All right, so I am finishing the series
on the fruit of the spirit.
So the title of the sermon tonight
is the fruit of the spirit part four,
fruit of the spirit part four.
And I want to draw your attention there
to Romans one, verse number 16.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
for it is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth,
to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
So I love that verse so much.
The apostle Paul is not ashamed of the gospel.
The gospel here is the power of God unto salvation.
What is the power of God unto salvation?
The gospel, right?
The death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus Christ
is the gospel message,
but it's applicable to everyone that believeth.
So in order for us to be saved
and in order for us to receive the gospel,
we must believe the gospel.
We must put our faith and trust on Jesus Christ
to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
The same salvation is available to all people.
But verse number 17
is what I want to draw your attention to.
For therein, so within the gospel,
for therein is the righteousness of God revealed.
We see the righteousness of God
revealed in the gospel message.
We see God's righteousness.
It's not our righteousness that gets us saved.
We're revealing God's righteousness.
His son who died on the cross for our sins
who rose again from the dead.
But it says here, it's revealed from faith to faith.
From faith to faith, as it is written,
the just shall live by faith.
Okay, the just shall live by faith.
Now I mentioned that we're going through
the final part of the fruit of the spirit series.
And I want to quickly read to you from Galatians 5 22.
But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace,
long suffering, gentleness, goodness.
We've gone through all of those qualities so far.
We've got the final three.
I want to cover the final three tonight.
Faith, meekness, temperance,
against such there is no love.
Faith, meekness, temperance.
And of course, what we saw here in Romans 1,
that we are to live by faith.
Faith is one of those qualities
that is found within the fruit of the Holy Spirit of God.
But look at verse number 17 again there in Romans 1 17.
It says, from faith to faith.
In order for us to be saved,
we place our faith or our belief,
the words faith and belief are interchangeable.
It's one of the same thing, right?
We place our faith on Jesus Christ.
But once we have placed our faith on Christ,
what does God want us to do?
To go from faith to faith.
As it is written, the just shall live by faith.
You see, God wants us not just to be saved by faith,
not just to believe on Jesus Christ,
but now he wants us to go from faith to faith.
He wants us to live a life of faith.
Now this is important when you go door to the soul wing,
when someone says to you,
and they might sound like they give you
the right answer.
You say, what do you have to do to be saved?
It's faith alone, which sounds wonderful.
But sometimes when you dig in deeper,
their faith alone isn't on Christ alone.
Their faith is their walk of faith.
I'm being faithful.
That's my, that's how I'm going to heaven.
Yes, it's my faith, but it's my faithfulness
as I continue walking with the Lord.
No, no, no, no.
There's a faith that saves,
but there's a faith in which we are to walk by
day to day from faith to faith.
And as I said, you know,
if we're talking about the fruit of the spirit,
obviously that person is already saved.
And then the Lord God and the Holy Spirit of God
is able to develop a greater faith,
a greater measure of faith in our lives.
I'm sure if you've been saved a long period of time,
your faith toward God has grown.
You've seen the hand of God,
you've seen answered prayers,
you've seen him come through, you know,
when you think all is lost
and you don't know what you're going to do,
God comes through and it increases your faith,
doesn't it?
When you see the Lord able to do great things
in your life.
Now, come with me.
You don't need to turn anymore to Romans one.
Come with me to the book of Matthew.
Matthew chapter six, please.
Matthew chapter six.
And if I, you know,
if I'm going to be honest with you guys as a pastor,
when I look at the fruit of the spirit,
I feel in comparison to others in our church,
that I struggle with faith.
Not faith to be saved.
That's a done deal.
That's an easy one.
It's a one time, you know,
faith on Christ alone and I know I'm saved.
I never have doubts about that
because of Christ did all the work, right?
It's him that I trust.
But I find in comparison,
I'm not saying I don't have faith,
but I find in comparison to our brothers, sisters,
and the Lord in the church.
So I feel that you guys sometimes
have the greater faith.
Now, when you look at Matthew six,
look at Matthew six, verse number 30.
See the Bible speaks of quantity of faith
found within different people.
And I want to show you the times
Christ speaks of little faith.
And I feel that's me sometimes.
Little faith.
I've got the faith, okay?
But it's little, okay?
And in Matthew chapter six, verse number 30,
it says, wherefore if God so clothed
the grass of the field,
which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven,
shall he not much more clothe you,
O ye of little faith.
Do you sometimes feel,
Lord, I don't know how I'm going to take care of myself.
I don't know how I'm going to take care of the bills.
I don't know how I'm going to take care of
such a great number of children you've given me, Lord.
Such a great family, Lord.
And you know, and yet like,
this is like something that God says,
like, you know, he clothes the grass of the field,
like God is concerned even for every little,
you know, piece of grass that's on the field.
God knows what he needs.
And God doesn't care for grass
in comparison to how much he cares for his children.
