Enough with the Social Media Gossip!

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. Welcome to the Line of Fire.

Michael Brown coming to you from our great studio at Christ for the Nations in Dallas, Texas. Same number as always to call. 866-3-4-TRUTH.

866-348-7884 is the number to call. There we are. I'm looking at our feed, which I normally don't, over on our YouTube channel.

Just a few seconds behind our live feed here. Great to have you with us. We are going to talk about a very important and volatile subject, a crucial subject, something that I cannot overemphasize in terms of the importance of this subject. And I want to stand today, friends, as a watchman on the wall, as a father, as an elder, I want to shout out as loudly as I can, we must watch our words.

We must guard our tongues. We must do a better job of what we post and what we say. There is unbelievable amount of misunderstanding of many very important issues.

And we so freely post things we probably wouldn't ever say them face to face with others. But remarkably, the amount of division, the amount of speculation, the amount of misinformation, the amount of playing out judgmental attitudes being posted, words being posted without knowing facts and information, it is absolutely devastating to the health and well-being of the body. It is worse than cancer in the body.

This is a cancer in the spirit and a cancer in the church. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, I'll be as clear as I can. 866-342, you will get to weigh in at a certain point in time in the broadcast. All right.

And our YouTube feed, hopefully we're adjusting the volume there to make sure everybody can hear wildly and clearly. Okay. Some years ago, the son of Rick Warren, one of the best known pastors in America, committed suicide. That's a tough enough loss. Like most everyone listening, I've never had to come anywhere near that in terms of an immediate family member, let alone a child committing suicide.

Those of you who have a child committed suicide, a grandchild or parent or sibling, only you know the devastation. I can't imagine. But what was absolutely shocking, mind-boggling was to see these vicious posts. Well, you see, Rick Warren, that proves he's a false teacher.

Well, if he didn't do a right job, the problem was his son was a repressed homosexual because his father's teaching and that's why he killed himself. It's like, what? And these are alleged Christians. These are alleged Christians posting this. This was years ago. I don't remember exact year when this happened.

This was years ago. And I posted a plea. What are we doing? There are so many admonitions in scripture about walking in love, about speaking words of love, about honor and words against gossip and the destructive nature of this.

I thought, what on earth are we doing? It's mind-boggling. Let me show you how ugly it is. I'm going to go to Proverbs chapter six, Proverbs chapter six, beginning in verse 16, Proverbs six, 16. And it says this, there are six things the Lord hates seven that are detestable to him. That word for hates. It's the same word that's used in, in Leviticus 18, 22, speaking of a man lying with a man, it's toy, but it's detestable. It's something hateful in God's sight. There's six things the Lord's hates seven that are detestable to him. Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, or you may have an opinion, but if you don't know the facts and you post it, you may be posting a lie.

And if you know the facts and post something contrary, that's blatantly a lying tongue. Hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to run into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community, stirs up dissension among brothers and sisters. This is something God hates. Well, Brian, you're not going to muzzle me. I'm going to say what I want to say. Well, not if you're serving of God, none of us get to say whatever we're going to say. If we're servants of God, none of us just get to air on opinion.

What is it? Proverbs is repeated. A fool takes delight in airing his own opinion.

It is over and over and over through problems. That is a characteristic of a morally bankrupt person. The fool, in other words, in Proverbs, this person is not someone who is mentally deficient. This person is morally bankrupt.

And what is what is one of their characteristics they take to light and airing their own opinions and said, well, what's wrong with having an opinion? Okay. If we're talking about who's going to win the game tonight, two teams, who's going to win the game tonight? I have an opinion. Okay. But what do you think the outcome of the war in Israel is going to be?

What's going to be the outcome of the 2024 elections? Why have an opinion? Okay. Well, we speculate.

That's fine. That that's, there's nothing evil about that necessarily. But what is evil is, well, what's your opinion on this church dispute here? And you have no actual factual knowledge of what's going on. You do not know.

