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And then so in 2nd Kings chapter number 14, I want to begin reading there We're in verse 8 where the Bible reads then Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoahash the son of Jehoah has son of Jehu king of Israel saying come let us look one another in the face and If you were paying attention there, he's what he's doing is he's challenging him to to war He wants to go fight with him and Joe hash the king of Israel said to sent to Amaziah the king of Judah saying The thistle that was in Lebanon said to the cedar that was in Lebanon Saying give thy daughter to my son to to wife and they're passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon and trod down the Thistle thou has indeed smitten Edom and thine heart hath lifted thee up glory of this and Terry at home He's saying look. I know you think you're bad because you beat Edom, but you don't want none of this That's basically what he's saying here. That's what this analogy is about and he says and he gives him this warning here He says for why shouldest thou? Why shouldest thou metal to thy hurt and that's the title of the sermon this morning meddling to your hurt Meddling to thy hurt and of course if you noticed you see the story here that he was right He goes and they look one another face and Judah was put to the worse He says don't metal, you know, he's basically saying don't mess with me, right? But unfortunately, that's what he did He went and he meddled to his hurt now if you would go over to 2nd Chronicles chapter 35 2nd Chronicles Chapter number 35 Because this is something that you see several times, you know in with the with the Kings where one's warning another about meddling about getting involved with Conflict that doesn't belong to them going out and looking for trouble and as a result being hurt because of it and there's a lesson that we can learn from this is that when we meddle to When we get involved in things that in business that doesn't belong to us It's often to our own hurt that can apply to us as a nation or us as individuals You know if we start meddling and other people's business if we start trying to interject ourselves into situations We shouldn't be surprised when that turns around and actually ends up hurting us Now you're there in 2nd Chronicles. If you look at 30 chapter 35 verse 18, it says and there was no Passover like it To to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the Prophet Neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a Passover as Josiah kept and the priests and the Levites and all Judah and Israel That were present and inhabitants of Jerusalem So if you remember the story of Josiah He's that King that goes into the temple and cleans it up and they find the book of the law There's this great revival that takes place and he puts the sodomites out of the land and they have this Passover, right? They realize that they're not doing the keeping the commandments of the Lord and they keep this Passover in the Bible saying here the narrator Saying that there was no Passover like this that this is this was a very unique It was very great and and this was a very great revival that God did in the days of Josiah But nevertheless, we'll see here with Josiah that he also meddles to his hurt that he gets involved in things That he shouldn't gotten involved with and often this happens when people are lifted up, you know, they have a great success They they do something right and they kind of get full of themselves They kind of get overconfident and they end up actually overextending themselves and they end up getting hurt. That's what we saw earlier That's what we see here with Josiah that you know, he's he's having this great revival But you know, he ends up meddling and it brings him a great man Even like Josiah who was a great man of God it brings him to an an early end in his life He suffers, you know a great great consequences now if we meddle in our own lives, you know We it might not cost us, you know to die early It might not cause us to have an early end of our life, but it will definitely bring harm You know can bring some degree of harm Obviously the degree to which you meddle is going to be the degree to which you are punished. Okay? But he's we what we see here with him is that he meddles he gets involved and meddling You know is basically you say well, what's meddling, you know, what does that even mean? Basically, it just means to be intrusive right or it's an intrusive or unwarranted interference, you know, we would we would often use that word if maybe we're describing like a You know an overreaching government, you know, they're very there. It's a meddling government. It's a meddling Bureaucracy that is overreaching that's sticking its nose and other people's business, right and in Josiah But notice here in Josiah's case that he was actually meddling with God Okay, it says there in verse 20 after all this when Josiah had prepared the temple Nico king of Egypt came up against to fight against Karkamesh by the Euphrates and Josiah went out against excuse me Went out against him But he sent ambassadors to him saying what have I to do with thee thou king of Judah? I'm not come against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war So he's coming up to go fight against Karkamesh by Euphrates and Josiah sees this he says well, I'm gonna go out I'm gonna get involved in this fight and the king of Egypt is saying look I'm not come against me What have I got to do with you? This has nothing to do with you. This isn't your battle. This isn't your business And you know as he says I but against the house wherewith I have to work for God commanded me to make haste Forbear thee from meddling with God. He's saying look what I'm doing. God has told me to do, you know Well, I believe that's true because if he goes on there in verse 22 And he says nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him But disguised himself that he might fight with him and harken not unto the words of Nico from the mouth of God again That's the narrator of the Bible saying that these words that Nico spoke were from the mouth of God So not only is Josiah although a great man of God Meddling but he's actually meddling in the affairs of the Lord He's actually getting involved in things that God doesn't want to be get involved with. Okay? And notice the end notice what happens because despite the warning being told hey don't do this I don't have a beef with you You're but him insisting and disguising himself and going out to fight notice What happens verse 23 and the archer shot at King Josiah and the king said to his servants have me away for I am sore wounded his servants therefore came out of the chariot and put him in the second chariot that he had and Brought him to Jerusalem and he died and he was buried in one of the sepulchres of his father's and all Judah and Jerusalem Mourned after Josiah, you know, it's a sad story because to Josiah again was a great character in the scripture if you know the story of Josiah is something that brought a Great revival at a time when Israel was on the brink of destruction and being chastened by God And he brings this great revival, but because of his meddling because of him Overextending himself being overconfident and getting involved in things that were none of his business He ends up getting, you know killed basically and we should take heed to this lesson that's taught in Scripture You know Bible doesn't just tell us this story just so we can you know, kind of see what happened with Josiah There's a lesson to be learned here You know There's a lesson to be learned that when we meddle with other People's business when we get involved in things that that don't pertain unto us we do so to our hurt You know and it might even be you know, in some instances it could cost you your life You know, we'll talk about some examples here at the end where that has you know that type of thing could potentially happen and has We notice verse 25 and Jeremiah lamented for Josiah and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah and their Lamentations to this day and made them an ordinance in Israel and behold they are written the lamentations now the rest of the acts of Josiah and his goodness according that which is written the law of the Lord and His deeds first and last behold they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah So what we should learn from this is that When you interject yourself into the problems or the stripes of others, it's dangerous It's dangerous to start to meddle with people to meddle with situations that are not do not pertain unto you Okay, you do so to you hurt to your hurt when you meddle you meddle to thy hurt go over to 2nd Chronicles Chapter 18 you're over there in verse 20 35. Just go back a little bit to chapter 18 2nd Chronicles 18 I'll begin reading in verse 1. We'll read about another instance where a guy Medaled with people in a situation with people shouldn't have and it says in verse 1 now Jehoshaphat had riches and honor and abundance and join an affinity with Ahab Now look if you know your Bible when you get to chapter 18 you read that that is a major Letdown because if you read chapter 17, we won't for the sake of time You see Jehoshaphat doing a lot of good things another he was another great king. He's bringing revival He does that which is good and that which is right then you read chapter 18 verse 1. You're just kind of like Really, you know every time I read it just like maybe it'll be different this time, you know Maybe maybe I misread it all those other times like no he still does this it still turns out bad Because he joins affinity with Ahab and we all know that Ahab and was married to Jezebel and he was a very wicked man He was a very bloody man And it says in verse 2 and after certain years he went down to Ahab to Samaria and Ahab killed sheep and oxen for him in abundance and For the people that he had with him and persuaded him to go up with him to Ramoth Gilead So he brings him down makes him this big feast and then he's trying to persuade him to go up to Ramoth Gilead and Ahab king of Israel said in Joseph that king of Judah will thou go with me to Ramoth Gilead and he answered Him I am as thou art and my people as thy people and we will be with thee in war And whenever I read that it's just like what do you mean? Your people are like people it's like no you know Joe he was Ahab was reading Israel Jehoshaphat here. He's leading Judah, you know and Israel is worshiping, you know False gods are worshiping this the the the false god that they made In Samaria, you know, it's like what do you mean? Your people are like you people he should be separate, you know This is a whole nother story right there But we see that he's slowly being persuaded to get involved in something that really he should never gotten involved with Ahab is somebody Should have kept far far away. He's somebody that he should not have had any dealings with but here he is You know, he's hanging out, you know, he's eating a meal He's giving him an ear and next thing, you know, he's getting persuaded to go up to Ramoth Gilead So it says there in verse 28 So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went up Ramoth Gilead verse 29 and the king of Israel sent on Jehoshaphat I will disguise myself and I will go to the battle and put thou on thy robes So the king of Israel disguised himself and they went to the battle so now you kind of wondering you kind of see what's going On here. What is with the disguising? Oh you dress up like the king and I'll disguise myself It's like is it was this is planned the whole time just to have like a body double To have somebody there to like oh, that's that's who you're looking for over there. That's the king take him out, right? And and but we know how it turns out here verse 30 It says now the king of cereal had commanded the captains of the chariots that were with him saying fight not with