I was asked to speak on this topic together with four other topics for the Grace Ministers Conferences in South Africa, maybe six years ago. And I thought this was the least prepared of my messages and would be the least effective. I didn't know where to go for sources. I found two or three chapters in odd books about the subject. didn't find a single book on the subject and was astonished at how seldom this has been addressed. I went to the conferences and on the first venue I preached a message on coping with criticism and I think all my other messages were forgotten. Ministers openly wept. And several said to me, if I'd only heard this 20 years ago, my whole ministry could have been salvaged or I wouldn't have left a certain church that I left. And I suddenly realized more than any other subject I've ever addressed in my entire life, and I say that without exaggeration, that I had hit a wrong nerve that was being addressed, as far as I know, nowhere in all the world. And so I began to preach this message in a number of ministers' conferences, and the experience repeated itself again and again. Brothers and sisters, we don't know how to cope with criticism. And what I want to bring you this afternoon is something that I am in process with myself. I'm open to further suggestions. I'm open to corrections. Amendations. Whatever wisdom you have, but this subject needs to be addressed, it needs to be addressed not only for ministers, needs to be addressed in every interpersonal relationship we have. We need to know how to criticize people. Constructively. And we need to know how to receive it constructively. The trouble in the ministry is that many of us having tender consciences, perhaps having family backgrounds where things were very peaceful, as my family was, I've only heard my dad and mom argue one time in their entire lives. And that was behind closed bedroom doors in the middle of the night when I wasn't supposed to be hearing. So I was unprepared, totally unprepared for the floods of criticism. that were to come my way. And I suspect that many of you were in the same boat as me. And it would be so easy to surrender to pessimism and cynicism and depression and bitterness and disillusionment in the ministry when the criticism seems never to stop. John Wesley wrote in his diary at one point, Lord, what was wrong with me today? I didn't receive a single criticism. The ministry is a public place. Criticism will come. And when we don't respond to it rightly, it promotes smugness. It promotes an unforgiving spirit. It promotes backbiting on our part. And we tend to judge those who judge us. And so we tend to render evil for evil. We end up doing what others do to us. We binocularize their faults, bring them seven times closer. And when it comes to our own faults, because we become so self-defensive, we turn the binoculars around and we make our faults seven times smaller. So the question is this, if 80 percent of ministers or more say that their greatest problem in the ministry is coping with criticism. Don't we need some hands on guidance, some biblical hands on guidance. And how to handle this very thorny problem so that we don't fall prey to a pessimistic, cynical, exasperated spirit in the ministry that leads us ultimately to resignation or at least to insomnia. So what I want to do now is I want to give you 10 or 11 practical guidelines that I've just learned for the most part from my own experience and share them with you as partial solutions to this problem. Solution number one, consider criticism inevitable. Consider criticism inevitable. There's an old Dutch saying that he who stands up in the front will necessarily get kicked in the rear. You can't possibly be a leader, can you? And be so publicly exposed. And not get criticism. Particularly in the religious area, when people, and thank God for that, people have strong feelings about everything, about every aspect of worship, about everything you say, because their beliefs about God are the most important things in their life. So they're going to have strong feelings. And you're never going to please everyone all the time. My dad used to say, sometimes I think that in church life, our task is keeping everyone equally dissatisfied. That's a little cynical, but it is true, you see, when you're in the ministry and you preach faithfully and your message gets through, there will be some people that will not like you. In fact, some people will hate you. I've been 20 years in my present charge and when I was about two years as a minister here, I was in Florida and I was staying a couple of days with Ernie Reisinger, one of the Banner Truth Trustees at that time. And I don't know how many of you know him, but he was a great man of God. He was a businessman in construction and he has these great big construction hands. And he had a little rough side to him, but he was just a man who loved God. He was a powerful, powerful preacher. God called him, converted him wonderfully. And he took me out to a