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Hey man, so Proverbs chapter 6, beginning of verse 16, the Bible reads, These things that the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination unto him, a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, and heart that defies wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren. And what I want to talk to you about this evening is the sin of strife. You see, in the Bible, especially in the book of Proverbs, in fact we're going to be in Proverbs, we're going to look at a multitude of Proverbs this evening, that deals with this specific topic, that being strife. Before we even get into that, though, I kind of want us to just take a note here of something, is the fact that a person's tongue can get them lumped together in very bad company. And we should be very careful about the things that we say, because of the fact that, you know, if we say something false, or we are just one that's known to strive with people, what we can end up doing is getting lumped in with a very bad group of people. I mean, if we look here in this passage, it says, these six things that the Lord hate. I mean, these are things that God can't stand. These are things that God hates. These are some things that we should not want to be found or be said of us. It says a proud look and a lying tongue. And what's interesting there is that it mentions lying twice. It says a lying tongue, and then it says it again in verse 19, a false witness that speaketh lies. God hates the lying tongue. It's mentioned twice in this passage. So that tells me right there that lying is a serious sin. You know, in children, they're the ones, especially in their youth, they're very prone to lie. It comes very naturally to them. And that's something that they need to be corrected about, because if they're not taught the seriousness of what lying is, and where it stems from, the father of lies, the devil, that they can develop a bad habit of lying. And we do not want to be known as people who are deceptive. We don't want to be known as people who lie. Lying is a very serious sin. You know, we should always be cautious to speak only the truth. I mean, we should always speak things that we know about or things that we know are true. And those are the things that should be coming out of our tongue. We don't want to be... I heard it said once that if you say something, even if you believe it's true and it's not, it's still a lie. Either it's the truth or it's a lie. You can't just say, well, I think this is what happened. Either it's the truth or it's a lie. So we should be cautious to speak the truth. And, you know, sometimes certain matters require more information before we speak. You know, it's interesting that people, they're so quick to cast out their opinion. They're so quick to voice their concerns about things that are none of their concern. You know, they want to give in their two cents or what they think about some situation and they want to speak out of turn. But what they don't realize is that they don't have the information that maybe another party has. Maybe they're not privy to everything in a situation. We should be very careful not to speak out of turn because it could be turned out that it would be found lying. One thing I learned a while back is that you're not required to have an opinion. Yeah, that's a great thing to learn is that, you know, when we live in a culture today where, you know, everyone wants to voice their opinion, everyone, you know, it's almost expected that you have opinion. No matter what the issue is, you know, you have to have an opinion about this and people want to know what your opinion is. But you know, there's some things that we just don't have to have an opinion about. Some things that aren't your, you know, it's not your deal, it's not in your business. I don't have to sit back and worry about some situation if it doesn't have any effect on me. I don't have to have an opinion. And even if I did have to have an opinion or if I did feel like I had some understanding of a situation, that doesn't mean that I get to just voice it to anybody and everybody whenever I feel like it. We should be careful what we say because what comes out of our mouths can get us lumped together with people that, like there in Proverbs 16, the lying tongue, he's right next to the guy that can, that hands that shed innocent blood and heart that devises wicked imaginations and feet that be swift and running to mischief and he that soweth discord among brethren. Now it's no coincidence, that's a bad group to be lumped in with. I mean, hands that shed innocent blood, you know, you don't want to be associated with that type of a person, but God isn't making this kind of association. He's kind of putting these same attributes together. You know, false witness that speaketh lies and he that soweth discord among the brethren. Often a person who lies will do it to the end that they can sow discord. They want to lie about something in order so they can cause strife. And that's what we're going to talk about this evening is strife. The Bible says in Titus chapter three, avoid foolish questions and genealogy and contentions. That's another word that's synonymous with strife. We could say contentions and strivings about the law for they are unprofitable and vain. We should avoid those things. We should try not to have any part in that. We should try not to be those that are known as those who would stir up strife or that would sow discord among the brethren or those that would be very contentious. Bible