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Beginning there in verse 14 where the Bible reads, but if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. And what I want to preach about this morning is bitter envying and strife. Now the sin of envy is one that is a root of many other sins. Now envy has a close cousin called covetousness. And covetousness is the sin of desiring something that does not belong to you, lusting after something that is not rightfully yours. And here we see that envy is similar to that because it's desiring someone else's advantages or desiring someone else's life. When you envy someone, you look at what they have and you wish it was yours. You look at who they are or maybe how they look or how they dress or the car that they drive or whatever position they hold or maybe they're very popular and you look at that and you're envious of that. You wish that you had those things. So it's very similar to covetousness. And just as lust or covetousness is a root of many other sins, so is envy the root or the beginning of many other sins that follow. For example, the Bible says, When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death. Look what the Bible says in verse 16, it says, For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. So we see that if we have envying and strife, it leads us into other evil works. It's a cause of us to commit other sins in our lives. Now the Bible says in verse 14, If you have bitter, envying, and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth. This is not something that is always starting with action, but rather it takes place in our heart when we envy other people or when we become bitter toward other people. And how this is evidenced is in our tongue and the things that we say. Now if you back up a little bit in the chapter, we see the end result of bitter, envying, and strife in our hearts. Because the Bible says that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. So the things that we say come from our heart, and the Bible here shows us the problem in the heart at the end of the chapter, but a little earlier in the chapter he shows us what comes of having envy and strife in your hearts. Look at verse number 5, it says, Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth, and the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire of hell. For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind. But the tongue can no man tame. It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we God, even the Father, and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth the blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Did the fountains send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries, either of mine figs? So can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. Who is a wise man and a dude with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. Then he gets into the root cause of all this when he says, but if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth. So what bitter envying and strife in your hearts causes you to do is to say things that you should not be saying. And the Bible warns us of the destructive power of the tongue where sometimes just a little spark kindles a great fire. You know, you say something small that you think is innocent where you speak evil of someone else, where you criticize someone else or attack someone else behind their back, and then it can cause great strife, it can cause great problems, a great anger in that person or in other people, and it can cause other people to start talking bad about that person. And one little spark can cause a great forest fire, it can cause a great world of iniquity, the Bible says. Now, if you would turn to Numbers chapter 12. This is a pattern that we see throughout the Bible over and over again where it starts with envy, then it becomes bitterness, and then it leads into all forms of evil speaking, strife, railing, all these different things. And there are so many scriptures that tie these things together. And one story that illustrates this well is Numbers chapter 12. And in Numbers chapter 12 verse 1, the Bible reads, And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married, for he had married an Ethiopian woman. So right here, they're upset at Moses about marrying an Ethiopian woman. Now, I believe from studying the scripture that this is after his other wife had died, because there's no evidence here that in God's eyes he'd done anything wrong. We know that taking on a second wife would be wrong. This is later in Moses' life. So I'm assuming when I look at this that Moses' other wife is dead and he's marrying a new wife and he happens to marry an Ethiopian woman. Now, I do not believe that it was a sin for Moses to marry an Ethiopian woman, because the Bible, yes, he taught them not to marry the heathen nations that were around them, but yet if those heathens would convert unto serving the Lord, if the males among them would be circumcised, they would be accepted into the nation of Israel and they would not be treated as a second-class citizen. He said there shall be one law for the stranger as well as for him that is born in the land. And so the Ethiopians would be no exception to that. And the Bible says here that he had married an Ethiopian woman. Here's what they said when they got angry with Moses for marrying this Ethiopian woman. It says in verse 2, And they said hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? Hath he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard it. So we see here the source, the real source of their anger, really has nothing to do with this Ethiopian woman. What it really comes down to is that Aaron and Miriam are envious at Moses. They envy him. Because they're seeing how he is lifted up above all the people, he's the ruler over all the people, and look what they say in verse 2. Well, has the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? Hath he not spoken also by us? You know, why is Moses better than us? Why is everybody making such a big deal about Moses? We're prophets too, you know, we've spoken God's word too. And it says in verse 3, Now the man Moses was very meek above all the men which were upon the face of the earth, showing that Moses was not lifting himself up in pride. Moses was not behaving himself arrogantly or proudly. He was a very meek and humble man. But yet because God exalted him to such a high degree, those around him are envious. You know, the modern word we would use, although this is not a proper usage, would be to say they're jealous of him. You know, that's not the