Gossip & Slander (Part 1)

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ. Based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

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Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

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In short, if you like smooth, watered down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry.

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My name's Mike Abendroth. The number to call is BR549, and you can write us info at nocompromiseradio .com.

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I get, oh, a few, three to five emails per week.

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At least those are the ones that Spencer passes on to me. We've got, there's not too many crazy people, but some that just have to change their emails as we block them because they are off on the loony bin trail.

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What was that old cowboy show they're off on? I don't know. You know, the trail, happy trails to you type of thing.

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They're on the loony bin trail. We did have somebody come to the church the other day, and I think I told the story wider than snow was the name of my sermon, and it was from Hebrews chapter one, purification for sins.

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After Jesus had made purification for sins, what did he do? He sat down, and God has cleansed us.

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The Son, God the Son has accomplished the work that the Father sent him to do, and then he made purification for sins, sat down, nothing else to do, not having to be re -sacrificed.

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The person took the signage as a prophetic proclamation, and it didn't snow that day, although it snowed the next

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Sunday in April. They said, this lady said that I was a false prophet.

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Well, I'm not a prophet, so it's hard to be a false prophet. I think the police had to be called.

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Now, we've had to have restraining orders, and we've had to call police before. Interesting, as we would say,

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I just got back from Worldview Weekend Conference in Branson, met many of you. I'm glad that you listened, and I received a thank you card in the mail today from,

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I didn't ask if I could use your last name, but from James and Kim in Tucson, and by the way, their printing, it is extraordinarily architecturally correct.

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What do you call that? Drafting. Yes, it reminds me of drafting class, so James, if you wrote that, I'm impressed, but it's probably

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Kim. She's probably, thank you, Pastor. It's a nice card, and they said, thank you for bringing such powerful messages on the biblical rules of men and women, the gospel, and setting the record straight on C .S.

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Lewis. We appreciate, Kim and I appreciate your frankness and sound biblical exposition.

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Can't wait to read things that go bump in the church. Your frankness. You know what,

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I'll take that as a compliment. I'm sure it was intended as a compliment. Thank you that you would take time to write and send it to the church, and that healthy check in there.

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Is that a bunch of 100s in that? That is so nice of you. Now, see, if there wouldn't have been any money,

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I wouldn't have read the letter. Just kidding. There was no money. They said, thank you, and I appreciate it.

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It is nice to be appreciated. And that leads into the topic for today.

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Our words can be used as vehicles of encouragement, of praise.

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Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

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I just quoted to you Ephesians 1 .3. Our family is memorizing Ephesians together. We're up to verse 6,

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I believe, chapter 1, verse 6. We can use our words to encourage. I said to someone today, great job.

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If I were your dad, I'd be proud of you. I regularly try to say that because, boy,

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I would have loved to have regularly heard that from my dad. No daddy wound stories at the moment, but we can encourage, we can praise, and we can destroy.

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James chapter 3 gives a warning about how we use our words, and they can destroy people.

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It's like fire. And today I'd like to talk about the national pastime for Christians.

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It's not baseball. It's gossip. Now, okay, I didn't make that up.

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Who said that? Some say our national pastime is baseball. Not me. It's gossip. Irma Bombeck.

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Only the old people will know who Irma Bombeck is. Back in the day, she had it going on.

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She had it going on. Very popular lady. I don't know whatever happened to Irma Bombeck.

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I want to say Irna because my grandmother's name, middle name was Irna. Her first name was Hedvig. But that didn't go over so well during World War Dos.

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Spreading secrets. Telling rumors. Murmuring about leadership and other people with false accusations.

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Have you heard? Did you know? Our problem today is it's not just our words.

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It's our fingers as an expression of our mind. As our tongue is an expression of our minds, what our minds are thinking, comes out of our mouth.

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So, too, our fingers are expressions of what our mind is thinking when it comes to Facebook.

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When it comes to Twitter. When it comes to online things and social media.

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I think that the neutral thing called the Internet has so helped us in so many ways, including this podcast.

