Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Welcome to Pure Words Baptist Church.
If you would, go ahead and grab your hymnal and turn to our first hymn this morning.
Hymn number 20,
When I See the Blood.
Hymn number 22-0,
When I See the Blood.
Hymn number 22-0,
we'll sing there starting on that first verse.
Let's sing.
Christ our Redeemer
died on the cross
died for the sinner
paid all his due
all who receive him
need never fear
yes he will pass
will pass
over you
when I
see the blood
when I
see the blood
when I
see the blood
when I
see the blood
I will pass
over you
cheapest of sinners
Jesus
can save
as he has promised
so will he do
oh sinner
hear him
trust in his word
then he will pass
will pass
over you
when I
see the blood
when I
see the blood
when I
see the blood
I will pass
over you
judgment
is coming
all will be there
who have rejected
who have refused
oh sinner
hasten
let Jesus
sin
then God will pass
will pass
over you
when I
see the blood
when I
see the blood
when I
see the blood
when I
see the blood
I will pass
over you
oh what
compassion
oh boundless love
Jesus
have power
Jesus is true
all who believe
are saved
from the storm
oh he will pass
will pass
over you
when I
see the blood
when I
see the blood
when I
see the blood
when I
see the blood
I will pass
over you
Amen.
Brother Jeff would you open us in a word of prayer this morning?
Amen.
For the next hymn this morning turn if you would to
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to us. He gives the keeping of the lights along the shore. Let the lower lights be burning.
Send a gleam across the wave. Some forbading, struggling seamen. You may rescue, you may save.
Dark the night, upset as settled. Loud the angry billows roar. Eager eyes are watching, longing
for the lights along the shore. Let the lower lights be burning. Send a gleam across the wave.
Some forbading, struggling seamen. You may rescue, you may save.
Rim your feet, we'll lamp my brother. Some forsake, blurt samples. Trying how to make the harbor in the darkness may be lost.
Let the lower lights be burning. Send a gleam across the wave. Some forbading, struggling seamen.
You may rescue, you may save. Amen. As the offering plates being passed around, please turn if you
would to First Corinthians chapter number 13. First Corinthians chapter 13. Brother Samson will read
that chapter for us this morning. Okay, First Corinthians chapter number 13. We'll read this
chapter together as we always do and we'll start right here if you'll follow along with me. First
Corinthians chapter 13 and verse 1 where the Bible reads, so I speak with the tongues of men and of
angels and have not charity. I am becoming a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Though I have
the gift of prophecy and understand all mystery and all knowledge, though I have all faith so that I
could remove mountains and have not charity, I am nothing. Though I bestow all my goods to be the poor
and though I give my body to be to be burned and have not charity, it profited me nothing.
Charity suffers long and is kind. Charity envieth not. Charity bonneth not itself,
not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly, thicketh not her own, is not easily provoked,
thinketh no evil. Rejoice not in iniquity but rejoice in the truth. Beareth all things,
believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never fail it,
but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease.
Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child,
but when I became a man, put away childish things. For now we see through a glass darkly,
but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known.
And now abideth faith, hope, charity. These three are the greatest of these is charity.
Amen. We're in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, and it's a really famous portion of scripture
dealing with charity. And the way I describe charity is being a true love,
as being a sincere love, a genuine love, and a love for that which is holy and righteous.
And the word charity is mentioned several times throughout this passage. It actually defines
charity. And I want to use the synonym love for the title of my sermon, but we learn a few things
in this chapter about love specifically and about charity that is not convenient. And the title of
my sermon this morning is love is not convenient. Love is not convenient. I want to look back at
verse number four. The Bible reads, charity suffereth long and is kind. Charity envieth not.
Charity vanteth not itself, is not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly,
seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil. Now when we think about
loving someone, what we have to do is we always have to balance the word of God. And so
it's not that this is the only emotions that are acceptable. It's not that charity is the only
right emotion in every single situation. The Bible tells us in Ecclesiastes there's a time
to love and a time to hate. Now if you're hating something, it's not going to exhibit any of these
attributes or characteristics. But if you're loving someone, it will have all of these
characteristics. So basically it's saying when you're going to actually love something, when
you're going to actually love someone, what does love actually look like? Well, love would have
to be described as what we see here in this passage. So if someone were to say, I love so
and so, or I love this, you know, I love my church, I love my spouse, I love my children,
I love my country, I love whatever it is that they love. They love their truck, you know,
they love their guns, they love whatever it is that they have a love for, then these characteristics
would be shown to prove that's actually the emotions and the feelings and the characteristics
that they truly have. And if you really have love for something, that love is not going to be
convenient. Now again, I'm slowing down for a second just to kind of explain these words so
that we can speed up through the sermon. But convenience, what is convenient or convenience?
According to the dictionary, it's suited to personal comfort or easy performance. So basically
have two descriptions there. It's comfortable, it's easy, right? If you said something's
convenient, it's really easy to do. If it's convenient, it's really comfortable, I mean,
you like it, it's not something that's disfavorable to you. It's not really hard,
it's easy. It's not really difficult or frustrating or something you don't like,
it's something you do like, it's comfortable, okay? So eating chocolate, that's convenience,
you know, because it's really comforting and it's really easy, you know. Eating, you know,
vegetables as a child is not as convenient, right? Because it's not as comfortable,
not as easy. So you kind of just, when we think about love being not convenient or love is not
convenient, what we have to understand is that it's going to be the opposite of something that's
easy, it's going to be something that's hard. And so that's point one that I have this morning is
that love being not convenient or love is not convenient because it's hard, okay? It's hard to
love anything, all right? Now, look at verse five again where it says this,
is not easily provoked. That's not easy, that's hard. Easily being provoked is natural. It's
something that everybody kind of tends to gravitate towards, it's something that would
happen very often. But we get an example from Jesus Christ throughout the Bible that he was not
easily provoked. Go if you want to mark chapter number 10 for him, I'm not going to mark chapter
10. And we'll kind of flip back to verse 13, but you don't have to necessarily keep a finger there.
Go to Mark chapter number 10, Matthew says in Mark chapter 10, look at verse number 17.
And when he was gone forth into the way, talking of Jesus, there came one running and kneeled
to him and asked him, good master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?
Jesus said unto him, why callest thou me good? There is none good but one that is God.
Thou knowest the commandments, do not commit adultery, do not steal or do not kill, do not
steal, do not bear false witness, defraud not, honor thy father and mother. And he answered and
said unto them, master, all these have I observed from my youth. Now let's stop for a second, okay?
First of all, he comes up and he gives him a quantifier to his title.
It's good master, you know? And Jesus kind of gives him a two-part answer because he calls him
good master and then he asks, what do I have to do to inherit eternal life? First, Jesus addresses
the fact that he called him good. And he says, there's no one that's good except for God,
okay? And then he answers his question, basically keep all of the commandments, right?
Well, then in verse 20, he drops the title now, he no longer calls him good, he just calls him
master. Now think about what he's saying. He's saying, well, you're not good then and you're
not God. Wouldn't that be a little insulting if you're actually God and you're actually good?
I mean, you just say, hey, why are you calling me good? Do you believe I'm God? And it's like,
oh no, not at all. That would be something that Jesus could get frustrated with, right? Or he
could be provoked by this guy's answer or the way that he addressed him. How about the second part
of his answer? All these have I observed from my youth. Now, do you think Jesus believes them?
