YOU HAVE WHAT YOU SAY
Read: Mark 11:12-14 & 20-26
INTRODUCTION
When I was growing up I remember a phrase that was said quite often and that was
“sticks and stones can break my bones but names will never hurt me.”
I thought that was true at the time, but have now discovered that it isn’t. Oh yes it’s true
that sticks and stones could break your bones but it’s also true that names can hurt you,
for words that come out of your mouth are very powerful. They can either bring life or
death to you or to someone you direct them to.
*Proverbs 18:21 says:
The tongue has the power of life and death and those who love it will
eat its fruit.
Or in other words, whatever comes out of your mouth, you will have to live with it. What
you say is very important, for once words are said they cannot be retracted. Now some
people say, “I said that without thinking.” I personally find that hard to believe for the
thought must first be formed in your mind before it comes out of your mouth and Jesus
says in Matthew 12:34 “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.” So
whatever is on your mind will come out of your mouth, therefore we must carefully
weigh our words because you will have what you say and if you want good things then
you will need to say good things which is what my text is all about. It’s about saying
good things and receiving what you say. This evening I want to give you three things you
must do in order to receive good things from God.
The first thing is, you will have what you say when you confess it with your mouth.
Confession is God’s way of changing your heart. When it comes to salvation, Paul writes
in Romans 10:9-10:
9: That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in
thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
10: For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation.
Not only is confession how we get saved, it’s also how we stay saved for 1 John 1:9 says:
9: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness.
In other words, whenever you make a mistake in your Christian walk all you need to do is
to confess that sin to God out of a sincere heart and he will forgive you and cleanse you
from all unrighteousness.
Now the word confess is an interesting word for it means to declare – to make a statement
or to profess something and when it come to living an overcoming life your confession
must be positive.
There are too many people in the body of Christ who speak negative things over their
lives and the lives of their loved ones and they wonder why they can’t seem to have
victory. Proverbs 6:2 says you can be trapped by what you say, you can be ensnared by
the words of your mouth. So whatever you say then should be positive and not negative.
Mark Chapter 11, which is my text, tells us what we should do. Jesus is giving His
disciples a lesson on faith. It all begins when they had left Bethany and were on their way
to Jerusalem. Verse 12 says Jesus was hungry and seeing a fig tree from a distance went
to it to get some figs. There were no figs on it because they hadn’t come on yet so Jesus
said unto the fig tree, “Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.” This was a positive
confession of faith. Lest we try to read anything else into the cursing of the fig tree. I
believe the sole purpose for doing so was to teach His disciples an important truth. For in
Verse 20 when they pass by the fig tree the next day it is all dried up from the roots and
Peter seeing that said to Jesus, “Rabbi look, “ The fig tree you cursed has withered”. And
Jesus said, “Have Faith in God.”
The withered fig tree was a result of Jesus positive confession of faith. A positive
confession of faith simply means you are speaking forth-good things that are going to
happen regardless of what the circumstances are. If you are sick your positive confession
of faith is you are going to be well. If you are having financial struggles, your positive
confession of faith is, “God will supply all your needs and you will have some left over to
give to others in need.” If you have unsaved loved ones, your confession of faith is that
they will be saved. If you’re faced with what looks like impossible circumstances, your
confession of faith is that God is going to turn things around in your favor.
But how many times do we say negative things. Most all of us are guilty at one time or
another of doing this, including myself. You look outside and see it is a cold, wet, rainy
day and you say, “What a yucky day this is going to be.” Or your bills seem to be piling
up and you say, “We are never going to get out of debt.”
When our kids were younger they always wanted to go out to eat on Sunday evening after
church. Sometimes we did, but sometimes we didn’t because our budget wouldn’t allow
it. We told the kids we couldn’t afford it. This seemed to have a negative effect on them
and was certainly not faith building, because that became our excuse for any extra
curricular activity. So one night after church Zach wanted to go out to eat and he begged
and begged. Rather than say we couldn’t afford it I told him okay we would go to the
Miller Restaurant. He got all excited and ran and told Angela and Jodi. Well when we
pulled up into our driveway, Zech said, “Hey, I thought you said we were going to the
Miller Restaurant.” I said, “This is the Miller Restaurant and your mother is the cook.”
Saying positive things does not negate the fact that things don’t look good. I know there
is such a thing as reality. But confessing positive things is an act of faith and fits nicely
with Hebrews 11:1 which says:
1: Now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of
things not seen.
In other words, you may not see the answer to your problem but by faith you know it’s on
the way. It’s called confessing things not as they are but as they will be.
It is a known medical fact that positive confession promotes healing where negative
confession can actually cause disease. So what do you want? Health or sickness. And it
doesn’t make any difference what the doctor says. If he tells you things are going to get
worse then start confessing things will get better. You will have what you say if you
confess it with your mouth.
Point 2
Now the second way to receive good things from God is you will have what you say if
you believe it in your heart.
Now I know if can be a big word, but it doesn’t have to be. Let’s look at my text. Jesus
says in Verse 3:
3: For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, “Be removed
and be cast into the sea,” and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that
those things he says will come to pass, he will have whatever he says.