biblical meaning of the word jealous, but today we use the word jealous and say they're jealous because he gets all the glory and the fame and he's lifted up above the people and they're not. And it says in verse 4, The Lord spake suddenly unto Moses and unto Aaron and to Miriam, Come out ye three unto the tabernacle of the congregation, and they came out. And the Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud and stood in the door of the tabernacle and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forth. And he said, Hear now my words. If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision and will speak unto him in a dream. But my servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches. And the similitude of the Lord shall he behold. Wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against him and he departed. And to make a long story short, he ends up striking Miriam with leprosy to punish her for her presumption. And she has to suffer with leprosy for seven days and after seven days she's healed of her leprosy. But the bottom line is we see God's anger kindled, not against Moses for marrying the Ethiopian woman, but rather we see his anger kindled against Miriam and Aaron. And it all started with envy in their hearts. And here's the thing. When you are jealous of someone else or you envy someone else, you know what you're going to do? You're going to try to find fault with that person. Because what happens is, when you see other people maybe succeeding in areas that you're failing, or maybe you see other people get possessions that you wish that you had, or you see other people having the popularity that you wish that you had, or whatever the case may be, you're going to, if you have wickedness in your heart and envy in your heart, you're going to become angry at that person because you don't like the fact that they have something that you don't have. And what happens is you don't want to be angry with them about what they have, so you have to find something else wrong with them. Because it would have sounded stupid just to come after Moses and just say, hey, it's not fair that you're the one that's the leader. Instead they try to pick him apart and find something wrong so they find this Ethiopian woman and say, you know, that's what's wrong with them. And let me tell you something. If you want to find something wrong with someone, you can. You know, if you envy someone, if you look at someone and you are covetous of what they have, and you wish you had what they have, and you're not content with what you have, but you wish they had, you had the wife that they have, or you wish you had the husband that they had, or you wish you had the car they had, or the position that they have, or the popularity that they have, or the influence they have, if you want to find something wrong with that person, you can find something wrong because nobody's perfect. You know, if somebody wanted to attack me, they can find something wrong with me. If somebody wanted to go around the church backbiting me and talking bad about me, they're going to be able to find something wrong with me because I'm not perfect, because I'm not without fault. And so people who envy others, they're very quick to find the faults in other people because they're looking for something that they can latch onto and then what they do is they find that fault in that person and then they get bitter about it. They get angry about it. Now go to Ephesians chapter 4. Let me show you what bitterness does in the Bible. Bitterness. And this is something that, I mean, I've got a lot of scriptures here about this because this is something that the Bible deals with a lot. So what happens is you're envious of someone. You covet what they have. You're jealous of their success or whatever. And then what you do is you try to find something wrong with that person where you can go after them. And even if it's just something silly, even if it's just something small. And then what you do is you start going around and talking bad about that person and criticizing them and using your tongue to start these little fires, you know, and spark a fire here and there to get other people on your side and other people rallied against your enemy. Look at Ephesians 4 verse 31. It says, Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. And so bitterness is the opposite of forgiveness. So if somebody does make a mistake or if somebody does you wrong, you're supposed to forgive that person, meaning that the next day you don't think about it anymore. You know, the Bible says that God's mercies are new every morning. Great is his faithfulness. And the Bible says, Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. So if I'm upset about something that you did yesterday, let's say you did something wrong to me yesterday on the soul winning marathon, and of course no one did, but let's say someone wronged me on the soul winning marathon. If I'm today still thinking about that, still upset about that, still brooding about that, see that's becoming bitterness now. Instead of just, okay, you did me wrong, I was upset. And look, especially amongst husbands and wives, there's going to be times when I say something that makes my wife upset or she says something that makes me upset. We're going to have strife because we're human beings living together. And if I do something that makes my wife upset and she's upset about it a day later, two days later, three days later, now it's bitterness. Now she's sinning against the Bible when it commanded her to forgive and to let things go and not to let the sun go down on her or vice versa if I'm the same way. And if I'm bringing stuff up from several days ago. And by the way, I think that's the biggest problem in most people's marriages is that they will not forgive faults and they carry them from day to day and get bitter about them instead of just starting every day with a clean slate. And you know what, sometimes it's not easy. Sometimes I've thought about something that my wife did that I didn't like and you know, I want to be bitter about it the next day. You know, I want to hold a grudge, but you know what, I have to tell myself, you know what, no. I'm supposed to forgive, I'm supposed to give her a clean slate. And this is something that's a two-way street between husband and wife of every day starting over. And by the way, this would completely eliminate divorce. Because why? You can't get divorced in one day. There's a cool-down period. I think it's even longer than buying a gun in California, you know. I mean, you know, when you buy a gun in California, you