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Well, three weeks ago, we started a series called The Principle of the Pig based off of Matthew chapter seven and verse six, which we're going to end in tonight. That's going to be the last passage we take a look at, and we've been dealing with toxic people. And we started off talking about toxic females and how they're toxic to the world, basically looking at the modern woman today and how their society is grooming them to be hoes and whores and all that sort of stuff. And then we took a look at toxic men and toxic guys last week. And today we're going to deal with just toxic people in our own lives. We're going to take a look at that, how to deal with that and how to recognize toxic people and what we ought to do with them. So if you would, you're in Proverbs 22, look at verse number three. So the Bible says this, So if you think about that, in the beginning of the verse there, it says the prudent man, okay, so a wise person, a person that's well-learned, educated in the word of God, he foresees evil. Okay. Now, in order for us to foresee evil, we need to learn their tactics, and it's one of the many reasons why a lot of the Bible stories are written the way that they are so that we can glean truth and wisdom from those stories. We're going to take a look at at least two tonight in the Old Testament and learn their tactics so that we ourselves can foresee evil and we can hide ourselves. Okay, now let's hide ourselves. It's not like you have to hide behind a building or, you know, something like that. Obviously what this is talking about is removing yourself from that person's presence, but look at the end of the verse there. It says, And that's what we don't want. We don't want to be simple or ignorant regarding these types of people because we're going to get punished, we're going to have a rough life, and so on and so forth. Now just dealing with toxic people, okay, I find myself sometimes just throwing that term out there, and it's really not right, okay. Not everybody is toxic to the degree that we're talking about today, and I think that's important because the Bible deals with this subject. It doesn't use the word toxic, but a toxic person is a very serious issue, it's a very serious problem. They are definitely not to be underestimated, they're kind of like the narcissist, and we've dealt with narcissists in the past, dealt with not only narcissists themselves, but I've taught sermons on how to deal with them, how to recognize them, and some of their tactics, I'll just warn you right now, they kind of blend together, but there is a difference. For example, one of the main differences is the narcissist is always going to take whatever situation that you're in and make it known that he or she is better than you, always trying to elevate themselves, and basically set a bar for you that you can never attain to, okay. The toxic person can do that, but not to the same degree. The toxic person is always going to have sarcasm, cynicism, they're going to basically continuously put you down, they're going to take opportunities to slide in some sort of criticism, and as a pastor, of course, the last almost five years I've seen these people, they tend to manifest themselves to us probably a lot more than you would think, and it's just the nature of the game, it is what it is. Keep your place in Proverbs chapter 22, but go to 1 Timothy chapter number 6, 1 Timothy chapter number 6. So again, we don't want to take this lightly, we don't want to just label everybody toxic, because I'm sure everybody in here knows people, and these people, we may say they're toxic, but we just don't get along with them. Not everybody, unfortunately, just because of the way things are, the way the world works, the way our flesh is, not everybody can always get along, and so just because somebody may not be good for you, you may not be able to connect with somebody as a friend, it doesn't necessarily mean that that person is toxic, so that's what I'm trying to say, and you know, if I look back through our church history, and take everybody who's ever left, everybody who we've ever ran out, everybody who we've kicked out, or left and are now kicked out, whatever you want to say, I would say probably only two or three of them total, I would consider toxic, and definitely one or two that would be narcissists, okay, and I'm saying that because this is a very serious subject. A toxic person can empty a church, it's definitely something that is true, and so we need to be on the lookout for these types of people so that we can protect ourselves and protect others from them as well. So you're in 1 Timothy chapter number six, we're going to start reading here in verse number one, and we're going to kind of read this with that in mind, okay, Paul's going to describe some people here that are definitely not convenient, definitely would, I would say toxic, and what to do about them, okay, look at verse number one, so Paul says this to Timothy, he says, let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. So what does that mean, okay, what does it mean to be yoked, well it means to be connected, so what he's saying here is any servants or any employees, if you have a contract, or you gave your word to somebody that you were going to work for them for a certain season, he's saying, hey, you know, don't despise them, don't, you know, cause issues with them even if they're different than you, because what's going to happen is that the name of God is going to be blasphemed, okay, we want to have a good testimony at work with people, look at verse two, it says, and they that have believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather do them service because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit, what does that mean, well when you partake of the benefit that means that you grab a hold of salvation, you are now saved, and he says these things teach and exhort, so Paul is giving Timothy the green light to expound on these things, to enforce these things, to make sure that these things are taught in the church, and of course this rolls over to us, we're supposed to do the same thing, and so again the application here for us is, you know, if you work for somebody that's saved, praise God, that's a rarity in today's day and