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Murder She Wrote · G. T. Ministries

• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we need each other.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: I need you.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: You need me to survive in this day and time.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: This is one of the I think one of the best songs that uh Hezekiah Walker ever put out.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he he put out some beautiful songs.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: But I think that's one of the best because, you know, it brings unity.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: It brings us together.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord, yes.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: But we start loving on each other and stop killing each other.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Praise God.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: I don't I want to talk this morning about uh uh it's a very popular series that uh went on back in September the 30th of 1984.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh uh it ran for 12 seasons.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: And it started in 1884, eight nineteen eighty-four, ended in nineteen ninety-six.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the title of the series was Murder She Wrote.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: Murder She Wrote.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I I I'm gonna I'm going to attempt to bring this into uh a spiritual atmosphere concerning uh murder she wrote.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um let's use a scripture and first King 21 and verse 8.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: So she wrote a letter in Ahab's name and sealed them with her seal and sent the letter unto the elders, unto the nobles that was in the city dwelling with Nabok.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Jezebel used her influence to destroy Nabok.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: But God had not called us to destroy one another.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: We are brothers and sisters in Christ.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: We are members of one body.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: When one member suffered, the whole body is affected.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: We ought to be praying for one another, encouraging one another, and helping one another survive.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go now and talk about this series there.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: The star of that uh series was named Angela Lansbury.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: And she played the character Jessica Fletcher.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now Jessica Fletcher, Fletcher was not was not a police officer.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh she was not a detective by profession.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: She was a retired English teacher who became a successful military novelist.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: She lived in a small, seemingly peaceful town called K-Boat Cave in Maine.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: But something unusual always seemed to happen whenever Jessica Fletcher went.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody would would turn up dead.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Something in sometime it happened in the Cobra Cave.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: Sometime it happened when Jessica was visiting friends.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Sometime it happened while she was traveling.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: But wherever she went, it seems that a mystery was waiting to be solved.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: And the interesting thing about the program was that the person who committed the murder was not always the person you suspected.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the guilty person was a friend, sometime it was a family member, sometime it was someone wealthy and influential.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it was someone everybody respected.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it was the person who appeared to be the most innocent person.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: But Jessica Fletcher had an unusual ability.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: She could listen to a person's story, she could examine their statements, she could recognize their inconsistencies, she could uncover hidden motives, and she could put together pieces of evidence that others had overlooked.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: And before the photo program ended, Jessica would usually reveal the person responsible for the murder.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's what I want you to understand.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: The person who appears innocent was not always innocent.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: The person who spoke the loudest was not always telling the truth.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: The person who appeared concerned, sometimes that person responsible for the crime.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes the very person pretending to help solve the mystery was the person hiding the truth.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Lord have mercy.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Praise God.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now I want to take you from the television's uh screen to the pages of the Bible.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Before the cause, long before Jessica Fletcher became solving murder mysteries on TV, the Bible recorded murder mysteries involving a king.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: A queen and an innocent man.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: A vineyard and some letters.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: The king was named Ahab.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: The queen was named Jezebel.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: The innocent man was named Nabok.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: The prophet that everybody was fighting over was a vineyard.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: But unlike Jessica Fletcher, who wrote mystery novels about murder, Jezebel wrote letters that actually arrange a murder.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, somebody missed that.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: Jessica Fletcher wrote about murder.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: But Jezebel wrote instructions that resulted in murder.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Jessica Fletcher investigated murder, but Jezebel orchestrated murder.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: Jessica exposed the guilty, but Jezebel tried to conceal the guilty.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that is why I want to talk this morning about murder she wrote.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: Be careful what you say.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Be careful what you believe.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes the greatest damage is not done with a gun or a knife.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's done with a pen.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's done with a telephone call.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's done with a text message or email.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's done with a false accusation.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it's done by somebody who smiles in your face while secretly plotting your downfall.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: I remember the song years ago I used to sing and jam off of uh smiling faces tell lies.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: Remember that?
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yes.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: So point number one I want to bring out is that every murder mystery has a motive.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: One of the first things Jessica would try to determine when investigating a murder was the motive.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Why would somebody want this person dead?
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Why did the guilty person have to gain?
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: What did the guilty person have to gain?
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: Was it money?
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Was it jealousy?
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Was it revenge?
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: Was it power?
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Was it greed?
