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All right, well, let's get started. First Corinthians chapter number 13, the verse I want to focus on. Go ahead and look right down there at verse number 13. It says, and now by the faith, faith is a good thing to have. In fact, the Bible says, without faith, it is impossible to please who? God. And guess what? If you're not pleasing God, he's not happy with you. Guess what? If he's not happy with you, he's not gonna bless you. And any man, the Bible says, if any man draw back, meaning that you're quitted on God, you're going in the opposite direction that he wants you to go. If any man draw back, the Bible says that his soul is not gonna have any pleasure in that individual. So how do we give faith? Of course, we know that faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God, but also reading your scriptures is gonna bring you faith. But we all know that faith can move mountains, but more important than faith is charity. How do we know? Because look what it says right there. Verse 13, and now by the faith, hope, charity, these three, but the greatest of these is charity, is charity. What is charity? Hey, some people say it's giving. Other people say it's love. Well, based on what I see, it's definitely love, but it's the right type of love. The Bible says just keep yourselves in the love of God. So guess what? It is possible to not be in the love of God. And what does God expect from us? To love the brethren so much. It says in the Bible that we perceive the love of God. How do we perceive it? By knowing that God lay down his life for us and we are to lay down our lives for the brethren. Is that extreme? And the Bible makes it very clear that God wants us to have fervent charity. What is fervent? It's intense, it's zealous. It's like serious, it's wholehearted. And the Bible says to have fervent charity among ourselves. But let me ask you this, if somebody would describe you as a charitable person, meaning somebody that loves and helps out, would that be true or would they just say that just to be nice? You know, there's a lot of things that we do in life and I guarantee you people can see it. Charity is one of those things. See, people can tell whether you're sincere or not based on what? Not your words, but your actions. That's what the Bible says to not just be people that are doers of the word. I'm sorry, not just people that speak the word, but also doers of the word. You know, by 1 Corinthians 13, it's one of those chapters that people all over the world use to try to live by because everyone wants to be a loving person. Why? Because it's commanded of us. The Bible says that we should love one another like God loved us. And that's one of the commandments he gives to the apostles. But guess what? They were not just for the apostles. You know, but 1 Corinthians, I'm not sure if you know this, it's not one of those only standalone chapters. It actually starts in the previous chapter. So if you can, go ahead and go to 1 Corinthians chapter number 12. So this evening I want to preach on charity, but the title of my sermon is actually called this. Charity and the chastisement of the Lord. And see, here's the thing. If you're not a loving person, the Bible makes it very clear, you ought to be. And that's not the only thing, of course. The Bible says we ought to be patient. You know, patience is something that God says we must have if we want to have a victorious life. What is patience? Patience being able to suffer long. The Bible says that God is long suffering towards us that even though, guess what, we're sinning against him, he doesn't want to punish us. He doesn't want anybody to perish, but that all of us should be able to be patient. He doesn't want anybody to perish, but that all should come to repentance. So it's not just all about charity. Yes, we should have patience, but charity is a big one. It's a big one. And the reason I'm preaching on this is because I see it time and time and time again where there's people in church that have issues with one another and they don't understand scripture and therefore they're actually destroying their own lives. Here's an example. Somebody likes to say this, well, you know what? I stay away from that person because he did me wrong a long time ago, a long time ago. And I'm thinking, why haven't you forgiven him? And he even says this. People have told me to do it. People are like, you know what? You should just forgive them. But you know what the Bible says? If they repent and they haven't repented. They never said, I'm sorry. I'm like, what happened? They just said it never happened. But I know what happened. I know. And I'm thinking to myself, well, let me ask you this. Is this individual like in good standing with the church? Yes. So the pastor says he can come? Yes. Does this individual serve the Lord? Yes. Does he go to church three times a week? Yes. Does he go soul winning? Yes. Does he win soul? Yes. And to your knowledge, is he still doing you wrong? Well, it's been months, but I'm pretty sure he's doing wrong. This person is not showing charity because one of the things that can show you whether you have charity or not is whether you think evil of others unjustly. But here's one of the things, here's a tip that I can give you right now that can help you become a more charitable person. Because chapter 13 doesn't stand alone. It actually starts in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and that will help us to become more charitable persons or to have charity, meaning love. And here's a quick tip. Here's a quick way to start getting more love in your heart. You need to realize that everyone, everyone in the church is important. Everyone, from you, little man over here, to the guy in the back, Adam, the man over here that leads the music. Sorry, I keep forgetting your name, brother. You're gonna have to forgive me. Show some charity, amen. But everyone is important. Everyone has a role to play. I'm sure you guys heard of Adam and Moses, or Moses and his brother, Aaron, amen? Hey, they were important people. They were the leaders, true? They did some amazing things. I mean, think about what they did. Look at all the miracles, all the plagues that they basically caused upon Pharaoh in order to bring the people out of Egypt. He did great and wonderful things. He did amazing things, right? But he didn't do it all because God doesn't play that game. God wants everybody involved. And when they left Egypt, after they destroyed Pharaoh, they left Egypt, they conquered the lands, they got to the Promised Land, and here's what ended up happening. Obviously, Moses died before he made it to the Promised Land, but they were building things. They were building the ark. They were doing all kinds of fancy things, but it wasn't Moses and Aaron that did it. It wasn't them. God told them, listen, I'm gonna get such and such, and I'm gonna give them the wisdom of God so he can deal with gold and silver, and I want these things to be built. I want you guys to do some really cool stuff, but I'm gonna use these other guys. God didn't say, you know what? Aaron and Moses, I'm just gonna use you guys. You guys are my favorites. I'm gonna give you guys the wisdom to deal with gold and precious metals and all kinds of different things. Why? Because you know what? You guys earn it, you guys deserve it. No, it was a team effort. It was a team effort, and there was this one battle where Moses, Moses had to lift up his hands in order to beat the enemy, and he got tired. I forgot where it is, it's escaping my mind. He got tired, but guess what happened? When his hands started