Containing The Blaze

Well, thank you, Mr. Janisic. You're all in fine voice. Appreciate the beautiful music that you provided. Thank you so much for your participation in the song service. Well, brethren, out here in the West, we are prone to wildfires. We're prone to them out here in the West. In fact, we're so prone to wildfires, we have a whole season dedicated to wildfires. The end of July through the middle to kind of end of September, depending on the year, depending on the rainfall levels in the spring and the early summer, kind of determines just how strong of a season that it's going to ultimately be.

As we all know all too well, dry conditions, small spark, that's all it takes. Dry conditions and a small spark is all it takes. And before you know it, you've got huge tracts of forest land that are on fire. Occasionally, unfortunately, at times, homes, sometimes whole cities, catch up on fire.

In 2020, we experienced the fires up and down the canyons leading toward the Cascades along Highway 22. The communities of Lyons, Gates, Detroit, which as you drive through, they're still not the same as they were prior to those fires. We experienced fires going up the canyons of Highway 126 out of Eugene on the way over to Bend, communities burning up in those parts of the mountains.

We had fires taking place out off of Highway 138 out of Roseburg, down near Medford, down near Central Point. Dry and windy conditions, presence of overhead power lines created a perfect storm, and the end result was nine people dead, 1.2 million acres burned, and the destruction of over 5,000 homes. Now, it came to mind this week because just this week Pacific Corp, the company that is responsible for the power lines, the electric company, reached a $150 million settlement with 1,434 plaintiffs, in connection with damages from that 2020 wildfire.

The state of Oregon has a history of these catastrophic fires. In fact, 2003, Shannon and I, when we used to serve over in the Bend area, in 2003, we were returning home from Bend. I think we were there on our anniversary, actually, because it was like the day after our anniversary, our second anniversary in 2003. And we're coming back, and there was high temperature.

There was winds that had kind of whipped up these spot fires that had started the night before. And we drove through Sisters and Black Butte in some of the thickest smoke I can remember driving through. Just so, so thick. You could hardly see right in front of you. And it took so long to get there. Just, you know, there's only one road on the way over, and it was, you know, stuff going on. So it ended up being quite a ways to get home.

By the time we hit the pass, it was dark. And as we're going up out of Sisters and out of the Black Butte area, up into San Iam Pass, right at Suddle Lake, the whole hillside from Suddle Lake over clear towards, like I think it's Mount Washington, was all on fire. The whole thing, the whole side was on fire. And there's just these bright red-orange fires in the night. It was, honestly, it was beautiful in a way. But it was horribly beautiful. Because you know the kind of damage that is being done in that process. When it was all said and done, that fire burned for more than a month. 90,000 acres burned. The cost exceeded 38 million dollars.

What was interesting, though, is as we went over to serve in that area going forward, it was really interesting to see how life came back in those areas. How this ground that had just been burnt and charred began to spring little bits of green grass. And it began to spring shrubs. And pretty soon, these trees began to grow. And as time went on, this succession took place. This ecological succession took place.

God created land. He created these systems to heal after events like this. As time goes on, healing takes place. The fire is one of those disasters that can spring up so quickly. And it can do an incredible amount of damage in an amazingly short period of time.

It's utterly devastating. It consumes everything and anything in its path. Structures, forest, land. Rich, poor, it's not a respecter of persons. It just consumes. If the conditions are right, at times, a fire can become completely unstoppable. And the only thing that can be done is to stand back and allow it to burn. You just can't put it out. You know, you do everything you can to limit the damage going further, but you just can't quite put it out. Life always returns to areas that experience these things. Life always comes back, but it's never the same situation that it was before. In fact, it's interesting when you look at ecological succession, it's changed. That section of central Oregon between here and Bend that went in after that fire in 2003 used to be the primary species was ponderosa pine in that whole stretch everywhere.

And now one of the predominant species in that area is Douglas fir because Douglas fir jumps up fast and it outcompetes ponderosa pine. Ponderosa takes a long period of time to grow, and as the Doug fir comes in, it chokes out the other things. And eventually the climax species, what is the eventual species that's there in that ecological area, is different. Has life returned? Absolutely, it has. Is it the same as it was before? No. No, it's not. It's definitely not. Fire has certain requirements necessary in order to burn. Some of you are familiar with this. It's a threefold equation. It's called the fire triangle. Some of you have heard about the fire triangle before. In order for fire to occur, you need heat. You need a spark. You need something to ignite.

You need fuel. Something to feed that fire. You need fuel. You've got to have fuel in order to have a fire. It has to have something to burn. And one of the most important aspects that often isn't thought about is oxygen. You have to have oxygen. Combustion cannot take place without oxygen in place. So the firefighters that worked this fire worked backbreaking days for a month-long period trying to cut fire lines to remove the fuel, trying to prevent the spread of the fire. Then, when that didn't work, they pulled back and they cut bigger, wider fire lines to be able to pull back further away. And then planes would come over and drop fire retardant, which sucks the oxygen out of that area and prevents the fire from being able to continue to spread. And once that fire is out, once it's contained, ultimately the healing and the restoration can begin. Have you ever experienced a fire like this? Not physically, not literally, but metaphorically, in your life? Have you ever experienced a fire that is consumed in this way, maybe in your family, in your workplace, in your congregations? Something that burned through a group of people, so to speak, essentially kind of consuming everything in its path? Have you ever experienced something along those lines that, as these events tear through these places, they inflict a large amount of damage in a very short period of time, consuming just everything and anything in its path?

