Power of Words (1 of 12)

Mike Connell

Page 4 of 10
Gangrene - ask somebody have you got gangrenous words? Oh, cancer. See the word cancer? Uses words like a king. It's like it eats away, like a worm eating away. Think about that. That's a horrible picture. I don't like the smell of that. I don't want to have cancer. I'll get you another couple of words. Here's another word found in James, Chapter 3, Verse 8. Just read the verse there, and it talks about words, or the tongue. Here it is; No man can tame the tongue, for it us unruly or uncontrollable evil, full of deadly poison. Now that word poison there actually has two meanings to it, so we're going to give you both meanings. You notice what it says, it says deadly. That means it carries death. The tongue can carry death.

Imagine just carrying a little bag around on you and you got something to give to people. Here it is. Some people have got a little bag of it, some people have got a huge bag of it, but here they're carrying it around and you know what it is? That word deadly means death bearing. They carrying around death, ready to give it to someone, and the word poison has two meanings. Number one, it means rust. It means literally rust. Any of you know about rust? Men know about rust. Get it in your car, it's a big problem. In fact rust, you know you get it in your car, and it starts off as a little bit, then it begins to spread and it starts off like a little wee bit on the surface, and then it begins to eat. Finally it's eaten the metal out, then it begins to spread out, so you kind of cover it up and patch it up but it breaks out again. So you cover it again and patch it up, breaks out again, put some paint over it. But in the end if there's rust there, it always comes through the paint. No matter how good the car looks, the rust always come through the paint, so no matter how sweet you dressed yourself up, no matter how good we look on the outside, if we've got bitterness and negativity in our heart, it's a rust that eventually shows through that fine paintwork of yours.

You go along and test a new car if you want to buy a second car. You go along and test it, the thing you want to look for is rust. Some cars, in England, they put salt on the road where there's a lot of snow. Of course the car gets the salt under it, and it just eats the thing out. You've got this fine looking car, but underneath she's all eaten out. It's actually not fit for the road, so you take your car - now one of the things they'll put the car off the road for is rust. So you get your car down there and it looks fine, starts up, got a lovely stereo pumping, looks nice, everything's painted up and looks good. Take it down there and then they cancel the Warrant. There's no new Warrant given to you and you say why? Why didn't I get a new Warrant? Look at the stereo! Look at the car seats. Look at the colour, look at the paint on the thing, it's brilliant! And they say it's got rust underneath in the chassis - so it's not roadworthy.

How about a Christian being not roadworthy? Called on a great mission, but no Warrant of Fitness. Got no Warrant of Fitness, what happens? You leave your car parked out on the road, no Warrant of Fitness, come on. Now don't tell me you don't know. There wouldn't be many of us haven't had that one time. No Warrant of Fitness, they give you a fine. You should not be on the road. You're not even allowed to park it on the road. When you haven't got a Warrant of Fitness, it's a crime even to have it out on the road. Imagine Christians being without a Warrant of Fitness, out on the road, trying to extend the kingdom of God. Trouble is their chassis's full of rust. Negative talk spewing out, criticise the boss, talking negatively about this, negatively about that, they're on about every kind of thing. Listen, that is not roadworthy. You can't accomplish anything with that kind of rust working in your life. You've got to get it out, got to cut the rust out, get the thing strengthened. Sometimes you've got to actually cut it all out, put a whole new beam in there.