Amen. So I just wanted to cover one thing here at a second Kings chapter number 23 that I really
didn't have time to get to this last Thursday. And I think it's an important topic and I don't want
to gloss over it. Plus it's such a great chapter because there's so much going on here, but I just
want to look at those first, those not first, but the nine verses between verses 21 and 30,
where it talks about how the King commanded the people verse 21 saying, keep the pass over the
Lord your God as has written the book of the covenant. So if you remember Josiah is this great
King. He's doing, having this great revival. God is holding off his wrath to not destroy Jerusalem
for his sake. And Josiah in the meantime, you know, he's doing these great things. We just read
about all the idols. He's breaking down how he's cleaning house. He's getting rid of the sodomites.
He's breaking down all the groves. He's really, you know, setting thing, everything straight. So
he's doing this great revival. He's this great King who does good. And if you look there in
verse 25, it says, and like unto him, there was no King before him that turned to the Lord with
all his heart and with all his soul and all his might, according to all the law of Moses,
neither after him arose any like him. So there was nobody like Josiah in the, in the sense that
he turned to the Lord with all his heart. And when we know the history leading up to Josiah's reign,
of course we know it's because of the fact that that's a very true statement because of all the
idolatry and all the abominations that are being taken place, that it really took a lot for, you
somebody to set everything straight. He was really going against the tide. So he's this great
character in the scripture, but, you know, unfortunately Josiah did have, you know, I
believe a tragic and early death. You know, his death is a tragedy. Now we just kind of got the
background there in second Kings 23, but if you would go to second Chronicles chapter number 35,
we're going to look a little bit more at his death this evening and why it is that he died
such a tragic death, because you remember in second Kings 21 verse one, it says he was eight
years old when he began to reign and he reigned 31 years in Jerusalem. So his reign ends when
he's 39 years old. So he's a very young man when he dies, he's not this ancient King, you know,
he's somebody that died. I believe tragically, you have to say, well, why is that? Why is somebody
who did so much good? Somebody who managed to, you know, bring such revival to such a backslidden
people? You know, what a tragedy that he didn't get to stick around and continue that. Why is it
that he died so soon? Why is it that Israel could not continue on experiencing the revival
and everything that was taking place? Well, it was because of Josiah's own actions. It wasn't
because God judged him. Often we'll see that. We've seen that throughout the book of, you know,
of the Kings and Chronicles that God would judge these Kings, that they would die in early death.
In fact, you know, going forward here, you're going to see there's some Kings in Judah that
just, it's like one year, two years. A lot of them just, they come in quick succession leading
up to the captivity, but Josiah is not that way. You know, he started out at eight, he reigned 31
years. It seemed like he had a good run. Then just all of a sudden he's cut off and you have to ask
yourself, why is it, why does he die this early tragic death? In my opinion, second Chronicles,
second Chronicles chapter number 32, if you look at verse 25, it says, and Jeremiah lamented for
Josiah. So here you have a King where the prophet Jeremiah is lamenting him after his death.
All the singing men and all the singing women spake of Josiah in lamentations to this day and
made an ordinance in Israel and behold they are written in the lamentations. So this wasn't just,
you know, your run of the mill King in King Josiah. You know, this is why, you know,
we have people that are named Josiah, right? It's a great namesake to pass on. You know,
it's, we don't name our kids, you know, Beelzebub. We don't name our kids, you know,
these other wicked names. We don't name them Ahab, you know, at least, at least we shouldn't be,
right. But, you know, we don't name them these things because there's nothing noteworthy. You
know, we, we use this name Josiah because of the fact that he truly was a great King.
And I'm just trying to emphasize the fact that, you know, he died a tragic death,
that it's a real shame that he didn't, wasn't able to last longer because if you know the story
after, shortly after that, that's when God finally sends the destruction. That's when God, you know,
afterwards decides, okay, I told you, I wouldn't send it in your days. Now you're gone. Now here
it comes. Okay. So it's, it's, it's tragic in the sense that he died young, but also that,
you know, God's hand was not stayed longer than it maybe it could have been.
