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All right. Amen. So what I'm preaching about this morning is the subject of gossip, gossip or tail bearing. Who knows what I'm talking about here? Tattlers, uh, run in your mouth, that sort of thing. Um, the title of the sermon to stop yapping and listen, stop yapping and listen. And it's kind of an inside joke with some of the guys, uh, up in Vancouver. But basically what it means is, you know, people that have an issue gossiping a lot of times they don't ever stop and think about the damage they're doing to other people and they don't ever take the time to actually listen to information. A lot of times they might hear something, hear some bit of information and then they just can't wait to go and tell other people the good juice. You know what I'm talking about? We all know people like that. People like that have been in this church before and you want to know what they all had in common. None of them are here today. Okay, so this is a bad thing. I'm not preaching this and targeting anyone. You know, sometimes I do do that right and we understand that. This isn't one of those times. Okay, I'm just preaching this because it needs to be preached from time to time. It's a biblical concept. You're not going to find the word gossip in the Bible, but you will find tail bearing, tattling, whispering and all the other associated words and synonyms in the Bible. Now I'm just going to read for you a couple of definitions because sometimes it just kind of helps to, to have a good base knowledge, a good understanding of what it means to gossip or to be a tail bearer. Now gossiping, uh, let's see, what is this? Webster's dictionary says this, it's casual or unconstrained conversation or report reports about other people typically involving details that are not confirmed as being true. Now that's, that's a pretty good definition. You kind of find that in the Bible as well, but other times it's also when you are telling things that are true, you know, sometimes you might be talking to somebody, you gain their trust. They tell you a little bit about themselves and maybe they don't tell you, Hey, don't go tell this to the whole world, but you go and do it anyways. You know what I mean? Sometimes, you know, a person shouldn't always have to say, Hey, you know, don't tell my whole life story to everybody. You know, I think that we need to have a certain level of discernment that when we're talking amongst ourselves and somebody tells you maybe something about their past, you should kind of know, like maybe that's something they're just trusting me with and just be safe and take that position and not necessarily go and tell everybody in the church or everybody in the workplace where everybody in your family or your community, you know, it's not wise to do that and we'll see why. Now, a tailbearer is a person who maliciously gossips or reveals secret. It's done on purpose to cause harm. It hurts how you think about the person and it can hurt your reputation and it can hurt you emotionally. And actually the Bible says that tailbearers, the wounds that they cause actually cause physical harm as well. We'll talk about that. Here's another definition. See the 1828 Webster's dictionary here. It gives this definition of a person who is a gossip. It says a person who habitually reveals personal or sensational facts to others. So one thing that these definitions all have in common is revealing secrets, revealing information that was meant to be kept private, right? Who's ever had a conversation with somebody and you can kind of tell like, that's kind of a private matter, you know, maybe I'll just keep that to myself. You know, that's, that's, that's what we're talking about. Well, the tailbearer or the gossip says, Ooh boy, this is good stuff right here. By the way, Hey Moses, guess what? You know, I guess what David said about, you know, I guess what so-and-so went through, you know, that's what we want to avoid. So you're there in first Timothy chapter five, look at verse 13 that says this and with all they learn to be idle, wondering about from house to house and not only idle, but toddlers also and busy bodies speaking things which they are not. Now turn to keep your place there, but turn to second Thessalonians chapter number three, second Thessalonians chapter number three. And so, you know, the Bible does seem to indicate that women do struggle with this more than men, but I'll be honest with you, you know, thinking about my whole life, the biggest gossets who I've ever met are always men, a hundred percent of the time. Maybe that's because I haven't worked with a lot of women. I don't know. I doubt it. I just think in today's culture with the way the workplace is set up, you know, it's just more prevalent. You know, we're, we're, we're privy to more information about each other, right? You can go to somebody's Facebook page and if they're not careful and they've got their whole life on blast, I mean, it's not hard to go through and pick stuff out and then just go text somebody or take a screenshot and goes into somebody, you know, and this stuff spreads like super, like wildfire, man. It's like pouring kerosene on a magnesium fire these days. And so it's easy. And so all I'm trying to say is that this isn't just gender specific. This applies to everyone. Now, obviously in first Timothy five, Paul's warning, you know, Tim and the, Hey, watch out for this. Because back then, you know, they didn't have all that stuff. The men went out and worked, I mean like pretty much by and large and the women are all home and he's saying, Hey, the ones that are neglecting their households, the ones that are not staying busy, they're called busy bodies. And what they're going to do is they're going to go around and start bearing secrets. You're going to start tattling. They're going to start getting into trouble. Okay. That's what I'm saying. And so he calls them busy bodies here. And I just want to show you that here in second Thessalonians chapter three, it says this, I'll leave verse 10 says, for even when we were with you, this, we commanded you that if any would not work, neither should he eat verse 11 for we hear that there are some which walk among you, disorderly working, not at all, but are busy bodies. We've had a busy body inside of this church. I've preached against him a thousand times, right? I tried to explain to another family about this person that he's a busy body by every word in the definition. He's not busy working. He's busy learning things about other people and pitting certain people against each other. And that's what it is. You know, that's what this guy would do. You all know who I'm talking about. You come in here, you know, find out somebody not doing something right. Come and tell me about it right before preaching time. Hey, so-and-so I think has a problem with beer. So-and-so said this, this person doesn't like this person, you know, and I'm trying to keep the peace. Look at me, right? Why do you think he was like that? Because he's got nothing else to do. He's not concerned about working for the Lord. He's not working with his own hands. He's just taking advantage of people and trying to mold the situation to feed him and to fit his needs, right? That's a busy body. That's what he's saying here. Look at verse 11 again, for we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly working, not at all, but are busy bodies. I tried to tell someone else this and she said, oh, I don't believe that. That's not, no, it's not a busy body. No, I'm sorry, but you're wrong. He is a busy body, right? And these, look, I'm not saying that if this is you, your stinking reprobate and all this stuff, just, just get it right. Get busy, get to work, do something so you don't fall prey to the whole host of things that can come as a result of idleness and it, it never fails. Idleness always seems to bring forth tail bearing, gossips, strivings, fights, trouble, right? That's what it does every single time. Now look at verse 12, it says, now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ that with quietness they work and eat their own bread. Now go back to first Timothy chapter five. I'll read for you Proverbs 31 27 which says this, she looketh well to the ways of her household and eateth not the bread of idleness. So you read first Timothy five 13 and it talks about how when the ladies neglect their duties and they say, I don't want to do things God's way or they just get backslid and just just start, you know, getting in, in an idle state or an idle mode. The result is going to be evil communication. Okay. And that's exactly the opposite that we read about in Proverbs chapter 31 verse 27 the virtuous woman on the other hand keeps herself so busy she doesn't have time to put, to make provision for the flesh and to go run in her mouth