says in second Timothy two, but foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender strikes. We should try to avoid strife. How do we avoid it? By avoiding unlearned questions and foolish and unlearned questions. And the servant of the Lord must not strive. If we're going to be effective servants for God, I think especially in the area of soul winning. We talked about that this morning. I mean, that's a great area where the servant of the Lord must not strive. Obviously we don't want to just let people walk all over us. And there's certain times in our life where we have to stand up for the word of God and we have to contend for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints. But you know, nine times out of 10, that's not at somebody else's front door at some stranger's house where we have to straighten them out at some false doctrine or something like that where we have to get up and get in the fight and end up yelling at each other from the street. And that kind of thing happens. So the servant of the Lord must not strive. When we're out there, that's a perfect example of soul winning. We should be harmless as doves. We should be meek. We should be gentle unto all men, ready to teach. It says, a meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God preadventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. We should be meek with those people. We shouldn't go out seeking to strive. But if you would turn over Proverbs chapter 18, we're gonna talk a little bit about tonight about the sin of strife, the sin of strife. And we're just gonna go through the book of Proverbs and just see how strife is used to just try to draw from these verses and just try to make some application about the sin of strife in our lives. Because the Bible talks a lot about it. And we can see how it's gonna affect our lives and it will impact our lives negatively. And just how serious of a sin strife really is and the effects it can have. It says there in Proverbs 18 verse 19, a brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city. And their contentions are like the bars of a castle. A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city. And their contentions are like the bars of a castle. You see, contention or discord or offense is usually the result of pride. It's usually something that comes up and we see here that even a brother is somebody that we could offend. It's easy to offend a brother. But it says, well, how is it that we would offend somebody to the point that their contentions are like a bars of a castle? That it's harder to be won than a strong city. We offend our brother in some way, there's strife, there's contention there. And to the point where they almost are unwilling to be our friend again. Or there's always gonna be that rift. You know, the tension is always just gonna be you can cut it with a knife kind of a thing. You know, there's just that disconnect between a brother. Well, it says in Proverbs 13, only by pride cometh contention. Only by pride cometh contention. But with the well of wisdom, of bias is wisdom. You see, contention and discord and strife, these things are usually the result of pride. It's one person not wanting, you know, admit that they're wrong or another person, you know, is just going out of their way to, you know, cause strife or stir up strife in another person, in an area. So we have to be careful not to do that. We don't want strife to be a part of our life. That's not something that we want in our lives. We don't want strife and contentions and it's just negative and it's not good. Now, a good way to end strife. What's a good way to end strife? Because the fact is, you know, some people, they're just prone to this. They have a probability to just be, you know, just people who are caused strife. That's what they do. That's why they live. I mean, they're out there, you know. That's their whole thing. They are never going to change. So what's a good solution when you find yourself, when you're coming up against somebody? Go ahead and turn over to Genesis chapter 13. Genesis 13. When you find yourself coming into contact with somebody who causes strife, you know, and even if it's a friend or a family member or something like that, you know, that can be a very difficult situation if it's somebody you have to deal with. But what's a good way to bring it to an end? Well, let's look at Genesis chapter 13 and see how it was handled there. Genesis chapter 13. Look at verse one. And Abraham went out of Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had and Lot with him into the south. Verse two. And Abram was very rich in cattle and silver and gold and he went on his journeys from the south even to Bethel unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning between Bethel and Hayi unto the place of the altar which he had made there at the first. And there Abram called upon the name of the Lord. Verse five. And Lot also which went with Abram had flocks and herds and tents. And the land was not able to bear them that they might dwell together for their substance was great so that they could not dwell together. So the Lord has blessed them so much at this point that when they're coming up out of Egypt and going back to Bethel that they have so much abundance of wealth that the land there literally there's just not enough room for them. You know, it's like when that houseguest comes from out of town you know, they bring all their stuff and they're there for weeks on end. You know, eventually the walls get a little smaller and smaller and smaller. You