Keion Henderson - Sticks and Stones

2 Kings, chapter 19. Here 's what the Word of the Lord says: Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messenger and read it. Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. He got bad news and went straight to church. This is where a lot of us mess up — when we get bad news, we stay at home. The idle mind is the devil’s workshop, so the devil works on you when you isolate yourself at home in your bedroom, with the door closed and the curtains drawn, in darkness. David was in trouble, but he said, «I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go to the house of the Lord.» Touch your neighbor and say, «I don’t care what you’re going through; go to church!»

Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said, «O Lord God of Israel, which dwells between the cherubim, Thou art God, even Thou alone; all of the kingdoms of the earth have made heaven and earth .» Verse 16: «Lord, bow down Thine ear and hear; open, Lord, Thine eyes, and see and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the Living God .»

So, Hezekiah is the king of Judah, and the Assyrians have defeated 46 besieged cities, with Judah and Jerusalem being last on their list. But no matter what, they just can’t defeat him. When the war didn’t work, he wrote a letter, because the devil knows that if you survive war, the next tool he uses is words. Look at your neighbor and say, «Neighbor, the pastor wants to talk about sticks and stones.» You may be seated in the presence of the Lord.

Sticks and stones! The Bible says, «Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.» Shall I say that again? Out of the abundance of the heart-the cavern, the stock, the reservoir- out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. In other words, out of the abundance of my thinking. We know that the heart and the mind are synonymous in Scripture; Romans 10:9 says, «If we confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in our heart,» so you can’t just believe in your heart; you have to believe in your mind as well. Therefore, the mind is actually the heart. Out of the abundance of the mind, the mouth speaks.

It is almost impossible to speak differently than you feel. I want to linger here, because people say things and claim they didn’t mean it, but if the Bible is true-not me, but if the Bible is true-that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, then you actually meant it; you just didn’t mean to say it. You thought you had a little more gravitas or discipline, but how many of you know that sometimes when you are provoked, you simply blurt out what you’ve been thinking? This usually happens when you 're angry. You take it, you take it, you take it, and then you say, «Let me tell you something …» and it all just comes out. Then you have to go home and say, «Lord Jesus, why did I say that?»

Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, which suggests it is almost impossible to separate what you feel from what you say. It takes discipline to do it. That 's why the Bible says, over in 1st Timothy, that we must bridle our tongue. Why? Because the tongue is like the rudder of a ship. Does anyone know what the rudder is? A rudder is that little thing at the bottom of a ship that determines the direction it goes. In other words, your life is moving in the direction of your mouth. Yes, we speak those things that are not as though they are.

If you have a negative outlook, then you will experience negativity in your life. Now, some of us are experiencing negativity, but we have the ability to speak positively and turn dark nights into mid-days. I can tell you right now, sitting next to you is somebody who has enough going on in their life that they should be falling apart. But they continue to say, «I’ve never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread.»

Is there anyone here who has ever felt the pressure of speaking contrary to your circumstances? How many of you are doing it right now? You are using your mouth as a weapon, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God, through the pulling down of strongholds. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, so if you want to experience life, you speak life. If you want to experience death, you speak death.

And you don’t speak based on what you’re going through; you speak based on what you want to attain. So, when you get home and look at your bank account and see it 's in the negative, don’t speak on what you see-speak on what you expect: «I shall lend to many nations and borrow from none.» The gangs are trying to ensnare my kids-if you speak it, it may happen. But if you pray over your kids while they sleep at night and say, «No weapon formed against them shall prosper,» the doctor says you have stage-four cancer, but you can say, «By His stripes…» Come on, talk to me, Church!