to come down, they started to lose the battle. People came up, and they started to lift his hands up, and they started to win the battle, and Aaron represents today our pastor. He can't do it alone. He cannot. Hey, he needs us, and we need to get along with one another. We need to learn to forgive one another. We need to learn to have fervent charity among ourselves so the church can move on and prosper, amen? That's what we need to do, but how are we gonna do that? By starting out that every single one of us is important, amen? Let's take a quick look. First Corinthians chapter 12, let's start with verse number one. Remember, it starts with 12, goes into 13, and then it rolls into 14 with one verse. So let's take a look real quick. It says, now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I wouldn't have you ignorant. You know that you were Gentiles carried away up to these dumb idols, even as you were led. Wherefore I give to you, understand, that no man speaking but the Spirit of God called Jesus a curse, and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit, meaning that there's different types of gifts that people have. Some people can speak Español, some people can speak Chinese. I was given the gift of speaking in Spanish. I didn't even learn it. I didn't even do anything. It's like I woke up and I know a little bit of Spanish. It was my first language. I had no effort whatsoever. Who's learning a second language right now? Who's giving it a shot? You guys are learning it? Not easy, is it? No, it's not. It's pretty difficult. But some people are born with it. To me, it's not. I can understand it. Obviously, if I don't use it, I lose it. But keep on doing it one word at a time. 10 years from now, you'll be able to, what we call caveman Spanish if you have to. Me, faithful word Baptist, bite you to church. You die today, you go heaven. They'll understand what you're talking about. Because in Spanish, that person will be like, ooh, I don't know if I'll go to heaven. Me, show you Bible way, heaven? Sure. Keep practicing caveman. You can give people save, amen. But hey, let's take a look really quick. There's diversities of gifts. I see that you guys are twins, right? Last time I checked, you guys were twins, right? It hasn't changed? Okay, good. You guys have the gift of piano, right? Don't they play good piano? You get me on there, I'm a one finger at a time, brother. But hey, I don't know how easy it came to you, but I'm pretty sure God has something to do with it through the Holy Ghost, allowing us the abilities, just like these men in the book of Exodus, where God said, hey, I'm gonna give them. That means they didn't have it. Since I'm gonna give them the wisdom of God that they can mess with precious metals, gold and silver and brass, so they can create cool things, make the ark and all that stuff. Hey, those things still happen today and it's through the spirit. And verse number five says this, and there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord, and there are diversities of operations, but it's the same God which worketh in all, but the manifestation of the spirit is given to every man to profit with all, but to one is given the spirit, the word of wisdom to another. See, one guy has the word of wisdom, another the word of knowledge, but the same spirit, to another faith by the same spirit, to another the gifts of healing by the same spirit, to another the workings of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another verse kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But all these work is that one in the same same spirit dividing to every man, severely as he will. For as the body is one, it has many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ. For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether it be Jews or Gentiles, whether it be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. And this church is not just one person, but many. Many, amen. And we need to realize that everyone here is important. Everyone here has a role. Everyone here is valuable. By you thinking that this person over here, you know what, he shouldn't even be in church because the Bible says if your brother or friend, hey, you go and tell him that he's offended you. And if he doesn't apologize, you bring two people over here, you get your witnesses and you tell him how it is. And then after those witnesses, when the pastor says there's not enough evidence and he doesn't find any fault in this person and this person can stick around and go to church, hey, I can still be bitter because I know what happened. Heh, heh, heh, heh. Very such a true story. But this is not how we should be, amen? Okay, somebody offends you, somebody makes you mad, somebody gets all upset, whatever. Yeah, if you have to, hey, go ahead. And if it's that big of an issue, it's offending you that bad, then you go ahead and you talk to that person and you try to get it straight. Even the Bible says, if you know that somebody has a problem with you, if you're trying to sacrifice unto God, the Bible says, hey, no, leave your gift at the altar, go make things right with your brother, then come back and continue to sacrifice for the Lord. Obviously, we shouldn't be going around causing issues with individuals, you know, but the things are very simple that you will offend someone. You will say something, you will cross somebody the wrong way, and it's because we're all human, amen? And if you have charity, the Bible says the love covereth a multitude of sins, a multitude of sins, you know? So if you find out that such and such brother smokes, you know, if you cared about him, you don't want that guy to be embarrassed. You don't want that guy to have people talk in the trash about them. You know, maybe you find out the guy is, who knows, listening to the wrong type of music, like I just did. You know, I'm just like, you know what, I'll just pray for him. I'm sure he'll figure it out that he shouldn't be doing that because it will affect his soul, it will affect his spirit, it will affect his mind, but hey, it is what it is. It's not like the guy's doing heroin, amen? It's not like he will bust it doing heroin in his vehicle. And then through that hat, that happened as well. See, those individuals have to be dealt with immediately, as soon as possible, as fast as possible, but if somebody's struggling with whatever, you know? Hey, we all have struggles, we all have sin, and if you say you have no sin, you deceive yourself, buddy, because none of us believe you. We all struggle. But if it's not a sin unto death, what does the Bible say? Pray for that person. If it's a sin unto death, like fornication, if it's a sin unto death, like murder, if it's a sin unto death, like kidnapping, guess what, there's no need to pray. We need to handle that with the law. We need to turn those people over. So when the Bible says the love covereth a multitude of sins, it doesn't mean that we're covering adultery, we're covering murder, we're covering somebody that has a little girl, you know, down in the basement, locked up and chained up. Obviously, that's never happened. I'm just getting extreme for the sake of getting extreme, all right? But if it's something small, it's like, come on, you know? If God electrocuted us every time we did something small, it'd be like every, ow, pfft, you know? You're like walking and you have a full stop, pfft, oh. How much fun would that be, everybody pointing out the little things that you do wrong? Somebody lets the F bomb come out accidentally. Usually people are like, oops, sorry brother, you know? I'm not gonna be like, honey, this dude, can I