know, you can kind of sort of feel that strife building up. Well, what happens here? It says in verse six and the land was not able to bear them that they might dwell together for their substance was great so they could not dwell together. And there was verse seven and there was strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle. And the Canaanite and the Perizzites dwelled dead in the land. So eventually it comes to a head where there's just too much strife. You know, these guys want to bring their cattle to graze here and they want to bring their cattle to graze in the same spot. They're just, they're running into each other and having a hard time coexisting with one another. So what is it? What is the result? They start to have strife. There's contention. And how do they solve the situation? Well, let's look at verse eight. And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife. So Abram was the kind of guy you know, he wasn't into strife. Like some people. Some people they go out of their way looking for it. Not Abram. He says let there be no strife I pray thee between me and thee and between my urban and thine urban for we be brethren. I mean, isn't that a great application right there? I mean, if we're going to dwell with one another in the local church, if we're going to have the unity and the spirit, you know, if we're going to be one here as a body that's going to be effective, we don't want strife to come into our church and separate us. So what does he do here? He says, I pray thee between me and thee and between thine urban and thine urban for we be brethren. Verse nine, Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself I pray thee from me. He says go, go. If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right. Or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left. Sometimes we're involved with people who just want to stir up strife. They're just looking to draw you in into that strife. The only reason they're stirring up strife, they're just, you know, what's the saying? They're drama mamas, right? They just want to bring you into strife because that's just what they're into. They like strife. They like the drama. And it just spices up their life. And sometimes if you try to contend with them over something, they're just glad that you're contending. That's exactly what they want out of you. They want strife. And Abraham here, he had the right answer. It's time to just separate. It's time for us to just go our separate ways. You know, you need to go to the left and I'll go to the right or vice versa. Sometimes separating from strife, you know, it's better for the parties involved, but also sometimes it's better even for a third party. Maybe somebody who's having to oversee strife. Maybe there's strife in the workplace or in a church or I don't know, maybe at home with kids, you know, maybe there's strife between and mom's got to be the one that has to deal with the strife among the siblings. So go ahead and turn over Deuteronomy chapter one. We'll see another way, why strife is something that we should try to separate from or how we can deal with it when it comes up. I'll begin reading in verse one, Deuteronomy verse one. These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness and the plain over against the Red Sea between Perah and Atophel, Laban and Hazaroth, and Disahab verse eight. Behold, I have set the land before you. Go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed. And I spake unto you that time saying, I am not able to bury myself alone. And the Lord your God hath multiplied you and behold you are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude. And the Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times more so as times so many more as you are and bless you as he hath promised you. Then he says in verse 12, How can I myself bear your coverance and your burden and your strife? You see, strife has an effect on leadership. Strife has an effect on people that are overseeing others. Strife, you know, when it's in the congregation or in a home or in a workplace, it can affect the person that's kind of overseeing that. The person who can observe it from the outside, the third party, if you will. Like with Moses here, he's saying, How can I myself bear your strife? You know, it's something that he had to put up with these people. It was something that was common among them. So we see here that strife, it has an effect on leadership. And how does it affect people? I mean, how can we see it affect them? In what way? Well, first of all, it can make people hasty. It can make people very hasty. You know, squabbling, you think of the squabbling children. You know, they start to get into it. You know, she picked us up. She touched that. You know, they crossed the line. She took my dollar. Whatever it might be, that all kids fight over. All kids have these little squabbles, right? And what happens is, it starts to irritate the parents. The strife that's going on. Now, the parents aren't directly involved in the strife. They're not pulling back and forth on the doll or anything like that, right? But they just see it going on and it has an effect on them. And what happens is that they become hasty. And in turn, they react with frustration. And a lot of times that's what happens as parents. We just get hasty. We get tired. We get impatient with it. We're tired of dealing with it. And then just out of frustration, you know, we yell. Or we lash out at the kids in some way. The Bible says, if you would, and I hope you're still in Proverbs. Just