study that this love language, would you take just a moment in your own heart, in your own mind and practice what this verse says to offer a sacrifice of praise to God. So would you thank him for something that he's answered a prayer that he has brought an answer to, or maybe a characteristic of his that you've seen or recognize over the last few days. Do you take a moment just to yourself and praise God for something this morning. Father, we thank you that we do have the opportunity to come boldly before your throne because of Jesus, because of his death on the cross and his resurrection. We have the opportunity to come boldly before the throne of grace, like Hebrew says, and to come boldly before the throne of grace. And we thank you that we do have the opportunity to come boldly before we have the opportunity to come boldly before the throne of grace, like Hebrew says, and to offer before you a sacrifice of praise for you are so worthy. God, today, as we open up your word, would your Holy spirit speak to our hearts through your word that never returns void. God, would you speak to our hearts today? Would you help us to walk in obedience because of what we've learned today? Lord, would this time be honoring to you with the words of my mouth, be worshiping

to you. Jesus, it's because of you. And it is for you that we pray all of these things in your name. Amen. Amen. Well, the other day I was on the phone with my very best friend in the whole wide world. Her name is Casey. She's this little Southern five foot, nothing girl from North Carolina. And we were on the phone and I love to remind her of this one particular story that she hates when I remind her of, uh, but a couple of years ago before she, well, many years ago before she had kids, uh, she was working at this company in Raleigh and part of her job was to make cold calls. Now, if you've ever had to make a cold call before, you know, how truly brutal and just like soul crushing that, that line of work is, but she would make these calls and she, you know, made a point to remind me this last time I was talking with her that, uh, this particular day, she had drank coffee and that she could not be held responsible for the things that came out of her mouth when she was on caffeine. Uh, but this one particular day she was making like, you know, her 40th call of the day. And, you know, she had her spiel memorized, right? Like you, you just get used to saying the same things over and over again. And she's leaving this voicemail. And instead of ending this voicemail with thanks so much. Have a great day. Hope to hear from you soon. She ended that phone call by saying in Jesus name, I pray. Amen. Panicked and hung up the phone. And again, she was like, you cannot hold me responsible for the things that I say when I drink coffee. But I love that story. Cause it reminds me at one of like the prayer warrior that she is, that it is no shocker to me that when she was kind of, you know, saying that to me, zoned out, the thing that came off of her mind and out of her mouth was prayer. But the other part that I love about that story is that it reminds me of the significance, the importance of the right words spoken at the right time. In fact, God's word is full of truth and wisdom about words and their significance. We read about it in Proverbs. In Proverbs, we read a lot about words actually, but in Proverbs 18, verse 20, we read this, that wise words satisfy like a good meal. I love a good meal.

Right words bring satisfaction. The tongue can bring death or life. And those who love to talk will reap the consequences. And as somebody who loves to talk, I understand there are consequences involved. There's a weight to our words because our words are designed to be things that can bring life or death. There's a significance to our words. Paul tells us in Philippians that one day, what we have to look forward to is that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. That one day, every tongue, every nation, every tribe, every language will declare that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. That's why God created language so that we might declare his glory. It's why we've been studying these love languages because it is a way in which we can communicate his love to others. You know, a couple of weeks ago, we began this study by looking at the love language of acts of service. And then we looked at giving and receiving gifts. And last week we talked about the love language of physical touch. But today we're gonna look at the love language of words of affirmation. Now, I love this one.

I'm thankful for this one because this is my natural love language or my primary love language, meaning it's the easiest way and most natural way for me to give love to others is through words of affirmation. And it's also the easiest way for me to receive love through words of affirmation. But I wanna tell you that if you already know this is not your primary love language, like this is not come natural for you, I think today actually may be more for you than it is for those of us who this is our natural language. Because I believe that even by definition, love is sacrificial. There is a cost, there is a hardship involved in displaying love. But there is also great reward in doing the thing that God has designed us to do, which is to use our language to declare his glory and to display his love to people around us. Now, you know, if you've been with us for the past few weeks that we've been looking at the love languages through the definition and the dialects and the demonstration of each love language. Today, let's look at the definition of words of affirmation. It simply means this, receiving love through spoken or written words that communicate care and encouragement.