Have you ever experienced a situation in which there are perfect conditions? Dry fuel, so to speak, plenty of oxygen, and all of a sudden just the slightest spark? Up goes the fire. Right, we're coming into a time in the world around us today, coming into the holiday season in the world around us today, in which people are going to be sitting down around family tables. They'll be gathering for Thanksgiving. They're going to be sitting down, possibly, and having meals for Christmas. And sometimes those are meals that people do not look forward to because they have to sit down with family that they do not get along with and pretend to get along for two to three hours until everybody goes their separate ways after getting angry and going home. You know, unfortunately, this is a time of year in which those things do take place. Sometimes these things go through our families.

Sometimes they go through our workplaces. Sometimes they go through our churches. They go through our communities that we are a part of. They burn hot, they burn fast, and they burn out of control.

Now, I know all of you have experienced something like this before in the church. Most of you, I should say. Some of you younger ones, maybe not. But I would say most of you have experienced something like this because we experienced it too. Are things the same when the fire burns out? No, they're not. Do we survive? Yes, we did. But it's different. It's not the same.

Strife and discord have a way of creeping in under certain conditions. And in order for those things to take hold, those conditions have to be right. Just like a fire, there needs to be fuel.

There needs to be oxygen. There needs to be an environment that enables that fire to burn. And there needs to be a spark. And just like a fire, thankfully, these things can be knocked down and they can be contained. You know, if you're a fan of titles, title for today's message, is containing the blaze. And I want to be clear. There's nothing going on. I want to be very clear. Okay, everybody's like, what's happening? There's nothing going on. However, in principle, you have to prepare your home for fires, right? I mean, that's part of the prevention process, is preparing ourselves and being able to do those things. So how do we contain these things when they do happen? Right? When they do come up? How do we how do we contain these things? The reality is whether these things take place in our families, whether they take place in our workplace, whether they take place in our congregations or communities that we belong to, as an individual that's a part of that process, we have two options. There's only two options. We either help prevent the spread of that blaze or we throw fuel on it. Those are our options. We either help contain it or we're assisting in its spread. So how do we do this? How do we contain these things? I'd like to take some time today to look through this. Again, preventative maintenance. We are making our homes fire ready, as they say in the firefighting business. We're making our spaces fire ready. We're ensuring that there's not fuel. We're ensuring that there's not... well, there's always oxygen, I guess, but we're ensuring that by and large we're doing what we can to prevent these things from being able to take place. Okay? So where do these things come from? Where does strife? Where does discord that takes place come from? Let's go to James. James has quite a bit to say about this. We'll go to the book of James, and we're going to look through his thoughts as God inspired him to write about these things in James 4 and verse 1. James 4 and verse 1, we get an idea ultimately of where these things come from. Where do these characteristics and ultimately these issues spring forth from? James 4 and verse 1. James 4 and verse 1 says, where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet you do not ask or do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures. And James gets a little bit stronger here in his language. Adultrers and adultresses. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever, therefore, wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, the spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously? Verse 6, he gives more grace. Therefore, he says, God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. So James is clear on this point. Wars, strife, discord.

The issues that exist between individuals spring forth from a war which is taking place within their members, which is taking place within us. Each of us has this war in some ways taking place within us. You know, we as individuals, we are at war in that sense with ourselves.

Right? We're at war with ourselves. In one corner, we have our carnal human nature.

We have the thing that when somebody says something to us that we don't want to hear, we just kind of want to go, uh-uh. We have that little piece of us, that human nature.

We, society, we, lust, we kill, we covet. In the other corner, we have the Spirit of God. We have God's Spirit dwelling in us, which guides, or at least working with us, which guides and leads us toward what God wants us to do. So we have these two things, and as a result, we fight and we war within ourselves because we are, as verse 4 very clearly states, in a state of enmity with God when we are in that natural state. That natural state is a state of enmity with God. In that natural state, post Genesis 3, we're enemies of the Lord God in that state. And that's for those of us that are Christians and those of us that are really striving to follow God, that's a tough pill to swallow, to think that we could be enemies or at enmity with the very the Lord and God that we serve, right? To think that we could be dealing in that way. Even though we're converted, even though we have the very Spirit and mind of God dwelling in us, and that we have the ability to fight back against that carnal mind that Paul described as enmity toward God, we don't always win. We don't always win. And at times, the thing, as Mr. Storrs brought out, sometimes we say things and we go, yeah, I could have said that a lot better. That came out maybe a little more offensive than I intended it to come out. Or maybe it was just not said with as much love. There was a little more truth and a little less love present in that concept. We are painfully human, and we do, at times, are susceptible to our carnality, and we make mistakes. We sin. Verse 6 boils down, though, to the crux of the issue. God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. Gives grace to the humble. Our selfishness, that internal war that's taking place within us, the part where we know what we are to do, but we want what we want. And so there's a war there, right? We know what God says. We know what the way of God entails, but yet we want what we want. And so there's this back and forth that takes place. That internal war, our lusts, our covetousness, it all boils down to a spirit of pride. It all boils down to a spirit of pride, and it's essentially the same concept that was sold to Adam and Eve in the garden. It's essentially the same concept that was sold to Adam and Eve in the garden. This idea that we have the ability or the capability of deciding what is right or wrong for ourselves, that we have the ability to make that decision. And when we do that, we become our own authority. When we do that in a way, just like Adam and Eve, we have this knowledge of good and evil. It makes us believe we have the ability to choose for ourselves. And when we do that, we actually in many ways become a God unto ourselves, rather than obeying the eternal God as we've been charged to do. The sad reality of strife, of discord in our families, in our workplace, even in our congregations, boils down to our individual and overall group condition. Let's go over to Proverbs 6.