have a 15-day cool-down, right? But, you know, how long does it take to get divorced? I'm sure it takes at least a month, several months, a month. I don't know, whenever people are getting divorced, it's always some date off in the future where it goes through or becomes final. You know, that just shows that bitterness just continues to that date. That there's no forgiveness all the way leading up to that date. And, you know, we are commanded not to let the sun go down upon our wrath. And God talks a lot about people not willing to forgive others. He said, look, I've forgiven you. It says forgive one another even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. And if God has forgiven all the wrong that we've done, we ought to be able to forgive our spouse and forgive our fellow church member, our friends, our brothers and sisters, our parents. Whatever it is, whoever it is that has wronged us, we are supposed to forgive that person as Christ forgave us. And you know how Christ forgave us? He doesn't just forgive, he forgets. Because he said, as far as the east is from the west, so far as God separated us from our sins. The Bible says there's sins and iniquities while I remember no more. That's forgiveness. When you push it out of your mind, when it's not something that you're even thinking about or dwelling upon, that's true forgiveness. Now go to 1 Timothy chapter 6. There's so many times in the Bible where this pattern shows up and I kept finding it over and over again in the Bible, where one person envies someone else, then they find fault with that person, they get bitter at that person, and then they start talking trash about that person, they start speaking evil of that person. And let me tell you something, no offense unto women today, but this is something that women struggle with, gossip. Gossiping. And the Bible specifically talks about it in regard to women. And I'm not saying that men are not guilty of it as well, because men can be guilty of this as well. But there are, let's just face it, there are certain sins that men are more prone to committing and that men struggle with more than ladies. And then there are other sins that probably ladies struggle with more than men, just because men and women are different. I know that saying that in today's world is some kind of a shocking revelation that men and women are not the same. Oh, what are you talking about? Of course men and women are different. You know, I guarantee you that men in 2013 probably struggle more with the lust of the eyes than women do. And I guarantee you that women struggle more with gossip than men do. You know, and basically that's just something that they need to watch out for. We as men need to beware of the lust of the eyes. And women need to beware of gossiping and envy and bitterness. Because often women are very sensitive. That's just how they are. And sometimes they can be easily offended by something. So-and-so didn't shake my hand. Or didn't compliment my dress. You know, and she didn't click like on Facebook. Or she didn't, you know, she did not even say hi to me. Or, you know, she did not greet my baby. Or, you know, whatever it is. And we need to be careful that we don't let these little tiny wrongs that are done unto us become bitterness and canker and get worse. And we get upset and then we envy, we're bitter, and then we start evil speaking. That's what God warns us about. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 4. The Bible associates these things once again. It says in verse 4, He is proud knowing nothing, but doting about questions and stripes of words whereof cometh. And look at this list. Envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings. Now look at those four things that are associated there. Envy is when we desire what belongs to someone else or we wish that we had what they have. Then that leads us to strive with that person, not get along with that person, find fault with that person, right? Then the next thing we see is railings. And what are railings? Railings are associated in the Bible with railing accusations. That's when we start talking bad about that person behind their back, also known as gossip, backbiting, and then it says evil surmisings. That's where we basically begin to theorize about just how bad that person really is. Because if this is what we see them doing at church, if these are the things that we've heard them say to our face, I wonder what, I'll bet you that they're doing so and so. I'll bet you that they said this and that. You know, just making stuff up, just theorizing. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 12, 2 Corinthians chapter 12, and you say, well why do you preach on this? Because you know what, this is something that actually takes place. This is something that we've probably all been exposed to in our lives. People talking bad about other people behind their back. And it's something that can become a problem, and this kind of preaching needs to be preached in order to cause this not to be a problem. And you say, okay well Pastor Anderson, how do I handle it? Because I promise you, one thing I can promise you is that there's going to come a day when somebody in this church comes to you and criticizes someone else to you, and tells you something bad about someone else. Whether true or untrue. They're going to just repeat something that's bad, and I'm not talking about some big horrible thing. I'm talking about just some small thing that they want to use to tear down somebody else. And think about it, what is at the root of envy? Envy is when I'm looking at someone else wishing that I had their popularity, or wishing I had their advantages. I just looked it up in the dictionary, this is what envy said in the dictionary. A feeling of discontent, meaning you're not happy with what you have, a feeling of discontent or covetousness with regard to another's advantages, success, possessions, etc. And that's what we see in the Bible, you know, envying someone else's advantages or their popularity. Remember Joseph's brethren? They envied him. The Bible says they were moved with envy because his father loved him more than them and gave him the coat of many colors. As a result they beat him up, but first they conspired together. First they talked bad about him. Then they conspired to beat him up, throw him in the pit, and sell him into slavery and so on. You know the story. But we see that envy is looking at someone else and thinking that they're a little higher than we are. And we look at that and wish that we had what they have. So think about this. The result is that we want to take them down a notch. You know Moses is getting a little too popular, Moses is having a little too much power. Let's take him down a notch. Let's bring him down. So what people tend to do when they envy someone else is to talk bad about that person to try to bring down everybody's view of that person, to punish them, to take them down a notch, and to bring them down to our level or below. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 20, it says, "'For I fear lest when I come I shall find you such as I would, or not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as you would not." Watch this. It could be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbiting, whisperings, swellings, tumults. Now look at all this. And look at how all these things go together. Debates is arguing, envyings, we know what that is, wraths, that's when your anger abides from day to day and it gets worse, you know, not letting the sun go down on your wrath. That's when you're not getting along with people, right? Backbiting, that's when you're talking bad about people behind their back. Whisperings, again, you're saying things not openly but behind their back, you're criticizing them. Swellings, you know, swellings makes me think of the little spark turning into a great big fire. And then tumults is talking about something that erupts into a very angry fight, a tumultuous battle between people. And factions develop and people are angry toward each other and hateful toward each other and it becomes strife in the church and people aren't getting along in the church and these people hate so and so and they won't say hi to them and then everybody's trying to get allies on their side. And look, I've seen this over and over again, you know, in the past many years ago, we've had people in our church that tried to foment this kind of swelling and tumult and this kind of strife in our church. We had people in our church that literally would go around and talk bad about some people to others and then they'd go to those other people and talk bad about the other people to them. And they were talking bad about everybody to everybody, just trying to get everybody mad at everybody. And it's like there was no one that they didn't criticize. There was no one that they didn't talk bad about and they were just making railing and eventually we threw them out of our church. Because they were causing all this strife and they were warned that they needed to stop what they were doing and they were just lying and when they were thrown out of the church, the person that they went after the most was my wife. They made a whole website dedicated to my wife that she was a witch. And here's the thing, I'm not saying that they were just saying that my wife was a witch like figuratively speaking. You know how you say like your teacher at school was a witch or something, but you didn't really mean that she was riding a broom and wearing a black pointy hat or anything. But I mean they literally, they literally believed and stated that my wife was a witch. Like that she was casting spells. I'm not joking, I'm not exaggerating. I mean that she was casting spells, that she's got people under her sorcery and she's controlling. And you know, this is what they said, well Pastor Anderson's a good guy, but his wife has this spell on him and his wife is manipulating him through black magic. I mean this is the kind of bizarre things. And you know, they tried to split the church, but you know how it split? They left and everybody else stayed. That was how the split worked. But they were trying to turn people against and talking bad about everybody to everyone else. And I'm telling you, it's wicked, it's evil. And let me tell you something, I have perceived that people talk bad about my wife more than they talk bad about me. And thank God I haven't heard about anybody talking bad about me. Or very rarely. But you know what, sometimes people do talk bad about my wife. And let me tell you something, if you talk bad about my wife, you're talking bad about me. Don't you dare criticize my wife, and you know what's ridiculous about it? The people that you do the most for are the ones who turn around and stab you in the back. Because they're envious. And that's what it comes down to. And you know what, there are people who envy my wife. Why? Because maybe, yeah, my wife has a lot going for her. My wife has seven wonderful children. My wife, you know, is beautiful. My wife has, you know, I don't know, what else do you have going for you, honey? Your husband's alright, you know, no I'm just kidding. Anyway, you know what I'm saying, you know, you can look at my wife and say, okay, she's beautiful, she's popular, she's got seven wonderful children, she's got so much going for her, and people could envy that, but you know what, everybody has problems in their life. Nobody's life is perfect. I mean, do you think that my wife just lives a perfect life as far as everything goes her way all the time? Yeah, it's great having seven kids, but it's also a lot of work having seven kids. You know, there are people who don't have any kids, and then they envy someone who has a lot of kids, and then there are other people who have kids, and they envy people who don't have kids. They say, man, I wish we could just go places and do stuff alone, just the two of us, and we always are just strapped with these kids, and you know what, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, and I'll tell you something, my wife works very hard for this church every week, she spends hours a week, you know, working on the finances, working on the bulletins, making the lunches for the soul winning, all the activities, I mean, we were at a church activity recently, she didn't even partake in the activity. She's just making the food, cleaning up, working hard, getting things done, and then people turn around and stab her in the back, you know what, it's wicked, and if I ever find out about it, and if you ever say anything to me, I'm gonna cloud up and rain on you. Did I tell you to turn to Proverbs 25? Turn to Proverbs 25, and I'm gonna show you how to handle it, if somebody criticizes my wife to you, or criticizes anybody to you, and you know what, if people can try to evilly surmise things about my wife, you know what, my wife is the most amazing wife in the world, I love my wife more than any person on this, I love my wife more than anybody in this auditorium. I love my wife more than I love you, she's better than you, okay? She's my favorite person, okay? And my wife is a great Christian, she reads her Bible every day, she wins souls, she's