I think this one did that. I think that zip it. We've got no business doing that. Tell you, tell you what, I'm going to do it about you.

That's what I'm going to do. Cause I got a nice platform. I had big social media phones.

I mean not big, like some famous actor or something like that. You know, I've got, I mean, we reach millions of people, right? So I've, I've got a good social media following and we've got live radio show and internet feed and I'm just going to share my opinion about you, right? You know, whoever John Doe, right? Hopefully John Doe, you're not actually listening, right? So John Doe, I'm going to share my, yeah, I think John Doe is lazy. I think John Doe's got ulterior motives in what he does.

I think John Doe's covering so who cares about what you think? Keep it to yourself. If you have a concern, pray for the person. All right. If you have an opinion that brings you to concern, pray for the person.

If you know them, reach out to them and say, Hey, I've got this concern. Otherwise, what business do we have posting our opinions? So here's, here's why I'm freshly concerned and freshly stirred today.

I got a call on Thursday night from leadership at IHOP KC international house of prayer, Kansas city. They'd been embroiled in massive controversy since accusations were brought forward and there was a process. It should have been followed that things were dealt with internally and privately and then other parties brought in as needed. But for various reasons, everything went public.

Okay. That's just what happened. However it happened, it happened.

We can't, we can't take that back. So by Saturday afternoon, it's all over the internet and social media exploding. So I did a show on Monday about it from a pastoral perspective, grieving, weeping if, if the charges were true, hoping they're not, but I don't know.

I didn't know and I don't know. All right. So what happens is I do the broadcast on Monday. I write an article trying to be as pastoral as I can not air my opinion, but say, here's how we handle this. Here's how we process this as a body.

And then let's, let's try to work forward together. And in the meantime, let's not speculate because we simply do not know facts. Look, you even have, you even have when you're reporting and you've got someone running out of the bank with money in their hand and they're arrested. That is the alleged bank robber because you still have to actually have the case is still innocent for proven guilty.

So you have alleged charges. They may all be true. Some may be true.

None may be true. I don't know. God and the people involved know. So let everything go through its proper process and how do we handle this together as a body, et cetera. So I get a call Thursday night from leaders there asking if I would come in as an outside voice, speak to their leadership team, give whatever input I can and preach at both services Sunday morning.

So I knew it was the Lord's will to do. I do not look for these situations. I do not ask for these situations, but for whatever degree I have respect among different camps in the body, I said, okay, absolutely.

I hate having to do it in a situation like this, but there's no place I'd rather be than seeking to be of help with my brothers and sisters, precious brothers and sisters there in Kansas city. So I met with leaders, spent hours together Saturday, late afternoon and evening, and then we all agreed on the path forward. They had already brought in before I got there, before I said a word to them, they had already agreed to bring in an external party with the sole goal of investigating the charges to see what's true or not. In other words, give those that were claiming to be victims, give them a safe place where they could go and share and things could be looked into and an outside organization could do their best to examine the charges, hear from the parties involved, hear from Mike, hear from everyone involved, and then let their findings be known publicly. That's the whole goal. That's the whole goal. And I was going to preach Sunday morning and bring a message to try to help, to try to bring clarity.

And we received many, many positive reports to that, for which I'm very, very grateful. I do this in the fear of the Lord. Pastor Isaac Bennett, pastor of the local church, their forerunner, said, just people stay off social media.

What does he mean? First thing is if you go there, you're going to get riled. You're going to see someone attacking this one, someone defending this one, someone saying this, someone that it's not accurate. You know, I mean, just right before the show started, I normally don't have our YouTube feed up, but just before the show started, I had it up and I saw someone completely idiotic comment, just a completely ridiculous comment, totally false.

I mean, I see it, I get annoyed because it's just a ridiculous false comment. Well, when you got a volatile situation like this, everybody gets so such as good to step back. So he was saying it, stay off social media, just encouraging them as a pastor.

