The following is a pre-recorded program. Here is why I do not engage in a mud-slinging battle with destructive critics. It s time for The Line of Fire with your host, biblical scholar and cultural commentator Dr. Michael Brown. Your voice for moral sanity and spiritual clarity. Call 866-34-TRUTH to get on The Line of Fire. And now, here s your host, Dr. Michael Brown.
Hey friends, Michael Brown. So good to be with you. I won t be taking calls today. Sit back, enjoy the broadcast. If you re watching on YouTube, go ahead and give a thumbs up as the broadcast is going. If you re enjoying it, share it with others.
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Go to TheLineOfFire.org TheLineOfFire.org and click Subscribe. Let me explain on this broadcast why I don t get into a mud-slinging battle with destructive critics. And I make a big distinction between constructive critics who speak with a father s heart, who bring life and redemption, who have a heart for restoration and change, and destructive critics who mock, who are not redemptive, who use double standards, who strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.
I make a distinction between them. I ll engage anyone in terms of private dialogue, if that can be of help and I have the time. I ll do my best to reach across the aisle to people with differences. And by all means, if there s something that someone has I need to hear, whether I consider them constructive or destructive, if there s some truth in what they re saying and it can change me, or I need to hear it, or it could prevent me from making an error, or could help me draw people to Jesus, I want to hear.
I want to hear. And I m going to give you some important scripture about hearing rebuke, hearing correction, and how important that is. The first hate letter I ever got when I was out ministering, I d been attacked for different things over the years, but it was the first hate letter that was handed to me. I was out ministering in the early years, I must have been standing over at our book table, greeting people, or someone who was managing the book table, someone gave the letter to them. I forget, all I know is I came home with this letter, somewhere in the early to mid 80s, and I looked at the thing and it was crazy. The guy who wrote it was off his rocker and accused me of crazy stuff. I mean, the guy was off his rocker. And I came home and I gave it to Nancy, and I said, Look at this, this guy s off his rocker. And she read it, and you know what her response was? She said, Do you think there s any truth to it? I said, Honey, the guy s off his rocker. She said, No, I know, he is. But you think there s any truth to it?
That s the woman I m married to. So, by all means, let me learn from whoever I can learn from. If you hate my guts, and you make your living putting out videos mocking me, but there s some truth in what you re saying, I want to hear it, even if it comes from you. So, I m not saying, I only listen to the constructive ones, the destructive ones, I don t know.
If there s some truth in what they re saying, I want to hear it. And look at what the Word of God says. Proverbs chapter 1 verses 7 to 9. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. Listen, my son, to your father s instruction, and do not forsake your mother s teaching.
There will be a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck. And then I m going to read a series of verses from Proverbs chapter 9 verse 8, chapter 15 verse 31, 17, 10, 19, 25, 25, 12, 29, 1. Do not rebuke a mocker, or he will hate you. Rebuke a wise man, and he will love you. He who listens to a life-giving rebuke will be at home among the wise. A rebuke impresses a man of discernment more than a hundred lashes a fool. Flog a mocker, and the simple will learn prudence. Rebuke a discerning man, and he will gain knowledge. Like an earring of gold or an ornament of fine gold is a wise man s rebuke to a listening ear.
A man who remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed without remedy. Proverbs 27, 5, and 6. Proverbs 28, 23, and Ecclesiastes 7, 5 say this, Better is open rebuke than hidden love.
Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses. He who rebukes a man will in the end gain more favor than he who has a flattering tongue. It is better to heed a wise man s rebuke than to listen to the song of fools. Proverbs 3, 11, and 12. My son, do not despise the Lord s discipline and do not resent his rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those he loves as a father of the Son he delights in. Revelation 3, Jesus speaking, verses 19 and 20. Those whom I love I rebuke in discipline, so be earnest and repent. And then Psalm 141, verse 5. The Hebrews is a little difficult, but I believe this is a good translation. Let a righteous man strike me, meaning with his words, it is a kindness. Let him rebuke me, it is oil on my head.
My head will not refuse it. Paul writes this in 2 Timothy 3, verses 16, 3 16 to 4, 4. All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work, and the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge. Preach the word, be prepared in season and out of season, correct, rebuke, and encourage, with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. Titus 2 15, these then are the things you should teach, encourage, and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you. So, I am all for speaking the truth in love. I am all for constructive, godly criticism. And we need people speaking into our lives who don't agree with us, or people who love us enough to tell us the truth when we're in error.