Let's go over to Proverbs 6. We're going to take a look at a list of things here in Proverbs 6 that God informs us that He absolutely detests. Okay, we see places all over Scripture in which God lets us know He hates sin. God hates sin. He hates it when we operate opposite of Him. But He says in this case, in Proverbs 6, that there are some things that He considers to be abominations to Him. That these things that He just absolutely, totally detests. Proverbs 6, and we'll see this list of things, specific things that He considers to be abominations to Him, considers to be an abomination. Proverbs 6 and verse 16. Proverbs 6 and verse 16 says, these six things the Lord hates. Yes, seven are an abomination to Him. And this is kind of a Heberism. Ultimately, we see this happen sometimes. We'll say six of these, and then, oh, here's seven. I'll give you a bonus one. And that's kind of what this is. So there really is seven things listed here, even though they say six up front. It says, yes, seven of them are an abomination to Him. A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil. And I'm going to stop there for just a second, because what's really interesting about this list so far is these are individual body parts. Okay, you might notice in your translation, depending on which translation you're using, it may say prideful eyes or ha-ti-i-s, H-A-U-G-H-T-Y-I-S. Hottie means prideful, prideful in that sense. So a prideful look is referring to prideful eyes, that the eyes of the person are prideful in that sense. Then notice it says, so the eyes are prideful, the tongue is a lying tongue, the hands shed the blood of the innocent, the heart cooks up wickedness, the feet run toward evil, or you might have in your margin, wickedness or mischief. I find mischief kind of a funny translation there, but, you know, evil, wickedness or mischief. It kind of gets me to think about, you know, you look at these things either individually as abominations or even collectively as a person that has these things.

You ever met a person that is just constantly looking for ways to get into trouble?

Have you ever met somebody like that? Or have you ever interacted with someone like that, where it's like every opportunity they have, they're almost like, anybody looking? I don't even know what I'm gonna do, but is anybody looking?

All right. You run into people like this occasionally. And what's so interesting to me is those individuals always find each other. It's like they always manage to find each other. It's so interesting to me. But anyway, moral of the story. The psalmist is drawing attention here to these parts of the body that make up a hole, right? So this makes up a hole. Individually, these are abominations, yes. But this is a package in a way, too. With this prideful eye comes a lying tongue, comes hands that are willing to shed the blood of innocence, a heart that is cooking up wickedness, feet that are always running towards trouble, or always running towards mischief.

And then he goes on in verse 19, and this kind of is outside of the body analogy in that sense. That's why I split these out. Verse 19, a false witness who speaks lies. A false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among the brethren. Now these are two separate things. This is number six and number seven. Two separate things. False witness that speaks lies, and a false witness in this case speaking towards actually standing up as witness for someone else, right? In a judicial sense is what this is describing. But also, so someone who's willing to say, oh yeah, I saw that person do that. Yeah, they definitely did, but they didn't. It's a false witness. You're providing testimony against someone incorrectly in that sense. But it also goes on and says, one who sows discord among brethren. So two separate things, even though they're often related. Unfortunately, they're often related. Someone who is a false witness or someone who makes a false testimony, and that can either be purposefully or unfortunately, a false witness can sometimes be unintentionally when we repeat something that we don't know to be true. When we repeat something that we don't know to be true, we are providing a false witness. And we do that sometimes unintentionally. We just don't know, but we heard it, and the person we heard it from is fairly trustworthy. So it's probably true. I'll just tell this person about it. And at that point, we have been a false witness who has spoken lies, and in some cases, we may have even sown discord among brethren in that process. What's interesting about this is one who purposefully sows discord among the brethren. The word discord here is the Hebrew word madan, and it means controversy or controversies. So it doesn't get much clearer than verse 19. The list of things that God detests is concluded by a person who sows discord among the brethren. Someone who gets the brethren all riled up, or someone who might manipulate brother to move against brother. This is something that God detests. In fact, it's interesting, a couple of passages earlier, Proverbs 6 and verse 14, it speaks of the wicked man, and it actually speaks to the perversity in that person's heart, that they're devising evil and that they're sowing discord. God takes this brethren very seriously. He takes this very, very seriously. And why? Why does he take it so seriously?

There is one being chief among those who sow discord. We're going to pick up history in Ezekiel 28, if you want to turn over to Ezekiel 28. We're going to pick up the story of Lucifer. We're going to pick up the story of Lucifer, the angelic being who became our adversary, who became Satan the devil in his rebellion against God. In Ezekiel 28, we're going to pick it up in verse 15. When it comes to sowing discord, it's difficult at times to compete with him.