control his mouth? I'm not gonna embarrass him like that, you know why? Because listen, we're all at different levels, amen? And like I've heard it in the past, every new level you take spiritually comes another devil to knock you down, to take you out. You see, you make it to level two, level three, and the quote unquote Christian life, hey, it is what it is. The devil doesn't want anyone to do anything that's gonna cause people to get saved. So the higher you get in the quote unquote level of life, the more likely the devil's gonna do something to try to bring you down and everyone else with you. But where did we leave off? Does anybody remember what verse? If not, I'll just continue with 14. For the body is not one member but many. If the foot shall say, because I am not the hand, I am not of the body, is there therefore not of the body? If the ear shall say, because I am not the eye, I am not of the body, is there therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were a hearing, where were the smelling? But now have God set the members, every one of them, in the body as it have pleased him. So what is it saying? It's silly if, let's just say it was possible for your eyeballs to be envious of your hands. Like man, you know, this guy actually is the hands. Must be cool to be able to grab the Bible and do whatever, I'm just an eyeball, you know? That would be pretty silly, right? It's no different with us. It's like, listen, everybody has a role to play. Everybody is important. You know, we should all edify one another, help one another, love one another, like the Bible says. Why? Because that's gonna help us to accomplish our mission. Now, when there's a schism in the body, meaning divisions, then we have a problem and we cannot afford that. We already have plenty of enemies, amen? And more to come, it's gonna be a lot harder to fight the enemy when we're fighting ourselves. So we need to be people that are quick to forgive. Remember, if it's not a sin out to death, if it's not something like railing or whatever the case, we need to take care of it, you know what I'm saying, in our minds. It's been like, Lord, hey, I was like him at some point. You know, I was also walking in darkness. I need to forgive and forget and move on and just pray for this individual. And I've had emails come in of individuals complaining about their pastor, my pastor is this, my pastor is pretty tramp. My pastor doesn't go so in like he should. My pastor, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I sometimes email back, let me ask you something, son. You like complaining about your pastor? Let me ask you this. When was the last time you fasted for your pastor? Who knows what fasting is? Fasting is when you go without food. It's when you go without food. You know, sometimes without water as well. It's not easy. Who's tried it? Some people are doing intermittent fasting. They're like, man, this is hard. You know, not eating from 7 p.m. all the way to 12 afternoon. It's hard, but going an entire day, it's hard, especially to have a physical job. And I like to say that because I like to kind of put them into place a little bit because they're complaining like crazy and I'm like, hey, when was the last time you fasted for your pastor? You went a whole day without eating just to pray. Guess what? Usually it's this many, this many. And I'll tell them, listen, when you do two days and three nights with no food in your water, then you might have the right to complain. Because does anybody remember somebody in the Bible who wanted to make a difference? Who the enemies were out to destroy them? And this individual prayed, fasted for three days and three nights, no food, no water. That can kill you. That can absolutely kill you. Does anybody know who this person is? I'll give you a clue. It was a woman. Might've heard of her. Lady named Esther. Think about that. I can't wait to meet her. That's hardcore. I'm just like, man, three days, three nights, no food, no water. But it wasn't just her. She told Mordecai, tell everyone to pray and fast for me. So when pastor's up here saying, hey, pray and fast for me. It's because it works, it's biblical. It's 1000% biblical. Now pastor Anderson is not gonna get up here and say, hey, please pray and fast for me, no food, no water, three days and three nights. He's not gonna do that. Because some people may take him serious and actually go do it and die, you know? But when he says pray for me, he's not saying it because it's just some exercise. And let's face it, if we do care about people, we will pray for them. If we have love for people, we will pray for them. Why? Because we believe they're important. We believe that, hey, we want this individual to keep living so guess what? He can keep serving the Lord. Hey, we got Raymond in the hospital. Everybody here knows Raymond? Who does not know Raymond? It's okay if you don't. You don't know Raymond, brother? You know him or you do? You do? Huh? You're a visitor? Sorry, I was pointing at the guy behind you. That's okay. Just so you know, brother Raymond is part of our church. So he led a sowing marathon in Sierra Leone in Africa. Well, he ended up getting malaria. We don't know if he got it there, but we think he did. Sure enough, he ended up in the ICU. Everything's swelling up. I don't know if you guys know what sepsis is, but sepsis is not a good thing. It's when your body's fighting some kind of bacteria, some kind of virus, and it's going overboard. It's actually killing you. Your body's trying to recover, trying to fight the infection, but it's going overboard and everything starts to swell up. And eventually if you go into septic shock, you can die. That's what he went to. They didn't just put him in the ICU because he had a boo-boo. That wasn't the case. He was in the ICU because he was about to die. And if you think, well, what is he doing? Is he like in some kind of weird sin that we don't know about? No, because if you study the scriptures, guess what you're gonna come across? People that almost died serving the apostle Paul. They're like, hey, this guy was nigh unto death. Pray for that guy. When you see him, hey, tell him I love him. It happens. Sometimes people think that this is just in the Bible, but it happens, it just happened to him. But hey, all things work together for good, right? He's recovering, he's getting better. He needs a blood transfusion because of course he needs more blood cells or whatever. I don't know the specifics, but we all know that this guy, hey, he went over there to serve the Lord. And when we pray for him, we pray for him because like, Lord, he's 22 years old. It's like, hey, we're praying for him during soul-willing. Lord, we ask you to help the guy out. You know, it's like, hey, get him back on track. We got lots of work to do, Lord. Why? Because we believe that he matters. It's like everyone here. So the love that we have, hey, is motivated because we know this individual. You know what I'm saying? He's on the right track. He's helping us to do what we're here to do, win souls, and not just get him saved, but get him serving the Lord in whatever way we can. And so what do you see in scripture? That everyone's important. It's silly to think that this guy, hey, he matters more. No, we all matter. We all make up the body. We're all here for a reason. We all have to pitch in. And if you think that you're too young to make a difference, I spoke to this at our church this morning, and I brought up the story that Pastor Anderson brings up all the time, all the time, that his grandpa got saved because I believe he said a five-year-old kid. Who can correct me if I'm