restaurant and he sat me down. He said, so Joel, he said, how's it going in Grand Rapids? And so, well, I don't really know what to say, but the only thing I know is that I've never been loved so much in all my life and I've never been hated so much in all my life. And he took that big construction hand and he slapped it across my knee and said, great. You're getting through. I thought about that so many times. You know what, if we never did anything, if we never said anything, if we never accomplished anything, if we're just mundane and boring, we probably won't get a lot of criticism, but we won't be doing the Lord's work, would we? I had a man tell me one time, an elder in a church, he said, we have such a peaceful church that for the last three years, there hasn't been a single question raised at a congregational meeting. I said, well, that sounds very sad and boring. The church was thoroughly dead. Dead churches don't criticize. Living churches do. So expect it. All be unto you, Jesus said, when all men speak well of you. Number two, consider the source. Consider the source. Who's criticizing you? Is it an office bearer you respect greatly, a mature believer perhaps, a bathing grace? Is it perhaps an unbeliever? Or is it a fringe member of the church, a highly critical individual? James Taylor writes, those who criticize are usually those on the fringe who stand back and are deaf to every appeal for service. My motto is this, 80% of my criticism comes from the 20% of my members who are the least dedicated to the church to begin with. Just like 80% of the work is accomplished by the 20% of the members who are the most dedicated. So we need to consider the source, not that you then ignore, as a fringe member, the criticism, but you do have to put that into the balance and say, How significant is this person's opinion of this particular item? Now, generally speaking, the more we sincerely welcome constructive criticism, the more our ministry and our relationships with others will benefit from it. So we need to be open. We need to welcome people. as they express their concerns and their complaints. But we do need to be careful not to respond excessively to every detailed complaint. I remember my first password in Sioux Center, Iowa. Three women came to one of our consistory meetings, or you might say session meetings, and lodged a complaint about the way the woman's ministry was being run. So the elders and deacons under my leadership, shame to say, made a major change that evening without consulting all the other women in the congregation. Well, you know what happened at the next sister meeting. We had 25 women there. And we ended up reverting back to where we were. See, if you have a congregation of 700 and you have two people complain about something, chances are Humanly speaking, it's not worthwhile changing. They might have a good idea, might be worthwhile changing, but chances are. If 50 people complain in a church of 200, you've got a major problem on your hands. So you need to consider who they are, the quantity of the complaint, the quality of the complaint. You need to put all these things into the balance. Number three. Consider timing and prayer, timing and prayer. I bring these two things together for a reason. I think I'm typical of many ministers here, but if I respond to people as soon as they criticize me, chances are my response will have at least an implicit seed, at bare minimum, of self-defensiveness. And I will regret that within the next 24 hours. So I have a fundamental rule of thumb. If someone criticizes me face to face, I try to ask them to let me meditate about this and pray about this and get back to them in a day or two. And I discover that when I've got 24 hours to let things settle down, talk to my wife, who's a very good confident, Maybe talk to one or two significant wise people in my life. Pray about it. My response can be so much more mature, so much less self-centered. So much more understanding. And if someone wants to criticize you constructively and you ask them for a day to think it over and pray about it, you're showing respect for what they're saying. And anyone who means to criticize constructively will say, of course, I'll give you that day, Pastor. So don't respond too quickly. Give yourself some time and remember that a pastor in the long term, maybe not the first year or two of your ministry in a place, but in the long term, you become more well known and more judged for your reactions to things than your initial actions to things. So forcing solutions too hastily. often make a bad situation worse. Truth has a way of eventually vindicating itself. Sometimes you need to wait longer than one or two days. Luke 21 verse 19 says, In your patience, possess your souls. Number four, consider yourself. Critics are often God's gifts to guard us from self-satisfied and self-destructive tendencies. The Holy Spirit uses our critics to keep us from justifying and protecting and exalting ourselves, to keep our pride