And you know, when we lack it,
and like, it's natural, like,
it's not that something's something wrong with you.
But it's just part of life.
You know, there's always, you know,
the expectations to provide or to have what you need.
And you know, when that happens,
when you start to be concerned for those things,
you know what that shows you?
You know, that shows me in my life
that we have little faith.
That you know what, this is like,
through the spirit we need to develop in our lives.
We need the Lord to increase the faith in our hearts.
You're in Matthew, come with me to Matthew 8,
Matthew 8, 26.
You know, I hope it's not just me
that says I've got little faith sometimes.
I hope you're able to acknowledge,
I hope, maybe I'm talking to
the most righteous of people here, I don't know.
But I think if you're honest,
sometimes you guys also struggle with a bit of faith,
a little faith, right?
And in Matthew chapter 8, Matthew chapter 8,
thank you brother, Matthew chapter 8, verse number 26.
This is of course when the disciples
are in the ship with Jesus.
They've seen Jesus do amazing miracles.
You know, the storms come
and Jesus Christ is asleep in the ship.
He's asleep, the storms.
We're gonna drown, we're gonna die.
We're gonna die, we're gonna perish in the storms.
And in Matthew 8, 26, and He saith unto them,
why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?
I'm like, what are you talking about Jesus?
I'd be fearful too if I was on the ship.
You know, and it feels like we're going to sink.
You know, I mean like Jesus, we're gonna die.
Like if I was in the ship, you know,
I'm not the strongest of swimmers either.
I'd be a little concerned about my, you know,
where's Jesus, He's asleep.
He's gonna wake up, He's gonna help us.
He's asleep, He's calm.
Jesus is relaxing.
I reckon if I was one of the disciples on the ship,
I'd be like, Jesus, you know, we're gonna perish.
Then it says, then He arose and rebuked the winds
and the sea and there was a great calm.
That's how God, you know,
like in the midst of trials and difficulties,
you feel it's all gonna fall apart
and you're gonna perish.
Where you know what, Jesus just steps in
and just calms it all down, just a moment later.
But it shows our faith.
And again, I'm just being honest.
I know I'm someone that struggles with little faith.
I talk to you guys and you're like, don't worry, pastor,
the Lord's got it in His hands, the Lord knows.
I'm like, yeah, I know that truth,
but it's hard for me to live that truth sometimes,
if that makes sense.
Like I know the truth, I know God is faithful,
but sometimes my faith, man,
Lord increased my faith, really, you know,
is what I ask of God.
Come with me to Matthew 14, Matthew 14, verse number 31.
Matthew 14, 31, this is another story out on the sea.
We know the great miracle that Peter, out of all men,
was able to walk on water for a brief period of time.
Look what faith can do, it can cause you to walk on water.
It's amazing.
But in Matthew 14, verse number 31, it says,
and immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand
and caught him and said unto him,
oh, thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?
Like I look at that story and you guys know it, you know,
but Jesus Christ, I mean, Peter walking on the water,
like I look at that and go, Peter, man,
you must have great faith to be able to walk on water.
But he sees the storms, he sees the waves
and he starts to sink.
Jesus catches him before he drowns
and he calls what's a year of little faith.
I'm like, yeah, but he walked on water.
I mean, Peter's got more faith than what,
I've never walked on water.
But again, the illustration is there.
Sometimes, you know, we set our eyes on Jesus
and we can be increased in faith.
And I think that's the key to a lot of the fruit
of the Spirit here is that obviously we need to be
walking in the Spirit, our eyes must be on eternity,
our eyes must be on serving Jesus Christ.
And when our eyes are on Christ,
we feel like we can achieve, we can do,
we can increase and prioritize the kingdom of God,
but then we get distracted in life.
You know, whatever issues comes up,
there's constant issues, constant problems,
constant fires that we need to put out.
And then we feel like, oh, now we're sinking.
And when that happens, Jesus Christ would say about us,
oh, year of little faith.
Come with me to Matthew 16, Matthew 16.
Oh, thou little faith, he said,
wherefore didst thou doubt?
Do you sometimes have doubt?
I know I do, I'll just be honest.
I know I do.
Lord, are you going to do this?
Are you gonna fulfill this?
Are you gonna answer this?
Are you gonna come through, Lord, you know?
I mean, I shouldn't doubt
because I've seen God's hand in my life
over and over and over again.
Again, I have no doubt of God's faithfulness.
It's just my faith that struggles.
But you know what we've been learning for this series
is that if we wanna increase in these fruits,
the quality of that fruit must come from God.
So if God is faithful, I need his faith in my life.
I need the Holy Spirit to develop God's faith in my life
so I can be properly faithful toward my Lord God.
Look at Matthew 16, verse number six.
Then Jesus said unto them,
take heed and beware of the leaven
of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
The Pharisees and Sadducees, of course,
in this day were anti-Christ, they hated Christ.