wrong? I'm sure if it wasn't five, it was six, seven, but not eight. It was under eight. So this young kid, witness to his grandpa, I'm pretty sure he said it was a five-year-old, was witnessing to his grandpa, and he was so impressed, he decided to go to church, and that's where his grandpa got saved. Well, think about it. The average person probably will look at that five-year-old kid like, yeah, Lord, use this kid. Maybe he'll grow up and be a mighty man of God. But think about it for a second. At age five, he influenced a man that obviously ended up being the grandpa to our pastor over at Faithful Word. Had this kid not done what he did, will Faithful Word even exist? Think about that. Faithful Word exists because of a five-year-old kid. And I'm sure his parents can take a little credit as well. They probably taught him the scriptures pretty well. But think about that. That kid, he could be like the toenail of his church. Well, people know he's important, but because he's not in the limelight, because he's not the hands or the eye or the head, people could look at him kinda like, okay, he's important, but it is what it is. What can a five-year-old kid actually really do? Well, he's responsible, in my opinion, for guess what? I was being here today. So when you see him in heaven, you find out who that kid is. I'm sure he's not gonna be a kid when you meet him. But I say, hey man, high five. Hey, because of you, Faithful Word, due to obviously Pastor Anderson's grandpa and not just his grandpa, his father. Pastor Anderson obviously loves telling that story because he's trying to motivate the youth of the church. Think about that. One little kid, he decided to go and preach the gospel to some older man. You know how scary that is? Going up to an adult? And yet what happened? He impressed him so much, his grandpa went to church and got saved. What would have happened had this kid just gave him an invite? It's scary to think that Faithful Word wouldn't even exist because his grandpa got saved because of a five-year-old kid. And I think that's amazing. And this is why it's teaching us here in 1 Corinthians, don't be that guy that thinks you really don't matter. Yes, you're important, but you're not as important as this person or that person. You never know which way God can use you, amen? But let's keep reading. Verse number 19. And if they were all one member, where's the body? But now are they new? Many members, yet by one body. And I cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee. Same thing, we can't say we have no need of our youngsters. We have no need of our teenagers. We have no need of whatever. Everyone here, we have a need for you. So when people leave the church, it's sad because they leave thinking that nobody really needs them. It's not a big deal if they leave, but it is a big deal. It is a big deal. And somebody who doesn't have charity can look at somebody to leave the church and be like, fine, good, get out of here. Good riddance, we don't need you. Yeah, we actually do. You know, and if you have charity, you will feel bad and pray for that individual because you want that person to come back. If not, they're gonna destroy their lives by leaving and not hearing God's Word. They lose the fear of the Lord. They start to sin and sin more. The next thing you know, they're destroying their lives more than they ever could. And that's what the Bible says, that if we convert a sinner from the errors of their way, it says, hey, tell that man that you have helped to cover a multitude of sins. You saved this guy from committing tremendous amounts of sin. And if you care about people, you would do that. But people that are kind of like, oh, whatever, they tend to offend just to offend, meaning that they don't go to correct people because they want to help them. They're just trying to bring them down a notch. Somebody's getting praised, like it says right here, hey, we all rejoice, we rejoice together. Somebody gets all bitter and backslidden and doesn't have charity in their heart, but they're coming to church three times a week. They're going soul-winding twice a week. Hey, they even claim to be reading their Bible, but they have issues with another individual because of envy, because of whatever, and that's not having charity. That's like, hey, hey, hold up. You know, park it, you don't have charity anymore. Get back to it, and that's why 1 Corinthians is there. But let's just wrap it up in verse number 23. And no members of the body which think they'd be less honorable upon these which respond more abundant honor. And our uncommonly parts have more abundant comeliness, for our commonly parts have no need, but God has tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked. That there be no schism in the body, schism just means like a division. You know, God wants us to be together. But that the members should have the same care one for another. We should be caring people. And in the book of Corinthians, I forgot which one, it talks about somebody, I believe it's 2 Corinthians, talks about somebody getting kicked out. And then it literally says, hey, you know what? Restore that guy. Restore him, and not just that, but comfort him. Comfort him. Somebody gets kicked out of the church, hey, when he comes back, show a little charity. How? By comforting them and confirming them. Meaning you go up to that person and say, man, glad to see you again. Hey, I'm glad you're back. Hey, brother, I'm excited to see you here again. Not just like, well, he did me 30 months ago. I'm gonna wait and see. I'm gonna wait and see how he really does this time. Because I'm not gonna let him fool me twice. No, that's thinking evil. That's not charitable. And we'll look at that in a second when we go back to 1 Corinthians 13. And I'll just wrap it up. Where it says this, and God has said something to church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that, miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, diversities of tongues, all is saying is simply this, we all have a role to play. And when you realize that, you'll make some effort to help individuals when they struggle because you know they're important. I saw this in the military. We have prideful, arrogant, pretty much pieces of dung type leaders where as soon as a guy struggled, as soon as a guy got an injury, they just let him have it. You're in the Marine Corps, you know what I'm talking about. Instead of saying, look, man, get better. Oh, you got a stress fracture? Hey, chill, relax, recover. But do they do that? No, because your leaders don't really care about you in the military. It's rare you find that true guy that actually does care. And it's gonna be like, listen, double dog, ice yourself up, you know, go relax, rest. Hey, stay inactive. Not like, oh, this guy, he has a messed up leg. Hey, let's put him on weekend duty so we can go party. Let's punish this guy who fractured his leg, putting out 110%. And sure enough, he gets a fracture. And because he has leaders that are not loving, they love to abuse those individuals. They love to take advantage of them. And they put them on weekend duty. For you guys that are wondering what weekend duty is, this is what it is. It's when you basically get liberty on the weekend. You get Friday, Saturday off. But when they put you on weekend duty, you don't sleep. You're up for 24 hours. You're just watching and making sure the Marines aren't getting into fights. They're not getting drunk and destroying property. So if they put you on weekend duty, that means you start at 7 a.m. and you're not off to the next day at 7 a.m. And if you're lucky, you'll get maybe