and talking about other people. So again, verse 13 and with all they learn to be idle, wondering about from house to house and not only idle, but tattlers also busy bodies. You look at the definition of a tattler, it's the same thing. It's all revealing secrets. It's all talking trash. It's all yapping and running your mouth about other people's business, right? That's what this is talking about. Speaking things which they ought not. Remember, don't, this isn't just towards the ladies. This is for everybody, right? There are certain things that we ought not to speak. You know, so when somebody confides in you and maybe they shouldn't be telling you these things in the first place, but you kind of know, right? You know, they're telling you about their marriage problems. You know, just, just take the position that not everybody needs to know about that. Okay. Not everybody needs to know every single little detail about everybody's life. Look at verse 14 says, I will therefore that the younger one may bear children guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully for some have turned aside after Satan. Now go to second Samuel chapter number 15. And so what do we see here? There's really four things that we see here, right? Idleness. And what does that do? It brings forth the opportunity for evil communications, hurtful speech, which is being a busybody, tattling, being a tailbearer, a gossip. And what does that do? It gives the enemy cause to blaspheme. It gives the enemy a reason to speak reproachfully about God's people. And then what's the next step being turned aside unto Satan. That's where this stuff will lead. And I talked about this on Wednesday, the busybody who we had that we had to kick out. Guess what? He told me, you delivered me up to Satan. Well, no, you delivered yourself up to Satan. I didn't do it. I guess I kind of facilitated it by getting you out of here, but really it was his choice. He went through all of these steps being idle that led forth to evil communications, pitting people against each other that gave the enemy to cause to speak reproachfully about this church. And the result was he was delivered up into Satan. And it can happen to anybody in here, anybody, if you don't take heed to the things in the Bible, it could happen to any one of us. Now, what we're going to do is we're just going to take a look at an example here in the Bible. You guys are familiar with the story of Absalom, right? David's son. What you're going to see here is that he takes, he's got some issues, right? He's got some problem. He's mad about the way that David handled the rape of his sister Tamar. Okay. He's still upset about that. He's still bitter about this and what you're going to see is you're going to see him manipulating the people in Israel. And the first thing he does is he basically, he provides for himself a little host, a little, a little comfort. You're going to see that here in verse one. And then what he does is he starts to befriend the people that are in the gates. They start to come to him with problems and he starts saying, well, you know, you know, I wish there was somebody, you know, that was deputed to handle all these issues, you know, basically saying, if I was in charge, I would be able to help you. Right. And so he wins the hearts of the people. But what you're going to notice that he's doing is he's maligning the King. He's very subtly being a tail bearer. And what's the result? Almost a complete civil war, almost a complete destruction. And that's what happens sometimes in churches. Hey, you can see it happened in the workplace all the time, right? You get one guy who's just a habitual, you know, revealer of secrets, just somebody who's a tail bearer, a gossip. And what do they do? They cause turmoil. They slow production down, don't they? They don't help production. They slow it down every single time. Why? Because they cause stripes. They go to the first one to go to the boss. Hey, you know, we got this, this and this done. And they probably didn't even do half of this, this and this, right? They just were the first ones there. You know, and a lot of, unfortunately, a lot of people that are in leadership positions today, they don't have the mental discernment to be able to tell, oh, you're, you're a bad person. Cause you're always the first one in here and you're always, you know, you seem to be the best worker, but you know, your hands aren't dirty, you know, and nobody likes you. They don't have that discernment. They're just glad, oh, you got done. Okay. My, well, my job's done. I'm not going to get in trouble, right? That's how a lot of bosses are. And so a lot of times the gossips will have success or the tailbearers. They'll have success in the beginning because they're working for somebody who's got no discernment, but for the believer, you ought not to let that bother you because the Bible says a promotion doesn't come from the east or the west. It doesn't come from the south. It comes from God. And you know, when you endure those things and you keep pushing forward and you don't let the hype get to you, guess what? You're going to be successful. God will lift you up and expose that person eventually. Now the heathen, they don't have, they don't have those rules. They don't know that most of the time. So what they'll do is they'll just get mad and throw caution to the wind a lot of times, you know, go telling or go file complaints or worse, you know, just, just make the situation 10 times harder by fighting the person. I've seen that as well. Now let's take a look at this example here. So look at verse number one, second Samuel 15, look at verse one. It says, and it came to pass after this. So this is after Absalom burnt Joab's field, another sermon someday. And it came to pass after this, that Absalom prepared him chariots and horses and 50 men to run before him. See, why is he doing that? Because he's up to something. Remember the reason why Absalom is going to malign the king is because he wants something and he doesn't want to work for it. He doesn't want to have the patience to wait for it. So what he does is he's going to use tail bearing gossip manipulation in order to get what he wants. Verse two and Absalom rose up early and stood beside the way of the gate. And it was so that when any man had a controversy came to the king for judgment, then Absalom called unto him and said of what city art down, he said, thy servant is one of the tribes of Israel. So you see what he's doing here? This guy's royalty basically in Israel. And he's making a personal connection with the people, which is probably something that they've never had before because David was a very busy man, a very busy person. He didn't probably have time to go out and shake hands with everybody. Not that he wouldn't. There's times back in the early days where he would do stuff like that. But obviously right now that's not the situation. And so he's making these connections. Hey, where are you from? How are you doing? What's going on? He's acting like he really cares about these people on a personal level. And that wins their hearts. Look at verse three, and Absalom had, or Absalom said unto him, see thy matters are good and right, but there is no man deputed of the king to hear thee. So he's like, you know, you've got a right to be angry, dude. Man, I would be mad too. You know, I'm mad for you, right? And he's spinning them up. He's got his ladle in the pot, so to speak. And he's just stirring that bad boy up. Everybody that comes by and he's doing this all the time, just getting people all worked up, right? Who's ever worked with somebody like this before? Who's ever been to church with somebody like this before? We all have. You know what I'm talking about. Why is he doing this? Why do these people do that? Because they want something and they don't want to work for it. It's easier to take this evil shortcut than it is to get your hands dirty and do the work. Verse four, Absalom said, moreover, oh, that I were made judge in the land that every man which hath any suitor cause might come unto me and I would do him justice. There you go. Putting the king down and making himself a hero. And that's what tale bearers do. That's what gossips do. This is why God doesn't want us to be like this. And look, everybody in here is gossiped. All of us have, we're all guilty of this. It's a great temptation of the flesh. Let's just be honest. It's something that we all personally have to battle every single day. Look at verse five. And it was so that when any man came nigh to him to do him obeisance, he put forth his hand and took him and kissed him. So again, pouring it on thick, right? That's what he's doing here. Hey, I'm your man. You've got problems. You're right, man. You should be upset. Oh, so and so stole your land. Well, if I, if I get elected, I'll