greater smaller great Save only with the king of Israel and who's dressed up like the king Jehoshaphat right. He's the one that's there who Ahab was like, hey put your robes on. I'm gonna wear something else, you know and And he does it and of course we see that you know There's this plot to go fight only with the king verse 31 and it came to pass when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat they said it is the king of Israel Therefore they compassed him about to fight but Jehoshaphat cried out and the Lord helped him and God moved them to depart from him So notice here that the only reason Jehoshaphat even got out of the situation is because God had mercy on him You know God if God hadn't intervened on his behalf Jehoshaphat likely was gonna die he was gonna be killed and why would that have been because he meddled to his hurt He got involved in affairs that did not pertain unto him he's going out and fighting this war on behalf of Ahab and And in the process of doing so is putting himself in a very, you know Grave situation to the place where he's almost had God not intervened. He would have he would have been killed Look at verse 32 if we're came to pass that when the captains of the chariots Perceived that it was not the king of Israel. They turned back again from pursuing him So God puts in their mind opens their eyes causes them to realize and understand that this is not you know This is not the king. This is not the king of Israel. This is somebody else And I love the story. We'll just read a verse 33 a certain man drew a bow at a venture You know, I mean he just he just was like it wasn't really aiming at anything He just pulls back a bow and lets her fly, you know at a venture, you know He just just flings went out there and it smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness now There's a whole nother sermon. There's a whole nother lesson in this story because remember Ahab says hey you dress up like the king I'm gonna disguise myself like an ordinary soldier and go out there. What's he trying to do? He's trying to save his skin, right? He's trying not to be made make himself into a target But you know we can we in life sometimes we can think well I'm gonna we can try to get away with things right we can Concock these plans and we can conspire and we can try to hide things and make and make it and think we're gonna get away With things but we forget often that God gets involved That there's no hiding from the Lord that the eyes Lord go to and fro throughout the whole earth Beholding evil and the good the Bible says that there is no hiding place from the Lord and that's what this story is You know Ahab he's in his regular garb But this guy just flings a bow out or things an arrow out there and it and it gets him right where it counts Right between the joints of the harness, right? Like the one weak link is where that bow that was not aimed was not some marksman It was just a guy just flinging an arrow out there But why was that because God got involved right and God can also spare us, you know God can have mercy like he'd had on Jehoshaphat if we find ourselves Getting into a situation that we shouldn't be in if we cry out right God can deliver us. Okay, that's another story Another sermon rather and it says there verse 33 and a man drew a venture a bow at a venture It's smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness. Therefore. He said to his chariot man turn Thine hand that thou mayest carry me out of the host for I am wounded and the battle increased that day How about the how be it the king of Israel stayed himself up in his chariot against Assyrians until the even and about the time The son of the going down who died jumped down to chapter 19 look at verse 1 and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned to his house and peace to Jerusalem and J who the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him and said to Jehoshaphat Shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord? Therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord. So again, although God spared Jehoshaphat and Allowed him to get away with this allowed him to you know Escape this battle. He still has to come back and basically get his face ripped, right? he has to go back and face the fact that he did wrong and God sends an an eye this year to take say hey, you know what you're gonna go out help the ungodly There's gonna be wrath upon you. And again, there's another sermon right there that we should not sympathize with ungodly people we should not be friends with wicked people and Sympathize with people that what hate God not does everybody hate God if they're not saved No, but there are people out there that are haters of God And if somebody hates God, you should not you should you should hate them Okay, and that's a whole nother sermon, right? But you say well, why should I hate white, you know, they hate God But why do I have to hate them because if you don't if you love them and you help the ungodly Wrath is gonna be upon you So just keep that in mind We'll move on though verse 3 nevertheless there are good things found in me that that was taken away the groves that a land has prepared thine heart to seek God and Jehoshaphat dwelt at Jerusalem and he went out again and the people from Beersheba to Mount Ephraim and brought them back unto the Lord their God their fathers and he said judges in the land throughout all the fenced cities of Judah City by City and Said to the judges take heed what you do free judge not for man But for the Lord who is with you in the judgment Wherefore now let the fear of the Lord be upon you and take heed to do it for there is no iniquity with the Lord Our God nor respect of persons nor taking of gifts So it sounds to me like Jehoshaphat through this whole experience learned a very important lesson that it doesn't matter who you are or How much you've done for things for God in the past or you know? How good of a life you've lived or whatever if you