But unfortunately, what we need to understand is that if we are in the process of sowing discord, or we are in the process of providing false witness, we are falling right under his desires.

We are playing right into his hand when we participate in these things.

Ezekiel 28, we'll pick it up in verse 15, because it's important to consider why God feels this is so strongly important. Verse 15 of Ezekiel 28 says, you were perfect, you were perfect in your ways, from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you. By the abundance of your trading, you became filled with violence within, and you sinned. Therefore, I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God, and I destroyed you, O covering carob from the midst of the fiery stones. Notice verse 16.

Verse 16, out of the abundance, or the quantity, or the wealth of your traffic, or trading, or merchandising. Some translations will actually say pedaling, out of the the abundance of your pedaling.

Was Satan operating a booth at the farmer's market? Like, what was he trading? What was he pedaling? What was he selling? What was he trafficking? What was he merchandising? This is why this matters.

He wasn't selling arts and crafts.

What is it that could cause him? What could he be trading that could cause him to become violent?

That could cause him to sin? The word that's translated trading, or traffic, or merchandise, here in verse 16, is the Hebrew word, rakula. It's the Hebrew word, rakula, and it comes from a root word, rakal. Rakal is the Hebrew word root, and it's H 7 4 0 2. If you want to look it up, you can. H 7 4 0 2. And it translates as a trader or a merchant. A trader or a merchant, but, but, and this is important, one that travels. In fact, Strong's goes as far as saying that they are a spice merchant. That rakal is a spice merchant. My wife pointed out in the car on the way home that as I mentioned that in the sermon this morning in Eugene, she thought, oh, so they deal in tea?

They spill the tea a little bit? So, a little bit of a spoiler as to where we're headed here, but what it means, rakal, is someone who goes afar to gather their wares and then returns to sell them. That's what it's talking about. There's movement implied in this concept of rakal. And so it seems to indicate that Lucifer was acting as a traveling merchant. Again, not selling arts and crafts, not selling spices. What was he trading in? What was he merchandising? What was he trafficking? If you think about what it would have taken to get one-third of the angels to follow him, we need additional context. We need to go to another place that helps us to interpret this fully. Let's go to Leviticus 19. Leviticus 19, because he was trading in things which caused the angels to become full of violence and ultimately destruction and sin. Leviticus 19, we'll pick it up in verse 16. Leviticus 19 and verse 16, because it helps us answer the question. Reality is, none of us in here speak fluent Hebrew, right? For the audience that this was written for, they would have understood as soon as this idea of Ezekiel 28 was presented, they would have understood the word, they would have understood the concept of trading in something, right? We just don't. In the English, we just don't. So we have to rely on contextual clues within Scripture to be able to understand what this is. Leviticus 19 and verse 16, we see an admonition here in part of this moral and ceremonial laws section of Leviticus.

Leviticus 19 and verse 16 says, you shall not go about as a tale-bearer among your people, nor shall you take a stand against the life of your neighbor. I am the Lord. That's all it says. Leviticus 19 and verse 16. The word, the word, tale-bearer in the New King James is translated in some translations as slanderer. Okay, so you might see the word slanderer in your translation, but in Hebrew, it's the word, rakil. It's the word of rakil, and it comes from the same route that rakula comes from, which is the root, recall, the spice trader, the merchant, the traveling merchant.

What was Satan trading? He was trading gossip and rumor. He was trading secrets. He was trading in slander. He was trading in tales, and he was going from place to place to collect them, and then coming back and saying, did you hear? And then flits off to the next, and did you hear? And then over here, and then over there, and then over here. That's what this word implies in Hebrew, running from angel to angel, stirring up the group with a campaign of murmurs, half-truths, and lies. And out of the abundance of that slander, he was filled with violence, and he sinned. That's what this seems to imply from the Hebrew, that he waged a war of gossip and slander. How many families, how many churches, how many workplaces have been ignited as a result of gossip taking place in their midst? How many? You think back to your workplace that you've been in as time goes on. You know, you run into the individual at the water cooler that comes in and say, did you hear what so-and-so said? Or you have the guy that says, can you believe they did this? I can't even believe... Right? And go back to, you know, Caleb's message, either last week or the week before, on grumbling, right? So these things that come up. It's interesting, linguists today have estimated that gossip is one of the primary modes of human communication today.

They say up to 80% of human communication is gossip. 80% of what we communicate with other people is gossip. GotQuestions.org, which is a website that's dedicated to answering religious questions, has the following in their entry on gossip. And I found this out of all the definitions that I came across. I felt this was the most succinct definition of what gossip is. And so I'm going to read this to you. It's from GotQuestions.org. It says, the Hebrew word translated gossip in the Old Testament is defined as one who reveals secrets, one who goes about as a tail-bearer, or, and I love this word, scandalmonger. Goes around as a scandalmonger. Think of a fishmonger.

What does a fishmonger do? He sells fish. What does a scandalmonger do? He sells scandal. Right? It's like the tabloids. You know, scandalmonger. It says, a gossiper is a person who has privileged information about people and proceeds to reveal that information to those who have no business knowing it. Gossip is distinguished from sharing information in two ways. First, intent. Gossippers often have the goal of building themselves up by making others look bad and exalting themselves as some sort of repository of knowledge or virtue. Two, the type of information shared. Gossippers speak of the faults and the failings of others or reveal potentially embarrassing or shameful details regarding the lives of others without their knowledge or approval. Even if they mean no harm, it's still gossip. It's weird to see. Gossip is not just lies. It's not just half-truths.

