701. How Do I Handle False Accusations Graciously?
Lead To Serve, A Leadership PodcastJune 03, 2025x
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00:33:4246.3 MB

701. How Do I Handle False Accusations Graciously?

We're back! Season 7 starts today!

Season 7 of the “Lead to Serve” podcast kicks off with host Pastor Ed Taylor and guest Bob Claycamp discussing how to handle false accusations in ministry. Spanning over 80 years of pain and ministry experience, Pastors Ed and Bob share insights on dealing with false accusations, emphasizing the importance of humility, transparency, and seeking God's perspective. They examine the emotional impact of accusations, the role of social media, and the importance of discernment in responding. Both stress the value of accountability and maintaining integrity, encouraging leaders to navigate these challenges with grace and wisdom. By the end, you will be encouraged and strengthened for these more difficult seasons of ministry.

Key Words:

Lead to Serve podcast, Season 7, Ed Taylor, Bob Claycamp, ministry, leadership, handling accusations, false accusations, emotional reactions, humility, transparency, accountability, God's perspective, discerning responses, social media, rumors, personal growth, integrity, betrayal, spiritual attacks, Calvary Church Colorado, Calvary Chapel, Missions Assist Ministry, church community, conflict resolution, understanding, dialogue, proactive approach, Matthew 18, public disputes, emotional pain, personal experiences, identity in Christ, grace, listening, constructive dialogue, navigating challenges, leadership journey.


00:00:07
This is lead to Serve with Ed Taylor, a leadership podcast.

00:00:12
Hey, welcome again to a brand new season of the Lead to Serve

00:00:16
podcast. My name is Ed Taylor.

00:00:18
I'm the pastor here at Calvary Church in Aurora, Co.

00:00:23
I am the host of this podcast, and we have been doing it now

00:00:28
for six seasons. We're on season #7 We're so

00:00:34
grateful for you, our audience. It continues to grow as you guys

00:00:38
are listening, sharing radio stations are putting the podcast

00:00:43
on the air and we're talking about ministry together.

00:00:46
Remember, as you're as you're joining us on the podcast, it is

00:00:51
like you are in our office and we're talking ministry together.

00:00:56
We've got a topic, we've got some ideas and we're bouncing

00:01:00
them off one another or in some episodes out.

00:01:03
It'll just be me. But right now, as of this

00:01:07
moment, today's season 7 episode one, joining me is Pastor Bob

00:01:14
Klay Camp. Welcome, Bob.

00:01:16
Yeah, it's great to be here. Bob, you've been on the podcast

00:01:19
for a few seasons now. What do you think about

00:01:21
podcasting and talking out loud about ministry?

00:01:24
Well, you know, it, it is just a normal conversation.

00:01:29
And these are topics that you, you're not only hear about, but

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you interact with people and these same topics come up and in

00:01:41
their own life situation. And so you have an opportunity

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to, you know, begin to listen first of all, and then pray

00:01:52
through how to start. And then you draw upon the

00:01:56
scriptures that the Holy Spirit brings to your mind, as well as

00:02:00
looking for not just the symptoms, but the core issues

00:02:04
that are going on in the person's life, and then drawing

00:02:07
upon your own life experience as well.

00:02:10
Yeah, what the Lord's doing in our lives as spiritual leaders,

00:02:13
and that could be spiritual leaders in the church.

00:02:16
And I want to welcome everyone. I just want to give a shout out

00:02:18
because I know a lot of ministry groups, a lot of churches will

00:02:23
use this podcast as a discussion starter for staff meetings, for

00:02:28
leadership gathering. So I just want to give you a

00:02:31
shout out. If you're listening to this as a

00:02:33
way to spur on love and good works, to stir up your ideas, we

00:02:38
want to welcome you. We're grateful that we can speak

00:02:42
into your life and ministry. But it's not just ministry and

00:02:46
church, and it's certainly not just a pastor podcast.

00:02:48
It's a leadership podcast. Whether you're leading at home,

00:02:51
leading at church, leading at work, leading even in the

00:02:55
context of serving, it's not even necessarily a major place

00:02:58
of leadership. But I've always had that view.

00:03:01
I've always held to the position that as Christians, we're always

00:03:04
leaders. We're one step ahead.

