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Hey yo, what it do, what it do, what it do. You see, it's Christian, your back porch preacher, and you are listening to Sermons from the back porch. I know I've been out for a while, and I kind of got a a long one today, so I'm gonna jump right into it. Y'all pray for me. I'm kinda under the weather today, plus I got a toothache, so we're gonna try to push through the pain, as they say. We're gonna push through the pain. So let's get it. Now, if you've been listening to me, you listened to the last sermon, you know that I'm currently in a series. This series that I'm trying, well, I am going to complete. I know it's been kind of a long one. I've been trying to in and out through them, but this series is about haters. It's about learning from your haters and what you can learn from your haters. You listen, the last time I explained to you that people are in your life for both reasons and seasons. So, since people who mean well are in your life for reasons and seasons, what about the haters? Let's find out why the haters are in your life, how to deal with them, and what those haters potentially mean. Now, the last sermon was the first sermon, the last sermon I did last week was the first sermon of the series, and there were sideline haters. So make sure you go back and listen to that one. And today, today, this sermon is gonna be kind of a little difficult for me because it's kind of different from what I normally do and what I direction I usually go. Because today's hater we're talking about is a tough one. First off, this hater is really hard to identify. And by the time that you identify that this hater is actually a hater, it's too late. They probably ruined your reputation and theirs. And the thing about this hater is you got a bond with this hater. So the hater we're going to talk about today is the hater you love. And like I said, it might not be a love relationship or anything, because it also could be a business relationship. Or it's a bond, and that bond is so heavy that once you find out that this person is a hater, it's more difficult to sever that ties, even if severing that ties is possible or liable in the condition or situation that you're in. Like I said, you have a bond with this hater. So just severing these ties usually don't even sever the tides. Like this hater could be a spouse. And just because you divorced a spouse don't mean you're severed, you're separated from the spouse. You still have to deal with them, you still have to deal with them for alimony-wise. You may have children with a spouse, so you have to deal with them children. So it's hard to sever that ties once you realize that hater is actually a hater. And it could also be a business venture. You might be a business partner with somebody, and then you find out that business partner may not have the best interest in your business or in your relationship. And it's kind of hard to sever that tie because not only do you have a business, you guys may have employees under you. It's people that you guys are feeding. So severing that tie could affect somebody else's well-being. So it's not always easy to distance yourself from a hater that you love. Another thing is we're dealing with a hater that you love or hater that you bond with, mercy comes into a factor. And that's why it's this sermon is really hard for me because I can't instruct you on what to do, I can only advise you of what to do. Because since it is a person you love, you have to factor in mercy. And mercy, mercy is like salt. Mercy is kind of like that. Let me give you a visual. Let's say you make some eggs in the morning. Now you go to sprinkle some eggs, some salt on the edge, because regular eggs, you know, it's just bling. You want a little bit of flavor added to them. So you sprinkle a little bit of salt on that. And that little bit of salt is going to kick that flavor up to the next level. It's going to give you a little bit of extra taste. You have to add some pepper or some lemon pepper or whatever you got to do. But that salt is going to bring more 3D texture to the flavor of those eggs. So while you're sprinkling that salt on them eggs, let's say that salt shaker, the top on that sauce shaker, pops open. And all the salt that was in that sauce shaker spills out onto them eggs. Them eggs is no good no more. You can't eat that. So you gotta throw that out. Even if you try to eat it, you can try to scrape all the extra sediment. But once that salt content becomes too much, it's nasty. Not only is this nasty, it's unedible. And not only is it unedible, it can even harm you. So that's kind of like what mercy is. Mercy is a good thing when it's managed. But unmanaged mercy can be damaging, can be destruction. And it could even lead to your demise. Like I said, mercy is a good thing when you mercy is good. Getting mercy is good. It's good when mercy is received. When you receive mercy, it helps per reconciliation. It gives you a second chance to make things better. Maybe you've done something and inadvertently you done something wrong and you didn't even know it. So then mercy comes in. It gives you a second chance to say, hey, let me make this right. Even though I can't make this right, let me correct my actions so we can move better and we can become better people. So when you get mercy, when you receive mercy, it's a good thing. And when you give mercy, sometimes it doesn't even feel like a good thing, but it's a good thing. When you