down, as we heard last hour. Now, it's true that critics almost always exaggerate their case. That's human nature. You want to criticize someone, you want to get your point across, you tend to exaggerate it. It's true that critics are seldom entirely right. But it's also true that critics are often, if not usually, at least a little bit right. They've got a point. Now the very worst thing you can do is latch on to the exaggeration. Say someone says something about you that you're always late for appointments. And you're really only late about 35% of the time. So what you can do is say, now you just lied to me. You said I'm always late. Was I late last week, Tuesday? Am I always late? Tell me now, am I always late? You've got to choose your words more carefully. Oh, they start getting defensive. I didn't mean to say every single time. Well, that's what you said. You said always. And you pin them against the wall and you walk away and you're angry. And you make him angry and you just blew a constructive situation. All that man meant to say to you is, Pastor, could you make more effort to be on time? It's all he meant to say. And the way you should have responded to that was. You know, thank you for that criticism. I know that I'm often late and I need to be nudged to be more on time. And he would have said, thank you for receiving it well, and you both could have left in good spirit and you could have taken it, implemented some change, maybe made a rule in yourself that you leave five minutes more each time earlier than you think you need. And it would have been a happy win-win situation. So we need to let ourselves be more vulnerable. Someone once said, every minister must develop the hide of a rhinoceros and the heart of a child. I'm still struggling to learn how to do that. But every one of us gravitates in one of the two directions. Either we've got a hard, crusty exterior as a minister. We tend to be rhinoceros people and criticisms bounce off of us. And we're also very tender and every criticism makes us bleed. I'm in the latter category. I've been trying to develop that rhinoceros hide a little bit. Doesn't work very well for me. But we have to know ourselves, I know that I'm too tender. And so I need to adapt with criticism comes my way, I need to recognize it usually hurts me too much. And I need to work that out in my own life. One way of working that out is to find accountability partners. Thank God, if you have a wife who's confidential and who's wise and who can help you in this area, if she's not that kind of person, find someone else, usually someone not from your church locally, but maybe from another church you serve that you really learn to trust, an elder or a wise Father in grace or a fellow minister. But make sure you can trust that person well. And call that person when you have difficulties and challenges and criticism to try to report the criticism as objectively as possible. One thing we often are prone to do, I'm often prone to do, is I'm often prone to take the criticism and accent the criticism. to those in whom I confide so that they get worked up along with me and say, oh, how could they treat you that way? And you have a mutual pity party for you. So get to know yourself, see your own weaknesses. And seek the wisdom and courage needed to penetrate the insulation around your ego. And by all means, never, never be afraid to say, I was wrong. Will you forgive me? And never be afraid to say, I forgive you. Immediately. Unconditionally. Some months ago, I was asked to mediate in a church situation. Pastor had fallen out with the elders is a bad situation. They called me way too late. But there was a point about two months before that where the elders came to the pastor and said. Will you forgive us, we've been treating you ill, we want to start over. And the pastor said, I can't forgive you until I've seen better behavior. Come back in two months. If you're treating me better, I'll forgive you in two months. Well, they walked away furious. And the whole church fell apart. I had a man in my church who's given me a lot of grief over many years. challenged me in a lot of things, paid me a lot of visits. I know when he's walking through the door, he's got criticism. I know it's coming. About a year ago, he called me again. Can I come and see you? Yes. It comes. I have a very objective prayer. You brace yourself a little bit. What's coming now? What'd you do wrong now? You know the type of individual. I was right in a very busy time. I was in the middle of several conferences. I had some books that were due, middle of seminary semester. I was overwhelmed. I said, Lord, not now. What could I do? So I had him over. I was scared. I wasn't prepared mentally, emotionally. Spiritually. He comes in, he sits down, he hangs his head and he says, Pastor. I've been troubling you, I've been a thorn in your flesh for years, and I'm here to say one thing. I'm so sorry, would you ever forgive me? I said, stand up, man. He stood up. I went over. I gave him the biggest bear hug I ever gave anyone. And I rocked him back and forth. I said, I forgive you. I forgive you with all my heart. Why would you wait to forgive someone? He's paid me a few visits since then. But it sure was sweet at the time. Number five, consider the content. The content, this is very important. What are they criticizing you for? Now, I wish I could say I always handle this well, but this is my goal mentally, if I don't always make it emotionally. My goal is simply this. Every time I get criticized, I need to deal with it. If it's correct, 20% correct, I need to make a 20% change. 