keep something in Proverbs all night. Go ahead and turn it over to Proverbs 15. Proverbs 15. The Bible says in Proverbs 29 verse 20, Seeest thou a man that is hasty in his words? There is more hope of a fool than of him. You know, as parents, we should be careful not to just be hasty with our words with our children. It's a lot easier to just yell at our kids rather than to, you know, instruct them, correct them, discipline them. And to do that, you know, to do all of that thing, which we should do. You know, we should be doing the instruction. We should be doing the correcting. But we should be doing it patiently. We should be doing it in a right spirit, not angrily, not hastily. Because, you know, it's something that we should be very careful about how we correct our children. Because we want them to learn. We don't want to just them to understand that I'm mad. We don't want to just be hasty and say, you just need to know that what you're doing is making me mad. We need them to understand why you're doing what you're doing is wrong. You know, you kids have this strife among you. That's not right. You guys need to fix this. You need to work on this. That's not just I'm mad and now you're going to get it. It's hey, let's have a time of instruction. Let's teach them something and help them to learn. You turn over to Proverbs chapter 15. Look at verse 18. What happened to Moses? I mean, when he had to bear the strife, did he not act out hastily? I'll remind us of Numbers 27. It says, And the Lord said unto Moses, Get thee up into this Mount Abram, and see the land which I gave unto the children of Israel. And when thou hast seen it, thou shalt also be gathered in thy people. He's saying, you're going to die. As Aaron thy brother was gathered. For ye rebelled against my commandment in the desert of sin, in the strife of the congregation to sanctify me at the water before their eyes. That is the water of Meribah and Kadesh in the wilderness of sin. So you remember, when Moses got frustrated, when he got tired of the murmuring and the complaining and the strikes and the contentions among the people, and God told him to go and speak to the rock and that it would break forth water, what did he do? He went and smote the rock. So he acted hastily. He kind of just did his own thing. He lashed out. He got in a rush. And look, it cost him something. It cost him being able to actually go into the promised land and see God do all those great works. The Bible says in Proverbs chapter 15, verse 18, a wrathful man stirreth up strife. It says that's the type of person who stirs up strife. That's why we shouldn't want to have anything to do with somebody who stirs up strife. Because it's not just like it's by accident. It's not someone who's somebody who wants to stir up strife. You know, brother Garza was preaching the preaching class about strife, and he said it's like, it's intentional. You know, it's like a guy stirring the pot, he said. Right? Do you accidentally stir a pot? He's like, what's going on? How'd this happen? You know, you go out of your way, right? You get the spoon out, you go to the pot, you stir it. Well, that's what a wrathful man does with strife. He stirs it up. You know, he's intentionally going out of his way to stir up strife. Why? Because he's a wrathful man. You know, he wants to see other people be hurt like he was hurt, maybe. Or he's just lashing out. He has wrath. And how does he express that wrath? By stirring up strife. And it says, but he that is slow to anger appeases strife. The Bible says in Proverbs 28, he that has a proud heart stirs up strife. Again, showing us that strife is often the result of pride. He that has a proud heart stirs up strife. But he that put up his trust in the Lord shall be made fat. The Bible says, as coals are to burning coals and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindle strife. You don't just make a fire by accident. If anyone's ever gone camping and had to make a campfire, it's not just as easy as it looks in the movies. You actually have to know what size kindling you have to get. You maybe start off with a small fire. I remember I was building a fire with somebody a few weeks back. And I had to show them they were doing it all wrong. They were trying that teepee method. No? OK. So anyway, I had to show them, look, you start with a very small pile of little dry leaves and swigs and things. And then you add smaller sticks and then bigger sticks. And then eventually you get to the locks. But my point I'm trying to make here is that that was very intentional, wasn't it? That was something that I had to think about. That was something that I had to put effort into. There was forethought that went into it. And so is a contentious man to kindle strife. And that's a guy who's going to go out of his way to kindle strife, to start something. And he wants to see it inflame and just grow. Why is that? It's because angry people, they enjoy strife. It's not just that that's how they were raised. And that's just the way they are. If that's the way you are, you need to change. I hate that excuse. Well, I'm ignorant. I'm full-headed. It's just the way I am. Well, change it. You have the Spirit of God in you. You need to change that. If you're an angry person, if you enjoy strife, you need to change that. Because as we saw earlier in the beginning of the sermon, being someone who likes strife and contention puts you in bad company. It's not a good place to be. Angry people enjoy strife. Are you a prouder of your Proposition 50? Look at Proverbs 29. The Bible says in