This is a really cool one, I think, because words of affirmation can be communicated in two different methods. It can be spoken. So maybe that's a long phone conversation with your best friend who lives on the other side of the country like me. Or maybe that's a quick hallway convo with somebody that you work with in between meetings. It can even be sung through what I would declare is my absolute worst nightmare, being serenaded. It's a way to show affection and to affirm. But it can also be written, which is pretty cool. It could be a long love letter to your long lost love, or a quick text message that you send to a friend, maybe that was on your heart or your mind that morning. The other day, I was talking with one of our student ministers at our Midtown campus. So shout out to our Midtown campus this morning. I was talking with Rihanna, and she shared that her mom who lives in Texas had mailed her a card. Who knew that mail still exists? Mailed her a card, and in that card, she just wrote one sentence. She said, I'm thinking of you today. And Rihanna said, Kate, when I read that card, I was flying for the rest of the day. It had so filled her up. This one little sentence had so filled her up

that she was on cloud nine for the rest of the day. That's the beauty of words of affirmation. They don't have to be long. It doesn't have to be some like real drawn out situation. It's kind of like this five-hour energy, this like boost of encouragement, this boost of adrenaline. It's like an Alani to all my girls who don't know that water still exists. I'm looking at some of y'all specifically. It's this encouragement for our hearts. It's a quick boost of energy. I love to joke with my friends who are quality time people. That is my foreign love language. Next week, we're talking about quality time. And so you better catch me on the front row taking notes next week, because I got to learn some things about that one. But I joke with my quality time friends that I say, listen, you could send me a text message and say, I like you, or you're pretty, or I'm glad you're my friend. And I don't need to see you for a week. I probably don't need to see you for a month. And I'm like, oh, we are the best of friends. We are so close. I read this quote from Mark Twain the other day. I had no idea me and Mark were so similar. There it is, me and Mark together. I can live for two months on a good compliment.

I get that. I'm like, absolutely. Give me a nice compliment. I ain't got to see you for two months, all right? I still believe we're the best of friends. That's the beauty of words of affirmation is it can be this boost to our energy or boost to our mindset. In fact, oftentimes when we talk about the love languages, we use this phrase of a love tank that we all are built with this tank that's designed to receive love in the way that we most naturally receive it. And when we do, that tank gets filled up and like the sky becomes more blue and the birds are more beautiful when they sing and problems aren't quite as difficult and relationships are a little easier to navigate. But when we don't receive love in the way that we most naturally receive it, we can often begin to look like this guy. Now I'm gonna be honest with you, in my home, we've gone all artificial, okay? Because this is what happens when you give me a plant. But the truth is that this plant represents us very often when we don't receive love in the way we most naturally receive it, we become dusty and crusty and dried up and tired and less patient and less kind. But that's the beauty of what God has designed

when it comes to our love languages that we are designed to receive love. In Proverbs, we read this about words. In Proverbs 25, 25, like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land. Like cold water to a weary soul is good news. Very often for those of us who have the primary love language of words of affirmation, when we are dusty and crusty, when we are weary, the thing that we need is the good news of words of affirmation. Like cold water to our weary souls, it begins to bring life and hope. The sky gets a little bluer. The birds sing a little louder. We're more able to deal with conflict because we've been filled up by the cold water of encouragement, the cold water of words of affirmation. So we've looked at the definition. Now let's look at the dialects. Now, if you remember in each love language, there are dialects underneath of it, ways in which this language can be communicated even more specifically. Now, I don't speak another language, but I understand dialects because I'm from the South. And I'd like to just go ahead and state this, though I love Oklahoma, it's a beautiful place.

It is not the South. And we can fight about that in the parking lot later if you would like to, okay? But it is not. I'm from the real South where like every carbonated beverage is a Coke, okay? And the metal basket at the grocery store is like the wheels that you push through, okay? That's called a buggy, okay? That's the dialect that I speak, Southern. So when we think about the dialects of words of affirmation, these are specific ways in which this is communicated and received. The first dialect for us today is sincere praise. Now, this is so important to understand that sincere here is key. Sincere praise. Because if you are a words of affirmation person, you can point out insincerity real quick. If somebody is walking around like finger gunning you and being like, you're doing great, keep it up, awesome, great job. But they never take the time to like figure out what you're actually doing or be sincere about it, that's not cold water to our souls. So when we think about the dialect of words of affirmation and sincere praise, it has to come from a place of sincerity. But what does praise mean?

