The opposite of being the one who provokes would be the one who panders.
The one who panders. Now what's someone who panders? Panders is where you just kind
of give lip service to what someone's doing when you don't agree just to appease them,
just to make them feel good. You notice they're doing something wrong, you realize
they're doing something that's not good, but instead of just telling them like that's not
good. Instead of actually trying to help them, you just say, oh you're all right. Imagine you show up
with this dull sword and you're like, I need you to file this. Well it's going to be kind of
abrasive. You're good. No need to sharpen. That's called pandering, okay. The Bible gives
us a definite, you know, lots of different verses to think about. I'll just give you one
off the top of my head. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy
are deceitful. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. You know what? To file that iron, to sharpen that
sword is going to hurt a little bit. Some of the, you know, edges are going to get scraped pretty
hard. They're going to be abrasively rubbed against, but you know what? That's a faithful
wound because it's going to end up sharpening that iron, isn't it? It's going to sharpen that
blade, whereas that kiss, oh you're good, you know, that's deceitful. That pandering is going to
destroy people, and when you think about the Bible, let's think about the Word of God for a
moment, and again, I'm going, I'm just kind of going broad. The more you know the Bible,
the more you'll understand this, but when we read the epistles by the apostle Paul,
how much pandering does he do? I mean, is he pandering the first, the first Corinthians
to the Corinthian church? Is he just pandering to all their problems and all their issues?
You guys are great. No problems here, or is it just like you're doing this wrong, and this wrong,
and that wrong, and this is terrible, and you got people that aren't even saved. I mean,
you get to other epistles, and he's like, I'm afraid of you. You get to other pages, and
he's like, I think you guys might be reprobate. You know, you get to other epistles, and he's,
you know, he's constantly rebuking and warning them. In fact, he gets the one portion,
and he says they don't even like his epistles. They're weighty. They're powerful. They're like,
this guy just keeps, you know, knocking us down with all these epistles. You know what?
Faithful are the wounds of a friend. You say, oh, I can't believe you would ever say
anything negative about anybody. Well, I want to be your friend. What do you want me to just
kiss you all the way to hell? You want me to just kiss you all the way to the destruction
of your life? You want me to get up here, and just be like Joel Osteen, and just be like,
you're so blessed. God bless you. Y'all are just so wonderful, and everyone in here is just
so special and precious, and God just loves you, and I want to encourage you this morning,
and tell you how you can just live your best life now, and I know you're going through
a hard time. God doesn't want you to go through a hard time ever. I'm just telling you right
now, God wants you to be blessed, and have lots of money. It may be tough now,
but keep the right perspective. Victory is in your future. Healing is in your future. Abundance,
breakthroughs, freedom is coming your way. That's just a kiss from an enemy, my friend.
Oh, Pastor Joel, you just get up here and yell, and you scream, and you tell people
they're stupid, and you tell them that they're idiots, and you tell them that they're trash,
and you tell them they're liars, and realers, and slanders. Hey, it's because I love you,
my friend. Open rebuke is better than secret love, and I'm not going to go around and kiss
you, and tell you how wonderful you are when you're not, because iron sharpens iron. I'm not
going to get a plastic fork, and just stab it in your neck, okay? We need to get rid of
panderers today who just speak out of both sides of their mouth. They pander to your face,
and they stab you in the back when you're not looking. They tell you one thing to your face,
just to pander you, and then they go, that guy's an idiot. Well, why didn't you just tell him
he's an idiot? You know, if I'm an idiot, I'm not going to be offended when you tell me that.
I mean, maybe in the moment, but at the end of the day, I'll be like, okay, well,
you know, if I'm doing something wrong, if I'm going down a dark path, if I do something
that's sinful, you know what? I shouldn't be mad at the guy telling me that I'm wrong.