Flip the Script
Speaker: Pastor Darin Browne
Genesis 15:1-6
After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
Words have power. We looked at this previously, and I want you to see the truth that the enemy uses words to influence people, to modify the way they think. The enemy uses the media who uses phrases that are less offensive to try and change your thinking, to win your approval. It’s been happening for years, in the thirties it was propaganda, today fake news. Different name, same devil.
WORDS ARE DESIGNED
So instead of gay marriage we have marriage equality. Instead of adultery we call it an affair. Instead of abortion, instead of the murder of babies, which is what it is, we are told it is women’s reproductive rights. Words designed to subtly change our thinking!
Proverbs 23:7 (KJV)
For as he thinks in his heart, so is he
What you think governs who you are, and it is heavily influenced by words that have been spoken over your life. Today I want to look at the words spoken over our lives, past, present and emerging.
WORDS SPOKEN ARE THE SCRIPTS OF LIFE
Like it or not, we live in a world that is scripted, and the enemy wants you to elevate the script. It’s like a TV Show, where during filming you have to act out and follow what someone else has written for you. We are told that because our parents’ marriage failed, so must ours. That if they had heart disease, so will we. We are told it’s in our DNA.
DNA, deoxyribonucleic acid, is the building blocks of life. It scripts what your lives will look like physically to a large degree.
Spiritual DNA also exists, a code made up not of nucleotides but of words, and these words can be good or evil. It scripts what your life will look like, just like DNA. Spiritual DNA is made up of words.
Proverbs 18:21
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.
What words have been spoken over your life? Were you called a mistake? Were you told you didn’t have it in you to be a success? These words have power, but an evil script can be rewritten by God’s more powerful words! The Word of God can modify your spiritual genetics!
GOD IS A SCRIPT CHANGER
Often, we don’t even recognise we are reading from scripts. On TV, actors read from scripts to act out a part. Sometimes we act a certain way, and we are not sure why. But today is the day we flip the script.
Abraham had a script. God had given him a promise, but often we let the facts override the promise. We say, “I know Your Word says this, but the experts tell me that.”
Genesis 12:7
Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
Offspring? Seriously? He was almost one hundred years old and had no children.
Genesis 15:3-6
And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
Abram means “Exalted father,” and that was the joke of it. “Hey dude, I’m looking around and not finding any kids, you might want to change your name.” That was the script…Abram was fatherless, everyone knew it. So, he and Sarai thought they might just help God out a bit, and he got Hagar the servant girl pregnant. “See God, here’s the heir you promised.”
GOD CAN CHANGE YOUR SCRIPT
God doesn’t need your help to change a script; He has His Word, and it is living and active. So, God appeared to Abram, after the birth of Ishmael, and changed Abram’s name.
Genesis 17:4-5
“Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.
Thanks a lot, God. You have changed my name to make the problem even more obvious! Might as well just call me Mr Fertility!
Genesis 17:18-19
And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.
Abraham was given a script, then he tried to adapt the script, but God said no, I’m going to flip the script.
WHAT SCRIPTS ARE YOU READING FROM?
We live in a world where the enemy wants you to elevate his script above God’s promises for your life. He wants to dictate what happens, and like dutiful actors, we are expected to act according to the script.
I was told by a pastor on the Coast some years ago that I’d never be a leader, I don’t have it in me. I’ve been told I cannot hear God. That I’m missing God’s will. I’ve been told that in my family people die of heart disease. These are the scripts I’ve been told over the years.
Proverbs 12:18
There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
IT’S ONLY WORDS
I’ve suffered sword thrusts and so have you. The Bee Gees sang, “It’s only words.” They used to say, “sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” That is not true, words can destroy you! The world will tell you that you simply need to conform, just fit in, follow the script like everyone else, you’re not that special, but my Bible says…
Psalms 139:14
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
God made you on purpose for a purpose, and if you from read His script instead of the enemy’s script, you will discover a different purpose. Don’t settle today for acting out a substandard script! The world hates it when you don’t follow their script, but I’m telling you that today we need to flip the script!
It’s true for us, and it’s true for Nambour! What’s Nambour’s narrative? It’s down and out, it’s full of homeless people, nothing good ever comes out of Nambour. It is time to flip the script, and when God flips it, we march to a new and triumphant beat! I proclaim today that there is a new script for this city. And for you!
HOW DO YOU RECOGNISE A SCRIPT?
Most of the scripts we act out in our lives have been written by someone else, and most of the time we don’t even recognise it. How many times have you said words in anger or frustration and then thought, where did that come from? You are acting out a script.
Matthew 15:18
But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.
Luke 6:45
The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
But how do you even recognise you’re reading the wrong script?
By what you say, that’s how! Your words will always locate you. Your words reveal what you have in your heart, especially when you are angry. Pay attention to what you say when you are angry! What comes out under pressure is usually the hidden truth!