Well, it simply means recognizing the attributes, the work, even the appearance of someone else and complimenting them on it. It's as simple as looking at your daughter who tried a new hairstyle. and saying, your hair looks really nice today. Or looking at a coworker and saying, hey, I saw that you put a lot of effort into that slide deck that we used in our presentation this morning, thank you for that. Or maybe even looking at your spouse and saying, you put the dishes directly into the dishwasher this time. And that was a gift to my spirit. But very often, offering praise can be difficult because we may not be able to praise the results. Like, let's say your son mowed the lawn for the very first time this weekend, and he did a bang-up job, meaning your yard looks banged up. And your first reaction might be to be like, correction, we gotta train him how to do this better, we gotta fix this disaster. But what if instead of jumping right to teaching or right to correction, what if you took a moment to offer him the cold water of encouragement? What if you were to fill up his love tank before offering him correction? How much more willing might he be to hear that correction? To listen to what you have to say,

to be ready to receive that if his spirit has been watered by the cool, refreshing water of affirmation. Now again, you may not be able to affirm or to praise his results, but you could certainly praise the effort. You could say, you showed a lot of perseverance out there today, son. It was hot, and you kept going, and that's great. Can you imagine the life that that would bring to him before you then begin to teach? How maybe he could do it differently next time? That's the beauty of sincere praise, it's a way that we don't just communicate love through praising results, but it's also through praising efforts. And it's not just a way we communicate love to one another, but it's also a way we communicate love to God. We read this earlier, but in Hebrews chapter 13, we read about praise. The writer of Hebrews says this, "'Therefore, let us offer through Jesus "'a continual sacrifice of praise to God, "'proclaiming with our mouths,' that, proclaiming with our mouths, "'our allegiance to his name.'" That literally with our tongues, with our language, we are designed to proclaim allegiance to his name, to offer a sacrifice of praise. Now, for many of you, this idea of praising someone else may feel like a sacrifice,

because it may not come naturally to you, it may be difficult for you, not to just only see the results, but take the time to recognize the efforts, or to take the time to think of something encouraging to say to someone else. But here's what I wanna tell you, is that as we practice this idea of offering praise to God, it will become incredibly easier to offer that praise to those who are created in his image. So if you wanna get better at showing or displaying love through words of affirmation, begin here, continuously offering a sacrifice of praise to God for what he has done for you, for who he is, and watch how that begins to affect your language and the way in which you affirm others. So we've looked at the sacrifice or the sincere praise, but the next dialect is this, it's confident encouragement. Confident encouragement. Encouragement means to put courage in someone. It is literally to put courage in them, to build them up in courage. What does this look like in your everyday life? Well, it could look like looking at your teenager and saying, hey, I see in you the quality, the gifting of leadership on your football team or on your friend group. I see that you've been given by God this ability to influence others.

That's a gift from God. Maybe it's looking at your employee and saying, I see the effort and the hard work, the extra hours you've put in to acquire this client. And in fact, your example has spurred on the rest of our team to up our game, to put in extra effort. It could look like driving in the car with your friend and you're singing along to the radio and you say, hey, you've got a great singing voice. You should try out for the worship team. Now, I'm gonna be honest with you, I'm still waiting for somebody to be a good enough friend to tell me that, okay? If you wanna offer me that confident encouragement, I would receive that so quickly. But the beauty of this idea of encouraging someone is we actually may be the very one to help. to spark or bring life to the seed of purpose or gifting that God has given someone. In fact, Gary Chapman, who's done a lot of research in this idea of the love languages, he says this, the latent potential within your spouse. Now, obviously, he's writing this to people who have spouses, but this could apply to your kids, to your coworking relationships, to your relationship with your parents. The latent potential within your spouse in his or her areas of insecurity

may await your encouraging words, meaning that there may be a gifting, a purpose in someone that God has placed around you that is like a seed that God has planted in them, and it is just waiting for you to pour the word of encouragement, to pour confident encouragement onto that seed so that the purpose and gifting that God has designed that person with might sprout up. What an incredible and powerful thing words of affirmation can be. So we see this not only in our relationships, but we see this in Scripture, that in Ephesians 4, Paul writes this, let everything you say be good and helpful so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them. I have this verse plastered up in my bathroom, because even though I'm a words of affirmation person, I still have to be reminded that everything I say, all the words, that's a lot, all the words are to be good and helpful. They are to be an encouragement, a building up of those who hear them. It's God's design for our language, for our words. So we have seen sincere praise and confident encouragement. Lastly, we have heartfelt affection. Now, this one's pretty easy to understand. It's just simply expressions of love. This, again, could look like saying to your spouse