Does anybody believe you? No. Wouldn't that also possibly trigger you? I mean, imagine you walk up
to somebody and they're like, I've never sinned. You'd be like, you've sinned, come on, don't be
lying to me. Don't disrespect me like that. Don't tell me that you've never done anything wrong or
whatever. And isn't it kind of disrespectful when your parents catch the kid and they know
you did wrong and they ask you and you just lie about it? Did you eat the cookies and they're
like crumbs all over their face? They're like, no, I didn't eat it. And it's just like, yes,
you did. It makes you kind of get a little bit more angry. You could be provoked to be a little
bit more upset. What is Jesus' response though? Look at verse 21. Then Jesus, beholding him,
loved him. Notice Jesus didn't get easily provoked in this situation. In fact, what does the Bible
say? Loved him. Meaning that it's not easy to go ahead and love someone even when they've been
disrespectful, even when they've said something to you that's a lie. I mean, someone that's lying
to you and being disrespectful to you, that's a situation where most people end up getting
provoked. Okay? But Jesus did not get provoked. He loved him, didn't he? He was willing to still
talk to him. And you know, when we go out soul winning or we go out talking to people or you
run into daily interactions, people are going to be rude to you. People are going to be
disrespectful to you. Sometimes people are even going to lie to you. And your first response
should not be to just get irate and angry and mad at the person, but rather to try and love them
and say, how do I love someone that did that to me? Just don't get provoked.
Just still treat them with kindness and meekness. Now, it's not saying that it couldn't get to a
point where you would end up being angry with the person or, you know, rebuke the person or
approve. But you know, this is like one sentence. I mean, this is just like, this is the beginning
of the conversation. You know, it's kind of like that guy at the workplace. You never want to,
you know, say anything negative to him because he just blows his top or he just gets really mad
really quick or whatever. You know, that guy's not a very loving person. And someone that you
truly love, someone that you really have a lot of care for, you would want to give them lots
of opportunities to fix a problem or you'd want to give them a lot of grace, you'd want to give
them a lot of, you'd suffer with them a little bit more than someone that you're not, you're
already kind of like on edge with, right? I mean, there's some people that you just kind of don't
like at all. So if they say anything, you're just going to jump down their throat. But it's like,
if this is someone you truly love, wouldn't you give them some grace? Wouldn't you, you know,
not necessarily hold their feet to the fire on every single comment on every single thing that
they say. So if you went to Titus chapter number one, Titus chapter number one, you know, some
people, they simply just walk around angry all day. They basically are just upset about everything,
just anything and everything they can be upset with. And look, this world has a lot to be upset
with. I mean, if you want to be provoked, you can be provoked, you know, as we call it in modern
vernacular triggered, right? People get triggered by everything. And in fact, most of the time,
in our current culture, it feels like people are being triggered or provoked by something that
wasn't even trying to provoke them or trying to trigger them. It was even maybe being nice or
being kind, it just triggers people because they can't handle it. They can't handle people
being nice to them talk. They just can't handle human interaction, because all their interactions
are just on an iPhone or, you know, on a computer or just an ice, they're in isolation a lot,
or they're not used to people looking at their face or, you know, dealing with human emotions
or anything. I mean, people have just gotten to a point where they have low level of social skills,
because of COVID restrictions, our society, people not going to churches and interacting with lots
of people. I mean, there's been a lot more isolation in the last few decades than ever
before. It used to be you'd have a lot of human interaction, you're talking to a lot of people,
you're going and see a lot of people with cell phones, and with all these other devices,
it's created it where people have so many different communications that are not in person.
I mean, think about it before cell phones, if you wanted to talk to somebody, I mean,
you had to like literally walk up to them and talk to them, you couldn't just call them from afar.
So it delayed a lot of conversations. It, you know, obviously, communications have increased
because of cell phones, a lot of things advanced quicker, but it also has changed the social
dynamic. And because people are not interacting on a regular basis, because people don't have as
good as social skills, because of, you know, a lot of different certain factors, you have to be
a little bit more loving towards people. So as to not get angry at every single interaction,
because most people don't have social IQ anymore. Most people don't know how to look someone in the
eye. And it's to talk with a good tone or a good manner or, you know, a lot of people are just
upset before they even start a conversation. And because of their emotion, it'll often dictate
your emotion. If someone comes up to you and is already like, what do you want? What your normal
reactions kind of like, why are you talking to me like that? You know, what's your problem, buddy?
You know, and it just is basically just ready to just like fight, you know, and ready to kind of
just come to you. But the Bible says a soft answer turn to the way wrath. And at the end of the day,
we should realize that just as much as they can change and affect our emotional state,
we can change and affect other people's emotional state as well. Someone comes to me angry,
and I treat them with love and kindness and respect, and I'm being neat towards this person,
it can often diffuse a situation, it can help them react more naturally. And the Bible even
literally commands that certain people have these type of emotions. Look at Titus chapter one,
this isn't the qualifications of a pastor, but you know, it's really for every man says in verse
seven for a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God, not self will notice this phrase,
not soon angry, not soon angry. Now again, the Bible is not saying that anger or being angry
is wrong. There is a time and a place to be. You know, the Bible says be angry and sin not. So
obviously, God wouldn't command you. Be angry, you know, it's like that would be weird if you're
never allowed to be angry, right? You can be angry, but God wants to make sure when you are
angry, you don't sin. And why would he couple those two things? Because whenever you're already
angry, it's even easier to sin. It's even easier to do something that's wrong, to hurt someone's
feelings to say something foolish to do something rash. Basically, anger puts you in a bad state
to where you could end up doing something that you don't really want to, you know, it really
messes with your mind, it messes with your, the way you speak and everything else. That's why
it's better oftentimes when you are angry, to try and, you know, get away from the situation,
allow yourself some time to think, right to, you know, basically diffuse the situation,
you don't want to make a lot of decisions while you're angry. And basically, this is how I
identify when anger is appropriate. It's when you've given space to the situation. You really
thought about giving the person or the situation all the benefit of the doubt. You've had some
time to think about it. And then you're still like, nope, that still makes me angry. Okay,
we'll be an example of this. How about false doctrine? You know, I can, if someone preaches
damnable heresy, I can remove myself and say, okay, I was angry today, because of this guy
preaching false doctrine. And then the next day, still angry about it. And then the next day,
still angry about it. And then I think like, well, what if that person was my family member,
still angry about it? Like, I try to give the person all the benefit of the doubt. I try to
think about all the situation, I say, you know what, false doctrine just still makes me angry,
you know, because it's wicked, because it's damning people's souls to hell. And you know
what, I'm not going to be respected or a person about it. So there's a righteous anger, being
angry at false doctrine, you know, being angry at violent criminals, you know, that should,
you know, inspire the right emotion on a regular basis, you know, someone that's hurting children,
or someone that's abusing women, you know, like a rapist or something. I mean, it doesn't matter
how many days you're removed from the situation, I'm gonna have the same feeling towards that
particular person. Okay. Whereas if someone cuts me off in traffic, or whatever, okay,
if I just think about it, the next day, I won't even remember. And I'll probably, I'll start
fading on all the details, the color of the car and whatever. And I start thinking,
and then I cut out in front of someone later. And I'm thinking like, well, I did the same thing
that guy did. So you know, maybe I should cut him a break, you know, like, you start kind of
realizing like, okay, we all screw up a little bit, we all have problems, it's probably not good
to just, you know, ram him, you know, ram him on the side with my truck or whatever, whenever
they cut me off, you know, it's probably best not to, you know, throw stuff at them out the
window or whatever. That would have been a bad decision when I was angry. So we have to be
careful to realize that, you know, it's really God's will that we would not get angry quickly,
go to Proverbs chapter 14, Proverbs chapter 14. In fact, a pastor is one who cannot be someone
who gets quick angry, or gets angry quick. And I think some people get they get confused,
because they'll think like, Oh, man, I see this pastor, and he's preaching all these sermons,
and he's really angry. Yeah, but here's the thing, when you're preaching the Word of God,
most of the time, you're attacking false doctrine, you're attacking false prophets and stuff like
that. So there's going to be a lot of anger, you know, righteous anger that's situated with
preaching. But just because someone preaches against a lot of sin and shows a lot of righteous
anger in their preaching doesn't mean on their daily basis that they're a person like that. And
I think some people don't understand the disconnect there. They're disconnected in their mind.