In any case, we, what led to the death of Josiah, that's what really what we're getting at here. If
you back up in 2 Chronicles chapter 32 and look at verse 19, it says in the 18th year of the reign
of Josiah, if you notice that, that's what we were reading about in 2 Chronicles 23. It's the same
timeframe. The Passover, Josiah, excuse me, in the 18th year of the reign of Josiah was this
Passover kept. After this, after all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Nico,
king of Egypt, came up to fight against Carchemish by Euphrates and Josiah went out against him. So
he's going out to fight against him. And he says in verse 21, but he sent ambassadors to him,
meaning that Nico sent ambassadors to him saying, what have I to do with thee? Thou king of Judah,
I have not, I've come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war. For
God commanded me to make haste, forbear thee from meddling with God who was with me, that he destroy
thee not. Now spoiler, this leads to his death. Okay. He goes out and he fights this battle,
but notice that he's not fighting a battle that he's called to fight. He's just going out and
picking a fight. He's just going out and he sees Nico coming up and he says, you know, I'm just
going to go out there and, and get involved with this, this conflict that doesn't involve me. And
this is what leads to his death. You know, it's kind of interesting too, that he says there,
Nico says, God commanded me to make haste. And he's saying, don't meddle with God who was with
me. You know, and I, you can't remember, that's what that guy is saying. That doesn't necessarily
mean that that's true. You know, he's kind of invoking the deity. Cause if you know in Jeremiah
chapter number 46, after this all takes place, you know, four years later, God sends the Babylonians
to destroy Pharaoh Nico in the same place in Carchemish. So is God really with him? My guess is
no. He's just kind of saying that, you know, we obviously we can't delve into the psyche of these
people. We don't know what's going through their minds, but sometimes I, you know, I was reading
this and kind of wondering what if that maybe that's what provoked him a little bit when,
when Josiah who know, we know that God is with him and God is using him and when he hears this
heathen King say, well, God's with me, you know, maybe that kind of pushed him over the edge.
I'm not saying that's the case, but you know, it could be, you know, that, that, you know,
that's the kind of thing where people fall into that kind of a trap. They,
they put themselves out there, they go beyond their bounds and all because of this attitude of,
you know, I'll show him that kind of a thing. Well, I'll show them, you know, you think God's
with you. Well, I'll show you. He's really with me, that kind of a mentality. And ultimately this
led to his downfall, right? So he's, he's going out there to pick this fight with, in Karkamish,
with Josiah and Karkamish between them by, by Euphrates. Josiah goes out against them. He tells
him, forbear thee from meddling with God who is with me that he destroyed thee not. He's saying,
don't get involved. This doesn't concern you. This isn't any of your business.
So what led to the death of Josiah here? What led to this early tragic death where we could have
had many more years of revival, many more years of worshiping the Lord, of bringing people to the
Lord? What led to that? It was meddling. Something as simple as just going out and getting involved
in something that doesn't concern you brought great tragedy into his life. It's, it's, you know,
you would think, oh, maybe he got into some sin. You know, maybe he got into some wicked sin and
God had to chasten him and punish him and cut him off early or maybe like so many other great kings
before him, you know, his heart got turned away and he started worshiping idols and things like
that. Maybe it was that. No, it was something as simple as him meddling with other people.
That's what led him to being destroyed. And I think it's an important lesson, you know, because
this is something we can all be guilty of. This is something we all have to keep in check in our
own lives that we don't overreach in our lives and start to meddle with other people or, or try to
get involved in things that don't concern us. Okay. Because meddling, you say, what is metal?
What does it mean to meddle with somebody? It's simply the means to interfere or busy yourself
with that, which is not your concern, right? So when you see some situation or somebody else's
business, you just want to get involved. And it's really has nothing to do with you. I mean,
that's what's going on in the story, right? He sees Ferro Nico coming up against car commission
Euphrates. And he just says, well, I'm going to go fight this battle. He says, look, I'm not fighting
against you. This isn't, you know, this is a foreign land. This is, this isn't Judah. This
isn't, you know, somewhere in Israel. This is, you know, some other distant land outside Israel's
borders. And he's saying, well, I'm just going to go fight this battle. And really what it is,
I'm kind of getting ahead of myself, is it's pride. You know, I believe Josiah's ultimate
downfall was his pride. When he's on top of things, you know, when everything's going great,
he's kind of feeling his oats, right? He's feeling his Wheaties. He says, well, you know,
I'm going to go out there and show this heathen king a thing or two. And then he says, and then
the heathen king says, well, hey, God's with me. Oh yeah, well, I'll show you God's actually with
me. It's pride. It's meddling. And these things, you know, these simple things that we just kind
of overlook, these little flaws are what brought him down ultimately. And not because God was
chastening him, not because God was, you know, upset with the fact that he did this. He certainly
wasn't, I believe, pleased by it and tell him to do it. But because of the fact that, you know,
when you meddle with things and you get involved in things that are none of your business, you
can't control how things are going to turn out. You put yourself in a situation that's not really
your business. You don't have any say in how things are going to turn out. You can't control
that situation any more than if it were your business. You know, even if it weren't meddling,
you know, we never know how things are going to turn out, how conflicts are going to turn out.