before you leave for work, I love you, or writing a little note in your kid's lunchbox that says I'm proud of you on their first day of school, or calling your parents, young adults, I'm talking to you, calling your parents and saying, hey, I missed you. That's a way to express love. It doesn't have to be this big soliloquy. It doesn't have to be some grand poem that you wrote. You can just express your love pretty simply. In fact, when I was a little kid, my mom would often say to me, Kate, you're the apple of my eye. Isn't that precious? I know. Now, as a five-year-old, I didn't really understand what apple of my eye meant. Like, I didn't get that phrase. But I knew that it was a heartfelt expression of love. It was affection that she was showing to me. And because I then wanted to show that same affection back to her, and that's the beauty of words of affirmation is it often creates a two-way street of this. Because I wanted to show that affection back to her, when she would say, Kate, you're the apple of my eye, I would say back to her, well, mom, you're the broccoli of my nose. It was heartfelt. It was an expression of love and affection to her. In fact, I'm so thankful that really both of my parents

did this so well for my sisters and I growing up. And what's really fun is my parents are actually here today. So it's so fun to get to tell them this in person. My parents did this really beautifully. They were consistent and intentional to speak, to use their words, to communicate heartfelt affection to us. They told us they loved us. They told us they were proud of us. And what that created for us was a home of safety and confidence and encouragement. In fact, a couple of weeks ago, I'd flown home, what I call home Atlanta. I'd flown home to visit my parents. And on the day I was flying back, my mom packed me a snack bag. What a gift. Okay. And really what that was, was a demonstration of love in a lot of ways. Cause it was acts of service. I didn't have to go to the airport and sell my firstborn child to purchase a bag of chips. That was acts of service. It was also giving gifts. I didn't ask for it and require it of her, but just out of the kindness of her heart, she gave that to me. But not only did she pack me this little bag of snacks, but she also included in that bag of snacks,

this little post-it notes. Now it's probably hard to read. So I'll read it for you. It says, we love you so much and are praying daily for you. Love, mom and dad. Now, it probably took my mom 30 seconds to write. It didn't take her a long time, but I'll tell you that long after those snacks were gone, and let me tell you, they were gone quick. Long after those snacks were gone, this word of encouragement has remained. In fact, it remains by my coffee maker. So in the morning, when my soul is the most weary, and it is weary in the morning, I am reminded, I am filled up by this word of affirmation, by this heartfelt affection. It's like cold water to my weary soul. Now, I know that for many of you, that is not the story of your family life. You may not have had the opportunity to grow up with parents who told you that they loved you, and it may not be the story of the home that you're living in right now. And oftentimes, when we don't have that exemplified for us, when we don't get to follow in that example of someone else, we can begin to believe a lie about this, that somehow expressing affection is weakness or is shameful,

or especially to men in the room or listening today, this lie can tell you that it's somehow less manly. But let me tell you that there is nothing farther than the truth, because you see our God, all-powerful, all-knowing, Alpha and Omega, beginning and the end, creator and sustainer of the universe, king of kings and Lord of lords, does not shy away from communicating his love for his people. We see this in Jeremiah 31. God himself says this, "'Long ago,' the Lord said to Israel, "'I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love, "'with unfailing love, I have drawn you to myself.'" God did not see it as weakness. He did not shy away in shame to communicate his love to his people. In fact, later on in the New Testament, we read that God says this to his own son at Jesus's baptism in Mark 1. A voice from heaven said, "'You are my dearly loved son, "'and you bring me great joy.'" Now, if it's hard for you to come up with things to say that are affirming or encouraging to your kids or your family members, maybe the idea of affection is really difficult for you to communicate, let me encourage you,

