How about this, when?
What is that, timing?
When is it right to say this?
When is it right?
Timing is everything.
And sometimes you have the right thing to say,
but if you say it at the wrong time,
you could offend your brothers, okay?
And a brother offended is harder to be won
than a strong city and his contentions
are like the bars of a castle that the Bible says.
You see, when we, like, we should never have this desire,
like, well, I just want to shock value people,
you know, by what I say, you know what I mean?
I just want to trip people out
because I'm so crazy or something.
The desire should be like, I want to help my brother.
I want to help him, I want to build him up,
I want to guide him, I want to teach him knowledge.
But here's the thing, if you don't have the right timing,
sometimes you can say something
and that brother will be offended
for the rest of his life towards you.
And you know what happens?
They're contentions are like the bars of a castle
and you just completely forfeited your influence
towards that person.
It can happen.
And if you're like, well, I don't care,
well then you don't know discretion then.
Because our desire should be to influence people
and help them to become more godly,
add godliness to them, add virtue to their lives,
be a benefit and be a blessing to them,
not just spout off the mouth and offend everyone
and just kind of walk away and just like the explosions
going off right behind you, you're just walking away
and you just destroy that person's life.
Be discreet.
When should I say this?
Look at Isaiah chapter 50 verse four.
The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned,
that I should know how to speak a word,
look what it says, in season to him that is weary,
he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth by near
to hear as the learned.
The Bible says in Proverbs 15 verse 23,
a man hath joy by the answer of his mouth
and a word spoken in due season, how good it is.
So sometimes what we need is timing.
Sometimes you have the right thing to say
but it's the wrong time to say it.
Because what is the goal?
The goal is to help that person repent
or to reform that person's mind regarding
that specific issue that you're addressing.
That's the goal, right?
To help them.
But if you knew that what you're gonna say
is gonna offend them and you really care for that person,
you should say, well, I need to wait a little while
before I say it.
Look folks, there's sometimes when I have
to exercise discretion even when I preach,
there's certain topics that I wanna preach.
I'm like, I can't do it yet.
I gotta wait a little bit.
I gotta wait.
Why, because my desire is to help the church,
not just blast the church and just offend
every Tom, Dick, and Harry, okay?
My desire is to speak a good word in due season.
Now obviously in a church setting,
someone's gonna get offended, can't help you there, okay?
You know, we need to make sure that we take admonition
but I'm saying on a one-on-one basis
when you're talking to someone, look for that due season.
Look for that opportunity, that window of opportunity.
Think about when to say it.