Proverbs 29, An angry man stirreth up strife, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression. An angry man stirreth up strife, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression. You know the guy who's always mad, always stirring up strife? He's going to abound in transgression. I mean, his life is going to have sin in it. Major sins. Sins that are going to affect him, affect his family, affect his children, affect his walk with the Lord. It's going to abound in transgression. He's going to have serious problems in his life if you're the type of person who likes to stir up strife. And it's just crazy that, you know, people, they just, you wonder how can anybody, you know, why is it that someone would do something that's so obvious, you know, and stirring up strife? Why are they that way? You know, it's because they like it, you know? And they end up just arguing over, you know, some of the dumbest things, don't they? We see people just arguing over things and sometimes you're just like, why are you even arguing about this? I mean, how is this even an issue? It's because they stir up strife. It's because that's just who they are. That's how they live their life. And a lot of times I think strife comes out of people because they use it as a means to spice up their dull lives. I mean, people have such a dull life, you know, they're dissatisfied with their own life. They just have to stir up strife because at least it's something to talk about. At least there's something going on that seems more important than it really is. You know, they want to get all worked up over some topic that really isn't that important, but they like the fact there's strife there because now there's something going on. There's something to talk about. Now they can go leave their comments somewhere on some, you know, social media. The Bible says in Proverbs 26, where no wood is, the fire goeth out. So where there is no tale there, the strife cease it. Right? It's all, you know, a lot of times people that, what's one way they like to stir up strife? They like to tell tales. I like to be a tale bearer. Hey, did you hear what so-and-so said? Hey, did you hear this? Did you see that? And they'll go around and they'll just get other people thinking about it. You know, it's not even something they did. They're just trying to get you to think about it so that maybe you'll get angry and then maybe you'll go say something to somebody else. The next thing you know, they've kindled strife and now it's just this bonfire of wrath and anger among people. Excuse me. You know, it's really sad because a lot of times people will even go to the extent of, you know, people who love strife and wrath, they'll go to the extent of trying to stir that up, you know, within a marriage or within a friendship. I mean, somebody else will see somebody else as a, you know, or especially like in a church, they'll see a great church. You know, we've experienced this lately. Well, they'll see a great church and they just, they want to pick, they want to have some bone of contention with the pastor. They want to bring something out, some accusation against them because they want to stir strife. You know, they want to start the fire in there. They want to see, they want to kindle that contention, that strife. We'll see if that'll happen in marriages and it'll happen in friendships. Go ahead and turn over to Proverbs chapter 16 because the tailbearer is somebody, you know, that's going to go around and try and sow strife. It says in Proverbs 16 verse 28, I'll read for you Proverbs 16, 28. A forward man soweth strife. Isn't it interesting that it says he sows it? I mean, we've looked at so many different ways that strife, you know, is brought out that somebody, you know, implements strife. How do they do it? They, they, they kindle strife like a fire, right? They just get it going and eventually it takes care of itself. Or they'll stir up strife. You know, these things that are done intentionally. Another thing is that it says here that a forward man soweth strife. I mean, sowing, that's referring to planting a seed. You know, it's sowing and reaping, right? So that's what a strife will mean. He might just walk by and just plant a little seed. You know, just put a bug in your ear. Well, did you know this about so-and-so? Yeah, this happened. And now, and then just walk away and let you just, I don't know, let that seed just germinate and grow and they can just sit back and watch it just blossom. And they just take, they take pleasure in seeing that strife come to fruition. It says a forward man soweth strife and a whisperer separateth chief friends. I mean, have you ever had a friend, you know, who had somebody else come to him and say something about you? People start talking behind your back. You know, people get together and they start saying, isn't that sad when that happens? That chief friends, that even best friends can be separated by somebody who wants to just sow some strife between them. They just want to break up that relationship, not because it needs to be broken up, not because they stand to gain anything, but just because of the simple fact that they love strife. They love to see it. They are wrathful people. You know, it's sad to lose a friend who's listening to gossip, isn't it? It's sad to lose a friend who's had somebody else come in their life and maybe say something that was a half truth or say something hurtful to them that would turn them against you. That's unfortunate. The Bible says in Proverbs, go and turn over to Proverbs chapter 