make sure and do away with that. Right. I, you know, I have a feeling that politicians study this passage of scripture here and they just build their entire campaigns off of it. Cause that's what they do, right? When I used to work for the shipyard, every single Senator and governor would always come down to the gate, literally a gate. Okay. You have to buzz in like five gates to get to work and they would stand there, you know, and, and, and the be like, Hey, how you doing? What shopping and what you working on today? What's going on? And you know, pat you on the back and stuff like that. And, and I'd be like, man, you are a slime ball. I ran into one guy and he was a Republican and this was, I think 2013. I wish I remember his name, but he used to be in the Marines and he's like, man, you look like you were in the military. Yeah. And so we started talking and then I remember I read an article about him supporting homosexuals and I brought that up and he was like, Oh man, you're right. Yeah, that's disgusting. You know, and, and yeah, he's like, you know, but teach his own. He's like, in today's day and age, you said, we gotta be smart. We gotta play the safe. You know, he's like, so what I said, I can't remember what he said, but he made some kind of a commercial where he basically came out supporting it and oh no, it was at church. That's right. It was at church. They had a bulletin out about him and an interview supporting the queers. And I brought that up to him and he was just basically pulling apps. I'm like, no, you got, look, they're there. We're, I'm not going to let them do anything to you. They're not, you know, they're not going to like take power in this state. Yeah. Look at the state now. Okay. But, but that's what you're telling me. He's just telling me what I wanted to hear. Right. And I'm sure that the people that came behind me, he would tell them, you know, Oh, I love the queers. I've got a rainbow flag in my garage, you know, and they can bring their shoes to me any day of the week and I'll shine those bad boys for the rest of my term. You know, they were doing, he would tell you whatever, all he wants is money. Right. But that, that dude was an Absalom for sure. Okay. Look at verse six says, and on this manner did Absalom to all Israel that came to the King for judgment. So Absalom stole the horse of the men of Israel. This is why, this is one of the things I watch out for as a pastor or people like this. This goes way beyond just gossip and tail bearing, right? I mean, we could stay here all morning and we could come back tonight about this passage here because this is dangerous. You see, this is why we can't let stuff like this go unchecked in a church, especially a church of our size, because you never know what it could do. And I'll tell you, some of the people who have left of recently, you know what? They were gossips too. I heard, Oh, well, your preaching's not like so-and-so's. Well, guess what? So-and-so doesn't have an Alzheimer's patient. He's taken care of 24 hours a day. So-and-so is not working 70 hours a week and so-and-so doesn't have a side hustle. So so-and-so has a lot more time to study for sermons and so-and-so has been a pastor for a lot longer than me. So shut your mouth, you know, and this is why it bothers me. It's like, just come to my face and say it, you know, let's talk about this, right? What's your problem? Oh, your problem is you're an Absalom and you're a coward and you got to run your mouth because you don't want to put in the work to change your life. It's much easier to talk trash about me to other people. That's what the problem is. That's what the real issue is here. Verse seven, and it came to pass after 40 years, the Absalom said unto the king, I pray thee, let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed unto the Lord in Hebron. Go to Proverbs chapter 20. We're done here. So you see how long that went on? 40 years. And he stole the hearts of Israel. And this is why when I see this, even when I would see this in the workplace, I would be very harsh to people. I get right in your face, Hey, did you say this about me? Did you say this about so-and-so? Because I knew that that attitude would destroy my crew. And I know that that attitude, if it goes unchecked, will destroy a church. You know, there's a lot, there's big churches out there in this community. And if you talk to some of those pastors, they will tell you that in the beginning days, their churches nearly got brought to their knees because of a person who was a tailbearer. You know, there's an old proverb. I learned this in Japan from a Japanese guy. He said, the tongue's three inches long, but it can slay a man at six feet away. And that's true. That really is true. You know, when I was in the military, they would say, you know what? They would say, when you guys are slinging mud on each other, you're losing ground. Get it? It's true. It really is true. As a human being, as a, especially as a Bible believing God-fearing Christian, so to speak, when you're constantly slinging mud and dirt on other people, you are losing all the progress that you're making Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday, soul winning times, praying, reading your Bible, all that stuff is for not. You're really just knocking that stuff off the plate if all you're doing when you're not doing those things is habitually throwing dirt on other people. So what we're going to do is we're going to go through the Bible here. We're going to go through a lot of Proverbs and we're just going to take a look at what the Bible says about tailbearers, right? And keep in mind, a tailbearer is just a gossip, a person who habitually reveals secrets, talking trash, just trying to malign people for their own gain and their own benefit. So Proverbs chapter 20, look at verse 19. The first thing I want you to see here is that again, tailbearers reveal secrets. In fact, if you type in tailbearer into your Bible app, you're going to find this verse pretty much two times. Proverbs 20, look at verse 19, it says, he that goeth about as a tailbearer revealeth secrets. Now look at this, therefore metal, not with him that flatter with his lips. Did you notice that tailbearers will often flatter you? Hey, guess what? Moses has been doing this, David and Briley and Skulk, but you know what? You guys don't do stuff like that. Moses is always sitting up here on the front playing with a butterfly knife plotting against you guys, but you guys are better than that. You know, you see that, you know, you see what I mean? That's, that's an example of what we're reading here. Okay. And he doesn't do that. He's doing good, right? Now Skulk on the other hand has got some, nah, I'm just kidding. So I, I should have warned you guys. I'm going to make fun of you guys as much as I can today. All right. Just, just kind of the mood that I'm in, but he, they go with about as a tailbearer reveal secrets, you can re you can just keep your place there and just listen to this. Proverbs 11, 13, same thing. A tailbearer will reveal his secrets, but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter. So the opposite of a person who is a tailbearer is somebody who can listen to a conversation, somebody who can take your confiding in them and just keep that to themselves. That's the goal. That's how we want to be right. We've had people in here even recently come and tell me some, some issues that they're having, and then they'll get in front of somebody else and be like, Oh, didn't pastor tell you? And they're like, no. And they're like, why don't you wait? I'm not going to tell your, your business unless, you know, you didn't tell me it was okay. I just, I just rather be safe and assume. No, you don't want other people to know. I mean, what kind of pastor would I be if I was just constantly running around, Hey, you know what Briley has been doing lately? He's been talking about Marissa, you know, see, she would probably start swinging. If she's anything like Kinley. Cause that's what Kinley and Kylan do. All right. Yeah. You guys know it's true. No, I'm just kidding. They're like, I'm going to kill you. I'm just kidding. So he, the goeth about as a tailbearer revealeth secrets. This is something we need to be careful for and just watch out for. Okay. You know, just, just be careful when you're talking with people, don't assume that they always want that stuff out there. Now it's different when you have that guy that comes into church and he's telling everybody about his problems. It's free game after that. Okay. That's a free for all. You opened yourself up for that man. Okay. So don't be getting all mad. It's like, no, I heard you telling your whole life story, you know, out loud openly. So don't be getting mad. Okay. This is, this has got not tail bearing at this point. Okay. So the first thing that I