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We're leading people to Christ, lead him to the cross, leading

00:03:09
him to help. So before we jump in to today's

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topic real quick, I want to introduce Pastor Bob.

00:03:15
He has 50 plus years of ministry experience.

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He's all started out living in a Christian communal home, which

00:03:23
I'm sure we could probably do a whole season of podcasts of the

00:03:27
Life and Times of Bob Clay Camp and all the things that he has

00:03:31
experienced. He shares them with us in our

00:03:33
staff meetings. And although like always

00:03:36
something new, there's always some new story, which is very

00:03:39
interesting. He's lived a very interesting

00:03:42
life in the Lord. He's been in a band.

00:03:45
I'm. Did you start that band?

00:03:47
No. OK, so he was in a band and.

00:03:49
BC Days. OK, we we'll start just in the

00:03:53
after Christ days, but living in a Christian communal home.

00:03:57
He was the founding and senior pastor Calvary Chapel in North

00:04:01
Phoenix and he was a missionary in Exeter, England, which is

00:04:05
actually How I Met him and to now the brand new ministry

00:04:10
endeavor that he is involved in. He is the leader of the Mission

00:04:15
Assist Ministries, which helps churches around the world.

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So Bob is joining me. He's got a lot of experience and

00:04:24
I've had the privilege of serving the Lord for a few

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years. And we're going to jump into the

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topic. The topic today is, I guess you

00:04:31
could say, what do we do when we're accused and, and maybe

00:04:36
even falsely accused of something?

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You know that we've been we've been discipled, Bob, we've been

00:04:43
discipled that not to defend ourselves.

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That's actually how we've been taught.

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Don't defend yourself. God will be your defense.

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And that absolute statement is not something I subscribe to.

00:04:59
I don't believe that there are times I don't believe that we

00:05:04
should never defend ourselves. There are times where in prayer

00:05:10
and seeking the Lord, you may have to give an answer.

00:05:14
You may have to answer some some false wild accusation.

00:05:19
However, I have to say and it served me well in the ministry

00:05:22
over the years where living a life above approach to the best

00:05:27
of your ability, just living a life honoring the Lord you, you

00:05:33
will have whatever people say, whatever rumor mill those around

00:05:37
and just knowing you know, I'm not even going to answer that

00:05:39
the Lord's going to take care of it and that has served me well.

00:05:42
I do believe, however, there are times when we need to speak up

00:05:48
or give an answer of some sort, which I'm sure we'll talk about

00:05:51
in a minute. But how about we start with you

00:05:54
need to expect that you're going to have rumors people talking

00:05:58
about you false accusations. I I I was thinking on the way in

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today to the studio that the devil is the accuser of the

00:06:06
brethren. So we shouldn't, Yeah, we

00:06:09
shouldn't be surprised. So what do you think?

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What are your thoughts on that? Well, it's hard when you first

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received the accusation because there's a reaction, There is an

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emotional reaction. And if you're kind of an

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emotional person, then it will just ramp you up and get you

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wound up. And that's when sometimes you

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just got to wait 24 hours, take a nap or something, settle down,

00:06:35
and then you have to go. First of all, how does the Lord

00:06:41
see things? It has to go back to him and not

00:06:45
to you. God doesn't receive rumors

00:06:49
because He's a God of truth, which is really comforting

00:06:53
because that's why one of the 10 commandments is you should not

00:06:56
bear false witness because He knows the truth, right?

00:07:00
And it's so easy to jump on the bandwagon and you hear an

00:07:04
accusation of, let's say somebody important or a leader,

00:07:08
and then you immediately go to the negative and saying, well, I

00:07:11
thought something was going on. And and instead of you just got

00:07:15
to like pull that horse back and go to the Lord and regarding you

00:07:21
and you go, OK, Lord, you know the truth about me.

00:07:25
And if there are things that need to be changed, you have the

00:07:29
ability to do it through your nature.

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Kindness, graciousness, being merciful, being God of truth.

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You know how I process my world and you can reason with me to

00:07:43
know where. Where do I start?