give mercy, it allows room for growth and for reconstruction. Giving mercy, it also helps people understand your boundaries and who you are. It gives you the chance to let them know where they messed up and how they messed up, and it gives them a chance, opportunity to mend that, to make it better, to learn from that mistake, and to understand how to treat you and operate around you better. So when you get mercy, it's a good thing, and when you give mercy, it's a good thing. But that managed, that is managed mercy. When you give too much mercy and too much mercy and receive that unmanaged mercy, that could be damaging. Sometimes it seems like giving mercy gets you fed over. But like I say, it helps men relationships and build a relationship. But you take that too far, people tend to take your kindness for weakness. Sometimes that's how you get stepped on or how you get walked on, even how you get taken advantage of. People see you as soft. And since they see that they got away with finessing you or doing you wrong that time, if they do it again, then it may not be a problem. So giving too much mercy can be damaging, and also getting too much mercy can be damaging. Getting too much mercy can prevent you from understanding someone else. Think about it this way. Look at it this way: the more mercy someone gives you, the less you understand about their boundaries. And the effect of that, you could be eventually hurting somebody or stepping on somebody or damaging relationships without even knowing it. The more mercy they give you in the area where you're harming them and you're triggering them, it ruins your vision of them. So you're thinking it's okay, or you're thinking that you've done something that may be okay, but in actuality, on the surface, it's hurting or it's triggering them, or it's causing something to be triggering. So the more mercy they give you, the less you understand their boundaries, the less you understand how far you can go with them before you push them to the edge of crashing out. Well, some people don't understand why you crash out when you crash out, because you've been giving them mercy and mercy and mercy, and all of that has been building up on the surface and building up under the surface. So finally, when it boils up to the top, you crashing out, and they don't understand why. Because you don't understand it's been going on for a long period of time, but you haven't been informing them that hey, that you're fucking me over because you've been giving them mercy and mercy and mercy, yes, and mercy. So the objective for this sermon is to help you how to identify when someone is close to you as a hater. And also to help you manage mercy when dealing with somebody who's a hater that you're close to. So those are our objectives today. We're gonna teach you how to deal with a hater that you're close to. So if you're ready, let's go. Alright, so in order to give you this demonstration, we're gonna talk about two people here. We're gonna go back to the book of Exodus, to the Old Testament, to talk about two people in the Old Testament. And two people who we're gonna talk about are Aaron and Moses. We're gonna get into them both separately, but right now we're gonna conjoin them together as a dynamic duo. Just to give you a little background on them two. Aaron is Moses' older brother. Now, mostly everybody knows the story of Moses, but just to give you a quick synapses, Moses' mother, you know, seeing you know the Egyptians were coming against the Israelites and they were snatching the Israelites up. So basically, to give him a way to escape, Moses' mother placed him in the river on the basket and pushed that river upstream, and it ended up going to the palace. So Moses' upbringing was in the Egyptian palace. Aaron, however, was among the Israelites in captivity. So as they grew up, Moses got the calling from God and realized, hey, I'm an Israelite, I need to leave my people out of here. So he eventually leaves Egypt and he has the whole burning bush experience. You know, the whole burning bush experience that people talk about, you know, God spoke to him at the burning bush and basically informed him, hey, I'm choosing you to deliver my people out of Egypt. But Moses kept giving God excuses. I can't do it because of this and this and this. I can't do it because of this and this and this. And one of the excuses he gave God was, I'm not a good speaker. I be stuttering. See, me and Moses, we got something in common. We're not very good speakers. We're not good with words. So instead of Moses doing like I'm doing and just, you know, bite down and push through your incapabilities until your incapabilities become your strong point. He complained about it. He said, I uh I can't do it. I uh I'm not good with words. So God was like, hey, you can't do it, but you got a brother Aaron. Your brother Aaron got bars. So I'm gonna let y'all meet up. And your brother Aaron is gonna help you. He's gonna be your spokesperson. So God divinely reconnected them. We can divinely reconnect them, he gave them the business. He said, You can read it in Exodus chapter 7, verse 1 and 2. He told Moses, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and Aaron, your brother, will be your prophet. You must say whatever I command you, and your brother will declare it to Moses, and then he will let the Israelites go from your hand. So basically, that was the format. God is going to convey what he wants to Moses. Moses told Aaron what to