50% correct, I need to make a 50% change. I need to make the change, tell the individual I'm making the change, and then I need to move on and not let that criticism fester and build in me and be resentful for having to make the change I made. If the change is not worthy to be made, I need to tell the individual, I appreciate your thoughtfulness and your concern. I've thought about it. I've prayed about it. I've consulted with a few others about it, perhaps you could even say. And I've decided that I think there are some reasons why maybe this change is not good to make at this time. And maybe you even explain one or two reasons and maybe he'll challenge you. But you let him know that you're not going to make this change and move on. You see, both ways you move on. If you forget everything I said today, remember this, brothers in the ministry, don't let criticism fester. Move on. Now, that means that your goal in every criticism is to deal with it constructively, not become angry. Never become angry, never become self-defensive. Turn the other Jeep, Jesus said. That's one of the hard things about the ministry. You see, if you're a lay person and lay person comes and really gives it to you, you can't give it back to him, can you? As a minister, that's a total disaster. So you have to learn to handle it. Politely, always politely. Now. Sometimes. If your conscience is clear in a particular issue, you might say something like this. I appreciate your coming to me. I appreciate your concern. I do want to let you know that there is a straightforward, simple explanation. And I love you very much and I appreciate your concern and love for me. But I actually do believe that in this situation, you're misunderstanding the point. And let me explain. And you explain very briefly and overly defensively. There are times you have to do that. But if a critic comes to you, not objectively at all, and he's angry and in a huff and he's emotional. You're much better off just receiving it for the moment and not explaining. Once when I was debating whether I should explain something to a critic, yes or no, I went out with my wife to eat and I talked with her over the meal and said, I think I should explain. She wasn't sure either. There were some packs of sugar there on the table and, you know, there's some of these Confucius sayings on the packs of sugar. And I lifted up one of the packs of sugar and I looked at it and said, don't explain. Your friends don't need it and your enemies won't believe you anyhow. Well, there's some truth to that. There's some truth that we tend to over explain. Simple, straightforward explanations in order at times, as I said, but we can easily over-explain. And as soon as we start over-explaining, guess what happens? They're thinking, they won't say it, they're thinking, oh, he's really defensive. He's justifying himself. Again. You see, and they label you. And you do more harm than good. You see, refuse to descend to the level of the negative critic. Don't render evil for evil. Fight God's battles, and God will fight your battles. It's not for you to repay. Romans 12, 19, Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. By all means, don't take every whisper seriously. Don't get sidetracked into fruitless controversy. Or spend your energy trying to appease or persuade implacable critics who foster animosity wherever they go. One point in my ministry, I had several people that were upset with me. They had left the church. I tried to pay them some visits. I did manage to get one visit in with each one. I was going to visit again. And I could tell they'd canceled the appointment. They didn't want to meet with me. I talked to one of my wise pastoral friends from Illinois. I said, what do I do with this situation? It's really eating at me. I love these people and I can't get them back. I explained the whole situation. And he said, well, the answer is quite simple. A brother offended is harder to win than a city. Text in Proverbs. He said, Joel, you spent enough time with these people. You did offend them at one point. You said you're sorry they're not forgiving you. You've tried your best to make amends for it. And now it's actually their problem. And you've got too much work to do, you need to go forward. That advice was so incredibly wise in this particular situation, I think often we give up too quickly, but my weakness is I persevere