We need that, and if we can humble ourselves and embrace it, it is absolutely life-giving. At the same time, I will not engage in a mud-slinging battle with destructive critics. I will not get in the mud with them.
I will not counter their attack video, or attack meme, or attack article, or attack broadcast with one of my own. Instead, I will pray the blessing of God on them. Where they're speaking the truth, may they be blessed.
Where they're in error, may they be corrected. And then I'll pray the identical prayer for myself. Although I must say, I feel bad for people who get in the mud. I feel bad for people who miss so many of the good things that God is doing. I feel bad for those who set themselves up as corrector-in-chief in the body.
I grieve for, quote, discernment ministries that, as I said earlier, strain out a gnat and swallow a camel, because I know there's so much more the Lord has for them. So I want to give you some constructive reasons. Maybe you're a pastor leader, you're coming under attack. Maybe you're a social media influencer as a believer, you're coming under attack. And the attacks are increasing, and our whole website's devoted to taking you down.
Or books being written about you, or your local newspapers attacking. And it's not the criticism of love. It's not someone coming to you and saying, Pastor, I love you. I believe in the calling of God on your life. I believe you're sincere, but please hear me. This tangent you're on now is destructive and dangerous. I've been in your church 20 years.
I've never asked for an appointment to see you like this, but I'm pleading with you to please hear me. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the local newspaper posting lies about you. I'm talking about some immature Christian group down the road blasting you with social memes that are completely dishonest.
That's what I'm talking about. What do you do? Because look, I am a debater. I love to debate. If I had the time, if my schedule permitted it, and there were enough people to do it, I'd do a debate every day.
I'd do multiple debates in it. I love doing it. And when I am looking at social media comments, most of the time I'm not able, just because the amount that comes in it and the amount and the things that God has called me to do. But when I see something posted that's false, I want to correct it. When I see someone challenge me, I want to engage. That means I'm not running from it. I would love to take the time to show this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong, but this, confront this, call this out.
I would love to do it. And then right needs to be sharp and sharpen me. So it's not that I'm avoiding the controversies, but there are principles involved. There are reasons that I do not get into mud slinging battles with critics.
I want to read something to you that Martin Luther King said, and then we'll get into some more scripture from the book of Nehemiah. He explains this in his letter from a Birmingham jail. He said, seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. He said, if I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work. I would have no time for constructive work.
If I spent my time responding to critics, I don't have critics on the level Martin Luther King did, obviously, but if I spent my time responding to critics, I wouldn't be out preaching anywhere. I wouldn't be teaching in any ministry schools. I wouldn't be working on the latest book. I wouldn't be spending time with Nancy. I wouldn't be ministering to other people. I wouldn't be praying.
I wouldn't be reading the Bible, because all I'd be doing is responding to critics day and night. So you have to, you know, your calling and your purpose, and evangelist Reinhard Bonnke, in his thunderous way, said, I'm not getting off a combine harvester to catch a mouse. In other words, he's preaching to crowds of millions, literally of millions of millions of people in Africa, preaching a message of repentance and salvation through the blood of Jesus through the cross, new life in the Lord, and then getting people plugged into local churches. In his mind, he's on a combine harvester reaching masses of people by assignment from the Lord. He's not going to get off from there to, well, someone didn't like this, the way you said it, and you're going to criticize this, and the suits you're wearing, well, you're trying this.
No, that's like trying to catch a mouse. Get on with the work. Get on with the work. Bonnke also said this, my answer to the critics is my next gospel crusade. So he's going to go and do what God gave him to do.
The critics are going to attack him all the more for it. He's going to do what God called him to do. And remember, I started with the importance of being willing to receive correction. I started with the importance of walking in humility and having open ears to correction and reproof, and how important it is. And a wise man, you rebuke him, and he graces him, he loves it when it's true. Amen?
So I'm not talking about walking in an arrogance, but when you have that positive humility, then do what God has called you to do, don't let anyone get you off. This is Michael Ellison, founder of TriVita Wellness. Have you ever noticed that you're not as strong as you would like to be? Is your muscle strength and even balance not like it was just a few years ago? I want to introduce to you Mile Health, an amazing product packed with nine essential amino acids that has been clinically proven to build strong lean muscles at any age. This formula has 25 human studies and over 20 million dollars in scientific research.
