BRET: Hello, sir, my name is Brett Barton.
I praise God every day for your faithfulness over the years.
JOHN: Thank you.
BRET: I just had a practical question.
I’ve heard before, a couple of times, about the way you apologize to people, so this is
just a practical wisdom question for me to grow from.
I just would like to know do you’ve got like a policy...I’ve heard just as an example,
Dick Mayhue said that he had a lady write you and say that she had appreciated your
ministry but she was going to stop supporting it because she had found out that you were
stealing all your material from her pastor.
JOHN: Yeah.
BRET: And you wrote her back and apologized.
JOHN: Yeah.
That’s one of my favorite letters.
This lady...this lady wrote me from the Midwest and she said, “I’ve been listening to
you for years and I have now figured out, you’re using all my pastor’s material
and you never give him credit.”
I don’t know how she figured out I even knew who her pastor was.
But I just wrote her and said, “Ma’am,” I didn’t want to say the obvious, I didn’t
want her to lose confidence in her pastor, so I just wrote and said.
You know, “If I’ve ever done that, I ask your forgiveness.
I’m just grateful you have a good, faithful pastor,” something like that.
Yeah, first of all, I can’t keep up with all my critics.
So I learned along time ago not to try to defend myself.
Just to write back some kind of a letter that says thank you for the criticism, thank you
for pointing these things out.
If there’s been anything that I’ve done that offended you, I’m sorry for that.
Pray for me.
And just go on.
I just don’t think you...I never want to be backed into a position of being defensive.
Because if the truth were known...Look, I’m not perfect, I know that.
And if you happen to pick the wrong thing to criticize me for, you could just as well
have picked the right thing to criticize me for.
So who am I to defend myself?
I will defend the people around me.
If people come to me to criticize the people I work with, they’re going to find me an
unwilling hearer.
I don’t take people’s criticism of the people that serve the Lord with me or in the
circle of faithfulness.
I don’t take that very well.
I will defend them.
I will always defend them until I have reason not to.
But when it comes to myself, I...you know, it’s kind of like the Old Testament, “Let
your praise be in another man’s lips.”
I’m not going to spend my whole life trying to defend myself.
I’ve got to tell you a funny story.
Is Melinda...are you here?
Where are you, Melinda?
Yeah, my daughter, Melinda.
Some years ago she went to work at Grace To You.
Now she thought...she comes to Grace Church, she thought everybody liked her father.
You know, because nobody stands up here and criticizes me or protests, it’s pretty...pretty
loyal group here, that’s why you’re here.
And she thought everybody liked my father.
Well she came to work at Grace To You and they put her in the responsibility of...was
it?...taking e-mail off the computer, or whatever it was, you were getting messages coming on
the computer, all this anti-John MacArthur propaganda was coming like a flood and she
had the job of taking all this stuff off the computer.
And there were all kinds of websites that were sort of anti-John MacArthur websites
and all this.
She just didn’t get it.
Well she didn’t say anything.
She just started firing back at these people.
(Laughter) Stuff like this, “How dare you, you don’t know my father.
I know my father and he does not do that.”
(Applause)
So finally, as it all began to mount, that’s like pouring gas on a fire, you know, you
do that.
It came even hotter.
And finally she told me about it and I said, “Stop doing that.
That’s what they want.
Are you kidding?
You’ve just fed the monster.
They’ve got John MacArthur’s daughter reacting to them.
That’s what they’re after.”
So I just don’t think...I don’t think there’s any virtue in that.
You just keep teaching the Word.
You know, I’ve said this many, many times, time and truth go hand in hand.
Given enough time, the truth about a person will be told.
And you just keep doing what you do, do it faithfully, do the best you can do.
Don’t defend yourself.
Just encourage people if they criticize you, thank them and say, “Pray for me.”
And just move on and let God be your defender.
And let time and truth be your defender.
I mean, that’s a better way, as far as I’m concerned.
Okay?
Good question.