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Alright, amen. Well we're in Judges chapter number 13 and we're going to start off by talking about this encounter between Manoah his wife and the angel of the Lord and look down at verse number 18 if you would and so it says this says in the angel of the Lord said unto him that is Manoah why ask is thou thus after my name and don't miss this seeing it is secret seeing it is secret you ever read that and kind of wonder why that's in there and that's what we're going to be talking about this morning we'll be talking about the subject of confidentiality or privacy right obviously you know there's a lot that goes into this there are things that we need to be private and need to keep confidential but there's also a time to where we need to breach that and we need to make sure that we tell you know these secrets if they're going to hurt somebody if you would but here in the story here the angel Lord first appears unto Manoah's wife right gives her instruction she comes back she's excited you know what does she mention to Manoah she mentions to him hey you know this is what he told me but he didn't tell me his name kind of interesting right because obviously back in that time even in our culture when you first meet somebody you kind of want to get their name you kind of want to like know a little bit about them and that stuck out to her so he begins to pray to the Lord and make petition and ask God to send the angel the Lord back so that he can get more information in here for himself and you know you can't blame the guy we'd all do the same thing you know especially the way that she described him you know is he had a terrible countenance just not quite normal right something very different about this guy so God grants his petition sends the angel of the Lord back and then he asks the angel of the Lord well hey what's your name right and any one of us would probably do the same thing but I like what he says here he says why ask is thou thus after my name seeing it is secret and so the angel of the Lord is trying to teach us something here and that is you know when you are around somebody or some you could tell that somebody's maybe trying to keep something back they don't want you to know we ought to be very careful about prying into that right trying to get them to spill the beans or cough it up you know because we don't want to be bullies we don't want to try to always be the kind of people that are extracting secrets from people right or basically making invasions on people's privacy it's not a good way to be now the title of the sermon this morning is this and I didn't come up with this this is a old popular idiom but it's loose lips sink ships loose lips sink ships now loose lips refers to basically having a big mouth and we all know this you got a big mouth you're susceptible to ruining you know small acquaintances all the way up to long hardy relationships okay that's what that's referring to there and sinking ships well that refers to actually sinking little ships or just sinking any project that you're working on any private information that you might have with other people okay and so this is important that we maintain this level of confidentiality as a church because we want this place to be a safe haven we've all got problems we've all got things that we need to work on we've all got things that we're not proud of that we do and this ought to be a place where we can come to and confide in other people get help get the support that we need right so that we can grow as the children of God so that's what we're gonna be talking about this morning now you could go ahead and leave your place there out of Judges 13 and turn to Proverbs chapter number 12 Proverbs chapter number 12 I used to see these signs when I was working for the Navy onboard ship all the time you know loose lips sink ships loose lips sink ships I don't think there's a ship out there or an office you know in the Navy without this poster and there's a huge reason for it you know with the technological advances today it's much easier to go ahead and try to obtain information from people and to make matters even worse the attitude of most people today is that of what selfishness right people are very selfish today and they only care about themselves and how they feel in the moment and so with that being said a lot of people say in our military and in our government sectors they have a very difficult time keeping secrets and when this information gets out it's catastrophic you give the enemy the you know the wrong information they can go ahead and in turn use that against us use that against our people and then what happens nothing good at all I mean think about it you know when you learn something about somebody like someone's gonna propose to their girlfriend right you get excited well at least the ladies do you know I think I was like I'll just hurt him do it already but you know you get excited and it's hard to keep that in you know or somebody's hey I'm with child you know it's hard to keep that in somebody says hey I got this new job but I don't want to tell anybody just quite yet because you know they've been praying I want it to be a surprise when you get that information right don't you find it hard oftentimes to really keep that inside I mean it's a work you've got to work hard at it well why is that why is that it's we can guess what it's ten times worse when it's dirt on somebody isn't it when you got the dirt on somebody oh man it's hard to keep that in it's a struggle it's a fight you want to let other people know and the Bible gives us the reasons why we are like that okay and we're gonna we're gonna talk about that here in a moment but you're there in Proverbs chapter number 12 look at verse 23 it says this a prudent man concealeth knowledge but the heart of fools proclaimeth foolishness okay so lacking understanding of this subject the subject of privacy the subject of confidentiality when we lack understanding in this guess what happens we run the risk of being foolish that's exactly what this verse is talking about a prudent man what is a prudent person do a prudent person is somebody who is wise somebody who looks well to their going who thinks about the things that they're going to do before they do them it's a person who acts versus reacts okay now obviously you know you think okay well I'm saved and I've got I've got prudence and that's the biggest problem is we just think because we're saved and we go to church that we have this this is a work right it's not like you get saved like you get born again you start coming to church and you're automatically gonna be prudent look we have to learn how to behave constantly it's why we have three services a week this is why we preach on things like this multiple times throughout the year because it's a work it's not automatic and I think that when we realize that I think it's gonna help us to really understand the importance and the value hey it's not just something wrong with me we all struggle with keeping things private because why well we want to tell we like how that information makes us feel right and so then in turn we want to go ahead and make somebody else feel good you know with the good secrets now when it comes to the dirt that's a whole different ball of wax the reason why we struggle that is because we have the old man we have the old nature and that old man likes to be lifted up and when you can see an opportunity to put somebody else down that old man's like yes see you're not as bad as that dirt