They think that a preacher that's really angry about sin just walks around just yelling at people
and just ready to flip a switch and just mean spirited or something like that. Whereas the
opposite should be true. You know, really a preacher or pastor and a lot of people that I know
that are really great preachers, they preach really hard on sin. If you met this person in
real life, you would never think they were angry for a second. They're like the happiest people
you've ever met. They're very kind. They're very gracious. And I've seen people disrespect them
to their face. I've seen people say all kinds of stupid things in front of them, treating them like
garbage or whatever. And they're still nice and meek and loving towards that person. And that's
the right way to respond. But you know, when a person gets up to preach the Bible, it's not time
to give grace under false doctrine. You know, it's not a time to give grace and to sin and to
false prophets and all these different situations. Otherwise, no one would ever get right.
Oh, I know you guys a bunch of sinners. You're trying. Let's go out and eat some lunch. You know,
don't worry about it. You know, you don't have any problems. Don't worry about problems. We
all got problems. Now, obviously, we want to point out the issues of our life and the areas
where we can improve and constantly get better. And as a pastor is supposed to have those
attributes, those attributes are really just attributes of a good Christian. It's not like,
well, the pastor is not supposed to get angry quickly. Well, I can because I'm not really a
pastor. You know, no, it's saying that this is the attributes of a good Christian. And we only want
to put a good Christian in the position of leadership, essentially. So every man should
be in the same category as being the husband of one wife and having faithful children and not
being accused of, you know, your kids being accused of rioting unruly that, you know, you're
not soon angry. These all these attributes should be the attributes that every man is striving for
to the best of their ability. Look at Proverbs chapter 14 verse 17.
He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly and a man of wicked devices is hated. So notice the Bible
says when you're soon angry, meaning you just, you just get hot, you just get frustrated about
everything very quickly. You're going to make a lot of decisions that are foolish and that you're
very frustrated with. And ultimately it shows a lack of love because the more loving you are
towards individuals, the more you're not going to easily be provoked. We already read that in
1 Corinthians chapter number 13. Charity is not easily provoked, meaning that if you really love
the person, if you really have a lot of, you know, strong feelings towards someone, you're not going
to just let everything that they do frustrate you. You're not going to let every single interaction
and every single issue and every single grievance. You can still be a very mild mannered person.
You can still have, uh, you know, have a normal emotional state, even when things are going badly.
So you have to test yourself. You have to think, do I get frustrated with everything?
Because if you're getting frustrated with everything, with every interaction, if someone
does something wrong to you or says something crossword, does that trigger emotional response
to you? Or can you just be like, you know what, maybe they're having a bad day. And in fact, thinking
like how can I help this person rather than making sure that they never disrespect me ever again or
making sure that they never do anything wrong. And so sometimes you, you give a lot of people grace.
Now there comes a breaking point, go to Proverbs 21, go to Proverbs 21. And obviously when it comes
to positions of authority, you know, you can't necessarily always tolerate certain attributes
and certain attitudes. Uh, you know, if you're in the workplace, you can't really just as a boss,
just let your employees just, you know, run amok and you can't let them just mouth off to you or
whatever. But just because an employee does that doesn't mean that you have to then retaliate.
Essentially, if an employee is out of line, you could just sternly and nicely say, look,
that's not appropriate. Don't say that. Oftentimes what I typically do, which is a fault of mine,
is I usually just blow it off. I just say, don't worry about it. Not a big deal. Just move on.
Even though it really is kind of a big deal, you know, and I'm just trying to give the person grace
and then they end up thinking like that's appropriate or that's okay to end up being
disrespectful just because you're really kind and really merciful about it. But you can get
to a point where you're basically disrespecting the position you have. You have to at least lay
down the law. You know, with your children, you can't just let them, you know, talk smack
and just get disrespectful to you on a regular basis. Otherwise that's going to become a new
habit of theirs. That doesn't mean that you have to then, you know, yell back at them or smack
them around or you can, you know, appropriately discipline them, you know, tell them, look,
that's not what you should say. Don't talk to me like that. If you talk to me like that again,
you're going to be disciplined, you know, in whatever way you guys deem appropriate,
you know, typically the rod of correction. All right. That's how you'd want to apply that.
But you don't have to then yell back or be rude back or be mean back and everything like that.
You want to approach the situation being calm. You want, we just want to be calm people.
You know, we want to be meek people. We want to be people that, you know, we're not going to just
get angry about everything. And what will end up happening is if you're a pretty calm person,
if you're a pretty even killed person on a regular basis and people know that about you,
they know that someone could do something and you'll still be calm about it. When you finally
do get angry, people will be like, whoa, okay, this is serious. You know, they'll actually
respect your anger a lot more than when you're angry every day. Then basically when you're upset
with everything, you know, in your relationship, you know, if you're upset with your spouse every
single day, it really starts to cheapen your anger. It really tries to cheapen your frustration to the
point where they're just like, well, you get frustrated at everything. I put a little too
much salt on the food, you know, or like you just do some minor thing that really rubs them the
wrong way. You left the door open or, you know, you left the clothes over here or something.
If that turns into a scream fight, you know, then what happens when you actually do something
serious? You know, what happens when you actually then, then there's no real gauge on how to
interact with the person and everything. And look, we've all made these mistakes, okay. In marriage,
we all act irrationally at times, we all have points of contention that were not really valid
that we have to work on and improve. But we don't want to create that as just a habit forever,
we want to work on this thing. And we want to become more loving. And by being more loving,
you're going to not be easily provoked. And what did I say at the beginning? It's not easy,
it's hard. What I'm saying is not like automatic. It's not something that just like, well, I just
never do this or have this problem. No, we probably all do to some degree. And we all
have to constantly work at it and put effort and energy and try to love the people in our lives
that we appreciate, so that we are not just constantly provoked by everything they do that's
wrong. Proverbs 21, look at verse 19. It is better to dwell in the wilderness than with a
contentious and an angry woman. You know, you just don't want to be married to a spouse that's angry
all the time. It's just frustrating, difficult, stressful. You know, we have to work on our anger
and you know, praise the Lord, that God is not like this with us. Because think about how many
grievances we have on a daily basis, right? I mean, the thought of foolishness is sin,
according to the Word of God. I mean, the things we look at, say, think, do. I mean,
we're sinning so much on a daily basis. I'm glad that God's not just throwing lightning bolts down
from heaven. I mean, for everything that we do, or getting really angry with us for everything
that we do. You know, God's a really gracious ruler, authoritarian in our lives. He obviously
allows us to screw up a lot. And he still shows us a lot of long suffering, you know,
grace. That's because his love is greater than our love. And it's much more difficult
love and characteristic for us to grow into go to Ecclesiastes chapter number seven, Ecclesiastes
chapter number seven. But I'll tell you this, you want to fix your marriage, fix you getting angry.
I mean, really, that's a huge, huge area that people are constantly dealing with is being angry
with their spouse. And here's the thing, if you're angry with your spouse every day,
you probably are easily provoked. I mean, obviously, you could have just a really crappy
spouse, okay, we all get that. But at the end of the day, if they're crappy every day, then it
shouldn't surprise you. At this point, you should get used to it enough to say, well, I'm just not
going to get provoked by it every single day, then, right? You know, you have to just live in
reality, you know, whatever reality you're set in, you know, if you work at a company, and your
company is asking you to do some tasks every day that you don't like, then you need to learn to
just be just accepted, right? Because you don't want to just go to work and just be angry every
day, oh, I have to do that again. Oh, I have to load boxes up there again, or Oh, I have to drive
the truck over here again, or, you know, whatever it is that you have on a daily basis, you know,
you need to learn how to just kind of accept the tasks and the job duties. You know, it's called
work. It's not called fun. You know, I think some people are confused about, you know, a job,
jobs, you know, they try to really sell people, especially kids, I feel like there's been a big
detriment to our society. But in public school, as you grow up, they're always like, be really
careful what you what job you get, because you want to enjoy it. You want to have fun. And I'm
thinking like, I'm not working to have fun. I'm not working to enjoy it. You know, the only people
that even theoretically get those positions are like your sports athletes or something like that.
