Help God! I Want to Change, Part 7: Choosing Right Words

The prayer Help God I want to change is answered not by trying harder in our own strength but by planting the right seed, and part seven of the series shows that our words are seeds. The pastor teaches that God formed man from the soil, so we were made to produce. When we sow His incorruptible word in our hearts and speak it with our mouths, change starts inside us and then shows up in our lives. When we speak corruption, we reap corruption.

This message continues from Help God! I Want to Change, Part 6: Choose Your Associations Wisely, which taught the church to choose its associations well. Below you will find the full video, a structured summary, the Scripture behind each point (linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline and practical steps for this week.

Sermon at a Glance

This message was posted at NTC Ministries on October 5, 2021, and runs about an hour, ending with a salvation prayer and communion. The pastor begins by acknowledging that many people find it hard to hear about change, because they have tried everything in their own strength and nothing got better. The good news, he says, is that God did not leave us to change alone, and He tells us exactly how.

He recaps the series so far: man was created to change; eternity is in man’s heart; the path of change; entering into God’s rest; entering God’s rest brings eternity into time; and choose your companions well. Part seven adds the next step: choosing right words.

Created From the Soil to Produce

To explain why words matter, the pastor goes back to the first teaching in the series. Genesis 1:1 says God created the heavens and the earth. The Hebrew word for earth there is eretz, which he explains as the globe, the planet as a whole.

But in Genesis 1:25–26 something different appears. God made everything that creeps on the earth, and here the pastor says the second word for earth is adamah: the soil, the dirt, the ground we can work to make it produce. Then God says, “Let Us make man in Our image,” and the word for man is Adam, from the same root.

The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7). The pastor’s point is that God made us not just from dirt but with the same capacity as soil. In the beginning, soil was only meant to produce good things and blessings, and so were we. Corruption later gave dirt the ability to get people dirty, but that was not the original design.

Each day of creation closes with “the evening and the morning.” Yet on the seventh day, when God rested (Genesis 2:1–3), that phrase does not appear. God created time and worked within it for six days, then entered rest, which the pastor describes as eternity, without beginning and without end.

Corruption and the Love of God

Adam fell, the pastor says, by letting his wife talk with the serpent when his job was to guard the garden. God never wanted man to know evil; He only wanted them to know good. Through the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, corruption came into the whole earth.

People say God cursed Adam, but the pastor says God was explaining the consequence. It is like handing someone a packet of seeds and saying, this is what you sowed, and this is what will come up. Thorns and thistles and lifelong toil followed (Genesis 3:17–19).

Why did God create us at all? The pastor recalls a seminary professor in Dallas who said God created Adam because He was lonely. The Lord spoke to him that if He were lonely, nothing He created would fix it. God does not change (Malachi 3:6). God is love, and love needs an object to be expressed to, or it cannot be known.

That is why disasters are not God’s doing. In the pastor’s words, “it’s corruption.” Whatever a man sows, he reaps; sow to the flesh and reap corruption, sow to the Spirit and reap everlasting life (Galatians 6:7–8). He recalls first seeing his wife and feeling love he had never known; without an object, he would never have known it. When we receive Jesus, the love of God is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5).

God did not condemn Adam; He made a way back. He placed cherubim at the garden, which the pastor teaches represent a place of worship, and guarded the tree of life so man would not live forever knowing only evil (Genesis 3:24). Change comes when we are born again “not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever” (1 Peter 1:23).

How do you know someone has been born again? They want to change; there is evidence of the seed. Those with only a religious shell have a form of godliness but deny its power (2 Timothy 3:5), and can only see and talk about what is bad.

From Toil Into God’s Rest

People who try to change on their own become discouraged and give up. Jesus, the pastor says, was an encourager: men ought always to pray and not lose heart (Luke 18:1). That is why we keep sowing seeds of righteousness until fruit appears. Sometimes it takes months or years.

Hebrews 4:9 says there remains a rest for the people of God. The pastor reminds the church of Hebrews 3, where Israel in the wilderness heard God’s voice but hardened their hearts and grumbled, saying only the bad: we lack, we need, we can’t. Don’t be like that, he says. When you hear His voice, respond, declare it and speak it out, because those are the seeds that move you from your own toil into God’s rest.