THE SPIRIT OF EVIL MANIFESTS IN WORDS
Evil lives and is manifest in words and scripts of words, that’s why the enemy produces fake news. It is words that hold power, for evil or for good. But understand, evil and sin are not the same.
The devil and his angels are evil, and they cannot be redeemed. Mankind has been influenced by their evil, and therefore sins. Jesus died to redeem us, to buy us back from sin. Our sins are forgiven at the cross, but evil cannot be forgiven, it is totally wicked. Evil is not a person, or an action, it is a wicked, demonic spirit, and it manifests through words!
Proverbs 15:28
The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things.
Adolf Hitler spewed out all kinds of evil words, especially against the Jews. He died in 1945, but the spirit just went looking for others to use as a mouthpiece. Today, eighty years later, we have more antisemitism than ever in my memory, same as the 1930’s. Different actors, same spiritually evil script.
SO HOW DOES A SCRIPT WORK?
Words are spoken all the time over our lives. Jurgen Matthesius said last week at our conference, and it has me. Think about words. Words are made up of what? Letters, and when you arrange the letters, you can spell out words. Words are, in fact, spells. That’s what witches cast using words, and when evil words are spoken over us…they are evil spells.
Galatians 3:1
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?
Bewitched is the word BASKAINO, which means to speak ill of, to charm or cast a spell. Evil words spoken over our lives can bewitch us, because they are spells. If negative words have been spoken over you, they are like spells. Without your knowledge, you start acting out a script that someone else’s words have written, as if under an evil spell.
But let me speak truth into that situation. Let me share a promise from the Word…
Proverbs 26:2
Like a sparrow in its flitting, like a swallow in its flying, a curse that is causeless does not alight.
Those words, those spells spoken over you can be instantly broken by the right words, God’s Word! They do not have to alight in your life.
THE CURE FOR EVIL SPELLS IS THE GOSPEL!
We don’t have to just blindly or passively accept the evil spells spoken over our lives with evil words. Paul lived under a different spell, the gospel, and so can we. In fact, so did Abraham, because Paul writes…
Galatians 3:8-9
And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
Abraham flipped the script because God broke the spell of infertility in his life when he preached the gospel to him. The spell was broken. The cure for evil spells is the gospel.
We can flip the script that has been spoken over our lives, even over the lives of our forefathers, because if Satan has powerful words, I declare that the words of our God are far more powerful!
Matthew 24:35
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
SCRIPTURE FLIPS THE SCRIPT
You can’t spell the Word Scripture without spelling the Word script; this is the power of Scripture. Spiritual DNA is a code made up of words, logos words, it’s a script we follow. The devil’s script makes you act out things you are not even aware of. But,
Every time you come into church here and you have an encounter with the Scripture, what the Scripture can do is flip the script for your life, and for this city.
Hebrews 12:2
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith;
Jesus is the author of your faith, and finisher. He is the author, the one who writes the script, if you will let Him. Jesus is not going to give the pen to the devil to write the end of your story. He’s the author and finisher, and He is not done yet writing your story!
Your history is the result of spiritual DNA, written by the enemy of our souls, and that’s why history repeats itself…it has to, because no one is listening. I see this all the time. An alcoholic father gives birth to an alcoholic son. A single mum gives birth at sixteen, and then her daughter does the same, and her daughter as well. History repeats. But think about this…
When you line words up and put a period at the end, what do you call it? A sentence, and so many today, even Christians, live under the devil’s sentence. The Word of the Lord is going to flip the script. Scripture trumps the script, just as it did for Abraham. When God’s Word is spoken, the spell is broken, the script is flipped, and your history becomes His story!
WORDS OF FAITH AND LIFE
God spoke words of faith and life to Abraham, and He speaks words of life to you today too.
John 6:63
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
When God spoke to Abraham, His Word flipped the script. God’s Word filled Abraham with faith and made him stop believing the sentence he was under. By faith, his sentence was removed, the gospel negated the devil’s spell and the script that he had been following all his life was flipped.
Romans 4:19-21
He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.
TODAY WE CAN FLIP THE SCRIPT
Words have been spoken over you from birth, even before your birth, but they were not God’s Word. Words have been spoken over Nambour, and these were not God either. Today, we are going to do some script rewriting. Today I declare that the script, the spell spoken over Nambour is broken. This is a town built on God’s Word for God’s people, and it will be again.
Many of you have had words spoken over you in the past, and I declare that it is time to flip the script. You’ve been told you are no good, you won’t succeed, you’ve inherited that disease, you’re destined to fail. Maybe you’re acting out the script of addiction, of divorce, of financial failure. Let’s flip the script today! The true author is in the house, and He ain’t done writing your story. Your history is about to become His story! God’s Word says this…
Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
That’s the new script God has written for you! If words spoken over you have been like evil spells, today we need to break them, because the go-spel flips the script!
Psalms 107:20
He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction