To Tell The Truth III, How Truth Can Liberate

Blessed be the name of the Lord, our God. Father, we crown you today. We crown you with many crowns. We return to the source of our joy. Even Jesus Christ, King of Kings. Lord of creation. Lord of the earth. And then whisper this phrase, Lord of my life. Go ahead, whisper that to her. Lord of my life. And all God's people sing. Amen. Amen. Just before you're seated, I know you're anxious to sit down. It's been a long time. Turn to somebody that you haven't greeted this morning and wish them Merry Christmas one week early. Would you? Get their name and find out who they are. Go ahead and be seated then. Those of you who were at the banquet last night I'm going to allow just a few minutes for a few spontaneous choice testimonies of things the Lord allowed you to experience with people. Or maybe just an answer to prayer or something. First of all, thank you for praying that it wouldn't snow yesterday. Remember they were predicting two to four inches, which would have been very bad news. But why'd you stop for this morning? That's what I want to know. You should have just fought. You should have said, anytime after nine o'clock, Lord, it's fine. The Lord was very, very faithful in many, many respects last night. How many of you were there? Okay, you were there. Wow. Great. Praise the Lord. You be thinking about it. If you have a testimony, I want you to come up here and share for just a minute. Come on up here in these front rows while I'm giving a couple of announcements this morning. Just come up and sit near Pastor Scott or David. And just, I'll take maybe three or four minutes or three or four one-minute testimonies, something that you saw or experienced that just ministered to you or you had an opportunity to minister over there. It's just been a delight this year for so many reasons the Lord just provided for us. Even down to the place where, in ways that, for example, last night we were at the inn handing out food certificates and I've heard different reports now. By the way, whatever reports you hear, don't believe it. Because no one really knows anything. I'm serious about that. You'll hear numerical reports. And one person, two people from the same company told me different numbers, exaggeratedly different numbers. I was told by one person, we ran out of food certificates. Then I was told by another one, we had a bunch left. It just is kind of strange. But when you have that many people and no one really knows who's in charge of a lot of the people, they come and say, I'm with so-and-so. And they said, I could be here. I'm doggone it, I'm here. They're here, so praise the Lord. We had a lot of those kind of things last night. Did anybody have a testimony they wanted to share? Because I really, I know you must. Okay, I see Jean. Yeah, I see all your hands. All of you have them too? One more? All right. Come on up, Sue. Come on, Jean. Real quickly. We only do this at most once. Come on, Jean. You'll be first. I saw your hand first. Go ahead. I just wanted to thank the Lord last night. The table that I was at, there was a grandmother there. And, of course, I relate to grandmothers. And this grandmother had five young children with her. And she was raising these children. And I tell you, my heart just broke because I knew the situation. She didn't have to go into detail. And she said, I'm raising these children so that they'll grow up to love the Lord. And she said, we were here last year, and I knew how good it was last year, so I wanted to come back again. And she brought two other grandchildren. The one granddaughter sitting on my right-hand side said, this is my mother, about her grandmother. And I tell you, it broke my heart. And then when we went back for prayer, there then I dealt with several different families that came up, but one in particular, a young girl in her early 20s. She had a one-year-old, a two-year-old, and ready to give birth to another one. And that girl came with tears just streaming down her eyes, giving her heart to the Lord. And so that, to me, it was worth it all. Praise the Lord. Let's give the Lord a hand. That's wonderful. Praise your name, Father. You know, it's very easy to get caught up in counting heads and empty seats or full tables, either one. And I think that's very important. If you saw one person whose heart was touched, and I know we all saw many, it was worth it, let alone what it does for us. I mean, it was worth it. Come on, Sue. There was a man wandering around last night, and I said to him, did he have a place to sit? Was he with anyone? And he said no. So I said, you know, come join us at our table. His eyes were all red, and he smelled a lot and was quite inebriated and sad and talked with us. And he was so on edge and so nervous the whole time and just ate so that it would probably make you sick. And he was sitting right in my face the whole time. But I looked at him and all of his scruffiness and just looked right at him. I was only two inches from him and thought the Lord loves him just as much as He loves all of us that have all the finery around us. And he was so on edge to get out and get a drink that he couldn't stay the whole time. But I thought if God, just the love that was shown to him through the people there and the people that were at our table, then the Lord ministered to just even one heart. He said he was asking the time, and someone said it was 10 minutes to 8, and he said, oh, is that all? He said, my store's not closed yet. We didn't quite understand. He said, I've been a drunk for 25 years, and it's never going to change. He said, so I have to go. But I just felt like the love of the Lord touched him. The other thing I just wanted to share real quick was when we had made our commitment for a prelude to a promise a couple of weeks ago, a lot of us went out in faith and that kind of a thing. This week the Lord brought through a situation for almost exactly the amount that we had pledged for a prelude to a promise. Well, I mean, for a month, something per month. It was almost exactly the same amount that we had pledged. So I just want to thank the Lord. Great. Thank you. I had another person tell me in the hall the other day, he said, you know, I hear those testimonies. I said, why hasn't that ever happened to us? And he said, lo and behold, they went in, and this year their Christmas bonus was three times what it normally is or something like that. She said, it happened to us. So they're here right now. They know who I'm talking about. All right. One more? The next one has to be a male. Okay. I think there were men there. All right, Dennis, come up. And then Sherry will finish with you. In counseling, a young woman came up with her seven- or eight-year-old daughter. I couldn't tell. But as we shared with them, and she confessed that she wanted to ask the Lord into her life, her daughter said she did, too. And it was just such a blessing as we prayed a sinner's prayer to have this little voice down here repeating exactly what was being said and with a real sincerity. And I just thought two generations touched that evening. Thank you, Dennis. All right. One last testimony. Sherry? I have two to share. I had the opportunity. They're real brief. I had the opportunity to walk around through the tables and that. And I had been up in the front when the skit was going on, and the children were right on the edge of their chairs, you know, and listening to everything that was said. But there was so much commotion in the back, I thought, No one can hear this. And I was sad. And right after that, I went way back to the back to one of the very end tables, and there was one little boy sitting at the table. And I went up, and I put my arm around him, and I said, Did you see that play, the one with the bicycle? And he lit up like a light bulb. And he said, Yes, and it was so neat. And he just went on and on. And I said, Well, what did the Lord show you in that? And he began to tell me about it. So he really was ministered way back in the back, even though we thought it wasn't reaching anybody. It's interesting. I had more people tell me it never got past the first three rows. And let's erase all that stuff, okay? Let's trust God that it got where it needed to get. Amen on all those things. And the other thing is, Pastor Hurd put me in charge of the one section for counseling, and I said, You be the captain of this area, the Yes Lord area. And I couldn't hear the announcement, but all of a sudden it's like this herd of people came running up after us. I get it. And there were like two or three of us there to counsel all these people. And my eyes got big, and I'm like panicking, and I grabbed my man with the walkie-talkie and said, Scream help into that thing. Somebody get somebody over here. And it was kind of like an assembly line, but the people were so hungry to receive Jesus Christ. And one after one, that's what they were there for at that time. And they didn't care if they had to wait. And I was apologizing that we didn't have enough people, and they said, That's okay. And one after one, I'd say, What are you here for? And what did you come up for? I need to have Jesus as my Savior. And I said, Is that what you're? Yes, please, right now. I don't want to wait any longer. And they were just so hungry, and just one after one. And praise God, more counselors did come too. Thank you. All told, in tangible ways and ways that we don't know, which sometimes are the most profound, the Lord used the evening. Let me say that we can show our thanksgiving to the Lord now tangibly. We need about another eight or ten cleanup people today. And I was instructed to ask this service particularly, Paul Greig. Would you stand, Paul? Paul's going to be driving down in his van right after the service. If you'll see this nice-looking gentleman, he'll be right up here by this podium. I need to see, really, about six or eight men who can give some time this morning. If you need a ride, Paul can take you. If you have your own car, he'll show you right where to go. It's just going to be labor, but it'll be a labor of love. And it also, by the way, translates into quite a bit of money that we can save on the cost of the banquet. So, men, if you're available for all or most of the day or at least part of the day, come up and see Paul right after the service. And, Jim, how do we do on counselors and phone follow-ups? Are we ready for that? All right. And five people from 230 to 430 right here in the North Hills, right down at the bottom of the hill across from Chuck E. Cheese in that Gardner building, that's where CBN's new office is. We're going to be phone calling all the people that made decisions. It'll only take about an hour, maybe an hour and a half. We need five people. If you'll see Pastor Jim after the service, he'll tell you exactly what to do. All right. I don't want to go on in the service or even the announcements without pausing to give the Lord thanks. Would you stand up? Would you join into a circle of thanksgiving? Now, if you weren't there last night, you could help simply by just giving the Lord thanks for those that He's moving on even today as a result and just praising Him for all the things He did. And if there's something in your own life for which you want to pray, you can throw that in as well. Go ahead and spend the next several minutes, three or four minutes, in your prayer circles together. Go ahead and turn and invite one another into a circle. If you're a visitor today, someone will invite you into a circle. You can just listen. If you're a visitor, you can just listen today. Let's thank the Lord together now. Let's turn and join our hearts as we use even our frail efforts. We bless you and praise you in Jesus' name. Everyone say amen. All right. Praise the Lord. Would you be seated? All right. Well, you know, this is your last 8.30 service. And I'm so glad because you're so late getting here, most of you. Next week, it's 10 o'clock. I'm serious. Next week, I'm not… No? Next week, it's 10 o'clock, Christmas Sunday, one service, 10 a.m. I'll tell someone that. 10 o'clock, one service. All right. Now, you told me. Now, don't be too confused. Beginning January the 1st, which is two weeks from today, it's 9 and 11. Tell someone that. Two weeks from today, 9 and 11. And at 9.01, we lock the doors. Tell someone that. Now, it is important. Please, you have no idea. Now, we're taking a big step of faith because the overlap in the parking lots is going to be an enormous problem if you're late getting here and we're late getting out. We're taking a real step of faith. We believe it's the best way to go, though, for all the families involved. Next week, 10 a.m. And you can worry about it from there on. I want to welcome our visitors this morning. I do notice we have some visitors. And even on a cold, snowy day like this, last night we had 4,000 visitors or whatever it was. Tonight we may, or this morning, rather, we may have 4 or 14. I don't know for sure, but I know we have some visitors today. Our officers are ready, visitors, to give you a packet that looks like this that we've prepared for you. And we are glad you're here. And these folks are going to show you how glad they are that you've come. We wouldn't embarrass you for the world, but we are going to ask you to stand in a moment that we can give you one of these packets. That's the only reason we want you to know that we're glad you're here and that this church plans to be here until Jesus Christ comes back. And we'd like for you to know more about it and the plan that we have to make a difference in this city. So if you're a visitor today, would you honor us by just standing for about 10 or 15 seconds, and an officer will come up and greet you. Go ahead, all of our visitors, stand up. Take just a moment. Are you here this morning? I know a couple of visitors are here. Anyone? All right. Well, visitors, you can pick these up. I understand it's not easy sometimes to make yourself distinguished, but we are glad you're here. And the final word is, folks, remember what I've been telling you now, bring someone. I've challenged you to bring one person. Here's an invitation to help make it easier. Pick it up. This little beige invitation, this is not for you to go home and say, isn't North Way wonderful? I love going there. This is for you to give to your neighbor and invite them to Christmas Eve service or Christmas Sunday. It tells exact details of what's going to happen. It is a lovely way to introduce someone to what the Lord's doing here in our church. We have three services. I need to see the hands of those who are coming at 5 o'clock next week. You know, put your hand up. Hold them up there. All right, thank you. Who's coming at 630, as far as you know? Put your hand up. Thank you. And who's coming at 8 o'clock, as far as you know? Great. That's pretty even, it looks like. That's good. You can't change, all right? Hold it there. But please do come with somebody. Bring your grandparents. Bring your out-of-town relatives. Bring your next-door neighbor. We're going to have a one-hour service, so it won't take all the evening and all those kinds of excuses people give you. And it's going to be very powerful, and yet it's going to be, I think, so different and exciting that people will be touched. So that's for you to keep in mind. All right. Finally, on the back of your notes, there's an important announcement about New Year's Eve, and we have a wonderful children's and family event for New Year's Eve. Please look at that. Plan to be here. If you're looking for something to do with your family, you want to come, we're bringing in the greatest gift of all, a traveling drama troupe that you'll really enjoy, your kids will love, and then we're going to have fellowship, and there's something for teenagers and all that kind of stuff. Let's receive our morning tithes and offerings now, ushers. I think we maybe didn't have the visitors stand, but we will have tithes and offerings this morning. By the