age, but, you know, let's say they're a little bit different on you, maybe they're saved but they're pre-trib, or you know, whatever the case is, right, you don't want to be like, wow, you're not new IFB, you know, and really give them trouble and cause problems, you want to edify that person and hopefully open up a door to maybe teach them some truth, okay, but that's really a topic for another day, look at verse number 3, now he's going to talk about the opposite type of people here, he says if any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, okay, so he says if anybody teaches otherwise, differently, okay, if anybody gets up and they're like, hey, you know, I don't care if you enlisted in the military and you gave your word, you can just bounce, you can just leave, now I'm not saying that there won't be a time for that in the future, but generally speaking, if you gave somebody your word, you agreed to certain terms, you signed a contract with an employer, you need to fulfill your obligations, okay, and when people come along and they teach the opposite of these things, but not just this, but everything that he's taught in the epistle here, and they don't consent to the words of the Lord, what does the Bible say in the very next verse? He is what? Proud. Look at this next phrase, knowing nothing. Now what you have to understand about verse number three is that it can oftentimes be subtle, okay? People can teach otherwise and they can consent not to wholesome words very subtly. They could have, you know, maybe have a conversation with you, yeah, you know, does the pastor really say this? Does he really mean this? You know, do you guys really believe this? You know, I think it's okay that we can, you know, have this other opinion on salvation or, you know, I think that sowing is great, but, you know, there's better ways of doing it, you know, we could just live our lives. You know, when people start doing things like that, it's a red flag, it's definitely something that you need to take note of, but here's what Paul is saying is the truth in the heart of these people. He is proud. Now why is this person proud? Well, if you go all the way back to Deuteronomy chapter 17, you're gonna find that God told the kings when they would come on the scene to write a copy of the Word of God and read it every single day of their lives, okay? And he says those that will not do that are basically gonna become prideful and so it makes sense that a person that will not grab a hold of the Word of God, that will not apply it in their lives, they're gonna be proud, they're gonna be boastful, they're gonna become very difficult people to deal with and it kind of boggles the mind that those types of people would find their way inside of the local New Testament church, put on church clothes and come every Sunday, sometimes every Wednesday, you know, just all different times and yet it goes right over our heads. And what he's saying here is those types of people are proud because they're not reading the Bible. They're not applying the Bible. You know, the only result that you're gonna get from reading the Bible is understanding that you're down here and God is up here. It is a book of humility. It will humble you and you will not be able to hold on to your pride. But look what he says next again. He says, knowing nothing, okay? I cannot tell you how many times I have seen that in my life. I'm gonna give you an example here in a minute. Look at the next phrase. But doting about questions and strifes of words were of cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmising. Now what does that mean, surmising? Kind of a weird word there. Does that belong in the Bible? Yes, of course it does. That word is still used today. You can find it in different publications. You can go online and look. That word actually, believe it or not, is related to our word missiles. Okay, a missile. What is a missile? They say, oh, it's a bomb. Yeah, it's a bomb. It's something that is thrown, something that is shot, something that is propelled through the air. So evil surmisings are basically allegations, they're presuppositions. They are conjectures, charges, evil imaginations, and things of that nature that are thrown. And so that's what these people will constantly do. Now I can remember a guy who was part of our church not too long ago. And this guy is very toxic, okay? He's been toxic since the day I met him, been trying to control me since the day that I met him. And I'll never forget this. We used to have this brother and sister that led soul winning on Wednesdays. And they had left the church for whatever reasons. And a group of people were talking right over here. And I came back from the break room and I was going to go get some water. And they're like, hey, pastor, you know, we settled it. We think we know what we ought to do. And I was like, what? And they're like, we ought to pray that God would make it so that he can't do his hobbies anymore. Okay? In other words, they wanted me to lead them in a prayer to really destroy this guy's life. And I said, no, I don't think we should do that. Okay? And this guy got mad. And it's like, look, have you not read the Bible? Do you not know that there is a sin unto death that John told us about, but yet we should not pray for it? Okay. Did anybody pray for the death of Ananias and Sapphira? No. Okay. We let God take care of that. Okay. When somebody's saved, somebody's a believer, we shouldn't pray for their death, but he never let go of that amongst millions of other things, by the way, which I don't have time to get into today, but he keeps throwing things at me. Like, well, you came up to me later. Well, it is actually biblical that we could pray that God would harden his life and just bring him to his knees until he realizes the mistake that he made. It's like, I'm not doing it. And that's the end of it. Okay. I don't have to do that. I don't want to do that. If people don't want to be here, then fine. It's okay. God grows the church. Okay. That is what is taught in the Bible. But going back to verse four here, this is really, when you think about it, a very long list of attributes that people that want to teach contrary to the word of God have. They are proud. They don't know anything. But here's the problem with that though. They