great at rearing the children, she loves this church, she does more for this church than you do, and has for the last seven and a half years, and if you're talking bad about my wife, it's because of wicked envying and bitterness in your heart, and you need to get right with God and shut up and not talk bad about my wife, because you know what, I'm not gonna put up with it, and the Bible says how you should handle it too, and I'm not just saying about my wife, it's just I've heard about people criticizing my wife and it made me angry, and it ought to make me angry, and let me tell you something, if somebody criticizes your wife, you ought to get angry too, but let me tell you something, everybody needs to just learn to not be a backbiter, not be a whisperer, not envy, not worry about everybody else's business all the time, but rather to worry about their own business, but let me tell you something, I promise you at some point somebody in this church is gonna come to you, and I'm not saying this because we have a bad church, because we have an awesome church, but I'm telling you something, I don't care what church you're in, no matter what church you go to in America, or in the world, eventually somebody's gonna come up to you and talk bad about some other church member, and backbite them, they might come and talk bad about you to my wife, because maybe they're afraid, maybe they don't have the guts to criticize me to you, because criticizing the pastor, that's gonna make people probably more upset, so then they say well we'll just criticize his wife, but if they're criticizing my wife, they're criticizing me, and let me tell you this, the Bible tells us how to handle it, and I'm not saying this is easy, but this is how you handle it when somebody comes to you and backbites anybody, whether they're backbiting me, or my wife, or any other, even the lowest church member, if they talk bad about that person, here's how you handle it, Proverbs 25 verse 23, the Bible says, the north wind driveth away rain, so doth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue. So how does the Bible say that we should handle a backbiting tongue? Get angry. And when somebody comes to you and starts talking bad about somebody, you ought to get mad at them. You ought to get angry. Your face should show anger and rage, and you know what, that'll shut them up. And you know I like what brother Donnie told me, he said that somebody had come to him in his church talking bad, this is a different church he went to in the past, somebody came to him talking bad about somebody else, and he said okay well let's pick up the phone and call that person right now and see if that's really true. But you know what, it's always done behind people's back. And then brother Donnie, what, a couple months ago a guy came in here and started criticizing brother Donnie to me, and I said okay well let's call brother Donnie over here and see if that's true. I said brother Donnie, come on over here, and then the guy, because the guy's telling me that Donnie said this to me, and your church members are rude, and blah blah blah, and of course Donnie had not been rude to the guy at all. But this guy's just backbiting, he's just, you know, whispering and saying things that weren't true. We need to get angry, and let me tell you something, when somebody comes to you criticizing someone else to you, and you just listen to it and go along with it and yeah I know what you mean, you're participating with it. You know, you're participating in evil communication. When somebody comes up to you and says yeah you notice that so and so is always so, you know, this or that or the other, and then you just go oh yeah, uh huh. And you know what, most of the time you're embarrassed, that's probably what you're going to do. Just because you're embarrassed. It's embarrassing when you hear people backbite and talk bad about other people, but a lot of times you don't stick up for them because you're just embarrassed. And you just kind of go okay, but is that how the Bible says you should react? No, the Bible says that an angry countenance will drive that person away. And you say man it bugs me so much when so and so is always talking trash about her husband and talking trash about other church members and talking trash about Mrs. Anderson or Pastor Anderson. You know what, you need to get angry at that person one time and then they'll never do it again. They'll never do it again. It's just like the wind drives away the rain, the angry countenance will drive away the backbiting. And they'll go find someone else to poison with their tail bearing and tattling. Go if you would to 1 Timothy chapter 5, 1 Timothy chapter number 5. And the Bible tells us more about this, 1 Timothy chapter number 5. And you say oh man I'm visiting today and you know this church has serious problems in it. No, the church doesn't have any serious problems in it, but here's the situation. It's better to preach this stuff before there's a serious problem. It's used as biblical preaching because an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. And so instead of waiting until it gets out of control or waiting until you have a problem and waiting until everybody's whispering and backbiting, it's better just to preach against this now because the Bible warns us about it again and again and again and again and again. And you know what, if somebody else is succeeding or doing well, you ought to be happy for that person. If you see somebody driving in the parking lot with a new vehicle, you ought to be happy for that person and be rejoicing with them and rejoice with them that rejoice and weep with them that weep. And when Joseph comes home with a coat of many colors, you ought to just congratulate on him and tell him it looks good on him instead of getting all mad, why can't I have a coat of many colors? Who wants to wear a coat of many colors anyway? Every coat I've ever had only has one color. But you know, oh man, look at that car, look at that coat. Or you know, you see somebody, maybe somebody gets praised publicly or somebody gets the credit and you say, well I did that same work. You know, I helped out too. Why wasn't I praised? Why wasn't I? You know what, you need to just realize that you don't know everything about other people's lives and the people that you envy in one area, you might have a one-up on them in another area. You might look at somebody who drives a fancy car and think, oh it must be nice, which is a wicked, covetous, envious thing to think in your heart, but you don't know, maybe they have health problems that you don't know