two hours, right? Maybe, exactly. Because you're usually the young guy. And usually you're paired up with a Lance Corporal, actually a Corporal or Sergeant, and guess what? If someone's gonna sleep, it's gonna be them. So you're all like red-eyed. Your foot is messed up. And why, why are they punishing this guy? Because they don't have charity. They don't care about this guy. He's just another guy that they gave them and he has to deal with them. But we shouldn't be like these Sergeants that don't care about their people. If you're in the leadership position, you should truly look in the mirror and say, look, I care about everybody here. And yes, we know. We know that the church will have infiltrators. We know about that. They shall be false prophets among you, false brethren unawares that are gonna creep in and they're gonna try to secretly draw away disciples. We know that. We absolutely know that. But does God want us to be on high alert to the point where we don't trust anyone? No, because that's not being charitable. That's not having charity and we'll see it. Let's go straight into 1 Corinthians 13. So let's start from the first verse because it's such a great chapter. One of the most powerful chapters in the entire Bible. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, I am become a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. What is that? I mean, can somebody really stand and say, I know exactly what it is? I can tell you that I think I know what it is because it is what it is. We have something called Amazon. And they sell everything. And so I decided to type in tinkling cymbal. And guess what? Something did come up and I'm like, well, Amazon does truly sell everything. And all it is, I guess you can say, it's like a, I think it's called a chime. You know those little devices that have a bunch of little metal things, you hit one and they all kind of bounce around and make noise. That's kind of what it is. Or have you ever been to one of those music museums and they got like, what is that thing called? The big plate? Look like it's one of those gigantic things that you hit with a hammer. What is it called? I thought it was called a chime, maybe. I'm off. But anyways, that's what it's kind of referring to here. Sounding brass, that's what that is. Some people say, oh no, this is an annoying sound. You know, something's gonna hurt your ears. The problem is this. I kind of like that, I kind of think it's cool. And even that little chime that they have a door sometimes, you know, you're like, they're knocking doors and all of a sudden you hear that noise. It's kind of common, like what is that? Oh look, they have that little chime. Who's been there and done that and got the t-shirt, right? Sometimes you go to these doors and those things, the little metal things are kind of like, the wind's like hitting them and they're making a little bit of noise. And it's not really annoying me. It's kind of calming me, like, well, that's kind of cool. But why is it saying it like that? Why is it bringing it up here? Because that type of sound doesn't really teach you anything. Like when we sing, we sing with music and words. You come, you hear a hymn, you're gonna learn something. True? It's gonna benefit you when you come here and you listen to music here. We're gonna sing hymns and sometimes we're gonna sing songs, amen? And so that is benefiting us. We're learning a little bit of doctrine. You can even pull up these books. You know what got me to like music when I started to actually pay attention to the words. Who's been there done that? I got the t-shirt. I used to come in like 30 minutes late to church. My wife can say amen to this because when I started out my Christian walk about 20 years ago, guess what? I was listening to music that I shouldn't be listening to. And so I walk into church and sure enough, guess what I would hear? Good music. One of the songs that stuck out was nothing but the blood. And that song just kind of like, just didn't hit me good. And I just didn't like it. So remember one time I went into church and just started singing it. And I'm like, oh man, I can't handle this music. I literally got up and went to the bathroom just to kind of escape it. And when I went into the bathroom, this little kid walked into the bathroom right behind me. And guess what he's singing? What can watch? I'm like, he followed me. And I didn't even go into the bathroom to use the bathroom. It was like, God put that kid to get up and go into the bathroom and follow me and start singing it. But then I stopped and paid attention. And that's where my song world changed. And I'm like, wow, this actually is a pretty good, like work, some pretty good lessons in these hymnals. But when you're just listening to the dong. Do you really learn anything? No. So this is kind of like noise, like an instrumental. This is kind of what it means to be a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Basically it's useless music is what it's saying. So what it's saying is if you don't have charity, you're like useless music. You're like that, dong. That's that some people are gonna like, and some people are gonna get annoyed. So it's basically saying, hey, if you don't have charity, you're like that type of music. Verse number two, and do I have the gift of prophecy? Hey, here's an individual that can preach and understand all mysteries. Here's a smart individual that understands a lot of scripture and all knowledge and even has knowledge that can benefit everyone. And do I have all faith in this guy is a very faithful person. Nothing scares him. Hey, this guy can remove mountains, but if he doesn't have charity, what does it say? I am nothing and nothing. Hey, it doesn't matter who you are. If you don't have charity, this is a scary thing. You are nothing. You might as well get the hat that says, I'm a nothing burger. And that's what God's seeing when he's in heaven looking down at you. You may think you're all this and all that, but God says, you're nothing. It's like, you don't even love your brothers. And the Bible says this, and do I bestow all my goods to feed the poor? This is the part that's always different when I read this. And though I give my body to be burned and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Imagine that, burning your body. And God's saying, no, that don't mean nothing to me. It's like, will people really do that? Yeah, it's called Buddhists. Who's seen those Vietnam videos of the Buddhists burning themselves for their religion? And they went from the fire pit to the fire because they woke up in hell. But hey, God says, don't be these people. They didn't really have love. How do we know if you truly have love? Here's a clue. By this we know that we love the truth of God. When we love God and keep his what? His commandments. And these Buddhists aren't even saved. They're not keeping any of God's commandments. These people aren't loving. It's like, wow, look at these guys. They must love the world. They sacrificed themselves for the world. Hey, profit them nothing. They're in hell burning right now. And guess what? They're gonna burn for all eternity because they rejected Christianity. But don't be like the Buddhists. And it says really clearly right here, charity suffers long. That means you're patient with people. You don't expect them to be at your level after a month, after two months. Because think about it. If you've been at church for 10, 15, 20 years, you can't expect somebody who's been in church for 20 months to be at your level when it took you 20 years. And not just that, guess what? Just because you're up there doesn't mean that