start to do wrong God will judge you just the same as anybody else And that's what we see with these kings We see these kings that go out and they meddle with things that don't belong unto them They get themselves into these situations and despite all the good things that they've done They're still chasing, you know They're one of them even dies the point of even being killed one narrowly escaped that escapes death It has to come back and be rebuked sharply And we can't just think well I'm just gonna interject here and I'm gonna intermetal here and think that I'm gonna get away with it No, God is no respecter of persons, you know, God will Judge us God will allow things to happen to us if we be people that just go around constantly Interjecting ourselves constantly meddling with other things other people's business will do so to our hurt And look a lot of times God doesn't have to do anything You know we get me meddle in somebody else's business we get in some situation We get involved in some conflict that has not nothing to do with us We will will suffer the consequences just you know that just result because of that if you follow me There's no exceptions to the rule go to 2nd Chronicles chapter 20 2nd Chronicles chapter number 20 2nd Chronicles 20 it says in verse 34 then the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat first and last behold they are written the book of Jehu the son of Hanani who is mentioned in the book of the kings of Israel and After this to Jehoshaphat the king of Judah join himself with a Isaiah king of Israel Who did very wickedly? And join himself with him to go make ships to go to Tarshish and made the ships in He's a he's I on Gieber and then Eliezer Eliezer the son of Dodova of Meraric Maresha Prophesied against Jehoshaphat saying because thou has joined thyself with a Isaiah The Lord hath broken thy works and the ships were broken and they were not able to go to Tarshish So it seems like Joe, you know Jehoshaphat still hasn't learned this lesson He said well now I'm not going to war but he's still what linking up with people that are wicked Linking up with the ungodly and God is still chasing him for it You know when we meddle with things that don't belong unto us we do so to our hurt and you say well Why are you preaching this is there something going on? Nope. I don't know. Is there a Lot of times I preach a sermon and people be like, oh you must have heard about I'm like, no I didn't I didn't hear about that. Like I had no idea Well, it was right on spot with what was going on my life or this situation Like I I didn't know, you know, I didn't know why I was gonna preach this until this morning. So there you go, right? But you know what? The reason why I'm preaching this is because you don't want to learn these lessons the hard way You know Do yourself a favor and just read the Bible listen to people that have experienced it already Either in your personal life or through the scriptures even better and just take God's Word for it that when you meddle you do So to your hurt and don't go having to learn this lesson the hard way Okay, and you know where you're gonna suffer and then come around and say oh, yeah, you know I guess I shouldn't got involved in that I guess I shouldn't have been hanging out with this person or meddling with this person getting involved in this conflict You want to learn these things without having to go through all of that? Okay. Now if you would go over to Proverbs chapter 20 Proverbs chapter 20 Excuse me, it says in Proverbs chapter 20 Wait for you get there verse 3 Proverbs chapter 20 verse 3. It is an honor for a man to cease from strife You know and sometimes that that could seem a little countercultural, right? We're counterintuitive to what it means to be a man today, right? Because men are always you know, I'm going out there and being tough and you know They got to be the the alpha male, right? They got to be the baddest dude around and show everybody that got to be the guy that eats glass at the party or whatever You know anything you got to be that the tough guy who punches a hole in the wall or you know, whatever right? And goes around and nobody get you know and make everybody afraid of him and stuff like that But the Bible says it's an honor for a man to what to see from strife So now be somebody who goes around and causes problems, you know and into you know stirs up trouble and causes strife The Bible says but every fool will be meddling, you know It's a foolish thing to go around and get yourself into situations getting yourself into strife That doesn't belong on you go into some situation and try to stir things up or try to straighten things out You see something going on and you want to just get involved, you know, it's kind of you know, it kind of fit in this morning I'm driving down grant here. This isn't gonna paint the best picture of art with neighborhood but there's this guy this homeless guy who with his pants around his ankles and I thought don't meddle with strife not belonging to you. That's not you don't want anything to do with that strife I mean, I didn't call the cops. I didn't pull over and say hey, what are you doing? My family's coming this way They're gonna you know, they come from that way. So he was headed that way. So hopefully did you see him? Okay good You know, I couldn't see everything I was going on there, but I saw enough to know that that's that's not a good look That's not something's wrong there, right? You know and and what if I'd so I'm gonna get involved here I'm gonna tell this guy to you know, pull his pants up and sober up and everything I mean, who knows guy could have been a complete psycho You know now I'm not here this morning and now I you know, there's the cops are taping off some you know Got the yellow tape out and there's a crime scene just down the road here. You're one of where's the deacon? Right, and I'm I've been knifed by some homeless pantsless guy That would not be a good end, right? But I had to