When Jesus spoke to that fig tree he did so in faith because it was a perfectly healthy fig
tree and there was no reason for it to die and yet he knew the next day it would be dead
and sure enough it was. That’s what it means to not doubt but simply believe that your
confession of faith will come to pass. Sort of like Elijah after he killed the 450 prophets
of Baal he told King Ahab it was going to rain. Now it had not rained in 3 ½ years and
there were no clouds in the sky to indicate it was going to rain. Nevertheless, Elijah said
it was and it did.
Why can’t we believe like that today? Maybe it’s because we live in a skeptical world
that says, I won’t believe it until I see it, like doubting Thomas. Jesus appears to the
disciples after the resurrection but Thomas is not there. Well after Jesus leaves Thomas
comes back and the disciples said, Hey Thomas, we saw Jesus in person He’s Alive.
Even though these were all his trusted fellow disciples, he would not believe. No he said,
“ I won’t believe unless I see him with my own eyes.
What if I told you my dog T.J. could do a double backward flip off a high diving board
and land paws first in the water. How many of you would believe me? Why not, I’m a
preacher?
Maybe because you have never seen anything like it before. So when Thomas finally saw
Jesus, what did Jesus say to him? He said, “Because you have seen me you have
believed. But blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed.”
How many of you here this morning are saved? How many of you saw Jesus when you
got saved? You actually saw him? Then how do you know you are saved? By faith!
If you got saved by faith and know you are on your way to Heaven without seeing Jesus
then why can’t you just believe without seeing for whatever you need you have.
Jesus said by your confession of faith you can say to any mountain or any obstacle that
the devil would try to put in your path—be removed and cast into the sea and if you don’t
doubt but believe in your heart then your confession of faith will come to pass.
There is an old legend of a benevolent king who had his men place a great heavy stone on
a certain roadway over which his subjects would have to travel. He then hid himself to
see who would try to remove the stone. No one stopped to try to remove the stone, but all
worked their way around it, loudly blaming the king for not keeping the roadway clear.
Finally, a poor peasant farmer on his way to town with a load of vegetables, which he
hoped to sell in the marketplace, came to the blocked roadway. He laid down his load
and with considerable effort and loss of time managed to move the great stone to the side
of the roadway. Then turning to leave, he spied a purse which had been under the stone.
He opened the purse and found it to be filled with pieces of gold, with a note from the
king indication that it was all to be the property of the one who would remove the stone.
And this is how many people are today instead of trying to remove the obstacle Satan puts
in their path they just complain that it’s there and do nothing about it. Oh, God why did
this have to happen to me. God is saying, I allowed that obstacle in your life so your faith
could be increased so you could trust me more. Because that obstacle by faith can be
removed and when it is you will receive the blessings God has for you. Which brings me
to my third point on how to receive good things from God.
Point 3
That is, you have what you say when you receive what you confess. So that’s why it’s
important to say the right thing.
There is a story about a guy who had been lost and walking in the desert for about two
weeks. One hot day, he sees the home of a missionary. Tired and weak, he crawls up to
the house and collapses on the doorstep. The missionary finds him and nurses him back
to health. Feeling better, the man asks the missionary for directions to the nearest town.
On his way out the back door, he sees this horse. He goes back into the house and asks
the missionary, “Could I borrow your horse and give it back when I reach the town?”
The missionary says, “Sure but there is a special thing about this horse. You have to say
“Thank God” to make it go and “Amen” to make it stop.” Not paying much attention, the
man says, “sure, ok.” So he gets on the horse and says, “Thank God” and the horse starts
walking. Then he says, “Thank God, thank God,” and the horse starts trotting. Feeling
really brave, the man says, “Thank God, thank God, thank God, thank God, thank God”
and the horse just takes off. Pretty soon he sees this cliff coming up and he’s doing
everything he can to make the horse stop. “Whoa, stop, hold on!!!! Finally he remembers,
“Amen!!” The horse stops 4 inches from the cliff. The man leans back in the saddle and
says, “Thank God.”
You see whatever you say is what you are going to receive. You say well receiving is
easy isn’t it? Well it should be but receiving does require some effort. If I said I am
going to give you $100 bill you will have to do something to receive it, you will have to
get up out of your seat and come forward and this is what we call acting on your faith.
See you first confess it then believe it and then receive it.
Jesus said in verse 24 of my text:
24: Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe
that you receive them and you will have them.
It’s like the lady who had the issue of blood for 12 years and couldn’t get better. When
Jesus come into town she said, “If I can just touch the hem of his garment, I shall be
made whole.”
Now she confessed it, believed it, and did something to receive it and that was to push her
way through the crowd to touch his garment and she was made whole.
You have whatever you say so confess good things. Be positive, believe by faith and then
receive.
Now there are two more verses in this section that are there for a reason. Because if you
don’t do what they say you could be in trouble. Let’s look at them:
25: “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone,
forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.
26: But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your
trespasses.”
This almost seems like it doesn’t fit after talking about faith and yet it fits very well for
unforgiveness will destroy your faith. Notice Jesus says if you have unforgiveness
against anyone for any reason then you have sin in your life and God won’t answer your
prayer. Unforgivenss is a serious matter and you must deal with it if it’s in your life. God
wants to heal you, he wants to meet all of your needs and he will if you will just believe
and if you are in right relationship to him.
It’s time you start confessing –
Wealth instead of poverty,
Health instead of sickness,
Victory instead of defeat,
Joy instead of sorrow,
Power instead of weakness,
And start confessing for what seems impossible and God will turn your situation around.
Think big, God is on your side-Let your faith go!