bag even though you are a lot of cases right and so what happens is you know that selfish attitude it just comes over us we're in the flesh and we like how that secret information makes us feel more like you know what let's just go blab about that but there's a huge huge problem with that attitude and I'm gonna show you that here in a moment but turn to Proverbs chapter number 25 Proverbs chapter number 25 so we can see that a prudent person somebody who is wise has the restraint has the ability to keep things secret to keep things confidential and please keep in mind these aren't things that are gonna hurt other people these are things that other people have confided in you with have trusted you with and you have the ability to maintain that secret to protect that other person okay and so obviously right off the bat you can see how much humility plays a part in being a prudent person that can conceal of knowledge okay now I've told a story before I used to work for the government I've had a top-secret security clearance in the past I've had one that was a little bit different than top-secret and you know a lot of times people ask me like well do you know like what goes on at area 51 it's like I have no clue okay you know where I used to work let's say for example I'm working on a submarine project and I get a top-secret security clearance somebody on the next dry docks working on an aircraft carrier they have a top-secret security clearance both of us could get into a room and we're gonna we're not even gonna be able to communicate right that's how that thing works and besides anything top-secret that I know like most of it is stuff that would just put you dead to sleep but if the wrong people found out about that information it would be very very bad for our country you know and that's what they used to tell us all the time when I work for the government and it's like okay great I get it you're worried about us down here that are you know running our mouths or whatever but then they show you pictures of Chinese submarines and Chinese fighter jets and they look exactly like ours gee I wonder how that happened somebody at the top with big pockets obviously has loose lips you know and they would always bring us into these briefings and show us look at this because of you guys because of people that run their mouths the Chinese now have the same capabilities that we have and they're working on an aircraft carrier platform they're working on these missiles and they're working on all these things and it's because of people like you that can't keep your mouth shut it's like no you need to go up the ladder a little bit farther that's what you really need to do buzz oh but you know this doesn't just apply to the government many of you have had jobs where maybe you've worked at a factory or you've worked at some kind of a food plant and they've had some sort of a proprietary you know recipe like I went to Bigelow tea not too long ago and you know they make you sign all this stuff anything you see here's got to be confidential you got to keep it secret and stuff like that I'm like this is weak nobody cares about Bigelow tea but you can see that you know a lot of those people you know they have to sign a waiver basically saying hey I won't give up the secret recipe because it could be tempting to do that to make profit and to basically get back at your employer whatever but anyways we all struggle with this type of thing you know some of you have given away your grandma's recipe and she's mad at you upset and you know we need to kind of learn how to not be like that Proverbs chapter 25 look at verse number 9 this is the verse that's on the bulletin Proverbs 25 look at verse number 9 it says this debate thy cause with thy neighbor himself and discover not a secret to another now look at verse 10 lest he that hearth it put thee to shame in thine infamy turn not away so when you back up to verse number 9 it says hey debate your cause settle your dispute settle your beef with your neighbor with your brother with your sister in Christ and discover not a secret to another so here's what this means you know it's okay for us to have disagreements it's okay for us to have discussions and maybe a little bit heated discussions but you know what we can conceal that matter we don't have to immediately leave that discussion and come to church and be like hey guess what you know I put so-and-so down he was wrong on this doctrine what an idiot you know what I mean we don't need to do that because all that does is give us this thing here in verse 10 where he says lest he that hearth it put thee to shame and thine infamy turn not away that word infamy there that just means an evil reputation a disgrace dishonor and you all know that this is so true when somebody comes up to you and they're always talking about someone else right instinctively you don't trust that person right you don't trust that person and that is exactly what I'm talking about that is exactly the attitude and the type of person that we don't want to be because it's destructive at best that's all it is it gives us an infamous reputation and we don't want to be a church known for infamy you know like especially in this context here it's okay to have beef with somebody and just keep it private just settle your disputes you know back in the in the days like when my parents were growing up you know this was like a thing like people could like argue with each other and then they could come to church and just be friends again but it seems like now everybody wants to be like little schoolgirls you know and get on Twitter get on Facebook and oh you know this person sucks and look I'm gonna throw a quick disclaimer out there I'm not talking about anything going on in the new IP right now I'm just preaching what the Bible says okay I don't know if there's something going on in here about people running mouths I don't know about it I wish I did so somebody needs to tell me that this is that's the situation where you need to come up and let me know but you know I'm just basically saying it's okay to have a little dispute to have a little argument and then just move on with it you know just let that thing go settle it out hash that thing out and you don't have to go tell everybody that you have this discussion to put that person down is very wrong and here's the bottom line for the sermon when I take that which is confidential and make it common I have ruined my reputation when I take that which is confidential and make it common I have ruined my my bluh sorry mouth is still dry I'm used to that Texas weather I've ruined my reputation okay that is a good way to sum up these two verses so we need to realize that when somebody comes to us and they have a problem and they're telling us something you know what when we go out and we speak about that in front of other people that don't need to know it you know what you may not realize that at the time but you have ruined your reputation you're making yourself not trustworthy now you can leave your place there but keep something in Proverbs because we're gonna come back to it and go to Matthew chapter number 9 Matthew chapter number 9 you know it's often been said that we can't we can't trust other people based off of what they tell us because the Bible says you know every man will proclaim his own goodness but a faithful man who can find right people have no problems coming up to you and telling you their resume hey I did this I've done this I've done all this stuff you know I'm the best I'm the greatest I just want