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, when you examine the story of Nabo, we discover the motive behind the crime.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: King Ahab wanted Nabot's vineyard.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: The vineyard was located near uh uh Ahab's palace.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: Ahab offered Nabot money, any other vineyard in his change.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: But Nabot refused.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Cause in 1 Kings 21 and 3, it says, The Lord forbid it me that I should give the inheritance of my father unto you.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Nabot understood that his vineyard was more than a piece of property, it was his inheritance.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: Hateah Macia.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, hallelujah.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: I had a little piece of uh little piece of property, well, a few acres of land in Alabama and I was gonna sell it.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I went through the process of getting ready to sell that land.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: But me and my wife got together and had a discussion.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: And you say, you know, that's our inheritance that was left uh to me by my parents.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: Why should I sell my inheritance?
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: I keep it, let it pass on after I'm gone to my children.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: And in the midst of that, I stop from selling it.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's an inheritance.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: Oh Ha Saba.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: I hear the scripture say, my inheritance is among those that are sanctified.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: God has blessed us, and we should pass it on.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't something passed down uh uh through his family, and under Israel covenant law, ancestral land had special significance.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: But Ahab became angry because he could not have what belonged to somebody else.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible says he went home, laid upon his bed, turned away his face, and refused to eat.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, hallelujah.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh imagine that a king with a palace, a king with authority, a king with wealth, a king with servants, but he was miserable because one man refused to give him his vineyard.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: One of the most dangerous attitudes a person can develop is their inability to be satisfied with what God has already given them.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Some people have been blessed, but they are jealous of somebody else's blessing.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: They have a position, but they want somebody else's position.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: They have a ministry, but they want somebody else's ministry.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: They have a house, but they want somebody else's house.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: They have an assignment, but they want somebody else's assignment.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: And if they cannot have it, they become angry.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: Be careful when your desires for something become stronger than your commitment to do what is right.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: In the book of James, it picks it up.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: In James 3 and 16, it says, Where envy and strife is, there is confusion in every evil work.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: Don't let jealousy turn you into somebody you're never meant to be.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: Are you listening here?
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Point number two, every murder mystery has a plot.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now in the TV series, Jessica often discovered that a murder was not simply an accident.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody had planned it, somebody had arranged the circumstances, somebody had developed a scheme.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: And when we turn to our biblical story, we find Jezebel developing a plot.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: She noticed that her husband Ahab was upset.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: And she asked him, What's wrong with you, man?
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: Ahab explained, and uh Nabod refused to give him his vineyard.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: Jezebel, they sent her told Ahab to stop worrying because she would she would get the vineyard for him.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: But look at what she did.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: She wrote letters in Ahab's name.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: She sealed them with the king's seal.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: She sent them to the elders and nobles of Nabal's city.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: She instructed them to proclaim a fast.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: See, all fasting is not of the Lord.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: She instructed them to proclaim a fast and played Nabot in a permanent position to be before the king.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: Then she did order two worthless men to falsely accuse Nabot of blaspheming God and the king.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: And after the false accusations, Nabot was taken outside of the city and stoned to death.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: My God.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that was a wicked woman.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever you do, don't marry a Jezebel.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: And don't name your children Jezebel.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: Jezebel used the appearance of a religious seriousness to conceal an evil plot.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: Conspiracy.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: She called for a fast, but she was not seeking God.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: She was planning a murder.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: She used the name of the king.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: She used the authority of the government.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: She used the corruption of community leaders, and she used false witnesses.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: All to destroy an innocent man.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: Religious appearances do not guarantee righteous motives.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: Some people know how to appeal spiritual while practicing deception.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: They know how to speak religious language.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: They know how to quote scriptures.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: They know how to pray publicly.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: They know how to look concerned.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: But God is not impressed with religious appearance when the heart is filled with wickedness.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus warned about this in Matthew 23, 27 to 28 when he described a religious hypocrite.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody who calls a fast is not necessary seeking God's face.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody who quotes scripture is not necessary obeying God's will.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: We must learn to examine the fruit, not merely admiring appearance.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Are you with me?
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: This morning.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: Don't leave now.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: Every murder mystery has witnesses, but not every witness tells the truth.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: In murder she wrote, Jessica would question witnesses.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: But she knew that witnesses would could be mistaken and she could be confused.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: Others would deliberately lie.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: And in Nabo's case, Jezebel arranged for two false witnesses.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: These men testified and Nabo had blasphemed God and the king.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: But their testimony was false.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: Nabo was innocent of the charges.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yet their lies contributed to his death.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know in Proverbs 6 and 16 tell us that God hates a lying tongue.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: And false witnesses who speak lies is an abomination.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: Unto the Lord.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Detestable.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: A false witness does not merely tell a lie.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: A false witness uses a lie to harm somebody else.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody's reputation might be destroyed.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody's family might be affected.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody's livelihood might be damaged.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: And in Nabo's case, somebody lost their life.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody will tell you, did you hear what happened with the minister?