00:07:45
But I can't just do knee jerk reactions and start defending

00:07:50
myself right away. I would even say that as we

00:07:54
enter into some to an the arena of ministry and ministering to

00:07:59
other people, serving other people, having other people in

00:08:01
our lives. This goes the context of course,

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that we're talking about is here in the church, but at work.

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This happens at work. This happens in our families

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like this. This is a common presence of

00:08:15
attack in our lives that we first of all have to enter in

00:08:19
very perfectly and carefully. And if we become defensive of

00:08:25
something because we have to step back and go, wait a minute,

00:08:29
is there anything true? Yeah.

00:08:32
If we're walking in humility, which we must prayerfully,

00:08:36
carefully, we're living a life of transparency and we know

00:08:40
things are going to come. We can't.

00:08:42
We have to train ourselves not to become defensive, to build a

00:08:47
wall right away as our first, which is normal.

00:08:52
Yeah, I don't know how healthy it is, but it's normal because

00:08:56
nobody likes to be cute. Nobody likes to be confronted

00:08:58
that nobody likes. In the day and age now where you

00:09:02
have social media, it isn't. It isn't the days.

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It isn't the days where you know you have to play the phone tag

00:09:11
game and you call so and so call and so and so before you know

00:09:14
it. After a couple weeks, it's

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finally like social media that goes around the world in a

00:09:18
millisecond and whoever's reading it and whoever sees it,

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whoever wants to receive it and it gets back to you.

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We have to stop and ask the question to ourselves first and

00:09:32
foremost. Is there anything true in this?

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Do I have any kind of ownership? Is is this a misunderstanding?

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I mean, I even, I guess if you step back thinking out loud, do

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I even know the person? Because the, the day used to be

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where you'd get an anonymous letter.

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You'd get a, a little envelope on your desk, anonymous.

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No sign. You, you'd look, you immediately

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open up the envelope, look to the end.

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There's no signature and you just shred it because there's no

00:10:02
relationship. There's no.

00:10:04
There's no accountability either.

00:10:05
Right. You don't even know who it is.

00:10:07
You can't even work it out. According to the Scriptures,

00:10:09
Matthew 18, Matthew 6, you, you, you don't even have any

00:10:12
opportunity to work it out. And and so if in the realm of

00:10:18
social media, in the, in the realm of the reality of way

00:10:22
rumors and things get spread today, you're looking for

00:10:25
relationship. But I just know, I just know if

00:10:28
I become hyper defensive, then the Holy Spirit is definitely

00:10:31
touching something in my life. Definitely touching it.

00:10:34
It it may not be the the whole situation may not be what it

00:10:38
what it is, what it appears, you know, in its fullness.

00:10:41
But like, if I'm getting hyper defensive about it, then there

00:10:44
may be something I need to take to the Lord.

00:10:47
Sure. That's absolutely right.

00:10:48
You look at the Psalms and how many Psalms that David wrote.

00:10:53
He had to get it out to the Lord and he was brutally honest and

00:10:57
maybe not so much theologically correct.

00:10:59
I mean, when he says how long you going to forsake me Lord

00:11:02
forever, I mean, that's not the correct.

00:11:05
And but he had to get it out. And usually by the end of the

00:11:09
Psalm, he's praising the Lord and he's confident for a moment,

00:11:14
you know, because for David, it was like relentless and unfair

00:11:19
and unjust and all the rest of it.

00:11:22
And as I mentioned earlier about getting wound up quickly, that

00:11:28
that's when you have to just stop because sometimes being

00:11:33
overly defensive almost works against you, will always works

00:11:38
against you and almost validates the accusation.

00:11:42
You know, the, the reality of of defensiveness too, is we don't

00:11:47
give room for the Holy Spirit to work between us because I'm

00:11:51
offended or I'm hurt and it does hurt.

00:11:55
So you guys listening in right now, I do want to, I do want to

00:11:58
affirm that criticism, rumors, accusations, anything that would

00:12:04
put you in a defensive mode, it does hurt.

00:12:07
And I would even say some of you listening to to us right now,

00:12:11
you're hurting and you're listening to us and trying to

00:12:14
process what we're saying, trying to think it through, but

00:12:17
you're thinking it through the hurt and the pain.

00:12:19
It is a very painful thing to see relationships and to see

00:12:24
friendships and to see people you've poured your life into.