too long, keep trying to hang on to somebody who's actually slipped out of my hands. I needed to hear that. Put your energy elsewhere so I could bring it to some kind of closure in my own mind. So I couldn't reach them anymore, I never had closure. Well, whatever the results are, whatever the results are, once you've dealt with it, once you've made the necessary changes, don't let it fester inside of you. Deal with it quickly, efficiently, put it behind you and then go bury yourself in your work again. That really helps me a great deal. You know, when I come home from a bad meeting, And I'm wound up. I could be awake till four o'clock in the morning quite easily. Be shot the next day. Sometimes I just say to my wife, well, honey, let's talk a few minutes and then I'll put you to bed. I'm going next door to the seminary. I'm going to work. I'm going to start working at 1230 in the morning. I'll just work. I'll come home about four o'clock in the morning. But I accomplished three and a half hours of work and I was able to set it aside emotionally and recognize that I had other things that were valuable. It was once a father who took his son out. Out on the ocean to explain to him how to manage the sailboat when a storm came up and the father said something I hope I never forget, he said, when the water comes over the bow, if you just stand there, embrace yourself, the water will wipe you away. But as the water hits you, if you quickly shift feet, shift your weight of your feet to your other foot, you can withstand about 10 times as much. That's one thing I like about having diverse ministry. If I'm having problems in the church, well, I turn to writing. I shift my weight. If I'm having problems in the seminary, I do something for the church. Give myself time, breathing space. Have different things going at the same time so that one thing doesn't overwhelm me. So know yourself. Consider the content correct. And finally, at this point, step up. Step up. You probably heard the story of the old mule that fell into a farmer's well. And the farmer heard the mule braying or whatever else mules do when they fall into wells, and he couldn't get the mule out. So finally, he decided there was no hope but to bury the mule. So he called his neighbors and he said, bring a shovel. All the farmer neighbors came, brought a shovel, and they began to shovel dirt and throw it down on the mule to bury him. That's sometimes how ministers feel. People throwing shovels of dirt on you to bury you. So the mule got very angry. Felt those shovels of dirt coming down on him. He started making more noise and got upset. And suddenly he realized. He wasn't going to give in to all this dirt shoveling, so when the dirt landed on him, he just kind of shook it off. And he took a step up. More dirt, shook it off, took a step up. And before you knew it, he walked out of the well. It's the same thing with us, if we can shake it off and move on constructively, we can move right out of it and it doesn't have to bury us alive. So make a lemonade out of a lemon and God will honor it in the end and you'll be less self-centered from it and more Christ-centered. Number six, consider scripture, consider scripture, obviously an important one here. Consider wonderful texts, wonderful things that come your way, things by which you're encouraged. What I like to do if I have a special text that helps me is I tape it to my computer for months. I read it again and again and again. It's wonderful. Romans 8, 28 has been very special in my life. All things work together for good to those that love God. This criticism, going to work together for my good, I tell myself when I sit at my computer and see that text again. My favorite is Isaiah 54, 17. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper. For my servant's righteousness is of me, saith the Lord. That has lifted me out of the pit so many times. Lean on the word of God. Doesn't have to be special text either. But it can be your daily Bible reading as well. But look for promises that will show you that God will uphold his servants in the midst of strife and difficulty. Number seven, the most important of them all. Consider Christ. Consider Christ. Look to Jesus in the face of mounting criticism. Peter says Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that he should follow his steps, who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, who, when he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. First Peter 2, 21 to 23. You see, if Christ, who was perfect, and altogether innocent was spat upon and mocked and rejected and crucified. What can we imperfect pastors expect? If one of Jesus handpicked apostles betrayed him for a paltry sum and another swore that he did not know him out of fear for a mere servant made. So we expect our elders and deacons and members to always Bless our ministries and be excited about us being on the pulpit and none of them ever betray us and none of them ever desert us. Remember. We're followers of