Are you going to get all worked up? Whereas right now, the best thing we could do is love Jesus, love one another and pray for the truth to come to the light. Pray for everything to be known. Pray for a righteous and godly resolution to this and for God to bring something good out of this very, very difficult and painful situation that, you know, that that's what we pray for. Those who have been hurt, if they're there, there are real victims that they would receive everything they need to be whole. If there are real things done that were wrong, that that would be flushed out and dealt with properly.

If they're false allegations that would be flushed out, let the truth come to light. And somehow as a body, let's come together. It's not this one versus this one. It's us against the devil.

It's us against the devil. All right. So, so the bottom line here, very, very simple is this. I got up as well and I said, we don't need your opinions.

You've been posting this, this, defending this one, defending Mike, attacking Mike, giving your scenario, what's happening, what, who's hiding what? I said, zip it. We don't need it.

Zip it. Well, you preach your message and we're, you're telling us that, well, first I don't have any authority over you. I'm not your Lord. I'm not your boss. I have no authority over you. That's number one. Number two, number two, I, I'm not coming up here giving an opinion. I think this, I'm trying to help this in a pastor way, but the responses, the social media responses have been mind boggling. Talk about fighting the devil. We don't need to fight the devil cause we're destroying ourselves.

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Wow, just amazing. When you're trying to silence the victims, there is a process for all those who have accusations, whether it's two people or ten people, there is a process by which they can go to the organization in question that all is being set in motion and they can bring their concerns directly. If you have a legitimate issue that someone, you claim a minister of the Gospel, has sexually abused you, you can get on the internet and say, there's a process. You go and handle that process.

Otherwise, what's to stop anybody from lying about anything, posting about anything, having an allegation? Well, I had a dream and in my dream I saw that this actually happened. You're going to go to the police.

Well, I had a dream that somebody did something to me. Well, why are you actually here? Are you reporting a crime? Well, I think I'll just share it on the internet. This is the most non-productive, hurtful, foolish endeavor that we can have. We are tearing each other up with our words. Well, you're trying to control the conversation.

No, I'm saying on my social media pages, you're not going to post gossip. You're not going to post your opinion about something being handled with a certain process where you have no idea about the process. Well, this law firm, they've been hired to defend IHOP.

You know, you don't know that. Everything I have been told a hundred times over is they have been hired so that as an external party, they can see which charges are accurate to the best of their knowledge so that there can be a proper procedure carried out. So if there are real victims, that these real victims can really get a clear hearing with people who are verified as best as can be done. That's why it's being done.

Well, they've been hired for PR damage control. False. Lie. Well, Dr. Brown, you were told what to say in the message. False.

Lie. They didn't even know what I was going to say. If they said, you have to say this, I wouldn't be there. They didn't ask me what I was going to say. They didn't ask me how I was going to say it.

They didn't give me any parameters except here's the general timeframe. That's a fact. So I know for a fact, as someone who spent hours and hours with leadership, I know for a fact that falsehoods are being posted. And I have spoken to people who are working with accusers, just as of today, people that I know to be fine brothers. When I spoke to today, to my knowledge is a really good, solid brother.

He feels very, very grieved over what's happening and is very, very concerned. I've spoken to others within the leadership that on other sides, and I want everyone to have their opportunity to bring all the information. I'm calling for fairness and for everything to come to life and for neither side to discredit the other.

Those that I know that I've talked to unquote either side are honorable people to my knowledge. And I, I'm not attributing any wrong motive. God knows, God knows, but I'm not attributing any wrong. In fact, let me show you what the word says about motors. I was going to go here later in the broadcast, but let me go here now. First Corinthians chapter four, first Corinthians chapter four, there is a right judgment and there is a wrong judgment.

Okay. So for example, first Corinthians two, Paul says the spiritual man makes judgments about everything. First Corinthians chapter five, we are to judge those in our own midst, meaning someone is blatantly practicing sin.