00:12:28
You have sacrificed. And I don't want to.

00:12:31
I'm not trying to be overly dramatic here.

00:12:33
I'm just trying to lay out a lifestyle of serving Jesus and

00:12:37
pouring into lives only to see at the end that they've turned

00:12:42
on you. I, I think of it could be as

00:12:44
brutal as Judas. It could be the, the betrayal or

00:12:51
the personal hurt that Paul felt when Demas forsook him, whatever

00:12:55
that looks like. Just the very simple fact that

00:12:59
Dimas didn't want to serve with him anymore or abandoned him.

00:13:02
Or, and we we can see Paul had an issue with this because he

00:13:06
dealt with this with John Mark too.

00:13:07
When John Mark left, that wounded him and he got upset

00:13:11
about it. Dimas left the later on in his

00:13:13
ministry. He still has that wound that

00:13:16
that wound of abandonment or people not partnering with him

00:13:19
or maybe not having the same commitment.

00:13:21
It is painful, but I was thinking of Psalm 35 with David

00:13:26
because it's not just that God will be our defense.

00:13:29
There are times when we need to speak up and the 1st place we

00:13:32
need to speak up is to the Lord. Psalm 35, David responds, you

00:13:38
know, it's like contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me,

00:13:41
fight against those who fight against me, take up the shield

00:13:45
in the buckler and arise and come to my aid there.

00:13:47
There is a there is a response, a healthy response where you can

00:13:53
acknowledge the criticism, you can acknowledge the the

00:13:57
statements that were made that are false, completely false,

00:14:00
partially false, that get under your skin because sometimes it

00:14:04
it is received on a bad day. Well, yeah, if it's.

00:14:10
The animals. Behind it, yes.

00:14:12
Because he knows about you having a bad day, he probably

00:14:15
set it up you. Know yes yeah the the bad day

00:14:19
even exhaust exacerbates that. And you know the you're right,

00:14:25
God doesn't I as you said earlier God doesn't receive

00:14:27
rumors about us, but other people do.

00:14:31
And so it can you think of a time where somebody believed a

00:14:33
lie about you and it hurt you deeply.

00:14:36
Well, sure. I mean, somebody comes into your

00:14:39
office and this happened in in down in Phoenix and accused me

00:14:46
of being a Pharisee and accused me of this, accused me of that

00:14:49
and was taking people away from the church and spreading rumors

00:14:54
and and that was it made me upset.

00:14:59
It wasn't right. And you know, I can be, I can

00:15:02
have, I have to watch my emotions because I'm, I think

00:15:06
I'm more of a musician kind of feeler person and and I can get

00:15:12
wound up pretty quickly without slowing down and thinking it

00:15:16
through. And the Holy Spirit is really

00:15:20
good at those times to say, watch it, bless those who curse

00:15:25
you, do good to those who do evil, Pray for those who

00:15:29
despitefully use you and persecute you.

00:15:32
And I think in that process of purposing to pray for you are

00:15:39
allowing the Holy Spirit to come right behind it and do a level

00:15:43
of healing may not be 100% because God is working on your

00:15:48
heart because there are deeper issues.

00:15:52
We always have to be careful to not get legalistic and to hear

00:15:59
people's heart. But at the end of the day, you

00:16:04
it took a while, it took a few weeks of prayer before I was

00:16:08
able to actually invite the guy back to my office so that we

00:16:12
could just at least pray. And I can ask for God's blessing

00:16:15
on him as he as he goes, because he left the church and took some

00:16:20
people with him and. If you make a lot of decisions

00:16:25
as leaders would, or you're overseeing a ministry,

00:16:28
overseeing something in, the more decisions you make, the

00:16:31
more open you are to be misunderstood.

00:16:34
And how a person processes their misunderstanding of you could

00:16:37
either lead to coming to you for clarity or accusing you or

00:16:41
making up something in their minds that you're doing.