You know, they taught salvation by works,
by keeping the law.
And so Christ speaks in this, you know,
illustrative method that their sins,
that their false teaching is like leaven.
You know, if you listen to it, if you accept it,
it's going to breed corruption in your life.
But look how they respond in verse number seven.
And they reason among themselves saying,
is it because we have taken no bread?
Do they understand the words of God?
No, they're taking it literally.
Jesus brought leaven, he mentioned leaven.
Like the Pharisees and the Sadducees have leaven,
they got bread.
He's saying, well, they got bread and we have no bread.
Like they're missing the point completely, right?
And then it says in verse number eight,
which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them,
oh ye of little faith.
Why reason ye among yourselves
because ye have brought no bread?
So we see something else when little faith is in our life.
It affects our understanding of the scriptures.
Did you see that?
Like Jesus Christ is speaking and yeah,
he's speaking in a illustrative cryptic way.
But I think most of us that are here, if we read that,
if we, you know, when we read what Jesus Christ says,
take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees
and the Sadducees, we come to that conclusion
on must be what they teach or what they do,
that Christ is warning about.
But there's topics like they must be talking about bread.
Okay, and why were they strong to understand
the scriptures there?
Cause they had little faith.
And so I just wanna show you just different times
Christ speaks of little faith
and the effects it will have on you.
You create doubts, concerns, worries,
feel like the word's gonna collapse on you.
And even to the point where you open the Bible
and you just struggle to comprehend the words of God.
Now, of course, you know, understanding God's word
is part of development, part of growth.
But we see that as we increase in faith,
we're going to increase in our understanding
of God's word as well.
You're in Matthew, come with me to Matthew eight.
So let's see the opposite times
that Christ speaks of faith.
We've seen the times when Christ speaks of little faith,
little faith.
And then Matthew chapter eight, please.
Matthew chapter eight in verse number 10.
When Jesus heard it,
he marveled and said to them that followed,
verily I say unto you,
I have not found so great faith.
No, not in Israel.
Speaking of the Centurion soldier, you know,
and what's Christ saying about him?
He's got great faith.
I mean, his own disciples at times
are saying you've got little faith.
You know, and this guy's got great faith.
It's really interesting to me that, you know,
there can be different measures of faith
within each one of us.
And again, I'm being honest,
I feel this is an area that I can be better at.
I want to be someone found like with great faith,
if Christ were to walk into the doors,
he'd say, hey, that pastor Kevin's got great faith.
I hope, you know,
I hope the Lord God will work in my heart, you know,
and work in my faith
and my understanding of God's faithfulness
and to bring that into my life.
Come with me to Matthew 15, Matthew 15, verse number 28.
Matthew 15 and verse number 28.
Matthew 15, verse number 28.
Matthew 15, 28.
Then Jesus answered and said unto her,
this is a woman, oh woman, great is thy faith.
Ladies, you too can have great faith.
Jesus Christ looks at this woman.
Great is thy faith.
Be it unto thee even as thou wilt.
And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.
Jesus Christ rewards her great faith
by healing her sick daughter.
So the reason we read through those passages,
I wanna show you that times when Christ says little faith
times Christ says great faith,
which means we can grow in faith, doesn't it?
Like we don't wanna stay as little faith.
And again, I think some of you guys
are actually much better at this area than I am.
Can you come with me to Romans 10,
Romans 10, verse number 17, Romans 10, 17.
I'd like to expand on this idea of faith
some later time, like just develop its own sermon,
just a whole sermon on faith alone and growing in faith.
But I just wanna give you some pointers.
Obviously, we wanna be able to grow in faith, okay?
And I know I'm kind of pulling this out of context,
but then at the same time, I'm kind of not.
Because in Romans 10, 17, you guys know this passage.
So then faith cometh by hearing
and hearing by the word of God.
We know that's about salvation.
We know in order for someone to be saved,
they must hear the word of God.
And as they understand and hear God's word,
that's going to develop faith in their hearts.
But you know that statement is true,
even when you're going from faith to faith.
If we wanna be able to walk and live in faith
and by faith, we must continue to hear the word of God.
And that's where faith comes from.
Why it's important to be at church, to hear, preach.
And it's why it's important for you to open your Bible
and spend time and study, reading, meditation,
asking God to help you understand the scriptures.
So the more you absorb the scriptures,
the greater your faith will be.
Come with me to Matthew 15, Matthew 15.
Sorry, Luke 17, sorry, Luke 17, Luke 17.
So one sure way to increase your faith
is read more Bible, amen?
Hear more Bible, it's gonna grow your faith.
Another way, I love this is easier.
Luke 17, five, Luke 17, five.
And the apostles said unto the Lord, increase our faith.
What's another way that we can increase in faith?
Simply by asking Jesus, going to Jesus in prayer.
Jesus, I know you're faithful.
