Dealing With Gossip and Slander

Hi, this is Pastor Daniel Bracken. You're listening to Kings Alaska Podcast. I hope the Word encourages you and you get a touch from God that brings transformation and equips you to experience life with people, power and purpose. Thank you for joining us. Enjoy the Word.

Stand on your feet if you're able. First Peter, chapter one and verse 23. Let's get in the Word. We're going to read through verse 25. Then we'll go to first Peter, chapter two, verses one through three.

Are you ready? On your marks, new King James. Get set. Let's go. Having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, through the Word of God, which lives and abides forever, because all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.

The grass withers and its flower falls away, but the Word of the Lord endures forever. Now, this is the Word which by the Gospel was preached to you. Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy and all evil, speaking as newborn babes desire, or another version says, crave desire, the pure milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby. If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Father, move in great power in Jesus name.

Amen. You may be seated. Let me ask if you Are you aware of what's happened to you now that you're born again and again, if you're not born again, there'll be a moment to remedy that. In fact, you can make a decision for Christ at any moment. You don't need anybody leading you.

But as a Christian, what has happened? I talked this morning, spoke this morning about being translated out of darkness. Colossians 3 and 1. You've been translated. You've been literally brought out of one dominion and placed into another.

When you receive Jesus now, your thinking needs to change. You need to renew your mind. Romans 12:2. Because if you don't, then you'll still act like the idiot in the old dominion of the devil. You'll still act like a son of perdition, even though you've been brought over into new creation.

Second Corinthians 5, verse 17. But you need to renew your mind. I had two times today. I had people tell me, maybe it was three times. I had somebody say, oh yeah, they my so and so says that he's a believer and he loves God, but he acts like the devil.

Let me just tell you, according to First John and many other places, if you say you believe in Jesus, but you act like the devil, you have not been born again. You. You can't. You. You can't be born again.

People don't want to go out and sin, don't want to go out and be evil, don't want to go out and do those things. Now do those things happen? Yeah, we all fall and stumble in many ways. But as a Christian, you're born again. You've been.

You've been made new. The result of who we are. The result of who we are causes us to live different. Right in your notes now, in light of our new birth, how then should we live? That comes right from scripture, Peter as well.

How then should we live? Well, we need to get rid of certain things. Listen, if you're born again, you're saved. You give your life to Jesus, you're washed in the blood, and you have certain things that are a part of your. Your modus operandi, the way that you behave.

You need to change that stuff. And God will help you to do it by his spirit that works on the inside of. You need to secondly, crave or desire. Come on, some of you know what it is to have cravings.

Desire, the pure milk of the word that is a remedy for helping you overcome those things that. That'll destroy your life. You need to change. Come on, bump your neighbor and say, bro, you need change. You're like, I know, I know I do.

Yeah, change is good.

I will never forget. I don't know, it's probably 25 years ago.

I was a leader in our church, and I had this lady come up to me after service. I think there was a. A big gathering of food and some celebration. I forget what's happening. Church is packed out.

God has been pouring out his spirit there in Maui. Lady comes straight up to me. I mean, like, in my face and says, I heard. What'd you think about me? I'm like, really?

She says, oh, yeah, I heard it. I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about. She says, I heard that you say, I'm a Jezebel. And I said, I don't. I don't think that I said, I. I mean, I didn't say that.

She says, yes, you did. I said, no, I didn't. She said, yes, you did. And I'm confronting you. I said, well, that's, that's great.

I'm glad you're confronted me. Who told you? She said, I'm not telling you. I said, no. Yeah, you're telling me because you're being lied to because I didn't call you A Jezebel.

She might be the Jezebel that told you, but I'm asking you, who told you that? I said, you're a Jezebel. Well, I can't tell you. I said, well, then we have a real problem, because I didn't do it. And I'd love to talk to the person who said I did.

And she said, well, she's here. I said, let's go get her. And she said, okay. Well, we walked over to Sister Bucket Mouth. Had to find her.