00:16:44
I, I remember, I, I, I get a lot of this over the years, 25 years

00:16:50
of ministry, you get double of it because you've been in

00:16:52
ministry 50 plus years. But the, I remember when we

00:16:55
stepped in and we were just taking a step of faith, it was a

00:16:58
very public step of faith here in this church in purchasing a

00:17:01
radio station. It was very expensive,

00:17:04
especially in relationship to our church budget and all of

00:17:08
that. It was super expensive, millions

00:17:10
of dollars to buy radio station, but I and the leaders of the

00:17:14
church, the elders of this church, we're convinced this was

00:17:17
from the Lord. We were convinced that he opened

00:17:20
the door. It was an amazing miraculous

00:17:22
door to open. It was a step of faith.

00:17:25
It was not even a personal decision that would affect

00:17:28
people personally. Like I didn't make a mistake

00:17:30
with someone. I didn't say something wrong.

00:17:32
I didn't make a joke that hit wrong or hurt someone's

00:17:35
feelings, which would not then be criticism.

00:17:38
It would just be add you need to be, you need to watch your

00:17:41
mouth. And I'm like, yes, Lord, I do

00:17:43
need, I need you to guard my mouth.

00:17:45
But it was, it was a step of faith.

00:17:47
And I, the reason this story comes to mind is I want you to

00:17:49
know you guys, they're listening that this stuff happens even

00:17:53
when you don't make any mistakes like you're, you're and you have

00:17:57
the accountability, you have the support, you have the life above

00:18:02
reproach. And we're just taking a step of

00:18:04
faith. And the accusations came in and

00:18:06
they weren't many, but there were a few.

00:18:09
So it was more than one that this stirred up in people.

00:18:12
Well, you know, Ed, you're wasting church money.

00:18:15
We could do and whatever else they had in mind instead of

00:18:18
getting a radio station. And the one that stung the most,

00:18:21
and I, I, I mean, it's obviously still in my mind, but it's stung

00:18:25
was you're doing this for yourself and you're trying to

00:18:29
make a name for yourself. And, and it was just boom, like

00:18:32
it hit like, and, and I, I stopped and, you know, it was

00:18:36
out. These, these were folks coming

00:18:38
up to me after service. I just talked about the study

00:18:41
and they're wanting to express me.

00:18:42
I, I made the announcement and, and for the next few weeks, I

00:18:45
had a few of these conversations that they don't really want to

00:18:48
sit down with me. They just want to tell me that

00:18:50
we're leaving the church because of their accusations.

00:18:54
But I did I do remember it stung and I really had to sit down and

00:18:59
go, OK, God am I really like is I mean, it's not with beyond the

00:19:04
realm of possibility that I would somehow have some selfish

00:19:09
thought and make it a church thought I could.

00:19:11
So like, I wouldn't want that. I don't, I don't want that.

00:19:15
But I remember the Lord was very quick to revive the truth inside

00:19:20
of me. The truth.

00:19:22
This was a long process. It it wasn't just an

00:19:24
announcement, a 45 second two-minute announcement at a

00:19:29
church service. We have been praying, knocking

00:19:32
and seeking and asking for years for this because there were

00:19:36
other things behind the scenes that even when you explain them,

00:19:40
they, they, the folks didn't, they wanted to believe what they

00:19:43
believed. And we did end up doing, We did

00:19:46
end up following through and pressing through those

00:19:49
accusations. We sorted them out, took them to

00:19:51
the elders, make sure we're all on the same page because there

00:19:56
was a greater vision that God had given us that others just

00:20:01
didn't resonate with. Right away.

00:20:04
And they may or may not have resonated since then.

00:20:06
I hope they have, because it God has shown himself faithful in

00:20:10
this step of faith, that this is what he wanted us to do.

00:20:14
And this realm of stepping out in faith may not be fully

00:20:17
understood. Sometimes accusations and things

00:20:19
just come from a misunderstanding.

00:20:21
Yeah. And you get a chance, I hope, to

00:20:24
explain yourself if that's really why someone's speaking

00:20:27
up. So that all along we're going to

00:20:31
grow in our maturity, in our relationship with God.

00:20:35
But the underlying thing that's important, I believe the

00:20:39
foundational pillars is honesty, transparency, accountability,

00:20:46
that we have those pillars around us that when accusations

00:20:50
come, we can stand in the truth, not become defensive, process it

00:20:55
in such a way of God. What do you have for me?