seem like they know because they say, brothers, sister, Bible, oh, I'm reading. Oh sure. I'm going to take part in the new Testament challenge. Oh sure. I'm going to be here. I'm going to do this. When you think, well, okay, yeah, maybe they're not toxic. Okay. But that is part of their tactic. These people have to cloak who they really are and they have to do, you know, imitate and things of that nature. And that's what they do. And if you look at verse five, it continues and says perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness. And then here's the application and you're going to see this all night long. Okay. See, how do I deal with toxic people? It's hard, but it's, it's easy. Okay. Look what it says from such withdraw thyself. Okay. From such withdraw thyself. You say, yeah, but this person's here is, you know, he's in my church and I'm not talking about this church. I'm just talking about any church. Okay. He's at my work. He's in my family. I can't like physically get away. Okay. You may not be able to physically get away, but you can mentally get away. You can emotionally get away. You can learn to keep that person at arm's length or double arm's length. But what you're going to see tonight is the application is the same from such withdraw thyself. So, you know, what I would do is I, if I were you, I'd go home tonight. I would look at this verse. I would just read it, meditate on these things, and then just think back in your life to the people that you know, that may have most or all of these traits. Okay. Now, obviously all of us at some, some points in time, we're going to be proud. There's things we're not going to know. Okay. That doesn't mean we're toxic. Okay. But when you group all of these things together into one person, you're dealing with a very serious problem. So if you would go back to the book of Proverbs and go backwards and go to chapter number six, Proverbs chapter number six. So I guess some questions that you could probably ask yourself, you know, how do I really know? Okay. I've read first Timothy six. How do I know if I'm really dealing with somebody that's toxic? Well, if you find yourself around a person and you're constantly having to adapt or change your behavior to be with that person, or they constantly have you in a state of confusion, you're angry all the time, you're anxious, you're feel, maybe you feel guilty saying no to them, you know, and these things start to really mount up. You're feeling bad about yourself. You know, you always feel like you can't go the way that you want. They're always trying to pull you in a different direction. They keep assuring you, Oh no, this is right. This is okay. This is good. You know, Hey, I'm good to go. Or they make you feel like you have to walk on eggshells around them. There's a good chance you're probably dealing with a toxic person. So let's continue here and discover some more of their traits. Proverbs chapter number six. Look at verse number 12. So the Bible says in verse 12, a naughty person. Some of you read that and you're like, like me, like, you know, what's the big deal? You know, in our modern vernacular, sometimes we use that like, Oh, you being naughty. And we kind of make light of the word, but keep in mind here, this is very serious. Okay. A naughty person, a wicked man walketh with a froward mouth. So what is a naughty person? Well, a naughty person in the Bible is somebody that is bad, difficult to deal with, or corrupt. If you read Jeremiah chapter number 24, there is a mention of corrupt figs and the Bible says they are naughty figs in reference to corruption. So it could be any one of those traits or a combination of all of them. And you say, are you just saying that everybody who's toxic is a reprobate? No, we all have the flesh. Okay. And everybody's flesh has a different background. And when people choose to live in the flesh, if the bulk of that is naughty or toxic, if they grew up in a toxic environment or they are in a toxic marriage and that has permeated them and they choose to walk in that, well, guess what? You're going to have to deal with that. Now you're stuck in that situation. Okay. So we know that a naughty person. Okay. And we're going to apply this to toxic people. So a naughty person, a wicked man walketh with a froward mouth. What does froward mean? What does that word mean? Well, it's the opposite of toward. Okay. It's the opposite of toward meaning it is contrary to reasonable. Okay. So a froward person is somebody who is contrary to reason. They are stubborn. They are perverse, difficult, and I would say evil disposed. Okay. That's probably a good summary of a froward person. And so right off the bat here in this proverb, we're told that a naughty person or a wicked man walketh. Okay. This is who they are. Okay. This is their conversation. This is their countenance. This is everything about them. They walk with a froward mouth. Okay. Look at verse 13. He winketh with his eyes. He speaketh with his feet. He teacheth with his fingers. So we've got these three things going on. Okay. He winks with the eye. Okay. He speaks with his feet. And then what does it say? It says he teaches with his fingers. What does this mean? What does this all point to? Well, okay. He winketh with his eyes. One thing that that means is that he likes to signal to others that are a part of his plan. Another thing that that means is that he likes to assure you with a false assurance that his way is the right way. And of course, speaking with his feet. Okay. What does that mean? That means his way, the way that he's going, the direction that he's walking, that's how he speaks. So I'm going this way. It's okay. Okay. That's what you get when you combine the first two. And he teaches with his fingers, meaning he's pointing. He's saying you must go this way. Okay. I'm going this way. I'm pointing that way. That's the right way to go. And he winketh with his eyes. So in other words, this, all this to say this, okay, the toxic person manipulates. That's what this is in reference to here. The naughty person, a wicked man, they will manipulate you. They will constantly put you in a state of just confusion and questioning the direction that you're going. And they will always be trying to get you to go another way. Now one of the things that I've seen with