It's privileged information. It's information that you know that someone else does not, and in sharing it, it elevates yourself a little bit. Makes the person who passed it on maybe look a little better than the person being spoken about, and it frequently focuses on someone's fault. Very simply, if you want a very simple basic definition, it's something you know that someone else does not know and frankly has no business knowing. That's gossip. You know something that someone else does not, and frankly they have no business in knowing it anyway, and we share it. Right? So that's really kind of what it is. The words that we speak to others, the words that we put into print, can have terrible consequences. You know, the damage that is done from words can be so much greater than if we were to financially cheat or steal from someone. At least money can be repaid. Right? You can make restitution in a payment with money. Often the damage to a person's reputation from gossip. We can't fix that, even with our words. There's a story, and it's probably apocryphal. My guess is it's an apocryphal story, but it's an interesting one. Of a rabbi who had one of his disciples wrongfully kind of wrong him verbally by running around town, spreading stories about the rabbi that were not true. So one of the rabbi's disciples kind of went rogue, ran around telling all these people things about the rabbi that weren't true. Later he felt bad about it, he felt remorse, and so he went to the rabbi, brother to brother, and he apologized. Told him what he did, and he sought his forgiveness. He said, look, I've wronged you, please forgive me.

The rabbi told the man, he said, go get yourself a feather pillow. The guy said, I'll do anything, I'll do anything. Go get yourself a feather pillow. He said, cut it open and scatter the feathers into the wind. He said, go take the pillow, tear it open, take all the feathers inside, throw them into the gust of wind. Guy thinks, well, that's kind of an odd request.

I have a strange thing, but it's easy, it's cheap, I'll go get a pillow, no problem. So he goes, he gets a feather pillow, he cuts it open, takes the feathers, scatters them into the wind, and the wind just blows them all around the town, blows them into the air, takes them along the gusts, and he returned to inform the rabbi of the completion of his task, and the rabbi said, good, now go pick up every one of the feathers that you scattered into the wind.

And he said, how? How? The rabbi said, exactly. Exactly. It is as difficult at times to make amends for what was said than it is to gather those feathers again, because who knows where they went, who knows where they blew from the wind, who knows from where to where to where to where it went. You will never find them all. Never find them all. That rabbi's reputation would be forever harmed as a result of those careless words that were said by that disciple. There's an example in Scripture kind of illustrates this. If you turn over to 1 Samuel, 1 Samuel 22.

1 Samuel 22, we're going to pick up the story of a Himmelek, David, a gentleman by the name of Doag the Edomite, and King Saul. And we're not going to take the time to go through the whole story. I'm going to hit kind of the highlights, at least in 1 Samuel 21. We're going to be in 1 Samuel 22, but the highlights in the story builds through 1 Samuel 21. And it'll show, it'll illustrate for us a little bit of the damage that can take place from idle words and gossip. In chapter 21, pardon me, we see David arrive in haste. He's got a small company of very hungry men. He arrives to a Himmelek after some discussion as to why he's there. David essentially convinces a Himmelek to provide him and his men with sustenance and a weapon. David said, I was in such a hurry, I didn't even bring my sword. The errand that Saul sent me on, you know, I needed haste, and so I didn't even bring my sword. My men are hungry. What can you do for us, a Himmelek? What's important to keep in mind is that in no point in this interaction with a Himmelek did David say anything evil towards Saul. David said nothing evil towards Saul at this point in time, even though Saul was pursuing him trying to kill him. Okay? So that's where we're at in the story between King David and Saul at this point. The Himmelek had no knowledge of David's falling away with Saul, at least from what we can gather, but the entire interaction between David and Saul was observed by Doag the Edomite, who for whatever reason was there in custody and detained. David gets the food, he takes Goliath's sword, and he heads off again to put distance between him and Saul. In 1 Samuel 22, we see Doag placed in a situation that he has opportunity to pass on privileged information.

So he has an opportunity now to pass on something privileged, meaning he knows it. Saul does not.

That's privileged information. 1 Samuel 22 verse 6, and we'll pick up the context.

When Saul heard, verse 6, for Samuel 22, when Saul heard that David and the men who were with him had been discovered, now Saul was staying in Gebaiah under a tamarisk tree in Ramah with his spear in his hand, and all his servants standing about him, then Saul said to his servants, who stood about him, here now, you Benjamites. Will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards and make you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds? He kind of says, is David king? Does he have the ability to make you captains? To give you lands? To do these things? He's like, I have this ability. He's telling them. It says, all of you have conspired against me, and there is no one who reveals to me that my son has made a covenant with the son of Jesse, and there's not one of you who is sorry for me or reveals to me that my son has served up my servant against me to lie in wait as it is this day. Ben, verse 9, answered, Doag the Edomite, who was set over the servants of Saul, and said, I saw the son of Jesse going to Nob to Ahimelech, the son of Ahutub, and he inquired of the Lord for him, gave him provisions, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.

