Religion is the opposite of relationship with Jesus.

Religion is all about performing outwardly for people

and not being transformed inwardly by God.

This is where Jesus says of religious people,

with their lips they honor me, but their hearts are far from me.

And what he's talking about here is how people speak to one another.

And can we just say that this has been a brutal year?

That we are a divided country, we are a conflicted country,

that now technology has afforded us the opportunity to communicate more than ever and what we communicate is death and not life and it is just as the apostle Paul prophesied it is it is bitterness and cursing

Bitterness. I hate you. You said this you did this. I judge you I condemn you I shame you I publicly you know Scorn you and then curse literally I'm putting a curse over you. You'll never change this is who you are, this is who you are, this is your identity,

there's no hope for you, there's no future for you.

We live in a culture of death, that's what he's saying.

And he says that the words that come out of us,

they literally kill people.

An Asp was a deadly reptile.

It was believed that Cleopatra died by suicide through an asp.

That's what he says here is an asp.

There are certain things that we say, and they literally poison and destroy people.

And see, there's this little line that we tell kids,

sticks and stones may break my bones,

but words can never hurt me.

That's not true.

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