wanted to show you about tailbearers is that they reveal secrets. Go to Proverbs chapter 10 on Proverbs chapter number 10. Look at verse 18. The second thing you'll see is that tailbearers are fools. What else does that mean? A tailbearer or gossip is not wise. We spent a lot of time up here preaching and talking about how to be wise people, right? One thing that can definitely ruin that and set you back is tail bearing, is revealing secrets, is maligning people, speaking maliciously about others. Okay. Look at verse 18, Proverbs 10, 18, he that heighteth hatred with lying lips and he that uttereth slander is a fool. Who does that sound like? That sounds like a guy who could come to church for over a year and sit right around in this area here and be like, that's right. And after the service, I was great, man. I really appreciate that sermon. And then one day all of a sudden on what seems like a whim, just snap and go on YouTube and start railing against me and against all of you. That tells me that he sat here with hatred in his heart for over a year and hid that hatred with lying lips. And that person is a fool. That person is a straight up fool. He that heighteth hatred with his, you know, with lying lips and he that uttereth slanders is a fool. You say, well, you're being harsh. You're a co-leader. You're this, you're that. No, I'm just teaching you the Bible. It's very clear. There's no debate here. There's no arguing. There's no way that person's going to come through this door and prove me wrong from the Bible. No, you're a fool. You sat here for over a year, obviously with hatred in your heart and you lied about it the entire time. And this again is why we need to be a wise people, a discerning people, because you know, it's always blown my mind how somebody could just come to church and be pissed off for over a year and just sit here just stewing. And I can tell they're stewing. I can tell they're upset, you know? And it's like, why don't you just leave? Look, we have this bell over here now. I'm working on getting a sign. Just get up, ring the bell and leave. It's that simple, man. Get out. Why do people torture themselves by coming to a church like this every single week? You know, is it like a drug to them? Do they just like that anger and that high, that temporary high that they get? Just sitting here and just, oh, I can't believe he said that. Oh boy. Oh, I can't. You know, they left out of here several times. I can't believe the words that came out of his mouth. I can't believe what he said. I can't believe what they're doing. And then come back at Sunday night and be like, oh, praise God for all the souls you got saved. This is a soul winning church. I'm so glad to be part of a soul winning church. This church is like a breath of fresh air. Get the hell out of here. You lying devil. You're a fool. You're a fool. I got more respect for the person who comes in here and is like, hey, I'm all jacked up. I'm backslidden. I suck. And it's like, yeah, sit down. You know what I mean? It's fine. We'll try to do the best we can to straighten you out. But that other person, man, that's hard to deal with. It's hard when you know that somebody is just mad and they're talking trash and they're gossiping, but you've got no proof. It's like, man. So, so what I have to do in my position is I have to watch for certain reactions when I say certain things. And then I pull out Moses's little butterfly knife spiritually and I start twisting that sucker in there. Oh yeah. Yeah. New evangelical NIV, Sam Gipp, you know, Andrew Sluder, you know, and I just start saying these things, you know, these, these, these liberal queer fag pedophile. Right. And I just start taking jabs and then they get enough of those injuries in their belly. And they're like, I've had enough. I'm getting out of here, man. I'm out. You suck. And then, and then it pours out, right? See a wise man under, you know, counsel is like deep waters in the heart of man. The Bible says, right. And a man of understanding will draw it out. And that's just one way I drew him out. You know, it's my job. All right. Turn to Proverbs chapter 26. So the first thing we saw is tailbearers reveal secrets. The second thing is that tailbearers are fools. And, and by the way, those people that come here all the time and they just want to sit here and just get mad and angry and not want to be here. They can't understand doctrine. Can they? And it's been revealed after the fact, you have to get on YouTube all year, this year, that you're not doing things right. Show me a verse. I can't, I ain't got nothing. I got no verses. I just know you're not doing things right. Right. Sure. All right. Number three, tailbearers cause fights. Tailbearers cause fights. Proverbs 26, look at verse 20. Where no wood is, where no wood is, there the fire goeth out. So where there is no tailbearer, the strife ceaseth. I used to have this guy that I worked with. I worked with him for probably, I want to say seven years straight off and on different crews. Every time this guy would come to the crew, it would just be turmoil, fights, problems. He would get dirt on somebody. He would come in in the middle of the night, write that dirt on the whiteboard, you know, and then you come in the morning and so-and-so's laundry, you know, so-and-so's with this person. So-and-so's married with this person. And it's like, Oh, who wrote this? You know, he just loved that. And then he would always leave a little crumb, just a little, a little clue that it was him that did it, but just enough to where he couldn't pin him down. And he'd just sit there with a smug little, like, dude, just starting fights left and right. And every time that the supervisor would get word and kick him off the crew, we would finally start to get work done and things would just be much better. And I felt healthier as a person. Well, one day I got promoted. I became boss and he came, actually, he got promoted. I worked for him. And then he did, he moved on. He did something really stupid. He got knocked back down. I got promoted. And then he came and worked for me. And I knew I was in for it. One, because he was mad that he was there before me and then he, now he's having to work for me. And so he started doing his thing, doing all that stuff, but I was already privy to his tricks. This was way before I was going to become a pastor. Cause what I'm about to tell you is not kosher. Okay. One day I had enough. All right. Man, I can't remember what it was. We're working, we're preparing for a submarine to come into dry dock. He's causing trouble. He's now it's affecting me differently because I'm responsible for the schedule and this budgeting and I have to make sure this stuff's getting done. And so now I'm like, okay, you know, I'm not just able to keep silent about this stuff anymore. He's getting people to fight. And I, you know, I called up my boss. I was like, we need to get rid of him. And he's like, okay, I can tell you're pretty upset. He's like, I'm going to move him over to the carrier crew. And I was like, you know, I hate to do that, but in government work, all you can do is move a problem with these people. You can't fire them. You can't kick them out. You, you know, they have to literally molest somebody or stab someone that loses their jobs. Seriously. If they don't do those two things, they got the job forever. Okay. It's just the way it is. It's just the way it is. So this guy's doing something. He's pissing me off. I said, Hey, get your shoes on. You're going to the carrier crew. And he didn't want to go to the carrier crew. So he flipped out and he's just started the saying all this stuff. And I lost my mind. I said, get outside right now. I took him outside and I pinned him up against the wall. And I was like, look, dude, I was like, take a swing right now. You know, I lost, I lost my cool. I am not going to lie. I was ready to scrap, you know? And he's like, dude, I've never seen you act like what's going on, man. You know what? He's like, and then right when he's, he's like, he's like, he's like, well, you know, freaking out. My boss comes around the corner, right? He, he sits us down and talks about it. That dude leaves. He apologizes. My boss is like, if you would've hit him, I wouldn't have done nothing to you. In fact, I would have probably given you a hundred bucks. That's not right. Okay. What I did was wrong. I'm not supposed to be a brawler, but I lost it. I lost it. I let him get to me because the wounds of a tail, a tail bearer, they go down deep into the belly. And that was seven years of his crap that I just, I never really confronted him about it. I was just like, well, that's not affecting me. I'm just going to keep on working and get my job done. But it was affecting me. It was bothering me. And then when it was attacking me personally, cause now I'm in charge