way, folks, those of you who the Lord spoke to by giving to the banquet, you go ahead and do that. We really don't need a whole lot more money to finish up our bills in the banquet. So I'm encouraging you, if you're looking for something special to give to, please consider designating a special missions gift to Abraham and Molly Poth and that's what this is about, or just to help us here as we continue to establish this work. We can certainly direct your funds to the most beneficial use here within our own church. All right, let's pray, and then you can be preparing tithes and offerings. Heavenly Father, as we now give to you, Lord, we received so much last night. Even though we were givers, we were also receivers, and we all know it, Lord. We thank you today that we're here as receivers of grace and glory to celebrate and worship our mighty, wonderful God, our deliverer, our healer, our redeemer. I pray as we give, Lord, that this Christmas season would be far more than a tax write-off, Lord. It would be an expression of our trust in you and of our delight in being part of a living church, of a place where things are happening and lives are being touched and a city is being addressed. Lord, we pray that these gifts, as they meet obligations, as they extend ministry, as some give today to establishing this mission training base, Lord, that throughout the world the gospel would have a hearing because of these gifts today, and lives would be touched. I thank you, Father, for meeting our needs and for giving us above and beyond what we could ask or think. In Jesus' name, amen. Are you ready to give joyfully? It's time. Praise the Lord. All right, ushers, I think everyone's ready. Why don't you come forward, and as they're doing that, Jill and the worship team is going to sing a beautiful Christmas. How many of you love some of the traditional Christmas music? Anybody? Hold them up there. They didn't believe that you would. See that? They like it, Jan. This song will bless our hearts and prepare us as we move into a worshipful spirit for this morning's message. Thank you so much. Thank you. Praise the Lord. Don't you wish you'd brought someone to hear that? Let's come up. We're going to go ahead and receive the Word. Turn with me now in your Bibles. We're going to be looking in the Gospel of Luke. Gospel of Luke, chapter 1. Though I'd like to take time to read a large portion, I'm really going to just zero in on verse 39 and following. Verse 39 of Luke, chapter 1. At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judah, where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear. Why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to me? And as soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished. This is the season of Christmas cards. Lovely, creative, artistic, beautiful. How many have gotten at least one? How many have not sent yours out yet? All right. Christmas cards are a special part of Christmas, aren't they? I remember growing up in my home, one of the traditions, and I'm sure it's common to many of you, was to take the cards that came in and cover the door, the back of the door with them. And every time you'd go out the door, it'd be a reminder that somebody out there thought about you, cared about you. Left little tape marks all the rest of the year and those kinds of things. But one reason we love to receive Christmas cards so much is that many of us hurt a great deal at Christmas time. You know it's the highest season for suicides? It's going to be a joy and a delight to you, and people are going to rejoice at his birth, and God's going to be pleased with him. And look at Zechariah's response. How can I know this is going to happen? You know, I hear all this goodness, and I go, well, wait a minute here, Lord. And I love Gabriel. I don't know if this will ever make it into a movie, but I can see Gabriel kind of going, I'm Gabriel, and I stand in the presence of God, and you tell me how can this happen? What was his penalty for that? He couldn't speak for nine months. But imagine for just a moment today if your positive truths, your thoughts, feelings toward some other people in this room, let's say three or four or five other people, imagine for just a moment if those thoughts that you've had there for some people in this room were flashed up on this screen or this screen over here. Now, I didn't say negative thoughts. I said positive ones. Imagine what do you think they would think? They'd probably say, wow. You mean you feel that way about me, Tim? You really feel that? And how many of you think there'd be some incredulity? People would say, I don't believe it. Why didn't you tell me you felt that way? Why didn't you tell me you had good feelings about me? Because all along I thought you kind of thought I was weird. It's amazing, isn't it, how rarely we express the positive, good things that are inside of us. Now, back in Luke chapter 1, where we read the paragraph about Mary and Elizabeth, I want you to see something very significant in the Word of God today about expressing, expressing positive truths. You see, Mary receives the Word from the angel that she's going to be pregnant by the Holy Spirit. And she runs off, look at verse 39, to a town in the hill country of Judah, verse 40, where she enters Zechariah's house and greeted Elizabeth. The word greet there, I