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As a new customer, 100% of your order proceeds from your first order will go to support the Line of Fire radio broadcast. Call 1-800-771-5584 or online at TriVita.com. With the Mile Health, my strength has gone up. I was doing weight that I haven't done since my 20s. I usually ride my bike to the gym and then on the way back after I've done my weight training, I'm huffing and puffing and on Sunday, I rode my bike there and back and I had so much energy. I'm telling you, with the Mile Health, amazing.
I can't believe it. Try Mile Health for yourself. Call 1-800-771-5584, 1-800-771-5584 or online at TriVita.com. It's the Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the Line of Fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH.
Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Shout out to our co-sponsor, TriVita. Yeah, it's on the air because they asked me, please try these products first and if you find them helpful, then we'll be a co-sponsor and we'll donate our money to your ministry.
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Why I don't get into a mudslinging battle with hyper critics, with destructive critics. Nehemiah, there's six chapters. So Nehemiah has come back from Persian exile, Babylonian Persian exile. He is now in in Judah, territory of Judea. He is now rebuilding the city of Jerusalem.
He's been giving funding and backing by the king to do this and he is now at the work. But there's constant opposition. The enemies of the Jews don't want the Jews back there. Enemies of the Jews enemies of the Jews don't want Jerusalem built up.
So there is opposition. Nehemiah chapter six, verse one. When word came to Sambalat, Toviah, Geshem, the Arab, and the rest of the enemies that I had rebuilt the wall, and not a gap was left in it, though up to that time I had not set the doors and the gates, Sambalat and Geshem sent me this message. Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono.
This is some distance outside of Jerusalem, some miles, as I understand it, outside of Jerusalem. But he says, but they were scheming to harm me. So I sent messengers to them with the reply, I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you? Now look at this, four times they sent me the same message and each time I gave the same answer.
Then the fifth time, Sambalat sent his aid to me with the same message and in his hand was an unsealed letter and then there's the attack on them in the letter. So what's so important to, there's a bunch of things to take from this, but notice twice in his answer he talks about going down, going down. Well one reason is he's doing work on the wall, so he's got to come down from the wall to meet with them.
The other thing is that he's going to leave Jerusalem and Jerusalem was geographically higher than the surrounding area and considered spiritually higher. So you would go down from Jerusalem and say, why should I go down, come down from this important work and go down to see you? So let me give you reasons, a list of reasons why I do not get into a mud slinging battle with destructive critics and why you shouldn't either. Well you do what God calls you to do. Let me encourage you not to feel the need to. It's not for me to tell you what to do or not to do. Let me encourage you not to feel the need or responsibility to and more importantly don't let your flesh get caught up in pride.
Well you just said this about me, I'm gonna, well don't get caught up in pride. If your life is right with God, he will have your back and when there is a time to speak, you can speak in a righteous and constructive way. So number one, to engage the destructive critic means coming down from the wall. We lower ourselves and we neglect the work we're supposed to be doing. We put ourselves in harm's way. So this is the first thing, you have an assignment, you have a job, you have a commission, whatever that is in life, whatever that is in ministry and especially I know many pastors and leaders listen to these broadcasts.
So please hear this, you have a role. If you're someone with influence over others in a way that people know your name and they may attack you, you have a role, you have an assignment, you have a place on that wall and if you come down from that, you're neglecting the work, you're neglecting what God called you to do to engage in others. There's only so much time in a day and only so much time in a life and God forbid that instead of spending quality time with God in prayer, I'm getting into an intranet battle with some critic and back and forth, you blast me, I'll blast you and so on and I neglected the Lord because of it. God forbid you neglect spending time with your family and on and on. God forbid that we do these things when we have a high and lofty and sacred and beautiful calling that we need to attend to. A job, a responsibility.
I mean what would you think of the mom, she leaves the kid on the diaper changing table screaming and other kids waiting for their breakfast because she's got to get into a fight with someone I don't know. You said this about me, I'll say this. It's like no, no, no, don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. You've got a sacred responsibility. Give yourself to that and what happens is we lower ourselves.
Think of this. Here's an athlete on the field, right, and they're getting heckled by a fan. Nobody knows the fan's name and the people watching the game at home, they can't even hear the fan. People, the rest of the stadium, they can't even hear the fan.