17. Bible says in Proverbs 18, you're going to 17, but in 18 it says, the words of a tale there are as wounds. They go down to the innermost parts of the belly. They go down to the innermost parts of the belly. It says a wound. That's what a tale bearer does. Someone who wants to go around and sow strife. It's like they just want to do all they're trying to do is just hurt people. They're just trying to wound people with their tale bearing, with their whispering, with their backbiting. Look at Proverbs chapter 17. The beginning of strife, it says, when one leadeth out water, therefore leave off contention before it be meddled with. I like that analogy that the beginning of strife is when one leadeth out water. You ever see those YouTube videos where they have the pool, the above ground pool, they break it to let the water out and then they stab the thing and you think, well maybe just give me a little, come out. But then the whole thing just, it starts out with just a little cut and then boom, the whole thing just bursts. You think of the old, the picture of the dam that gets a crack and the cartoons, you got a few springs coming out and then eventually the whole thing gives way. The last, the Bible is kind of referring to is as though, you know, it's like a little leak that starts but if you let water just continually run and go, eventually it's just going to erode everything around it and it's just going to be just a torrent, just a flood of water that's coming down. And that's what it says, the beginning of strife is. It says, when one leadeth out water, therefore leave off contention before it be meddled with. I mean, that's how you handle someone who's prone to strife. Somebody who wants to sow strife in your life and sow strife in your life and kindle strife in your life, do like Abram did and get away from that person. You know, there's no helping people that all they live for is to sow strife. That's why it's real important in a church that people who are like that, they get dealt with. They need to be dealt with in the local church because all they'll do is they'll just try to kindle strife inside of a local church. You know, it's better to leave off a leaky dam than to try and repair it with your chewing gum. You know, it's funny because I actually made a repair with chewing gum on the air mattress we set up. It had a leak in it. And my daughter, I'm like, I'm asking my wife, hey, you got any tape? And she had no tape. I'm like, we don't have any tape here. And my daughter, I'm not kidding, like a second later, my wife, my daughter comes over, she's like, dad, look at all the gum I got for sowing. She's going, sowing, she chews gum while we go. And I'm like, gum? And I took it and I patched up that hole in that thing. So I don't know. I wrote that and then today I used chewing gum to actually fix something. I don't think I've ever used chewing gum in a repair before. So I got that out on the bucket list. Right? But it's better, you know, it's better to leave a leaky Dan to sit there and try and plug the thing up. You know what I mean? It's like the little Dutch boy. You only got so many fingers. And if you're going to keep dealing with somebody over and over and over again, they're just prone to strife. It's what they live for. They're wrathful people. They enjoy stirring up strife. You're just always trying to put out fires. You're just going to exhaust yourself. That's why it says to leave it off. You know, to put it off, to get away from it. You know, if you can't control it, then it's probably none of your concern. You know, if there's some situation that's going on that you have no control over, it's like, why, why get involved? Why should we interject ourselves in a situation that, you know, we don't have any control over? And just so, and just, you know, that's what you see a lot of strife, people do. They have absolutely no authority in the matter. They have absolutely no control in the matter. Anything they say, think, or do will have no effect on the outcome. But they're still going to go out there and just put, you know, just run their mouth, just blow off at the mouth, run their tongue, and sow strife. And all it does is it comes back on them and hurts the people around them. You know, my mother-in-law, she has a great saying. It's called, not my pig, not my farm. I think that's a good motto. That's a good way to live your life. You know, someone always wants to get you involved with some problem. Hey, if it's not my pig, then I must not own the farm either. You know, why do I have to concern myself with everybody else's business? Why is it I have to concern myself in a situation that doesn't concern me? Well, I'll tell you why a lot of people do it. Because it says in Proverbs 17, are you there in Proverbs 17? Look at verse 19. He loveth transgression that loveth strife. There's people that love strife. They love it. It's what they live for. I mean, come on. Jerry Springer Show? That's strife. I mean, all these daytime talk shows that are just full of like, you know, daddy mamas and, you know, and rebellious, you know, catch me outside girl, whatever her name was, you know. They love that. People eat that up. They love strife. It's just something about it. We just love the drama. People just love the fact that there's this contention, you know, emotions and all this stuff. People love it. So you know what? A lot of that strife comes from? It comes from people who are committing transgression. They love transgression that love strife. You know, it's not worth seeing others get harmed for our own