you to know you know we can't trust that can we we've learned that here in this church if there's one thing that we've learned in two years it's that you just because somebody comes in here and starts saying that they've done all the stuff that I've read the Bible multiple times I've watched a million sermons oh man I know how to give the gospel okay well let's just see it first right we can't trust that but you know what we can judge you know what we can trust is what they tell us about other people if they're quick to always come to you and just run their mouth about every conversation that they've had with everyone else in their life in church you know what that signals to us hey that's somebody that we cannot trust that is somebody who has damaged their reputation and oh how hard it is to bring that reputation back under control once you've done that right I mean once you've breached that reputation in front of people especially in a church it is very hard to get that thing back and so why go down that road in the first place okay and so we're gonna move on here once you look at Matthew chapter 9 in verse number 26 and so the context here Jesus is doing miracles healing people here and I want you to notice a few things about this passage here but look at verse number 26 it says in the fame thereof or I'm sorry in the fame here of went abroad into all that land verse 27 and when Jesus departed then two blind men followed him crying and saying thou son of David have mercy on us and so what Jesus and the disciples right now are experiencing is fame and one thing that that's doing is it's restricting their mobility it's restricting their movement look at verse number 28 it says and when he was come into the house the blind men came to him and Jesus saith unto him believe ye that I am able to do this they said unto him yay Lord verse 29 then touch he their eyes according to your free I'm sorry according to your faith be it unto you verse 30 and their eyes were opened and Jesus straightly charged them saying see that no man know it so what does that mean there when Jesus said hey don't do don't tell anybody about this the Bible says he straightly he straightly told them don't speak about this what means he directly told them okay it means he gave them a stern warning hey don't go tell people about this encounter look at verse number 31 but they when they were departed spread abroad his fame in all that country and look I you know if you put yourself in these shoes here you've got some kind of ailment I would do it I'd be like I'm sorry Lord but I'm gonna have to take the loss on this I gotta tell everybody you know I mean we're weak okay we're weak but that doesn't negate the fact that there isn't a lesson for us to learn in this passage here so why is he ever wondered about that why does this happen because as you're reading the Gospels you know Matthew 16 17 there's several places in the Gospels where Jesus tells the disciples not to say things where he tells other people hey keep this you know go see the priests you know and he's doing that for a purpose but why is it that we always got oh we just just got a break protocol and go tell everyone why is that why do they do that here why did Jesus want this to be kept secret and I'll tell you it's because he didn't want the people to focus on the miracles over the message okay so there's a reason why he's telling this it's not that the miracles aren't important but the message is more important in the more miracles he does and the more people that come to him just for that the more his fame grows the shorter his ministry is going to become and the less effective it's going to become and so what does this mean for us and here's the first point that I want to make this morning which is this when we have loose lips we sink our discipleship okay when we have loose lips we sink our discipleship and you say what in the world does that mean we'll turn to Philippians chapter number two Philippians chapter number two well just like in this passage here because they violated the commandment of the Lord Jesus Christ what happened well now more multitudes of people are seeking them and they're having to sneak around the country just to get the message out okay and this can be a problem in churches a lot of times especially a church that maybe you know their sole focus is just we've got to be known on social media we've got to be known out in the community for whatever reason right oh we're just all about love we don't judge here right and they spend thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars on advertising that fact well guess what gets compromised in the meantime the message the gospel message because now you have hordes and droves of idiots coming to these churches just looking for a little bit of comfort in the physical right they're not gonna get anybody up in front and tell you hey guess what you're lost and you're on your way to hell right the mission I'm sorry the message always gets compromised when we have loose lips when we can't control what is important now look at Philippians chapter 2 and verse number 5 very familiar verses it says this let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men so the right way to protect our discipleship is to have this same mindset in us which is where we take it upon ourselves to say you know what we're just gonna let God do the promoting we're gonna let him build our reputation and we're gonna focus on the message over the miracles and obviously I'm not saying you know like some Pentecostal church you know I'm gonna perform miracles we're gonna get snakes up here we're gonna start speaking in tongues all this other stuff I'm not saying that at all but you know what a miracle is today somebody telling the truth that's a miracle today right I mean that is a miracle today all the doctrine that we actually are bold enough to stand up for and proclaim as a church you know when you give that to people out in the community guess what that is a miracle and you know what a lot of times they want to just stop okay let's park it right here tell me more read all of Romans 1 let's go back to Genesis 19 let's go to Judges 19 let's talk about Asa and it's like that's great but you haven't got saved yet okay I get it we have the answer to the tough questions like why does God let pedophiles live we have all that information it's crystal clear in the Bible and we can teach that but we ought to never compromise the message for the miracle okay and we want to have this mindset in us where we just decide you know what we're not gonna take the effort to make our reputation apart from Christ what we're gonna do is we're gonna focus on the message and let him build our reputation let him give us the promotion that's the right mindset that is how we keep confidential knowledge to ourselves and just disperse it at the right time now turn one chapter or not one time turn several chapters over to Matthew 17 Matthew chapter number 17 what I want to do now is I just want to kind of show you here how the disciples are growing and they're actually learning and they actually do keep a secret they actually do keep some knowledge concealed here and I want to show you the benefit of that so Matthew chapter 17 very familiar passage and the Gospels it's about the Transfiguration so you know the story Jesus takes Peter James and John up to the mountain he's transfigured before them and they get to see this and they're like what what's going on here this is great right and the Bible's like hey Peters like this is great let's