It's just the player right over there. Well, what if that player now, oh yeah, you think that, starts yelling and screaming and the ball comes right, let's say it's a baseball game, the ball comes his way and he's busy yapping with this person. You just failed your team. You may have cost them a game.
That game may have cost you the playoffs or a season. No, no, you've got to roll there and you are in that sense above the fray. Think of the Queen of England when she was alive. Would she engage hecklers and stop, stop the limo, stop the limo and roll down the window and start putting. Now she just lowered herself. She's not the queen. She's not walking in dignity and honor. She's lowering herself.
Don't come down off the wall and lower yourself. I saw somebody posted something. I only know it because a colleague responded to him and sent me a screenshot.
This is from a pastor. That's all I'm going to say. So you can't figure out who I'm talking about. I'm not even going to say what social media platform it was. I've no desire to draw attention to what the person did, but it was, it was utterly babyish. It was utterly babyish. I mean, it literally felt like a child did it. Literally.
This is, I don't know how old the guy is, maybe his fifties, but when I saw the post, it literally seemed like a child wrote it. Am I now going to get down? Not only have I not helped anything, but I've just lowered myself. So don't come down from your own ethical standards. Don't come down from moral high ground.
I don't mean looking down at others and despising them as if we are somehow better. I mean, if someone else is operating at a lower level, you don't operate there. You know, if it's some game, let's say it's a boxing match and a guy hits a low blow, it's for the ref to deal with that and disqualify that person. If you decide, I'm just going to hit low, I'm going to hit the ref because he's not doing anything. Now you get disqualified.
You're no better. So if we see things that are destructive, if we see things that are ugly, if we see things that are harmful, don't let that infect you. You start getting in a mud slinging battle. Everybody gets dirty.
Everybody gets dirty. We neglect the work we're called to do and we can even put ourselves in a black hole. And when people engage in an immature way, a mocking way, click bait video, mocking this, mocking that. If you now descend into that and you respond in kind, they've just won a battle. They have just dragged you in to their world in that regard. So let constructive criticism come.
It's life-giving. Let us be humble people who are open to correction. Let us make sure we have people in our lives who speak corrective things to us. I'm married to my number one critic. Nancy loves me.
We are deeply in love, 48 years, deeply in love. She believes in God's calling on my life and has respect for me as a man of God on the one hand. On the other hand, she is my day and night critic and one who's always challenging me to go deeper in God as if I'm not even anchored deep yet. So I live with that and it is life-giving because number one, it reminds me I'm nobody, just a servant. And number two, the challenge is there's more. There's more. We can grow in God and go deeper in God.
All right, we will be right back. This is Michael Ellison, founder of TriVita Wellness. Have you ever noticed that you're not as strong as you would like to be? Is your muscle strength and even balance not like it was just a few years ago? I want to introduce to you Mile Health, an amazing product packed with nine essential amino acids that has been clinically proven to build strong lean muscles at any age. This formula has 25 human studies and over 20 million dollars in scientific research.
It has been used by the U.S. Olympic swim team, the NASA astronaut program, the U.S. military, and yes, by thousands of people just like you. It has made such an incredible difference in my life that just recently in my annual physical, my physician said you have unusual strength and balance for a man of your age. Thank you, Mile Health. Here is our special offer for you as a line of fire listener.
Feel stronger, have better balance, and improved quality of life. Try Mile Health for yourself. Order today and use promo code BROWN25 to receive 25% off your order.
As a new customer, 100% of your order proceeds from your first order will go to support the Line of Fire radio broadcast. Call 1-800-771-5584 or online at TriVita.com. With the Mile Health, my strength has gone up. I was doing weight that I haven't done since my 20s. I usually ride my bike to the gym and then on the way back after I've done my weight training, I'm huffing and puffing and on Sunday I rode my bike there and back and I had so much energy. I'm telling you with the Mile Health, amazing.
I just, I can't believe it. Try Mile Health for yourself. Call 1-800-771-5584 1-800-771-5584 or online at TriVita.com. It's the Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the Line of Fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.
Thanks for joining us on the Line of Fire. Michael Brown here talking about why I don't get into mud slinging battles with hypercritics. I have at times addressed waves of criticism that I felt needed to be addressed for the health of the body. For example, during the Browns revival, when there were so many false reports, so much misinformation, so many attacks on the things the spirit was doing, people were confused. Pastors were having questions from people in their flocks.