I had to find her. I'm looking, I'm looking. I'm looking. Good. Bring her over.

I said, hi. Hey. Hi. God bless you. We were just talking, and she just told me that you said that.

I said that she's a Jezebel.

I didn't say that. She says, I didn't say that. And the other lady says, yes, you did. You said. He said, I was a Jezebel.

I'm like, no, I didn't. She goes, I didn't write. And she says, no, you didn't. I said, fine. You guys work it out.

Praise God.

This lady was being slandered.

I was being slandered. There was gossip that was taking place.

Another story.

There was a lady that came into the church. That's about the same time, probably a spirit that was operating.

Gossip, slander. Devil's always looking for a place, always looking for somebody to tear down. The only way the devil can speak in this church is by using your mouth. Your mouth. The only way the devil can speak in your family is by borrowing your mouth.

Some of you have been renting space for free to the devil. I would suggest you stop gossip and slander, dealing with gossip and slander. So this lady was unusual. I mean, I saw when she came in, and she kind of looked like Broomhilda. Do you know what I mean?

I mean, I. I don't think she actually had a pointy hat, but she really looked witchy. You know, if you were just gonna, like, judge by appearance, dark clothes, dark makeup, kind of broomhildish, and, like, sitting behind Dr. Morocco. And right at that time, there was a lot of chatter about witches in the churches. And you. Somebody said, they're witches in this church.

I hope they come and get converted. They try to put some hex on, somebody will end up ricocheting on them because an undeserved curse, like a darting swallow, returns to its sender. I'm not afraid of any of that. I love what my dear friend Jonathan Shuttlesworth said as he talked to a pastor who said, this place is soaked in witchcraft. It's so hard here for the church.

And Jonathan Shuttlesworth said, oh, yeah. The pastor said, yeah. In fact, on that hill. Let me show you. They walked outside.

He pointed to the hill. They burn fires and they have cauldrons and covens and witchcraft up there. And he said, listen, the next time they have fire, give me a call. I'm going to get a liter of Dr. Pepper. I'll drink it.

I'll come and take care of it for you. How many of you if you drank a liter of Dr. Pepper, okay?

You empower evil. You can empower darkness by fearing and yielding to it. And slander is a great problem in our culture. Back to the pointy hat story and we'll get into this.

Turn to Colossians, chapter two. It's a great problem in our culture. This particular lady, I had somebody. She was coming and sitting there, and so I had a. One of the senior leaders in our church said, listen, we want you to sit behind Dr. Morocco because there's a little bit of a concern.

I said, okay. So I sat in front of Broomhilda. That's really not nice because that's not her name. And she'd actually been delivered from witchcraft. She'd been set free and she renounced it.

But she. You could. There's. There was like a little bit of residue or something, you know, she didn't. Just getting rid of her hat yet.

She got rid of her wand and her broom, but maybe she still had her hat. You understand what I'm talking about? No one understands what I'm saying right now. Just nod, go. Okay, yeah, I get it.

Okay.

So I did. I sat there and.

I remember a well meaning, immature intercessor came to tell me about this witch and how there's hexes coming down in the church and all this stuff. I said, they said, you need to talk to Dr. Morocco. I said, no, I don't want to talk to Dr. Morocco. He says, no, please. And they.

A couple of them came, please just talk to him. He doesn't know. Okay? So I go into the office. I will never forget this.

It cured me of a lot of things. I went in, knocked on Dr. Morocco's door. He answers the door, peering over his glasses one more time. Yes, Daniel? I said, listen, I need to tell you something.

You might not discern it. There's a witch in our midst. He's like, Really? I said, yeah. And you know who I'm talking about, don't you?

And he says, pastor Daniel, have You talked to her?

No, no, I. I haven't. He says, yeah, nor has anybody else. Why don't you talk to her? I said, okay. So I walk out of my.

I guess I'm going to talk to Broom Hilda. So I walk out. He's. He says, daniel, come back. I come back.

He says, sit down.

