Skip to content Pest Control - Part B Dec 17 · 26 min ...more
Pest Control - Part B
December 17, 2025 · 26 min
How should you respond to critics and troublemakers? Pastor Skip explains why magnifying the truth always wins over defending yourself.
Series Connect with Skip Heitzig Podcast December 17, 2025 · 26 min · Connect with Skip Heitzig Podcast
How should you respond to critics and troublemakers? Pastor Skip explains why magnifying the truth always wins over defending yourself. ...more Show the full description Show less How should you respond to critics and troublemakers? Pastor Skip explains why magnifying the truth always wins over defending yourself.
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Skip Heitzig ministers to over 15,000 people as senior pastor of Calvary Church in Albuquerque. He reaches out to thousands across the nation and throughout the
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0:01 This is Connect with Skip Heitzig. Thanks for joining us today. Here at Connect with Skip, our mission is to help you know God's word and apply it to your life through clear, practical bible teaching and real0:12 encouragement every day. And if you'd like to keep growing in your walk with Jesus, sign up for pastor Skip's free weekly devotional. You'll receive biblical insight, teaching highlights, and exclusive resource offers0:24 straight to your inbox. Everything designed to help you stay strong in your faith. It only takes a minute to sign up. Go to connectwithskip dot com and join the list today. That's connectwithskip dot0:35 com. Now let's dive into today's teaching from pastor Skip Heitzig.0:40 Some people are known more for what they are against rather than what they are for. You never quite know what they're for. You just know they're against a lot.0:52 That's strife. They exist to slam others, and they were slamming Paul the Apostle. I have a colleague in the ministry who I've known for years, I1:04 respect. And he was speaking about and answering questions that young ministers were asking him about the ministry. And they said, what is the most difficult experience you've ever had in ministry?1:16 And he said, well, there are 2. Number 1 is when people who know truth walk away from it. When somebody who should know better there are Christians who've been exposed to truth, been exposed1:28 to the word, bring their Bibles, read along. Suddenly, 1 day they, for whatever reason, walk away completely from living for Christ. He said, but the second and he was speaking about ministers1:40 who were coming against him. He said, those who live to attack others in the ministry. It's like they falsely accuse,1:52 and they live just to stir up trouble. So envy and strife. Now, we do not know how this strife was expressed. We can only suppose.2:06 Maybe there was a group of people saying, well, you know, Paul the Apostle, there must be sin in his life. That's why he's in jail. Because God would be more faithful and not allow him to be in prison unless2:17 something's wrong with him. Or maybe they were saying, well, Paul hasn't tapped into the victorious, Holy Spirit filled life.2:29 If he did, if he had, then he wouldn't be in prison. He'd be free like we have, like we are. But we do know they were jealous, and we do know they were contentious. Something else they were, they were2:41 selfish. If you go down to verse 16, he amplifies it further. He says, the former that is the first group, the guys against him the former preach2:53 Christ from selfish ambition. Very interesting term. It is a political term that speaks about a politician canvassing3:05 for office, using negative campaigns, putting other people down to make himself look better, to promote himself. So here's a group of people3:18 putting Paul down to puff themselves up like a politician might do in a negative campaign ad. They got some perverted pleasure by slamming Paul so3:30 that they could make other people think they are much better. This is not new in the New Testament. We know that John the Apostle spoke about a guy named3:42 Diotrephes. If you know your Bible, 3 John, verse 9, that little letter toward the end of the New Testament, he says Diotrephes loves to have the3:52 preeminence. He loves to have the preeminence. In other words, he wants to dominate people. He's a control freak. Diatrophes loves to have the preeminence among4:04 them. Keep this in mind. Next time you hear gossip and there are unfortunately too many people, even in4:16 the church, who love to spread gossip. When you hear gossip, somebody's ego is being exalted. It's usually shared because I know this4:28 and you don't, and I'm concerned. And ego is being exalted as that information is being divulged. A man wrapped4:40 up in himself makes a very small package. And selfish ambition was part and parcel of what was wrong with these people. They were selfish. So they're jealous. They're contentious.4:52 They're selfish. Paul mentions them, not by name. He doesn't want to make too much out of it. He just didn't want to be self serving. But he mentions what they did. But there's a fourth thing. They were5:04 malicious. Notice in verse 16, the former preached Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely now watch this supposing or5:15 hoping to add affliction to my chains. Now Paul is revealing their motivation. They're doing all this. They are this way.5:27 They're pushing me down to pull themselves up, and here's why. They want to add affliction to my bonds. What