the work is done. Hey, you have to keep that up. And guess what? It's no different with a new believer. They get to a certain level, it's work to stay at that level and keep moving up to the next level. But we need to be patient with one another. So yes, if somebody goes out soul winning wearing something that kind of offends you, you need to realize that he's not doing it on purpose. It's just he's coming and giving the Lord the best he can. I would prove my first win soul winning. Guess what I was wearing? A nice suit, Versace, like a thousand dollar tie. No, I wasn't. I wasn't wearing that. I was wearing like a beanie looking like a thug and I was dressed with a baseball jersey from the Oakland Athletics. And I literally had a beanie on and that was me being a silent partner. And I had these baggy, I know you can't imagine it, these baggy sweats because that was the look back in the Eminem days. Who knows what I'm talking about? So I was all into Eminem, trying to dress like him, sound like him, preach like him. No, I'm just kidding. But guess what? Jesus didn't rip me a new one at all. He's like, come on, brother, let's go. And he took me looking like that, you know? And after a week, two weeks or whatever, then he finally did say something, but he didn't really have to. I was ready. I'm just glad he did say something at the perfect time because here's what happened. I went out sewing another time. Guess what I was wearing? Brand new shoe, nice tie this time and some nice clean shoes from Walmart. No, let's not. What I was wearing was this white poofy jacket. White poofy jacket. Why? Because I was this guy. I was behaving myself unseemly. I was a show off. That's what it means to be unseemly. I was a show off. I wasn't really doing it because I wanted to like, you know, show people how much I love them. Hey, I was wearing this white poofy jacket. I mean, it was thick and I didn't live in Alaska either. It was thick like the Marshmallow Man. It was all nice and white. If somebody would drive and hit me with the lights at night, dude, I would shine. Literally. Raiders white puffy, like Raiders jacket with a Raiders like beanie on. And we went to this one guy and we knocked on his door. He has his garage open. We could tell he was in the garage. We went to the garage. You know, the talker's like, hey, sir, we're from Redwood Baptist Church. Just want to invite you to the church. You go to church anyway, anywhere. And he's like, hey, this is my church. He just points to his garage and guess what he had? He had like his whole garage, 99.9% covered with San Francisco 49er crap. And guess what I was wearing? Oakland Raiders crap. And in case you don't know, San Francisco fans hate Oakland Raiders fans and Oakland Raiders fans hate San Francisco fans. Well, we hate them because we hate San Francisco and San Francisco is a gay city, but we had nothing really against the team, but that's kind of how it was. We didn't wear San Francisco stuff. Cause if you wore it, you kind of assume you're gay. That's just kind of how we rolled. So it was Raiders or Oakland A's and that was about it. But do you think this guy wanted to hear me for a second? No, he got offended when I showed up with my Raiders attire. And he's like, listen, I got my religion. I'm good. He's like, my sir, no, I'm good. Kind of one of those things that, hey, I'm not interested. And I'm definitely not interested in talking to a guy wearing all Raiders attire, knocking on my door. So I went home and I felt bad. And I knew that has something to do with it. I could easily tell. It's kind of like Raiders, huh? Niners, huh? You know, it's like that type of moment. And I'm thinking, Lord, no, enough is enough. Just took it all off and decided I'm going to start wearing the suit. So then I did end up getting a suit. I don't know where I got it, but I got it. Cause I wanted to step it up. But before then, even my pastor said, hey, you know what? It kind of helps if you kind of go out soul winning and you look a little bit more serious. I'm not going to be serious. Do you know how much this Tim Brown, Jersey Kai's pastor? Like $99 a full locker. What do you mean I'm not serious? And he's like, not like that type of serious. Just like more like, hey, you want to be taken serious by people? You want to talk about Jesus? You might want to look a little bit serious. Like actually kind of like a church person, not a thug ready to rob your neighbor. But I have to decide, hey, do I care about people more than myself? Because I thought it was cool attire. Now looking back, I was just blinded by the world, the world's fashion, you know, it just kind of goes away. So I decided, you know what? I'm going to step it up, change, because I did care about people. But what was my problem? My problem was, hey, verse five. That was my problem. Verse 13, five says this, does not behave itself unseemly. If you don't believe me that unseemly is kind of like just me showing off, like, hey, look at me, you know, check me out. That's what my problem was with my attire. And it says right here, seeketh not her own. Hey, it's all about them. It's not easily provoked. So are you easily provoked tonight? If you are, you need to step up your charity. It's not enough to have it. God says have fervent charity. Really love someone. And a perfect example is when you look at scripture, Abraham, Abraham had fervent charity towards Lot. Remember how Lot got kidnapped? And he didn't say, well, good luck, Lot. Hopefully you make it through. No, he trained his servants and they risked their lives to go save them. Even though, of course, we know how it was going to end. Hey, I don't know if he knew that. But he said, you know what? I'm going to go rescue my brother. Hey, he got his servants trained up and they took off to go rescue him. And why did he do it? Because he had charity. He cared about his brother more than himself. He's like, I'm going to go, obviously it was his nephew, but he went to go rescue him because what? Like I said right here, he sought not his own life, but his life, Lot's life. He was not easily provoked. I'm sure he was upset that he was there, but he could have used that against him. Good, I don't deserve that, you know? You want to live inside of him, you deserve what you got. He didn't think that. He just said, you know what? He made a mistake. I'm going to go help him fix that mistake. I'm going to go rescue him. And that's what we should be. What did Jesus say? No greater love than this, that a man lay down his life for his brethren. I can do it for everyone except for Gabriel. That guy, I can't see myself crying for that dude yet. Well, that needs to fix. That needs to get, I'm not saying there's anybody thinking that, but don't be that guy. Don't be that type of individual. And be a person that's not easily provoked. Thinketh no evil. Meaning that you're not walking around like, you know what? This dude has made me dirty, that I know of in the last few days, but I'm pretty sure he's up to something, man. Because the other day, Brother Such and Such said something that I know came from that guy's mouth. No evidence, nothing, just thinking evil all day. And I'm thinking to myself, brother, where is your faith? Have you not read? And that's most of our problem, is it not? We've read because we have not read. When I talk to people and they're like, hey, I wanna start learning the Bible, where should I start? Hey, Book of John, in my opinion. If I'm like, hey, I wanna start learning scripture, where do I start? Psalms 34, in my opinion. Why? Because they have great verses in Psalms 34. Verses like, hey, the angel of the Lord and the capital