about, maybe they have relationship problems you don't know about and you're just looking at their financial means, wishing that you had that. Well maybe your finances aren't doing that well, but maybe you are as healthy as a horse and have a great relationship with your spouse. You know, I mean everybody has problems. Nobody's life is perfect. Everybody has advantages. You know what, being pastor, there's advantages to it and then there's disadvantages to it. You know, there are good things about it and there are bad things about it. It's just life. It's just, you know, different people do different things. And by the way, if it was so easy, everybody would be doing it. But where did I have you turn? First Timothy chapter 5. Look down at the Bible, it says in verse 13, and this is speaking specifically of women, although there is a scripture that deals with men on this subject as well, it says in First Timothy 5, 13, and with all they learn to be idle, idle means that they are sitting around not doing any productive work or not doing anything productive. Idle is like your car's idling, you're not going anywhere. You're just sitting around bored with nothing to do. It says they learn to be idle. What does learn to be idle mean? They get in the habit of being idle. They have a routine of idleness, a ritual of being idle. You know, it's one thing to take a rest and a break every once in a while, but some people's routine is just sitting around bored, sitting around idle, and an idle mind is the devil's workshop. It says, learning to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies speaking things which they ought not. I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully, for some are already turned aside after Satan. In First Peter 4.15, you don't have to turn there, but it says, but let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters. So according to the Bible, a busybody is someone who doesn't mind their own business. They're worried about other men's matters all the time. And here in First Timothy 5.13, it says that they're idle, and they wander from house to house, and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies. Look, today you don't have to wander from house to house because you can do it all electronically. Right? I mean you don't literally have to physically go from house to house to get the latest scuttlebutt, or to gossip, or speak evil of people, because you can do it by a telephone. You can do it on the internet. And let me tell you something, I'm not against Facebook, I'm not saying Facebook is a sin, but let me tell you something, Facebook is a major facilitator of tattling, being a busybody, and idleness. Did you hear me? Because it allows you to virtually go house to house, and again I'm not saying it has to be used this way, but you know what, when you're going on there just to find dirt on people, you know, and just to foment strife with people, and just to go on there and see what so-and-so is saying just so you can find fault with it, and when you go on there, and you, you know, and you see this passive-aggressive status updates, where basically somebody will post a status update on Facebook without naming the actual person, but just so that everybody kind of knows, you know, what they're kind of saying, and basically just kind of say something negative about somebody else without coming right out and saying it, and then see who clicks like on it. And they're kind of testing the waters of who's going to listen to their trash talk. And look, it sounds silly, but this is real, folks. And they basically, you know, they just kind of test the waters. And people will do this in real life, or they'll do it on the computer, of just kind of testing the waters of who's going to listen to them, talk bad about other people, and criticize other people. And you know, whenever people have strife with someone else, they want to get other people in on it, they want to get people on their side, and you foment all this gossiping and bitterness and envy and strife and hatred, and it's ungodly. And you know what the Bible calls it? Devilish. The Bible says where envy and strife is, there is confusion everywhere. He said this wisdom descends not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. And this devilish envying and coveting and wishing ill upon other people and talking bad about other people, you know what, it needs, it ought to be stopped immediately. And the way to stop it is when nobody listens to it and nobody puts up with it. That's how you stop it. And you know what's the most wicked of all? Is when women criticize their husbands, or husbands criticize their wives. That's the worst. And you know what? Women getting together and talking bad about their husbands to each other, that's wickedness. That needs to stop. And men could get together and do the same thing, talk bad about their wives. You know, you are a sorry man if you criticize your wife to other men. You weakling, you coward, why don't you get your house in order if there's a problem with your wife? Why don't you fix it? Don't go whining to other men about it. But you know, women will often complain about their husbands. And you say, oh you're just making, there are women in this church who complain about their husbands to other women. That's why I'm even preaching this sermon. And you know what? You, as a woman, if another woman comes to you and complains about her husband, you ought to rebuke her to her face. And you say, well I'm going to lose a friend, then lose that friend. Did you hear me? You need to have an angry countenance, and if a woman comes to you and says, oh my husband this and that, oh my husband did this, my husband did that, you know what, you need to tell her to shut up. And if she gets angry, then so be it. But don't let her poison you, because let me tell you something, if you as a woman listen to another woman criticizing her husband all the time, you're going to start to have ill feelings toward your husband. And we saw that in Esther chapter 1, how it spreads like a canker. And you know what children? You should not listen to other children criticize their parents to you and say, oh my parents are so strict, and oh my parents, they won't give me that, my parents is not. No, you should not either participate in that kind of evil speaking or listen to it. And you are participating in it when you don't say anything. And you know what? People have criticized other people to me, and I stand up for them. And that's what we ought to do. You ought to either, one of two things, if somebody says to you something bad about their