They refuse to repent. You excommunicate them. First Corinthians six, we're going to make judgments within the body on disputable matters. First Corinthians 11, we are to judge ourselves so we're not condemned with the world. So there are all kinds of judgments we're called to make. John seven 24, stop judging by mere outward appearance, but make righteous judgments. So there, your judgments were to make and judgments were not to make. But look at what Paul writes in first Corinthians four beginning in verse one. This then is how you ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed.

Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. I care very little if I'm judged by you or by any human court. Indeed, I do not even judge myself. So let me just judge yourself. Meaning, meaning look for sin, look for uncleanness, look for things wrong in your own life. Examine yourself before you partake of the Lord's supper.

Do all that, right? Here he says, I don't even judge myself, meaning I'm not going to say I'm, I'm a fine servant of the Lord. I'm no, no, no. Let God judge, right? My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. I don't judge my ministry. God judges my ministry. I don't judge myself in that way. God judges me. So Paul uses the word judge in many different ways in first Corinthians. Then he says this, look at this verse five. Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time. Wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time, each will receive their praise from God.

So this is, this is God speaking, God speaking to us through his servant Paul. Judge nothing before the appointed time. Meaning what? Don't judge people's hearts.

Don't judge people's motivations. In terms of the allegations against the leader, there must be right judgments. In other words, this is something that should be looked at. You don't receive an accusation against an elder and list with two or three witnesses.

There are various procedures that should be followed. If there's an individual with a complaint, then they have to have airing for their complaint. If it's a fair and righteous complaint there. So we should make judgments then. In other words, a judgment should be rendered. These are true accusations as a result of which this person should not be a ministry. But these are true accusations in which case this person should go through a restoration process or these are false accusations, etc. So those judgments should be made and will be made in the case at hand.

But Paul's explicitly saying when it comes to judging people's hearts or why people are motivated to do this and that, and we do this day and night on the internet. I don't trust this one. Well, they're just doing it for the money. You don't know that. If there's factual evidence, that's fine. But if it's just your opinion, zip it. Don't blame me.

Blame God. Because I'll read it again. God speaking through Paul, therefore judge nothing. Speaking in terms of what? People's hearts, their motivation, what is hidden and unseen. You don't know, so you don't make a judgment on it. Maybe that person is weeping and you think they're weeping in repentance or you think they're weeping in sadness or you think they're weeping. We don't know why until we find out, do we?

This person smiled and this person said, we don't know why until we find out. And so don't make a judgment superficially. Judge based on facts. Judge based on information. Make righteous judgment. If I discern that something's wrong with you, I'm going to post it publicly. You've got no business doing that. You might be involved in slander.

You might be involved in libel. You might be involved in sinning against the servant of the Lord. If you discern something, like what Smith Wigglesworth said, if we, if we think we have the gift of discernment, we'll use it on ourselves for six months and we'll never use it on anybody else again. But you have discernment, you sense something's wrong, well then don't work with those people. Don't get involved. Pray for them. But just based on your discernment without factual knowledge, you don't have a business to get online and I'll post for the world to say what your discernment is to you might be dead wrong.

Maybe you were hurt by somebody who got an attitude. Maybe you haven't, maybe there's sin in your own life and it affects your discernment. Therefore, judge nothing before the appointed time.

Wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness will expose the motives of the heart. So judge based on facts, judge based on information, judge based on clear mandates of the word. There are many things we are called to judge, many things, but do it righteously.

Do it based on facts, not based on opinions, not based on what you feel, not based on assumptions about what is hidden. We are destroying one another. We are making a mockery of our witness to the world. You know, Jesus says in John 13 that the world will know that he sent us based on our loved one for another. And you think of what in the war, what we did just in the last elections. You're not saved if you don't vote for Donald Trump.

You're not saved if you do vote for Donald Trump. And we're carrying each other with passion. We did the devil's work already. And where the world seen that Jesus sent us, they thought this whole church is a mockery. We got to do better friends.