make a decision like I'm not gonna get involved in this, you know I'm not gonna sit here and meddle with everything. That would be very foolish thing to do, you know And that's kind of just a silly example that came up this morning on the way here But you know We probably could all think about Instances in our lives where we it would probably be better if we just stayed out of the situation I know we always have people are trying to pull us into these situations Family members friends co-workers that are trying to get us to what stir up strife You know, but we want to be people if we want to be people who are honorable, you know, we'll cease from strife We'll say you know what? I don't want to do with that. You know, that's your problem. That's your situation you deal with it I'm not gonna get involved You know, my mother-in-law has this great saying I think I was thinking about my writing This was not my was it not my farm not my pig Right, is that it? It's not my farm then it's not my pig like that's your life. That's your problem, right? I'll deal with the problems that I have in my life that I can actually do something about you know You deal with the ones that you have, okay? So It says here that you know It's a foolish thing to metal and you can see why we can read these scriptures or and of these stories in the scripture We could see where people who meddled with strife that didn't belong to them and got involved in situations that they should have been involved In it they did so to their hurt. Okay now before I go any further Let me just take a minute and explain what meddling isn't what meddling isn't Okay, meddling is not lending a sympathetic ear because I know I'm gonna preach it So people are gonna you know, you can say well does that mean I can't talk to so-and-so about some situation They're having no, of course, you know Someone comes to you for godly counsel. Someone's coming in for some advice about some situation. They're in that's not meddling Okay, meddling is when you're actually getting involved, you know Someone comes to you and tells you about some situation and then you're like, well you give me their phone number You know you tell me where they live. I'm gonna come down to that workplace on Monday morning We'll talk to that guy together, you know, we'll straighten it out I'm gonna show up on the job site, you know now that's you getting involved with strife that doesn't belong to you Right, so you hopefully everyone can see the difference there, you know, if someone comes to you and says hey You know, I'm having a situation my home my workplace, whatever You know, what should I do you giving godly counsel and advice, you know is is not meddling unless you're telling them to like Be vindictive, you know, if I were you I would slash their tires, you know Now now that's that's a whole nother situation right, of course nobody's doing that, right Because obviously there are times There are situations where we do want to get involved where we do want to contend where we do want to fight right Jude Wrote and said it was meaningful for me to write unto you that you can exhort you right? He's not encouraging you and saying look I'm telling you that you need to earnestly contend for the faith Right. So when we see somebody, you know Attacking the Word of God or preaching false doctrine, you know, yes, then we should get involved, right? We should we should meddle with that, right? We should Contend for that right because that's a righteous cause that's a noble cause Somebody needs to stand up for that But often I think we find ourselves getting into situations where there's it's not some righteous calling You know because we have some relative or some friend or something That we have a bone to pick with or somebody else has a bone to pick with and we just want to get involved Because we're just drama queens, right? We just we just love strife. Look people love strife folks People love drama. They love it, right? There's whole You know movie sections called what drama, right? There's you know, there's there's uh, the people want to get involved at all. There's the daytime soap opera, right? Those still on don't answer that if you know that right that are what just drama just people, you know So-and-so is Sleeping around on so-and-so this person's committing adultery this you know, they're all just create this person got kidnapped It's just it's craziness, right? It's all this far-out stuff. It's drama People why is that so popular because people love it the daytime talk show, right? you know where you're you're you're Have some Nazi Eskimo who's a transvestite and it wants to sleep with you know The postal worker, you know, it's just this crazy. Look it's out there. You look at the Jerry Springer's There's these crazy guests they have on there They get the KKK in there and the Black Panthers and they want to have a discussion They just want to they just want to brawl the break out They want people to start throwing chairs and break the host nose and everything else Right people love this stuff. They eat it up. They love strife But you know what the Bible warns us that we should not metal with strife. We shouldn't get involved in these things We should be people who try to get away from strife to cease from it but don't go to the other extreme where if somebody has a sincere question or concern is just looking for some godly counsel or some advice or a Sympathetic ear, you know say well don't talk to me about that I can't get involved in this that would you hopefully everyone knows where that line is drawn and can see the difference between Getting involved with strife and just you know helping somebody out in a situation Now if you would go over to Proverbs 26 Proverbs 26, we won't be real long this morning Proverbs chapter 26 You know, this is something that we have to be reminded of from time to time This is something that we need to bring up Every so often, you know to be reminded that you know, we need to we need