Proverbs 18, been dealing with this series, Wisdom from Above, very simple, practical series. As I've been reading through these proverbs and doing messages on them, it's really kind of where the rubber hits the road kind of messages, you know, just where we live. The realities of life is what it's about and how to deal with things with God's wisdom, and that's what the series is about. So we're looking at Proverbs 18, notice verse 13. We read, he that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him. All right, we'll read that together when I say begin. Ready? Begin. He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him. All right, let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. Thank you for your great love to us that you did not leave us here to figure out life on our own. that you gave us a book, you gave us your book, the Word of God, and we're grateful that we have the inspired, preserved words of God in our hands as we hold, for English-speaking people, our King James Bible in our laps. And Father, I pray tonight that we'd receive it as it is in truth, the Word of God, not the words of men. I pray you'd open our hearts to the truth tonight, and Lord, I do pray you'd fill me afresh and anew with thy spirit as I give forth the message that I trust you've led me to preach this evening. Please remove any distractions from our minds tonight and from this room, and may your word have free course. Thank you for your great love to us. Please help us this evening in this simple matter. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. You know, in my opinion, one of the greatest documents penned by human hands is the U.S. Constitution. I just believe that. Now, these are God's words. It's the Bible. I get that. That is no doubt the greatest document, if you will, that exists. But as far as documents penned by human hands, I believe it's the U.S. Constitution, and in particular, the Bill of Rights. And the Sixth Amendment of our Constitution reads in part the following. It reads, in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury. Now according to the legal website, Constitution U.S., an impartial jury is described this way. It is a jury that will consider a case fairly, without favoring or discriminating against anyone. The jury must be willing to look at the evidence open-mindedly. An impartial jury does not immediately assume guilt or innocence. They wait to see the evidence and hear the arguments first. They go on to say on this website, fair trials are an essential part of the idea of just government. We understand that. We believe everyone has a right to a fair trial, a speedy trial. And again, that requires a jury that listens to everything before it rushes to judgment. Now if you were to be chosen for jury duty, how many have been chosen? Probably all of us in this room at one time. I've never been chosen more than since I've moved to Delaware. I think it was like once or twice in New Jersey, never in Pennsylvania. I think I've been chosen six times, summoned for jury duty. And that's, I guess, because it's a small state. But anybody not, that's eligible, not chosen, ever been chosen for, let me write your name down. I'm gonna send it in. Try this guy out, amen? But if you were chosen for jury duty, the following instructions would likely either be read to you or handed to you in writing. It would say something like this, as a juror, there are certain responsibilities you will be asked to fulfill. A juror must give his or her undivided attention to the trial. A juror should listen carefully to all questions by both parties on direct or cross-examination of the witness, the testimony given in response to the questions, and the judge's instructions to the jury. A juror's verdict can only be based upon the evidence presented. Goes on to say, a juror must be impartial until he or she hears all the evidence and law applicable to the case. A juror should listen to the evidence presented by both sides carefully and avoid taking sides until he or she has an opportunity to hear all the evidence. There it is. Now those instructions I just read are not only good for jurors, but they're good for Christians as well. We should do the same thing. And particularly leaders. If you're a pastor or you're a parent or you're a teacher or leading or someone that has to make decisions and use discernment about things, you must adhere to what's being said here. And that's exactly what Solomon is teaching his son Rehoboam here in the book of Proverbs, and God is trying to teach all of us here as well. Look at the verse again, Proverbs 18, 13. He that answereth the matter before he heareth it. It is folly and shame unto him. Answering a matter, in other words, responding to a matter or making or coming to a conclusion about something, about a situation or a person, before you hear it out, God says it is a foolish and shameful thing to do. But people do it all the time. Christians do it all the time. And so I'd like to preach on that subject tonight, the wisdom of not rushing to judgment. You know, one of the things that the devil loves to do is to sow discord among the brethren. He loves to do that. He loves to drive a wedge between fellow believers. He loves to drive a wedge between fellow church members. He loves to bait us to believe lies about others, to think ill of others. He loves to pit people against people. That's what he loves to do. And so what does he do? Well, he accuses us, he misrepresents us, he gets others to believe false things about us, because he knows that if he can so discord, what he'll do, discord in a church, he will sidetrack the work of God. That he will hinder the work of God and possibly even halt the work of God in a church. That's what the devil does. That's his goal. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ warned us of the devil's work. He said in John 10, 10, that the thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. Then again in John 8, verse 44, he says, Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. That's the devil. He loves to sow discord. He loves to get us to do exactly what this verse tells us not to do, to answer a matter before we hear it. By the way, what exactly was happening in the church at Corinth was this thing. The devil was causing divisions in that church. Oh, we read in 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 10, the Bible says, Our beseech you, brethren, Paul writing to the church, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind, in the same judgment, for it hath been declared unto me of you my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. He says there's a problem here. There's divisions, there's contentions. 1 Corinthians 3, 3, for ye are yet carnal, for whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men? And understand that affected the work of God in that church. Fast forward to chapter 15 and verse 34, Paul says to them, awake to righteousness and sin not, for some have not the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. There's divisions, there's cliques, there's doctrinal errors, all kinds of things in this church. And because of that, people aren't hearing the gospel. The devil was having a field day. And again, one of the tools that the devil uses to accomplish this division is found here in our text. He tries to get me and you to jump to conclusions about things, to jump to conclusions about people, to make assumptions without facts, to quickly make up our minds about people and situations before we hear the entire story, before we search out the matter, and before we hear both sides of the story. And this is the exact opposite of what God wants us to do. Proverbs 25, 2, it is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the honor of kings is to search out a matter. Don't jump to conclusions about things and people and situations. Search it out first. Otherwise you'll be a fool, God says. So tonight what I'd like to do, I'd like for us to take some principles here from the Bible and learn why is this truth we're talking about here tonight of not rushing to judgment so important and how can we prevent ourselves from doing it to keep unity in the church and amongst believers. Let's consider first of all, number one, the rule God gives. There's a rule here. Again, he that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him. Now remember, the book of Proverbs is the book of wisdom. It's God's wisdom. It is designed by God to give to God's people the wisdom that we need for life. Wisdom that is contrary to what the world says. And by the way, this wisdom is especially directed to young people. Imagine you as a young person can have God's wisdom without having to learn it the hard way, if you will. Proverbs 1.1, the Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, to know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity, to give subtly to the simple and to the young man knowledge and discretion. A wise man will hear and will increase learning, and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsel. And here's Solomon in the book of Proverbs, he's giving his son Rehoboam a warning, if you will. Imagine, he would be the future king, Rehoboam. He's giving him a warning about answering a matter too quickly, about answering a matter before he hears it out. And he tells his son, if you do that, it will be folly and shame unto you. More about that later. Now the reason that Solomon has to tell his son this and tell us this is because our sinful nature, our old man, our old nature, our Adamic nature tends to do that. We tend to make assumptions. We tend to answer a matter too quickly. We tend to respond and come to conclusions before we hear it out. This is a warning for us all. Let's not forget what the prophet Jeremiah said about the human heart. In Jeremiah 17, 9, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? So understand our own nature tends to believe the worst in everything. We tend to gravitate to negativity. We tend to think about negative things more than positive things. We tend to remember negative experiences more than positive experiences. We tend to react more strongly to negative things than we do to positive things. That's our nature. We have a bent to do that. Let me give you an example. You might be having work, you're there, and you're just having a great day when a co-worker says something that irritates you. Nobody's ever had that happen, I'm sure. And then you find yourself there, he said, one thing just irritating, and you find yourself stewing over his words for the rest of the day. And when you get home from work, someone asks you how your day was, how do you respond? You say it was terrible. It was horrible, even though overall it was quite good except for that one little thing, but that's how we think, that's how we act, that's how we remember things. And so when someone tells you about something that someone said, or someone tells you about something that someone did, or that someone texted them, or someone posted, or wrote a blog about, or an incident that's occurred, or an incident that you do not have firsthand knowledge about, understand our natural reaction is to rush