these people firsthand is they'll always start with something very small. Okay. They'll start with the small stuff like let's say you've had your heart set on going to Culver's on Friday. Okay. And you're like, yeah, this is great. I'm going to go to Culver's. And they might be like, you know, oh, you know, you know, you should, you should come with me over here to Dave's hot chicken or to Burger King. Right. And you'll, you might not think it's a big deal. Okay. And in some instances it might not be a big deal, but when it starts with that and then it's the next day, it's something else the next day, it's something else. Okay. They'll just keep upping it. They want to see and test you to see how much they can manipulate you. Okay. So you have to understand what the naughty person does. He winks with his eyes. So he's always assure you, no, no, no, this is better. This way is better. Okay. It's better to do this. I've got experience. I've got all these other people backing me up. I, you know, he makes up a story. He's got his illusions. He's got his evil surmises. Okay. And he's packaged it with a pretty little bow, makes it sound good, makes it sound nice. And he drags you along with them. So a good bit of advice. If you want to be the type of person that can foresee evil is to recognize when somebody is constantly trying to get you to do something else. And I'll tell you from the last five years of me being a pastor, this has happened a lot to me and I think that's why I'm able to recognize it so much. And so I want to pass this stuff on to you. A lot of times people will say, Oh, you know, and look, let me be, let me just disclaim this. Okay. If you've got ideas on how to make things better, I'm all ears. Okay. I'm not the type of person that's like, Hey, you know, I didn't come up with the idea, so I'm not, you know, agree to it. Look, if you've got an idea to make this building better, to make soul ending better, whatever, man, bring it to me and we'll talk about it and we'll try to get that ball rolling. It's all good. But what I'm talking about is when somebody is like, Hey, there's a lot of new people in church, right? So, you know, it's just kind of thinking, you know, you're kind of an aggressive person and you know, you should probably maybe for like the first year, you know, not really preach against things like weed, alcohol, you know, just give people a chance to settle down. Okay. And then after that, you know, if you think there's a problem, then maybe you should go ahead and go forward with that. I've been around a long time. I'm just trying to give you some advice. Okay. But I just think you should tone it down. Just stick to the stories, you know, make them general. And I, and I think we're going to do well. You know, I can tell that story so well because it happened to me. Okay. Because it happened to me before I even moved here, before I even moved here. Okay. And that's how it starts. And that's how that guy did it. And I would reject that. No, I'm going to do what I think is necessary. Okay. And if I get handed a church full of people that are ordering beers at Dave and Buster's and smoking weed and going to rated R movies and doing all this buffoonery, guess what? I'm going to come in pretty hostile and I will make it so you either want to get right or get right out the door because that's my job. That's how I was trained. And that is what I believe God wants any pastor to do. But enough of that, the toxic person manipulates. He winks with the eyes and says, I assure you, this is no big deal. In fact, I'm on the inner circle of the pastor. I know he's okay with it. I know it's good to go. Come this way over here, right? And he points with the fingers. He tells you the vision and drags you away. That is what the toxic person does. Now, we're going to look at verse 14 here, but I think a good biblical example that you might want to read later is take some time and go to Judges chapter 14 and read about Samson. Read about how Samson when he desired a Philistine to wife. And of course his parents like don't do this, but the Bible says it was of the Lord. And so Samson marries his wife and puts forth a riddle to the Philistines and says, all right, gives them the riddle and he's like, if you can figure this out, I'll give you 30 changes of garments. And I'm like, wow, okay. So guess what happens? For seven days, his wife, and of course, Philistine picture of the world. He was unequally yoked. Big, big problem. So his wife presses him sore for seven days. Okay. Finally he spills the beans, tells her the riddle. Guess what she does? She goes and tells the Philistines and now guess what? All hell's broken loose. Fast forward to chapter 16, 17, the end of Samson's life. A woman named Delilah does the same thing and she presses him and just bears him sore and just, just constantly tell me the source of your strength, which he wasn't supposed to do. She wore him down so much that he made the mistake of giving up what God told him not to give up. He gave his strength unto a woman, which the Bible tells you not to do in Proverbs chapter 31. Guess what happened? He lost his life as a result of that. So again, manipulation is very serious and it's something that you need to be aware of. So you're in Proverbs six, still look down at verse number 14. Frowardness. So again, remember this is the opposite of toward. Okay. Frowardness, contrary to reason, frowardness is in his heart. Okay. A lot of times, you know, this is in the Bible so much because you and I, when we get around these people, we're like, how could it really be so? Maybe it's just bad manner. Okay. We all have that conversation and it's good that you have that conversation with yourself. It's good that you question because, again, we don't want to get in the habit of just like, you're toxic, you're toxic, okay. And again, I, I'm guilty. I've done that in the past. You're toxic, you're toxic. Everybody's toxic. Okay. Except for me. Okay. Not always the case. Frowardness is in his heart. He deviseth mischief continually. He soweth discord. Now we're going to go to Esther here in a little bit. Actually, no, go ahead and turn to Esther chapter number three right now. Okay. Frowardness is in his heart. He deviseth mischief continually. He soweth discord. So what this guy does is he feeds, okay, his