I know my heavenly father is faithful
and he's been faithful to me, Lord, but I still doubt.
I've seen you answer all these prayers.
I've seen you come through,
but now the problem that I'm facing today, Lord,
I still have doubt, forgive me.
Please increase my faith.
Do you not think God will answer that kind of prayer?
I believe it, I believe he'll answer that prayer
because he wants us to be great in faith.
He wants to help us.
You know, he needs to come by the power of God.
This increase in our faith.
I love how the apostles were able to ask,
increase our faith.
Can you come with me to second Thessalonians chapter one,
second Thessalonians chapter one.
Just the last one on faith
and we'll move on to the next quality.
But second Thessalonians chapter one, verse number three.
Second Thessalonians chapter one, verse number three.
Here's another way for us to grow in faith.
It says, we are bound to thank God always for you,
brethren, as it is meet.
Look at this, because that your faith groweth exceedingly.
Paul is saying about the first Thessalonian church,
guys, your faith is growing.
Not just growing, it's exceedingly growing.
Cause man, it's not just growing.
You're growing at a rapid rate,
your faith toward our Lord God.
And I love what he says,
what else is growing in the church?
And the charity of every one of you,
all toward each other aboundeth.
Cause your love one for another is abounding.
And as they're loving and serving one another,
what else is abounding?
Their faith is growing.
Reverend, another way for us to increase our faith
is to love each other more, to serve each other more.
You know, when we see a need, a situation,
say, Lord, can I fulfill?
Can I help?
Is there something that I can do
to help my brother or my sister?
I can take them to prayer,
but Lord, is there anything that I can do
with the resources you've provided for me?
That's going to increase your faith.
You say, how pastor?
Because when there's someone in our church
who's struggling, and we're able to come together
and help them and pick them up,
and we've seen them cast down,
and now we see them encouraged,
we're able to turn around and say,
Lord, thank you for using us.
Lord, we've seen someone who was despised
or whatever, you know, brought down low,
and now they're walking faithfully once again.
They're encouraged and encourages me
when I can see others do well for you, Lord.
It's going to increase our faith, Lord, you used me.
We prayed about it, Lord, and you used me
to be a help to my brother and sister in the Lord.
These are ways that we can increase our faith.
Let's talk about meekness.
If you can, come with me to Second Corinthians,
Second Corinthians chapter 10.
Second Corinthians chapter 10, meekness, meekness.
We've been going through the book of Revelation.
We're talking about how we're going to rule
and reign with Christ.
And of course, the more works we do for our Lord God,
the greater our reward and our position will be
in the new heavens and the new earth,
and before that, the millennial reign of Christ.
But did you know, and you know this passage,
did you know in Matthew 5, 5, it says,
blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
There's something we really need in our hearts as well,
meekness.
The more meek we are,
the more we're going to inherit the earth.
That's interesting to me.
You know, when you look up the definition for meekness,
it's essentially the definition of being humble and lowly.
Humble and lowly.
Now that doesn't mean that you, you know,
despise yourself or anything like that.
It just means we're the people that we interact with.
We view them higher than ourselves.
That's what it means.
We will lower ourselves.
You know, I've mentioned to you how many times
when I preach, you know, I think of you guys as,
I have to think, right, Lord, these are your people.
This is your sons and these are your daughters.
These are the ones you've saved.
Lord, these are your people.
These are your priests.
These are your kings.
These are the people who's going to rule
and reign with Christ.
Who am I to bring a message from the Lord to them?
That's how I feel.
What am I?
Not that I'm nothing.
I'm a child of God as well, but what an honor.
It gives me a sober mind when I think about the need
to feed people God's word.
I don't want to be lifted up above you,
which is why I don't mind saying to you guys,
I struggle with faith sometimes.
I'm not this amazing, you know, most righteous, you know,
above and beyond you guys.
You know, no, that's not the attitude that I ought to have.
I ought to think of myself.
I need to humble myself.
I need to be lowly, okay?
And sorry, what passage did I ask you to turn to?
Second Corinthians, look at chapter 10.
Second Corinthians chapter 10 and verse number one.
I want you to look at the apostle Paul,
how God was able to use Paul in such a great way.
Like, I don't think any of us would have any doubts
that Paul is going to have a prominent position.
I believe he's going to have a prominent position,
right, in the millennial reign of Christ
in the new heavens and new earth.
But look what he says about himself
in second Corinthians chapter 10, verse number one.
Now I, Paul, myself beseech you
by the meekness and gentleness of Christ.
Now let me stop there for a moment.
You read the Corinthian, you know,
you know how bad the Corinthian church is.
You know how messed up they are.
Boy, our church is doing really well
in comparison to the Corinthian church.
And I'll tell you that, I'll tell you that much.
I mean, Paul says your babes, your carnal.
He says all these things about the church.