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: And you respond, no, what happened?
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: Then they begin repeating something they never personally witnessed and cannot verify.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: Before long, five people know.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: Then ten people know.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: Then twenty people know.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: And by the time it reached the congregation, it has become have changed completely.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: But the damage has been done.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: Death and life is in the power of the tongue.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: Your tongue can encourage or discourage.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: Your tongue can strifthen or weaken.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: Your tongue can help restore relationship or help destroy it.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: Do not become a witness for something you did not witness.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: If you do not know it, don't spread it.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: Point number four.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the guilty person is the one who appears most innocent.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now here's something that made murder.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: She wrote uh she wrote interesting.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: Many times the person responsible for the murder was not the person everybody initially suspected.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: The guilty person could appear innocent, they could express sympathy, they could act shock.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: They could pretend they had nothing to do with what happened.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: But as Jessica Fletcher examined the evidence, the truth began to emerge.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: As in our biblical story, Jezebel did not personally throw the stone that killed Nabo.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: She arranged for the other people to carry out the execution.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: Then after Nabo was dead, she told Abraham, Go, take your possession of your vineyard.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: Look at the deception.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: She wrote a letter, she planned a conspiracy, she arranged the false witnesses, she secured Nasbo's death, and then she handed Ahab the benefit of the crime.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: There's a danger in manipulation.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: Some people know how to get others to do their Dirty word.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: They will not confront somebody directly.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, they influence others against the person.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: They plant the seed of suspicion.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: They encourage resentment.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: They create confusion.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: And when the damage is done, they pretend that they had nothing to do with it.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: But God knows who started the trouble.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: You may not have thrown the stone, but if you deliberately arrange for somebody else to throw it, you're not innocent.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: Ahab was not innocent simply because Jezebel wrote the letter.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: He benefited from the injustice that was held accountable by God.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: Leadership brings responsibility.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot always excuse yourself by saying, I didn't know what they was doing.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: Leaders have a responsibility to seek the truth, reject uh injustice, and refuse to benefit from wrongdoing.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the Bible records another murder that was written.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: King David did something similar.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: David committed adultery with Bathsheba, and when she became pregnant, David attempted to conceal his wrongdoing.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: He called her husband, Uriah, home for battle.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uriah refused to go home and encourage and enjoy the comforts of his wife while his fellow soldiers remained in the battle.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: David's plan failed.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: So David wrote a letter to Joab, his military commander.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: In the letter, David instructed Joab to place Uriah in the fierce part of the battle and withdraw support to Uriah would be killed.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: In 2 Samuel 11 14, came to pass in the morning that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: David wrote a letter.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: He sent that letter to Uriah himself.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uriah was carrying the instruction that would lead to his own death.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: What a tragedy.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: Two letters.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: Two murders.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: The letters arranged a false testimony in Naples execution.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: Motive greed and a desire to seize property.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: David wrote a letter.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: Motive concealment of his wrongdoing.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: Both used letters and instructions to arrange another person's death.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: Both abuse authority.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: Both tried to achieve their purposes through deception.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: But when Nathan confronted David, David acknowledged his sin.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: In 2 Samuel 12 and 13, he said, I have sinned against the Lord.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that teaches us something.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: The difference between a leader who can be restored and one who continues in destruction is the willingness to acknowledge sin and gently repent.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: Repentance does not erase every consequence, but it brings to us bring us back to the mercy of God.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord Jesus.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: God bless you this morning.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: You can get the completion of this message if you will go in about 30 minutes to GT Ministries Podcast.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: Just put that in your web browser and you'll see the uh conclusion of this message.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: Right now we have to go because our time has run out.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's running out.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: But pray you got something out of this message.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: Murder, she wrote.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, don't kill nobody with your mouth.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: Don't kill nobody with your letter.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: We need each other.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: And we need each other to survive.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: Do the right thing.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: I said, do the right thing.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: Whatsoever, man.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: So that shall we also?
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know the dog licked ate her up and licked up her blood?
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: Jezebel, as she was thrown down from the wall.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: God bless you this morning.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining here on GoParty Online.org.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Bishop Gregory Tucker, GT Minister of the One Way Church of Christ.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: God bless you.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: Love you all in Jesus' name.
• 27:31
  unknown: Thank you.