So why invite more conflict into our lives? Why invite more strife, more difficulty than,
you know, we need to, because we don't know how things are going to turn out. You know,
things could go sideways on us in a hurry, just like they did for Josiah. So he gets this message
from the king and he says, don't meddle with me. Don't mess with me. Stay out of this. This is none
of your business. And it's kind of, I don't know why this always strikes me as funny, but verse 22,
nevertheless, Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, you know, and maybe
it's just my vivid imagination running wild, but I always try to, like, I always envisioned somebody
like putting on those like stupid glasses with the nose and the mustache, you know, like the
disguise glasses. Like he's, obviously that's not what he was doing, but you know, it's just,
it's just humorous to me when he's talking about disguise. Like what did he do exactly? Was he
trying to dress up like somebody else or something? You know, you think what kind of
disguise did he put on, but he disguises himself and that he might fight with him and hearken not
under the words of Nico from the mouth of God and came to fight in the Valley of Megiddo. So he
says, you know what, I'm going to get involved anyway. I'm not going to, I'm not going to stay
out of this. I'm going to get, stick my nose where it doesn't belong, but I'm going to disguise
myself. So not only is he meddling, but he's going to great lengths to do so, isn't he?
It's not like he's just overheard a conversation and was kind of like, Oh, what was that about?
You know, and try to start asking questions. You know, he's meddling and he's going to great
lengths to meddle with other people. And we do not want to be this type of people who want to,
who want to get involved in other people's business. We're going to make it our business
to get in your business. We don't want to do that. We don't want to go to great lengths
to meddle because that's what he's doing. You know, he could have just kind of,
was he meddling when he decided to go? Yeah, he was. But then he gets the word, he gets the message
to not do it. And instead of just backing off, he says, no, I'm going to do this. So he disguises
himself and goes anyway. So he's going to great lengths to meddle. And, you know, it's, to me,
it almost kind of reminds me of, of passive aggressive behavior, right? He's like, well,
it's not me that's doing it. It's this guy that I'm disguised as that's doing it. You know,
was that you out there in the battlefield? Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't, you know, I, I don't know.
Did he kind of look, it's just kind of, you know, this passive aggressive, and this, this is the
type of behavior sometimes people have when they meddle or they're trying to mess with people,
right? The sulking, the backhanded compliments, procrastination, you know,
withdrawal, refusing to communicate. These are all passive aggressive behaviors. Okay. And that's
kind of a different sermon, but it's, it always, that always kind of reminded me of that whenever
I'd read that about him disguising himself and meddling. It's like somebody who's being kind of
passive aggressive. But what I really want to point out here is the context of this meddling.
Okay. So where is this taking place? It's taking place in a war, right? He's getting himself in a
involved in a war that isn't his business. So meddling in a way is involving your, is,
is a form of contention, right? When you're meddling with people, you're, you're getting
involved in conflict often, you know, it's a way to kind of be in contention. And that makes sense
because again, only by pride come with contention, right? So if Josiah is kind of maybe a little
proud at this moment, he's lifted up with pride. It makes sense that he's going to meddle, that
he's going to contend because he's lifted up with that pride. It's interesting too, in the story,
it says, you know, he disguises himself in the verse 23 and the archers shot at King Josiah.