00:20:58
Why did you allow this? I know it's an I know often

00:21:01
false accusations always are from the accuser of the

00:21:03
brethren. But if there's a if there's

00:21:06
truth in it, if there's some truth and it was the delivery if

00:21:10
it was the person maybe said the right thing the wrong way,

00:21:14
possibly that we step back and go, OK, you wanting me to grow

00:21:18
God, you're wanting me to humble myself.

00:21:20
You're wanting me to you're wanting to show me something

00:21:23
that I don't see in the delivery mechanism was just wrong.

00:21:26
But this back to the beginning, I want to hear your thoughts

00:21:31
because I've come to a conclusion, but I want to hear

00:21:33
your thoughts. Do you still subscribe to the

00:21:35
way because we were discipled similarly by basically the same

00:21:39
man in his pastor Chuck Smith in the streams of various men that

00:21:43
we served under. But do you subscribe to never

00:21:46
defend yourself, Never speak up? No, no, I think God being our

00:21:51
defense is foundational no matter what's happening.

00:21:54
I mean, Romans 828, all things were together for good to those

00:21:58
who love God, to those who are the called according to his

00:22:01
purpose. And then the next verse has to

00:22:04
do with being conformed into the image of Christ.

00:22:06
And so God uses all things because he already knows what's

00:22:10
coming. Even the devil's accusations and

00:22:14
and attacks have to go through the Lord for his permission.

00:22:17
And so how does God want to use this?

00:22:22
I think that when an accusation comes against you, you have to

00:22:28
discern, is this person even wanting to hear the back story?

00:22:32
Because if they don't even want to hear the back story, it's

00:22:34
just an attack, you know, and hurting people hurt people.

00:22:38
I mean, there are times when it's just they had a bad day and

00:22:42
what you said or what you did caught them off guard and, and

00:22:45
they're in attack mode. I mean, I'm it happens at home.

00:22:52
In any real relationship. Yeah, absolutely.

00:22:55
In the closest relationship of marriage, you know, you're

00:22:59
opening yourself up to your spouse in a way that you don't

00:23:02
open up yourself to anybody else.

00:23:05
And so because you become that vulnerable when there's an

00:23:09
accusation of your motive, then there's an there's a response.

00:23:15
And that's when you have to stop and say what, just like you were

00:23:20
talking about what part of it might be true regarding me, not

00:23:26
because you can escalate that that thing and all of a sudden,

00:23:30
you know, you're in a tornado in in the house and.

00:23:33
And you're consumed with pride. You're consumed with pride where

00:23:37
I am right and everyone else is wrong.

00:23:40
This, this really is the beginning of the downfall of any

00:23:43
spiritual leader, any marriage, any relationship, a hardened

00:23:47
heart where the condition of the overall church today where we

00:23:51
see pastors falling or abusiveness or it starts much

00:23:55
smaller. It doesn't start at the top, it

00:23:58
starts much smaller and it even it can begin with this little

00:24:02
area where there's self protection.

00:24:04
You're, I have to say, the more you serve, the more people you

00:24:08
serve. And it's not the size of the

00:24:09
church that matters here. It's not the size of the church

00:24:13
where you're might be a pastor listening in.

00:24:15
Well, I have a really small church.

00:24:17
Well, yeah. Well, one.

00:24:19
One hit in a small church could be just as devastating as one

00:24:24
hit in a large church because it's a person well.

00:24:26
Yeah, and the relationships are much deeper in a smaller church.

00:24:30
They really are in many ways and the and and so I'm not

00:24:34
advocating and I wouldn't I I wouldn't encourage.

00:24:37
It's a case by case. Of course, it's a case by case

00:24:39
because there were times where according to prophetic,

00:24:42
according to prophecy, Jesus, he goes without a word.

00:24:45
He goes without a word. He's heading to the cross

00:24:47
without a word. However, in John chapter 8, he

00:24:51
had a word. He said you belong to your

00:24:53
father, the devil and you want to carry out your father's

00:24:56
desire like you like, like he, he stood firm at sometimes and

00:25:02
he was even strong with strong words.

00:25:04
And I, I remember an episode with strong words that I, I

00:25:08
didn't use these kind of words, but I remember God, there was a

00:25:11
situation, there were all witnesses in my office.