to focus on the fights that matter You know, we should pick our battles wisely You know, and especially this day and age where you know, it's so easy to get involved the strife, you know online You know, you could go to the comment section and just really and have a lot of strife You can really start to meddle with people on social media, right? You could you could read that article and go to the comments, you know, and just start, you know And spend an afternoon just arguing with somebody to know when and that's not profitable The better thing to do be we just cease from strife not be a fool and do something productive do something You know profitable Today we go to Proverbs 26 So we're at the Bible says I'll read from Proverbs 28 verse 1 the wicked flee when no man pursue it But the righteous are as bold as a lion. So again, there is a time to contend for the faith There is a time to be bold. There's a time to pursue But you know, that's typically not the situation we find ourselves in when we find ourselves involved with strife Hopefully it is hopefully you are contending for the faith So again, we're drawing the distinction what meddling is and what it isn't what is meddling it's again Interjecting yourself into another person's conflict getting involved in somebody else's business Just so you can you know, take a side and flick harm. It's it's choosing a side and then acting, right? Look at Proverbs 26 verse 17. I love this illustration He that passeth by the Bible says in Proverbs 26 verse 17 and verse 17 He that passeth by the Bible says in Proverbs 26 verse 17 and meddled with the strife not belonging Excuse me and meddled with the strife not belonging not to him is like one that taketh a dog by the ears Now you got to think about what the Bible saying here in this this one taking a dog by the ears, right? He says when a guy passes by I mean he's on his way somewhere else, right? He's already got his own destination He's always got his own business and he's got to go about And he decides to meddle with strife not belonging on and you see something going on Here's about some situation and decides to go and get involved when it had nothing to do with him It's like somebody that goes and takes a dog by the ears And obviously, you know, this would be referring to a dog that you probably wouldn't want to touch right? here's the problem, you know if you go find some big nasty mutt with a Mouthful of teeth and you grab that dog by the ears. You're gonna have a hard time letting go of it Aren't you without getting bit because now the dog's mad now the dog knows you're there I mean if you go grab a dog by the ears, it's not gonna wonder, you know What's going on? It's gonna see it's looking at you right? You got the dog by the ears. You're close. You're in proximity You know, there's a good chance that you're gonna get bit unless you keep holding on to the ears, right? I've never done this. I've never tried it I thought about this problem throughout the years and it's this is what I've always enjoyed this proverb Because you're you know, you've got this dog by the ears and it's like man I want to let this dog go but as soon as I let go I got a free hand by its mouth It's gonna turn around bite me. I believe that's what the Bible is expressing here When you're somebody goes by and get it's evolved at somebody else's situation get involved at somebody else's strife You know, you're not gonna get out of that situation unscathed You've made yourself a part of it now, right if we go involved it's in somebody else's business, you know some other conflict We are now part of that conflict. We have now we are now partly we're on one side or the other We've made ourselves enemies, you know People are gonna lash out at us. They're gonna be like that dog That's gonna try and take a chunk out of you, you know for grabbing his ears Whereas if you just said well, there's that dog and just kept walking You know kept your hands off his ears, you know, you wouldn't have any problem But once you have a hold of it, it's hard to let go of That's what it's like when we get involved in a situation that doesn't belong to us. It's hard to get out of that situation We got a hold of it. Now. We got to deal with it. Okay, so it's a great great illustration about Meddling with strife that does not belong to you Obviously some strife does belong to us, you know, there is some strife that just falls right in our lap We got to deal with it. Okay, but The Bible is talking about strife that does not belong to him meaning. It's somebody else's battle. It's somebody else's business You know, I don't live my life going around thinking you have to right every wrong in the world You know, you need to pick your battles and you see this so often Especially in the day and age we live in online You know, you'll see this with with preachers, you know, there'll be some strife going on amongst You know Brethren and preachers and then this one's got to get up and preach this sermon and then you got to have the response sermon And then you got to have the response to the response sermon, you know, and I've and I've tried hard I'm sure you know, I've been guilty of this but I try hard to say, you know what? I'm not gonna preach across the internet against somebody, you know in another town somewhere, you know, they just say look That's their business. That's their strife. That's their problem. Let them deal with it What's it got to do with me? Right? Because if I go grab that dog by the ears I'm not gonna get out of it without getting bit, you know, I might come out looking bad, right? But you know this type of thing takes place at all, you know, that's just one example, you know But people today they get involved with strife that does not belong to them. Think about here's here's a broad example US foreign policy Maybe they should put that up there on the in the in the you know in Washington You know go go grab a dog by the ears in Afghanistan in Iraq and See how well you're gonna