do. Aaron does it, and boom, that's the plan. And it was working, dude. They were a dynamic duo. These how it was how most of the the plagues, the ten plagues came about. God would tell Moses, hey, go to Pharaoh, tell them, let my people go. Pharaoh would do that. I mean, Moses would do that. Pharaoh would say, nah, I ain't letting them go. Then God would tell Moses, okay, here's what Aaron needs to do. Aaron does it, and the plays come about. So they were a dynamic team in Egypt. And they worked successfully together in that time. God will give the instruction to Moses. Moses would tell Aaron to do what to do. The plagues were executed in this manner. Aaron also assisted Moses in this manner when delivering the people from Egypt over to the promised land. He even held up Moses' arms during the battle of the Amalekites to help the people win that battle. Because as long as Moses had the staff in the air, the people were winning. God was with them on their side. So Aaron basically helped him hold his hands up so their staff can stay in the air. So they were a dynamic duo. Whatever they got done needed to be get get done. And with as long as they worked together, they worked side by side in commun in commune with each other. Shit got done. Okay. So then we get to the Sinai wilderness. Now before I go any further, I need to define a wilderness experience. Basically, you're like in a holy timeout or something. But that's not what a wilderness experience is. The Israelites were not sent to the wilderness as punishment. Now the generation that died in the wilderness died because they were being disobedient and they weren't allowing God to be to use them like they were. But that was not their punishment. So since the wilderness experience is not a punishment, what is it? What exactly is a wilderness experience? So number one, a wilderness experience is a place where change is necessary. Now, prior before going, prior before getting to Mount Sinai in the Sinai wilderness, Moses had a talk with his father-in-law. His father-in-law came to visit him. It was basically like, I see what you're doing. I see how you're operating with the people, but you're going to wear yourself out. You can't do this alone, Moses. Instead of trying to handle the people all at once, what you need to do is delegate some outstanding, honest men that you can trust and have them be judges over certain parts of the people and have them deal with the people and you deal with them. So this change was necessary in order to keep Moses from wearing himself out. Basically, his father-in-law was giving him a warning: hey, you're about to wear yourself thin, and I see you wearing yourself out. You need to change what you're doing so you can sustain yourself and last longer. So a wilderness experience is a place where change is necessary, number one. And also it's a place where growth is required. They weren't sent to the wilderness to die. They were sent to grow. Everybody in this situation had to grow. Moses, first and foremost, had to grow because now God is dealing with him on a more personal, on a more personal or close level. So now God is dealing with him directly and more intimately. So now Moses has to grow so he can spend more time in the presence of God. The Israelites as a people had to grow. Because now God is setting them up to become a nation. God is basically calling Moses up into the mountains so that he can form these laws and these commandments that the people can live by so they can be a nation. So Moses was growing into a more personal relationship with God. The Israelites had to grow to become a nation. And Aaron himself had to grow also because now he's being removed from a spokesperson, Moses' spokesperson to God's high priest. Now he's in a position that calls him to do more, to be more, instead of just an assistant to Moses or a side person to Moses. Now Aaron has his own responsibility. Aaron has his own calling that he must do. Now he must be a priest to the people. So the wilderness experience was a place where growth was required. But unfortunately, this growth didn't happen like it was supposed to. So now we get to Aaron's hookups. Because Aaron was all good in the uh in Egypt. He was all good during the progress of moving the Israelites out of Egypt to the promised land. But once we got to the wilderness experience, we start to see Aaron cracking under the pressure. Now the first thing that we see, the first way we see Aaron cracking under the pressure is with the golden calf. Now Moses is on Mount Sinai, him and God, they chopping it up. They basically putting down the laws and the commandments that the people must follow so that they can become a one nation. One nation. But this process is taking a long time. And the people are basically in the wilderness while Moses in the mountain and they're tired of waiting. They're tired of sitting around doing nothing to them, what they call doing nothing. So they come to Aaron, and Aaron, and there's like, you know, hey, we're tired of tired of sitting around and doing nothing. We need something to do. So Aaron, he fashions a golden calf for them. He takes their jewelry. He says, Everybody give me your jewelry. And he fashions a golden calf. And he basically tells them, hey, this is God. Let's worship here. Let's kick it. So while Moses is with God, formulating the codes and commandments that the people must live by. God is like, hey, there are people down there doing something. You need to go see about