around them that fear him and deliver them. So this poor man cried and God heard him and delivered him from all his troubles. Not some, but all of them. Hey, those verses can give you a lot of peace if you let them, if you let them. So this person's walking around fretting, thinking evil for no reason. And I'm thinking, brother, you need to quit that. That's not having love. But I love this person. In my opinion, if you don't love the person, you hate the person. You're like, I don't agree with that. Well, no man can serve two masters. You're gonna love the one and despise the other. So if you truly love that person, then awesome. But if you don't, brother, you hate that individual. And that is a big, big problem. You're only gonna destroy yourself. It is said that, A, hating someone for no reason is like drinking poison and wish they would die. I know I kind of screwed it up. But when I thought about that, that is kind of true. When somebody is wishing somebody ill, it's like you're poisoning yourself. All over nothing. Just because you think this person is still up to no good. Trying to do me wrong. What the Bible says, not many people. It says, I'm not talking about people that have been kicked out. I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about people that are in church because the pastor says, hey, these are good members and good standing. If anybody's allowed to come here, do yourself a favor and keep yourself from thinking evil. Why? Because that's not having charity. In other words, give people the benefit of the doubt. Where do you see that? Let me show you. It says, rejoice is not an iniquity. Hey, when people are in sin, are you happy they're in sin and screwing up their life? Hopefully not. But we rejoice in the truth. You see people walking in the truth, living the righteous life. Hey, do you get happy or do you get envious? Not just that, does not behave itself as sin. I'm sorry, bear with all things. And here it is, believeth all things. Now, of course, in the context of the Bible, it doesn't obviously mean believe everything you hear. The earth is flat. You should believe him because it came from your brother that's in good standing. That's not how it works. What this is saying is, hey, obviously the Bible teaches us to prove all things. But if you can't, by the mouth of two or three witnesses, shall every word be established. So if you can't prove something that you hear, but two people are saying, hey man, that actually happened. Then for charity's sake, just believe it, believe it. And if guess what? They're lying sins upon their head and they're going to be punished. This is a big one because people are like, man, I just don't trust that dude. I'm like, is he going to church? Yes. Is he going sowing in? Yes. Is he doing anything right now that he can point to that he deserves to basically be rebuked for? No, but three months ago, six months ago, brother, 10 years ago, if you know what he did, you will be in my shoes. You'll be saying, you'll be thinking the same thing I'm thinking, and that's not how it works. There was a person that I know that got kicked out of church and it paid the price for it. They paid the price, they repented. Sure enough, they come back. The pastor was thinking, maybe I should have them apologize for the church since they got kicked out. And to me, it was like, no. It's like, I don't think so. For what? You know, if they said sorry and you believe them, why do they have to get up in front of the church and be like, hey, I know I got kicked out three months ago, but I want everybody to know that I'm absolutely sorry for what I did. And at this point, hey, I'll probably not to do it again. And then we can forgive that person, but is that scriptural? Absolutely not. How do I know? Esau, perfect example. What happened? Jacob stole his birthright, did he not? He goes back home. Jacob goes back home after so many years. And here comes Esau. And what does the Bible say happened? Hey, Esau didn't say, welcome back, but we still got business to take care of. He didn't do that. What happened? He almost broke his neck, he fell on them and kissed them. He wasn't holding no grudges. But was he done dirty? Was Esau done dirty by Jacob? 100%, he deceived his father and he stole his blessings. And he got so mad, he wanted to kill him, wasn't the right thing to do. But he comes back, Jacob come back to the land and Esau didn't even ask for an apology. He gave him a straight up kiss, a wet one. I'm just kidding, I'm mad at that's the God's word. But he did kiss him. That's a fact, he did kiss him. Why is that story there? To help us to forgive people even if they don't specifically come to you and say, I'm sorry for what I did. Why, why, what does that even do? You're just causing the person to be more embarrassed. If you're that much higher than them, you should just let it go, amen. I'm trusting the pastor. Pastor, you say he's good, I think he's good. We had that happen. Somebody gets kicked out of church. They come back, they come to me because I'm one of the leaders. Hey, you know such and such is back. I'm like, where, no way. He said, you know what, pastor didn't tell me anything. But I highly doubt this person would just show up knowing that we told him, hey, come to church if you wanna get your butt kicked and kicked out. And then they show up. I'm just thinking, you know what, I haven't heard anything but I'm pretty confident that pastor knows about it. And if she's back or he's back, then guess what I'm gonna do? I'm just gonna go with it. I'm not gonna ask this person, hey, you know what, are we good now? Are you gonna do it again? No, you're gonna mess up, you're gonna mess around again? You're gonna be a pain in the butt again? I'm not gonna do that. I'm just gonna say, hey, you know what, if pastor says they're good, they're good enough for me. Why? Because love covered it a multitude of sins. I'm not gonna bring it up. I don't want people to know about it. I don't want people to see these individuals just as if they never sinned because that's how God says us. When we're justified, it's just as if we never sinned. But why am I doing it? Because I care about these people. This guy screwed up and sure enough, somebody felt it was their duty to tell this girl that they wanted to date all about their past. And I found out about it and I'm like, no, you shouldn't have done that. That's what dating is for. She'll find out if he's a bozer or not. But it's not your job to go and tell people what he did in the past. If this girl likes him and he likes her, hey, they have the right on their own to privacy and figure out whether they wanna be together for the rest of their lives. And if this guy is this total wicked individual, that's not your fault or my fault. Hey, we all have the ability to give God's blessings upon us and his protection. And therefore, if you marry somebody who turns out later to be a reprobate, you have no one to blame but yourself. Not the church, not the pastor, no one. How do I know? Because that's what the Bible says. No good thing would he withhold to them that walk uprightly. And last time I checked, is a saved, wonderful wife a blessing? Absolutely. Is that a good thing? Absolutely. So if you marry some reprobate chick down the road, guess what? That's not a good thing. That all tells me you weren't walking uprightly. And you can always look back and realize, dude, there were signs, there were red flags. People warned you and you didn't heed. You married that person, turns out they're wicked. But you can't blame the leader because I didn't tell you about their past. That's where dating comes