Elders didn't know how to manage certain things. So I felt it was important that in a constructive way I replied to hypercritics, critics in general, wrote a book initially titled Let No One Deceive You and then reissued as the revival answer book. And when I reissued it, it was post revival and I felt that some of the language in Let No One Deceive You felt a little reactionary. As much as I tried to write it with grace and write it with maturity and write it with honor, when I stepped back I felt it could be written on an even better level. So yeah, I will clearly rebuke things that are in error and call out a destructive critical spirit, but by God's grace doing it with love and in a non-reactionary way. So I've done that.
That's the revival answer book. And of course when I'm burdened to address error in the body or call out things that are wrong, I grieve over it. I feel burdened to do it, search my own heart, my own life, and then write and address things. So I've been addressing controversy for decades, but when you're in the middle of ministry or you stand for certain issues or you address controversy, you're going to get a lot of flak coming your way. It's going to happen to any of us. It's just, it's the norm, especially with social media. Everybody comes in this kind of attack.
So you may just be somebody, nobody knows your name, you're on social media. I mean, you're not famous, like big influencer, but you're getting the same junk people, critics attacking. There is a helpful criticism, which comes from the father's heart, which we do ourselves a disservice, but we don't hear. And there's destructive criticism, it's just tearing down and there's nothing helpful in it. And to get into a battle there is to waste your time and lower yourself.
Let me give you some more reasons why. Personally, I don't get into mudslinging battles with destructive critics. We've said it means coming down from the wall, coming down from your work. It means that you lower yourself to their level and neglect what God is calling you to do. And you may even put yourself in harm's way. I said that many times the destructive critics are immature. And when you engage them, you become like them. Here's another reason that I don't engage in a mudslinging battle with destructive critics. I have sat down for dialogue and interaction with some whose criticism I feel is often destructive and unhelpful.
But if we could help the body and we could model honest discussion, or we could seek to learn from each other, I'm game to do or the schedule permits. But again, I'm talking about the mudslinging, you attack me, I attack you. You put out a video against me, I put out a video against you. You make it more sensational, I make it more sensational still. So, another reason I don't do it is it's a black hole.
It's a black hole. And you're never going to satisfy destructive critics unless you join them. Whatever you say will not go far enough It will always end with, what about this, what about this, until you repudiate your ways and go their way.
When it comes to a battle, and I've found this with some, there's one individual constantly about, you know, original Israelites are black, etc. So I, with a gracious spirit, engaged on internet and got the guys contact info, reached out, engaged them graciously privately. I put out like a one-hour video.
Next thing, he's got like a series of 10, three-hour videos attacking and then attacking me in ugly ways. Personally, I'll say, hey, I'm still going to address issues when they come up. I'm still going to address issues. But sometimes you think, okay, your one response, no, this is what some people do. This is their life. This is their focus. This is their thing. And you just poke the bear in that regard. So to what use?
And notice in Nehemiah, I find this so interesting, is that four times they ask him the same thing. What about this? What about this? What about this?
What about this? Come down, come down, come down, come down. We want to meet.
We want to meet. And he sends the same answer every time. So ultimately you just have to say, hey, I'm not going to engage you. And then they send out a letter attacking, say, hey, I'm not going to engage you.
I'm simply not going to engage you. Here's something else to consider. And I learned this, oh, let's see. I started teaching in ministry school in Long Island, Christ for the Nations in 1983. So I was 28 years old.
So I'm somewhere 28, 29 years old. And I found out that some of the students didn't like me or had issues with me and were talking behind my back. And I just assumed it was kind of widespread. And I got up in front of the class and I said, I just want to address those who've been gossiping and speaking behind my back, only to see this, all these eyes look up, like, what are you talking about? Mr. Brown, it wasn't Dr. Brown.
What are you, who's he talking about? White gossip. They didn't know about it. It was a couple of people talking to each other, two or three. I made it like the whole class.
Now everyone wants to know what are they saying? What's the problem? Because these students love me and they didn't know there was any issue. I suddenly made this a public issue for everybody.
So maybe somebody sends you something, three people see it. Well, maybe you have a platform. Let's just say this. All right.
You're critics. And I don't mean that having a bigger platform makes you better or holier or right. I'm just using this example here. Okay. Let's say all you post is attack, attack, attack on Christian leaders, attack, attack, attack. And you have, oh, let's say on X, formerly Twitter. Let's say you have 300 followers.