get out of there without getting without people dying and it's that people being killed People coming back named and injured having PTSD and committing suicide I mean more soldiers are committing suicide than they're actually dying in one today because the things that they see and go through over there It's tragedy folks You know in our fault our founding fathers, you know guys like you can go read about George Washington and Thomas Jefferson You know their religion and everything else aside, you know, they had some good they had some good ideas about foreign policy They said they're not going to get in and they wanted to avoid and tangling and alliances Trade with all you know, but alliances with none You know, they promoted free trade and all that but not getting involved in these packs and these treaties Where if you fit me if you pick on this nation, we're gonna we're gonna we're just gonna immediately jump in You know, and here's the thing because what is that that's strife that belongs into somebody else It's like what it what are the Vietnam where the Vietnamese ever do to us? But we got out of that quagmire. What did Iraq never do us WMDs didn't exist, right? There folks that never found it. Where's the anthrax? Oh, they moved them You want to and I get it It's kind of a getting that conspiracy realm but look people have been trying to turn lead into gold for a long time, haven't they? And the politicians finally figured out how to do that how to turn lead into gold You start a war because they get all that lead flying in the air. You know what that all cost money That's what all that stuff's about anyway, and I don't want to preach some political sermon But this is a good application for that, isn't it? That's a good approach to foreign policy Let's let's not be a nation that you know that that goes about and just you know into metals with with Strife not belonging unto us Because all it's going to do is cost us lives it's gonna just bring tragedy and heartache to our own homes and our own shores How about just you know in physical altercations, okay now Obviously if you see somebody You know where you can do something about it to kind of Spare someone some some physical torment. You should probably jump in but I started reading some stories. I just googled Good Samaritan attacked. Okay, and it was amazing to me how many stories popped up of People getting involved and then being attacked by the people are trying to help now I'll say this Most of the stories I read were it was women that did it and I'm not saying it's you know against women But it's because you have the Bible just says they're the weaker vessel, right? So maybe this should be a tip for ladies, you know, go ahead and let that person suffer You know, it's spare yourself, right? I read about one lady. She saw a guy get into it She just came up. She's driving launch. She just came upon this guy and He'd gotten he'd like run this car into like a concrete wall or something the people schemes coming out whatever it's disabled So she pulls over to see if the guy's okay He attacks her it starts climbing in her car and trying to carjack her turns out the car he crashed what he had stolen it And now he's trying to steal her car Right and then he takes off as soon as the cops are coming they caught up with him later But I thought man that's you know, it would probably better just keep on driving like me to roll down the window. You're alright Yeah, I'm fine. Whatever or no. Hey, come here, you know But she just stops and jumps in gets involved There was another story I read about now This is a guy this homeless guy was working at some gas station or something like that And there was this this homeless lady that kept hanging around So he felt bad for her so he brought her home He let her clean up fed her gave her place to stay and then he said she just started acting crazy She reaches into her fanny pack beware of anybody with the fanny pack I'm kidding and she pulls out two knives and starts threatening him and he has to like run to his room She's chasing down the hall. He grabs a gun and jumps through a window and calls the cops turns out She was a meth head. She was just freaking out. They found pipes on her and everything But you know, he's he's he's he's meddling with strife that doesn't belong to him Look, I don't want people to turn into a bunch of cold-hearted jerks and never want to lend a helping hand But be careful who you who you lend a hand to What if I had stopped this morning with that guy and be like, hey, can can we go over to Goodwill and get you some? pants You know, can I can I buy you a belt? I Mean who knows what could have happened? You know, I mean the guy could attack me, you know, something crazy could have happened There was another story 3 a.m Look 3 a.m. If you're out at 3 a.m. And you're and things are going that's not a good time to be out First of all, I'll preach about that tonight. Okay, but if you're out late at night That's probably not the time to stop and help strangers as late at night when nobody else is around But I read another story. This is up in Tempe the ladies driving on the freeway at 3 a.m This carload of a couple guys a lady and a minor are all on the side of the freeway Flagging her down so she pulls over because she's just you know, the goodness of her heart. She just pulls over and She ends up getting robbed. They end up robbing her and taking off and get back in their car I mean, they just took total advantage of her. So, you know, I just thought about these It's like this might just be a good, you know public service announcement Just be careful about the situations that you get yourself involved in You know, especially if you're if you're going out of your way to involve yourself in the somebody else's strife You know, you're not going to come out of that unscathed You will meddle to your own hurt if you would go over to Proverbs 17 Proverbs chapter 17 Again I already talked about all the online altercations that