Hi, this is Joel and Victoria. Thanks for downloading our podcast. We enjoy spending this time with you. I hope you'll leave inspired.

Make sure you subscribe to get new messages every week.

We appreciate your support. It helps keep the ministry going. Enjoy the message.

Thank you.

Well, God bless you to joy to come into your homes. If you're ever in our area, please stop by. Be a part of one of our services. I promise you, we'll make you feel right at home.

I like to start with something funny and I heard about this man named Bubba. He lived way out in the country and there was this stray dog that kept showing up at his house.

His wife said, Bubba, you have to put the dog in the truck and take him out to the woods and drop him off. That's where he lives.

Bubba drove him a mile down the road, dropped him off. When he came back home, the dog was walking up the driveway, practically beat him back.

He did the same thing. It happened again. His wife said, Bubba, you have to take him way out. Drive him around in circles. Get him all mixed up.

Bubba drove him an hour away. Chris Cross Country Road, he had never driven down before and dropped the dog off two hours later. Bubba called his wife from the truck.

He said, did that dog make it back home? She said, yeah, here he comes walking up. He said, do me a favor. Put him on the line. I need directions.

Say it like you mean it. This is my Bible. I am what it says I am. I have what it says I have. I can do what it says I can do.

Today I will be taught the Word of God. I boldly confess. My mind is alert. My heart is receptive. I will never be the same. In Jesus' name, God bless you.

I want to talk to you today about you have a defender. We all have people that come against us, make negative comments, trying to discredit us or be little us.

Human nature is to get in there and try to straighten them out, prove to them how they are wrong. We think we have to defend ourselves. After all, that is our reputation.

But the problem with this approach is as soon as you get one person straightened out, three more will pop up. There will always be somebody that is against you, somebody that is trying to make you look bad.

If you are constantly trying to defend yourself, you will get distracted fighting battles that you were never supposed to fight.

It is easy to get baited into conflict. Think, did you see what they said about me on social media? I will show them who they are messing with.

Do you know how much energy it takes to try to pay somebody back or to try to prove to them that you really are a nice person?

You are spending emotional energy that you need for your dreams, for your goals. Here is the key. You don't have to defend yourself. God said he will defend you. He will protect your reputation.

Quit worrying about the chatter, the negative comments. Those are all distractions. That is the enemy trying to bait you off course so you will waste your time and energy involved in battles that don't matter.

Joel, I am upset because I am a good person. What they are saying about me is not true. It doesn't matter how good you are, how loving, kind, upstanding, somebody is not going to like you. Somebody is going to try to discredit you. It happened with Jesus.

...