does that5:39 mean? The word affliction is a common New Testament word, phyllipsis. Phyllipsis is a word that means pressure or trial, but it literally means an irritation. It means friction.5:51 It is the irritation caused by the rubbing of an object over another object. Now notice it says Paul says they want to add affliction or6:03 irritation to my chains. For 2 years, Paul was in chains. I know you've heard that. I know we've read that. We've discussed6:14 that. But I just want you to think of what that means. That means for 2 years, Paul couldn't take a potty break alone. He had no6:26 freedom. He had no isolation. He had no privacy. He couldn't eat a meal alone. He couldn't have a conversation in that rented house in Rome for 2 years. He6:37 was chained to a guard. That means there was a shackle around his wrist with a chain attached to the shackle of another soldier who only occupied that place for a few hours at a time. But6:49 Paul, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 2 years, he had a chain. That means that that shackle would irritate his skin and his bones, And scabs would develop, and it would7:01 bleed, and it would thicken, etcetera. You get the picture. So he says, the reason these people are this way toward me is they want to add to the7:13 irritation that I already have in my chains. That is their motivation. They don't want to evangelize the lost. They don't want to feed the flock. They're not really concerned for the church, even though they're saying,7:24 well, I'm saying this about Paul because I'm really concerned for the church. Paul said that's not the truth. The truth is they have 1 motivation. They want to add irritation to my already7:36 irritable situation of being in chains. Now please understand again, these are preachers. Paul says they preach Christ. They7:48 are Christians. They are Christian preachers. They are not anti Christ, but they are anti Paul. And they are anti Paul with a vengeance. And8:00 I can't think of a worse reason to preach a message than that. I can't think of a worse motivation to write a book or have a blog site than that.8:12 Let's just make life hard for Paul the Apostle. Know, sort of like scorpions. You know that if you leave scorpions together alone, they'll kill themselves and eat themselves? A guy did8:23 an experiment with 100 scorpions in a huge glass jar. In a few days, only 14 survived. They had killed the others and were eating them. There was even a pregnant scorpion8:35 in that jar that killed and started eating her young as soon as they were born. 1 of those babies escaped on the mother's back and eventually killed her. Any8:47 leader who has led anything, even Christian leaders in Christian churches, know that every church, every group has the Tate family among them.8:59 Every church has the Tates. There's old man Dick Tate who wants to run everything, while Uncle Roe Tate tries to change everything.9:11 Their sister Agitate stirs up plenty of trouble with help from her husband Era Tate. And whenever new projects are suggested, Hesitate and his wife9:23 Vegitate want to wait till next year. Then there's Animitate, who wants our church to be like all the others. Devastate provides the voice9:35 of doom, while Potentate wants to be a big shot. And of course, there's the black sheep of the family, amputate, who has completely cut himself off from9:47 every church. Anybody who's a leader knows those people exist. So what do you do? I suggest you do what Paul does. You don't spend all your time worried about them. You9:59 pivot. Yes, you identify the troublemakers, but then you ratify the truth makers. And notice what Paul says in verse 15. Some indeed preach Christ from10:10 envy and strife, and some I want to go, ah, it feels better already. He's pivoting here and some also10:23 from good will. Verse 17 further describes them. But the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel.10:36 This is the silver lining in the dark cloud of contention, and Paul has found it. Yes, in any group, there's going to be irritate and agitate and vegetate, but there's also going to be advocate10:48 and celebrate. And you want to find those people. And here's what Paul does. He says, yeah, there are some like this. But then there are some11:00 like that. You see, rather than just focusing on the smudge that is on the white linen garment, Paul says, yeah, but there's a lot of white linen garment around that11:11 smudge. It's not all a smudge. There is a smudge, I grant you that. I can identify the troublemakers. But there's a lot of others who are not like that. That's part of the11:23 strategy. Starve the problem and feed the solution. Find those who love you, who love the work of God in you, and run with them. Ratify11:35 them, encourage them, empower them, build with them. And just keep running ahead of the irritates and the agitates and the amputates. Their voice will diminish11:47 as you go further ahead.11:48 You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. As 20 25 comes to a close, generous support from friends like you is vital to keep Connect with Heitzig strong in the year ahead so more people can hear God's12:00 word and find real hope in Jesus. Your year end gift today helps reach even more hearts with verse by verse teaching and resources that connect people with God's love. To thank you for your generous gift12:12 of 50 dollars or more, we'll send you pastor Skip's new resource, the daily God journal, along with the digital companion