Jesus, we're sufferers together with him. You can't be a Christian, not suffer. All they who are godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. That's true of lay people. How much more true that's of ministers, because God wants to train his ministers to reach the lay people's needs, and therefore we need more experience with the hard edges of life than lay people do so that we can comfort others with a comfort where with we ourselves are comforted of God. So expect times when people will say terrible things about you far beyond reality. And then remember Christ. And my most helpful thing for coping with criticism is just a very simple thought, but it's very profound at the same time. I just talk to myself this way. No matter how badly anyone has ever treated me, they have not treated me nearly as badly as I have treated Christ. And if Christ has forgiven me when he was totally innocent and didn't deserve any of my bad treatment, why shouldn't I forgive my brother or my sister, even when they say false things about me? Because I'm usually partially guilty to begin with. But also, if Christ forgave me, why can't I forgive them? That's the parable of the unmerciful servant. He was forgiven what? Millions of dollars in today's currency. And he goes out and he can't forgive someone else two dollars. That's the way we're like when we can't forgive people from our heart. It should be easy for us to forgive. Because we've been forgiven so much more. So much more. So much more. One time I had some very, very bad rumors, totally false rumors, not a shade of truth in them. Spread about me by one elder. Through the churches, it was bad. I was angry. I was pacing my study. I couldn't study. I couldn't even pray. And I went over to my shelf, just picked out a book, it was John Brown, The Christian Pastor's Manual. And I started reading. I read for about two minutes. I came across this thought. So maybe someone's saying bad things about you. That aren't true and you're angry. That's me. Don't be angry. But get down on your knees and thank God they don't know half how bad you really are. That completely delivered me. I thought if they knew my heart, they knew my thought world. You know, the things you're saying about me aren't as bad as some of the things I've thought. Who am I to complain? Who was a living man? To complain for the chastening of his iniquity. And you know what I've discovered? I've discovered that when criticism gets me down, it drives me to the Lord. And anything that drives me to the Lord is worth the price. Did you ever hear that story of that girl who was converted under George Whitfield's preaching and she was on her deathbed. She was nine years old and her dad was at her side every day just weeping his eyes out. But she was so happy, she was so full of joy, she was going to heaven. And he said to her, my dear, he said, don't you want to stay with us for a while longer? No, daddy, she said, no, daddy, why not? For two reasons, daddy, one, because I want to be with Mr. Whitfield's big God. But number two, Daddy, I've seen that ever since I got sick, God has used my sickness to bring you closer to the Lord. And if it takes my death to bring you to the Lord, Daddy, whatever brings you closer to the Lord is worth the price. Number eight, Consider biblical saints. Consider biblical saints. I'll just mention one here for time's sake, Nehemiah. Isn't it fascinating how Nehemiah handles criticism? He's got all these Sembalas and Tobias attacking him. Some of their criticisms were valid. Nehemiah's workers were not skilled. Many were not very committed. Some sections of the wall were not very strong. Some sections could not be rebuilt. Some of their criticisms had some truth in it. So how did Nehemiah respond? He committed his cause to God in prayer. That's the first thing he did. He didn't turn to them and defend himself. He didn't explain. He just simply said, Here, O our God. Prayer just rose within him. He turned to God, not to man. And then he committed his cause. And the source of his vision. To God, and he said, Lord, it's my vision, not my own vision. And then he set up a guard. He revised his plan according to new circumstances without abandoning his vision. Let me repeat that. He revised his plan according to the new circumstances without abandoning his vision. That's what we as pastors often have to do. Many times in church life, things go three steps forward and four steps back. And when they go backward, We often have to revise our plan, but not abandon the God-glorifying vision we have. So this three-step response of Nehemiah is a very helpful one. Pray, remember, and revise, but don't abandon. A failed plan does not equal a failed vision. Often you can bring the vision back a year later and it will go through very well. Meanwhile, probably what the Lord is teaching us is to swallow our pride and he wants to show us that the reason the vision will succeed is not because of us, but because of him. Number nine, consider love, consider