It's like, well, that's him, you know, it doesn't always work out, right? And again, it always
reminds me of that passive aggressive behavior. Like people think that they're getting away with
it, but everyone, like the people that they're being, that they're attacking, it's like, well,
I see what you're doing, right? You know, we can see how they're behaving, right? The sulking,
right? We don't know anybody that would ever sulk, right? Children would never do this,
right? You know, children would never have an outright attack against their parents. They
wouldn't just aggressively lash out at their parents, but they might do it in a passive way,
right? They would sulk, they would procrastinate, you know, they would, they would do things like
that. And it's, it's obvious to anybody else. It's, we could just say, it's like, well, look at,
we know you're, what you're doing, right? It's like Josiah going out there, disguising himself,
thinking he's going to get away with it. Oh, well, I'm not really, it's not me that's fighting. And
it's like the archers are like, oh, there he is. And they just shoot him, right? This isn't like
with Ahab where a man drew a bow at adventure, right? And it smote him between, it was just
kind of like a chance thing, you know, God made it happen. They see him like, oh, that's Josiah,
like something about, I guess, apparently his disguise wasn't good enough. Apparently it took
more than those disguised glasses with the big eyebrows and the mustache to disguise himself
from, you know, being identified as Josiah. Like he needed to get a, he should have gone
down to the costume store or whatever and, and done a little bit better. So they shoot at him.
They knew it was him anyway. And it says in verse 24, and his servants took him out of the chariot
and put him in the second chariot that he had. And they brought him to Jerusalem and he died.
And he was buried in one of the sepulchres of his father and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for
him. So it's just really, again, a very tragic story. And it's all brought about because of
the fact that he meddled because he just didn't have enough sense to stay out of business that
didn't belong to him, to just stay out of it and to not get involved. So this is something we have
to take heed to. And again, that's, I wanted to touch on this right out of time Thursday night,
but this is an important thing because today, you know, we can meddle with people in a lot of
different ways. People can get involved in things that aren't their business, even to a much easier
degree today, right? People go out and contend today and get involved in other people's business
and people do this all the time. If you really think about it and you look for it,
people are meddling constantly. It's almost a form of entertainment. You know, it might take
the form of gossip or contention or whatever it is. But I mean, I'm pretty sure daytime television
is probably still rife with, you know, the talk shows where it's, you know, some talk, you know,
host getting involved in other people's business, having an entire, you know, live audience there.
Everyone just wants to hear these people's business and get involved in their business.
I mean, it's like entertainment today, right? People are always meddling, getting involved in
things that don't belong under them. And we even do this in our personal lives. People can do this
even in their personal lives. And one way that they do this is online or other digital, you know,
interactions. It could be, you know, the, the text group, it could be the WhatsApp, you know,
it could be whatever it is, you know, today, meddling is so much easier to do. It's brought
right to your front door. It's so easy to just pull out the phone and just, you know, make a
comment or just say something and just start meddling or start asking questions or getting
in the gossip group and start meddling with business that does not, that does not belong
unto you. Now, look, if you're guilty of this, I'm not saying that you should look out for,
you know, a bunch of arrows are going to rain down on you at some point,
that you're literally going to die, but you know, it is going to bring harm into your life.
It is going to hurt you in some way. When people start to meddle, they get in trouble. If you would
go over to Proverbs chapter number 26, Proverbs, actually go to Proverbs 20, Proverbs chapter
number 20, because again, meddling, it takes on the form of contention. It takes on the form of
debates. It takes on the form, in Josiah's case, warfare, right? He's going out and he's contending
with this king. And what does the king say he's doing? He says, you're meddling. Don't meddle.
Stop contending with me, right? The Bible says in Proverbs chapter 23, if you look at 20, excuse me,
verse three, it says, it is an honor for a man to cease from strife. It is an honor for a man to
cease from strife. We don't want to be people who are looking for strife. And this is what people
who meddle do. They want to stir the pot. They want to, they want to make things contentious
because they love drama. They love to, you know, get people riled up. They like to get people
at odds. They're, they're into that. People are, and people are like this folks. People get really
into this type of thing. Look, we probably could all think of people that are like this. You know,
you have that relative who's always just making the comment or having to bring something up and
always finding that hot button issue to push and just why? Just to get other people mad at each
other just because they love contention. What are they doing? They're meddling. They're meddling
people who just want to mess with people and get them involved and get them fighting one another.