He says, I'd encourage you to talk to her and hear her story about how she's been set free and delivered. But there's so much gossip happening about this particular lady. I'm not sure she's going to make it because so many people are talking stank about her and I. And it's sad to me that people aren't doing Matthew 18. And he brought me to Matthew 18 and he taught me about confronting and not gossiping and not slandering.

The tragedy is that everybody writes stories and thinks things about people based upon the way they perceive things. Your perception about things might not actually be accurate.

I can't tell you how many times I've been wrong. Some of you think you have the gift of discernment, but you actually have the gift of suspicion. It's a big difference between suspicion and discernment are two different things that we had everybody discerning this. This witch. And it wasn't a witch.

They were just terrified and scared and playing crazy Pentecostal games that weren't really applicable to Scripture. That was just as they saw it. And the problem is the way that you see it might not be right. 2nd 2nd 2nd chapter of Colossians, verse 8. Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit.

See, there's. There's a way of you can be cheated through fully. You know what philosophy is? The way I see it is the way. Who cares how you see it?

How about, how does God see it? There are some philosophies of men. There's. There's philosophies of demons. There's philosophies that are not of God, and if you subscribe to those, and you can come under that, then you can be cheated.

Beware. Everybody say beware. Beware. Come on. You ready?

He said beware. All the kids, beware. Try it again. One, two, three. All the children ready?

Beware. On three. One. Beware. Very good.

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit. According tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. Because the way that people see things might not necessarily be true. What is slander? What?

What is slander? It's associated with gossip.

2nd Corinthians 12 and verse 24. I'm afraid that when I come, I might not find you as you. Pardon me. When I come, I may not find you as I want you to be. And you may not find me as you want me to be.

What does that mean? I fear that there may be discords, jealousies, fits of rage, selfless ambition, slander and gossip, arrogance and disorder. Really, Slander and gossip are closely associated. Romans 1 and verse 30. And the NIV says slanderers, God haters.

Insolent, arrogant, boastful. They invent ways of doing evil. They disobey their parents. Both slander and gossip are tied together. It's how many of you have a coin?

It's like the. It's like the sides of two sides of one coin. Heads and tails. Slander, gossip, they go together.

It's described by a number of Greek words. Accusation.

Blasphema. Is the. Blasphema is the one of the other Greek words. Does that sound familiar? Blaspheme.

To blaspheme, accu. To accuse, to speak harmfully, to defame, to revile, to speak injuriously. In other words, you're speaking in a way that you're going to injure somebody. Well, that's a witch. Oh, is it?

You haven't even talked to her. Because she thinks she has a pointy head. She's a witch.

Because he's a little effeminate. You say he's gay and has an alternate lifestyle.

Man, I'm. I'm like, I'm. I'm about to get in it. Lift your hands and just brace yourself all across the church. This needs to be preached.

It's so important, dealing with gossip and slander. Speaking against someone, defaming someone.

Wow. Bearing false witness. Where does slander come from? Well, that's a great question. Let's look at that.

Mark 7 and verse 22. New International Version. Here, what comes out of a person is what defiles them. For what is. For what?

It is from within. For it is from within, not from without a person's heart, that evil thoughts come. Sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from inside. Now there is just nothing like the word of God with a double edged sword and a litany like, I'm about to bring it.

And for those of you note takers, write it down. It's not. It's not in your notes. All right, but I'm going to move through Some scripture quickly. And it's just going to take the head off of slander and gossip because it's what it does.

And if you are like sister bucket mouth, you struggle with gossip or you struggle with slander, then write these things down and get them. And I'm so convicted. But I was reading me a Lord, Lord, help, help me. I think I've not been exactly encouraging at times. I'm no slander and gossip.

But how many of you know you can misjudge people? You can say things that are off. I was convicted. Listen to this. You're about to be.

Slander and and gossip comes from an evil heart. Luke 6 and 45. A good man out of the good treasure brings forth good. And an evil man out of Egypt, treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

Good man. Wow. Out of the good measure of his heart brings forth good. If you have constant wicked things you're saying about people because you're the one that has issues in your own heart, let's move on. Psalm 109, verse 3.