diet, what makes him tick, what makes him wake up in the morning, what gives him joy is sowing discord, sowing seeds of doubt in other people. Okay. These type of people, they get off, they love manipulating people. They love winking with their eyes. They love being able to control another person and take them from where they're going, what they believe, what they're doing and make them go their way. Okay. It is absolutely disgusting. And what you're going to see when you really study these people out in detail is that they regularly put you on the defensive. Okay. They put you on the defensive. They never really show a vested interest in your accomplishments either. Okay. So for example, you do something well, they might just be like, oh, that's cool. You know, but, and then they'll immediately go to some problem they're having. Okay. Oh, but you know, man, my aunt's dog died, you know, and I really love dogs. It's like, really? You had to wait till now to tell me that and things of that nature. And they just love to look for the most opportune times to again, just sneak in some sort of criticism. We'll get to why they do that. There's a reason, a very tactical reason at why they do that to people. But going back to Proverbs 6, 14, you're in Esther chapter number three, it says, forwardness is in his heart. He deviseth mischief continually. He soweth discord. That's exactly what you're going to see here in Esther chapter number three. So chapter number two, you read about Esther becoming queen. You read about Haman basically saving the King's life by reporting some mischief from some people. And then in verse number one of Esther chapter three, look what it says. It says, after these things did King Ahasuerus promote Haman. Now Haman's the bad guy. Haman, the son of Hamadatha, the aggregate and advanced him and set his seat above all the princes that were with him. Verse two, and in all the King's servants that were in the King's gate bowed and reverenced Haman for the King had so commanded concerning him, but Mordecai bowed not nor did him reverence. So obviously Mordecai being of a Jew, Mordecai being the child of God, a saved, a saved guy. Okay. He knows better. He's not gonna do this. He's not gonna bow the knee to this clown Haman. And so that really gets Haman upset and say, well, what's the big deal about this? What's the problem? He's doing what he's supposed to be doing. Well, the problem is the toxic person, when you resist them, okay, here's where it gets dangerous. You need to watch out because they're gonna come at you. They're gonna come for you. These types of people don't like hearing the word no, or maybe, or get away from me. Okay. They don't like that. They don't like, you know what else they don't like hearing? You don't know what's best. You just don't. Okay. They don't like to hear that. And this clown is no different. Look at verse three, then the King's servants, which were in the King's gate, said unto Mordecai, why transgresses thou the King's commandment? Okay. So of course the heathen are like, what's the big deal? Why don't you bow the knee to Haman? You know, what's wrong with you? Why are you transgressing over here? Why are you causing trouble? Okay. Verse four. Now it came to pass when they spake daily unto him and he hearkened not unto them that they told him and okay, and look, this is just some regular workplace wisdom right here. Okay. You know, if you don't go along sometimes with the evil plot that may be in the workforce, maybe there's some, you know, pressure on you. Hey, you know, you need to go to this party after work. You need to go to this bar after work. I've dealt with all that stuff. Okay. I've been in this environment and it's a toxic environment. Okay. I was told one time that I would never make it in government service. I would never get promoted if I didn't join the Masons. I didn't join the Masons, still got promoted. Oh, you're not going to make it if you don't play softball. You're not going to make it if you don't go to the manager's dinner. Oh, you're not going to make it if you don't go to this girl's birthday party. And yes, I was told that and I didn't go. I never did anything they said. And people would tell and mock and I told you, you know, what's wrong with you? Why do you constantly do your own thing? This is why you always have trouble. Okay. Look at me. God took care of me and I got promoted. That's the same thing that's going to happen to Mordecai. So of course, these guys are dime droppers and they're like, yeah, we're telling. So verse four, that they told Haman to see whether Mordecai's matters would stand for he had told them that he was a Jew. And so look, people in the workplace, a lot of times they're just telling you to see how strong you are, to see and test you and to see whether or not you're a man or a person of your own word. And that's kind of, you know, these guys could probably care less. They're just like, I want to see how tough Mordecai is. Are you really a Jew? You really who you say you are? Cause that's what it says. You know, for he told him that he was a Jew. So like, well, we'll see if your matters can stand. Verse five. And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath. Okay. There it is. Now, obviously perfect example here would be the elites of the world. Okay. The, the media, I mean, the list goes on and on and on. So people that just don't want to play ball or play with any narrative that's being put out there by mainstream anything today. Okay. Guess what that gets people upset. It gets people like Bill Gates upset. It gets people like George Soros upset, Klaus Schwab, all of these rich people that want to control you and want to tell you don't eat red meat, you know, in the future. I think it's on the world. What is it? The WHO, the World Health Organization's website. They're like by the year 2030, you will eat way less meat. Well, I'll just go on John the Baptist diet and eat locusts and honey. I don't know, but I'm not going to be a vegan. I'll tell you that that's toxic. And I have no idea why I'm talking about this. Let's go to verse five again. And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath. Okay. So that's what it is. It talks to people. You tell them, no, you say, I'm not going to go along. They get upset. They get