Your Tongue Is a Pen, Your Heart Is a Canvas: Five Keys to Self-Image

Sermon outline

You are God's handpicked, precious treasure and a king and priest in life, so think, plan, speak and believe in line with how God sees you, not how you feel.

1. Your soul must prosper

   Prosperity and health are God's revealed will; it is fine to start off struggling but not to stay there. Sin, sickness and disease are evil twins with Satan as their father, so reject them with the word. Man is spirit, soul and body, and the soul, the mind, prospers by taking in the word of God, which then sinks into your spirit and gives direction. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he, so let the word lead, then faith, with feelings at the back.

   Illustration: A train whose front engine is the word of God, then faith, with your feelings right at the end.

   “It's okay to start off struggling. It's not okay to stay there.”

   • 3 John 2
   • John 10:10
   • Matthew 4:4
   • Proverbs 23:7

2. You were born of love, not fear

   You were born again of the incorruptible seed of the word, and God is love, so you are a product of love. Go by what God says about you, not by people's opinions, your feelings or your past experiences. What knocked you down two years ago you will brush aside today, because you have grown and developed faith muscles.

   Illustration: Sunbathing in the love of God and getting a beautiful tan on life.

   “You are designed for success. You are wired for success.”

   • 1 John 4:18
   • 1 Peter 1:23
   • 1 John 4:8
   • Ephesians 1:6

3. Keys 1 and 2: Utilise your imagination and establish a new identity

   He recaps the first two keys from the previous messages. In Christ you are a new creature, so your background no longer matters: dream big dreams. You have today what you thought about yesterday, so design your tomorrows today, whether you live in a one-room shack or mop toilets for a living.

   Illustration: The car you are embarrassed to drive is only your temporary station; think about the car you are going to drive, because there is no law against imagining good things.

   “You have today, what you thought about yesterday.”

   • 2 Corinthians 5:17

4. Key 3: Set definite goals

   Man is a goal-seeking organism, and people who fail have no definite goals. Set goals for twelve hours, a day, a week, a month, a year and for five, ten and twenty years, because without a plan God cannot connect you to the right people and resources. Title your plan 'My future is bright', meditate on angels and the goodness of God rather than demons, and keep an eternal goal of reaching souls, living unselfishly as a role model to others.

   Illustration: When he drives or travels he thinks about how many angels are around him, one in the car, one above it, one beside him. A teacher's pupils and a manager's junior staff are watching and saying 'one day I want to be like him'.

   “As you achieve these goals, your self-image will improve in you.”

   • 1 Thessalonians 5:5
   • Matthew 12:36

5. Key 4: Speak positive words

   Negative talk makes your spirit shrink inside, while saying 'something good's going to happen to me today' makes it rise. You are a speaking spirit: your tongue is a pen and your heart is a canvas, so paint your future with your words. Life is not for merely existing; you are a dream in the making, God's VIP, a king and priest who chooses what chair to sit in, and God gives big resources to those who plan big.

   Illustration: The Holy Spirit told him to tell the church that some sit on plastic chairs, some on wooden benches, some on cushioned chairs and some on thrones, and you choose your chair. VIPs are heavily guarded, and so are you.

   “Your tongue is a pen, and it's writing. And your heart is a canvas, and you are painting.”

   • Psalm 45:1
   • Revelation 1:6

6. Key 5: Exercise positive faith

   Fear is a spirit and faith is a spirit, so operate from the spirit of faith and reject the voice of doubt and fear, because God's voice brings peace and always says 'you can do it'. Do not be passive: if a door that God has shown you is shut, kick it open. This is not a motivational talk but God's thoughts about you.

   Illustration: When the church applied for a loan to buy its building, the bank said no again and again while his spirit said yes, and in the end three banks were competing to give them the loan.

   “I've never heard God say to me, you can't do it.”

   • Philippians 4:7
   • Philippians 4:13
   • Matthew 11:12
   • Colossians 1:27

7. A chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation

   'Chosen' means handpicked: you are God's favourite. 'Generation' means a chosen kind or breed: your family tree has been cut and you are grafted into the family of Jesus Christ, where the life of the Spirit supersedes your bloodline, so sickness has no right in you. Peter quotes Exodus 19, where 'peculiar treasure' means a precious jewel God guards and cleans, 'priests' means chief rulers and princes whose word is sanctioned, and 'holy' means set apart and sacred.

   Illustration: The viper fastened on Paul's hand on Malta, but the life of the Spirit in him overruled the venom in his blood. People keep jewels in special places and take them to the jeweller to be cleaned; that is how God guards you.

   “If you read your bible with religious glasses you will have religion amplified.”

   • 1 Peter 2:9
   • Leviticus 17:11
   • Acts 28:3-5
   • Romans 8:2
   • Exodus 19:5-6
   • Ephesians 6:12

8. Secure enough to serve

   This is not a call to arrogance. Jesus washed His disciples' feet and never felt small, because a secure faith image is the key to servanthood. God looked at your whole family tree and said 'this one', whatever religion you came from, just as He saw something in Moses, Joseph, Samson and Paul.

   “If you want to be a servant to all, you first got to have a faith image before you can do things that are humbling.”

   • John 13:5