you can just copy and paste God's words. You could literally say to your son, "'You are my dearly loved son.'" You wanna see a change in your teenager's life? You wanna watch a teenage boy begin to walk honoring women? Moms, tell him that you love him, that he's your dearly loved son. You wanna watch your teenage girl walk in confidence, have high standards in her relationships? Tell her that she's your dearly loved daughter. You wanna have a thriving marriage? You wanna have joy in your marriage? Look at your spouse and say, "'You bring me great joy.'" You don't have to come up with these words on your own, you can just take God's words. Later on in Jesus's life and ministry, in Matthew 17 at this time that we often call the Mount of Transfiguration, God says this about Jesus, "'This is my son whom I love, with him I am well pleased.'" You see, this wasn't a private conversation between God and his son, this wasn't God the Father speaking to Jesus privately over in a corner, this was a public declaration of love. This was God verbally and intentionally choosing to show heartfelt affection toward his son. God did not see it as weakness,

he did not see it as less manly, he did not see it as shameful, he clearly and publicly and intentionally declared his love for his son and for his people. And also note that Jesus received those words of affection and love. So if this is a difficult thing for you, if this is maybe even new for you, let me encourage you not to allow what is hard to keep you from what is holy, from following in the example of our creator God, to declare with our words, with our mouths, the affection of the Lord for others. What I love about God's word is that it is so clear and it is so specific about how we can utilize words of affirmation to be cold water on the weary souls of those who God puts around us. And we've looked at the definition and we've looked at the dialects, but what does it mean to demonstrate this? To actually do this? Well, we've been looking at it through this kind of filter or this table where we've been talking about how we give and receive. of these different love languages through both the spirit and the flesh. So what does it look like to give or to receive words of affirmation in the spirit? It looks like you accept those words with gratitude. You don't excuse them.

You don't say, well, I don't know if that's true. You just accept it. You just say, thank you. I am grateful for that. You accept those words with gratitude. What does it look like to give words of affirmation through the spirit? Well, you create powerful encouragement. You powerfully put courage into others and you create life-giving environments. Remember that in the tongue is the power of life and death. You can create in your home, in your relationships, at your workplace, a place of safety and confidence by giving words of affirmation through the spirit. But what does it look like when we do this in the flesh? When we receive words of affirmation in the flesh, often we become validation dependent. Like a drug addict, like jonesing for the next hit, we often become dependent on validation. I actually think this is why social media has become like so big in our society. And back in January, you know, that we talked about this idea of how social media has become like all-consuming and we fasted from it for a while and what a gift that was. I think the reason why it's so addicting is this dopamine hit of being affirmed. Somebody liking our post or commenting on what we said or saying that we look like a beautiful family and it's this affirmation that we begin to receive. But when we receive it in the flesh,

we begin to believe the lie that those words validate us. But the truth is, is that people can affirm and people can encourage and people can praise and people can even show us affection. But only our creator God can validate you and I. Only he can offer you, can declare for you what your value is. Man cannot, people cannot, social media cannot. Only God can. But when we're in the flesh, we often begin to believe, we often begin to become a validation dependent on the words of others. But equally as dangerous is when we begin to give words of affirmation in the flesh. When we do that, we use words to get something in return. This is called manipulation. Another word in scripture is flattery. And scripture is full of warnings against flattery. In Proverbs, we read this, that a lying tongue hates its victims and flattering words cause ruin. In Psalm 12 verse two, we read that neighbors lie to each other, speaking with flattering lips and deceitful hearts. May the Lord cut off their flattering lips and silence their boastful tongues. Why does God speak with such intense language? Why is he like we're chopping off their lips on this one? It's because I believe that God understands that manipulation and flattery are counterfeits

to his design. You see, he's designed our language to be a language of love and yet manipulation and flattery are not a language of love. They are a language of lust. Let me show you the difference between these two. Lust wants to please self at the expense of someone else because lust wants to get. It wants to use words to manipulate someone else to get something from them. Love, on the other hand, desires to please someone else at the expense of self because love wants to give. The most beautiful picture of true, genuine, real love that was ever given to us was shown to us through the person and work of Jesus Christ who sacrificially gave of himself. He being fully God came to earth, put on flesh, became fully man, lived a life that you and I could never live, a perfect life so that he could lay his life down on the cross to be the payment for your sins and my sins so that he could rise from the dead, defeating death and shame and guilt. There's no greater picture of love than what Christ did for us, offering us the opportunity to receive his free gift of salvation, to be forgiven of our sins, to be reconciled with God. If you remember back at the beginning, we talked about how we were born into this world about this hope that we have to look forward to