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I'm not on regular radio anymore. But there's also negative things as well.

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You can access Greek interlinears online for no charge. Find commentaries about James chapter 3 in the tongue.

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And you can also use online stuff to just sin a lot easier. Today we're talking about gossip.

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It is diabolic. It is satanic. It is sinful.

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Tearing others down, for what reason? Might I suggest that it is to elevate yourself?

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And it goes exactly in the opposite direction of the gospel.

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If the gospel is good news, third class conditional, it is good news, since it is good news.

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And it's about what Jesus has done perfectly on behalf of sinners, enemies, ungodly, helpless.

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To use Romans 5 categories. Now the people that Jesus died for, his bride, we are going to attack.

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Jesus is, Ephesians 5, nourishing the bride, sanctifying the bride. Progressively making the bride more and more holy to match her position of holiness.

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There are six things the Lord hates, yes, seven which are an abomination to him.

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Literally, an abomination to his soul. There are some things probably that you say really irk you, really get your goat, really affect your goiter.

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You can tell I'm old. Proverbs 6, 16 and following talks about what

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God hates. Now, the use of language, and you think of Proverbs, even if you look at your

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English Standard Version Bible, how it's offset in Proverbs because these are proverbial. Duh.

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It's not a narrative. There's a certain kind of language, a figure of speech that's used.

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Not a figure of speech, but a certain style of language. That's what I'm after today. Six things the Lord hates, yes, even seven.

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That is a literary device. Yes, six things God does hate, but he especially hates the seven.

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So, there's a way to put a bold or underline or highlight using only language.

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And the way the Jews would do it, there are different ways, but one of the ways the Jews would do it is six things the Lord hates, yes, even seven, meaning the last thing is going to be the worst.

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If you'd like, it's a numerical pattern. X and X plus one.

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It's the X plus one, the last one, that's the worst. This number one stuff, they would use it in Hebrew.

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Obviously, it's right here in Proverbs 6. Akkad, Ugarit, Sumner, in those worlds, they would also use that according to the

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New Commentary. Seven abominations. Now, you've probably heard of seven deadly sins.

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These are the seven abominations. And the last one, it's got the rivet on it.

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The last one is the coup de grace. And some of these are attitudes.

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Some of these are actions. Some of these have to do with speech. There are sins that deal with eyes, hands, heart, feet.

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And let's go through the list on No Compromise Radio. Haughty eyes, that's one.

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Lying tongue, that's two. Hands that shed innocent blood, that's three.

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Notice we've got eyes, hands, tongue. Verse 18, a heart that devises wicked plans, that's four.

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Feet that run rapidly to evil, that's five.

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A false witness who utters lies, that's six. And then at the very end, the

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X plus one. A false witness who utters lies is number six. And then X plus one, and one who spreads strife among brothers.

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Hmm. As we say in No Compromise Radio, isn't that interesting?

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He starts off the list with haughty eyes. People, they are so proud, so rebellious, so defiant toward God that they will sin with literally rising pair of eyes.

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I'll just look you in the eye. I'm not going to sneak off, slump off, slump off, slunk off, slink off.

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I'm going to just look at your face. I am so arrogant. I am so high and mighty.

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I am so pompous, proud. I'm going to look you in the face and do what

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I want to do. Lying tongue is the next one, literally a tongue of deception.

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Lying tongue, Psalm 109 talks about that. It's said of Judas. Let his homestead be made obsolete and let no man dwell in it and his office let another man take.

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Psalm 109 is that very Psalm of Judas, as it were. Lying tongue hates those it crushes,

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Proverbs 26. Then it says, the third one, hands that shed innocent blood when they murder.

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Remember back to Genesis 9, whoever sheds man's blood by man, his blood shall be shed for in the image of God he made man.

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Fourthly, devises wicked schemes. The human heart is capable of wonderful things, creative things, but sadly because of the fall, creatively deadly things as well.

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They can calculate, compute, plan for good or for ill.

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Feet that are quick to rush into evil. How fast they do that, how enthusiastic they do that, how with applause, how with, what's aplomb mean?