We should not be like that. We should not seek strife because it says there, it is an honor for
men to cease from strife, but every fool will be meddling. It's a foolish thing to be somebody who
meddles in the lives of others, meddles and gets involved in business that does not belong unto
them. Okay. Go to Proverbs chapter number 26, Proverbs chapter 26. Look, the Bible has, you know,
a lot to say about this subject. The Bible brings up meddling repeatedly. We have, you know, this,
the story isn't there in 2 Kings 23 just because, you know, it's there because we need to learn this
lesson in 2 Chronicles. We have to learn what it is that Josiah did wrong. What did he do wrong?
Great King. And the lesson really is, is, you know, what's at stake? You know, you, by meddling,
you could actually bring quite a bit of harm into your life. That's why it's such a foolish thing
to be somebody who meddles, who's always got to get involved in other people's business. Look at
Proverbs chapter 26 verse 4, answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou be like him.
Okay. And this one is kind of in the vein of meddling, maybe more online, right? People are
meddling today. They're, they're, they're being contentious. They're stirring up strife. You see
this all the time on the internet, you know, and that's a big part of people's lives today.
You know, people are connected. People are on their phones. People are online. People are
on social media. This kind of stuff is all over. It's all over Twitter. It's all over YouTube. It's
all over Facebook. People are constantly at each other. They're constantly, you know, stirring up
strife. And what does, you know, what does the Bible say about a person who meddles and stirs
up strife? They're a fool. So answer not a fool according to his folly. You know, we should not be
people who strive with these, and look, this, you know, maybe this strikes a little bit closer to
home for me because we get contacted by a lot of foolish people or people who are just trying to
stir up strife quite a bit. You know, people are always sending the email or even the voicemail,
just trolling and just trying to say some ignorant thing, trying to make people mad, or they're just,
you know, they're just ignorant. And I can't tell you how many times I've said, oh, really? Oh,
okay. You know, and, and it had a nice little smart remark. And then I thought to myself,
this verse comes to mind, answer not a fool according to his folly, and then it's highlight,
delete, archive, and move on, right? And find somebody who actually is sincere and help that
person. Okay. So that's, you know, applies more to me, I guess, I don't know, but you could
probably apply that in your life too. Go to Proverbs chapter number 23, Proverbs chapter number
23. Actually go to Proverbs 17. I'll just read you Proverbs 23. It says, speak not in the ears
of a fool. Why? For he will despise the wisdom of thy words. You know, sometimes people might
be tempted, well, I'm not meddling. I'm just trying to get involved. You know, I'm just trying to help.
I'm just trying to, you know, help these people to see the problem here. But you know, if they're
a fool, why would you speak in their ear? Why would you go and speak to them? Speak not in the
ears of a fool. Why? Because he will despise the wisdom of thy words. It's like that saying,
you're just wasting your breath. Some people aren't wasting, worth wasting your breath on.
Okay. Proverbs chapter 17, look at verse 14. The beginning of strife is when one, is as when one
letteth out water. Is as one, when one letteth out water. I think I quoted this the other night, but
you know, that's what the beginning of strife is. You know, think, oh, I'm just going to meddle a
little bit. I'm just going to get involved in this situation. I'm just going to give my two cents.
Just going to find out what's going on. You're going to start to involve yourself with strife.
What you're doing is you're actually, you know, it's like, it's like letting out water,
you know, and I use that illustration, you know, the other night where, you know,
if you dam up water and then you just let a little bit of water through, eventually the whole
thing breaks through and then there's no stopping it. Right. So we want to leave off strife. That's
what it says. Therefore leave off contention before it be meddled with. You know, we don't
want to be people who make it a point in our lives to meddle with other people, to get in
contentions. You know, and this is a, this is a good question you could ask yourself, you know,
because if you see some situation that you think maybe you need to get involved in,
you need to comment, you know, you have to let your opinion be known. You have to maybe meddle.
Just ask yourself, you know, what are the consequences of me not getting involved?
You know, there's some spat going on. There's some fight that doesn't really involve me.
Well, what's going to happen if I don't get involved? You know, what are the consequences
for me if I don't get involved? Nothing. Then it's probably not worth getting involved in,
is it? I think that's a good rule of thumb. Say, well, when do I know I should get involved? Are
you going to suffer any consequences if you don't? No. Then it probably doesn't concern you.
And there's probably no need to get involved if you doing nothing doesn't change your circumstance
whatsoever. If it does nothing to you, if it brings no harm to you, why would you get involved?