mad. Verse six. And he thought scorn. So remember Proverbs six. Okay. Remember verse 14, he deviseth mischief continually. It's in his hearts. What he does. This is Haman here to a T and he's any thought verse six to lay hands on Mordecai alone. For they had showed him the people of Mordecai, wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai. And I go back to chapter number six. We don't have time to read that. Go back to Proverbs chapter six, rather. So of course, Haman finds out, oh, there's a whole slew of these people that aren't going to play my game. So none of you are going to bow the knee. Okay. Well, I'm going to manipulate the king. That's what he does. Cause that's what toxic people do. They manipulate. So he comes up with this plan. Okay. I'm going to get a law passed here because the Medes and the Persians, once they make a law, they can never go back on it. And he manipulates Ahasuerus in to allowing him to be able to hang Mordecai on the gallows and all the Jews and kill them all and exterminate them from the land. And of course, God intervenes and it doesn't happen. And guess what happens to Haman? He gets hung on the gallows that he determined to hang Mordecai and all the Jews on. Look at verse 15. Therefore, okay. So after you learn this person's attributes, this naughty person, this toxic person, whatever you want to insert there, therefore shall his calamity come suddenly. Suddenly shall he be broken without remedy. That is the comforting part for us. Okay. We leave it up to God because the word of God tells us that he will deal with them. Vengeance belongeth to the Lord. The Bible says. Now let's take a look at another example of a toxic individual. Go to first Samuel chapter number 18. First Samuel chapter number 18. So we're going to go over here and look at David's early days. Before David was King under the reign of Saul. If you want an example of somebody who could be toxic, somebody who could be a narcissist, look no further than King Saul because he's got it all. First Samuel chapter 18. Let's look down at verse number 17. Okay. So this is after the situation here. David's behaving himself wisely. He's winning battles. And there comes a day where women are in the street singing a song and they're attributing thousands of the enemies of the Lord slain versus just a thousand to Saul. And of course, King Saul hears the song. He's like, hey, you know, they only prescribed me a thousand, but David, you know, tens of thousands and all these other people. It's kind of like today where people are like, oh, you don't have that many subscribers. You don't have that many people. You're not like these other pastors. Well then leave. Go run a U-Haul and get out of here. Bye. If that's your concern, then leave. Or you could be a man or you could be a real person and help us out. You could share stuff. You could help promote us. You could actually be a contributor. Did you ever think about that? No? Okay. So that, my friend, is an inside look at King Saul. That's how, that's how he is. That is the state of his mind right now. And he's got a plan because he's got an eye out for David. He wants to kill him. He wants to kill David, but he's looking for the right way to get him. And so he comes up with this idea here. Now look at this in verse 17. And Saul said to David, behold my elder daughter Merab. Her will I give thee to wife. Okay. So he's talking to David here. Okay. Remember at this moment in time, Saul wants to destroy David, but now he's offering his daughter. Look what he says. Here's the requirement. Only be thou valiant for me and fight the Lord's battles. For Saul said, let not mine hand, or let not mine hand be upon him, but let the hand of the Philistines be upon him. So this is what he's saying in his heart. Okay. He's like, ah, I know how to destroy him and still remove myself out of the picture. I'll give him my daughter. Okay. I'll give him my daughter and I'll tell him go fight the Philistines till you're blue in the face and they'll destroy him. Then I won't have to worry about David anymore. And then I can resume as the hero. Okay. Verse 18. And David said unto Saul, who am I and what is my life or my father's family in Israel that I should be son in law to the king. So if you can adopt that mentality and obviously everybody in here is humble. I get that. Okay. You guys are great, but when we keep this attitude, okay, I'm telling you that the insults from these people, their attacks, their attempts to get you to keep you off balance, they're just going to bounce off you. Okay. And then, and that, that, that's the way that it has to be. You got to remain humble that way. When somebody just, you know, slides in a little comment here or there or attacks your personality or something of that nature, you're like, oh, I'm one of 8 billion people on the planet. Who cares? Right? It's a lot of people better than me. It's not going to hurt you. It's going to go right over your head and you can move on with your life. Verse 19. But it came to pass at the time when Merab, Saul's daughter, should have been given to David, that she was given unto Adriel, the Maholothite to wife. And this is what I said about these toxic people that you got to understand. Okay. They will do this to you. They will act one way towards you. They might promise you something and then do the contrary. And then if you question it, they'll blame you. Say, oh, it's your fault. It is actually a huge tactic of a narcissistic person, but we're looking at this from a toxic standpoint. Okay. So notice what it is. He promises David one thing, doesn't give it to him. Why is he doing that? Well, he's trying to keep David off balance. Okay. It's a mental warfare. That's what he's trying to do. Verse 20. And Michal, Saul's daughter, loved David. And they told Saul and the thing pleased him. Now this will blow your mind if you've never seen this before. Look at verse 21. And Saul said, I will give him her that she may be a snare to him. Hey, look, things breed forth after their own kind, don't they? And he knows. Look at this after the comma, it says, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him. So again, this is what Saul wants. Saul wants the Philistines to destroy David. So that way he can go away blameless, but it's not going to work. Wherefore Saul said