You can imagine Saul went flying into a rage. He called for Ahimelech, demands an answer, and Ahimelech comes before King Saul, and he confirms the event transpired in exactly the way that Doag described it taking place. That's exactly what happened, but notice his response. It's telling. Verse 14, and 1 Samuel 22, he says, so Ahimelech answered the king and said, and who among all your servants is as faithful as David, who is the king's son-in-law, who goes at your bidding and is honorable in your house? In other words, King Saul, are we really having this conversation? David came to me in need. He is your son-in-law. He's in your household. He's, you know, one of your chief warriors. Of course I provided him with sustenance and a sword. Of course I did. He explains himself. He kind of confirms the whole story. Kind of says, look, he's married to your daughter. It would have been suicide for me not to give him what he asked for. He had no idea. Verse 15, he says essentially that he knew nothing of it, but because Doag repeated something that he saw, something which by you was completely true. It was not a falsehood. It was not a rumor. It was 100% true information. It was just privileged information.

Which a Himmelek confirmed when asked, as a result of this, Saul ordered a Himmelek's death and ordered the death of his entire household. But there's more. There's more. Verse 18, the king said to Doag, you turn and kill the priests. And so Doag the Edomite turned and struck the priests, and he killed on that day 85 men who wore a linen ephod also knob the city of the priests. He struck with the edge of the sword. Both men and women, children, nursing infants, oxen, donkeys, and sheep with the edge of the sword. Saul brought the city to the ground because of the words of Doag the Edomite, because of what Doag told him. Psalm 52, if you want to turn over there, Psalm 52 is a psalm that David wrote after this took place.

So right after Psalm 51, which is this genuine, just beautiful psalm of repentance that David writes, right after this Psalm 52, ultimately we see here, at least the way that it's organized now. You know, chronologically that may not have been the order in which it was in. But in this particular psalm, Psalm 52, it says, To the chief musician, a contemplation of David, when Doag the Edomite went and told Saul, and said to him, David has gone to the house of Himmelek. So this psalm was written as a result of the events of what we just looked at in 1 Samuel 22. It says, Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man? The goodness of God endures continually. Your tongue devises destruction, like a sharp razor working deceitfully. You love evil more than good, lying rather than speaking righteousness. You love all devouring words, you deceitful tongue.

God shall likewise destroy you forever. He shall take you away and pluck you out of your dwelling place and uproot you from the land of the living. The righteous also shall see and fear and shall laugh at him, saying, Here is the man who did not make God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches and strengthened himself in his wickedness. But I, verse 8, it says, am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever. I will praise you forever because you have done it, and in the presence of your saints I will wait on your name, for it is good. Doag fed the fire. Doag fed the fire. The spark that started that fire was David and Saul's conflict. Right? That was the spark. But Doag threw a pile of gasoline on top of that fire, either knowingly or unknowingly. But ultimately, when it was all said and done, not just to him elect, but 84 of the fellow priests went into that fire, began to burn out of control and not content there. Saul ordered the entire town to be brought to the ground. Every man, woman, and child, every oxen, every animal that was present. Our words can have incredible, incredible power. And if we're not careful, they can have terrible consequences. Just terrible consequences. James 3. You know, turn over to James 3. You know, we read through this account, and James, it's hard not to think that James maybe had a little bit of experience with something along these lines the way that he writes this. Certainly was inspired by God to write it. But the way that it reads, at least on the surface, is that maybe he had some experience and understanding of this particular struggle. James 3 in verse 1. Again, we see later at James 4, which we read earlier. But in James 3, he speaks specifically to, very specifically to the tongue and the power of the tongue. James 3 in verse 1 says, My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body. Indeed, in fact, he kind of gives us an analogy here in verse 3. Indeed, we put bits in horses' mouths so that they can obey us, and we turn the entire body. That little bit of metal in that horse's mouth, you pull on that, and you can go this way, you can go that way, you can take a, you know, 1200-pound animal and control it very, very easily with these bits.

It says, Look, also it ships, even though they are so large and driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder, wherever the pilot desires. Even so, the tongue is a little member, and it boasts great things. See how great a forest, a little fire kindles. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire by hell. He goes on, he continues, we'll go ahead and stop there. But that little small organ that each of us possess, and none of us have a license to use, you know, none of us took a training course in that sense. We learned, as time went on, that little organ is capable of setting the world on fire with the things that we say and the things that we don't necessarily think about at times. Sometimes it's a casual word spoken, it's something we haven't thought through. It's a rumor that's repeated, or as Mr. Storrs brought out this morning, it's truth, but it's devoid of love. It doesn't contain the love that's necessary.

You know, in all of these circumstances, our words can cause all manner of damage. So if it's so capable of such damage, what can we possibly do? Are we just doomed to offend everybody and cause all sorts of problems and challenges with the words that we say? How can we contain the blaze that can start as a result of these things? Is it a foregone conclusion that our friends and our families, our co-workers, our brethren are ultimately destined to burn in that sense? It turns out the same process that you would use to control a fire is the same process that you can use to control a metaphorical fire in your families, in your workplace, and in your congregations. Let's turn to Proverbs 26. All you got to do is two things. Control the fuel and control the oxygen.

Control the fuel and control the oxygen. That's all you have to do. Proverbs 26.

Proverbs 26, we'll see an analogy here that's described that's apropos.