Just stay out of it. Another area where people kind of meddle or get involved in things that
they shouldn't is conspiracies. Okay, now hear me out on this one. All right, go to Ephesians
chapter number five. So you're against conspiracies? No, I believe certain conspiracies.
Now, I'm not going to lump all conspiracies together. I get it. Some people get involved
in these things just out of fun and curiosity. You know, if you believe, if you want to look
into your Sasquatch theory, go ahead. If you want to look into Bigfoot, you know, I think it's kind
of one of those harmless ones, right? But look, and I'm saying this because, you know, a lot of
these conspiracies, and I'm not, I don't like to just wing things out there, especially some things
that I believe, because you have to back them up, you know, and then unless you explain it
thoroughly to people, they're not going to, they're just going to look at you weird, okay?
Because some of it does sound crazy, right? But there are certain conspiracies that I
feel are true and believe that, quite frankly, I just don't think are worth pursuing, okay? As,
and I'm not going to, I guess that's all I'll say about it. But here's the thing, you know,
people get involved in certain conspiracies and they go down these rabbit holes or whatever,
and really what they're doing is they're meddling with things that they just shouldn't be meddling
with, okay? If you would go to Ephesians 5, go to Ephesians chapter 5. Did I have you go there already?
Okay, great. Look at verse 11. It says, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.
Now you might look at that and say, well, it just means don't participate. Obviously that's true,
right? Don't have any fellowship with the works of darkness. Don't participate in what they're
doing. That's true. But you know, but if we're watching every twist and turn of the Illuminati,
you know, we're watching all the satanic things that the world is doing. If we're,
we were not participating, but we're observing it, we're commenting on it, we're, you know,
aren't we kind of getting involved? Aren't we kind of having fellowship with it when we're brushing
up against it and just, and paying close attention to it? To me, that is a form of fellowship.
It's drawing you in, you know, you're going to sit there and dissect the Super Bowl halftime show,
which is demonic by the way. I think it's, it's just like flat out demonic anymore.
You know, you're going to sit there and watch, watch the two hour presentation on how demonic
it was. You know, to me, you might not have been there up on the stage doing whatever they're
doing or whatever, but to me, when you're sitting there and you're just picking all that stuff apart
and you're watching and observing it, to me, that is a form of fellowship. And look, this is
something I have to really keep in check in my own life because, you know, that stuff is easy to fall
into. It's easy to fall into these, these rabbit holes of conspiracy theories, especially when they
start to, you know, hold water and they start to actually have some merit, you know, cause they're,
and it's quite honestly, it's frightening at the end of the day, but it says, have no fellowship
with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them, you know, and then look at verse 12,
for it is a shame to even speak of those things, which are done of them in secret. And yet there
are whole channels out there. There's hours of video out there where all they're doing is
speaking about the things that are done of them in secret, right? They're blowing the lid off of
Bohemian Grove. They're, you know, now I will say this, if they did manage to get ahold of that
laptop, Biden, Biden's laptop, I would like to see them blow the lid. You know what I mean? But
people want to make all these videos where they just spend hours talking about all these things,
all these wicked things that probably even have a lot of merit to them. But to me, I think about
that and it's like, it's, that's like having fellowship. You're kind of meddling in that world
and really, you know, what are you going to walk away with? Probably having seen something you
shouldn't have seen, thinking something you shouldn't have thought, feeling depressed,
disgusted. I mean, that's, you know, whenever I find myself getting in that stuff, I walk away
just like that. Not only was that a waste of time, but now I'm just, just depressed about,
you know, where we are as a nation. When you find out, you know, that how wicked some of our rulers
truly are, you know, find out the things that are going on in this, in this world, you know,
the Bible's telling us, we already know and go to Ephesians chapter six,
that the world's wicked. Like, do we really need a three hour expose on the Masons or something like
that to explain to us that the world's wicked? I mean, the Bible tells us that, so why would we
have to, you know, spend all this time fellowshipping with that? Look at Ephesians chapter six,
verse 12, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers,
against the rules of darkness of this world and against spiritual wickedness in high places. Well,
there you are, right? We already know that. So what should be our response? Dig into it,
find out what all that is so we can expose it. And look, it's, it's not, it's not exposing it.