did a little study of it, espazomai is the word that's translated scores of other times in the New Testament, salute or embrace, or in Acts 20, verse 1, that same word, espazomai is translated encourage. The idea is not just saying, hey, how you doing, Mary? It's Elizabeth, it's me, Mary. It's there is a positive expression coming forth from Mary to Elizabeth. A whole lot more than just say, hi, how you doing? There's an expression of encouragement coming forth. You know what happened when Elizabeth received that word, what took place? The Bible says that the baby in her womb leaped for joy. Are you getting the sense that something supernatural is starting to happen here? Let me ask you a question. When someone has spoken a positive word to you, has something in you leaped? Something in you come alive that was maybe dying out? Let me tell you something, as a person who has the opportunity to speak to people, you don't know what it means when someone says to you, hey, you really blessed me with that word. And I'm sure that many of you do things all the time that you're just longing to hear someone say, good job, that meant something. Moms, how many times have you put out a meal and yearned for someone to say, good job? Now, today we're going to go home and everyone's going to say, one, two, three, good job, mom. Yeah. Dads, how many times have you trudged in the steps, up the steps from the garage after a horrible day at work and yearned for someone in your little household to say, dad, I love you, thanks for being out there in the jungle. Think about it. Why is it so difficult? Why is it so difficult to affirm someone and to express something positive? A home group leader, a fellow brother or sister in Christ. Let me give you five reasons. Can we have these in the overhead scales? Number one, it's difficult because we feel, I don't have time. We picture that it's got to be just the right setting. We don't want some violins in the back to say, oh, honey, it's just got to be the perfect thing. That exact right time never comes. Last week, going out the door, I happened to greet someone in the hall and they said, you know, I've been meaning to write you a note. And I always want to say, well, why didn't you? But they said, but since I saw you, I'll just tell you. And I said, well, good. I'd much rather have you just tell me in the hall than write me a note. Whatever you can do. As the Nike commercial says now, just do it. Just do it. Don't sit around and wait for the perfect time. Number two, someone will say, I don't know how to express positive things. This is a much more prevalent thing than we might imagine. You know, lots of us here today grew up in a home where there was never a word of affirmation. We never saw anybody saying something positive back and forth. Husbands and wives never said good things. Fathers and sons, mothers and daughters. How many of you know at work, there's not a whole lot of good things flying back and forth most times? There are not many models about it. How about your mealtimes at home? Are they edifying wonderful times of brothers and sisters saying how great it is just to be part of this family? Or is it the food flinging back and forth? You see, we don't have models. We really don't know. We are not well-versed. I would love for our church to be known as a place where compliments never stop, where good things are being said. I'd love to have it start. I'm saying, Lord, just break something up in me and let that happen even more. Third, this is terrible to say, but it's true. Some of us are thinking, if they look better, I might look worse. If they do a great job leading the Bible study and I'm the home group leader, well, the rest of the home group, I want them to be the leader and I'll be out of my place. Be honest with ourselves. Number four, sometimes we are genuinely afraid that a compliment will make someone an overnight egotist, prideful. Ooh, I'm going to stoke that pride button. Can I just say something to that? Affirmation is so lacking in our culture. It really is so lacking that barring an all-out media blitz of extravagant proportions where you are paraded up and down Penn Avenue in Pittsburgh, I doubt anyone in the place is going to go off the deep end with pride because of some compliments and affirmation. It really is not a problem. I've never met anybody that just heard from some other people that they were doing a good job, that they were appreciated. I never heard anyone just suddenly go, hey, you know, I must be the hottest commodity around here. You just don't hear that. Lots of us are afraid. Have you ever given a compliment and prefaced it by saying, I don't want you to get puffed up with this. A lot of you have because you've told me that. Can I tell you the truth? Many people who we perceive to be egotists and prideful people are that way because when they were growing up, nobody gave them a good word. And they're still trying to please someone proving along the way that they're worth something. And really what they need is for you to tell them that, to set them free. And finally, I hear people say, I wonder if they really need it. Do they really need to have a positive word? Well, I don't know about you, but just like the commercial that was on television last winter with the dad and the little boy that come trudging in with the