make a tabernacle for all you guys and the Bible says he didn't even know what he was saying now look at verse number nine it says this and as they came down from the mountain Jesus charged them saying tell the vision to no man until the Son of Man be risen again from the dead just like we read in Matthew chapter 9 okay he charged them he straightly won him he said hey don't tell what you saw now if we saw something like this oh that would be hard it's like man I I've got extra knowledge I saw into the eternal who wouldn't want to tell somebody but you know what they're actually growing by this point and they actually do keep this secret until the right time and what does that do guess what it protects discipleship because by the time you reading 2nd Peter chapter 1 what does Peter say about this he says yeah we saw that yeah that was great but guess what we have a more sure word of prophecy right and so now we in our day and age we're able to read that and grow and put those two things together and say Wow Peter James and John keeping that secret until the right time it protected and enhanced discipleship that's what it did it furthered the Word of God and so the whole point here is to be mission oriented with the right message over the fame the miracles and all that stuff that we often get caught up in now go to Psalm chapter number 75 Psalm chapter number 75 and you got to give it to him I mean studying the life of Peter you know he's always sticking his foot in his mouth and stuff like that and we give him a hard time but we're no different than he is actually gets it right here he actually is able to keep this inside and reveal it at the right time in history and what do we get well we get an awesome truth that most people today don't believe okay so Psalm 75 I want you to look at verse number six I've mentioned this several times before there's some of my favorite verses I think everybody ought to know these by heart and meditate on this regularly because it's so important and it look down to verse number six for promotion cometh neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south look at verse 7 but God is the judge he put it down one and set it up another that is the truth that I've seen over and over and over again in my own personal life I've seen it in this church over and over and over again right we just hit a thousand subscribers but you know what we didn't do it by backstabbing people we didn't do it by making troll accounts we didn't do it by you know just bringing preachers here just to boost our subscriptions no we don't do that at all you know because we realize as a church someday YouTube's gonna go away someday Facebook's gonna go away they will cancel us out and we'll have to find another route but what's important in the meantime it's the strength of the local church it's the strength that we have as a church to preach the message over the miracles not neglecting the miracles not neglecting the doctrine at all but what I'm saying is the message has to be more important right you know what someday I I think it's probably true I think someday KTB TV or whatever it's called downtown is probably gonna want to come in here and find out what we're all about and you know what they're gonna do they're gonna take little clips and stuff and you know things that I've said things you guys have said and just throw that out there and they're gonna make the world focus on that over the real message that's why I said on Wednesday it's so important how we treat people while we're out soul-winning so that we can prepare the community so that when that happens there's still some people left to say hey wait a minute those people came to my door and they were very loving they were very kind they had a sense of urgency about them and they had the truth they're not like what you're making them out to be that is not right you see because the world they don't care about confidentiality they care about climbing over the next man's back just to get to the top and there's a lot of preachers out there today who call themselves Baptist that are the same way a bunch of dirtbag lowlife scumbags there all they want is influence all they want to do is to get all the subscribers I got to be in charge I want to be the man that people look to that's the wrong way to be and God will never bless that and you're starting to see that play out and if you're confused about what I'm talking about come see me after the service I'll fill you in so you can go ahead and leave your place there in Psalms turn to Mark chapter number nine mark chapter number nine so point number one is when we have loose lifts we sink our discipleship and what does that mean that means that we need to maintain discipline and keep the things that we know that other people don't know inside until the right time okay until the right time there is a time to be silent there's a time to speak Ecclesiastes chapter 3 talks about that in great detail and so let's move on to the second one here mark chapter number nine and I want you to look at verse number 28 verse number 28 so what's going on here is the disciples have been trained to you know do the do some of the miracles to go out and teach and to do things but the problem is they run into a person with the devil and they couldn't cast him out right and so now people are like well what's going on here we need to go see Jesus and find out about this and so the disciples are like yeah okay you know they're kind of like walking away they got their heads down a little bit they can't figure out why they weren't successful here but look at verse 28 says this it says and when he was coming to the house his disciples asked him privately why could not we cast him out and he said unto them this kind this kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting now what I find interesting here is that obviously Jesus is all-knowing he's fully man he's fully God he knows what happened here but he waits he waits for the disciples to come to him privately so he doesn't make this thing this failure that they had open does he he waits until they come to him and you say well why did they wait and why did they go to him privately well the same reason you and I would do it to save embarrassment to save face and to figure out like what happened see not everything that we do wrong needs to be put on blast needs to be made public and these guys understood that and Jesus was okay with that he waits until they come to him but why and here's the second point that I want to make which will answer that question when we have loose lips we sink our leadership when we have loose lips we sink our leadership think about you come to me and you tell me something privately something that you don't want me to tell other people and I go out I'm like oh man you know Victor he was slapping people at soul winning on Monday you know and he's just got a real problem that well I just blew up it you know what guess what that becomes a huge problem everybody in here is gonna lose respect my influence that I have is gone my reputation is gone and now I'm starting over from scratch well guess what it doesn't just apply to me it applies to everybody in here when you have a friend you have an acquaintance you have somebody who looks up to you and this could happen very quickly I mean look you tell somebody you're Christian I do this all the time you know all of a sudden in the workplace people don't even know me they want to tell me their whole life story you know my husband left me for a girl who's like 20 years younger I get