Got Joy?  (A Pastors Perspecitve On Rumors!)

A fact that the enemy must deal with is that I am not his…and I never will be. I totally belong to Jesus & my soul is untouchable; however, if he cannot destroy my soul then the next best thing for him to come after is my joy. (Don’t worry…if you are a Christian he will be coming after yours as well!!!)

So how does he accomplish this? I would say it is different for each person. For example, some people will lose their joy because their car will not crank…or a bad grade…or their children bring home a bad grade…or, as I said this morning—the batteries in the remote control go dead! (God help us all!!!)

These things get to us—make us angry—and we forget the things that God has done for us and the ways we are blessed and begin to hyper focus on the circumstances—thus losing our joy.

As I said earlier…the enemy uses various things to get us distracted—and one of the things he has hit me with over the past year is rumors.

Any pastor of a church will tell you that he takes what people say about the church personally. Let me say this up front—one of the DUMBEST things you can ever say to a pastor is, “Now I have some things to share with you…and don’t take this personally…” That is equal to saying, “Hey dude—your baby is ugly…don’t take that personally!!!”

And, this goes without saying, anything said about me…well…I take that personally as well.

AND…the enemy knows this—and that is why he attacks my joy through rumors. We’ve heard it all—there was the one about the new building having a statue of me in it—there was the one about us not allowing Bible’s into our service—there is also the one about us NOT letting people join our church unless they show us their W2’s and/or last years tax return. (I am NOT making this up—these have been quoted back to me by several sources!)

And there have been rumors about me as well…one of my favorites of all time is when I nearly died back in July—that all of that was merely a set up and that none of it actually happened! (WOW—I’m a great actor!!!)

But the latest one…wow…this one takes the cake. I was informed yesterday that there is talk in the community about our lead team…and how in staff meetings all of us drink and get drunk every single Monday! Once again…I am NOT making this up!

People, when I heard this I have to be honest…I REALLY wanted to track down the source and explain to them that alcohol has not touched my lips since 1989…and NO—we do NOT drink in staff meetings!!! (Except for large amounts of coffee!)

This rumor was particularly offensive to me because of my previous struggles with alcohol. I battled it and I overcame my addiction—and for someone to begin to throw things around set me on fire with anger that rarely comes to the surface!!!

BUT—I realized what this is…a tool of the enemy trying to tear me down and get me unfocused. So when I heard this, after thinking about it for several minutes I decided, “Oh no you don’t—you have gotten me before…BUT NOT NOW!” I refuse to allow the enemy to steal my joy!

One thing you need to understand is that there will always be stupid people in the world! (That’s right—I said stupid—I meant it…anyone who spreads rumors or tells what they have heard and begins to tear apart the character of a particular person OR particular group of people is a stupid person!) And you can’t allow the enemy to use them to tear you down.

If you are in the ministry you have GOT to understand—people spread rumors about the Apostle Paul…they said things that were not true about Jesus—but that didn’t slow either of them down. If they had spent all their time battling rumors then do you think they would have actually gotten any ministry accomplished?

I don’t have time to battle rumors…and neither do you! Don’t let things that people say about you steal your joy. If you are doing something right then others WILL say things that are untrue…deal with it…and get over it…and let Christ shine through you!

The enemy IS coming after your joy—look back over your life and you will see his pattern. Identify it and then don’t let him do it again—remember that Scripture tells us that the God who lives IN us rules OVER him!!!

Well, that’s about it—I am going to go to bed now…and it’s not because I have a hangover!!! :-)