All right. And you're attacking these big name ministries with millions of followers and hundreds of thousands of followers and all this. And because you're putting their name in it, maybe guy's looking through his account and he sees your post come up and it's got six people have seen it. Well, the moment he responds to it, now it's on his platform. He's responded.
Suddenly thousands, hundreds of thousands might see it. So again, it's not a matter of, I have the platform. I am the big right one. No, it's a matter of saying that many times the people attacking, that's their identity. That's what they do.
Whether they're just fleshly people or they feel God's call them to do whatever it is. And many times they're not well known or they have no credible ministry. In other words, there was one critic attacking me all the time. And I said, I will engage with you privately if you tell me who you are. I have no idea who you are. You might be some pastor that got kicked out of his church for a financial scandal the last 20 years. And now you started some internet ministry anonymously. I don't know who you are. You might be some 18 year old kid that just started your first year of Bible call. I have no idea who you are, what your ministry is, what your accountability is, what your history is.
I have no idea about any of that whatsoever. So who am I engaging with? If I now say, well, so-and-so on this platform said thus and such, oh, Dr. Brown, what platform is it?
Oh, now everyone's looking at it. So why bring attention to something? Why bring attention to an attack if you know it's unethical, if you know it's unfair, if you know it's slanderous? Every so often I engage only to make something a teachable moment. In other words, if I have time and I see something, I think I'm going to engage to see how this person responds. And their response is going to demonstrate who they really are. And very quickly that can be seen and you can use that as a teachable moment. Hey, let me give you an example of this, this, and this.
Otherwise, why elevate the person? It's like saying, come on the wall here where everybody can hear what you have to say. Here's another issue.
And I touched on it, but I want to come back to it. When you engage in this type of behavior, you're going to get dirty. It's just the reality. If you see somebody, they're standing in the mud, covered with mud, and they're challenging you and provoking you and trying to call you out as you walk by, if you engage them, you're going to get muddy also. It's just the way it's going to work. You are going to be brought into their world.
And one way or another, either what they say to you or how you respond is going to get you muddy. There was a basketball player, Ron Artest. Then he changed his name.
Was it to Meadow World Peace? And he would have these temper issues and get in trouble, get suspended and things like that. He was a very, very good basketball player. So he was really on the edge of a suspension. And I remember I was watching a game and something really provoked him and he walked away. He did the right thing.
Some uproar with the fans. He did the right thing. He walked away and I thought, good job, man. Good job.
Self-control. Could have been a fan attack him. He didn't respond. And he's just kind of sitting there chilling. And somebody in the stands throws, if I remember, throws whatever they're drinking, soda, something like that, throws the thing down at them and hits them with it. Hits them with the straw and the soda thing and all that and hits them with it. And he jumps up and I think he runs into the stands and I thought, he was really trying.
He was really trying. And then he got provoked. Listen, it happens with church splits all the time. It's acrimonious. It's painful. It's difficult, but you're doing good. And people say, you left the church because of this, because all kinds of false accusations. But you're doing good.
You're doing good. And then you see someone post something totally false about you. It's like, what?
I got to respond. And you get drawn back in and, oh, now you get dirty yourself. It takes away your peace. It takes away your joy. It takes away your dignity. And what we don't know can't hurt us.
Well, that's not true. What we don't know often can hurt us. But other times, what we don't know won't hurt us. In other words, if God's blessing your life, things going well in your own life, your walk with the Lord, your family, your ministry, your job, things are good.
Somebody's slamming you behind your back. This happened and that. And you know, hey, it's all right. You're blessed. Everything's good.
Everything's good. So don't get dragged away from your place of peace. Don't get dragged away from your place of fruitfulness. Don't get dragged away from your place of responsibility. And as much as my flesh would enjoy mudslinging battles and the debater in me would enjoy demolishing false accusations and things like that, it would be an absolute distraction from the workouts called me to do.
It would be elevating the mudslinging to give it credibility. And it would get me dirty as well. So why do it? To what purpose? Everything's satisfying the flesh.
And hopefully, as children of God, you can be better than them. We'll be right back. This is Michael Ellison, founder of TriVita Wellness. Have you ever noticed that you're not as strong as you would like to be? Is your muscle strength and even balance not like it was just a few years ago? I want to introduce to you Mile Health, an amazing product packed with nine essential amino acids that has been clinically proven to build strong lean muscles at any age. This formula has 25 human studies and over 20 million dollars in scientific research.