Hey friends, Dr. Michael Brown here. Do you remember when people thought I was crazy when I said it's not too late for America, that God can still do something in our country, that there is going to be a pushback, a gospel based moral and cultural revolution. And you remember when people thought that you were crazy because you felt the same way because you believe what I was saying and already felt it in your heart. Well friends, that pushback is here. The gospel based moral and cultural revolution we've been talking about for 25 years is unfolding and we are right in the thick of it.

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Click on donate monthly support. Okay. What about judging by fruit? Doesn't Jesus say that Matthew 7 about false prophets, you'll know them by their fruit? Yes, yes, exactly.

So there is the fruit of someone's life. If you see this person, you work with them, they're out of control. They're angry. They use all kinds of profanity. They're violent.

They get in fights. They're molesting people. Okay, so you see that fruit, right? So you judge by it. You work with someone. You're side by side with them.

You see them control, discipline, gracious kind that says something to you. Someone's got a family. Mom, dad married his believers and you meet the kids and the kids are biting and scratching. They walk into the workplace, they're biting and scratching. The people working there, they're using all kinds of profanity. They're taking a pen and trying to stab you. It's like, what is the matter with this family? That's some other fruit. On the flip side, it's like, wow, those kids are so well behaved. And, and, and how they seem to be so respectful.

And it's like, so you see fruit from there. There's the fruit of what someone teaches and preaches. You evaluate that by all means. Judge what is taught and preached based on the word.

Judge a person's conduct in lifestyle over, over a period of years. If you get to know them, watch them by all means, judge those things. Absolutely. And say, from what I can tell, this person is trustworthy. From what I can tell, this person is godly.

From what I can tell, this person is biblically based. Absolutely. That's good, healthy judgment. It's another thing when you don't even know someone personally to say, well, I think he's motivated by this. Or you say, you say I'm entitled to my opinion.

Yeah. And you're entitled to keep your opinion to yourself. And as I posted the other day, I've been saved 52 years now, in a matter of days, 52 years. God's not yet once asked me for my opinion.

Just telling you the truth. Ephesians chapter four, verse 29. Ephesians 4, 29.

And here's, here's our garden. So before you post anything, see if it follows these guidelines. Ephesians 4, 29. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up according to the needs that it may benefit those who listen. So that's what I've sought to do and encourage others if you want to weigh in on the situation.

I hop KC. Let's weigh in with words that help one another. Words that edify one another.

Words that help us work together against our common enemy, the devil. You say, Mike really inspired me to be a man of prayer. Well, that was God working through Mike.

Dr. Brown, you really helped me with this. And pastor, someone here really helped me with this. Any help that we give you is from the Lord.

He's the one who did it. If someone's ministry helped you get closer to Jesus, then you found out they weren't really who you thought they were. Well, God used them.

God works through them anyway. God brought you closer to Jesus. The devil wants you to stop praying. The devil wants you to stop worshipping. The devil wants you to stop living a holy life.

The devil wants you to throw in the towel. So you stand against him. You stand against him. We stand together against him. One more thing, and then I'm going to go to some calls.

866-344-TRUTH. Let's go to Matthew 7, well-known passage, Matthew chapter 7. I reminded people over the weekend that the way we judge others is the way we're going to be judged. And people say, you're trying to silence it, you're trying to silence the accusers, you're trying to control the discussion. I'm quoting what Jesus said. Am I not allowed to quote what Jesus said? Is that now forbidden? Well, you're trying to muzzle.

No, I'm trying to help, because it comes back. If I walk around unfairly judging people, it's going to come back on me. They will unfairly judge me. Now, following Jesus, you're always going to get misunderstood, you're always going to attack. Righteousness is going to be attacked.