to David, thou shalt this day be my son-in-law in the one of the twain. Now look at verse number 22. This is the last one we're going to look at. And Saul commanded his servants saying, commune with David secretly and say, behold, the king hath delight in thee and all his servants love thee. Now therefore be the king's son-in-law. Now it's kind of funny here how King Saul, who is acting naughty, or he's being wicked by wanting to kill his brother, gets this idea, oh yeah, oh my call loves him? Oh, she'll really do a number on him, boy, she'll get him. Right, what does that say about you as a dad? It's like, come on, Saul, what's wrong with you? Why can't you see through this? So one more time. Saul commanded his servants saying, commune with David secretly and say, behold, the king hath delight in thee and all his servants love thee. Now therefore be the king's son-in-law. The reason why I believe that he wants to do this secretly is because other people in the kingdom know that Saul is envious, that Saul does not like him. Now here's really the last trait or point that I want to talk about tonight and that's this. A toxic person will often purposely keep you on edge by altering which version of them you're getting. Okay, read this again on your own time. Okay, that's exactly what Saul is doing here. Hey, I'm going to give you my wife, Mera. Okay, and then it doesn't say why, just says, oh, sorry, she's this other guy's wife. Okay, but why didn't that affect David? Why didn't that throw David off balance? Because David was humble. He didn't account himself worthy enough to be even in the king's family. So again, the key to this is your humility and the best way for you to get humility is to constantly read the word of God. It will keep you humble because God is up here and we are down here. So again, a toxic person is going to do this. They're going to keep pancaking on you. They're going to give you the nice guy. They're going to give you the kind guy. They're going to give you all these promises, wink with the eye. Okay, and then they're going to switch it up on you to keep you off balance. It's just like in martial arts, wrestling especially, the entire goal is to get your opponent off balance by controlling the neck or the hips. That's how, if you ever want to take somebody down, get good at controlling someone's neck and their hips and you will be able to do that. Okay, but I don't want to give a class on wrestling now. It's just a good metaphor to understand how these people operate. And why is it that they want to keep you off balance? Because when someone's off balance, they're not able to be as agile. They're constantly trying to figure things out and gain balance. And during that time, they're like, oh, you're off balance. I got you. I got you. I got you. And they're leading you along and they're going to take you where they want to go. They're going to point with a finger. They're going to walk with the feet. And the next thing you know, you're going to be asking yourself, how in the world did I get here? How in the world did I lose this? What happened to me? How could I let this happen? Again, the Bible says that the simple pass on and are destroyed. We're not going to be like that. We're going to learn and understand and foresee the evil of these types of people. Now we're almost done here. I just want to leave you with some application really quickly. Go to Matthew chapter number 12. Matthew chapter number 12. So Matthew chapter number 12, we're going to start reading here. And this story that we're going to read here is basically the same old thing. Pharisees, hey, you can't heal on the Sabbath. What are you doing this on the Sabbath for? And they're trying to trap Jesus. Surely you wouldn't heal somebody on the Sabbath. What a wicked thing. Don't you know we go to church on Saturdays. This is so wrong. And same thing. Okay. These guys are the fatherhood of the seventh day Adventists. Look at verse 13. For sake of time, Matthew 12, look at verse 13. Then sayeth he to the man. Okay. So this guy here with a shriveled hand and the Lord wants to heal him and he's going to see what these people do. So it says in verse 13, then sayeth he to the man, stretch forth thine hand and he stretched it forth and it was restored whole like as the other. Here's the seventh day Adventists, verse 14. Then the Pharisees went out and held a council against him. How they might destroy him. Okay. Again, another group of toxic people in the Bible are definitely a lot of the Pharisees and all of the Sadducees and unfortunately many of the scribes, but look at what Jesus does. Okay. When they go out and he foresees the evil. Now obviously he's God. Okay. But the Bible warns us. If you study these things, you're going to learn their behavior. You're going to learn the behavior of wicked people that are trying to manipulate you. And what's the application here. Look at verse 15. But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence and great multitudes followed him and he healed them all. Guess what? When you can identify these people in your life, you have to remove yourself. If you can't go to another place of work, another church, or you can't, you know, somehow get this person away from you, then you're going to have to do it mentally. You're going to have to maybe just get in this person's face and say, Hey, look. Okay. I don't like the way this is going. I feel this is how I feel and it needs to stop. You see, that's the whole problem with the world today is that people don't have guts to have face to face conversations anymore. Okay. We've become soft. We've become weak. We've become afraid to offend other people and it needs to stop. Okay. If you got a problem with somebody like this, you need to tell them, especially if you can't get away, because guess what? Read that verse again. But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence. Now look at the blessing that followed and great multitudes followed him and he healed them all. Okay. Now obviously we're not going to go out and physically heal people, but you know what? We can heal people with the word of God. Can't we? We can heal people with the truth. We could be a blessing unto other people. Okay. So when we withdraw ourselves from the toxic person, guess what? We can be used by the kingdom