It arises out of hatred. They surrounded me with words of hatred. Words of hatred. It arises out of hatred. First Timothy 5 and verse 13.

Come. Idleness leads to slander and gossip.

Besides, they're in the habit of being idle and going from house to house. And not only do they become idlers or busy bodies and nonsense talking and say things they ought not to. Idleness, idle. It's not in scripture, but scriptural principle. The devil will find work for idle hands to do.

Get to work, get a job, get busy. And you won't be paying attention to all those people on Facebook and everything else you're trying to my God. Psalm 50, verse 20. You sit and speak against your brother. You slander your own mother's son.

It comes from. It's talking about wickedness. In Psalm 50, it's the wicked person. So the wicked are addicted to slander. So if you're addicted to slander and gossip, you're behaving wickedly.

Oh my goodness. Hypocrites are addicted to it. Proverbs 11 and verse 9. With their mouths the godless destroy their neighbors, and through knowledge of the righteous they escape. Hypocrites are addicted to slander and gossip.

It's a characteristic of the devil. Revelation 12:10. And I heard with a loud voice in heaven, say now, salvation, the power, the kingdom of our God, and the authority of the Messiah for the accuser. There's that word. There's that word right There slander, gossip.

The accuser has been thrown down. It is an actual another name accuser for the devil. So when you're speaking his language, you're behaving like him. The wicked love to slander. Psalm 52 and verse 4.

The wicked also love to indulge in it and are called fools. In Proverbs 10 and verse 18 fools are gossips and and slanders. Women are warned against it. In Titus 2:3 ministers wives should avoid it. In 1st Timothy 3:11 saints should keep their tongues from slander and their tongues from gossip.

Saints should also lay aside all gossip and slander. Ephesians 3 and Visions 4 and verse 31 should be warned against as I'm doing even now. Should have no occasion for gossip and slander. 1st Peter 2:12, 1st Peter 3:16 should not return good for for slander or for evil. First Corinthians 4:13 are blessed for enduring bucket mouth slanderous accusatory people.

You're blessed for enduring it. I think I'm receiving blessing right now. Bless. Come on, lift your hand if you're receiving blessing for enduring. Amen.

Should not be listened to. First Samuel 24. Proverbs 25 causes anger the effects of slandering and gossip. Proverbs 16, verse 28, Proverbs 17, 9 separates the closest of friends.

Proverbs 26:20 causes strife. Proverbs 18:8. Are you okay?

Proverbs 18:8, Proverbs 26:2 causes deadly wounds. Proverbs 6 and 19. Brings discord among believers and brethren. Psalm 30:1 and verse 13, Ezekiel 20:2 and 9. Really is a spirit of murder.

It's murder full blown. It's venomous. Psalm 140, verse 3, Ecclesiastes 10 and verse 11. It's destructive. Proverbs 11 in verse 9.

The end of slander and gossip.

Come on. Go. You got to go to this one. You got to go. I've never seen this before now.

Ecclesiastes 10. The end of it. You want to know the end of the matter? It's good to look at what the end of the matter is. The end of your compass course is going to bring you to the end of following your waypoint when you're out hunting is going to bring you back to your camp.

If you blow the waypoint, you're in trouble. I've been out at sea with a. With someone who was banging their GPS on their hand, hoping it would come back on. Why? I prayed in tongues.

Thank God it did. And we came out of a storm. The End of gossip, the end of. Of slander. Ecclesiastes 10 and 13.

At the beginning, their words were folly at the end or wicked madness, literally. To study this out, you literally will become insane. If you gossip and you slander madness, man shall give an account for it. In Matthew 12 and verse 36, there's punishment for gossip and slander. Deuteronomy 19.

Proverbs 17, verse 4. Y' all okay? Proverbs 17, verse 4. Wrongdoers eagerly listen to gossip. Liars play close attention to slander.

The. It's a potential problem for everyone because you're going to be severely judged for it.

