2 Sermon Illustrations on The Power of Words

Have you ever squeezed too much toothpaste onto your toothbrush? And then have you ever tried squeezing toothpaste back into the tube? That calls to mind the old proverb, "Three things once released will not return again: an opportunity neglected, and arrow released from its bows, and a word spoken in haste." May we add a fourth-toothpaste squeezed from a tube. We could spend the next six months drawing lessons from this familiar proverb. An opportunity neglected, an arrow released, a word spoken in haste. Sometimes in our efforts to say exactly the right thing at the right time, we speak words in haste. Usually we immediately wish we could recall those words. Words spoken in haste are all those words we speak without weighing how each could be understood by the hearer(s), all those words we utter in jest, and everything we say without thinking. Perhaps the preacher was right when he quipped, "God gave us two ears and one mouth-that ought to tell us something."