But even then, a lot of them, it's like a drudgery to them, they have to go and, you know, perform,
and they're just kind of like doing, I mean, Colin Kaepernick says like slavery, you know, so
and he obviously knows what slavery is like getting paid, you know,
10s of millions of dollars to be a star, and basically suck at your job. But I mean,
at the end of the day, you know, most of us are going to have to get a job and it's going to be
work, meaning you don't enjoy it. You know, that's the whole reason they're paying you. You know,
what I liked about my job is that I got paid. I didn't have to, you know, and look, obviously,
some jobs are better than others. I'm not trying to say, you know, that you shouldn't even think
about that. But I'll be honest, you know, to me, it was more important that I was going to get off
on time and have time with my family. And when I was paid, what I was doing was way, way lower on
the scale. Like, it's like, I could do a lot of jobs that aren't that much fun, or, you know,
they're frustrating or whatever, as long as I'm getting to see my family, you know, on a regular
basis and I'm getting paid good, it's like, sign me up. You know, why do people do certain jobs
because of the pay? And why do people not do certain jobs because of the pay, right? I mean,
you know, it was cleaning toilets. It's like, no one wants to clean toilets. But I guarantee if
they're paying 100 grand and you only had to work 35 hours a week, everyone would want to clean
toilets. You know, because it doesn't really matter, you know, as much, you'd buy like nice
gloves and some goggles or whatever, and you'd just be like, I'm going to clean them toilets,
you know, and it's going to be a good job. It's like, why does no one want to clean toilets?
Because they're going to pay you minimum wage to clean the toilet. And you're just thinking like,
I don't want that job. But even if you did have that job, you just suck it up and you just say,
you know what? This is my life right now. This is the day that the Lord has made. I'm going to
rejoice and be glad in it. You know, I'm not just going to let everything get me mad because I'll be
honest, if I wanted to, I think I could be mad about everything, you know, be mad about COVID
and be mad about all the restrictions and be mad about, you know, just the fact that Houston has
been like deteriorating every year as far as like the government is obviously not putting any money
back into the community. I mean, drive up and down every street is filled potholes and trash
and dirty filth and all kinds of stuff. It's like, where are all the workers to clean up all
the streets and everything? I don't think our taxes went down. They keep going up, right?
Why aren't they investing money back into the community? Oh, because they're just lining their
pockets. That's why. And you know, you see the government is getting more and more corrupt,
just lining their pockets, not investing money back into the community, not even doing the job
they're actually hired to do, which is to responsibly take the budget and put it into
projects that are going to better the community. All they do is better their own pocket and pay
off their constituents and do all these bribes and everything else. And it's that's frustrating
to me. Why would I want to have a city where our churches or area and think that they're not going
to invest back in the community, they're destroying our community, you know, the lies on TV? How can
that not frustrate somebody? I mean, just every just constant just lies and propaganda in this
world just hook, line and sinker. You know, a lot of people are like, Oh, I'm woke. And it's like,
not really. I mean, let's start talking about a few different issues. And then you start
realizing nobody, they believe a lot of the propaganda, you know, a lot of people are just,
you know, being led to the slaughter by these evil, wicked corporations, which are ultimately
just led by the devil at the end of the day. There's a lot of things I can be really frustrated
with in my life. But I want to choose to be happy. I don't want to be easily provoked about things.
I want to I want like, the whole world to be crashing around me and still be like,
it's fine. You know, think about job. I mean, this guy has got his literal whole world crashing
around him. And he's not even just like super mad yet. He's like, you know, just blessed be
the name of the Lord. I mean, just how many people would just like not go to church,
when you lost all your money in your family? You'd be like, well, I'm going to take a day off.
I'm going to take a week off from church. But Job's just like, well, you know, I'm gonna praise
the Lord because it's another day. A lot of people allow their circumstances to dictate
their emotions, rather than having complete control of their emotions. But I'll tell you this,
it's hard. Not easy. Please ask this chapter seven, look at verse nine.
Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry. For anger resteth in the bosom of fools.
Notice the Bible says you're a foolish person if you're always angry. And where does anger rest?
In the bosom of fools? Meaning inside a foolish person, inside a stupid person is just anger at
all times. It's constantly there. It's just ready. It's ready for them to just be mad at everything
and mad at every situation and mad at every person and upset and triggered by everything.
Look, if you're triggered by everything, it shows a lack of love. It shows a lack of love.
Go go to Colossians, chapter number three. What could this look like? You know, it could be
anywhere. Just think about the areas of your life that are the most frustrating.
That's where it is for you. Say, well, I'm frustrated at church. Everybody, you know,
frustrates me. It's like, that's a really bad place to be angry because you're filled with people that
are saved. If you're going to love anybody, why wouldn't you want to love the people at church?
Right? You shouldn't be letting people at church frustrate you all the time. Well, every time I see
this person, I'm frustrated. Well, that tells me you just don't love that person very much,
does it? Well, did you see what they said? Did you see what they did? Did you see how they acted?
It's like, shows that you just really don't like that person. You know, think about this. When you
first start dating someone, you look past every one of their grievances because you're just so
infatuated with them. You just have all this strong, you know, you first get married. You're
on the honeymoon. Everything's great, you know, and you just look past every grievance and you
just don't really have a big problem and it's really over time in a marriage that a lot of
times these feelings will start to deteriorate and they'll kind of start to wane and I guess
the reality sets in. But here's the thing, I think you can stay in a honeymoon phase as long as
you're just not getting easily provoked. The problem is that when you live with someone,
let me just give you some facts. They're going to do stuff that you don't like
and you say, how often? Every day and you say, yeah, well, you just didn't marry right.
No, every person. I don't care if it's the greatest person. You pick the greatest person
on the planet, the person that you like the most. If you live with them, you'll be frustrated with
things that they do because it's called human nature. We're all sinners. We all have problems
and you have, you know, two options to handle that. You can just let it go or you can get mad
about it and what do people mostly do? They get mad about it and then it causes bitterness and
then that bitterness grows day after day after day after day and then you just get to a point
where you're just angry with that person all the time. Everything they do triggers you.
Everything they do upsets you and it just causes all kinds of issues in your marriage
and it can also spiral down even into your children. Look what it says in Colossians
chapter 3 verse 21. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger lest they be discouraged.
Now, why is it telling a parent not to provoke its children to anger? Because the parent has
authority and control over its child. Every time the child screws up, you get to basically respond
to that, right? And as a parent, you know, if you're paying attention to kids, you're going to
realize they screw up a lot and if you're just constantly just yelling at them and screaming
at them and just getting mad about every single thing they do, they're kids, you know. Obviously,
I'm not saying don't discipline them. What I am saying is you want to discipline them
with the right emotion. You're not angry with your children all the time because when you're
angry with your children and you're constantly disciplining, you're going to provoke them to
anger and you're modeling for them anger and you're modeling for them how to respond to
situations. When they don't get what they want, well, they're going to act like mom and dad when
they don't get what they want. How are they going to act? Angry, upset, frustrated, throwing a fit,
using words, you know, in a negative way or something like that, calling people names.
Any of the habits and the attitudes that you have for children to pick up on and that's how they're
going to behave. And so, it's important for a father not to respond to his children with anger
every single time. Now, look, I'm not saying that this is easy. It's hard. It's hard because when
you tell your child to do something and they don't do it, you know, inside of me, it's like,
it's like, did you not hear what I said? I mean, I said, you know, go and I'll be honest,
I struggle with that. You know, I struggle with, you know, not wanting to just be angry every
single time. They don't, you know, basically follow marching orders as it were, right? I
expect them to be like the military or something. They're just like, yes, sir, captain, sir, you
know, and they're just basically, it's like a military, but you know, it's my kids, you know,
and I need to, as a parent, as a father, try to approach them with the same gentleness and
meekness that God the father approaches me with, right? And not hold them, you know, to a standard
that I don't want God to hold me to, right? That's inappropriate and it's being a hypocrite at the
end of the day. And so we have to be careful when we're raising children to realize they're
going to screw up. They're going to mess up. They're going to do bad things all the time.