and he's trying to make me look stupid. I'd lost it, man. I stand. And to this day, to this very day, people still talk about that altercation that we had, you know, and, but you know what? He changed. I'll be honest with you. He changed. Like he's like a different person now because of that. He just never had anybody stand up to him before. And I still talk to the guy even to this day, every once in a while, he still emails it's water under the bridge and I'm admitting my faults to see this in a Catholic church, you know, cause the Catholic church, you know, I'd have a little cage right here and you guys would be all telling me your problems. I'm telling you my faults. Okay. I'm confessing my faults before you. And this was before we moved to Sacramento. All right. So I'm trying to justify here a little bit. All right. But Hey, we're all sinners. All right. That's all I'm trying to tell you. All right. So tailbearers cause fights. That's just one of the stories that I have that I've, you know, I've gone through. There's, I could probably name several others when we've had the tailbearers leave here. What's the result? Peace every time, right? Isn't it a peaceful time now? Right. You know, when the first family left, when the Melfies left, I was like, you know, it was peace in the back of my mind. And I was like, there's still this beacon over here. And I just didn't want to say anything. I wanted restoration. I hoped that would stop, but it didn't. But now for real it's, it's, it's good to go. Okay. So real quick, tailbearers reveal secrets, they're fools and they cause fights. And you'll notice this when they remove themselves. So God takes them out of the church, gets rid of them. Life gets better, right? When you separate them from your own life. You know, when you tell that family member, they just won't stop. They just won't get it. You're like, Hey, get out of here. I, you know, I'm not able to deal with this. I can't be here anymore and let your negativity ruin me. You're going to be better off for it every single time. Okay. Now turn to, let's see, Psalm 101, Psalm chapter 101. And I'm going to read another one for you out of Leviticus 19. Tailbearers will get judgment from God. Leviticus 19 16 says thou shall not go up and down as a tailbearer among thy people. Neither shall thou stand against the blood of thy neighbor. I am the Lord. God says, Hey, it's a commandment that we not be tailbearers amongst each other. You know, we're not supposed to go up and down the rows of the chairs or the pews up and down God's people revealing secrets, maliciously speaking bad about other people. I mean, come on, especially God's people. You know, you want to talk about the heathen or the queers. That's, that's one thing, but don't do it to God's people because it's just going to bring the judgment of God on you. And look, the 19 people that are no longer welcome here are proof that that is true. God exposed every single one of those people that was gossiping tail bearing and running their mouths. And he'll always do that. Here's the next one. Tailbearers will get removed. Tailbearers will get removed. Psalm 101. Look at verse five. Who so privately slander with his neighbor. Him will I cut off him that hath an eye look and a proud heart will not I suffer. Wow. What in the world does that mean? Does that mean you lost your salvation? No, no, but he's going to cut you off. And that's evident by this church. We've, I mean, that's something I could point to and say, Hey, we've seen that when, when I, it didn't fail. Right. I knew that those people were unhappy. I knew they were talking trash. I just couldn't prove it. You know, what was the result? What was the end, the end game there? They left God removed. God caused them to get to a breaking point where they would remove themselves. Basically where they'd want to quit, you know, or God would, would sometimes I, cause I would pray about this, you know, and I believe that God was like, Hey, and caused me to notice certain things about these people. They don't like that. That hurt that went through the steel toe shoes. They appeared to be wearing. I would just keep doing it and keep doing it and keep doing it. And they're probably going home. He's always talking about this. And it's like, yeah, because I want you to leave. It's clear that you're not going to get restored and that I need to run you out of here. And then we get 30 people saved and then we get 30 more people saved. And then we have a pandemic, you get four people saved, you know, and it's just going to get better. All that's happened as a result of those bozos getting exposed is greatness across the board, man. Greatness. So he says, who so perfectly slammed with his neighbor, him will I cut off. I believe that God looks down on our church. That's following his principles and says, I'm going to, I'm going to be patient with you. I'm going to be long suffering with you. But there comes a point where God says, you know what? I can see that person's just here to malign, just to cause trouble. And I'm going to get them out. He's going to cut them off, cut them out of the, you know, out of the church and make them unproductive. And I think that's exactly what we've seen here. Turn to Proverbs chapter number 16, Proverbs chapter number 16. The next thing you're gonna see is tailbearers separate friends. Tailbearers separate chief friends. Now tailbearers typically don't have friends of their own. They may have a lot of people that they surround themselves with. They might have acquaintances. They might seem popular. They might seem like they're well liked like Absalom. But if you were to really study Absalom's life, you'll probably notice he didn't really have any close friends. Not like David and Jonathan did, right? You don't see that with Absalom. Now, why is that? Because people instinctively know when you keep coming up to them and telling them all this stuff about other people, I think they kind of know you're probably going to tell them about me as well. Right? That's what they do. Proverbs 16, look at verse 28, a froward man, so with strife and a whisperer separated chief friends. And that's what they do. They come into the workplace and they will separate you from your friends. They come into a church and they separate chief friends. They come in your family. They come near your family and they will try to break you apart and separate you. That's what whisperers do. And isn't it true? They don't necessarily say these things out loud where everybody can hear. Say, hey, come here for a second. You know, I think he was talking about you this morning. I think he was talking about you last Wednesday too. You notice that? Yeah, you're right. I think he was. That's right. Oh man, thanks for this revelation. Right? And then they become bitter. And then they don't want to talk to certain other people inside the church. And he starts to distance themselves. And then they form this little group where they're right. We're all wrong. We don't know the whole matter. And the rest is history. And then they're turned aside after Satan. Go to Proverbs chapter 26 and Proverbs chapter 26. So the next thing I want to talk about is this deal here. How do we deal with somebody who approaches us with gossip? What do you do? Somebody comes to you, you recognize, okay, Brother Jeff's been talking about Kinley and her piano playing. Okay. And he tells Kylen, what is Kylen supposed to do? Well, I'm just teasing obviously, but you know, the first thing you need to do is ask that person, okay, so what, like, like, what are your intentions right now? Like, like, what are you hoping to gain? Right. That lets them know that you're on to what they're doing. You may not know why they're doing it, but you know that they have ill will. Right. So the first thing you need to do when somebody comes to you with gossip, comes to you with dirt, with you, to you with tail bearing, tattling, whatever is say, Hey, like, like what are your goals right now? Like what, like, why are you telling me this quick? Tell me. And don't let them move on. They don't, they don't sidestep. They don't go to the next question. No, you make them tell you what their intentions are. Why are you telling me this? Because they have an agenda. Okay. And the next thing you're going to do is say, Hey, okay, you've already told me so-and-so has been talking trash. We're going to them right now. We I'm taking you and we're going to them. If you refuse to come, that's cool. I'm going to him right now and telling him, because if you don't, and that person finds out that he told you something, guess what? Now you've got this chief friend separation that we just talked about, right? So when somebody comes to you and says, Hey, I think so-and-so was talking about, you said, well, let's go, let's go talk to him real quick. Come on. Let's go. Let's, let's make sure. Right. And you, and you might have more tact than I do. You might be able to say, you know, Oh yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, let's, let's go talk to him real quick, man. No, no, no, it's cool. It's cool. Let's go talk to him real quick and let's just solve this. And if they hesitate, like, Oh, you know, I didn't, there are their gossips, the tail bearing. They have ill will. There's a problem, right? Maybe we don't need to necessarily boot the person out of church, but that behavior needs to come to light. It needs to be exposed. Okay. Now me as a pastor, I want to know when people are talking trash. It's usually later on that I find out I'm usually the last person. That's how, that's how it goes. You know, when someone's talking about you, you're usually the last person to know. Now it's kind of funny, just like clockwork. I'm done with the sermon. I'm kind of going over it. Last night, my phone starts going off the church phone, right? Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. Five messages, one phone call from a number in Fort Worth, Texas. And I'm trying to figure out what these images are and come to find out it's, it's all these documents. I guess I couldn't really even read them, but I determined, okay, this is about pastor Shelley. So somebody is going around and emailing, I guess, all of us this information about pastor Shelley and some contractor. Okay. You know what that is? That's tail bearing. That's gossiping. What church does that person go to? What fruit are they producing? By even doing that now, I didn't go to him yet because this came in at nine o'clock and they're two hours ahead, you know, and as a pastor, I don't like getting messages at midnight, you know, talking to me, you know, with bad news, you know, there's nothing worse than right before you're getting up to preach and someone comes up to you and, Hey, you know, this, this worst thing just happened to me, you know, my life's in turmoil. And it's not that I don't want to help, but it's like, right before I'm preaching, I, I don't want to be distracted by stuff like that. And he already knows that stuff's going on. So I'm gonna talk to him about it tomorrow. But it's kind of funny how you, you know, I write these sermons and then like the perfect situation happens. You know, somebody is trying to sow discord. Somebody is unhappy with steadfast and the leadership over there. And so they're trying to dig up all this dirt on them and tell the whole world, or tell us all privately. I'm not sure what the deal is, you know, and I, I know there's been some videos out there by people that are unhappy with the new IFB and stuff. And it's like, I did watch one real quick and it's like, you got nothing, you've got no proof. And the guy even said, so he's like, well, I don't know where all this money came from, to be honest guys. But I mean, you know, but he's like, maybe a rich uncle gave it to him or, or maybe somebody, you know, just, just blessed him with it, you know, but he's insinuating that he stole it from the church and he doesn't have the proof. And that's why the guy is sending me these. Cause I guess he wants me to fall for this and just like, Oh, I believe you person. I don't even know that you don't even have the guts to call me up on the phone and actually talk to me. Yeah. You know, you just want to call real quick and hang up and then send me these text messages. It's like, well, maybe he accidentally called, I don't know, but what's going on here. Somebody who is a tail bear, somebody who's mad, somebody who wants to look that person to send me those messages. He wants something. He wants something from me. He wants something from us. And it's probably to take his side. And if I don't, they'll probably try to make a video on me or something like that. Right. That's usually how this thing, that's usually how this thing works, but you know, it just, it just never fails. You're there in Proverbs 26 looking for 21 as coals are to burning coals and wood to fire. So as a contentious man to Kindle strife, whoever this person is, whoever this person is, is a contentious person and they want to Kindle fire. They want to blow this thing out of proportion, right? They want to take that little fire and dump kerosene on it. So just spreads like wildfire. And they want to bring these churches down. I don't really know why. I know that if you type in our church name on YouTube, I think it's like the fourth or fifth thing that comes up. This website is called new IFB info. And it's like, watch out for pastor Jones and shield of faith Baptist church. They teach that they teach wrong eschatology and they're against the Jews and they were against vaccines. I don't know if it's the same guy, but yeah. Amen. Praise God. Thanks for the free advertising. I wish they would write a little bit more, you know, I don't think they wrote enough about us, you know, give us a little bit more. How you feel, you know, I think that would help us out, but that's all that you have here. You know, somebody, you know, somebody is reporting to me, Hey, there's another pastor over here and he's been ripping people off. You guys, you don't have any proof. You know, why are you making videos and then saying, you know, well, we don't know for sure where this extra money came from, but it could be this or it could be that. Yeah. Who, who, who is that guy anyway? What was his name? Robin, Robin turtles, Robin Tuttle's or something like that. I don't, I don't know. I forgot what the guy's name is, but I don't know if that's the guy that emailed me somebody or texted me, whatever, somebody from Fort Worth, Fort Worth area code. Um, but it's ridiculous. What does that have to do with us anyways? Nothing. You know, they have it all wrong. They think like we're all connected, like real deeply, like we call each other up and talk about what we're going to preach about and talk about, you know, what we're going to say. Now there is one thing that all of our churches have in common and that is if, if somebody gets kicked out of, out of their church, I'm not going to let them come in here. Right. And if we kick somebody out of here, they're going to do the same. There's nothing wrong with taking care of each other. What's wrong. Why is it wrong for us to have friends? I'll bet it's okay for them to have friends across States and, you know, and form little, little agreements and stuff here and there. What's wrong with that? I don't see anything wrong with that at all. Well, you shouldn't have real being really independent means you don't have any friends. Shut up out of here with that. Proverbs 24, 25 verse nine says this debate thy cause with thy neighbor himself and discover not a secret to another. So it says to debate thy cause with thy neighbor himself. That means you need to keep your conversation about personal matters between you and your neighbor, right? Don't discover that secret to other people, right? So if this guy has got beef with pastor Shelley, he needs to keep it between him themselves. That's what this verse is saying. Debate thy cause with thy neighbor himself and discover not a secret to another. What is he trying to do? He's trying to discover a secret to me and to us and try to get me involved. I've got enough problems. Okay. I don't need that. And I'm certainly not going to fall for some childish maligning, tail bearing, tattling, busy body type things. Person's a busy body. Obviously, obviously not busy working hard enough for God. He's got time to, you know, send us all these documents and I'm like, I'm not reading that. Get out of here, man. I don't have time for that. Nobody's got time for this junk. Proverbs 26, look at verse 22. So what I want to do now is I want to talk about the effects of gossip because I mentioned this earlier. Gossip, tail bearing, it actually hurts you physically. It does. It's harmful. Okay. A lot of people think, oh, sticks and stones may break my bones, but you know, names will never hurt me. No, they will hurt you. That is a false teaching. That little rhyme we all memorize as kids. That's not biblical. Proverbs 26, look at verse 22. The words of a tail bearer are as wounds and they go down into the innermost part of the belly. Look, who in here has gotten bad news before? Hey, guess what? So-and-so said this about you. You're too short. You're too tall. You're too ugly. You know, whatever. Did that, how did that make you feel physically? It hurt, right? You could feel it usually right here. The little gut check, right? It bothers you. Look, I'm a human. When I hear that stuff about me, it bothers me as well. It hurts. That's what the Bible is saying. I'll bet, I don't know if there's any scientific studies done about this. I don't really care too much, but I'll bet you someday if there isn't one, somebody's going