to judgment. Our natural reaction is to get angry at that person and rush into making a decision about that matter before hearing it out. Beware of that. Beware of that. It's interesting how we can spot that sort of thing in the liberal media. I mean, they're good at jumping to conclusions before all the details are in. I could give you example after example. One example would be in June of 2020, the liberal news media, you probably remember this. Matter of fact, I think I mentioned this in a sermon before. The liberal news media reported that NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace had what they called a hate crime noose hanging in his garage. I mean, people saw it, people reported it. NBC's Andrea Mitchell declared the quote, hanging of the noose was a quote, horrifyingly racist incident. ESPN anchor Jameel Hill called the, quote, noose a, quote, disgusting reminder of who this sport is for. Well, later after investigating the issue, it was found that it was simply a garage pull rope. That's all it was. It wasn't a noose at all. But they fed that to people. They not only jumped to conclusions, but those that listened to it did the same thing. And they wanted to hang this guy, if you will. Oh, on and on we could go. We could think of the story of Micaiah Bryant, the shooting. The black teen, after she lunged after a girl with a knife, the police were there and they shot her and they killed her. And they failed to report the fact, actually they reported that she was unarmed when she was. They actually edited, NBC edited the 911 call to take out the fact that the person said, there's a girl trying to kill and to stab others. They took that out so it would fit their narrative. I mean, what did they do? They had something in mind. They jumped to a conclusion and fed it out to everybody. And everybody bought it. They do that all the time. Jump to conclusions. But don't we do the same thing often? Have you ever heard something about someone that someone told you and you immediately condemned that person? Have you ever heard something about someone and you were hasty to accept it? It was a rumor or an unverified story and you accepted it as true? Have you ever been hasty to accept someone else's condemnation of another person? We do it, don't we? It's easy to do. We just take it and we run with it. We say, oh, okay, I guess that's it. And God warns us against that. He that answereth the matter comes to a conclusion before he hears it out and searches it out. It is folly and shame unto him. Well, how do we prevent this from happening? Well, let me give you some suggestions for preventing this from happening. First of all, letter A, listen to both sides of the story. Proverbs 25.2, again, says, it is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the honor of kings is to search out a matter. Now, we've all heard the phrase, there's two sides to every story, and anyone that's ever pastored a church knows there's a lot of sides to stories. We've all heard that there's three sides to every story, right? Yours and his and the truth, you've heard that before. But too often we draw our conclusions about people and about situations with only one side of the story. With only partial information or second hand information. Understand something, whenever you hear something, whenever I hear something, there's almost always more to the story. Almost always. So it is a wise thing to not just listen to one side of a story, but hear out both sides. Say, okay, I hear what you're saying. Maybe you want to go to that person and find out their side of the story before you jump to a conclusion. One author wrote this, he said, quote, it's not only that there are two sides to every dispute, it's that each side sincerely believes its version of the story, namely that it is an innocent and long-suffering victim, that they are, and the other side is a malevolent and treacherous sadist. I'm right and they're wrong, you know, that's what they say. But my point is this, whenever you and I hear something, if we want to avoid this truth that we're being told here, then we should listen to each person's perspective. There's another thing, another suggestion. Letter B, write this down. Verify information before arriving at a conclusion. Verify it. As much as is possible, verify that what has been said is true. before passing judgment, before coming to a conclusion, make sure it's true. You know, things aren't always as they appear. They're not. In fact, John 7, 24, the Lord Jesus Christ said that. He said, judge not according to the appearance. Sometimes things are going to look a certain way and they're not going to be that way. You may just catch a glimpse of something or part of a story and may appear different. He says, judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. Get the facts is what he's saying here. Don't just go by what things look like or just by what you hear. Verify information before you arrive at a conclusion. President Ronald Reagan once said in a speech, he was well-known for this saying, but he said this about Russia. He was saying, I want to believe them, and I don't want to offend them, but ultimately, I'm skeptical. I wouldn't be a very good manager if I didn't make sure of what they were saying. He said, trust, but verify, right? When it comes to political alliances, the old maxim always stands true. Trust, but verify. And that's what I'm talking about right here. You listen to them. You don't just point, you're lying, I know you are. You say, okay, okay, well let's verify that. Let's see what the other person has to say. Let's