that. So Moses, you know, peeks over and he sees, you know, what's going on. And he hears what's going on also. And he hears a rambling, he hears a noise. But it don't sound like praise. It don't sound like worship. It sounds like they're down there kicking it. So Moses is, you know, furious. He looks over, he comes down, and everybody is kicking it, partying around this golden calf. And this infuriates Moses. One reason why it infuriates Moses is because the golden calf is basically an Egyptian relevant an Egyptian God. That's what they were. They formed their God out of. So basically, God basically brought them out of Egyptian culture, Egyptian oppression, Egyptian religion. And now here they are in the wilderness, basically reverting back to what God had brought them out of. And Aaron being their priest, instead of encouraging them, hey, we don't do this. We're not going back. We're going forward. We're going to sit here and we're not going to sit here. We're going to praise and worship God. We're going to let God know that we're here for them. But we're going to let God know that we're his people. Aaron backs down. He punks out. And he reverts him back. And even when Moses calls him out for him, he gives a lame excuse. Excuse after excuse. The first lame excuse he gives Moses is, you know, the people forced me to do it. You know, they they forced me to do this. Now that excuse is lame because number one, he's skirting his responsibility by placing the blame on the people. Instead of standing up and saying, hey, I was wrong. I I fucked up. He says, you know, no. He blames it on the people. The people did this. So instead of taking the grain and taking the credit and growing and accepting responsibility for his mistakes, he backs out of it and basically throws the people under the bless. And not only does he say, he turns around and tells Moses, you know, I just took, they gave me my jewelry, and I just threw the jewelry in the fire, and you know, out came this calf. And that lie right there was a lie on God. Basically, what he's saying that, you know, he just randomly did something, and the act of God basically said, This is what I want you to do. So this is pissing Moses off. It's reverting the people backwards to what they were called out of, which is anti-Ari's calling. As the high priest Aaron is supposed to be leading them towards God in the absence of Moses, he's supposed to be standing in Moses' place, letting the people know what's going on, what needs to happen. So despite messing up as high priest and fashioning this golden calf and fucking up in that area, he still remains the high priest. Somebody say mercy. So did he take this chance, this mercy, this opportunity to make himself better? No. He continuously fucks up. He continually fucked up more and more, even to his point where his sons are fucking up. And he gets to a point where he's so blatant and bold in his and up that he's with his sister Miriam and they're basically planning a mutiny. And the one thing his him and his sister Miriam is uh bickering about is Moses' wife. Now Moses' wife is African. When everybody else is Israelite, Moses' wife is African. So they're basically talking about Moses' wife because she's African and she's not an Israelite. And they eventually got to the point where Aaron says, Doesn't God speak to us also? So before this mutiny even gets to a point where it's heating and plotted out, God calls Moses, Miriam, and Aaron out. And basically he says to all three of them, I speak to Moses directly. Y'all get what I speak through Moses. Don't get it twisted. And it's punishment, Miriam is stricken with leprosy. She got skin and boils all over her body. Her body turns white. Now, Aaron, he should have got that same treatment. It should have been both of them struck with leprosy. However, since Aaron is the high priest, he has to be clean. He can't be unclean in front of God. So once again, there's mercy. Aaron's given mercy again. So countless times Aaron has received mercy, but he keeps taking advantage of that mercy. He's not changing, he's not learning from his mistakes, he's not even correcting his mistakes. He's just living in his mistakes so much that it costs him. He doesn't get to make it to the promised land. He dies before ever getting to the promised land. So because he took advantage of mercy and he took advantage of the mercy that was given to him by Aaron and even by God, it damaged him. It damaged his possibility to enter the promised land. And it damaged the probability of being close to God. Even his sons were messed up because of this. So now that we see how unmanaged mercy, getting mercy and unmanaging it can mess you up. Let's see how giving mercy unmanaged can mess you up. Let's look at Moses for a second. Now, despite Aaron's mess up and Aaron's mishap constantly, constantly again, Moses always had his back. Moses always vouched for him. And that was the thing with Moses. Moses always vouched for people. He was always pleading on behalf of other people. Even when the Israelites were constantly messing up, he was pleading on them. When the Israelites were pissing off God, he would plead to them, have mercy on them, have mercy on them, God. Don't struck them. Please have have mercy on the people. And this constantly begging for mercy was damaging Moses. It damaged Moses as a leader because he was always pleading instead of leading. God was providing provisions for the people right after right, right after right, right after