What. What has prompted this intense message from Pastor This.

Names have been redacted.

You send me a letter and set people on fire in this church, and you don't put your name on it. You're a spineless.

I can hear Pastor Karen praying for me right now.

It's not the right way. Put your name on it. What did you say? I was talking to you. You're like, what do you.

We talk right before we. We preach and talk about. What'd you say? If you're not willing to put your name on it. Something I said.

If you can't be man or woman enough to put your name behind it, then don't say it at all. I just want to send you an anonymous note. Broomhilda's in the church. Shut up. Go.

Love on Broomhilda. You might be the Broomhilda. How about that? With your words of gossip. Or like little witchcraft, I blacked out the name.

But I'm gonna tell you, this made me mad. Slandered somebody, and you'll never know who it is. Okay. Watch out. There's wolves among us.

It might be you. I hate that spirit. Maybe shouldn't have read it. Yeah, it's the second note. I got like that from you, and I don't even know who you are.

Put your name on it. Be man or woman enough to come and tell me what the concern you have, and I will help you. And if it's a real concern, we'll get through it together. But don't you send me a letter that has no name to light somebody on fire because you're being the little witch or warlock. Let's all raise our hands to Jesus and worship him right now.

Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah. Anybody feeling the love tonight?

And as I got upset, I realized, oh, gosh, I see little slivers of that trying to weasel into my own life. Anybody else? And I realized, oh, my Gosh there I am gonna pull the sliver out of somebody's eye, and I got a log in my own. Oh, Jesus, I repented. And may you repent also, and may the whole congregation hear this message on how to deal with gossip and slander, because it'll destroy you and you'll be judged for it.

Matthew 5 and verse 21 says this, verse 22, Pardon me, but I tell you, anyone who is angry with his brother is subject to the judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother or sister, raqqa, which is like, you fool, the answer to the court, Anyone says, you fool, be in danger of hell fire. Raqqa is a defaming word. It's calling someone a moral idiot. Don't call people moral idiots.

Be very careful about that. You've basically murdered them. You share more than is right with somebody. And then has anybody else been affected by slander and gossip? I have.

I have. Not long ago, I had a. A pastor call me, a local pastor. A little over a year ago, and he called me and he repented. One of leading churches in the valley called me and said, I need to repent to you.

I'm like, okay, I've been talking about you and your church for years, and I'm sorry. I'm like, did I do anything? No, you didn't do anything. I said, so you were just talking stink about me? He said, yeah, I'm sorry.

And I said, okay, well, you know, I'll forgive you. I said, would you mind going and cleaning all that up?

Excuse me? I said, well, I mean, if you said a lot of things over the years, why don't you. Why don't you just try to fix that? Well, I'm not sure how to do that. I said, well, I'll just leave you.

Between you and the Lord with that. Thank you for being honest. I mean, we're not exactly close friends. I forgive him. God bless him.

You're going to stand before the Lord and my response. I'll stand before the Lord for my response. In it, Paul said to Timothy in 1st Timothy 5 verse. Verse 13. New International Version.

As for younger widows, do not put them on such a list. For when their sensual desires overcome their dedication to Christ, they want to marry. Thus they bring judgment on themselves because they've broken their first pledge. Besides, they get into the habit of being idle and going about from house to house, and not only become idols or become busy bodies who talk nonsense, saying things they ought not to. You know, women.

Thank God for women. Everybody say, thank you, Jesus, for Women, but they have a tendency. God help me, let me say this right.

They have a tendency. They have a tendency to get in more difficulty with this because they have more words. They. They speak more. And so it can be a.

More difficult for some women than for men.

Was trying to help a young couple as they were married and trying to work things out. And she's like, I just want to know how he feels.

I mean, that's common. So I talked to the guy, said, man, just tell her how you feel, because I don't know how I feel.

I said, okay, bro, it's mad, sad or glad. Just pick any one of those, you know, be true. Don't. Don't say something that's not real. So.