this all the time you know and they confide in me you know but what happens if I just start you know going throughout the neighborhood to every call that I go on hey you know the lady down at 3213 hey you know Taconic Drive she's you know what she told me that would quickly give me an infamous reputation and we don't want that because all that does is do harm hurt people and like I said we want to be known for a people that provides comfort and one of the ways you can do that is by being look up to as a person that can keep things in house somebody who can keep things confidential this is such a rare trait today it is so difficult to find somebody who can actually keep a matter private we had somebody in this church who used to think they could keep a matter private or who you know oh you don't know no matter I can keep it private but pastor can and to this day we still don't know what it is so he's good at that aspect he's good at that but terrible at speaking when the time is right so point number two when we have loose lips we can and we will sink our leadership it hurts your influence you say well I don't have a position of leadership yes you do you were a born-again Bible believing Christian if you're saved you are a king and a priest you're automatically grafted into leadership and we have to start living like that like we understand that like we know that because again what happens when you're out and you're at work or you're in the community you're talking with these people that aren't saved what happens when they confide in you and they realize you know that's somebody I can trust that's somebody I can confide it well you know what it helps to break down that pride that they have and there's gonna come a point in time where you can capitalize on that and give them the gospel it happens all the time not everybody gets saved with the first knock of the door some people do some people are tough some people have had a lot of bad things happen in their lives and they don't know who they can trust but they ought to be able to trust people like us people that are in dwelt with the Holy Ghost people who say and proclaim the name of Christ they should be able to look to us and say you know what that's somebody I can find comfort in and when you build that reputation in yourself around the people that are in your life you know it is only going to further the gospel it's going to help your leadership and guess what the numbers go up in the kingdom of God grows and that's the whole reason why we're here is to grow the kingdom of God to fight these battles to do what the Lord Jesus Christ wants us to do now go to Proverbs chapter number 18 Proverbs chapter number 18 in Proverbs chapter number 18 look at verse 21 Proverbs 18 21 James talks about the same subject here it says this death and life are in the power of the tongue and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof so we need to realize that we have the power with our tongues to bring somebody up or to put somebody down and you say well how do I know when to tell how do I know when to tell something or you know sometimes it can be confusing like somebody will you know maybe confide in you a little bit though they'll say something but you hear I'm telling like everybody else in the church here's here here's a good rule of thumb if you have to ask yourself inside like should I tell somebody you probably should you know just it's always better to be safe than sorry right always better to be safe and sorry so if you're like I'm not sure I know he's telling everybody else but I'll just play it safe nothing's gonna be you know nothing bad is gonna happen to you you're gonna be okay you know and I let other people do let other people do it cuz I've had that before where people where I've been in a place and you know somebody's telling about this certain problem they have right and they tell like literally everyone and then everyone starts talking about it they get mad and get offended it's like well you know that's kind of on you because you did go around tell everybody you can't go into a church and tell 40 people to keep something you do realize you're telling everybody this the walls are thin I even heard you so it's not like I'm discovering a secret because you told everybody but some people they just want drama they just want that bad drama they want a reason to fight they want a reason to just so contention and some people will do that they'll go around they'll tell everybody you know oh well you broke protocol you went and told what it's like you told everybody it's not a secret anymore if you tell everybody good night turn to Matthew chapter number seven Matthew chapter number seven and so the application here is we need to build people up you know just because somebody is not on our level right doesn't mean that we need to drive them out you know when this church first started it's a perfect example of this there was a situation where a person ordered an alcoholic beverage at a restaurant okay and I can't I don't know I'm looking out here I can't remember who was there it was before I moved here but thinking about this sermon about the situation last night I was like a lot of you if you were there were pretty wise you know we're pretty prudent already you know before the church even started because there's only one guy that instantly sent me a text message instantly called me and when I brought this up you know brother Mike was like like I could tell like he knew about it but he kept it private and why did he do that because he wanted to try to help the individual out he wanted to try to build that person up who's not out for blood not out to to proclaim everyone's business and it's like yeah of course the guy shouldn't have done that of course that's wrong but what about keeping a matter to yourself and actually he's done that several times since this church has started a lot of you have but that story in particular I remember I tell her he knew about it but he kept it private not because he's trying to like pull one over on us no he's trying to help somebody out trying to build somebody up and that's what we should be about but this guy orders out beverage you know and it's like this one guy just constantly we need to have a talk as soon as you move here there's drunkards in the church drunkards or a drunkard you know and by the way there's a big difference between being a drunkard and somebody who just drinks casually cuz I'm not gonna lie to you there are people that can handle it I don't recommend it I'm against it but there are people that can handle it and I wouldn't classify them as drunkards or people that need to be oh you sipped on a beer I'm gonna kick you right out of church look let's be a place of safety and try to help some people out but this guy who texted me and then had to call me guess what he I'm gonna call you next Friday we got to talk about this again right guess what as soon as my u-haul touched the curb where I live this fool was like hey don't forget heard you're in town I saw the Facebook pictures I figured you know as a couple hours ago you're in the Hawaii mountains you're here we got to talk tomorrow do you have time tomorrow it's like dude I I'm starting to like I need to call pastor medicine you know maybe we should wait a little longer this really what it's gonna be like good night but man that is a perfect example of having loose lips that literally in my eyes that day it sunk that individual's leadership to me I realize you know what this is just somebody I absolutely don't think we can