Peter is his example. The fishermen had toiled all night. Jesus told them to launch into the deep, and Peter answered, “Nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net” (Luke 5:4–8). The catch filled both boats, and Peter confessed he was a sinful man; the pastor reads that as admitting he had doubted. Even so, acting on Jesus’ word brought the miracle.

The place of rest, he says, is where eternity comes into time and blesses us. But he has also noticed a pattern: he plants the seed again and again and sees no outward change until the change first happens inside him. That is why Scripture says to keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23).

Connecting back to part six, he warns about people who gather only to talk about what is wrong. Corruption, he says, is like a new car: it never gets better on its own. You will never wake up to find your half-ton pickup has become a three-quarter-ton. Unless we choose to sow to the Spirit, corruption only advances.

Words Are Seeds: Death and Life in the Tongue

Scripture is direct: evil company corrupts good habits (1 Corinthians 15:33). The fool has said in his heart there is no God (Psalm 14:1), and foolishness, the pastor explains, is refusing to live the way God says. So forsake foolishness and live (Proverbs 9:6), and walk with the wise, because the companion of fools will be destroyed (Proverbs 13:20).

He adds that settling for good is an enemy of God’s best. The motto of the church’s school is “good better best, I’ll never rest until my good is better and my better is best,” and that, he says, comes only by letting God sow into our lives.

A pastor in Pennsylvania once told him he did not believe words are seeds. His answer was Proverbs 18:21: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” You cannot get fruit without planting a seed. If words are not seeds, they could not produce fruit, good or bad.

If words are seeds, then the truth has to be planted and kept. Knowing the truth takes continuing in it. Jesus said that if you abide in His word, you are His disciples indeed, and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free (John 8:31–32). Hearing alone does not set anyone free; you have to take hold of it and apply it.

He tells of a man near the Ohio–Kentucky border who raised money for a retreat for weary ministers. A year later, the man said it was not happening the way he expected, so it must not have been God, and he had built himself a house on the land instead.

The pastor contrasts that with his own story. When he came to the region, he was publicly told to leave town, and invitations came from as far as the Bahamas and Hawaii. When his wife once questioned staying, he told her he would pack his bags if she could say they had done everything God sent them to do. They stayed, because through faith and patience we inherit the promises (Hebrews 6:12). He says the ministry now has churches in 34 nations, along with schools, daycares, clinics and radio.

Abide in the Vine and Stake Your Claim

When we enter God’s rest, the light of His glory shines and the corruption of the world cannot take hold of us. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it (John 1:5), which the pastor explains means it could not take hold of it.

In John 15:4–7, Jesus says that a branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine. Disciples bear much fruit; they stumble sometimes, but they get up.

The Greek word for abide, meno, he teaches, means to stake a claim. He pictures the gold rush after the strike at Sutter’s Mill. A miner who found gold staked his claim and registered it, but that was not enough, because others would try to jump it. That, he says, is what the devil does when God gives you a word. To abide is to fight off everything that would steal it.

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” He stayed with the word until it produced its fruit, he says, “but first it had to change me.” It changed the company he kept, the way he talked and the way he thought, and only then did the changes show in the natural.

So he poses two questions: what will it cost me to believe God, and what will it cost me to believe the devil? The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10). Believing God may cost you everything, as Kathryn Kuhlman used to say, but what we give Him, He gives back better. He will withhold no good thing from those who walk uprightly (Psalm 84:11), and when we give, it is given back to us (Luke 6:38).

Speak What God Says, Not What You Have

Parents, teachers and judges tell people to change, but without God it cannot happen. We are a garden, and without incorruptible seed we will only produce corruption, because words are seeds too. He shares that he and his wife went through rocky times in their marriage, but they kept sowing the word through confessions over each other, and it changed them.

Because words are seeds, faith has to be spoken. He reads 2 Corinthians 4:13: “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak. Paul is quoting David in Psalm 116:10, and we have the same spirit of faith. In Romans 10:8–9, the word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. That is how salvation comes, and how a disciple keeps living.

He encourages people to confess the outcome God promises, not only to say they owe no one anything but love (Romans 13:8). He reports that a church member had just shared that her household was now completely debt free.

Ephesians 4:29–30 says, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification.” Edification means to build, he explains. If Jesus came to build His church, everything we say should build, not tear down.