So she. He started commuting. Honey, how do you feel? He's like, I'm glad. You know, men are kind of like part caveman.

We, like, try to figure out a man. Listen, ladies, you try to figure out a man, it's really not that hard.

We like to eat.

I gotta move on. We're not that complex. Women, they're complex.

Quoting Dr. Morocco for many years ago, he said, I feel like I'm Captain James Tiberius Kirk on the starship Enterprise, going where no man has gone before.

It's a beautiful adventure trying to figure that out.

There's a tendency to talk more for women because they're relational more than men. They're relational. They want to talk. They. You know, everybody has pictures on their phones now, but back in the day, before the phones, I mean, you precious ladies, I mean, you're like, this is.

All these pictures. It's like this accordion of photos that could come out of the wallet. Be like, oh, you want to see this? I didn't want to see that. And then.

And you, like, you talk to a man. He's like, yeah, I got my billfold. That's only. She's got pictures of everything. It's relationship.

And you'll see that comes from the garden. There's a downside to being relational is that you can say things that you ought not to. You need to put a guard over your mouth where you're a man and a woman. I know some men that act like women. Women.

How terrible. Well, it's usually because they don't have a father to teach them how to be a man, because masculinity is imparted. I just said a whole mouthful right there. And there are. There are people that are more verbal than others and more relational than others.

And it. When there's many words sin Is not absent. You have to be careful with your language. Come on, somebody say be careful. How to deal with slander.

Eight things.

Love from the heart.

Back in Our text, verse 22. Now you've been purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for one another. If you really love someone, if you really love someone, you're not going to talk evil about them.

Secondly, crave the milk of the word or desire the milk of the word. What's fascinating to me is the more I get into God's Word, the more I study God's Word. Something changes in me every time I study. Like I said, I. I really wasn't thinking too much about slander and gossip till somebody gave me that, that mailed me that thing that they don't even have a return address and won't put their name on it because they need healing and they're scared, I don't know, whatever the reason.

And so I started meditating on it. So I got in the Word and then I'm convicted. You know, the word of God will change you. It's a sharper than any two agent sword and it'll get into you and it'll help you deal with the issues that you have. Every problem that you have can be resolved by the truth of God, God's word.

So if you get God's Word deep down in you, it'll change you. You won't behave that way anymore when you have the truth. That's why it's so important to be discipled.

Desire the milk of the word or crave the milk of the word. Confront correctly. I, I'm. I have a mentoring lesson I'll be bringing to my staff here shortly. There's a right way to confront someone.

The wrong way is send a letter to their pastor and have them preach a whole message to you. That's the wrong way.

It wasn't you, Pastor Becky. I know. Because you know how to. You know how to confront correctly. And I've seen you do it even with me.

And I'm grateful for that. Iron sharpens iron. When you have a problem with somebody, as Pastor Timothy knows, you go up to them. Not you and all of Facebook. You don't do it on a live broadcast on Instagram.

You pull them aside and you talk with them. Like I did with Sister who said. I said that she was a Jezebel. We went and got that other person. I don't know why she lied about me saying that she was a Jezebel and got straight busted and I've done that over and over and over.

You bring gossip to me. I'm not a hero of gossip. And if you're going to throw somebody on the bus, I'll be bringing you to the person that you ran over. I am not the kind of guy that you want to bring gossip to. I just can't stand it because I've been deeply affected by it.

You need to learn to confront properly. Confront correctly. This Matthew 18. If your brother sins against you, go look at Matthew 18, verse 15. There's a right way.

You go and confront them one on one. Another person that had a problem with someone here in the church, you decided to send it to me and call them a wolf in sheep's clothing. But you don't have the spiritual wherewithal and the maturity to go talk to him yourself. Go talk to them yourself. In love, don't do with the tone that I'm now bringing you in rebuke to you.

Call yourself a watchman. Then do it right. Confront correctly.

Let's all just worship God for a second. Amen. Why don't you lift your hands and say, I'm so glad I came to church on Sunday night. Come on. Why don't you bump your neighbor and say, oh, it's so wonderful to be in church?

Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Humble yourself. D humble yourself. James 4 and verse 10.

Humble yourselves before the Lord. He will lift you up. Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you're not keeping it, but sitting in judgment of it.

The reason people gossip is so they can look good and feel good and feel powerful. You mighty watchmen on the wall.

Easy.

You feel powerful when you know things about somebody, man. Trample them down. And it's not of God. It's evil. It's wrong.

I will not be tolerated here. We don't have strife in the church here. We don't have a gossip problem in the church. We don't have a slander problem in the church. Why is that?

Because I preach messages like this. And if you gossip and slander, you will be lovingly handled and dealt with and corrected. We don't have. We have a zero strife policy. You know what that means?

That means no strife. It's not that it doesn't crop up. Every so often, people get their feelings hurt. That happens. I mean, we're people.

We're humans. We go through stuff, but we confront correctly. We work it out. We humble ourselves, we forgive each other, and we move forward.

That's why. That's why there's a marvelous presence of the Lord here. There's peace, there's. There's. There's joy.

There's no strife. Don't have strife where you have envy and strife, says James. Listen closely. You have every evil practice. So where there's envy and strife, you have envy and strife.

In your marriage, you're going to have every evil thing. Every evil thing? Yes, that's what. That's what will spiral down to every evil thing. So you cannot allow for envy and strife.

You must confront it. You must deal it. You deal with it. You must humble yourself. Galatians 5 and verse 16.

Live by the spirit. You'll not gratify the lust of your fallen human nature. Walk in. Everybody say, walk in the spirit. Walk in the.

Walk in the spirit. It's amazing. When you're walking in the Spirit, things are just so much easier. It's just awesome. But it requires you to.

To do it. You have to live and abide in him. Walk in the spirit. Live by the spirit. F. Commit yourself to build up others.

Build up others. Commit yourself to build up others. That's the next point. Right? There it is.

Be committed. You know, the person that I think does this the best in my life is my wife. She's just amazing. She's constantly speaking life. She even speaks life to my dog.

She speaks like, how are you doing, woman of God. She doesn't have guile. It's actually genuine. It really does come from her. She's speaking life.

She puts a guard over her mouth. She's just amazing at that. We all need to be on God's building crew. Speak life over your neighbor. Speak life over your wife.

Life over your children. Don't talk to your children and say idiotic things that bring a curse. There are word curses that can come down on your kids by you looking at them and saying, you're just like your mother's side of the family. For God's sake. I told you children should be seen and not heard.

Now shut up and get it. What is wrong with you? First of all, you look like a giant to this little three foot tall little human. And your behavior is literally modeling what God's behavior is. And when you talk like that to them as a father, they then ascribe many times that ill behavior to your heavenly Father.

And many people are hurt and wounded because of that. And it's only because you've been hurt and wounded when you were raised up and you were, you didn't hear a message like this that there are word curses and you need to stop speaking them. Not only over others, over yourself, over your children, over your church, over your town, over your village, over the government. You need to speak life. Seeking life.

Speak life. Commit yourself to building others up. Turn to your neighbor and say something nice.

Man, if I had hair, I'd want it to be like that right there. That's just amazing. Fantastic drip. Look at that. Wow.

Fantastic. It's beautiful. You're welcome. Turn to somebody else and say something nice. Fantastic.

Anointed prayer. You prayed for the world and the nations appreciate you. You also have amazing hair. Praise God.

Come on, turn to somebody else. Turn behind you.

Love you, mom. You look beautiful tonight.

Learn to speak life. Speak life. Speak. Build up others. Be on God's building crew, not on the devil's wrecking crew.

Speak life. Next. Choose to be kind. Imagine that. Compassionate and forgiving.

Ephesians 4, verse 30 to 32. Attempt to undo the damage. Worship team, would you come? Attempt to undo the damage. What do you mean?

Attempt to undo the damage? Raise your hand if you've been affected by gossip and slander.