Foolishness is bound to the heart of a child is what the Bible says. And so what we have to do
is we have to go into the day saying, you're going to screw up a bunch. And then when they screw up
a bunch, you're not like surprised, like what, you know, you spilled stuff again and you, you know,
made a mess again and you, you know, punched your brother again. And, you know, it's like,
that's going to happen. Now, obviously I'm not saying lay over and just not parent, not saying
just let things go. What I'm saying is we need to make sure that our emotions are in check when
those situations arise and handle them appropriately. Go to Ephesians chapter number
six for a second. Just flip backwards. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians chapter six,
just a few pages, verse number four, the Bible reads, any fathers, revoke not your children to
wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. So notice we want to
nurture the children. We want to be teaching them things of God and, and basically instructing them
when they do screw up, why, you know, it's violating God's commandments. Cause I like
to appeal to the higher authority, you know, and, and give them the reason, say like, we don't lie
cause God told us He doesn't want us to lie. And you obey a mom and dad because God said,
children obey your parents and the Lord for this is right. You know, we don't steal because God
says thou shalt not steal and, and God's always paying attention. And, you know, I, I try to tell
my kids, especially the older ones, you know, if I don't notice God's going to notice, and you don't
want God to punish you, you know, God will punish us when we disobey and when we're not doing right.
And I want to start teaching them and training them to fear the Lord at a young age and, and not
necessarily, uh, you know, I try to tell my children, it's like, look, you know, I'm not
wanting to discipline you cause I'm mad at you. I'm just saying, I want you to not have
God get mad at you. I don't want God to punish you. I said, I want you to live a long life.
And I said, I want you to live the longest life possible, but if you won't obey me,
God won't let you live a long life. You know, God is promising long life to those that obey
their parents. And so if you want to live a long life, you need to obey mom and dad. You need to
fear the Lord. And so, you know, we're, we're at, we're nurturing them. We're at, we're giving
them admonition saying, I'm on your team here. You know, if you really want your kids to live
the longest life possible, you would teach them to obey you because if they're not obeying you,
God is not going to necessarily grant them the promise of a long life. Whereas the, the first
command with promise is to honor thy father and honor thy mother, right? Honor thy father, thy
mother, that thy days may be long upon the land was Lord thy God giveth thee. I mean, we want to
have, I mean, I liked that idea of long life, right? I want to see my kids live a long time
and have grandkids, maybe even great grandkids that I get to see in the flesh. And these things
come through following God's commandments. And if we want to give them the right emotion,
we need to love them and not be easily provoked, not be easily. And look, the more kids you have,
the easier it is. You know, if you have a house full, it just starts getting, it starts
compounding. Okay. Cause someone's always crying. Someone's always upset. Someone always needs
mom and dad. But what did I say? Love is not convenient. It's hard. What's convenient to just
yell at the person, get mad at the person, just blow off the handle. That's easy. It's harder
to give them the right attention. It's harder to get up and talk sweetly. It's harder to
discipline with a rod of correction. It's easier to just yell at people.
Cause that's just like that, right? It's harder to get up, discipline your children. You know what,
that's the right thing to do. Go back to 1st Corinthians chapter 13, go back to 1st
Corinthians chapter 13. So point one is this, love is not convenient because it's hard.
Love is not convenient because it is hard. You know, this world today wants to tell you what
love is, but their love is a cheap love. It's an easy love. It's easy for them to do the things
that they do. And they call that love. Whereas real love, true love, charity is going to be
hard because it's not easily provoked. Here's number point two. Let's look at verse four.
Charity suffereth long. Charity suffereth long. What is suffering? Suffering doesn't sound good.
It doesn't sound comfortable, right? Doesn't that sound uncomfortable? You're suffering. I mean,
if I said, Hey, how are those chairs doing? It's just suffering over here. You know,
I'd be like, why does it sound very comfortable? You know, so if you're suffering long,
that's also indicating that you're not even just suffering for a little bit of period of time,
you're suffering for a long time, right? For a very extended portion of time,
you're uncomfortable for a while. Okay. Look at verse seven. Bear with all things,
believe with all things, hope with all things, endureth all things. That doesn't sound very
comfortable. Enduring something. Why? Because love is not convenient because it's uncomfortable.
Love is going to be uncomfortable at times. Keep your finger, don't necessarily keep your finger,
go to Hebrews chapter 12, go to Hebrews chapter 12. We'll come back one more time,
but you don't need to keep your finger there. Hebrews chapter number 12.
We think about someone that suffered a long time and endured a lot of things.
We always want to look to Jesus, right? And look what the Bible says, Hebrews chapter 12,
look at verse two, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,
who for the joy that was set before him, notice this phrase, endured the cross,
despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Now when we think about the most ultimate picture of love in the Bible, what is the
ultimate picture of love in the Bible? For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
son, right? And Jesus while on this earth, he told us that greater love hath no man than that
a man lay down his life for his friends, okay? So the greatest pictures of love were something that
I will submit to you was not only hard, but it was also very uncomfortable. I think it was
comfortable for God the Father to watch his only begotten son, to watch his perfect, innocent,
spotless son be mocked, ridiculed, and scourged, and spat upon. I mean, can you imagine if I
brought my kid to church and some guy sitting out here just hawked a loogie and spat it right
on my kid's face? What would that do to you? Right? And they tripped him and they mocked him
and they were smacking him around. How would you feel? God the Father had to go through that. God
had to let his son. I mean, we think about Jesus, right? Obviously, you don't want to get spat on
and punched, but just think about the feeling when it's your son that you're watching it happen to
and you have all the capability to change that, right? It's not like God the Father is sitting
up here like, I can't do anything about it. He could do whatever he wants like this. He could
send all those people to hell like that. I mean, he could just totally do it. Do you think that was
uncomfortable to him to just watch that? Every stripe on his back, the crown of thorns on his
head, just the nail in the left hand, nail in the right hand, nail in the feet. And you know,
the Bible, I'm pretty sure if you study it, he's basically crucified for six hours. I think it's
real comfortable to watch someone, just every uncomfortable gasp of air, just every just,
I mean, God knows the hairs on your head. He has them counted, okay? So, he could know everything
that Jesus is going through. He's watching his son, Jesus enduring the cross. I mean,
he himself just being on the cross, just hurting. That was love. But let me tell you something,
it was not comfortable. He didn't enjoy that. He didn't like that. Now, the Bible does talk about
the fact that God the Father, it pleased him to bruise him. But it wasn't the actual pain and
suffering that he enjoyed. It was the thinking about us that gave them the pleasure. It was
thinking about reconciling us and giving us freedom and salvation, all the different things
that we get covering our sins is what gave him the pleasure. It was so gruesome, the Bible even
says that God the Father had to turn away from his own son because he became sin for us is what
the Bible says. And God the Father is so holy, he can't even look at it. He had to let his own
son just become literal sin on the cross, something that he despised. It's crazy when
you think about what he did for love. And then you talk to some people and you're trying to ask them
about their life and they want to complain about every difficulty that they have. And I'm just
thinking like, doesn't sound like you have much love. Well, I have to drive 20 minutes to church.
Doesn't sound like you love it that much. You know, I have to do this and that, you know,
when people start complaining about all the things that they have to do driving a long way to church,
it sounds like they don't really love it. Because if you loved it, you know, of course,
it's going to be uncomfortable. You know, giving of their money, effort, their time, their energy,
they complain about how much effort they put into, you know, their life, their church,
their family or whatever, all the money that they have to give. It doesn't sound like you really
love it that much. You know, because a true love, it's going to be uncomfortable at times.
You know, think about children themselves. There's nothing comfortable about children.
You got to constantly hold them and change their diapers. You know, I've never enjoyed a single
diaper I've changed. I don't know about you guys. You know, if you've ever changed a diaper,
I never thought like, yes. Often it's usually a struggle. It's like, honey, will you change the
diaper? And it's like, no, you change it. No, you got the last one or whatever. No one's like,
I got it. You know, you know why I changed the diaper of my child? Because I love them.
Because they get a rash if you don't change their diaper, because they can't change their own diaper.