Whatever your need is, that is what the seed has to be. If a farmer named John spent the spring walking around pointing at weeds, he would harvest weeds; if he planted corn, he would get corn. So instead of repeating that you have nothing or that your problem never changes, speak what God says: by His stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:4–5). Put off anger, wrath, malice and filthy language (Colossians 3:8); you cannot afford to live by your emotions.

The mouth of the righteous is a well of life (Proverbs 10:11). He leads David’s prayer from Psalm 19:14, that the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts would be pleasing to the Lord, and then invites anyone not yet born again to become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). At communion he reads 1 Corinthians 10:16, “the cup of blessing which we bless,” and says that is the heart of it: we speak words that bless.

Help God I Want to Change: Steps for This Week

The pastor’s closing prayer asks God to change us and keep changing us, and commits to sowing seeds of truth and righteousness. Here are practical steps from the message:

• Treat your words as seed. Before you speak about a problem, ask what crop that sentence will grow.
• Speak the outcome. Find what God’s word says about your need and declare that, instead of describing what you have.
• Read Scripture aloud. Believe and therefore speak, letting the word sit in both your heart and your mouth.
• Stake your claim. When God gives you a promise, expect claim jumpers and keep holding on until it bears fruit.
• Guard your company. Spend less time with those who only rehearse what is wrong, and walk with the wise.
• Pray Psalm 19:14 daily. Ask that the words of your mouth and the meditation of your heart please the Lord.

Timestamped Outline

• 0:00 Recap of the series and today’s topic
• 1:05 Eretz: God created the earth
• 2:08 Adamah: man made from the soil
• 4:51 The seventh day and God’s rest
• 6:01 Adam’s fall and corruption
• 7:10 Love needs an object
• 10:38 The cherubim and a way back
• 11:50 Born again of incorruptible seed
• 15:27 Hebrews 4: a rest for the people of God
• 16:34 Peter’s catch: nevertheless at Your word
• 18:52 Change happens inside first
• 19:57 Choose your associations
• 23:11 Evil company corrupts good habits
• 25:47 Proverbs 18:21: words are seeds
• 27:06 John 8: continue in the word
• 29:02 Sticking with what God said
• 33:09 Light shines and darkness cannot hold it
• 34:14 John 15: abide in the vine
• 35:10 Meno: staking a claim
• 37:17 What will it cost to believe God?
• 41:40 2 Corinthians 4:13: I believed and spoke
• 44:03 Ephesians 4:29: no corrupt word
• 48:53 The mouth of the righteous is a well of life
• 51:21 Salvation invitation
• 55:22 Communion and the cup of blessing

Help God I Want to Change Series

This message belongs to a series on how God changes His people from the inside out:

• First message: Help God! I Want to Change, Part 2 — Eternity in the Hearts of Men
• Previous: Help God! I Want to Change, Part 6: Choose Your Associations Wisely
• You are here: Help God! I Want to Change, Part 7: Choosing Right Words
• Next: Help God! I Want to Change — Bearing Fruit for What Jesus Paid For

Frequently Asked Questions

Is speaking positively the same as lying about my situation?

The pastor does not ask anyone to deny what is happening. He openly acknowledges hard seasons, opposition and rocky times in his own marriage. His point is about which seed you choose to plant. Rehearsing the problem plants more of the problem, like a farmer who only points at weeds. Speaking what God’s word says about the outcome plants the crop you need, and he says the change shows inside first, then outside.

Why does change take so long even when I confess the word?

He says it is not overnight, and sometimes not for months or years. Seeds grow over time, and the inward change has to come before the outward one. He also warns about giving up the way the man building the ministers’ retreat did. Through faith and patience we inherit the promises, so the call is to keep sowing and keep abiding until the fruit appears.

What does communion have to do with my words?

At the close of the service, the pastor reads about the cup of blessing which we bless. He explains that blessing means declaring goodness over someone, the way people honor a bride and groom. Communion, he says, is not a time to ask God how bad things are, but to put away the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and choose to speak blessing.

Scripture References

All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:

• Genesis 1:25–26 and Genesis 2:7 — man formed from the soil
• 1 Peter 1:23 — born again of incorruptible seed
• Hebrews 4:9 — a rest for the people of God
• Proverbs 18:21 — death and life in the tongue
• John 15:4–7 — abide in the vine
• 2 Corinthians 4:13 — I believed and therefore spoke
• Ephesians 4:29–30 — no corrupt word
• Proverbs 10:11 — a well of life
• Psalm 19:14 — the words of my mouth

How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.

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