Proverbs 26, we'll pick it up in verse 20. And there's an admonition here for us to recognize we all have a personal responsibility in this process. We have a personal responsibility, as well as the seriousness of these types of communication, the seriousness of these things. Proverbs 26 in verse 20 says, where there is no wood, the fire goes out. Where there is no tail-bearer, strife ceases. As charcoal is to burning coals and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindle strife. So when there's no wood, the fire goes out. I mean, that's basic fire science, right? Take the fuel away completely and the fire goes out. Where there's no wood, you ain't got a fire. There's no tail-bearer. There's no whisperer of secrets. There's no contentious person actively stirring up one person against another. Turns out, strife and discord cease as well. But it takes two to tango. It takes two to tango. If we are willing to listen and accept gossip, stories, rumors, information that's being passed without someone else's knowledge, then brethren, we are providing an oxygen-rich environment for a fire to burn.

We're not doing the part that we need to do to reject these things. The only way to put out a fire is to control the fuel source and to remove the oxygen. And so rejecting rumors, rejecting gossip, not entertaining these things in our families, in our offices, among our brethren. You know, it's so fascinating in our culture today. It's so interesting. The prevalence of social media, internet communication, and the form of communication on the internet, we have this really strange dichotomy in our heads sometimes, and again, the royal we, but things that we would never say in person to someone. We feel emboldened to say behind a keyboard.

And you see it all the time. I mean, you see it in online communication all the time.

We would not say it to a person face to face, but we'll post it.

Because it's anonymous in some cases, maybe not in all cases.

We not only post it, we not only read it, at times we seek it out. We actively search out secrets and morsels of information from sometimes nameless and faceless online tail bearers.

Brother, why do we do that? What is it about humans that does this? Proverbs 26 and verse 22 explains why. Proverbs 26 verse 22, the words of a tailbearer are like tasty trifles, and they go down into the inmost body. Gossip, rumors, slander. They're dainty. They're sugary. They're sweet. They're addicting. It's like candy. It's like candy. Also, rot the teeth right out of your head. It's not a healthy diet, right? If we're subsisting on a steady diet of gossip and rumor and not on the spiritual meat of God, we're going to be spiritually unhealthy. We're going to be spiritually unhealthy. Now, what I'm not advocating for is putting our heads in the sand. I'm not saying that. Okay? I'm not saying put your heads in the sand. What I am saying is put your nose in your Bible. Be more concerned about your own spiritual condition than you are about what other people are doing. If we all focused more on our own spiritual condition and let everyone else do the same thing, we'd be in such a better place. We'd be in such a better place if we think about how we go through this process. Proverbs 26 and verse 23 says, Fervent lips with a wicked heart are like earthenware covered with silver dross. He who hates disguises it with his lips and lays up deceit within himself. When he speaks kindly, verse 25, do not believe him, for there are seven abominations in his heart. So a callback to what we looked at earlier, and a callback to those abominations that were lined out there earlier.

The concept here in verse 23, dross. Dross is those impurities when you refine silver. You know, when you go through and refine silver, that's all the impurities that rise to the surface, and you scrape the dross off the top of the refined silver. You know, and how you know it's done is when you supposedly can see the reflection of yourself in the silver, right? You scrape the dross off the top. What it's saying is, fervent lips with a wicked heart are like earthenware that's covered in the stuff you scrape off and throw away. It's not covered in silver, it's covered in the stuff you scrape off and toss. The impurities. There's no inherent worth in dross. There's no inherent worth in dross. It's not saved. But it goes on to describe how those who hate, who also have a heart of hatred, use their lips to disassemble, to tear apart, and to lay up deceit within themselves. And I like verse 25. Verse 25 brings out an important point. Verse 25.

Verse 25 very specifically says, when he speaks kindly, do not believe him, for there are seven abominations in his heart. If a person is willing to gossip, if a person is willing to spread rumors or to weaponize information, to actively stir the pot, so to speak, or purposefully create contention among groups of people in order to elevate themselves or otherwise curry favor, the instruction we see here is not to listen. The instruction that we see here is not to listen, because in that heart is a heart of war. In that heart is a heart with these abominations in place, with this pride, with these lies, with this wickedness in place. And again, remember, brethren, we're at war in ourselves. We're at war. We have our carnality, we have the Spirit of God, and these two things are combating constantly for the upper hand in that sense in our lives as we try to yield to the Spirit of God dwelling in us. But it talks about how there's other abominations in their heart. And we're told to avoid this type of communication. We're told to avoid these things, to not give them a place in our lives. Intentionally spreading gossip or spreading rumor or throwing darts of accusation against brothers and sisters. That Spirit is not of God.

A Spirit's not of God. Verse 26 goes on. Verse 26 of Proverbs 26 says, Though his hatred is covered by deceit, his wickedness will be revealed before the assembly, whoever digs a pit will fall into it. He who rolls a stone will have it roll back on him.

A lying tongue hates those who are crushed by it, and a flattering mouth works ruined. So we see God will judge. Ultimately, God will judge. God deals with individuals that roll rocks, it says. They've dug a pit in the hopes of trapping somebody else. Well, they're going to fall in at themselves. You know, that rock will ultimately return on them. And if you look at the Apostle Paul and his thoughts, Romans 1, if you want to turn over there, as God inspired Paul to write these things down with regards to individuals who would deny God, who ultimately would deny the creation, would deny God in that sense, and really the characteristics of this reprobate and kind of debased mind that comes as a result of this rejection. We're going to look in Romans 1 and verse 28 to kind of see these characteristics, right? These individuals who reject God, what are the characteristics of the mind in which they receive as a result?