I mean, that sins are just running rampant
in the church, it's horrible.
But he says that he comes to them
in meekness and gentleness of Christ.
See, it's the fruit of the spirit, it's of God, okay.
Then he says this, who in presence am base among you.
He says, you know what, among you guys,
even though you're a messed up church,
I come before you, I'm base, I'm lowly.
You know, like he thinks, you know,
he doesn't want to be seen.
The great Paul is just coming around.
Cause no, no, when I'm with you guys face to face,
I just make myself of a lowly base,
you know, reputation as it were, okay.
Then he says, but being absent,
cause he's writing the letter,
but being absent and bold towards you.
Okay, so yeah, you know, he's very strong
in his language as he writes the epistles
of the, you know, first Corinthians and second Corinthians.
You know, he's very strong.
I mean, obviously it's the Holy Spirit of God
stirring in him and having him pen the words
and he is bold and he is strong,
but he says, but when I'm with you guys,
I make myself base lowly.
Okay, you know, and so I just want to show you,
cause I believe Paul, like I said,
he's going to have a great position,
but one thing he definitely had was meekness
and gentleness, which is another fruit of the spirit.
If you can come with me to Matthew chapter 20, please,
Matthew chapter 20,
I'll read to you a few other verses,
but you go to Matthew 20
and I'll read to you a very familiar passage
that I read quite often, Philippians two verse three,
let nothing be done through strife or vainglory,
but in lowliness of mind,
let each esteem other, better than themselves.
Like don't answer this question,
answer it in your heart.
Is that how you view your church family?
They're better than me when I get around them.
I'm going to lower myself.
I'm going to serve them.
I'm going to bless them.
I'm going to encourage them.
Is that your mindset when you come to church?
I don't, you know, I hope it is,
I'm not saying it's not, I just, but you know,
maybe ask the Lord to search your heart.
That's scary.
I sometimes see how David asked God to search his heart
and I'm like, yeah, God, can you search?
Actually, don't worry.
Cause my heart is desperately wicked.
No, but you know, the Lord knows, right?
The Lord really knows ourselves,
knows us better than we know ourselves.
And you know, we ought to think like,
I feel this is an area that I feel strong at.
Like I really look at my church family
and I think you guys are wonderful.
You guys are amazing.
You know, I don't even want to know
every sin you struggle with.
Cause I want to think of you as the best.
I know you struggle with sin.
So do I, okay.
I know you do, but I just,
I don't want to know about every little issue you have.
I want to think of you as great, wonderful Christians,
trying to live the best life, a holy life,
not the best life now, but you know,
the holy life, a righteous life.
But we ought to think others.
It says, but in lowliness of mind,
let us see each other better than ourselves.
Look not every man on his own things,
but every man also on the things of others.
That's the advantage of church.
We can come together.
That's why I like Wednesday nights.
We can bring our prayer requests, okay?
Things that are concerning us,
things that are bothering us.
Look not every man on his own things,
but every man also on the things of others.
Wednesday nights a great time.
Say pastor, I have a need.
Okay, I'm going to think about your need.
We're going to pray about your need.
We're going to go before God's throne of grace
and we're going to bring your need before God.
That's how we can do it one way, surely,
but also as we see our brethren may be heartbroken,
we can encourage them.
If we feel we see them friendless,
we can be a friend unto them.
These are things that we ought to be doing
low in ourselves.
Say pastor, I'm uncomfortable.
I'm a, you know, I'm a, what do you call them?
Not the extrovert, introvert, so am I.
But you still lower yourself and you know what?
Even though I'm introvert,
maybe I don't want to have that many conversations.
I'm going to force myself
because I'm going to steam others better than myself.
I'm going to put my introvert, shy, you know,
insecure insecurities behind me.
It's not about me.
I'm going to make it about others.
That's a great way to show meekness.
I asked you to turn to Matthew 20, didn't I?
Now, before we read Matthew 20,
I just want to read to you about Moses.
I sometimes struggle to even understand this verse
because I think of Moses as this amazing leader.
He was an amazing leader.
He goes into the most powerful nation
before the mighty king Pharaoh
and he demands that God's people be released.
I mean, God's utilizing him as a paradigm,
but boy, that'd be a hard one to do it.
All right.
God sent me to stand before Joe Biden on the White House.
I'm like, Lord, can you just send someone else?
There's plenty of good preachers in America.
Send one of those guys.
And like, he was a great leader.
He was able to lead an entire nation, right?
I mean, but this is what it says in Numbers 12 verse three.
It says, now the man Moses was very meek.
He wasn't just meek.
He's very meek according to God.
Then he says, above all the men,
which were upon the face of the earth.
What a thing for God to say about Moses.
He's saying, the meekest man on the earth was Moses.
Cause sometimes people think meekness means weakness.
A lot of people believe that, oh, I can't lower myself.
You know, I need to be strong and be seen.
No, no, no, no.