What it is, is it's, it's entertainment. I'm telling you, some of these conspiracy things,
these, these, these conspiracy websites, stuff like that, these videos that are made,
it's a form of entertainment for people. They're trying to see who could outdo the other one
sometimes. I'm not saying all the time, but you know, maybe the people that are making it,
they're not just trying to entertain people. They're really, are sincerely trying to expose
things. But sometimes people just watch this stuff just solely to be entertained.
You know, and to me, that's a form of fellowship. You know, you're, hey,
I'm going to sit down and watch this video and learn about all the wickedness that's out there.
The Bible says, hey, we already know we wrestle against, you know, principalities and powers in
high places. What does he tell us to do? Verse 13, wherefore take unto the whole armor of God,
to be able to stand in the evil day. That's our response. It's not to dig into it and find out
and get all the nitty gritty details. And it's to, you know, that should compel us to just live
for the Lord and to do God's work. Spend more time, you know, on, you know, putting God's work
forward rather than just sitting and trying to consume and ingest all of this stuff that's out
there and fellowship with it. So maybe that's a little bit more extreme. You know, it probably
doesn't apply to everybody in the room. I'm sure a lot of the housewives and mothers aren't
struggling with, you know, watching endless loops of conspiracy videos. However, some of you,
you know, probably might be, who knows, right? But here's, here's one. How about this? How about
in-laws? Okay. Okay. We will go from conspiracy theories to in-laws, right? Because what are we
talking about tonight? Meddling, right? This is one that even, you know, good, godly people can
be guilty of. You know, they want to get involved in the, the marriage. You know,
their, their son, their daughter gets married off and all of a sudden they just want to be involved.
You know, like, well, what did he say? How, what did she cook? You know, how did she make that?
She gave you macaroni and potatoes. That's too many carbs. You know, she, she's not giving you
vet, you know, they want to meddle in these little things. They want to know every little detail.
You know, that is a form of meddling folks. When you're trying to get involved in the, I mean,
if you did that to anybody else, wouldn't you think that's a little inappropriate?
If I were to just come up to you and just start asking you details about your marriage,
you know, start asking you things just like, well, you know, what are they doing? How the finance is,
you know, just, just whatever. I'm not saying inappropriate things. I'm just saying,
you know, asking about things that really are none of my business. If I did that to just any other
random couple, any other, you know, stranger out there, you know, people would be like, mind your
business. But Oh, because we're related, you know, because it's my, my child that's involved
in this union. Now it's, it's perfectly okay for me to just get involved. That's not right.
It's not right. And look, when people have this mentality of, of, of meddling in the in-laws and
meddling in the marriage of their children, you know, it can go to bad places. Oh, if he doesn't
treat you right, you can always come back. That's not right. And I've seen that happen. I've seen
that happen in Baptist churches. Oh, sweetheart, if he doesn't treat you right, if he raises his
voice, if he's too harsh, you just come on back to mommy and daddy and we'll take care of you.
That's wicked folks. That's, and that's meddling. That's getting involved. I mean,
how would you like that if that was, you know, those parents, they never think about the fact
that, well, what if, you know, your spouse's parents said that to you, to your spouse?
You know, what if you were put in that situation? You probably wouldn't appreciate it.
But why would you do that? You know, once you marry children off, that's it. They're on their
own. Now, obviously if they need advice, if they need help, you know, that's different. If they're,
you know, if it's sincere help, but it's when people start, you know, trying to
get involved and give their two cents and, and, and, and, and manipulate some other person's
relationship, that's meddling. That's wicked. And we need to stay out of that. And that's
something that can happen to the best of us if we're not careful. Okay.
Well, it's another area where people can meddle. How about at church?