00:25:13
We're trying to work something out.

00:25:15
A brother had brought accusations about something I

00:25:17
did in ministry, not personally, but like as a leader.

00:25:21
And we had all the witnesses in there and we're all talking.

00:25:23
And I just had this in the Holy Spirit put in my heart that time

00:25:27
when Nehemiah, I looked down and said, you're making this up in

00:25:30
your own mind. And I, I just shared that I

00:25:33
said, Hey, we need to stop here because now you're you, you had

00:25:36
a original hurt. And that was it that, that, that

00:25:39
situation, I remember it was valid.

00:25:41
That situation itself was valid. And that's what we were trying

00:25:45
to work out. But by the end of his five

00:25:47
minute discussion, I just had to stop and go stop.

00:25:51
What what you're talking about now did not happen.

00:25:54
You are making that up in your mind.

00:25:56
We got to get back to what did happen and let's see if we can

00:25:59
work it out. Let's see if we can go back to

00:26:03
the the hurt, the pain, the offense.

00:26:06
Because after talking about it for 5 minutes, or really we all

00:26:11
do this to some degree where we're talking about, thinking

00:26:15
about, processing about. And we have created a narrative

00:26:19
around an event that may or may not have truth to it.

00:26:24
Like we're just the event happened and then we're thinking

00:26:27
about it, thinking about it, thinking about it, thinking

00:26:29
about it, thinking about it, and then all those iterations of

00:26:31
thinking about it, It actually isn't what happened.

00:26:34
Yeah, right. We, we developed a whole

00:26:36
scenario, a whole play really, you know, Act 2 and then got the

00:26:41
whole story as unfolding because of assumptions and reconceived

00:26:47
notions, fears. I mean, all this comes in and in

00:26:54
the home of what happens is when my wife says I don't, I don't

00:27:01
like what you did. I don't think it was the right

00:27:04
way. Does Jeannie really say that?

00:27:06
Yeah, she. Yeah.

00:27:08
She's she's a lady of truth. And then what I need to do at

00:27:15
that time, not that I always do it, but what I need to do is I'm

00:27:19
saying, and you give me 24 hours just to pray over this and let's

00:27:24
talk about it again, OK? Because at least sometimes part

00:27:29
of it is that you're not even willing to listen, even

00:27:33
consider. Because when you start getting

00:27:35
defensive and it's the principle of the thing and not even the

00:27:38
issue, then you're just ramping it up and you're creating more

00:27:43
and more trouble. The principle of The thing is

00:27:47
really the I one of my favorite television shows is People's

00:27:52
Court. Liked it since I was a child.

00:27:56
It's not on anymore. Maybe in reruns in some places,

00:27:59
but probably. On YouTube.

00:28:01
The whole essence of the People's Court is they're suing

00:28:03
on principle. I mean, it's 20 bucks, 50 bucks,

00:28:07
$300.00. Judy, very similar show and the,

00:28:12
the, the principle of the thing where you're, you're just asking

00:28:17
and wanting someone to validate that you're right or wrong.

00:28:21
It's not even about the money, although money comes into play

00:28:25
and it's the probably the motivating factor that puts you

00:28:28
over the edge. But we, I, we, we, we often live

00:28:32
our lives trying to prove principles rather than living in

00:28:36
the spirit and walking in the spirit.

00:28:38
Or I was thinking People's Court would not exist if the world

00:28:42
lived by the principle that Paul wrote to the Corinthians.

00:28:46
Why won't you rather just be wronged, Right?

00:28:50
And I'll tell you why, because it stings and it hurts.

00:28:54
And I don't want to be wronged. And I, I sometimes will factor

00:28:58
in other people's wrongs toward me, toward my motive.

00:29:01
My motive is I don't want to wrong anyone, even though I have

00:29:04
wronged people. I don't want to.

00:29:06
So I judge myself on my motives, but I judge you by your actions

00:29:11
and they never match. I need to do the same thing.

00:29:13
I need to give you some space. And that's what we're asking

00:29:16
for, for someone else as well. And we're coming up to the end

00:29:19
of our episode today, but we'll pick up a little bit of this in

00:29:22
the next episode because the topics are overlapping.