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I can't believe it. Try Mile Health for yourself. Call 1-800-771-5584, 1-800-771-5584 or online at TriVita.com. It's the Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the Line of Fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.
Welcome back to the Line of Fire broadcast. Share my own heart and perspective as to why I don't get engaged in mud-slinging battles with hyper critics, with destructive critics. I always wanted to have a posture of humility, to learn from anyone I can. Always wanted to be willing to receive correction, rebuke, wherever it comes from.
If it's from God, if it's based on truth, whoever it comes through is secondary. But there is criticism that is destructive, that does more harm than good, which is often hypocritical, which uses unequal weights and measures. In other words, will destroy you from a little thing while overlooking things like that in the critic's life or in the critic's camp. It's almost glaring things, double standards. Well, you'll condemn somebody for doing one thing that's not in your camp and someone in your camp does the same thing and you find a reason to excuse it or overlook it. So that type of criticism is destructive, it's often immature, results in name calling, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, as opposed to, hey, here's some real concerns and we want to share these concerns with love and here are ways to address these concerns. So I don't engage in mudslinging battles with hyper critics and I'm not aware of 99% of the stuff that's out there coming against me and constantly examining my own life, constantly going before the Lord for his critique and criticism, constantly seeking to have a listening ear to those that want to speak into my life. By God's grace, I want that to be my posture all the years of my life and stay low before him and not think that I'm some big anybody.
And hopefully we all have that attitude before the Lord. But every so often I'm aware of stuff because someone will suddenly be like, have you seen this? So I'll just see, oh, here's a video attacking me, an article attacking me. If I had the time, literally, if I had the time, I'd probably enjoy watching this stuff, reading it, watching this stuff, reading it, just to see what's being said or how outlandish the thing is or how off base or where there's a misunderstanding.
And if there's anything I could learn from it, great, but I don't have the time, little of the interest, inclination, just not there. So I only know stuff's out there because it's sent to me or because it'll come up in my feed, something like that. And there's pride, pride that wants to see what are they saying about me. Or I know, for example, when I'm on certain YouTube channels or on someone's station, I know that the vast majority of that person's followers don't like me or differ with me or anti-charismatic or anti-whatever. And I know that if my stuff is posted on their site, I'm going to get blasted day and night. Or if I'm dialing with a black Hebrew Israelite, it's on a black Hebrew Israelite site, I'm going to, I'm a white devil, I'm white Edomite devil, I'm Satan incarnate and on and on and on and on.
So I'm aware that's coming. So I'm aware every day of the week, there are people slandering me in the ugliest imaginable terms. If there was pride involved, it's like, oh, I want to say something.
What are they saying about me? I want to set the record straight. Well, for what? For who?
For whose sake? So people will think a certain thing about me? What I live for, what I live for is the favor of God and the smile of God. And God who knows me better, infinitely better than anyone. Nancy knows me better than any human being.
God knows me infinitely more than she does. All I want is His pleasure. All I want is His favor. If the whole world thinks I'm a hero and God says, depart from me, that is unimaginably bad news. If the whole the whole world thinks I'm an idiot and a jerk and God says, well done, that is the most wonderful news I could hear.
And that's what we need, His favor, His smile. You say, well, is there ever a right time to answer? If it can be constructive, if it can be helpful. Now look, my flesh sometimes wants to have dark times when I respond with sarcasm and sometimes it's sarcasm to drill home a point of absurdity of this is the most absurd, ridiculous thing I've ever heard about this subject or this subject. So I respond with sarcasm to underscore the absurdity.
I'm sure there are times when my flesh wants to respond with sarcasm to ridicule someone for saying a particular thing because it's a fleshly reaction. So we have to determine is this constructive? Is this helpful?
Will this edify? Now I might respond to a serious false criticism about me if it hurt people from receiving from me. If the lies circulated in such a way that I was unable to minister to people and serve them.
Let's use this analogy. Let's say there's an epidemic in your community. Let's say that I actually have the antidote. I've been sent by my company with the antidote. I'm the only one in your region with the antidote.
I'm coming through your community tomorrow and there's an announcement from someone that hates your community. Don't listen to this guy, this guy Mike Brown. He's actually bringing poison. It's going to make the disease even worse. He's a liar.