You lower yourself.
You make yourself meek.
And then what will God do?
He will lift that man up
and put you into positions of authority.
You better do great work with the man who is meek.
We know the man that is prideful
just destroys themselves.
I mean, the prideful man will get full attention
for a period of time,
but eventually they're going to destroy their life.
The meek man just operates behind the scenes.
And when God is ready,
he's gonna elevate that man to do something great.
I wanna see the Lord God
to do something great in your life.
But you know what?
You need to get that meekness into your spirit.
Like the fruit of the spirit of meekness.
You're in Matthew chapter 20, verse 25,
which goes hand in hand with what we've seen in Moses.
In Matthew chapter 20, 25, it says,
"'But Jesus called them unto him and said,
"'Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles
"'exercise dominion over them,
"'and they that are great exercise authority upon them.'"
Jesus Christ is explaining how the world
receives authority.
How the world, the unsaved, the ungodly world
sees authority.
They see a man of authority as dominion over people.
You know, they see a man of authority
as having serpents under him
that will give him what he wants.
That's how the world sees authority.
Sometimes even amongst God's people,
they want the position of the pastor.
They want the position of a deacon.
They don't wanna lower themselves.
They don't wanna be meek.
They wanna be prideful.
They wanna force the appointments.
The best thing you need to do,
you wanna take on a position of authority
in God's kingdom, you gotta be meek.
Don't copy the Gentile world.
It's for their own pleasure.
That's not how we do it as God's people.
It says in verse 126,
"'But it shall not be so among you.
"'We are not to be like the Gentiles,
"'we're not to be like the unsaved,
"'but whosoever will be great among you,
"'let him be your minister.'"
You wanna be great in the eyes of God,
you lower yourself, humble, lowly, meek.
That's who's great in the eyes of Jesus.
Verse 127, "'And whosoever will be chief among you,
"'let him be your servant.'"
You know, if there's anyone
that wants to be a pastor one day, don't rush.
Be happy to be a servant.
Be happy to be under the authority of a local church.
Be happy to be under the authority of a local pastor.
And just serve Jesus Christ.
Make yourself meek.
View others as better than yourselves.
And then when you meet those qualifications,
and according to God's will,
and you have that desire,
at the right time, just like Moses,
God's going to elevate you into a chief position.
I have, you know,
being a pastor of two churches is not some power trip.
I kind of don't want it.
Like, I'd rather there just be two other men.
Two other great men who can lead forth
new life after church and blessed up after church.
And I'll be right behind you guys.
It's not the position.
It's the service.
It's the ministry.
I don't like standing up here, like in my flesh.
I don't like standing here in front of you guys
and talking to you guys.
It makes me very uncomfortable actually.
Okay, but you know what I love?
I love to serve.
When I'm preaching God's word, I'm feeding you.
I'm not a good cook.
Like, I'm never going to be able to bring you over
for lunch and make you a nice,
I can make pizza now,
but I'm not going to be able to make a nice lasagna.
My wife can do that stuff, but I can't do that.
Like if you invite me to your house and say,
pastor, we're going to have a great meal,
put on the barbecue.
You're serving me as you feed me that food.
You know, that's what for me preaching is.
It's what I can do to help you and grow in the Lord.
I can nourish you.
I can put the potatoes and the peas together
and I cut the onions, you know, and preach your sermon.
Not because I feel great being up here,
but it gives me such pleasure to feed you,
to lower myself, say, Lord,
this is a way that I can serve God's people
here on the sunny coast.
Look at verse number 28.
Even as the son of man came not to be ministered unto,
but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many.
So Jesus Christ is our example.
He didn't come to be served.
Like he didn't come to be ministered to.
He came to this earth to minister.
He laid down his life.
He saved us from our sins.
And that's the example that we ought to live by
as God's people.
In the book of Luke, I'll just read it to you quickly.
Luke 14, 11, it says,
but whosoever exulteth himself shall be abased.
And he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
You know, I'm confident that, again,
I want to be careful because,
but I'm confident if you call any of my old churches,
say, hey, what was that?
What was regular churchgoing Kevin like?
I'm confident my old pastors will say,
hey, it was just a humble, down to earth guy
who loved the church.
And whatever I asked of him, he did it.
I'm pretty confident you're going to get
that kind of answer, okay?
But this is how God wants us to be meek, lowly, okay?
That's not to view yourself in some horrible lights.
No, no, no.
But it's how we view others.
How we view God's people.
How we view our brothers and sisters in this church.
I love you guys.
You know, I want you to do great for God.
I want you to seek his kingdom first
and his righteousness.
I want you guys to develop the fruit of spirit
in your life.
We've looked at faith, meekness.
Let's talk about temperance.
Can we meet to 1 Corinthians chapter nine, temperance?
1 Corinthians chapter nine.
1 Corinthians chapter nine, please.
1 Corinthians chapter nine.
All of these qualities are essential
in our Christian growth.