people have People spend a lot of time meddling with strength that doesn't belong to them online You people are always trying to rope us into that, you know and at the church people are always sending us emails and like hey Did you see this? Did you hear that? So-and-so said this and so-and-so or you know trying to get us involved in some kind of argument inviting people on to debates and Things like that. Look we want to cease from strife Okay The Bible says in Proverbs 26 26 years 17. It says where no wood is the fire goes out So where there is no tailbearer at the strife cease it You know, if you take wood out of a fire eventually, it's gonna burn out. It has to have fuel, right? We don't want to be people who throw fuel on the fire Getting involved in situations causing flare-ups Getting things going getting people, you know Mad at each other we want strife to cease Maybe we can't do something about some situation that other people are involved in but at least for ourselves We can stay out of it and keep that strife out of our life Because look at Proverbs 17 verse 14. This is a this is a good warning The Bible says the beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water So again, this is one of those kind of cryptic, you know proverbs they have to think about what's it saying here? But it you know I always think about you ever seen the guy who like they have the above-ground pool And they want to let the water out of it by cutting it And they always they always film it for the rest of us, right? Thankfully because it's hilarious and they always cut the side that's like pointing towards the house with the sliding glass door Whatever. It's like you idiot But what do they think they're just gonna walk up and poke the pool and just the water is gonna trickle out Yeah, it does that for like a millisecond, you know for like for like one tenth of a second It's just this little stream of water but it's all this pressures that behind it that immediately just tries to go through that hole and Burst the whole side of the guy gets swiped off his fees flowing down the lawn, you know into his own house Water splashing everywhere. There's toys, you know, and everything's going everywhere. It's a big mess, right? But that's what the Bible is saying about strife that's the beginning of strife You know, you think you're gonna get involved you just have a little bit of strife You're just gonna I'm just gonna make this one comment. I'm just gonna say this one little thing I'm just gonna give him this little prod this little needle, you know That's like letting out water because you don't know how that person's gonna react Next thing, you know It's like you're just caught up in this flood of anger and resentment and malice and just all these negative things are just Pouring forward just pouring out like when one lets out water You can't just let out a little bit of water. It all comes gushing out more than you intended Well, I didn't mean for that to happen You know, I thought I just poke a little hole in the side of this pool and just a little bit of water It'd be cool. You know, I just watch it come out slowly. We drain it slowly over time. Nope That might be what you intended. But you know what you get is the deluge, right? You just get flooded by a bunch of unwanted consequences So don't be a person who goes around stirring up strife don't be a person who goes around getting involved in other people's strife Because you don't know what the end of is going to be but I guarantee you this from everything We're seeing in Scripture everything that we're reading in the Bible We're seeing that what that when you meddle you do so to your own hurt So, you know user you basically this is the the sermon in a nutshell is to use discernment When you when choosing to involve yourself with the strife of others You know if you're gonna get involved in some situation whether you're you know, you see two people fighting, you know This is this is a classic example, you know some guys, you know A man and a woman some couples going at it. It's getting physical like well I'm not gonna just stand here and let it watch a woman get thrown around and there's nothing good about it Obviously then you try to get involved and what happens she turns on you Now you got both of them on you that's happened that kind of thing takes place all the time You know, sometimes that's just how people just show that they love each other, you know, that's just their that's just their weird dynamic And that relationship, you know, you should probably just stay out of it, right? Because that's the type of thing that happens people get involved there think they're sticking up for somebody They're getting involved in a situation and next thing, you know, they get turned on obviously you have to use discernment here folks When it's right to get involved but use caution because you know, like it says here It's like letting out water. It seems like it's just gonna be this little trickle. But what's it say? It's like a big, you know, just gushing stream comes out, right? Therefore it says the end leave off contention Before it'd be meddled with You know, you see some situation there's this contention. There's this argument. There's a strife Maybe better just say leave off that contention before you get involved with it because once you get involved with it now You've got a dog by the years and now you have to figure out how you're gonna let go without getting bit and guess what? You're gonna get bit to some degree or another So again, let's not be people who meddle just with strife to our hurt, you know We should stick up for things that matter get involved and contend for things that are righteous You know, I'm not saying we should just be these pacifists that we should never get involved in conflict But we should choose our battles very wisely because if we're getting involved with strife that doesn't belong to us You know, it could end up coming back and hurting us. Let's go and pray