to come out with one. You know what? When you gossip about other people, it actually does this. Actually, there's actually like a, like a scar, you know, inside your belly. It actually hurts. There's actually visible evidence that it does something to you physically. And this is why I think a lot of people that are just diehard, bitter, just tail bearing gossip, just always angry and bitter about the world. I think a lot of times it's why they live short lives or why they have health complications all the time. Who's ever heard somebody say, I've got ulcers. You know, sometimes I, I think it could be as a result of getting involved in these types of things, you know, going to work day after day where this stuff just goes unchecked and it just, it's just very prevalent. You know, people are just running their mouths and talking about you and you just always having this, this strife, you know, if you don't have enough physical activity to kind of relieve that stress, I think it does something to you. I think it could hurt you in the long run. Just something to think about there, but this is the effect of gossip. Tail bearing is that it goes down into the innermost part of your belly and it hurts you. You know, the Bible says that death and life are in the power of the tongue. That is so true. You can literally ruin somebody, somebody's life by the words that come out of your mouth. It's not always the pistol or the rifle or the knife or the grenade. A lot of times it's just something that you say. It's a secret you revealed to other people, you know, that somebody trusted you with and that could ruin somebody's life. Go to James chapter three, James chapter three. James chapter three, look at verse number one. It says, my brethren be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation for in or for in many things, we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same as a perfect man and able to bridle the whole body. Behold, we put bits in the horse's mouth that they may obey us and we turn about their whole body. So what is James doing here? He's trying to put it in perspective for you that, hey, that little organ in your mouth can do a lot of damage. It can do a ton of damage. Verse four, behold also the ships, which though they be so great and are driven of fierce winds, yet they are turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listed. And so again, he's using real world examples and hey, you know, those big ships that are out there, big cargo ships. If you were to actually look at the helm where the person sits to steer, it's a very small space. First of all, and a very small steering wheel. Most of the time, you know, on board these, these submarines, especially like a big Trident submarine, it's a, I'm not going to say how long it is, but a very long, you know, powerful, deep submarine carries a lot of damage. I mean, these things can do worldwide damage by themselves. If you ever go down into the control room, which you can see if you go on the discovery channel and you watch a documentary about them, they'll show you that the helm's very small. You got two guys and it's usually the youngest guys on the crew sitting there and they drive that thing. And it's like, man, that little, those little steering wheels turn this big, massive machinery. It's, it's amazing. And that's what James is saying here. Likewise, that organ inside of your mouth can do the same thing. It can turn situations good or bad. Look at verse five. Even so the tongue is a little member and boasted great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth and the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members that it defileth the whole body and set us on fire. The course of nature and it set on fire or, and is set on fire of hell. Think about it. People spend eternity in hell by confessing what's in their hearts. I don't want to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Right. And with that organ, they seal their fate. They, they, they say, I'm not going to believe. Right. I don't want any part of this and they wind up going down. And likewise people, you know, say all manner of things against people. And it starts just all sorts of trouble. I mean, you could just take two people and have them just stand over there in that corner. Or where did they used to stand over here? They would stand over there. Right. You guys know what I'm talking about. Start whispering back and forth. You know, you and me, no one else, us two and no more. They even have four. Well, maybe if you count their husbands, they did, but you know, and what would they do? They tried to set this church ablaze spiritually. Two people standing over there after the service or sitting over here away from everyone else talking about who knows what, probably nothing positive. And think about what those two little organs and their dumb little mouths did. It started all sorts of trouble. And that's all that's what James is saying here. Don't let it go unchecked. Watch the words that are coming out of your mouth. You know, when somebody confides in you or you're unhappy about something, it's better just to make it public. Hey man, where are you? I feel like you're always attacking me. And that's like, oh cool. Let's talk about this. I'll be honest with you if I was right. Look. Oh yeah. I've got the guts to come up here and say stuff, but not face to face, you know, that ain't true, right? But it's the people that want to internalize this stuff and just let it build up and just boil over. You know, what do they do? They go around and try to find somebody that has those same feelings. And then they start talking. What that does is it sets a blaze of fire. It starts all manner of trouble. And that's what James is telling us here. He's like, Hey, watch out for that little member. You know, it's that little member that the politicians get themselves in trouble with every single day. It's that little member that gets the CDC in trouble every single day. You know what I mean? There's over here, wear a mask over here. Masks aren't healthy. This many people got the virus. This many people didn't get the virus, you know, and they set the whole world ablaze. I mean, think about what rich men do. They oppress you. How do they do it? They do it with their tongues. They do it with their wallets, of course, you know, but they get on TV and say, Hey, here's our intentions. And the next thing you know, the governor gets a little check in the mail and was like, Hey, until we get a vaccine until we force a vaccine, make sure you say this to the people, you know? And so what do they do? They just keep pumping fear, pumping fear, pumping fear, pumping fear into the community. And right now, what has that done? It set the whole world on fire and it all started with the tongue and all started with the mouth. You know, the Bible says from, you know, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. And it's another reason why we need to check our hearts. And so this isn't just a one stop sermon here. I'll watch your tongue and you'll be fine. You need to watch what's going into your heart. What's going into your mind through your eyeballs and your ear holes, you know, and there's people that have come into these churches and, you know, they want to start trouble and stuff. You gotta, you gotta ask yourself, what are you pumping into your soul on a daily basis when you're not here? You know, this causing you this bitterness, this, this blocking discernment. Cause it's like, you read these Bible verses and you preach them and it's just like, bing, bing, bing, bing. It's like, they come to church with like spiritual lead around their heads. You know, they were, they were wearing masks long before it was popular. I'll say that. Okay. So what should we do about this? Go to Ephesians chapter four. What should we do about this? So you talking about all this tail bearing, all this gossip and stuff, what it does, how it affects us, what it is, what are we going to do about it? Well, Psalm 34, 13 says, keep thy tongue from evil and thy lips from speaking guile. This is something that we have to work at. Unfortunately, it's not, you don't just roll out of bed after getting saved and you just don't speak guile anymore. You just, you just got it all put together. It's not how it works. You got to make the effort. You got to check yourself. Just like with every sermon I preach, it just takes an honest assessment. Is this me? Do I do this? Am I going down this road? And if it's yes, you stop it. You don't get offended. You don't have, nobody's going to make you ring that bell over there. You have to willingly do it. It has to come from your heart. Ephesians chapter four, look at verse 29. And you also get to see the healing when gossip is removed. When you give that up, Ephesians four 29 says, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. So