As I said on Sunday afternoon,
these aren't the sermons that will ever
get all the clicks and the views,
but it's so essential to our life.
It's so foundational.
Having the fruit of the spirit develop in our lives.
It says in 1 Corinthians 9.25,
and every man that strived for the mastery
is temperate in all things.
You want to strive for the mastery.
You want to get good at everything that you do in life.
You want to be productive at everything you touch.
You want to see God's blessing in your life.
Everything that you do,
you must be temperate in all things.
It says, now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown,
but we're an incorruptible.
We know that we're on a race.
We're running for Jesus Christ,
but in order for us to run the race,
we must be temperate, okay?
What's the definition of temperance?
Self restraint, self control.
To temper is to assess or to measure.
To assess or to measure,
think about when you're taking someone's temperature,
like you might have a child who's got a fever,
you take their temperature,
you're assessing their condition, aren't you?
So yeah, temperance is being a temperate person
means to be a measured person, okay?
So other similar Bible words
is kind of like moderate or moderation,
moderation, temperance, kind of similar,
because remember the race that we're running
is a marathon race, okay?
It's not a sprint.
You know, if you're running a sprint,
you don't need to be temperate.
You just have to give it all at once, you know?
Give it all for the 100 meters and you're done, okay?
But that's not really how we are
to live our Christian life.
We're meant to measure.
We're meant to be temperate in all things.
Assess, how much can I give right now?
Can I speed up?
Yes, I can.
Maybe I need to slow down, I'm getting burnt out.
We need to be able to measure
how we're doing in life.
And one thing that I've learned in my life
is that sometimes I can run hard for the Lord
and sometimes I have to slow down.
People say, when you slow down, you're backsliding.
No, no, no, no, no, you're just slowing down.
You're still taking one step at a time.
You're still running that race.
It's just that you gotta be temperate.
Sometimes you can go hard.
Sometimes you gotta slow it down.
But what you don't wanna do is go backwards
or get off the race, okay?
That would be disaster.
And of course, your life's gonna throw
different situations and different times,
different requirements, and that's going to
affect how you run the race.
But you must be temperate in all things
in order for you to strive for the mastery.
If you can come with me to, let's see,
come with me to Proverbs 25.
Come with me to Proverbs 25, please.
Proverbs 25 in verse number 28.
Temperance is like self-control, very much, right?
Self-restraint.
And we ought to be people that are in control
of our decisions, in control of our feelings,
our emotions.
And I love this passage here in Proverbs 25, 28.
It says, he that hath no rule, or no control,
no self-control, he that hath no rule
over his own spirit is like a city
that is broken down and without walls.
You know, if you don't temper,
if you don't have self-restraint,
if you don't have self-control,
your life will be broken down.
You're gonna have a broken down family.
You're gonna have broken down finances.
You're gonna have a broken down reputation.
You're gonna have a broken down productivity,
efficiency in the things that you do in life.
It also mentioned a city that is broken down
without walls.
If a city is without walls, it's easy for the attack.
You've got no strength, you've got no defense.
You will easily cave into sins
as soon as you've been tempted.
You got no walls, you got no protection.
And you'll be easily influenced by this wicked world.
A city with no walls will be captured so easily.
Brethren, temperance is so key.
Self-control, self-restraint, okay?
Running a marathon, reminding ourselves
when we can go hard and when we need to slow down.
Coming into another passage,
2 Peter 1 please, 2 Peter 1.
2 Peter 1 and verse number 5.
2 Peter 1 verse number 5.
And I want to be careful what I say here
because I don't want to offend.
But I feel like our church is a very knowledgeable church.
When I talk to most people,
you guys have a very good grasp of the Bible.
Very good grasp of doctrines.
And I think it's wonderful, don't get me wrong.
I think it's wonderful, okay?
But I want you to notice what it says
in 2 Peter 1 verse number 5.
2 Peter chapter 1 verse number 5.
And beside this, given all diligence,
add to your faith virtue.
So we're saved by faith.
We have faith, we trust in Christ, okay?
Now he says, I want you to add virtue.
We want to add virtue right now.
And to virtue, knowledge.
So these are things that we're gonna continue
to add in our life, right?
Like I said, I believe we have a lot of knowledge
in this church.
These are great qualities to have, okay?
But did you notice in verse number 6,
there's something even greater than knowledge?
And to knowledge, temperance.
This is like, you know, going from babe to full maturity
as we grow in the Lord.
Say, man, we got great knowledge.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we do.
But do you notice that it's kind of lower in this list?
I'm not saying we don't need knowledge,
or we should have knowledge.
We shouldn't be stupid people.
But as we continue to grow,
we need to add things that are of greater value.
We've got the knowledge, great, add temperance.
And to temperance, what do we need to add?
Patience, it's another fruit of the Spirit.