00:29:26
But I, I will never really match unless I judge you or approach

00:29:31
you in the same way I approach myself.

00:29:33
And so if motives are very important to me for my actions,

00:29:36
then I also need to hear you and give you an opportunity to share

00:29:40
your heart. Because it could have just been

00:29:42
an accident. It could have just been a

00:29:44
mistake. It could have just been I did

00:29:47
it. I'm not saying I didn't do it.

00:29:49
I did it but but the motive wasn't for you to feel that way

00:29:53
or and and so looping back to accusation, I think today or or

00:29:59
rumor or offenses just as leaders as we start off our

00:30:04
season. We wanted to validate if you're

00:30:06
on the other end of of a situation like this, we're sorry

00:30:11
and you don't necessarily have to sit back and do nothing and

00:30:16
say, well, you know, God's my defender and carry that hurt.

00:30:19
Carry that pain. Let it let it stir up in you and

00:30:23
make you hard hearted. You can answer sometimes you can

00:30:29
defend the integrity of the situation.

00:30:32
Sometimes certainly Jesus did that, David did that the

00:30:35
disciples spoke up. This is not an unbiblical

00:30:39
concept to be able to speak up, to be able to obey Matthew 18 if

00:30:45
you have been offended, even as a leader, if you ever been

00:30:48
offended to call up and and share that offense.

00:30:52
And if your brother hears you, you have won your brother and

00:30:55
it's over. And the enemy doesn't get the

00:30:58
benefit of his accusation hitting the target and

00:31:02
destroying a life. And that is the whole essence of

00:31:06
this episode because we we have been taught and sometimes we

00:31:11
apply it. Just let it go, let it come, let

00:31:14
it come. They don't just get hit, hit,

00:31:15
hit, hit, hit and don't ever defend yourself.

00:31:18
And I say that there are times when you can't speak up.

00:31:20
It depends on where it came from and how don't don't jump in,

00:31:24
don't misunderstand me. Somebody shoots something on

00:31:26
social media and now you're going to answer them on social

00:31:28
media. Wrong platform.

00:31:31
Nothing good comes when you try to do that like because then you

00:31:36
got the watching world seen two Christians fight each other, you

00:31:39
know, so that's probably another discussion all together.

00:31:42
But I want to welcome you all to season 7.

00:31:45
We come to the end of episode 1. My name is Ed Taylor, I'm in

00:31:49
studio with Bob Klaykamp. We're pastors, We're we're also

00:31:53
men of God seeking to obey him and follow him and love him and

00:31:58
and lead, lead well. And we're grateful that you've

00:32:02
joined us. I know it's been a while since

00:32:03
seasons, but timing is everything.

00:32:06
So the Holy Spirit has the perfect timing.

00:32:08
We want you to contact us because most of the topics this

00:32:13
season were listener thoughts and questions because we asked

00:32:17
for you to do that. And you can text them at

00:32:19
720-608-0012. You can text that anytime or you

00:32:27
can e-mail, you can e-mail me at ed@edtaylor.org.

00:32:33
My website saidtaylor.org. Bob, you have a website Bob Clay

00:32:37
Camp dot dot com. So Bob klaycam.com we're

00:32:41
available to serve you. Pastor Bob has just launched

00:32:45
into a brand new season of ministry, ministering in Mission

00:32:49
assist I and he's doing a great work doing exactly what God has

00:32:55
called him to do in this latter season of his life.

00:32:58
So thanks again for being a part of the Lead to Serve podcast.

00:33:01
Season 7 Episode 1 is in the books and we'll see you next

00:33:07
time right here as these podcasts get posted.

00:33:11
God bless you guys. Thank you for joining us for

00:33:14
this episode of Lead to Serve with Pastor Ed Taylor, a

00:33:17
leadership podcast from Calvary Church in Aurora, Co.

00:33:20
If you have a leadership question you want to hear

00:33:22
answered on a future Lead to Serve podcast, please e-mail it

00:33:26
to Pastor Ed at Calvary Co dot church.

00:33:29
And if you like our podcast, please subscribe, rate or review

00:33:32
us on iTunes and share us with your friends on social media.

00:33:36
Thanks again for joining us, and we'll see you next time right

00:33:38
here on the Lead to Serve podcast.