selfish entertainment or whatever it might be. Look at Proverbs chapter 20. You know, we shouldn't want to have anything to do with strife. And if we're a person who's prone to like to enjoy strife or stirring up strife, you know, we need to knock it off and get it out of our life once and for all because it will destroy us. It's like letting water out of a dam, the Bible says. It's like kindling a fire. It's not good. Nothing good is going to come from it. It says in Proverbs chapter 20, verse 3, it is an honor for a man to cease from strife. It's an honor to just back out and say, you know what? This isn't my problem. This doesn't concern me. I am not an authority here. My opinion doesn't matter. I don't have to have an opinion. That's an honorable thing to do. You know, even a fool who holds his tongue is counter wise. I'm kind of paraphrasing that. But even a fool who shuts his lips, people think, oh, that guy is pretty smart. You know, it's just because you haven't heard him say anything stupid. Right? So it's kind of the same thing here. You know, it's an honor for a man to cease from strife. If we just don't involve ourselves just by simply not saying something or interjecting ourselves ourselves in some situation, people say, wow, that guy's got some honor. Wow, that guy must have some discretion. Why? Because he just decided to cease from strife. To just not put himself in a situation that he doesn't belong. Goes on and says, but every fool will be meddling. You know, the person who's just got to get in there, the person who's just got to, you know, let everyone know how they feel about it. They got to connive. They got to come up with some, some way of getting back at somebody. That person's a fool. You know, and we need to, we need to not be fools. You know, there's this Latin proverb that I really like. It says, to silence another, first be silent yourself. To silence another, first be silent yourself. I mean, sometimes, I think that really applies with somebody who's a raffle person, who's trying to put that bug in your ear. You know, and to just, you know, not give into it. They want to get a response out of you. Well, don't give them one. You know, eventually they'll just move on to somebody else. And another thing too, and I'll just say this, this is just bonus, but if someone comes to you and starts talking crap about your pastor, or especially your spouse, or your friend, or whoever it is, criticizing somebody that you should love, someone that you should care for, someone that you should respect and honor, you need to shut it down. You need to shut it down right away. You cannot have that stuff going on. It just cannot happen. You should be shutting that person down. And people will try and do that. They'll try to see if you're the type of person that will let them kindle strife. Let me see if I can sneak into their campground and get a little fire going. You know, you need to get the bucket of water out and douse that thing and tell them to beat it. Because here's the thing, people, they feel validated when they get any kind of response. There's people out there, they don't care what kind of response they get out of you as long as they get one. I mean, think about internet trolls, right? All they care about is getting any kind of response out of you. I mean, if it's a negative response, they're all the happier. But that's what a lot of people live for. That's why sometimes it's better to just leave off strife, to just remain silent and to not give them anything, and they'll just move on to the next one. And let them deal with it. The Bible says, Cast out the squirter and contention shall go out. Yea, strife and reproach shall cease. You know, get rid of the strifeful person. Get rid of the squirter. Get rid of the person that, you know, causes strife. Get them out of there. You know, it's just like with parents, right? Dealing with the kids. Sometimes with the kids, you just have to separate them. Just say, you go sit over there and you go sit over there and when you learn to play nice, then you guys can play together again. And sometimes you just got to separate them. It's kind of like casting out the squirter. Hey, if you're as long as this person's around, we're just going to have strife and contention. We want to get them out of there until they learn how to get along with others. I love this in Proverbs 26. I think this is one of the best verses about strife. Proverbs 26, look at verse 17. Proverbs 26 verse 17. This is what it's like when you put yourself out there and try to get yourself involved in a situation that has nothing to do with you. It says here in verse 17 in Proverbs 26, he that passeth by and meddleth with strife not belonging to him is like one that taketh a dog by the years. I mean, we were out solely today, me and brother Hunter and some of the other guys. I don't think I've seen that many dogs outside of the rez, ever. I mean, this is like every house had a dog, right? I mean, and they weren't nice dogs. I mean, there were dogs there. They had all kinds of, how many German shepherds? And I'm saying like on two city streets, on either side of a block. I mean, I saw like four or five German shepherds barking, I mean, jumping. I mean, last week we had that dog about chase us down, right? I had to turn around and yell at the thing and wave my Bible at it. And, you know, it was still coming at us. You know, I mean, imagine taking a dog like that by the years. This is, I don't think the Bible is talking about, you know, your aunt's sweet little chihuahua that she puts a sweater