Victoria Osteen - Build People Up With Your Words
Love you in this place! Amen, amen, you may be seated. I want to encourage us all today to be bucket fillers. What's a bucket filler? A bucket filler is someone who are willing to make deposits, positive deposits in the life of other people, not only with their words but with their actions. See, a bucket filler is someone who is willing to give. There's too many bucket dippers in this world. Too many bucket dippers. What's a bucket dipper? A bucket dipper is someone who dips out of the emotional bank of others with harsh words and criticism, someone who dips out of the life of other people. You see, the thing about bucket dippers, bucket dippers don't even realize that they're depleting their own bucket. You see, when you fill other buckets, you have your bucket filled.
We want to be bucket fillers. We have tremendous power and influence with our words. Listen to what it says in Ephesians 4:29. It says, "Let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up", for benefiting the hearer, for extending grace to those other people, for building people up. You see, it is up to us. It starts with us. We can be the builders. We can be the one to turn this thing around. We don't have to go with the flow, but we can swim upstream because we have God on the inside of us, but we have to make a decision that we're going to be builders. You know, not only can we build people with our words, find the best and bring it out in them, but do you know that our words can literally be the glue that holds our relationships together? It can literally bind us together when we speak positive, faith-filled words over one another, when we're willing to pick out the good and not see the bad.
You see, it's easy to see what's wrong, but it takes a builder to see what's right. It takes a builder to know architecturally how to fix things. You are a builder today. I want to encourage you with that because too often we are unconscious about literally what we are doing throughout the day, and I want us to all go out of here saying, "I'm a builder of people. Because when I build people, I build myself. Whatever I throw out, it's going to come back to me". Joel and I've been married 30 years, and we've learned a lot about building. We've learned a lot about extending grace to one another through our words. To be married for 30 years, you know you have to give each other great grace, and you have to use your words to do it. You see, we realize, really, a good relationship is built on what you're willing to give, more than what you're willing to receive.
We all want to be loved. We all want the other person to show us kindness, but to get the kindness, we have to be willing to give because, really, what you give is really what's going to come back to you. Are you just looking for someone to give you something in your relationship? I'm telling you, this is a principle that, if we will understand, I believe things will change in our life. When we understand that being willing to extend grace and give grace is what's going to build our relationships. We've all heard this when we were young, the golden rule, your mom probably taught you. Your first-grade teacher probably had you recite it, but did you know that the golden rule is found in Matthew 7:12? It says this: "So in everything, do unto others what you have them do to you".
You see what I'm saying? Do unto others what you would have them do unto you. You know, I think about this: when you go buy a shirt or you're going to go buy an outfit at the store, you don't just run into the store and blindly grab something, pay for it, run out the door, and put it on. No, you choose wisely: you go in, you look at the clothes, you decide what's going to work for you, what will be the best for you. You take time and effort. You buy those clothes, you take them home, and you put them on. You take time to clothe yourself. I want to encourage us to take the same time to choose wisely the words that we speak out of our mouth, because the truth is this: we're going to wear those words. We are going to be a product of what we say. We are going to eat from the fruit of our lips.
You know, sometimes we just throw caution to the wind, not thinking it's going to affect us, but can I tell you: what you say is going to affect you. Now, I have to admit this: when I was a young bride and I first married Joel 30 years ago, I didn't weigh my words. I wasn't putting the glue on my relationship like I should have. I'll never forget this: God spoke to me one day, and he said, "Victoria", he said, "If you don't begin to choose your words wisely, you're going to be sorry". He basically said, "Your own words are going to work against you". I was a young bride. I was a younger, I was new to this thing, and I didn't always weigh my words right. I was used to, kind of, having my own way, doing it the way I wanted to do it, and I thought, "He should get into the program".
But can I tell you this? I stand up here today, and I remember God speaking to my heart like it was yesterday. It brought tears to my eyes. It was a serious matter, and I am so grateful that I took heed to what God told me. I began to think about what I was building. I began to think about the grace that I was extending. You see, I wanted a man that was successful. I wanted a man that believed in himself, that had confidence. I wanted to be the buoy that pushed him up, not the anchor that pull him down. I began to say what I wanted, not what I saw or what I thought I saw. I began to see the good and bring out the good. Now, can I tell you, to this day, I am not perfect, but I make far more deposits than I deposits than I do withdrawals!
It's kind of like your bank account. If you keep writing those checks, you're going to go bankrupt. You've got to put checks in. You've got to fill that account before you think about pulling anything out. So, today, I just want to encourage every one of us, we can create a life that we want with the words that we speak. If you want grace, you better extend grace because we're all becoming. I think about Peter. He was a disciple of Jesus. He walked with Jesus, and if you read about Peter's life, sometimes he was impatient. He would say things he shouldn't. In fact, his name, Simon Peter, actually means, "Pebble", and I'm sure some of the things he did, he felt like a pebble some day. But you know what? He was Jesus' disciple, and Jesus said, "Peter, you're a rock".
You see, despite Peter's personality, Jesus called the rock out of him. He spoke to the potential. And we are the church of the living God. We've got to speak to each other's potential. We are building this on a solid foundation on a rock. We can't be influenced by what we see. We've got to make a decision that we are builders because, I can tell you, if you extend grace, you will have a grace extended to you. We can all be better! We're learning, we're growing, we're becoming, we're in the process. We're creating Peters all around us as we create the Peter on the inside of us. Remember, you're a bucket filler. Stop and choose your words wisely because I believe, when you do that, when you're willing to extend grace, that same grace will come back to you, amen? Amen. He is an awesome God.