love. Love the one who criticizes you. For Christ's sake, try to get to know the person better. You can't love those you don't know. There's a lady in my church and she said, I've learned how to get the minister's attention. You have to just become his enemy. Because I go out of my way when I see people that are unhappy with me, I go out of my way in the church parking lot to go out and meet them. Instead of avoid them, I go out to meet them. Purposely. Build. I want to build my relationship with them. Don't shun them. Welcome them. And when something has been dealt with, Don't ever bring it up again. Don't ever bring it up again. Spurgeon said, unless you have forgiven others, you read your own death warrant every time you repeat the Lord's Prayer. You understand that? Forgive as we forgive others. Spurgeon goes on to say, forgive and forget. When you bury a dead dog, you don't leave its tail sticking up above the ground. Too many of us are too good at that. How do you love your critic? You pray for your critic. It's pretty hard to hate someone you're praying for. And you pray with your critic, if at all possible. When you pray with your critic, you do it very carefully and lovingly. You go the extra mile. I try to do it something like this. Lord, thou knowest why this friend is here and he has some criticism to bring me. Give me an open heart, help me be vulnerable, help me to learn, help iron to sharpen iron. And give him wisdom to express his feelings to me. To open his heart. Let there be a good solution by the end of this visit for Jesus' sake. So that your very prayer makes the critic want to tell you the criticism. Now, there are times where you need to feel pity for your critic. There are times the criticism is so bad that the best way of responding is rather than feel sorry for yourself, feel sorry for him. I had a man once who was criticizing me so badly on family visitation, I didn't dare let his children stay there any longer. I would like to talk to you about these things, but is it possible you put your children to bed so we can talk openly about it? Oh, he said, it's not a problem at all. My children know all my complaints about you. They're five years old, seven years old, nine years old, 11 years old. All they heard was a stream of unending complaints about how horrible their minister was. And such a wave of pity for this man swept over me. What is he doing to his children? He's destroying his family. And finally, put away anything that inhibits love. Peter says, lay aside all malice, all guile, all hypocrisies, all envies, all evil speakings. As that old English expression, kill him with kindness. The biblical expression is, keep coals of fire upon his head, not to destroy him, but because, as you know, poor people didn't have enough coals to keep their house warm. And so when your enemy strikes against you, bring him heat for his home, bring him love, bring him kindness. If he wants to go on hating you, well, then it's between him and the day of judgment. But don't you hate him back, because then it will come back to you on the Day of Judgment. Number 10. Consider long-term vision. Long-term vision. No president in American history was so respected and so reviled as Abraham Lincoln. Thousands opposed his views on war and slavery, as well as his attempts to keep the nation united. And one day, a friend pulled Lincoln aside and said, you know, the criticism has reached such a crescendo that it's like you're surrounded by scores of barking dogs. Lincoln responded. You know that during the time of the full moon, dogs bark and bark at the moon as long as it is clearly visible in the sky. My friend said. What do you mean? What's the rest of the story? And Lincoln said, there is no rest of the story. The moon just goes right on shining. His point, you see, was he knew he was right. He had long term vision. He knew that there'd be people barking against it for a good long while, but he was clear in his conscience. And so he just went on. You see, as pastors, we can too easily waffle under the pressure of a few, I put this in quotes, barking parishioners. When we know we're in the right, in accord with God's mind and God's will and God's word and God's vision. My son has wanted a dog all his life, that's about the only legitimate request I've never given him. Because I've always said to him, I've got enough people barking at me. I don't need a dog barking at me around here as well. You see. To obtain temporary peace with a few disgruntled members. We are prone to abandon valuable long term commitment to God and to ministry and division that shines on our churches and ministries like a full moon. Don't do that. Don't be intimidated by a few critics and a little criticism. Don't allow the minority to force you into their mold so that you live timid and hesitant lives and tone down the pulpit ministry and do nothing and say nothing. And worst of all, be nothing. Don't lose heart. And don't give up. Remember, Winston Churchill's shortest