help and somebody I know for sure we can't trust and all you guys already knew way more than I did it's like yep that's it that's true but you can see how that works right if he would if you would have just had some wisdom some prudence and hey I'm just gonna pray for you let's just keep this in house it's all good it's not you know he's not hurting anybody else is he hurting himself yes but you can have a conversation with somebody and say hey let's just hash this out let's talk about let me show you why I have concerns about this because you know what happened to guys like you know I struggle with this it's just I don't know any different and I'm not vouching for that guy so that dude's a whole other sermon by himself you know we should always seek to help before we try to hurt okay that is what we need to do Matthew chapter number seven we're gonna take a look at one verse here we're gonna move on to my third point Matthew 7 look at verse number 12 this is this therefore all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you do ye even so to them for this is the law and the prophets and so we're just gonna take that one verse right there because that says so much I mean you could build sermon after sermon after sermon on this and of course this is a verse that many liberals like to twist and this is the only thing they want to focus on this is their mission this is their miracle oh this is a golden rule here this is all we need it's the only verse we need we don't need to read the Bible we just need one verse and it's this right here okay we don't need to deal with those types of people but here's what this verse means for us in this point when we have loose lips we sync relationships think about it when we have loose lips we sync our relationships whether they're small or great because the idea here is you meet somebody you have an acquaintance the idea is to turn those acquaintances into good relationships this is how we build church this is how we grow is by taking people that just aren't sure that just aren't quite plugged in yet right and building that confidence building that trust and part of that comes with us being able to conceal a matter with us being able to help a person out not just blab their business to everyone because then guess what they don't feel safe and there's tons of churches out there you know a lot of people will say you know the reason why I like to go to the big church is because nobody knows what's going on I could just slip in and slip out he's like you know they're like the smaller churches are difficult because everybody knows everything and that's true to a certain extent but we can still be a small church like we are and be a place of confidence be a place just as a safe haven a place where relationships grow right where we go out and we tell people hey this is a safe haven you could come here I get it you know a lot of us have ties and shirts we have high standards we do all these things that's great right but that doesn't mean that we're better than anybody else that doesn't mean that we're better than you know we're saved sinners just like anybody else that's saved right we need to sometimes just be brought back down to that and keep that in mind turn to Proverbs chapter number 17 Proverbs chapter number 17 it's a point number three when we have loose lips we sync relationships it's very simple very sticky to remember you know as soon as you take something that someone's confided in you and you make that common they instantly don't trust you even if they keep coming back to you even if you know it doesn't seem like there's a problem something inside of that individual is saying don't trust don't trust don't move forward do not proceed you know it's true it is a hundred percent true that is the way it works so when we have loose lips we sync our relationships now look at Proverbs 17 and verse number 9 it says this he that covereth a transgression seeketh love but he that repeateth the matter seperateth very friends and isn't that the truth I used to work with this guy and I mean he was the the best tail bearer I've ever met in my life I mean anything you say this dude was instantly running to other crews calling people on the phone even about stuff that didn't matter oh like you know what Jones likes to drink during lunch like to drink this grape juice and it's like who cares why do you you know just anything and this guy this individual he became the most hated person out of the entire organization over there I am serious this guy would take anything you say you think you could tell him a secret and look you know how they get you they flatter you right they try to button right up next to you and they'll tell you great things all your hairs oh man you're you're so strong dude you're you're tough oh you're whatever right they'll just try to flatter you to get you to lower your guard then they extract that secret from you and the next thing you know man they're just running all over the place just sprinkling that thing everywhere and you know what I could never be friends with that guy and into this day you know he still texts me and still calls me hey man what's going on right it's always that that's always the first day hey what's going on like he wants to know everything like like what we're doing here like why I moved here and stuff and it's just like what do you do you know just don't tell him anything you find out for yourself because he's just gonna run with it you know oh you know they preach all this you know and just just cause trouble I mean think about it took one tail-bearer to have over 3,000 people on Facebook when this church first started to hate our guts to the point to where we actually spoke and I knocked on someone's door and she was like you're that guy from the internet I've seen you you're rude or your pastor's rude like I am the pastor what are you talking about well he's really rude that's not how a pastor should act well you should read the Bible should read the Bible right that's sunk a lot of relationships I mean it was hard to get her back to thinking that we're not a cult and we're not I mean we had to like help her move we literally had to take over goodwill on overland just to get rid of herself she was moving and guess what we saw her downtown not too long ago where where Steven lives but you know that was hard work you took one person to try to ruin the reputation of this church she even contacted the news and I think the only reason they didn't run with it is because we just didn't have enough material online yet the next time might be a different story it might be a different story but what does it first say here he that covereth the transgression seeketh love now look obviously there are some things if somebody's talking trash about me let me know okay because I'm commanded to not let anyone despise me you're you know you shouldn't let anyone despise you you know somebody's running in their mouth about you you go to that person you do the Matthew chapter 18 properly and then it escalates there's no resolution there that's when I need to get involved and we need to settle this dispute why because we're always seeking love first we want to build people up we want people to come here and say you know what I feel safe here because guess what you don't feel safe at work there's no I don't think there's anybody in here has a job where you feel safe where you feel comforted right you guys that live in these neighborhoods you especially moms you don't trust your neighbors most of them are absolutely insane they're crazy