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A word just popped into my mind, but I don't really know what it means. Rushing, not to obey, right?

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Psalm 119 .60, I hastened and did not delay to keep thy commandments. But this is the flip side.

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This is the bad side, running to disobey. Sixthly, false witness who pours out lies.

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Against the 10 commandments, perjury, false witness.

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And he pours these out, he vomits these out, he just lets them flow.

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And then now lastly, what does God hate? And by the way, isn't it mature to hate what

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God hates, to love what God loves? Isn't that a sign of godliness? And as you increase in that, isn't that a sign of maturity?

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Those who stir up dissension. Now we're going to work our way to gossip soon enough, but right now we're starting with Proverbs 6.

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What does God hate? And of course gossip can stir up dissension. We're just thinking big picture before we focus in the lens on a particular thing that stirs up dissension, that is gossip.

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Matthew Henry, quote, So Henry wisely says, before we go out on the proverbial witch hunt and look at other people's sin of stirring up dissension, and then we'll get to gossip.

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What about ourselves? Let's look to ourselves first. I assume I'm mainly talking to Christians today.

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I'm a Christian talking to Christians. And we have been purchased with a price, just as God the

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Father chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we might be what? Holy and blameless before Him.

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We are adopted as sons. And there's a certain code of behavior, not to stay in the family, but because you are family.

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To my children I might say this is how the Abendroths act. Now if they didn't act that way at the person's home for dinner,

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I don't kick them out. But there's chastisement. There's discipline. This is how the Abendroths act.

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I don't say to the kids, if you act up, you're not an Abendroth. That's very important. We are in Christ, Ephesians.

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In Him. In Christ Jesus. In the Beloved. And we have union with Him. And of course we are seen by the

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Father as never gossiping. Never stirring up dissension. Never doing what

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God hates, because the Lord Jesus never did. Can you imagine? He never stirred up dissension. Never did one of these things.

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Never sinned one time. Let alone with His hands. How about with His tongue? Never once.

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We, as Christians, in light of who we are, ought to be very careful because we don't want to do things that would displease our

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Father. Now James 4 .11. We're thinking big picture with what we do with our tongue and our attitudes.

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James 4 .11. I like it because it's also a general statement that covers things like stirring up dissension, which it would include slander and gossip.

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Do not speak against one another, brethren. James 4 .11.

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He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge of it.

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Now there are people that I've met, never ceases to amaze me. They say, well, the

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American legal definition of slander is you can say something bad about a person as long as it's true, or something to that effect.

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Well, then I look at James chapter 4 and say you're hiding behind a legal definition. It's okay to say bad things about people as long as they're true.

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What does James say? Do not speak against one another, brethren. It literally means to speak down.

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It is an imperative, and the way it's listed here in James 4, if you're doing this, stop it.

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If you're not doing this, don't ever start. Present, active, imperative, second person, plural, to speak ill.

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The grammatical construction, don't ever do it. Any form of this down speaking is considered sin.

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Yes, but it's true in content. So, what does

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James chapter 4 say? And I like this umbrella verse because maybe you're exaggerating the faults of somebody.

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Maybe you're saying things about people that are, it's true of them, but how does that lift up?

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How does that edify? How does that encourage? How does that promote unity? These might be false accusations.

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James umbrella statement would cover it. Maybe it is some type of criticism or slanderous activity.

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Doesn't take you very long to read Leviticus 19 where it says you shall not go about as a slander among your people.

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I am the Lord, influencing people negatively, behind their back.

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This is covered here in James chapter 4. Bulldozing people with your words.

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At the end of the day, most likely, I think you do it because you want to make yourself feel better and look better.

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Because it's back to the Jerry Springer theology, find other people who are worse than you. You don't have to think about your own self.

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There are churches built on this premise. Or at least I should say, they start off with this premise because they have to rob other churches via speaking down about people and it happens to be leadership.

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And I know this experientially and I know this intellectually, both kinds of Oida and Gnosko, both words for no in Greek.