Right? Isn't that kind of like, God's looking down at us. He wants us to go to heaven. We
can't get there. So he has to do it for us. It wasn't comfortable. You know, think about the
fact you're complaining about changing a child's diaper when Jesus had to go to the cross for us,
right? I mean, doesn't it just seem so petty at a certain point? You know, you got to dress your
kids. You got to feed your kids. You got to love on your kids. You got to do all this work and
energy. You know, even your spouse, even when you get married, you know, it's going to be
uncomfortable at times marriage is uncomfortable. But you know, if you love the person, you'll go
through some pain, you'll go through some suffering, you'll go through some difficulty
to help them. You know, how about just at church, enduring with people's problems?
Because a lot of people just they just get really annoyed with people. And especially this is what
I've noticed. Seems like some Christians, they cannot handle newbies. They get frustrated by the
newbies. Because people come in, they're not dressed right. They don't speak right. They
don't have all the right doctrines. They maybe they're goofy. Maybe they you know, just they
got like an info wore shirt on or something. Or they think that alien reptiles are in the
White House or something or, you know, they basically just they're kind of foolish. Because
they're a babe in Christ, or maybe they've never been church before, you know, they don't know,
they don't know how to handle themselves in church. No one's ever taught them. Never taught
them, you know, how to show up at church, how to dress at church, how to speak at church,
you know, all these different things, because they just never went to church. And then people
get mad at their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, because they're ignorant of certain
things. And they've never been taught or they're maybe not as polished as you are, you know,
you're so refined, and you've got everything figured out. It shows that you're not really
very loving towards that person. No loving person would deal with the uncomfortable nature of having
some babes in Christ in church. It's no different than having a physical child, having the spiritual
children to having a spiritual babe in Christ, and basically allowing them to grow. And you're
gonna have growing pains. Spiritually, some people are going to grow at different rates.
Some people haven't figured it all out. You know, it's weird when you expect everyone to be a full
grown, fully mature, perfect charity Christian. And you get annoyed with them when they're not,
you know, that tells me, well, you haven't arrived either at charity,
because charity suffers long. Because charity endures all things. And so it's it, if you get
mad at someone for how they act, just know that you're not being charitable. Just know you're not
being loving. You know, the loving person will tolerate all of the issues that people have,
and they're, you know, them not having full self awareness. Like, no one has perfect self awareness.
No one realizes how annoying they are, or how ugly they are, or how smelly they are, or, you know,
whatever issues. You know, most of the time, if you've been stinking, or if you can smell yourself,
you've been stinking for four days, my dad says. But let me tell you what, I can smell you stinking
from one day. Because usually your awareness is lower than everybody else's about you.
You know, your eyes are looking out from you, everybody else is looking at you, right? So you
can't see all the things that are going on on the inside as well as other people can. And we need to
be very charitable towards others, allowing others to make mistakes, be annoying, have problems,
and just tolerate them anyways. And intolerance is a is a biblical word, in my opinion, because
it's what we're talking about suffering long. What is suffering like tolerating something?
What is tolerating? It's not that you like it. It's not that you want it. You know,
there's going to be some people in your life you have to tolerate. Like, I don't like this person
or whatever. Well, you're just not very loving them. Well, you're just not a very charitable
person, because the charitable person can be around people that they don't necessarily like,
and still have a good time, and still treat them with respect, and still do good under them. And
eventually that can change. Why don't you give that person space to get better? Why don't you
help them get better? Why don't you love them where they're at, rather than just being always
frustrated with how they don't behave correctly already? Go to Luke chapter 18. Let me show you
some more verses here on this point. Don't be a hypocrite. Don't expect charity of others,
but you don't extend charity yourself. You know, oftentimes we need to just fix ourselves.
You know, we need to cast the beam out of our own eyes before we try to cast the mode out of
our brother's eyes. And we need to give people space to, you know, grow and develop. Look at
Luke chapter 18 verse 16. Jesus called them unto him and said, Suffer little children to come unto
me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God. Notice Jesus' attitude about
little children. Did he say, little children, they're just so easy and everything about them
is great. Notice how he described, suffer little children. He didn't say like it's easy. He didn't
say it was convenient. It's uncomfortable. And let me say this, having a church service with little
kids and little babies in it is more uncomfortable than if they weren't in it. Right? Because they
can yell, they can scream, they get upset, you know, they don't always behave, sometimes they're
messy, whatever. You know, all kinds of weird issues happen with kids in the service, okay?
Glitters all over my chairs, you know. All kinds of stuff happens, you know, and you're just
thinking like, this is why we can't have nice things. But what does Jesus' attitude suffer,
little children? Meaning that you should have love towards, you should love little children
and you should realize, look, when you were three, four, five, six, seven, whatever,
you didn't behave correctly either. You were a brat too. You cried and screamed and everything
when you were that age too. No one was perfect. So don't hold children to an unrealistic expectation.
Suffer them and try to love on them and try to do good under them and don't think every child is
just a monster because they're kids. Some kids are worse than others. I get that. But at the end
of the day, you have to suffer all of them. Okay. And I'm not saying don't have high expectations
for them. But what I am saying is that we need to have love and charity towards the children.
Look at verse 17. Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little
child shall in no wise enter therein. So not only does he say suffer those children, but he says,
you know what, little children have a really great quality about them. They're really humble.
You know, children realize how dependent they are on others. And I think as we become,
the more independent you come, the easier it is for you to not be charitable. You know, kids,
if you think about it, are a lot better than adults in these areas. Go to Romans chapter 12
for a moment. But think about kids. You know, when you get a bunch of kids together, typically,
unless they've been brainwashed or, you know, raised in a weird way, they all like each other.
They all they'll play with any kid. They don't care. You know, the kids socio economic status,
they don't even know what that is. They don't know the poor kids and the rich kids necessarily.
That's like junior high that teaches you all that kind of stuff, right. But kids that are in grade
school and stuff, they don't know the popular kids, the rich kids, any of those. They they're
really just friendly towards lots of other people. They usually don't have hatred necessarily to a
lot of kids, unless they've been, you know, beat up upon or treated poorly by their siblings or
family. Typically, kids are just a lot more gracious, a lot more kind, a lot more. They're
just humble. But as people get more independent, they have more what money, popularity, intelligence,
whatever it is, then they start being less charitable to those that don't have that.
Oh, you don't have money. I don't have time for you. Oh, you you aren't as smart as I am,
that I can't conversate with you. You know, you don't understand the words of my pontification.
You know, that's silly. It's silly that we get like that. But that is an attitude. Loving would
be uncomfortable and hang out with someone that's maybe not on your level. Condescending men of
lowest state. Look at Romans chapter 12 verse three. For I say, through the grace given unto
me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think,
but to think soberly, according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith. We shouldn't
think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. And we ought to be able to be around people
that aren't necessarily on the same level as us. And go through some uncomfortable situations.
Be in an uncomfortable area. Go if you would to First Corinthians chapter 30. Here's something
that maybe isn't as convenient or as comfortable. How about driving into like the most ghetto strip
mall ever to come to church Sunday morning? Wouldn't it be nice to drive to like Lakewood
and you know, have valet or something? And you can find money in the walls or something. I mean,
you know, like, like, I've never been to the bathroom and found money in the walls. You know,
that sounds kind of cool. Obviously, I'm joking. But I'm not joking about this. The fact that,
you know, coming to a church that's maybe in a poor area, got bars on the windows or whatever.
Isn't that maybe less comfortable than going to real big fancy building where they're giving you
out free Starbucks or whatever, you know, they have all the lights and the bells and the whistles
and no one's going to force you to do anything. No one's going to ask you to go like do something.
You're treated like, you know, an honored guest. You know, they have the special greeters at every
door that are just they don't even know you. They don't care about you, but they pretend to,
you know, they're just like, how's it going? It's great to see you. I'm so glad you're here,
you know. And sometimes that's sincere. But I'm just saying, you know, wouldn't that be more
comfortable? You know what, coming to a church where you can actually learn the Word of God,
where you're going to humble yourself and say, you know what, I need to be taught some things
rather than going to a church where they're just going to applaud you for being a great person
already. And then when you start realizing that you need help and you start getting better,
you can use that to help other people. Isn't that kind of uncomfortable? Well, that's actually
loving. It's actually loving to realize that you depend upon other people, that you need other
people. And sometimes to get that, you have to be in an uncomfortable situation. Jesus Christ,
in order to feel the feeling of our infirmities, had to come to this earth. Do you think that
that was as comfortable as being in heaven? No, of course not. Being on this earth,
having to go through the experiences and the feelings. He didn't have to do that,
but he did it to see what it's like to, you know, feel the same feelings that we have,
to go through the same experiences that we do. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 4 again.