spouse or someone else in the church or the pastor or Mrs. Anderson, you know what you ought to do about it? You should either stick up for that person and say, you're wrong, that person's a great person, here's why they're so great, let me list all the reasons why they're such a great person. Or you need to just get angry and say, I'm not going to listen to this backbiting. Oh, but that's going to make them so mad. But you know what, so what, they ought to get mad. Because they're doing wrong, nobody likes to be rebuked, but they need to be rebuked. And you know what, if you criticize people to me, I will rebuke you, so don't get upset when I jump down your throat. Because I'm going to. Because I'm not going to be a part and parcel of criticizing other people. I'm going to defend that person. And you know what, I get criticized a lot, not in this church, but outside the walls of this church. Just, you know, just Google me, okay? I get criticized a lot, okay? Actually don't Google me, but anyway. I get criticized and attacked a lot. And you know what, whenever somebody stands up for me, I really appreciate it. Like a pastor friend of mine, he went to a preaching conference in Arizona recently, and basically he overheard, there was a breakfast going on, and he overheard five pastors, five Arizona pastors sitting around a table just all talking bad about me. I wasn't even there, I don't even know these guys. And they're all talking about, that's Steve Anderson, he's the biggest heretic, and he's a devil, and he's, you know, they're just ripping on me. And he walked up to them and confronted all five of them, all by himself, and defended me. And they're like, well you sound like you're his friend. And he said I am his friend. Oh man, you! And he took them on single-handedly. Five of them. And it came to blows. And he beat them all. I'm kidding. No, no, no. But he didn't, it didn't either. But he came to them, and he came to my defense, and you know what, when I heard about that, that made me feel better that, you know what, somebody stuck up for me. That's great. And look, let me ask you this. If somebody was talking bad about you, would you want someone to stick up for you? And to rebuke that person? Or would you want that person to just kind of nod their head, oh yeah, I know what you mean. You know? And you know what, this can be something that causes serious problems in a church, it causes ill will. The Bible teaches that we as a church should be in one accord, that we should have unity, that we should love one another. And the Bible says, by this shall all men know that you are my disciples, by the love that you have one for another. We should be an example to the world of loving each other, of being kindly affectionate one to another. The Bible says, look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let each esteem other better than themselves. And when you're talking bad about other people in the church, you are doing the opposite. And I'll tell you right now, it's motivated by envy. That's what motivates it, that's at the core of it. If we want to lay the axe to the root of the tree, it's because you're just jealous. And that's why you're attacking people, that's why you're criticizing people, and it needs to stop. And some people, they've just learned to be idle. They've just developed a habit. And they need to work on this in their lives. I want everyone today to covenant with me in their heart that they will not put up with whispering, tattling, backbiting, or evil speaking from this day forward. And so those that have been guilty of it, you say, are you preaching to me? Are you talking to me? You know what? If the shoe fits, then I'm talking to you. And I'm not afraid of you. So if you're offended right now, then I think this is directed at me. You know what? It probably is if you're thinking that, if you're wondering that. Because those that are innocent of this probably aren't wondering right now if it's being directed at them. I'll bet you that 90% of the people in this auditorium are seeing their thinking right now, I know this isn't directed at me. Did you hear me? 90% of the people in this room right now know for a fact this is not directed at me because I haven't been talking bad about people. Because I haven't been criticizing anyone or backbiting anyone. Because I haven't been trash talking my spouse. Because I haven't been trash talking Mrs. Anderson. Because I haven't been trash talking other people in the church. But you know what? If you're wondering right now, I wonder if he's talking about me. I probably am talking about you and I'm not ashamed to get up and preach what the Bible says about envying, backbiting, whispering, bitterness, clamoring, railing. It's a major sin and it needs to be something that we eschew. And I want everyone to covenant with me that you will not listen to it anymore, if you've been listening to it. And that you will have an angry countenance when someone comes to you, tail bearing. Now look, if there's a real problem, if there's a serious problem, then yeah, that needs to be dealt with, right? If someone murders someone, yeah, we need to deal with that. We need to repeat that. If someone's drunken or a fornicator or committing adultery or a molester or some wicked, yeah, okay, bring that up. Let's talk about that. Tell everybody about that. But you know what? We're just talking bad about, oh, so and so, so and so didn't shake my hand. I think so and so has been avoiding me. So and so didn't invite me over when they invited other people over. And so and so doesn't want to be my friend. And I think so and so's mad at me. And so and so never likes any of my status updates. And you know, so and so, I think so and so is rebellious toward their husband. Or I think so and so treats his wife so badly. Can you believe how so and so treats his wife? He's so, you know, oh, I just, oh, oh, I don't think she should be wearing that. And oh, I saw her in town wearing so and so. And you know, I just don't think, you know what I'm talking, just all this dumb nitpicky garbage. And you know what, if I don't shake your hand, join the club. I mean, I, I'm not, I'm not necessarily always a social butterfly. So what? You know, I'm preaching the Bible. What else do you ask of me? But what I'm saying is that you need to decide I'm not going to listen to it anymore. And probably, although I said 90 some percent of the people I'm sure are totally innocent. Probably 90% of the people that are totally innocent have heard other people doing this and maybe they've been guilty of putting up with it. And so you know what, if