And to patience, godliness.
And to godliness, brotherly kindness.
And to brotherly kindness, charity.
Charity is top of the list.
Love.
That's top of the list.
You know, if someone comes into our church
and says, pastor, your church is full of knowledge,
knowledgeable people, I'll say, amen, praise God for that.
But I'd much rather them say,
pastor, your church is full of charity.
Your church is full of love.
Your church is full of brotherly kindness.
Your church is full of godliness.
Your church is full of patience.
Temperance, I want to show you temperance
where that is on the list.
But let's not think that we're everything
and so great, because we've got knowledge.
Because there's so many more qualities
that we need to have.
So many things that we need to, temperance.
Do we have that self-control?
Do we have that self-restraint?
We know the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 8, 1,
knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifyeth.
Knowledge puffeth up.
Knowledge makes us prideful,
when we're meant to be meek.
But charity edifyeth.
If I want you to be edified,
I want you to grow, I want you to walk away
Wednesday night and say, oh man, I feel encouraged.
Yeah, knowledge pays a part, don't get me wrong.
I think I've given you knowledge today.
But more so, I want you to say, hey,
my pastor loves me.
I want that.
I want people to say, hey, brother so-and-so,
sister, they love me.
They prayed for me.
They sought my needs.
They asked me how my week was.
They asked me about my problem that I had last week.
They've asked me if it's been resolved.
And when it's not been resolved,
they'll say, don't worry, brother.
Love you, I'll be praying for you.
I'll remember that in prayer during this week.
Lord's gonna come through.
You know, don't be of little faith, be of great faith.
That's so much more valuable,
so much higher on the list of achievements
that I want to have in our church.
Don't get me wrong, I love the knowledge.
Okay, but add, let's add to it now.
Let's make sure we can get to the point
where we have the temperance
and we get to the point where we have the charity.
I'm not saying we don't, okay?
I'm not saying we have all these qualities,
but I want you to understand what is the highest thing
on the list that God lays out, okay?
Come with me to Ephesians chapter four, last passage.
Ephesians chapter four.
So this is the fruit of the Spirit, part four.
Faith, meekness, temperance.
Just in conclusion, you turn to Ephesians chapter four,
and I want to read to you from 1 Thessalonians 5, 19,
very short one, it says, quench not the Spirit.
Quench, prevent, stop not,
don't stop the Holy Spirit working in your life.
If there's a Bible verse that says quench not the Spirit,
you know what that tells me?
We quench the Spirit.
If we want to develop the fruit of the Spirit,
we can't quench the work of the Holy Spirit
in our lives.
Don't quench it.
How do we quench it when we walk in the flesh?
When we know we ought to strive for the masteries,
and we say, no, Lord, I'm just, I can't do it.
It's about me, you know,
I put myself first before I put others first.
We quench the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.
It can be done.
The other in Ephesians chapter four, verse number 22.
You guys know the struggle that we all have
during Ephesians four, 22.
It says that ye put off concerning the former conversation,
the old man, which is corrupt
according to the deceitful lusts.
You know, brethren, there's a part of you
that is corrupt.
It has deceitful lusts.
It's your flesh, it's the old man.
You have it.
Every day you battle with this old man.
It's there, just can't disappear, can it?
But look at the instruction, verse number 23.
And be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
and that ye put on the new man,
which after God is created,
after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
The new man is created after God,
the qualities that God has,
the qualities that the Holy Spirit has,
the fruit of the spirits can only be lived by,
can only be had by living and putting on the new man.
You say, how do I do it, pastor?
It's hard, it's a battle.
Right, you know, our flesh lusts up against the spirits,
and the spirit against the flesh.
What battle is easy?
Battles are not easy.
And the battle between the old man and new man
is not an easy one.
And I know that I can't win it in my own flesh.
So when I wanna walk in the spirit,
when I wanna do something great for God,
when I wanna preach a great sermon,
I say, Lord, get rid of that old man, please.
Please, Lord, I don't want it to interfere with tonight.
I don't want that old man to interfere
with the preaching of your word.
Lord, please help me to walk in your new man.
Help me to walk in your spirit.
Lord, help me not to quench your spirit.
Do a work in my heart.
Do a work in my church.
And then the Lord gives me the ability,
because I don't like to preach.
I don't like to stand here and talk to you.
I'm embarrassed.
It gives me anxiety.
It gives me insecurities.
I don't like it.
You say, how do you do it, pastor?
The new man.
The work of the spirits.
And then at the end of the service,
I just wanna run off and hide.
The old man's like, hey, you've done too much.
Now, brethren, the fruit of the spirit part four.
We are to renew the spirit of our minds.
We need to seek the Lord God with our hearts.
Lord, bring forth these fruits,
this fruit of the spirit in my life.
Help me to walk in your new man
and not to quench the Holy Spirit of God.
Let's pray.