Charity suffered long in his kind. Charity envieth not. Charity vaunteth not itself.
Vaunteth not itself. It's not a self-promoter.
It's not talking about how much better it is than anybody else in any way.
Vaunting, you know, vaunting not itself, basically saying that it's never going to,
you know, praise itself. Let another man praise thee, and not thine own lips, a stranger,
not thine own mouth. You know, we don't want to go around singing our own praises, elevating
ourselves. That's not loving. It's never loving to tell people that you're better than them.
I don't know if that's a shock. I just want you to let you know I'm actually more loving than you.
It's a self-contradictory statement, you know. I wish you could love like I do, you know. That's
not a humble attitude. That's not the right attitude. That's not the attitude Jesus had.
You know, verse 5 did not behave itself unseemly. Notice this. Seeketh not her own. Seeketh not her
own. So if you're not praising yourself and you're not doing things for yourself, then what would you
be doing? You're praising others and helping others. So love is not convenient because it's
selfless. Number one, it's hard. Number two, because it's uncomfortable. Number three,
because it's selfless. Selfless. And this one's a really big one. I'm not going to spend as much
time on it, but go to Philippians chapter two. Why it's a big one is because this world believes
that love is selfish. Love is love. You know, why do they say that mantra? Because of their
own selfish lusts. That's why they say that. Not because they have a real selfless love.
You know, there's nothing loving about the freaks and the weirdos and the reprobates of the day.
They only love themselves. And at the end of the day, that's not a real love. That's not a true
love. It's not a charitable love, but rather it's a selfish, self-indulgent love. That's not a
biblical love. You know, the Bible says God is love, but we have to get the right definition
of love. What is love again? It's selfless. God is a selfless being. He doesn't do things for
himself. You know, he's not going around, you know, pontificating or anything like that. And
in fact, within the trinity, you have the three praising each other constantly. The father
glorifying the son, the son glorifying the father, the holy ghost glorifying the son and the father.
You know, they're all praising one another. Jesus is talking about how great the spirit is and how
he's not, you know, he's the comforter and he's not going to leave you comfortless and he's going
to guide you into all truth, you know, and he's even said it's expedient that I go away, that he
could come. Isn't that kind of like not even saying like it's better that I leave so you can
have the holy spirit rather than me. That's not a very prideful attitude, is it? He's basically
praising the holy spirit. He's praising, you know, the father on a regular basis. He's a very humble
person and when he came to this earth, Jesus didn't go around singing his praises. In fact,
he did the very opposite on a regular basis. Look at Philippians chapter 2 verse 4.
Look not every man on his own things, but every man also in the things of others. Let this mind
be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him. The form of a
servant was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion of the man, he humbled himself
and became obedient on death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted
him and given him a name which is above every name of the name of Jesus. Every knee should bow of
things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So, according to Philippians
chapter number 2, we're supposed to have the same mind as Jesus and that mind is not looking on our
own things, but the things of others. That's what real love is. You know, when you think about a
marriage, am I really concerned with what I'm going to get out of marriage or what my spouse
is going to get out of marriage? Am I really concerned about my things or am I concerned
about her things? Are you concerned about your spouse's needs or your needs? And say, well,
my marriage isn't going well. And you say, why? My needs aren't being met. See, that's the wrong
mentality. You know why you would say my marriage isn't going well? Because I'm not meeting their
needs. Because guess what? You can only control yourself. And you want to know if your marriage
is going well, let's talk to your spouse and say, how are they doing on meeting your needs?
You know, that's how you can tell how much love you have. Well, you know what? I really love my
spouse, but I don't do anything for them. No, you don't. The loving spouse is the one that's
selfless in the relationship and is making sure that all of their needs are met. Making sure that
they get everything that they want. Pleasing them. Doing good unto them. Laying down your life
for them. Having forgiveness towards them. Being long suffering towards them. Suffering them long.
You know, enduring all things. Not being easily provoked. And not vaunting yourself.
Not seeking what you want out of the relationship.
When it comes to application for us outside of marriage and our families,
you know, probably the most selfless thing you could do to show love is soul winning.
You know, I mean, I can't think of something more
selfless than going out, you know, you're wasting your time, your effort, your energy. I mean,
going out soul winning is not easy. It's hard. And you say, how do you know it's hard? Because
nobody wants to do it. You know, there's a million reasons not to go soul winning, isn't there?
Well, the game's on, I'm tired, nap, food, you know, work. I mean, you could come up,
I've heard all of them. You know, I don't know, I don't feel comfortable. I hear this a lot.
I don't feel comfortable going out and doing it. I don't feel like I know enough, right?
Or really, they don't feel comfortable going into the ghetto.
Look, do you think I like walking around in the ghetto? I don't. It's not comfortable.
There's nothing comfortable about it. You know, I don't like knocking on people's door,
and they look at me like I'm a you know, a cop or a weirdo or something, you know,
they don't know what I'm doing in their neighborhood. And the thing about Houston
is this most like segregated city I've ever seen. You go to you go to an area,
and there's only one demographic. It's only Hispanic people, only black people, only Asian
people. It's only whatever. And I'm not all those demographics. I'm one. I'm white.
So when I go to the all Hispanic apartment complex, I stick out like a sore thumb.
When I go to the all black apartment complex, I stick out like a sore thumb.
And let me tell you something, it's not comfortable. I don't think like,
this is a great opportunity for me to just have fun today. You know, oftentimes, you know,
I knock on the door, and they'll be like, not safe for you to be here. And I'm thinking like,
why? What's, what's the problem? I've even had people get, they say, like,
you shouldn't be dressed like that in this neighborhood. I'm like, how did you want me
to dress? You know, like, you're gonna going out soul winning can be hard going out so when it can
be uncomfortable, you know. But at the end of the day, I'm not trying to go out there for myself.
I'm going out there for someone else. And when I knock on the door,
I'm not like the best thing that ever happened. You just knocked on your door.
Hey, we're just from a Baptist church, you know, and I give you an invitation.
And you know, when they they're like, oh, church. I'm not like, well, fine, go to hell.
I'm not going to easily provoked. They slam the door and I'm like, great next door.
Whoo, you know, I mean, you just want to go out there and love on people. But you know what,
love is not convenient. If it was convenient, everyone would do it. You know, it tells me
most people are not very loving because most churches today are not going out and preaching
the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the Bible says in Revelation chapter number two, Jesus gets really
mad at it because they says they left their first love. They left their first going out and
preaching the gospel. And you know, people want to want to say, oh, I just love so much. You know
what they mean by that? They like going to the fancy church where they're net in the poor,
they're not harassed by anybody. And they give, you know, point 1% of their income in the offering
plate and hope that someone else will distribute that to someone that needs it somehow. And that's
their love. Right? They give a little bit of extra money that they had the show, you know,
the cherry on top to some missions program, hoping somehow some little kid will get the gospel
somehow. And they're so loving. They're not that loving. And of course, they'll brag about how
much money they give and all the things they do in their life. I mean, there'll be millionaires
and they'll give $10,000 and they'll want to brag about it. They'll get a big check. You know,
look at this big check that I gave to this church or whatever. They're not doing that because they
actually love people. They're doing it to font themselves, to glorify themselves. They'll buy
a brick with their name on it and say like special donor and have the brick in the church.
Instead of being a pillar of the church, like in a spiritual sense, they want to be a physical
pillar of the church. They want everybody to know like, look at me, look how much I give and look
how awesome I am and I'm on the special board and whatever. You know, God forbid they'd actually go
in the ghetto and open up their Bible and show someone how to be saved from the Bible.