Look, look around. Go ahead, raise your hand high. Yeah. Welcome to the human race. All of us have been affected by gossip and slander.

Now examine your own heart. Are you the one that's actually done the gossiping or slandering? Have you done it? And you might find. Yes.

So what do you do? Repent. Repent. Change your behavior. Begin to learn different, live differently and attempt to undo the damage.

Number of years ago we had a young man. And this, this has happened over and over. I'm sure it'll happen again and again. And I'm. I'm also sure it's kind of seed time and harvest and it goes along with really the role that I have as a senior leader here.

A lot of people work out their issues that they have with their father. They work it out with me because I'm now the father figure of sigh of sorts in their life. Spiritual authority. And that's a, that's a holy thing to me. But as a result, I have people that go through cycles of hating me.

I've had people that try to hurt me.

I've had all kinds of things happen.

And I understand that people have to get healed.

People have to. We need healing. We need healing from being gossiped and slandered and we need healing from the effects of that. And then we need to not do it to Other people. And you take a message like this.

Take the notes home. Teach it to all your kids. Go back over it again, especially those of you that have learned loose lips. Be reminded that loose lips sink ships. You want your ship sunk?

Keep talking. You want to end up in big trouble with God? Keep talking. Want to end up insane? Ecclesiastes.

Keep gossiping. I would highly advise you don't. So I preach a message like this, you're born again. You don't do that. Now you struggle with a little bit, okay?

But change. Get this. Get it down. Ask God. God, pull it out of me.

Take it out of me. Lord, I don't want to think more highly of myself than I ought to. Lord, forgive me for my pride. I feel better when I step on other people.

To the person that wrote the letter, I've come across very strong.

I love you. I do not know who you are. I will not castigate you and I will not embarrass you. I will lovingly correct you on how to bring correction of something that you perceive. You perceive it.

Is it true?

It's your perception.

The fact is, maybe some of those things are true. Who knows? But don't. Don't send me anonymous note.

Be a man, be a woman, whoever you are, and like, lovingly confront. My number is 907-888-1212. I'm just a joke inside. My number. You need to talk to me, call the church.

I'm happy to give my number out, just not over the Internet and around the world. All right. My gosh, I get enough crazy texts and hi, remember me? No block.

Hi.

Try to undo the damage. If you've hurt people through slander and gossip, try to undo it. Well, how you go to the person like that pastor did with me, and he said, forgive me. I've talked about you and your church and I'm convicted. And.

And I forgave him. Then I asked him go clean it up, which I'm not sure he did, but that's on him. It's like standing on Pioneer peak with a big down pillow and you gossip and you just rip open that down pillow and all those feathers go everywhere. Because you tell someone else and you slander someone and you bring accusations, accusation. New character assassinates somebody and it goes and it spreads around.

And how many people you talk to and they talk to people and then the offense that takes place and before you know it, you know the lady, the lady with the pointy hat earlier story, she left. She couldn't stay in the church. She couldn't stay in the church because we just couldn't get a hold of it. Everybody treated her like there. She's like sponge of stupid Pentecostal witchcraft.

When she had been set free, renounced all of that. Yeah. She came out of a long line of witches.

Attempt to undo the damage that you've done. Talk to people that you talk to. You say, that is, like, so embarrassing. Good. Don't do it again.

That's the right thing. That's the right thing. Make amends. You know, that's something that a lot of Christians don't do. They'll rip somebody off and then they'll, you know, maybe confess that they did it.

But you shouldn't even pay him back. Lord. Sorry, Lord, I. Forgive me for ripping that person off. Yeah, pay them back with interest. That's amends.

It's going back and saying sorry and fixing what you broke. Gossip and slander is very, very painful for people. And there are people that are not in churches today because of gossip and slander. Don't do it. Deal with gossip and slander.

Did you get something?

Well, I hope you were encouraged by God's word. Thank you again for listening to Kings Alaska podcast. God bless you. For more great content, go to kcalaska.com and may God's face shine upon you and give you peace.