right so this should be the place where you're able to come to and it's like ah you know it really is a breath of fresh air right again with we got a lot of little in-house jokes I ain't got time to explain I won't see me turn to Proverbs chapter number 20 Proverbs chapter number 20 and so again you know one thing that I see hurt relationships let's start with marriage is one a husband or a wife take something that they absolutely hate about their spouse and they go and tell everyone I see this throughout the week this is the chief thing that I see like no I'm not even kidding it was Friday I went to a house it was my first job I get in there and the guys like hey on my oven the fans not working and the wife she just starts yelling at him she's like you don't know anything the fan is working it just won't turn on they're literally screaming at each other in the living room right and then the husband's like I'm out of here I'm gonna go in a garage and do some stuff she comes up like he's an idiot he doesn't know anything he's just a buffoon he can't even cook he can't even use the microwave half the time and he took this thing apart trying to fix it himself and that's why we had to call you because he doesn't know what he's doing right so I get to doing my thing and she's like okay well I'm gonna go I'm just gonna let you be well she goes off and does whatever he comes out you know and he's like she is a witch he's like I am so sorry for the way that she has acted in here and I'm just like super uncomfortable like I'm I'm starting to sweat and he's telling me stop my hold on man look I got to get this done dude okay cuz the price is gonna go up the longer I'm here just I just need to figure this out he's like okay that's fine but I just want to let you know man she's just we always fight like this I was like I could tell it's okay I said I could tell it's okay he's like wow but they were just just digging on each other hard and obviously they're not saved but you know I was just thinking you know what what damage does that cause you know what they're the kind of people that the neighbors call the cops on at two o'clock in the morning because they're just out there and just arguing and fighting and you know what in that same neighborhood this is off of Eagle Road to kind of drive the nice homes out there you know what I went to a house not too far from my second call and they actually knew those people like you had a busy day I was like oh no kind of just came from this house on the corner of taconic and amity and oh was it and they told me the name and I was like yeah just kind of smile like oh we know them very well and it's because those two go throughout the neighborhood running their mouths about each other that's what they do it's crazy this guy's like I can't wait to get to work he's like as soon as you tell me it's wrong this thing I'm out of here I'm going to work and I'm gonna try to work as much overtime as I can right it was just like this for an hour just back and forth and I'm like that is a relationship that has hurt because both of them can't keep it internal what do you think would happen if they committed for just three months to just not tell anybody what they hate about each other you know how much better that they would be you know how much better and how much stronger the marriage would be three months it's like give me 90 days where you don't say anything that you know keep you fight inside your bedroom you know do whatever you got to do try to keep it quiet neighbors don't call the cops but have your beef and don't discover a secret to another if you would do that you know what I believe that their relationship would be with it it would be a whole lot better because here's what I know I'll bet in five years they're not married anymore because obviously this thing's just terrible it's terrible right and you say well I'm not married I have to worry about it yeah you do because any relationship involves communication confidence you know all of these things we're talking about we need to learn how to keep some things private not to discover a secret to another not to keep blabbering it right to have Proverbs 17 9 we want to cover a transgression so if your friend or your spouse or whatever does something that you don't like you know try not to tell other people and you know what it's hard isn't it boy it's hard because I get it you know people come to me all the time or they'll call the church phone you know hey I'm on board I'm saved you know my wife I don't know but you know she wears pants and it's like okay I look I get it I you want to be like all Baptist up no problem hey I love it great but you know don't tell other people I get you called me but don't be like telling other people in your church or telling your co-workers because all that's gonna do is hinder your progress because now she's gonna lose trust in you and so why would she do what you want her to do if you're just constantly telling other people it's a terrible terrible thing so we want to try to cover transgressions like ones first to seek love to build each other up to make this a safe place now Proverbs 20 look at verse number 19 it says this he that goeth about as a tailbearer revealeth secrets now here's what we needed about read the rest of the verse therefore metal not with him that flattereth with the lips so people that will not cease from tail bearing like Josh I'm just gonna say it because it's the perfect example don't meddle with these people don't be friends with them because they will not stop it's sad but it's true there are some people that just love it too much and they can't cease from it and they need to be taught a lesson they need to be removed because when you tell somebody hey you know what what you're telling me right now is wrong what you're telling me right now is not wise it doesn't help anybody out and you call them out you put them to shame then guess what their reputation becomes infamous just like God said it would that is designed to help that person hopefully in the future because maybe someday the next time he goes and tries to tell somebody someone's secret he's gonna remember the pain that he felt when he told the wrong person you want to be that wrong person you want to be that person that says hey you know what what you're saying right now is wrong it's not wise hey let's go get the pastor let's go bring him over here and why don't you tell him what you just said that he's in this for the money that he doesn't have enough time to prepare these sermons whatever it is let's have a chat let's have a talk and you say yeah we're doing that to hate him no we're doing that to teach that individual a lesson you don't belong in a group of people that have loved that want to edify the kingdom of God and that want to see this thing succeed it just is the way it is now we are almost done I'm gonna wrap this thing up here so turn to Proverbs 13 turn to Proverbs chapter number 13 and so the first point was what when we have loose lips we sink our discipleship okay what does that mean that means we need to keep things that we know you know that are that are just miraculous you know this information and we need to keep that for the right time it doesn't mean we keep it secret because we don't want to be on the news or we don't want people to think whatever about us no we want the gospel to be the priority and then after people get saved that's when we bring in the other doctrines that's when we teach them the truth of the Word of God we don't want to just exalt that other stuff for