devotional, the daily God book. These resources will help you align your heart with12:24 God's, let go of anxiety, and grow in steady faith through his word each day. So give your year end gift today at connectwithskip dot com slash offer, or call 8 0 0 912:36 2 2 1 8 8 8. Now let's get back to today's teaching.12:40 Now, I'm going to share something with you that will probably be shocking to you. Did you know that Paul, apostle, probably lost his12:52 life as a result of trouble making Christians in Rome. I want that to settle on your hearts. Paul probably lost his life13:05 because of the trouble caused by trouble making Christians in Rome. You say, now, wait a minute. I always heard that it was Caesar Nero that killed Paul13:16 the Apostle, beheaded him. Well, that's true. Here's the problem. We have very little information about the death of Paul from early church records. They're very silent on it. We just have a snippet13:28 here or there. But it would seem like the envy, the jealousy of many Christians in Rome denounced Paul before Caesar Nero, which13:40 added the weight to the death sentence. You say, well, how do you know that? Well, are several sources I've discovered, but I'm going to share 2 with you. 1 comes from Second Timothy, chapter13:52 1, a guy by the name of Onesiphorus. How's that for a name? Don't name your son Onesiphorus, though he was a good guy. It'll be hard in school. Onesiphorus14:04 came to visit Paul while he was in Rome in prison. The problem is, once he gets to Rome, it seems like nobody will tell him where Paul the14:16 Apostle is. They don't want to tell him. Maybe they don't know, or maybe they don't want to tell him. But listen to what it says. 2 Timothy chapter 1, Paul writes, May the Lord show special14:27 kindness to Onesiphorus and all his family because he often visited and encouraged me. He was never ashamed of me because I was in prison.14:39 When he came to Rome, he searched everywhere until he found me. So he came to Rome. Nobody told him where Paul was, even though he kept open house for 214:51 years. People came and visited him, and he influenced church leaders, we're told. But he had to search for him until he could find him. And Paul made a special note. He wasn't ashamed of me being in15:02 prison, which indicates some were. They saw this as a defeat, an embarrassment. But then a second source comes from a letter that was found from 90 AD written15:14 by a man named Clement of Rome to the church at Corinth. And in the book, in the letter from Clement, Clement addresses jealousy and envy among God's15:26 people that have led to the destruction, death, or trouble caused by other of God's people. And he gives 7 examples of that through history. And 1 of the examples is Paul.15:39 Clement writes this, and I quote, By reason of jealousy and strife, Paul, by his example, pointed out the prize of patient endurance. And when he had borne15:51 his testimony before the rulers, he departed from this world and went to heaven. The point Clement makes is that envy among Christians somehow16:02 helped bring the execution brought on by Caesar Nero. If you still have further doubts, you have only to read 2 Timothy chapter 4. It's the end of Paul's life.16:14 It's right before he died. Paul says this. Listen to Paul. At my first defense, no 1 stood with me, but all forsook me.16:26 That breaks my heart to just read that. This is Paul, the stinking apostle. At my first defense, nobody stood with me. Everybody forsook me. But then he quickly adds, but the16:38 Lord stood with me. He was utterly alone in terms of human fellowship at that point. So Paul identifies the troublemakers,16:50 tells us that they are jealous, contentious, selfish, malicious. But then he pivots and ratifies the truth makers. But here's the third part of this strategy, and the best of all, magnify17:02 the true message. Look at verse 18. Look at how Paul answers this. He says, what then? You know what that means? That little question, what then? You know how we would17:14 translate that? So what? So what? What does it matter? What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense17:26 they're pretending to be pure in their motives, but they're not. In pretense or in truth, Christ is preached. And in this I rejoice,17:37 yes, and will rejoice. Man, you cannot stop this dude. He is in jail. He has been in jail. He will be in jail for a total of17:49 2 years. He will be released, brought back into prison. He will be executed. He is in jail. He is persecuted by unbelievers. He is picked on by believers. And he goes, so what?18:02 And then he says, I rejoice. You know, I don't know how many of us would have the courage to say, you know, there's a lot of people that are against me, and then say, so what?18:14 Most of us would write, shame on them. Don't they know that I am the great Paul the Apostle who had a vision of the living Christ who will write 13 New Testament books? Don't18:26 they know who I am? He goes, so what? I rejoice and will rejoice. Almost like this defiant, I'm not going to let anybody steal my18:38 joy. An amazing reaction, an amazing reaction. Now, I don't want you to think, in looking at this, because a lot of18:50 people do think this, that Paul came to a point where he was just this stone statue of a man impervious to the criticisms of others. He just rolled19:02 off his back. I don't believe that. He was a person with emotions and heart and feelings, and he was wounded very deeply by these people.19:14 