verify the information. Go to the person involved. Go to the people involved. Talk to them. Ask questions. Make sure that the information you were given is accurate and true before you jump to a conclusion. I have over the years gotten calls from people who wanted long-distance counseling. And you know what I do? I always refer them back to their pastor. I say, go talk to your pastor. But many times they just want to tell me everything. And they just may blur out everything over the phone. And you know what I'll do? I'll call their pastor. And I'll say, hey, so-and-so called me. They're a member of your church, just so you know. I don't know how they got my number, but they called me. And I tell them about the story. And when I get done talking to him, I find out something. Almost every time, there's a lot more to the story than that person told me. It sounded like a totally different thing when they were on the phone. But boy, when I hear his side of it, the pastor's side, and what he's dealing, he's in the midst of that thing. It may not be between them and the pastor, but often between them and a friend or another church member and a spouse. And when he fills me in, I say, yeah, yeah, that sounds more like it there. The thing changes. Listen to both sides of the story. Verify information before arriving at a conclusion. Then thirdly, give the person in question the benefit of the doubt. In other words, if someone comes to you and tells you something about it, give them the benefit of the doubt, would you? If you don't know if it's true yet, if you haven't listened to both sides yet, if you haven't verified the information, give them the benefit of the doubt. Jonathan Edwards in his book entitled Charity and Its Fruits, Christian Love as Manifested in the Heart and Life, he wrote this, listen closely, it's wordy but it's good. He said, quote, there are always two sides to every story. And it is generally wise and safe and charitable to take the best. And yet there is probably no way in which persons are so liable to be wrong as in presuming the worst is true. And in forming an expression, their judgment of others and of their actions without waiting till all the truth is known. He's saying when you're in that place, if you don't know they're saying something and you don't know if it's true, give that person the benefit of the doubt. Don't automatically condemn them. Don't jump on the bandwagon of saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, let's bite and devour this guy. Don't do that. You'll be guilty of what's said here in our text. He that answers the matter before he hears it, it is folly and shame unto him. You know, 1 Corinthians 13, 5 tells us that charity, love in action, thinketh no evil. That'll preach right there, won't it? In other words, I don't assume evil, I don't think evil on a person, without facts, without verifying. I don't just say, well, I just, you know, that sort of thing. Until you know enough verified facts to arrive at a conclusion, give the person the benefit of the doubt. Do not assume the worst. And if you don't know enough of the verified facts, or can't verify the facts, then just go ahead, don't give an answer. Just say, I don't know. So again, this is the rule God gives. It's a command. Don't answer a matter before you hear it. You're a fool. So listen to both sides of the story, verify information before arriving at a conclusion, and give the person in question the benefit of doubt. So number two, write this down. The reason God gives it, or God gives us. Why would God tell us this? It's foolish to answer a matter. I'll tell you why. Because there are many questionable and unreliable sources out there. I'll say it again. There are many questionable and unreliable sources out there. And I'm not just talking about fake news or CNN. I'm talking about people. There are some questionable and reliable sources out there. And because of that, you and I, if we want to promote harmony with one another and harmony in the church, we have to go beyond just believing what someone says because they say it. Again, we trust, but we verify. I got to thinking about that and I thought of four questionable sources that we can receive information from, or four unreliable sources that we can receive information from. The first one is this, letter A. A person that's immature, or should I say a child. You know little kids love to tell stories. They do. They just do. They love to exaggerate things. They love to make things up. I'll just go ahead and say it. I'll give you a Bible verse for it so you don't hate me. They lie. Listen, I had kids too. They lie. Okay? Psalm 58.3, the wicked are estranged from the womb. They go astray. As soon as they be born, notice, speaking lies. That's just the truth. It's the truth. They lie. Amen. You know, we learn more about your home and your marriage from our preschoolers in kindergartens than from anybody else. You don't believe what they say about you. It's awesome. Go down there with a notepad, take notes, amen? Get some sermon outlines and so forth. That's why we always begin the school year saying to the parents at the beginning of the year, you don't believe everything they say about us and we won't believe everything they say about you. Okay? Let's just go ahead and make an agreement there. Because they're little. They're immature. They haven't grown up. They just say things. They say partial things. They say things they think. Things they think that they heard about things they don't even know what they mean. They just say things. And we need to be careful about believing