snow falling down and the kid goes, what? I need it bad. That commercial to go to Florida for the winter. Most of us would say when it comes to positive truths being spoken, we need it bad. We need it bad. Unless anyone thinks, and I just need to interject here, if anyone thinks that I'm doing this because I'm feeling unappreciated, that isn't the case. I'm saying this because I know many of you wrestle with these same needs in your life and many of you have wonderful, positive things to say and just haven't been saying them. You know, as Mark Twain had said, I could live two months on a good compliment. I could live two months on a good compliment. You know, a simple phrase sticks in our mind, a particular thing that someone remembers, just when we start shooting down the slopes again and things look bad, we remember that someone said that, that they cared, that they verbalized or expressed it in some way. That's why the Bible says, 1 Thessalonians 5, 13 and 14. I'll just read it for you. It says, We exhort you, brethren, encourage the faint-hearted. Hebrews 3, 13. But encourage one another every day, as long as it's called today, lest none of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Now, I want to leave you this morning with a few very specific, tangible ways that we can express positive truths in this Christmas season. How many of you are likely to be with family members you don't normally see in the course of the year? Put your hands up. Would you like to make those times that are so often laden with tension, there's electricity of a negative kind in the... Would you like to see those become a positive time? You say, Yeah, well, I haven't seen God part the Red Sea this year. I want to leave you with three very specific ways in which you teenagers can show your parents that you appreciate them. Those of you who have family and friends who you want to show something of love and appreciation, I want to share with you how you can do that. And these are three words that I used not long ago in a sermon, and so I'll ask you, if it's stuff that you're doing all the time, just bear with the rest of us. I needed refreshment, and I thought maybe some of you would. Three ways to give someone affirmation. Here they are. It's a look. It's a word. It's a touch. You can express those positive feelings so effectively, number one, by a look. You know, the eyes say an awful lot, don't they? When they're closed, they send a message. Have you ever heard anyone say, He gave me the evil eye? Have you ever been driving behind someone who's obnoxiously slow when you're on your way to the banquet, and you pull up behind them at a traffic signal, and they look in their rear view mirror, and that's all you see is their eyes in that rear view mirror? Come on, you know what I'm saying? And you know. I mean, you can't hear them saying anything. All you see, your eyes meet their eyes in their rear view mirror. And a lifetime of stuff comes out right there, you know? Our eyes communicate, don't they? They communicate powerfully. The Bible says that the eye is the window of the soul. On Tuesday evening, about a hundred children from Eden Christian Academy here in Wexford and Sewickley, or whatever it was, a hundred at least, I guess, gathered up here on the platform. You know what I noticed about most all the children? You know what they did when they stood up here waiting for their song? What do you think they did? They're looking to see Mommy and Daddy. To catch the eye. They just want that little look, that little nod of approval. I was coaching our 5th and 6th grade basketball team on Thursday night. And, you know, after the guys would go down to the floor and throw the ball out for the 40th time, or whatever they, you know, kick it. They thought it was soccer, not basketball. They'd run back up the floor, and they'd look over at the bench to see what the coach's eyes were saying. Looking for that little nod, you know. Coach, I'm sorry, I'm in there. I'm going to keep trying. The eyes communicate so much. Many times, even up here on this platform, you know, musicians have a unique way of communicating. I don't know if you were there last night, you saw Alan and some of our other musicians there getting into it with Jesse Dixon, and it was just sort of an impromptu jam session, and it was a wonderful bit of musical expression. And I caught, once in a while, the eyes. I mean, he couldn't talk because the noise was full bore, but I saw the eyes talking, and we were into it. Almost like a visual high five, you know. Because things were going so great. And you can tell someone you really love them, you really care about them, you really appreciate them, when you just meet eyes. Eye to eye, face to face. Just a little look, sometimes, fills up what's been lacking in a person. And I need to tell you that it's very easy for us just to get so busy that we just go right past people and don't even let our eyes meet. Don't even, just don't even raise our heads. Too busy. The second way I think we can get affirmation to speak positive truths is through the Word, verbally. Verbally, you know, the Bible says in Proverbs, I think I read it yesterday, 18, that the power of life and death is in the tongue. How many here have ever been destroyed verbally? It hurts, doesn't it? Sticks and stones break my bones, but names, no