Well, what he is saying is, I'm not going to let mean people rob me of joy. In fact, I have found cause and reason to rejoice, and that is this, the message of the gospel. Even19:26 when preached with bad motives, they're preaching the right message. Right message, wrong motives. I'm not going to worry about the motives. That's between them and God. I'm going worry about the message, and19:38 that is the gospel. Now here's the great truth. The great truth in all of this can be boiled down to the irreducible minimum, is this. The power is in the message, not in the19:50 messenger. The power is in the message, not in the messenger. If somebody tampers with the message, go at them. If people tamper20:02 with the messenger, ignore them. Now let's just talk about that for a moment. If people mess and tamper with the message, go at them. Paul did. Paul wrote to the Galatians, and he20:13 says, I'm noticing that people among you are preaching a different gospel, a different gospel than 1 that is the true gospel. And he goes, I want you to know if we or an angel from heaven preach to you20:25 any other gospel than the 1 you have received, let him be cursed below the lowest hell. How's that for confrontation? So you mess with the message, I'm going to come at you. You20:37 mess with the messenger, I'm going to ignore you. What then? So what? What does it matter? I rejoice that the message is being preached.20:49 So Paul has his comrades. Those are partners in the gospel. He rejoices because of them. But Paul has his critics, detractors of Paul.21:01 He rejoices in spite of them. Why? Because they're brothers. That's why. Simple as that. They're brothers.21:13 Yes, they're ornery. Yes, they're stupid. Yes, they're irritating. But they're brothers. They're brothers in Christ. So Paul is saying, I'm not called to defend myself. I'm called to defend21:25 the gospel. I'm not called to protect myself. I'm called to proclaim the gospel. Now I want to close on a couple of thoughts. We21:37 often make too much over what divides us and not enough over what unites us. I know, I know we have to use discernment. I know we have to be21:49 careful about what the truth is, the true gospel, like Galatians chapter 1. But sometimes I fear that we are known more for what we're against than what we're for. And some people actually22:01 like being that way. They like being known for what they're against. And they are known for what they're against. But sometimes I think we make too much of it. Here's the truth.22:13 God reserves the right to use people who disagree with you. News flash. God reserves the right to use people who disagree with you.22:25 There's people who disagree with you on the rapture. There's people who disagree with me on the rapture or spiritual gifts or a number of things that aren't the real crux, crucial matters of the gospel. Death, burial,22:36 resurrection, vicarious atonement, all that central stuff. So what? I began with talking about denominations and changing light bulbs. Let me tell22:48 you a true story about denominations. In the late 1700s, John Wesley you know John Wesley, 1 of the great leaders in England at the time Wesley23:00 was concerned because there were so many denominations springing up. And this always bothers people who study church history because the church history23:12 is a history of people not getting along and dividing. So somebody in the group doesn't like the group and leaves the group and starts their own group. And as their group grows, somebody in that group doesn't like that23:22 group, and they start another group. And that group grows, and somebody in that group may get together with the first group and start another group. Those are denominations. Well, this bothered him. So 1 night, John23:33 Wesley goes to bed, has a dream. And in his dream, he is ushered to the gates of hell. And in his dream, he asks the question, are there any Presbyterians here? And23:45 the answer comes back, yes, there are. He's shocked. He goes, are there any Baptists here? He goes, yes, there are. Are there any Methodists? Are there any23:56 Episcopalians? Yes, yes, yes. Well, he's troubled by this. And immediately in his dream, he's now ushered to the gates of heaven. And he asked the same set of questions.24:08 Are there any Presbyterians here? No, was the answer. Are there any Baptists? No. Are there any Methodists? No. Any Episcopalians? No. And he said, no.24:20 Who then is inside? And this answer came back, there are only Christians here. There are only Christians here. You don't get to heaven by being a Presbyterian, a24:32 Baptist, a Methodist, an Episcopalian, a Calvary ite, but by trust in Jesus' death, burial, and Resurrection, period.24:44 And you are a Christian. If you believe that, and that message has changed your life.24:52 Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before you go, don't miss your opportunity to request the daily god journal along with the companion digital devotional, the daily god book. These25:04 resources are our thanks for your generous year end gift of 50 dollars or more to help Connect with Skip Heitzig finish 20 25 strong and reach more people with the truth of God's word in the year ahead.25:16 Call 809 2 2 18 88 or go to connect with skip dot com slash offer. Thanks for spending time with us today, and we'll see you next time on Connect with Skip Heitzig.25:49 Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.
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