Romans 1 verse 28, it says, Notice what it says here. They are whispers. They're whispers. Backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful, who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them. This word, whispers, in this section is scytheristes in Greek. It means a gossiper. It means a tailbearer. It means a slanderer. What this illustrates is that the revealing of secrets, the revealing of rumors, or the relating of rumors rather, or otherwise spreading information that is privileged information to others who have no need to know, kind of illustrates that this is coming from a more of a debased and reprobate mind, just like a number and a multitude of other sins. Gossip does not come from the Holy Spirit. It does not originate within the Holy Spirit of God. Dave Ramsey, you're familiar with Dave Ramsey, he's a personality who's behind Financial Peace University, Entre leadership, a number of other initiatives. He has come to the terms with and recognizes the poison that gossip is in the workplace. And so in his company, gossip is a fireable offense.

He absolutely has and does fire people in his company as a result of gossip. Now, his definition of gossip is a very strict no gossip policy, but his definition of gossip is as follows. He says, gossip is any negative communication with anyone who is actually unable to solve the problem.

It's a pretty good definition, honestly. You know, you think about it doesn't prohibit there being negative information. It just says, if you have an issue, bring it to someone who can actually fix it.

Either take it directly to the person who can solve it, or take it to a supervisor who can fix the situation. He doesn't do any good to talk to so-and-so with the water cooler and tell him about this situation. He said, you get caught doing that, Dave's like, you're fired. We're not doing that here. That's not our culture of our company. In other words, those individuals you're telling at the water cooler, they're not need to know. They're not need to know. They can't fix the problem. If there's concerns, take it to the person involved, take it to the leadership structure, but spreading those negatives to other people in the workplace in that fashion is poison.

Brethren, if we want unity in our families, we want unity in our workplaces, in our communities, in our congregations. If we want strife and discord in these types of communities to cease, we have to control the fuel source. We have to control the fuel source, which obviously begins with us, but it's not just the wood that's the problem in the fire. Fire can't burn without oxygen. If we, royal we, are providing an oxygen-rich environment, we're providing an environment in which a fire can burn from person to person to person as we seek out tasty little trifles, sparks begin to burn out of control. As we mentioned earlier, if a fire gets too big and too dangerous, sometimes the only thing you can do is stand back, watch it burn, and pray for the damage to be very little. There's times there's no stopping it. It gets so out of control you can't bring it to bear. So it really does begin with each and every one of us, in our families, in our workplaces, in our churches. The only way that we can make sure that these sorts of things don't take place is to ensure that we are strong and solid in the faith, that we're allowing God to lead us by His Spirit. We're communicating with the Father through prayer and study. We're living in the way that God has commanded us to live. If we do these things, it provides an environment that is fire-ready. A term in firefighting means that it's prepared for the sparks that might come. In other words, the house is prepared for the fire, ensuring that if those things do come, those sparks do arrive, that we reject the rumor. We put them out, put out the hot spots, so to speak. We reject the rumor. We reject the gossip rather than spreading it to the next person and causing that fire to grow. Because again, brethren, the only two options we have when it comes to a spark and a fire like this is to either help contain the blaze or continue to spread it. Those are really the only two options that we have. In our state, massive forest fires can come from an errant cigarette butt flicked out the window as someone's driving down the highway. A lightning strike can start a forest fire. In our communities, the tongue can ignite horribly massing fires that burn completely and totally out of control. Smokey the bear was right. Only you can prevent forest fires. Right? There's a personal responsibility that each of us have in this process to prevent these things in our families, in our workplaces, in our congregations. We can't give it a place.

Out of love for your brothers, your sisters, and the faith, we have a duty to stop this in our congregations. So, brethren, the next time someone comes up to you and says, have you heard or did you read about or did you hear what so-and-so said in love? Politely stop them and say, I didn't, and I don't care to know. I didn't, and I don't care to know. If you have a concern, please take it to someone who can solve the problem. What you don't want to do is point and go, GOSSEP!

SLANDER! That's not what you want to do. That's inadvisable. That's not what you want to do. We don't want to shun people. We don't want to impute character. The reality is 80 percent, 80 percent of our human communication is estimated to be gossip. This is part of the quote-unquote human experience. Brethren, we're being called to something more. We're being called to something beyond that human experience, which means that sometimes these things are going to come up and they're going to be unintentional, and they're going to be not noticed necessarily. But brethren, we owe it to each other as brothers and sisters in the faith to help keep an eye on one another, to help work with one another, to be able to strengthen each other. I would challenge you this week, take some time this week with a critical eye and a critical ear on your own personal communication. As you communicate with people, take the time and identify, is this gossip? Is what I'm about to relate to somebody privileged information that I know but someone else does not?

Do they need to know? Are they need to know? Can they fix it? Or am I just simply passing on negative communication to someone else? Identify rumor for what it is. Identify gossip for what it is. Don't repeat it. Don't spread it. Catch it as you get ready to go. Remember, only you can prevent forest fires. Please help contain the blaze.