He's doing this for money. Well, because I want to get the antidote to you, I might respond to that. Not for so that you think differently of me so I can get the antidote to you. There was a hyper critic some years back that got very upset with me over a certain issue when I took a stand and he said, I really enjoyed your books. A queer thing happened to American culture wars books and I really enjoyed your volumes on answering Jewish objections to Jesus but I won't use them anymore. I said to him, hey, you can hate my position on this other issue but if those resources blessed you, be blessed by them. During the time of revival, there was one series of articles, hit piece articles, unbelievably false, libelous, incorrect, attacking what God was doing in Brownsville, attacking the different leaders and it was after 40 plus positive articles from the local newspaper.
Something happened, they turned negative, had the streak and then went back to normal or positive afterwards. But we met together, leadership team, one day and we said, should we respond? We all agreed on a personal level, there's no need. We have no need to respond. There's no purpose in responding but should we respond for the good of those who live in the community? That did go national. I mean, it had ripple effect nationally, excuse me, a tiny, tiny effect nationally in terms of people picking it up and attacking us but locally, we thought, okay, what about somebody who lives in the community because people are coming in every week and getting saved, getting touched, getting changed.
What if they hear something and they believe it's true and because of that, they don't come? So, we agreed that I would respond. We isolated like 40 or 50 charges that I would respond to each one factually. Then we would pay to take out a two-page ad, it was right before Thanksgiving or whatever year it was. We take a two-page ad, so this way we were paying for it, they would publish it and then it was just factual response. We wished everyone a happy Thanksgiving, including the people from the newspaper that were attacking us and then we went on and that was it. We didn't talk about it because 99.999% of the people coming, they were coming because they were hungry and thirsty and believed in what God was doing and either they didn't know about the criticism or they didn't care about it. For us to get up to the service and respond to the critics like, I came to be edified, I came to hear the word of God, not you defend yourself. I don't care about what those critics said.
If I care about what the critics said, I wouldn't be here. So, we thought it through and said, okay, let's provide factual answers for those that really want to know the truth and let's go on. So, there are times when we can respond constructively, but otherwise, friends, don't get caught up.
Don't get dragged down. Don't think you have to defend everything. Let God set the record straight. Let him set the record straight. If people come with honest questions, you can answer the questions. If there is a time, again, constructive because people are wondering or they've heard false things and you want them to be helped and you want to clear the record so the truth can go forth, great, but don't do it out of pride.
Don't do it out of defensiveness. And here's what Martin Luther King said and it's why he wrote Letter to Birmingham Jail. He said, he just explained why he doesn't respond to critics normally. Take all this time, he couldn't be doing the constructive work he's called to do.
And I've said many other things. It lowers you. You get caught up in the thing and can compromise, not just pulling you away from your work, but your own testimony. But Dr. King said this, but since I feel, the ones he's responding to, that you were men of genuine good and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statements in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.
And that resulted in his letter from a Birmingham jail, which as I understand it, he wrote, you know, just scraps of paper and different things put it together and we're all, the benefit, we've all benefited from him doing that very thing. So there are those with genuine questions, let's do our best to give good answers. There are those who are concerned, they have issues, let's do our best to let's do our best to help and give them the truth. And there are those whose goal is to tear down. There are those who are mockers. There are those who are not redemptive. There are those who I, I'm not naming names or thinking of people, but I could almost guarantee there are no tears behind what you're doing. There's no fasting and praying for those that they differ with. So I pray for them. I feel bad.
I pray for them. I don't look at myself as morally or spiritually superior. I just think I'm not going to get in the mud.
I'm not going to sling the mud. And you say, well, why did you take a whole show to do it? Well, notice I didn't name a name of anybody or a ministry, an individual, because that's not the goal. It's to help us navigate these things, because this is something we all have to deal with. I did this explaining on my end to make it a teachable moment for all of us, because the world in which we live in, the volatile internet world where anybody can have a voice overnight and anybody can be attacked and anybody can be a critic and anybody can be an authority, it's, it's, it's, it's worse than the wild west, right?
It's, it is a wild world out there and we are so easily defiled by it. So let's step higher and above all, let's not be distracted from the Holy work God's given us to do. Let us not be not be distracted. Do not come down from the wall. Give yourself to the task because you've been called YouTube. Stay humble. Stay open. Be teachable. You will be blessed. You will run well. You'll stand now. You're finished. God bless.