I understand that. But to the extent you do your best to be fair towards others, to process towards others, get all your facts and information in order, to the extent that you're able to do that towards others, to that extent, it will be done back to you as a general rule. So Jesus says, Matthew 7, 1, do not judge, you too will be judged. Well, didn't I quote earlier John 7, 24, don't judge by mere outward appearances, but judge, make righteous judgments. How can you say here, don't judge? In other words, don't judge hypocritically, as we'll see, don't judge superficially, don't condemn. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged and the measure you use, it will be measured to against. I just warning people online, hey, just, just remember, just remember that the way you judge others is where you're going to be judged and the measure you use on others as we measured against you.

So unless you want people posting their opinions about your motivation or they're posting opinions on how you handle your finances when they have no idea whatsoever or what you do in your private life when they have no idea whatsoever or, or things about your family, they have no idea whatsoever and you want them posting that all over the internet, then you shouldn't post it either. And if you want to be treated fairly, treat others fairly. By all means, judge my life, judge my ministry, judge all of that based on biblical criteria by all means. Absolutely. Judge the secrets of my heart, judge the motives of my heart, judge why I do what I do.

No, you don't have the right to do it. Paul says, I didn't even judge myself. God's the judge. Then Jesus says, why do you look at the speck or saw the sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank of your own eye? How can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye when all the time there's a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite first take the plank out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. So ultimately we do want to remove the speck, but maybe we have a log.

Start there. Is there a log in my eyes? There's something giant in my eye.

Let's remove that. And then now I can see more clearly. So when any of these things happen, the first thing that I do is I grieve over the potential damage done to the name of the Lord.

If it's true, I grieve knowing that there are people directly hurt. Then I search my own life. I search my own heart rather than me. No, that's arrogance. That's idiocy.

That's not knowing our own nature. So with that, let us go to the phones. We will start in San Diego. Michael, welcome to the line of fire. Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, I can. Hi. I've been encouraged greatly by many of the prophetic experiences that Mike Bickel shared over the years. And it seems to me there are four categories of prophecies that was directed specifically to Mike's life and prophecies that were for the greater body of Christ, prophecies that were heard directly by Mike and the ones that were witnessed by additional people. If we find that Mike wasn't completely truthful, if we find the allegations true, how do we handle these prophetic words?

Should we give them this incredibly? Yeah, very important question, Mike. I addressed this a little bit last week. You know, what if what if Mike is guilty? And God knows, I don't know. God knows.

So what if he's guilty? Then what? What about why didn't other prophets know?

Were there prophets around, et cetera? Question. And so because I don't know what happened, what didn't happen.

Chronology. I can't answer that. But let's look at this question. What if there are all these prophecies and prophetic narrative and all that should we trust any of it? Well, obviously, you're going to be a little more skeptical, right? You're not going to wonder immediately.

Was it real? However, a prophetic gift can operate whether a person is right with God or not. In other words, that person will pay the price.

There will be judgment and consequences. But the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. Sometimes God can still work and still act. And sometimes he's working through some person that's really doing very, very well.

And then they have a fall or failure after. So I would just evaluate everything based on how accurate is this in terms of what's happened historically. You know, the prophetic words about a prayer movement being birthed when Mike didn't even like to pray and the Israel burden when Mike didn't even have one and being in a certain part of the city and having a certain building when he had no interest in being there and raising up this 24 7 House of Prayer. This all happened. It's quite remarkably. So to me, those are true prophecies that came to pass.

None of that's threatened. But it's only natural that you might question everything. But I'd say if things have been valid and real up to now and Jesus has been glorified and people have been drawn to him and a prim and have his birth around the world. God did that. And certainly those words seem to be absolutely true and accurate.

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Get on the Line of Fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Hey, shout out to our co-sponsor Trivita. Yeah, vitamin D is an essential part of my own diet, especially with my healthy eating and hardly eating any meat and things like that. With my whole lifestyle, vitamin D plays an important role and Trivita's got an amazing vitamin D product.

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Use the code BROWN25. It gets you the best discount and your money donated to the Line of Fire. One more verse and we go back to the phones. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. What does Paul say there? Brothers and sisters, 1 Corinthians 3-1.

Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit, but as people who are worldly. In Greek, it's fleshly. Carnal. Mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid fruit, for you are not yet ready for it.

Indeed, you are still not ready. You're still worldly or carnal, fleshly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? What would Paul say about the state of the church if the Corinthians were infants?

We'd be barely out of the womb. Jealousy quarreling? Just when I say, hey, listen, on my social media page, you're free to do what you want on your own page. I have no authority over anybody here. I'm not your pastor. I'm not your master. I have no authority over anybody. Whatever respect you have for me spiritually, wonderfully, I have no authority over you. So when I say, hey, refrain from posting XYZ. It's unhelpful. And you're posting gossip and opinions about things of which you know nothing and it's unhelpful.

Zip it. So I'm exhorting you as a servant of the Lord. I'm exhorting you and saying, well, whatever you do, it's not going to happen on our social media page. People flip out or hey, it's our page. By God's grace, we have good platforms that reach a lot of people and we love the participation. We thank you for it.

We love it. And 99.99% of the comments I never see. I wish I had time to read everyone and interact, especially the ones attacking me on YouTube for things I don't even believe.

How do you say this? Like I don't actually watch the video more carefully. You'd know that. But anyway, I'd love to respond to everyone back and forth and all that in a constructive way.

But when people get quarrel about, hey, no quarreling on this social media page. What would Paul say about our state? For when one says, I follow Paul and another, I follow a Paulus.

Are you not mere human beings? I follow Dr. Brown. I follow Pastor MacArthur. I follow Sam Storms. I follow Justin Peters. We all do it.

We all do it. The goal is we want to follow Jesus. We want to follow Jesus. Thank God for Pastor MacArthur. Thank God for Justin Peters. Thank God for Sam Storms.

Hopefully thank God for me. And where we differ, we differ. But we are all seeking to follow Jesus. That's the bottom line.

And here's what I know. Satan wants to divide us. God wants to unite us around the gospel. As surely as I'm sitting here, let me say it again.

Know it for a fact. Satan wants to divide us. Jesus wants us to unite around him, around the gospel, around his cause.

Let us stand together with Jesus against the devil. How about that? How about that? How about we try that? All right, let's go back to the phones. This time we go to Dakota in Chicago. Welcome to the line of fire. Hey, Dr. Brown.

Thank you so much. And yeah, I tuned in to the second half, so I apologize if you kind of already spoke to this, but I had a two-part question here. And the first part is, you know, it seems like with things like this where, you know, drama in the church, all of us genuine believers, you know, we're called to be excited about certain things, right? We're called to be excited about like the return of Christ. We're called to be excited about the salvation of the lost. We're called to be excited about the unity of the body and what we experience when we gather. And yet I was curious, the first part is if you can speak to what seems to have happened in the hearts of those who genuine believers are yet getting excited about drama in the church and about gossip, what has been reordered in the heart? Help us understand that from a spiritual formation perspective. And then secondly is just, yeah, how can you and I, believers who grieve over that, address that without just, I mean, of course, prayer is powerful. We can sit by and pray and do our best to have self-control, but how can we challenge the hearts of those who are hurting this?

Thank you. So number one, this happens because we're babies, because we're carnal, because we're fleshly, because we're immature, because we get worked up by fleshly, earthly things, just like the world does, because we're not spiritually deep enough, because we're not walking intimately enough with God, because we're lacking in self-control. And social media has just exploded it, exacerbated it, exaggerated it, brought it all onto the surface. It's brought out the worst in so, so many different ways. Because there's one thing, if you live across town and the only way we can talk, we don't have phones, so we have to kind of get in our horse and buggy and go meet somewhere and sit and talk face to face, there's a better chance of having thought things through and being more human and fair speaking face to face than there is at the moment I see something about anybody. There's my opinion, there's my thought, there's my, just out there, right?