of God more effectively because their goal is to stop you or to hinder you and to take you away from God's work. And when you put a halt on that, now guess what? Now you can go the way that you know you should go and the way that you want to go. Go to Matthew chapter 10 real quick. So we're just going to go back. Two more passages, Matthew 10, Matthew 7. We're done. Look at verse number 14. So obviously the first one here, easy. Okay. Withdraw yourself. If you can get away, get away. Hey, don't worry about offending these types of people. Okay. Because you're just going to go better. You're going to do much better in life. You're going to go forward and they're going to stay forward. Matthew 10 verse 14. So obviously the, the special mission trip that Christ gave to the disciples here, as many as others that came along after that, and he's sending them out two by two to give the gospel and to do wonders and things of that nature. And he gives these guys a special piece of advice here. Okay. He gives them this special piece of advice and we've talked about it before, so I won't spend a lot of time on it, but I want you to see it. Verse 14 says this, whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words when you depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Okay. Now what is the purpose of doing that? Because when you are around dusty people, toxic people, it gets on you, whether you think you're tough or not, it doesn't matter. It will get on you. And if you do not remove it, if you do not shake it off, if you do not settle it in your heart right now, it's okay to throw them away. Okay. It is perfectly fine. If you do not understand that and you do not do that, it will follow you to the next mission. It will follow you to the next town. It will follow you to the next door. Okay. Again, I've told you guys this story before. You know, I was talking with somebody a couple of years ago. You know, I'd love to go soul hunting, but I'll knock somebody out. That's what he said. I'll knock people out. People can't just talk to me any way they want. And it's like, what kind of attitude is that? You know what I mean? Like you might think that sounds tough in your mind when you're driving down the road, listening to your rap music or your rock music, whatever it is. And you're just having these vain imaginations of beating people up all over Boise and all this type of stuff. But the reality is it's weakness because you can't control yourself. Think about it. It's stupid. So what? Someone slams the door in your face. We're tougher than that. We're okay. It's fine. It doesn't matter. I don't know. You'll probably never see you again anyways. And even if I do, I feel sorry for you because the odds are you're going to go to hell and burn in the lake of fire forever and ever. And at least we tried to warn you. I don't need to knock somebody out for that. Okay. That's not zeal. That is stupidity. Shake the dust off your feet. Last place we're going to go is where we started this whole series. Matthew seven verse number six, Matthew chapter seven. So again, what do we do about these people? We withdraw ourselves either physically, mentally, emotionally, any way possible. You throw up a wall. You let that person know this is done right now. I don't like how you're trying to get me to go here and to go there and to do all this stuff. Okay. And sometimes these conversations can be very harsh. I've had them with people. Okay. And I'm just telling you, it is harsh, but the rewards that you're going to reap for doing it are much greater than you allowing that person to stick around because you think you're so nice and so kind that you can change them. You're not changing them. Okay. Only God can deal with these types of people. So last but not least, look at verse number six, give not that which is holy unto the dogs. These dogs out here. Neither cast ye your pearls before swine. Remember the principle of the pig. Don't invest in these types of people. Okay. The wisdom that you get from studying the Bible from each other. Okay. You need to be very careful about who you share that with, who you spend time with. Okay. Why? Well, look at the last part of the verse, lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you. That look, what do you think would have happened if Paul or not Paul, but if, if David, you know, and David did this. Okay. David's like, well, maybe I'll do this. You know, maybe I'll give Saul another chance and I'll keep giving them all these chances. Okay. What happened every time David did that, Saul would continuously try to kill him. Oh, forgive me. I have sinned David. You're right. I'm wrong. Okay. Saul would say that. And then he'd go sit down and evil spirit would come and be like, Ooh, I can't stand him. We need to go back and get him. And it was just this endless cycle of Saul trying to kill David. Saul trying to kill David. You know, finally at the end though, David was like, you know what? I could never go back there. Like Saul literally drove David mad for a season. He went and joined the army of the Philistines. Okay. That is what these types of people can do to you. And this is why it's so important for us to heed the wisdom of the Bible. Get, get away from them. Okay. Withdraw yourself, shake the dust off your feet. And last but not least, just settle in your heart that you're not going to give your pearls, your valuables, your time, your energy, your thoughts, your love to these people, because all they will do is trample it under their feet and come back and tear you in half. And it's not worth it. We don't have enough people in Christianity to take real Christianity as it is. We don't need to be taken down by this sort of trash. So if you can remember the principle of the pig, I think it'll help you out in life. If nothing else, it'll save you a lot of heartache and a lot of trouble, a lot of wasted time in your life. So let's stop right there. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you again, Lord, for everything that you do for us. Thank you for this church, Lord, and for this building and just all the wonderful things that you have given us thus far, Lord. And I just pray that you'd bless the fellowship after the service and bring us again safely this weekend. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.