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How do you start your church? Whole churches, church splits happen because they're speaking, if there were no, or let me put it this way, if there's no speaking down and ill of people, how do you get people away to come where you are?

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We have been here now for 19 years at Bethlehem Bible Church. And part of it is,

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I'm hoping mature thinking, part of it is I'm just tired. I have no master plan, dreams, concoctions, pipe dreams, some might call them, for an

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Uber mega church here in New England. And the Lord has given me a piece about it.

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No, but seriously, I have contentment. This is Jesus's church. I don't have to go whack other people to make people come here and look good.

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If this is a place you'd like to come and worship, we'd love to have you and I'm emphasizing love. But if you don't want to come here, that's fine.

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You want to go someplace else because it's better for you or your family or a wife or something like that, fine. What's required of stewards is to be faithful anyway, 1

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Corinthians 4. I will not be asked by God, how big was your church? How big was the radio station?

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How big was this, that or the other? I don't need to do that. Well, here's what happens in churches.

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Let's say somebody in the church bugs you and of course as sinful people, we do bug each other.

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Someone sins against you. Someone has something against you in some way, shape or form.

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You begin to say, well, I'm not going to forgive as Christ has forgiven me, Ephesians 4.

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I will hold that against someone. I will do exactly what the

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Bible says not to do and I will hold grudges and there'll be a bitter, a brooding spirit and then

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I'll begin to tell other people because I'm not letting this go that is forgiving. I'll hold it in then it begins to gangrenously affect you then other people.

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Tell other people about them. Pretty soon a little party has started. A little faction has started and now let's start talking about leadership and some of the things you don't like.

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I never thought we would like everything leadership does but we're tucked underneath the sovereignty of God and we just submit and go along even if we disagree but then here's the little break off group and now let's start a new church or take everybody to a different church and sadly then other pastors try not to stop that.

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They just let these people come. That's a different subject for a different day and to make yourself feel good, right?

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Why do you leave a local church? There's a proper way, a godly way, a wonderful way. Some people do that.

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I'm always just so thankful. I hate to see people go but when they leave rightly I think, you know what?

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What a blessing you are to me even when you're leaving and I'm not being sarcastic when

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I say it but then you think, well I'm not really leaving well. I don't have good reasons to leave and I'll get a bunch of other people not to have good reasons because they're in numbers.

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There's comfort. It's a faux comfort. It's a fake comfort. It's a false comfort. Is that alliteration?

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Always alliterate? And it just goes on and on and you can see why God hates it. Why does

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God hate these kind of things? We're talking hate. You know, most kids are not allowed to say the word stupid.

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How about God hates? If you think stupid's in the Bible, moronic's in the Bible. How about God hates?

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It's in there too. Entire churches are built on this premise. Oh, we can tell people negative information as long as it's true.

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Well, most people think, you know what? Telling lies is sinful. How about passing along truth that's damaging?

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Isn't that sinful? That's what James 4 says. R. Ken Hughes says, it almost seems like a moral responsibility to pass on damaging truth.

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James, in chapter 4, forbids that. Erdman said, it is the love of fault finding which

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James here rebukes. So no compromise radio. We're going to do part two for next week regarding the sins of the tongue.

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I started off talking about gossip, but really it's more than that. It's more general than that, at least as we think about it from 35 ,000 feet and then focus in.

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The good news for you, Christian? God loves a repentant heart. God loves his children.

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And in light of everything that God has done for you, wouldn't it be a good day to replace the gossip and fault finding and speaking down and say something positively?

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So find somebody today that you can say. I mean, I'm glad I got to say it to somebody today. If I were your dad,

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I'd be proud of you. Oh yeah, but they do so many other things wrongly. I mean, what about us?

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What about us? So why don't you write a little note? I got this note in the mail all the way from Tucson, Arizona, James and Kim.

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And what they did, I'm sure they could find fault in me. They tried to encourage me to encourage a minister of the gospel.

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I thank the Lord for that and I thank the Lord for them. See you next time. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's Word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 10 .15 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

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You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.