that one day Philippians tells us and how we were born into this world and how we were born into this world that one day every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. What a hope we have in that, but why? Why will every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord? Well, we're told just a few verses earlier in verse eight that he, Jesus, humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on the cross. That Jesus out of his great love for us is Lord and we will declare that with every language and every tongue, but we do that because of the sacrifice he made because of the love he displayed for us. But did you notice how he did that? He did that in humility. You see, I think that's the key to this idea of giving and receiving words of affirmation in the spirit is that we would do it in humility. In fact, in the very way that just a few verses before in Philippians two that we're told to act, to speak, to live, that we would have the same mind that was in Christ Jesus, meaning the same attitude of humility that was in him is the way in which we are to use our words for his glory. Now, for many of you, that idea of giving and receiving words of affirmation in the spirit may feel impossible because maybe you've never received the spirit in the first place,

meaning you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. You've never accepted that free gift of salvation that he bought for you on the cross and won for you through the resurrection. But I want you to know that today can be the day of decision for you. So here in this room and in every room watching today, those watching online, would you bow your heads and would you close your eyes? We tell our students we do this just simply to let you focus. But here with the Lord for just a moment, let me ask you this. Has there been a time in your life that you have put your faith and trust in Jesus, that you've offered or received his free offer of salvation? If you have never confessed with your mouth that he is Lord and believed in your heart that God raised him from the dead, which is all that is required to be saved, let me give you the opportunity to do so today. Would you pray this prayer along with me? If you are ready to accept Christ Jesus as your savior, people in every room will pray along with you. But would you simply confess with your mouth what you're choosing to believe in your heart? Pray this with me, dear Jesus. I confess that I'm a sinner. There is nothing I can do

to earn your forgiveness. I believe you died on the cross for my sin. I believe you rose from the grave. In the best way I know how, I turn my back on my sin, and I trust you alone, Jesus. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for saving me. Before we say amen, with every head still bowed and eyes still closed, there are many of you here today who have received the Spirit, meaning you've put your faith in Jesus, whether it was last week or 10 years ago. Yet the idea of giving or receiving words of affirmation in the Spirit is still difficult for you, maybe because you believe the lie that it is weakness to affirm or to express affection. I want you to know that we call upon a God who is all-powerful, who says that we can do all things through Christ, who strengthens us. And so if this is an area of weakness for you, would you take just a moment in your own heart, in your own mind, and would you confess that to God? God, this is hard for me. God, I'm not good at this. But Lord, in your strength, by the empowering of your Holy Spirit, would you teach me to affirm those who are around me

with truth from your Word? Would I see the image of God displayed in the people who are around me? Would I praise and encourage and show affection toward them? Now, for those of you who may be recognized today that you've used your words in a manipulative way by flattering others, would you take a moment to confess that sin, and it is sin, to confess that sin before the Lord, knowing that 1 John tells us that when we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and to cleanse us from all. all unrighteousness. Father God, I thank you for the immense privilege it is to open up your word, to see in your word, the beauty of the way that you have designed our language to work, that you have designed us to be people who declare with our mouths, continual praise unto you. God, that you have also designed our words to be ways in which we can display and declare your love for us and for others to others. God, for those today that have put their faith and trust in you for the very first time, God, I am so excited for the fact that I now have new brothers and sisters in Christ, that their eternity is secure.

Lord, that they have now been adopted into the family of God. Their sins have been forgiven and they are now sons and daughters of the most high God. Lord, for those who've recognized that words of affirmation, giving or receiving is hard. It is an area of weakness. Lord, I pray that you would be their strength. Holy Spirit, would you empower them with the same power that raised Jesus from the dead that now dwells in them. God, would you give them the strength to offer to you a continual sacrifice of praise? And out of the overflow of that, would it flow into their teammates, their family, their coworkers? And Lord, for those today who have recognized and confessed the way that they have used their words in a sinful way, God, I thank you that you offer us forgiveness. But Lord, with that confession, I pray there would also be repentance, meaning there would be a turning from that sin. And God, that they would walk in righteousness and that they would speak in righteousness. God, we thank you that you are worthy of our worship through every word we say. Thank you, God, that we get to continuously offer to you a sacrifice of praise. Jesus, it's in your powerful and your good name we pray.

Amen and amen.