speech, never, never, never give up. Theodore Roosevelt put it this way. It's not the critic who really counts in the end, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who's actually in the arena fighting the long term battle, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, but perseveres. Finally, number 11, consider eternity. Consider eternity, the ultimate vision, long-term vision. Dear brother in the ministry, on the other side of the Jordan, our faithful Savior will be waiting for you saying, Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord, if you persevere. in gospel ministry by His grace. Even though you have many faults and flaws and wrinkles, He loves you and will take care of you and will wipe away every tear from your eye and every wrong will be made right and every injustice will be judged and all criticism will be passed. All evil will be walled out and all good will be walled in. There will be perfect unity, a perfect church. We will commune with unfallen angels in perfect worship, with the saints of all ages in absolute perfection. There will be no denominations. No divisions. Luther and Calvin will see eye to eye. There will be no misgivings, no misunderstandings, no theological arguments, no ignorance. Our believing critics will embrace us and we will embrace them. We shall all be one in Jesus Christ. As Christ is in the Father and the Father in Him, there will be perfect visible, intimate, complete oneness. And then three wonderful realities will take place. First, we will understand that all the criticism we received here below was used in the hands of our potter to prepare us for Emmanuel's land. And we will say, I've needed every one of those critics, Lord. Number two, we will see fully that all the criticisms we were called to bear on earth were but a light affliction compared to the weight of glory that awaited us. And number three, in heaven we will be more than repaid for every affliction we endured on earth, for the sake of our perfect and faithful and best friend, Jesus Christ. Blessed are ye when you endure persecution for Christ's sake. For so persecuted they the prophets who were before you. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad. Happy day! When this mortality shall put on immortality, and this corruption, incorruption. And we shall ever, ever, ever be with the Lord. And He will never criticize you in glory. Because He will make you perfect. Perfect, unstaining spirits. Unstainable spirit. Perfect soul. Perfect body. You won't be tempted. You won't even be tempted to be tempted. You will be absolutely perfect. He will be able to look on you and say, you are a bride, you are my bride, without spot and without wrinkle. And that day, all the criticisms you endure will wash away as a thing of insignificance. Like that young woman in my church who went through an incredibly rough pregnancy. Month after month, day after day, it was awful. And she finally had the baby. The baby was healthy. And I went to visit her. I shook my head when I stood at her side. She looked so drained, so washed out. And I said, oh, it's been a tough pregnancy. She said, Pastor, with this child in my arms, I've already forgotten all about it. Oh, on that day, we will say, Lord, all the criticism is gone. I've forgotten it already. Just to be with Thee. Forever. The bride eyes not her garment, but her dear bridegroom's face. I will not gaze at glory, but on my King of Grace. Not at the crown he gifteth, but on his pierced hand. The Lamb is all the glory in Emmanuel's land. So let's stop feeling sorry for ourselves. Don't resign, but re-sign. And be committed. I remember the importance of your occupation. Remember, remember what my father used to often say to me, your calling in the ministry is more important than living in the White House. Remember what Edward Payson said, sometimes in my study, I'm so overwhelmed that God is using me as a minister of Jesus Christ that I clap my hands for joy and say that he would make me an ambassador of Jesus Christ. Why should I complain about a few critics? Oh, dear friends, we have the most honorable calling in all the world. And if we see one soul brought to the Lord Jesus Christ under our ministry, it ought to be worth all the price of all the criticism we have to experience and we have to undergo. Don't be discouraged. Lift up the hands that hang down. Make a straight path for your feet. You have the best of assurances in that fight. The promises of God. You have the best of advocates. The Holy Spirit. You have the best of generals. Jesus Christ. You have the best of results. Everlasting glory. You know when we can start complaining? We can start complaining when we have given as much for Christ as He has given for us. And that day will never happen. So gird up the loins of your mind and stand fast and look Christward and lean Christward and pray Christward and preach Christward and live Christward. And say with the apostle, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.