People can meddle at church. Pastors can meddle in people's lives. This is a real thing. You know,
I remember hearing a pastor say, it's my job to meddle. He literally said that. And at the time,
I was kind of like, I don't know about that. You know, and then you read the Bible and what it says
about meddling, I'm pretty sure that's not your job. And then you read about what a pastor's
job actually is, you know, to reprove, rebuke, exhort all long suffering doctrine, to preach
the word, to be instant in season, out of season, to do the work of an evangelist, to labor in the
word and doctrine, you know, preaching the Bible is the pastor's job. Meddling in everybody's lives
and trying to find out what's going on with everybody. I give my two cents and tell you
what you're doing wrong and what you should be doing right. You know, that's not really
my business. You know, that's not a pastor's business, but pastors do this, you know, and
if you've ever been around it, you know what I'm saying is true. You know, and you know, sometimes
I think some of us don't realize how good we got it being, you know, when you start out at a church
like this where people kind of respect the boundaries of other people. I mean, there's
pastors out there, it'll be like, you want to buy a car? Come talk to me and I'll tell you what color
you should get. You want to paint your house? You think I'm joking, you know, where they all live on
the same property, you know, they'll get some Bible college or some giant property and they'll
all go live there. And then they're just watching each other. You're like, I noticed you weren't out
jogging. You know, you're normally jogging. Why aren't you jogging? It's this weird stuff. It's
cult-like. It's creepy. It's weird. You know, I don't, and quite frankly, I don't understand why
pastors want to meddle in people's business. Now look, if there's people are doing things
and behaving in certain ways that have an effect inside the church house, obviously then it becomes
the pastor's business. You know, but his authority doesn't extend beyond those doors. Right. And
again, if people want advice, if people want help, that's different. If people are coming to the
pastor and saying, Hey, what are your thoughts about this? You know, what do you think about,
you know, the situation or whatever? Can I get some godly advice? Obviously they're there for
that, but you know, it's not the pastor's job to meddle and just offer unsolicited advice on every,
you know, in every situation and get involved in people's lives.
You know, and that's something I try not to do. I try, I'm careful to not do that and to try to,
you know, you know, well, you asked me what, how, how, how, if I had a good week last week,
you know, cause you say, Hey, I don't know. You sounded like you're meddling a little bit,
right? Yeah. That's not meddling. If I had said, Hey, so what'd you do Monday?
What were you doing Tuesday? And what about Wednesday? You know, and start picking apart,
you know, okay, well, how'd you spend our time? That would be me meddling, right? Or telling you
how to live your life, telling you, you know, Hey, I don't appreciate what you're doing here.
You should change this. You know, that, that's just weird. It's meddling. And people do that
stuff. You know, pastors can do that. Even church members could do that with one another,
so on and so forth. If you would go to Romans chapter number 12, I know we were there this
morning, but go to Romans chapter number 12. So, you know, I wanted to touch on this tonight
because I think it's an important topic. You know, it's not something I really had a lot of
time to cover on, on Thursday, just because of the fact that it's a long chapter and there's
a lot more to it, but I didn't want to just gloss over this. And, you know, it's something we have
to be careful of, you know, if we're going to be a church family, you know, if we're going to be
people that are going to know one another over the years, you know, we, we have to learn and,
and respect where boundaries are, you know, we, and, and, you know, not cross those and begin
to meddle in other people's lives and, and because that stuff can come back and, and, you know,
bite you. And that's what Josiah found out. You know, he went beyond his borders. He went beyond
what was appropriate and it cost him dearly, you know, and it cost the people around him dearly
too. I mean, you know, if you meddle again, it might not lead to your literal physical death,
but it might destroy a relationship. You know, you start to meddle in some other church members,
some other family members, some other friend's life. You go beyond certain bounds, you know,
they might just stop trusting you. It might destroy that friendship. You know, you could kill
a friendship. You could kill a relationship. You could, you know, destroy a bond of trust
if you meddle. Okay. So it can cost us dearly if we meddle and we should be careful not to do that.
Look there at Romans chapter number 12, verse three. He says, where I say through the grace
given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought
but to think soberly according as God hath given every man the measure of faith.
Now that was Josiah's downfall. He thought more highly than himself than he ought to have.
And it's easy to see why because of the fact that he was, did such a great work for God,
right? He was leading this great revival. God had shown him a lot of grace and mercy,
but you know, he should have kept it, you know, to a certain level. He thought more highly than
himself than he ought to have thought. Oh, the Lord's with you. Well, the Lord's with me too.
So let me show you how it's done and let me meddle, right? And it cost him.
That's what brought him down when you think about it. What brought down Josiah? What was his great
sin? Meddling. That's really it. Just pride, meddling. So why preach that? Well, here's the
thing. Are we greater than Josiah? Are we, are we more high? Are we thinking more highly than
ourselves? Well, I'm greater than he is. No, he was a great man of God. He was a great king,
great revival, you know, probably a very godly, righteous man, but you know, he still made this
mistake and it cost him dearly. Let's not be guilty of the same. Don't be somebody metal.