when you have the right communication to your brother and your sister in Christ, or just to anybody, to be honest with you, when you got that right, honest communication, that ministers grace that provides healing that provides, you know, a good overall health. Who do you think is going to be, who do you think is healthier physically? The people that go to the satanic church or us, us, who do you think is healthier people to go to the journey, the pursuit Stonehenge or us, us, you say, why? Because all those pastors do, and yes, I'm going to put them down because that's where they belong. All they do is say, you know what guys you're saved. As long as you continue in the faith, you know what people do. They sit in those pews, they sit in those chairs and they get that gut feeling. They get that pain in there because they know that they don't have what it takes to live a perfect life because none of us do. None of us are righteous without Christ. And they're sitting there thinking, Oh, I got it. I got it together. Yeah. You know, they're saying that to their, their homies and to their buddies, right? Oh, I got this put together, but inside they know they're sinners just like you and I know that. So all they do is promote fear. I mean, and really they're a bunch of tail bearers also running around maligning God's plan of salvation, that it's a free gift and coming, you know, coming at us and attacking us and saying, Oh, you know, they don't preach right. They preach easy believers. Yeah. Yeah. It's easy. Christ did the work, but you're saying you got to do the work. How was that any different? And that does physically, I believe that does physically harm people. Cause when you talk to people in the community, they are scared. They're just putting on a show. Oh, I know I'm sorry because I follow the Bible. When was the last time you went to church? Two years ago. How was that following the Bible? Oh, wherever two or three gathered together, there he is in the midst. Nope. Sorry. You got it wrong and you know it. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying edification heals the body. Edification is what we need, right? When we have a bunch of people in here that just want to do the opposite, guess what? It's turmoil. It's fire. It's pain all around. It bothers you, right? It physically bothers you. And that can do irreversible damage if you don't get rid of it. Let's see here. Go to a first Peter chapter four, first Peter chapter four. And I'll read for you what we've already read here. What we're going to talk about is how do we give up gospel? You say, okay, you got me. I do this. Something I struggle with. How do I give it up? Or maybe, you know, somebody that struggles with it. They don't go here and you want to help them. How do you help them get rid of it? Well, it's like what Paul told Timothy. You know, the reason why they're doing these things in the first place is because they're busy bodies. They're not busy doing anything. So he says in verse 14, I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. You say, well, that's talking about women. Well, yeah, it is. But that principle goes for all of us. All the other verses I read to you about tail bearing, they aren't just geared towards women. They're geared towards everybody. A tail bearer, right? That applies to both genders. Okay. That applies to everybody. And so the solution is to get busy. And this is why you should be careful about just idly speaking about nothing with people. You ever, I've seen books out there, how to be successful in small talk. You know, how to succeed in small talk, how to win people over. Be careful with that stuff. That's idle talk is what that is. That's what the Bible would call it. Idle speak. Idleness is bad. I'm not saying it's wrong to have any downtime. Okay. Don't, oh, if I'm not working, I'm rubber bait. No, just get busy. That's it. Just get busy. When you're busy, you're going to be less likely to be busy body and other people's matters, right? It's the same thing with it. You know, if David hadn't been walking around on that rooftop that night, he wouldn't have seen what he saw and would have conceived that thing in his heart and basically gave himself turmoil for the rest of his life. So how do you get rid of it? How do you get busy? That's what Paul's telling Timothy. Hey, make sure they get busy. Make sure you preach that they do what they need to do, that they run the house, that they get busy so that they can't put themselves in that position. Now, the last thing I want to talk about here is that is this right here. Okay. Look, I think sometimes reason this goes unchecked is because we don't see it as a sin. We don't, we don't really necessarily always view it as a big deal. And yeah, there are a lot of things that are a bigger deal, but this is a big deal. And I think when you can develop that attitude, Hey, this is, this means business here. This is a bad thing. This is a big deal. You know what? You're going to be more likely to deal with it when it first happens and check it right away. Because look, I've seen this stuff get, I've seen people get checked on this and today they're good to go. They're great people. They're working for God. It's water under the bridge. It's forgiven. It is forgotten. It's done all because somebody cared enough about that person to say, Hey, you're jacked up. You're ate up. We're going to deal with this right now. And they said, okay, you got me. Now, the ones that say, Oh, well, I'm going to do this. I'm going to leave. Let them go. They need to go anywhere. They weren't, they weren't here for good intentions. Anyways, they're here to cause harm and to cause trouble. First Peter four 15 says this, but let none of you suffer as a murderer or as a thief or as an evil doer or as a busy body in other men's matters. And that's not just talking about women. Memorize this verse, get that urgency in your gut, get that, develop that disdain for this problem in your gut and you won't have an issue with it. Right? That's what he's saying. Hey, but none of you suffer as a murderer or as a thief, as an evil doer. And it's interesting or as a busy body in other man's businesses. Now, if there's a serious problem going on, you can tell me about it. I think that's fair, right? That's, that's a little bit different, but, you know, on a personal level, there's nothing wrong with saying, Hey, let's go talk to that person. Oh, he said that about me. Oh, he said that about my friend. Well, let's, let's, let's, let's all talk. Let's make this thing come to light. You know what? That person's going to be like, Whoa, I didn't think about this. I just threw a jab at the wrong person. And he countered that hurts. I didn't see that coming. Maybe I shouldn't come here anymore. Or maybe I should get right. Which hopefully is the case more often than not. It's not the case. Most people that have this behavior that it's already gone too far and they usually do wind up leaving, but you know, don't let that scare you in trying because again, if it goes unchecked for 40 years, for 40 days, for 40 weeks, that's what's going to happen. We're going to wind up losing more people. Not everybody in a church is at the same level spiritually. And you know what they do. They go look for people that aren't quite on board yet, or they don't know any better. They, they look for opportunities and they capitalize on it. And it does irreversible damage sometimes. And so we've got to be careful. That's what I'm talking about here. Last thought you don't have to turn there. Luke 6 31 is what Jesus said. And as you would, that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. So think about how you feel when someone's talking about you, right? If we could all just do that, just think about how we feel when someone's talking about us. And then remember that the next time you're tempted to go talk about somebody else to someone else, and that's going to help you overcome that temptation. Okay. And again, I don't think we have a problem with that in here. It's just good to know, right? Because look, now that we all know this, now that we don't know how to deal with it, the next time somebody does try it, you can say, Hey, well, let's go talk to them. If David's really jacked up, let's go talk to him. Okay. Let's see what he says. And then guess what? You'd be surprised to look on somebody's face like, Oh, I was just kidding, man. I was just, dude, I was just joking. Sure you were, right? Sure you were. So let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, again, for your word. And just pray that you'd bless us this afternoon and soul winning. Bring us back all tonight, Lord, ready to learn from Acts chapter 16. Pray you bless the fellowship after the service in the week to come. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.