left, left after right. Constantly he gave them quail, he gave them manna from heaven. But the people kept complaining and kept complaining and bickering to Moses. And this was upsetting God. And God was like, you know, I should just let them go and just start all over. But God, but Moses continuously pleaded. So he was always pleading instead of leading, instead of directing the people the right way to go, instead of being there for the people, encouraging the lips and them to stay strong. And instead of finding provisions and making the way without begging God and pleading God, he just begged and pleaded like a weak person. So it made him an ineffective leader. It also made him act erratically. Remember that calf that they that Aaron had built for them, the fashioned for them? But Moses, he grinded that calf up, threw it in the water, and the people had to drink it. It was very erratic of Moses. And he always has these spots where he does these erratic things, and so much that soul that he was stressing himself out because he kept giving mercy to other people. Even one point, God told him to speak to a rock so that people can have water. And instead of speaking to the rock, he hit the rock. Now God allowed the water to flow from the rock. But this was a direct disobedience to God. And this act caused Moses to lose his place in the promised land. So even though Moses was able to look at it, he was never able to enter it. So we see from Moses that a lack of managed mercy can ruin you. We see it from both Moses and Aaron. We see how Aaron continuously got mercy after mercy after mercy, second chance, second chance, after second chance, time and time again. But instead of getting right and growing from these second chances and being a better person, he kept finging up. And since he kept finging up, it lost him his reward. And also on Moses' side, we see Moses constantly giving mercy, constantly giving mercy when he should be standing as a leader and delegating and being righteous for the people. And that unmanaged mercy caused him stress, it caused him pressure, it caused him unnecessary worry, and he was always pleading, and it caused him to act erratically, and it caused his behavior to be messed up. And instead of managing his emotions and managing who he is and managing the people around him, he fell to this lack of boundaries, and it cost him his reward. So whether you give mercy or you receive mercy is make sure you have it balanced. Make sure you're managing your mercy. So as we conclude, from Moses, we see what unmanaged mercy looks like. Always pleading instead of leading, always going with your emotions and going with your depression instead of standing and being who God called you to be. And with Aaron, he never grew. So as we conclude, be a leader. Understand what you can control, what you can't control. Give mercy where mercy is due, and also give correction where correction needs to be. Where correction needs to be. And never be so merciful that you lose sight of who you are. Mercy and boundaries go hand in hand. They're not contradictory, they're tandem, Essies. They go together. When mercy is managed, it helps you better understand boundaries and better understand who you are and the people that you're dealing with. Manage mercy allows you to say, hey, here's where you fed up. Don't do it again. And it also says, I see where I fed up. Let me make this relationship better. I can't undo the damage that I did, but from this point on, I can make things better. And last and finally, respect mercy when it gives you when it's given to you. And use it as an opportunity to grow. If you don't get anything from what I said or what I've been preaching, get this. When someone gives you mercy, you owe them repentance. Mercy is currency. If somebody gives it to you, you owe them something back. So if they say, here's your second chance, take advantage of that second chance. And not only make yourself better, but grow as a person. Grow understanding that person and how to deal with that person who gave you that mercy and reward them by allowing them to see you become a better person, by allowing them to see you learn from the mercy that you've given them. And that, my friends, is your sermon for today. I thank you all for listening. If you got to this point, I thank you for listening. Like I said, I am under the weather, so forgive me if this sounds kind of lame this time, but I pray next week I'll be better. And like I said, we're still in the sermon series, so we got two more. And instead of telling y'all what your next one is gonna be, I'll just tell y'all to tune in because it's gonna be a good one. I actually like this one. I know I can rock with it. So tune in next week. And I have something good for you. Make sure you follow us. patreon.com slash blessed nation media. From there, you can get the uncensored version of this sermon. If you're listening on, you know, Spotify or Amazon music, you're probably hearing this with censors and beeps. But on Patreon, we have an uncensored. So make sure you hit up the Patreon, www.patreon.com slash blessed nation media. And if you want to follow me, make sure you look on Instagram at Back Porch Preacher. And also Facebook search for Back Porch Preacher. Thank you once again. It's been a blessing. I have fun. I hope you have fun too. And I will see y'all next week. And make sure, no matter what you do, you don't get discouraged. You stay focused, and you don't get distracted. God bless you.