on. You know, you're taking it by the ears. That's not a big deal. I mean, that'd be a silly illustration, right? I think it's talking about like a res dog, like these attack dogs, like a pit bull. I mean, can you imagine grabbing a dog like that by the ears? I mean, that's the analogy it's giving us. Now what are you going to do? You run around and you say, I'm going to grab that dog by the ears. And I'm going to involve myself in this situation. I'm going to interject myself into this strife that's going on. You know, I'm going to get in there and mix it up with these people. Well, now you've got a dog by the ears. How are you going to let it go? Now you're this close to it. I mean, normally when you see a dog like that, I mean, today we were like, there was a fence there. We're still sidestepping here. We want to put some feet between us because that one dog we saw, I mean, that thing was about ready to jump a four foot wall. But you know that once you got a dog by the ears, how are you going to let it go? You're going to get bit. You know, I mean, you know, if it's a bad if it's a bad enough dog, man, I mean, that dog could really hurt you and tear you up. So we should be careful not to just meddle with strife that doesn't belong to us, that we should just interject ourselves in every situation that we feel, you know, warrants our attention. Sometimes it's better to just sit back, let things play out, and then form an opinion. And then maybe even just keep that opinion to ourselves. And not have to go and tell everybody about what we think about some situation. Even if we disagree with something, you know, because if we go in there and we meddle with strife, it's like grabbing a dog by the ears. And now you've got a problem on your hands and there's no way to get out of it without getting bit. You're going to get bit, that's all that matters. You know, and it's just they could affect you for the rest of your life. I mean, what if that dog has rabies? You know what I mean? Like now it's they could be devastating to your life. So I mean, that's really all I wanted to preach about this evening, is just, you know, strife. It's just not something we want, you know, in our life. But at the same time, I don't want you to give the idea that we are to never strive, that there's never anything. Because I mean, when you think about strife or striving, sometimes striving is spoken of in a good way, in the sense that, you know, you're trying to contend for something noble. You are trying to stand up and fight for something that matters, you know. But it's not that you're trying to sow strife between friends or something like that. That you're actually trying to strive for something that matters. The Bible says in Proverbs 3, strive not with a man without a cause. You know, sometimes there is a cause to strive with somebody. You know, when they're in the wrong, when they're doing something wrong, and you're the one that's to correct it, you know, you're the one who's in the position, you're the one who has the authority and the ability and the wherewithal to correct the situation, and you have a cause, by all means, strive. But 9 times out of 10, a lot of times what we see is people that have nothing to do with the situation striving. It says, strive not with a man without a cause. If you have done thee no harm, I mean, if it's not your business, if it's not affecting you, why do you have to get involved? You're like, you're grabbing a dog by the ears. Bible says in Proverbs 25, go not forth hastily to strive, lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof when thy neighbor hath put thee to shame. You know, if you're, don't be hasty to strive, but you know what, don't not ever strive. Sometimes you have to strive, but you know, don't be hasty to do it. Don't be trying to get in that, mix it up in every, you know, problem or contention you see. You know, if it doesn't concern you, just stay out of it. Bible says, go ahead and turn over to James chapter 3, James chapter 3. We'll close there, but you're turning to James 3, I'm going to read to you from Romans chapter 15, Romans chapter 15. Romans 15 says, Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me and your prayers to God for me. Now that's a good striving. That you would strive with Him in prayer to God for me. You know, why don't we strive, why don't we put forth some effort, why don't we contend, why don't we put some blood, sweat, and tears into the work of Christ, instead of trying to get in fights and battles that don't matter, for the love of the Spirit. Bible says in James chapter 3, verse 13, Who is a wise man and dude with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie down against the truth. This wisdom is descended not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envy and strife is, there is confusion in every evil work. But with wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceful, gentle and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. So we see right there in these verses that striving is not always a bad thing, but often when the Bible talks about it, it is. And the difference is, what are you striving about? Are you striving about you don't like the way someone, they didn't shake your hand, or she looked at you funny, or some silly carnal thing, that you saw something online, or you disagree with the situation. That's probably not a good type of strife. We should leave that off. And rather, if you're going to strive, strive in prayer for people who are serving God in you and yourself. Let's go ahead and pray.