everything they say. You ought to say amen that we don't believe everything the preschoolers at kindergarten say if you have one of them. Amen? Now we listen, but we know there's more to the story. There's another side here. We get that. And so we have to be careful and realize that this is a questionable or unreliable source of information. But then there's another one. Letter B, write this down. There's also a person, an unreliable source is a person that's misinformed. You know, sometimes people will hear misinformation and pass on that information, believing themselves that it's true. In other words, they were told something untrue. That's why you shouldn't pass things along, amen? I think they call that gossip. I think that's what they call it. You don't just take a story and pass it along. Well, I don't know if it's true, but boy, it's a juicy one right here. Boy, this will get attention. I'll get a lot of stir up a lot on my Facebook page, amen? No, you know, you shouldn't do that. But again, sometimes people hear something and it's just not true. They have been misinformed. I mean, there may not even be an ill intent, but they heard it and so forth. But it does become wrong when you start passing it along when you don't know if it's true. But even trustworthy people can be misinformed. And so be careful by receiving information from someone that's misinformed. I thought of a good Bible example. Let's go to Acts chapter 21. Acts chapter 21. This is when the Apostle Paul, if you remember, after his third missionary journey, he arrived back in Jerusalem. He's going to get arrested there. They're going to end up sending him to Caesarea. He's going to end up spending two years there and going off into Rome for two years as well. But it's interesting, when he got there, boy, they wanted to tear him apart when they got there. They hated him. The Jews hated him. And it's interesting because when he arrived there in Acts chapter 21, look at verse 38. He's being led to the castle. He's going to be allowed to speak, which he's going to speak in chapter 22. But notice this chief captain, what he says to him. Acts 21, 38. Aren't not thou that Egyptian, which before these days made us an uproar and led us out into the wilderness, 4,000 men that were murderers? I'd like to take a picture of the Apostle Paul's face when he said that. What are you talking about? Where did you get that? An Egyptian that made an uproar and led out into the wilderness 4,000 men that were murderers? Where did he hear that? He was misinformed. It was a rumor. But what did he do? He passed it along. He violated the verse we're talking about tonight. He answered a matter before he searched it out. He was simply passing on something that he was told that he may have even thought was true, but he was misinformed. Be careful. Understand that who you're receiving information from about people may be misinformed. They may have misheard. They may have misunderstood. So there's unreliable sources out there. A person that's immature, a little child, and then a person that's misinformed. But then there's a third person. that we need to realize is a questionable source, and that is a person with impure motives. A person with impure motives. There are people out there that have impure motives. Even Christians. I'll call them backslidden Christians. Proverbs 6.12, a naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth, he winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers, frowardness is in his heart, he devises mischief continually, he soweth discord. They're out there. People just have impure motives and they will tell you false things about people and situations for malicious reasons. There's ulterior motives that are there. You say, why in the world would somebody do that? Well, there's all kinds of reasons. Sometimes people do it to get out of trouble. Sometimes to make themselves look good. Sometimes they spread lies and misinformation to hide their own sin. Sometimes they do it to advance themselves. Sometimes they do it to pit you against somebody else, or to get you to side with them. Let me show you an example of this in the Bible. Go to 2 Samuel chapter 16. You remember this when I preached through the life of Samuel and David. Actually, this would be the life of David. 2 Samuel 16. If you remember, this is when David was fleeing Jerusalem because of Absalom, his son. Notice this man Ziba comes to him and he lies to him about Mephibosheth. Why did he do that? Because he wanted his land. And so what did he do? He gave him misinformation about Mephibosheth. Notice chapter 16 and verse 1. And when David was a little past the top of the hill, behold, Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth, met him with a couple of asses saddled, and upon them two hundred loaves of bread, and a hundred bunches of raisins, and a hundred of summer fruits, and a bottle of wine. Boy, he's coming loaded with it. His gun's loaded. And the king said unto Ziba, What meanest thou by these? And Ziba said, The asses be for the king's household to ride on, and the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat, and the wine that such as be faint in the wilderness may drink. And the king said, And where is thy master's son? Mephibosheth, where is he? You're the one you're supposed to take care of him. Remember, Ziba, I gave you the assignment to take care of him. Where is he? Oh. Even said unto the king, Behold, he abideth at Jerusalem. For he said, Today shall the house of Israel restore me to the kingdom of my father. He's saying, well, Mephibosheth, he's saying