you're one of the ones that's been guilty of this and you say I wonder if he's talking about me, well then I am talking to you. Let me say this. You should be on notice that nobody in this church is going to put up with it anymore. So you better mind your P's and Q's because neither Pastor Anderson nor the rest of the church, who, say, give me a hearty amen if you're not going to listen to it. Amen. See, did you hear that? So this is, you're on notice to not go around talking bad about other people, to not go around nitpicking other people and finding fault with other people because you've got some faults of your own, buddy, and everybody does. And if it's nothing major that the Bible says we need to deal with, like you know he lists off certain major things we need to deal with like fornication, drunkenness. If it's not on that list, you need to just keep your mouth shut. And envying and covetousness and lust and evil speaking and evil surmising need to come out of our hearts and we need to love one another fervently with charity one toward another and the Bible says charity will cover a multitude of sins. You know, and I thank God for my wonderful wife that does not talk bad about me behind my back and that does not criticize me to people in the church, but you know what? If my wife criticized me to people in the church I would be extremely angry. And thank God that she doesn't and thank God that she's a model wife and you know what? You ladies should try to learn from my wife and try to be like my wife because she is a great example of a wife and a mother. Instead of talking bad about her you should go to her and ask her for advice because she is an excellent wife and an excellent mother and you say well I just don't think she does enough as pastor's wife. Let me explain something to you. You know what I believe the job of a pastor's wife is? To be my wife. She's not your servant, she's my servant. My wife spends her days serving me and serving the children and not being the servant of this church. Now look, she spends hours a week working for this church out of the goodness of her heart because she loves our church because she wants to. But you know what? Her full time job is not to hold your hand and babysit you and mother, she's not Mother Teresa or Mother Zuzia. She's not Mother Zuzia, okay? She is my wife. She is not, you know when the Bible gives the two officers of the church, they're bishop and deacon, not and first lady. You know, she that desireth the office of a first lady desireth a good work. No she doesn't because guess what? My wife is so busy, are you listening? My wife is so busy keeping me happy and keeping seven children clean and diapered and happy and educated, she doesn't have time to always do everything that you think she should be doing as pastor's wife and counsel you or whatever you think that she needs. Guess what? She's got her hands full. And guess what? I don't want her to neglect me or to neglect my seven children dealing with you. Now look, that's not to say she doesn't do a lot for you because she does. She does spend literally hours a week buying things for the church, cleaning, setting things up, planning, making the bulletin, doing all that. But you know what? She does it because she wants to, not because she has to. Because being a wife and a mother is a full time job. And I don't believe in this doctrine of pastor's wife being some kind of a job that she has to perform. You know what? I will be the judge of how good of a pastor's wife she is because she's my wife and I say she's the most awesome wife in the world. I say that on a scale of one to ten she's an eleven as far as being the wife that I want to be married to. That's all that matters. And I'm sure that her children would all agree that she's an excellent mother. And so therefore she has succeeded. She's done. She is approved. So we need to just decide right now that we will not let our church become infected with all this drama and playing of games and whispering and backbiting. It needs to stop. And if you're offended about this sermon and you're a woman, go ask your husband at home. Don't talk to me about it, don't talk to my wife about it. Go ask your husband at home if you have a problem with my sermon. And if he's a husband, that's how he ought to be, he'll tell you to be quiet and mind your own business and quit playing games and quit being bitter. I'll tell you what, you can be bitter about my sermon until the sun goes down tonight. And then tomorrow morning I want you to forget all about this sermon, but I want you to apply it to your life. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father we thank you so much for your word dear Lord and we thank you for our church dear God and we thank you for our friends here that we love. And God I just pray that this sin would not infect our church and Lord, nobody is without sin. Everybody in our church is a sinner, myself included, my wife included, nobody's perfect. And God I don't think that the people who've been guilty of this are bad people, but Father please just help them to get this sin out of their lives. And help them to not be infected with envy and strife and bitterness in their hearts. Because if they have it in their hearts it's going to come out of their mouths Lord and just help us to keep our tongues clean and wholesome and pure. Help us to speak things that will edify the body of Christ and not tear it down. Help us to always seek another's good and not their ill. And help us to speak well of each other and not to speak evil and in Jesus' name we pray amen. Alright, let's go ahead and sing one song before we go. For the day, would you come lead us? Can anybody think of a song that ties in with the sermon? Did we break the record? 99. Alright, so we're going to have ice cream after the service. Every time we break our attendance record, and our old record was 98 on a Sunday morning, we have 99 people. So you can tell yourself that you're the person that pushed yourself over the edge, you know, pushed it over the edge to 99. So we're going to have ice cream after the service. Thanks so much everybody for being here this morning. Can anybody think of a song that ties in with the sermon? Something about getting angry, being quiet, minding your own business, being jealous of other people. I don't even know that. Oh here, tell it to Jesus. There we go, 351. Yeah, here's the thing, if you have a problem with somebody, tell it to Jesus. Oh, I just, I have a problem with my husband, I don't know who to complain to my husband about. Tell it to Jesus. He'll tell you to shut up. Alright, 351.