But guess what? It's because it's hard, uncomfortable and not selfish itself.
Going out and preaching the gospel. Go to Matthew chapter number 11. Go to Matthew chapter number 11.
You know, it's good for you to go out into the poor and preach the gospel to people
because it humbles you. Humble yourself to say, you know what? I'm going to show up in a poor area
and I got a Bible in hand and I don't have any money to give them. I don't have anything,
you know, I'm not going out handing out, you know, some gifts or something that they would
be excited about, you know, in the sense that like I'm giving them a free car or like food
or whatever. I'm just there to give them the gospel. You know, silver and gold have I none,
but I got the gospel and look at Jesus' attitude is Matthew chapter 11. Look at verse five.
The blind receive their sight and the lame walk. The lepers are cleansed and the deaf
hear, the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. Notice what Jesus
did. He preached to the poor. Notice, I mean, think about it. Jesus didn't say,
I preach the gospel to everyone. I preach to the rich. I preach to the blue collar worker.
I preach to the poor. Why did he make such a big deal about that? Because he's not going around
trying to pontificate about who he is or try to, you know, I'm the son of God, you know,
bow down now. No, he would go to the poor. I mean, we're talking about the creator of the
universe. If the creator of the universe can put on some normal clothes and walk into the ghetto
and open up the word of God and preach the gospel to the poor, then who are you that can't?
How are you so important that you can't go out there and preach the gospel to somebody?
Well, that's, you know, that's not for me to do. I'm, you know, I'm the deacon.
I'm the evangelist. It's like, do you even know what an evangelist does?
It's like, I don't have time to go into the ghetto. It's like, then why did Jesus have time
to go into the ghetto? Why did he have time to go into the poor and preach the gospel? You know why?
Because he loved people. He loved people. You know, it's a lot easier to want to go to the,
I mean, think of the receptivity wasn't different, right? Let's just assume for half a second
that no matter what door you knock, they're going to be receptive, has nothing to do with
if they're rich or poorer, which areas would you want to go? I'd want to go to the nice
neighborhood, right? I'd want to go where it's rich and where it's, you know, the streets don't
have any trash on them. And everybody's really kind. Everybody's, you know, the fancy mansions
and they're like, you want to come in? You're like, yes, I've been a lot of doors where they
say you want to come in? I'm thinking like, like, wow. I mean, I've gone in and I sat in
people's houses and it looked like they've never vacuumed their carpet in their life.
Like it's the top layer is just like crumbs and then dead bugs and just like what and you're just
like, he was terrified a little bit. I'm just being honest with you. Okay. It was uncomfortable.
It smelled horrific. But at the end of the day, I'm like, you're going to get a new body,
praise the Lord. If you get saved, you know, I've got some good news for you.
You know, and when we get into heaven, it's not going to matter.
It's not a very selfish love to go out and preach the gospel. It's a very selfless love.
Romans chapter 12. I want to go to quick places and we'll be finished this morning.
Love is not convenient. Don't, you know, we, we praise the word love in our society,
but the problem is that people have forgotten what love even means. They don't really know what true
love is. They don't really know what real love is. You know, we should though model for people
what real love actually looks like. You know, Jesus even said, you're going to know my disciples
because of their love one toward another. Meaning when you see people that are constantly long
suffering towards one another, they're doing things that are hard. They're not easily provoked
with one another. You know, they're doing things that are uncomfortable for them. You know, giving
people rides, picking people up, encouraging them when they're down, giving them of your food,
giving them their time, giving them of your effort, praying for people when no one knows.
And not only that being very selfless in the sense that you're not even concerned about
what you're getting out of church, you're concerned what other people are getting out
of church. You're concerned about what other people are getting in their lives and the things
that they have. Worried about how other people are behaving themselves, not yourself. Try and
encourage them and try to provoke them under good works, not provoke them under anger.
Romans chapter 12, look at verse 16. Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things,
the condescendment of low estate. You're not wise in your own conceits. It's natural. It's easy to
want to be friends with people that have a lot of reasons to be friends with them. What I mean by
that, they're popular, they've got a lot of money, they've got a lot of clout, you know, you want
everybody wants to be friends with the guy that's got, you know, tickets to the football game in the
booth, you know, or everybody wants to be friends with the guy that's going to give them free food
or, you know, got a nice sports car that you get to ride around in or, you know, is going to take
you out and do all these things. And look, there's nothing wrong with wanting to be friends with
people, but notice it says don't mind high things, but rather we should condescend the men of lowest
that we should find people that we can minister to, that we can love on, that we can do good to,
and not having a friendship with someone because of what you're going to get out of it,
but have a friendship with someone thinking what can I put into it.
Well, I'm friends with this guy because he's going to really help me out.
You know, you need to try and make some friends with people that you're just going to help them
the one-way relationship. You're just like, this guy got, this guy's not going to give me anything,
you know, this guy's not going to benefit me in any way, but you know what, I just want to love
on this person and do good on this person and help this person. Go to Romans chapter one, last place
will return, Romans chapter number one. You know, we think about people that are not loving.
A really good example of this are the Jews.
You say, why are they not loving? Because they just despise the Gentiles. And why is it that they
won't talk to the Gentiles, won't know they knew the Gentiles? Because they're not willing to
humble themselves, they're not willing to condescend to men of low estate and they basically
just think more highly of themselves than they ought to think. Whereas they're the ones that
actually needed the gospel just as much as them and they end up refusing it. And sometimes we need
people in our mind, we might think, oh they're lower than me, but we have the wrong idea. We're
actually wrong on that. We don't even realize. You know, the Bible says that God has chosen
the poor of this world that are rich in faith to be heirs of the kingdom of God. You know,
there's a lot of people that we knock on their door that have more money, more influence than
I ever could want or have. And they think that, you know, poor little guy or whatever might look
at you and be like, oh, poor little kid, poor little person, poor little woman or whatever.
And it's like they don't realize they need you. And they end up rejecting the gospel.
Look at Romans chapter 1. Look at verse 14. I am a debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians,
both to the wise and to the unwise. You know, the apostle Paul's attitude was I'm a debtor to
everyone, not just the people that I want to talk to, people I don't want to talk to. You know,
who wants to go talk to a barbarian? Who wants to go talk to the unwise? And this would be someone
that has love in their heart. The guy that wrote 1 Corinthians chapter number 13. The guy that's
going out and saying I'm just going to preach the gospel to every creature. I mean, think about it.
Paul is a Jew. And he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. We're talking about one of the
highest class people to ever walk the earth at that time as far as religiously speaking.
And he's literally going to go to the Gentiles. He's literally going to go to Mars Hill. He's
going to literally go out to just where all these people are worshiping false gods and pagans or
whatever. And he's going to allow them to beat them and just get shipwrecked and go through all
this evil just to make sure one thing happens. They get saved. You say what is that picture?
It pictures love. But you know what? That love is not convenient. It's going to be hard. It's
going to be uncomfortable. And in the day, it's going to be selfless. Thank you Heavenly Father
for modeling for us what true love is, the love that you would give your son, that the love your
son had for sacrificing himself. I pray that we would look at these pictures and these models and
we would examine ourselves and we would look inward and say, do we have love in our hearts
and look from the areas that we can improve in. And we can constantly look to your example,
help motivate us to do the right thing, not get easily provoked, have the right
attitude, the right mindset, to be willing to do uncomfortable things for others.
And at the end of the day, realize it's about other people. It's not about ourselves when
we're loving. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Go to our last song, Psalm 150.
All right, Psalm 150 in your wide handout for our last hymn this morning.
Let's sing.
According to his excellent greatness, raise him with the sound of the trumpet, raise him with the
sultry and heart, raise him with the timbrel and dance, raise him with stringed instruments and
organs, praise him upon the loud cymbals, praise him upon the high sounding cymbals,
let everything that hath breath, praise the Lord, praise he the Lord,
praise God the Father, praise God the Son, praise God the Holy Ghost,
amen. And with that, you are dismissed. Have a good day.