that God's making him the king because he's a relative of King Saul. And you stole the kingdom from Saul. And now he finally gets the kingdom back. So he's against you, David. What we find out later won't go there for time's sake. That was a lie. That was a lie. Matter of fact, when David came back, Mephibosheth was there. He didn't even shave his beard, did nothing, because he was waiting and praying for David. Why did Ziba do that? Why did he say that? Because he had impure motives. And so he wanted to pit David against Mephibosheth so he could get the land. And it worked for a time. So understand, sometimes we receive information from a person that has impure motives. Be careful. And then there's a third one, a fourth one, letter D. So we can receive questionable or wrong information from a person's immature, someone misinformed, someone with impure motives, the letter D, a person that is irrational. Now there's not many of these, but there are some people that are just kooky. I don't know what other word to use. They're just kooky. And they just like to make up things about people. That's so weird. I don't know why. They just make up stuff. And they say stuff that's so off the wall. And they say it with a straight face. I mean, they're irrational. They like to make up things. They like to tell stories. I don't know if they want attention or what it is. I don't know what it is. They tell lies. They tell things that are so far-fetched. They accuse people of things they never did. They say things about people they have no idea about. They make assumptions with no ground for that assumption. And then they go ahead and disseminate those things, either verbally or electronically. They do it. They're out there. Listen, don't take what they say and run with it. Don't violate what our passage says here in Proverbs chapter 18. Answering a matter before you hear it. Don't take it, oh yeah, yeah, I believe that. Be careful, because there are people that lie. You see, this is why this command here that we're reading is so critical for us to understand. This is a warning. We cannot take everything that everyone says about people as undeniable truth at face value. We must trust and verify. Why? Because there are people that are immature, there are people that are misinformed, there are people that have impure motives, and there are people that are irrational out there. So don't pass it along because what that does is it shows discord among the brethren. Search out the matter, check it out. Do those things that I mentioned a bit ago. Listen to the other side of the story. Verify the information and give the person they're talking about the benefit of the doubt. That's how we squelch out stuff like this. That's how we do it. Which leads me to number three and we're done. Not only the rule God gives, The reason God gives it. But then lastly, the result God promises. Notice, it is folly, if we do this, folly and shame unto him. What is God saying here? If you and I just take things at face value, take things of what people say about people, and pass it along, or run with it, and we do not search out a matter, and we don't listen to every side, if we simply receive everything that everyone says as, quote, gospel truth, and do not hear it out, God says, it is folly and shame unto you. He says, shame on you for doing that. You know why? You're gonna end up looking like a fool. And be ashamed of your knee-jerk reactions. And one day have to go back to a lot of people, if you want to be right with God, and say, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for treating you this way. I'm sorry for believing this about you. There's people that treat other people certain ways, and they're even all based on something they just heard about them. And nothing they even know to be true. That's why we need to be careful about what we say. Because a wise man searches out the matter. Again, violating this principle will lead to the unjust and unfair treatment. You can have a chip on your shoulder about someone. Imagine, I'm going to pick on our intern. Imagine if something was disseminated about him. Oh, I heard that he was this, this, this, this, and this. And somebody just said that. And you receive that as the truth. Do you know that when he walked into this place, you might have had a chip on your shoulder about him? And you didn't even know this young man. You don't know a thing about him. All you did was hear about it. Instead of giving him the benefit of the doubt, searching out the matter, get to know him, find out what he's really about, instead of taking something and running with it. Because what that does is it sows discord among the brethren. And you end up looking like a fool. That's what it is. And it's a shame. That's what the Bible says. So I ask you tonight, we're done right here, Are you a person that rushes to judgment about stuff? Are you somebody that takes something that someone says, and just marks it off as gospel truth, the absolute truth. Yeah, you trust. You don't doubt everything, but you trust. But you verify. You don't just take it and run with it. You go listen to both sides. You verify the information. You give that person the benefit of the doubt. Because if you are quick in receiving negative, disparaging remarks about others, understand something. It's going to make a mess of this church and of your relationship with people. because it shows discord among the brethren. We'll read the verse when we're done. He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him. May God help us to understand this principle and live it out. Amen.