So number one, we're just carnal, immature, and we need to grow up. It's that simple. And social media has just brought it all to the surface, because not only can I express myself instantly, I hear all kinds of things. Oh, this one said this, or this one said that, or this one. I just, during a break, was looking at a comment from Carolyn Glick, one American Jew, well-known journalist and leader in Israel, and she was asked to comment on an incident with some Jewish person or Israel-related person, stabbed someone, or stabbed a Muslim on a college campus or something. She said nothing to comment on because there was no incident. This is a false report. It was a completely false report.

The report that Israel bombed the hospital in Gaza and hundreds and hundreds were killed is 100% false. But that will live on for decades, for generations in the Islamic world and in the Jew-hating world. It will live on.

Not all Muslims, especially radical Muslims, it's going to live on there, sadly, tragically. So you hear things instantly, you respond instantly, it is immaturity, it is all of our worst characteristics brought together and displayed for the whole world to see. So how do we now not let that happen to us? Well, first, in our own lives, we seek to walk in greater discipline, right? In our own lives, we seek to walk in greater maturity. In our own lives, we seek to model godly speech as much as we possibly can.

That's number one. And I would recommend reading through Proverbs one chapter a day for maybe a whole year at least. So you read through it 11, 12 times. Just as you go through it one chapter a day, 31 chapters. So a couple of months you read extra chapters, otherwise one chapter a day.

And just take that in. I've done it many times in my life, read Proverbs over and over and over and over and over because I could make so many, I'm prone to make many mistakes with my tongue and speak too soon. Not harsh negative judgmental things, but just speak too soon and unwisely.

So I've had to read it over and over and meditate on it. And then to whatever extent you have control in any way, right? So on your social media page, that if you see people commenting in ways that are wrong, you encourage them not to. If they continue to, you delete what they say. If they get really nasty, you just block them.

It's okay, not on my page. And you might say, hey, you're free to post what you want, but on my page, coming on my platform or interacting with my friends, it's going to be a certain way. If enough of us would do that, then it would weed out the ones that are intent on speaking what they want to speak and nobody has a right to tell them anything. And we'll try to be gracious to people, but when they cross certain lines, goodbye.

That's it. And if they immediately cross the line with this outright ugly slander and talk about people that I know firsthand and they're lying about them and speak, okay, you're gone. You're not going to be using my platform to bear false witness about someone else.

That's detestable in God's sight. So Dakota, that's how we handle it. And I appreciate the call.

I appreciate the concern. Let us set an example of Godly speech. Let us set an example of being people under control. Self-control is a fruit of the spirit. Proverbs warns about hot headed people. I had a terrible temper before I was saved. It's something I really had to deal with as a believer.

It didn't just go away. And one of the verses I meditated on and learned in Hebrew, better is a patient man than a warrior and one who rules over spirit is better than one who takes the city. And I thought, okay, I have to rule over my spirit. I have to rule over it. And I had to learn Proverbs has warnings about not even associating with hot headed people.

So you say I'm just hot headed. Well, grow. Ask God for help. If it's that deep in counseling and ministry, get delivered something. But if you're a believer, this cannot control you.

We have no excuse. So ask yourself before you post. It won't hurt. Listen, it won't hurt to wait a few minutes.

It won't hurt. The world does not need to know what Mike Brown has to say. This split second.

Wait, take time. All right, Lord, is this important? I'm not just talking about chitchat, right? I'm talking about important subjects, right? Will this edify?

Will this help? Will this glorify you? Is it factual? Is it accurate? Is it based on love?

Based on truth? Would I want these kinds of things posted if I was on the other side of this? You think it through. I, one time I was in a conflict with a brother and many, many years ago went through a difficult thing. We ended up on different sides of an issue and I sent out my email to him lashing back. He lashed out at me. I thought I lashed back and I copied Nancy blind copied her. And she said to me after is here, we need to talk about that email before you sent it. I said, Oh, I, I blind copied you.

I did sentence because what? So put some checks, balances, step back, and let's determine that our social media pages glorify Jesus. What a thought. What a thought. Let's go for it. Another program powered by the truth network.