the sole purpose of building up our reputation building up our media whatever right we want to be mission oriented message over miracle so when we have loose lips and we don't keep the things secret that need to be kept secret at the right time we hurt our discipleship okay and we took a look at what Peter James and John did and how they kept the events at the Mount of Transfiguration secret what did that do it furthered the Word of God it protected discipleship and then the second one was our leadership when we have loose lips we hurt our reputation we sink our leadership which everyone in this room has if you're saved you're indwelt by the Holy Spirit you say I don't have a leadership role that's fine that's okay you were still a leader you're a king you're a priest in this kingdom here and we have to act like it and when we go running around just telling everyone's business we lose confidence in people and then we're gonna be a church that nobody wants to come to anyone we can't have that we don't want that in point number three is when we have loose lips we sink our relationships right the stronger that our relationships get inside this church that's what I love about these types of churches like this so we have good fellowship right it's not just about you coming here to hear me run my mouth three times a week it's about what happens before what happens after and what happens in between it's all connected together right it's about building up relationships and being a place that we can all come to and trust because there's nothing more refreshing than having a problem struggling with something and being able to go to somebody and confide in that person no I can trust this person to pray for me and to help me out that is what this is all about and so we're gonna wrap this up here I want you to look at Proverbs 13 in verse number 3 it says this he that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction it's that simple there's no middle road here we learn to keep our mouths guess what we have made this place a safe haven as it should be as it ought to be now turn over to Psalm chapter 141 Psalm chapter 141 and you'll see this just over and over and over again in the Bible you know loose lips sink ships Proverbs 141 we're getting very close to being done here I want you to look at verse number three Psalm 141 look at verse 3 says set a watch O Lord before my mouth keep the door of my lips this is something that if you really struggle with keeping things secret memorize this verse and I guarantee you after a couple months you're gonna get way better at it it's a promise it's a guarantee look the psalmist here he's having to actually ask for help with this and this is what we miss oftentimes as believers we need to get help for ourselves because it's so tempting to want to always tell other people's business I struggle with it you struggle we all struggle with this but when we ask the Lord to help us how you know what he's gonna do that he's gonna help us to keep the door of our lips and all this does when you master this when you become that person you become leadership instantly in your workplace in your families in your neighborhoods everywhere because you're a person that can control themselves you can keep your bearing okay look at the next verse look at verse number four it says this incline not my heart to any evil thing to practice wicked works with men that work iniquity and let me not eat of their dainties so their dainties their desserts right the world's desserts is always the gossip it's always the juice that's why when you go to Fred Meyer and you go to the checkout section it's always the gossip magazines Oh Prince Charles has like five wives you know or there's aliens coming down and even Tucker Carlson agrees you know it's always something goofy like that because that sells I can remember being a child in saving in line at Safeway or Albertsons they always used to have the stupid black and white newspaper anybody remember that and it was always just the most far out there bizarre stuff you know what's sad about that is a lot of that stuff is kind of like what's being pushed today as like real news I never thought I would see the day I'd go to school we'd always talk about that stupid black and white newspaper what is it like the National Enquirer the Enquirer right guess what a lot of stuff is like mainstream news nowadays you know what I mean but that's the dainty of the world that's what draws us away from the cause of Christ that's what basically causes to fall into iniquity and to fall into practicing wicked works is because we didn't take the advice of the Proverbs and meddle not with people that just want to be tale bearers and so discord and so on and so forth last verse I want to look at Proverbs 11 Proverbs chapter number 11 so basically another lesson is this what happens at church you know it needs to stay at church the world has their philosophy right well what happens at Vegas stays at Vegas which isn't true what happens to Vegas is gonna wind up going to hell okay because the Lord sees that stuff there and someday is gonna send a big fireball to Las Vegas it's true I read it all right Proverbs 11 look at verse 13 a tailbearer reveal the secret say what's the tailbearer it's somebody who reveals secrets somebody who cannot keep things confidential a tailbearer reveal of secrets but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter and that is the goal that is the desire that I have for myself I believe that's the desire that we have as a church is to be a people that can conceal a matter and sometimes you actually got to tell somebody what that matter is okay right you know if you need help don't keep the matter private and then come blast us for not giving them you know solving the matter but when you get that you know that that confide in so when somebody confides in you and tells you a secret keep that thing private if that is their desire or even if you're on and you know you're unsure and so again the bottom line when I take that which is confidential and I make it common I ruin my reputation the whole sermon can really just be boiled down to that statement there when we take something that's confidential we make it common we've ruined our reputation you have now gone from a person of confidence to a person that is a tailbearer just that quick and it happens so fast there used to be the saying in the military you can go from hero to zero and sixty seconds and you know where that wisdom came from it came from this book right here it came from the Bible so let's remember that and be a people of confidence be a church where people could look to and say you know what these people came to my door I told him my whole life story and I felt good I felt like they understood they actually cared about me they actually understood you know and because the next time you run into that person guess what they might actually listen they might actually get saved it is so so true let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer thank you so much Lord for this church I think for all that you've allowed us to go through all the the trials and stuff that we've been through that you've rescued us from Lord and I just pray that we would be that church that is able to keep the secret things secret Lord we understand that the secret things belong to you but what's been revealed is for us to use wisely and we just pray that you'd be with us for the rest of the day Lord please bless the soul winning and the fellowship after the service in Jesus name I pray amen