in, hello? I'm not telling you because I have charity. I care about that person. If they're bad, God knows it. And he's gonna protect us from that person. My job is to have fervent charity among the people that are in good standings. But with that said, we know that the infiltrators are always gonna be among us. But don't be that guy. Well, the Bible says, I wonder if this, I'm pretty sure those don't have those conversations on the side. Because guess what? God doesn't like that. That's called backbiting. That's called falsely accusing people. That's called thinking evil in your heart. True? So now you see why 1 Corinthians 13 is so powerful? It's a way to check yourself before you wreck yourself because it's bad for your health. Yeah, listen to the wrong music. But that's all I'm doing, going bit by bit. Because look, you guys already know that, hey, if you don't have charity, you're nothing. Hey, if you give your body to be burned, it doesn't gonna profit nothing if you don't have charity. We all know charity suffers long, but I want you guys to understand these things. Suffering long, that's patience. Hey, being kind, self-explanatory. Hey, envy is not self-explanatory. Hey, bunting not itself, a little bit harder. It's not puffed up. That means you're full of pride. Does not behave in self unseemly. That means that you're a show-off. Hey, thinking not of our own. That means you're selfish, not easily provoked. Means you can handle somebody saying something offensive to you. Thinking no evil, that's the problem that people have. And they're like, well, I'm thinking it, but not saying it. You're still not good. You're not good. That's not loving to be somebody that holds grudges, that thinks evil is someone in their heart. Let that stuff go. Hey, do you rejoice when a person that you hate, that did you dirty, starts to screw up again? Are you rejoicing over that? Or are you sad about it? And you're like, you know what? I'm gonna pray for that person. Why? Because it does help. It does help. Remember what Esther said? Pray for me, fast for me. Don't eat, don't drink, three days. Guess what? I'm gonna go up, and if I perish, I perish, because praying for people does help. I mean, James says it all day long. If any man's sick, hey, call the elders, anoint him with oil, pray, and a prayer of faith is gonna help the sick person. That's why we get up here, and it's not just us just doing some kind of religious exercise, praying for Brother Raymond, praying he gets better, because now we can go home and say, we're praying. No, are you praying, believing? And not just that, are you praying with the right heart? Are you praying because you want to? Because you have to. No, Brother Gabriel, pray for Brother Raymond. I don't even like that guy, but sure. Lord, help that guy out, you know? Don't be that guy. Have charity, have love, amen? Because it will never fail you. Hey, whether you can preach, that can stop one day. You can have a mental breakdown or whatever, it happens. I'm not saying you're in sin. I'm just saying it does happen. We had a pastor who had a mental breakdown. He didn't preach like he used to. Hey, it was what it was. That's what he did in father-in-law, great preacher. I've heard him preach myself before. Me and my wife got to hear him preach twice. It was just accidental, but sure enough, he had a stroke. Now he can't preach. But he was known for being a loving guy, wanting to start so many churches all over Los Angeles. He was known for that. You know, that type of testimony is gonna help people to take it to the next level. It's like, he had that dream, I'm gonna take that dream and run with it. But how did he get that dream? Through love, through love, through charity. Since it never fails, a prophecy is where you can preach, it'll fail. Whether tongues, hey, you know what? If you're not native to a certain language, if you stop practicing, you're gonna forget. You know, so hey, tongues here is talking about languages. Whether you can speak a lot of languages, that's great and wonderful, but you can forget those languages. But you know what? Love is something people, they have a hard time forgiving or not remembering because it impacts them so much. Somebody gets me a locker, me, myself personally, when I think of charity, I think about somebody who gave me $3,000 once to fix my transmission in my vehicle. I didn't have the money and it was a vehicle that I thought was gonna last me a long time, which is why I bought it. I financed a $16,000 GMC and Fex is in the parking lot right now, but that thing broke down three months after I bought it. And I financed it for 16 Gs. And I'm thinking to myself, man, I just bought a $16,000 piece of junk. It's like, oh well, all I can do at that point is just pray, get a call from somebody, hey, I heard what happened. I'm like, yeah, man, I don't know what I'm gonna do. I only have like $1,200 in the bank. If that, I've got to save you some money. So I'm gonna just let it collect dust in the parking lot and hopefully I can get it fixed. If you go up, brother, you've done a lot for me. You've done a lot for people. Hey, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm just gonna give you the money. I was like, look, I'll pay you as soon as I can. Nope, nope, I'm giving you the money, bro. I don't want it back. I'm giving you the money. Call the mechanic tomorrow, tell him to get your vehicle, tow it to his shop and get it fixed. And when it's done, hey, I'll go down there and I'll pay for it. I was like, brother, I appreciate it. And every time I think of charity, that goes in my head, every single time. And I'm thinking to myself, I need to return a favor whenever I can. Somebody's in a hurt locker, brother, I have no problem. I will not hesitate. I'll pull my bank account and one penny if I have to, to help someone. I'm not gonna go in the red, but I will give a pay or I will have a penny and be satisfied with it. But we all know that charity never fail if prophecies, they'll fail, times they'll fail. There'll be knowledge it'll vanish away, but we know a private property in part, but that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I was a child, I stood a child, I thought I was a child, but when I became a man, I pulled away childish things. And watch how these things are referring to, hey, thinking evil of people with no evidence. That's childish. Little kids do that. You know, they're always like, hey, you know, such and such says something about you. I knew that person. It's just childish, right? Not giving people the benefit of the doubt. That's childish, kids do that all the time. You know, it's like, well, she said, sorry, but I don't believe it. I don't believe, I don't believe Nancy in the playground. I think she just said that because the teacher made her say it. I don't think she's really sorry, but we shouldn't believe this. Pull it all away from you. Hey, charity, above all things, that's what we should have. That's what it says in verse 13. About it in faith, hope, charity, these three, but the greatest of these is charity. Now let's just skip to 1 Corinthians 14. Let's just finish it up with that one. It says, follow after charity and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy. Amen, that ye may prophesy. And so what is the title of the sermon? The title of the sermon is simple. It's basically chastisement, I'm sorry, charity and the chastisement of the Lord. Now let's quickly look at the chastisement of the Lord. Go to Matthew 18. Go to Matthew 18. It's a famous story of Peter saying, hey, how many times should I forgive someone? You know, should I forgive them seven times? And Jesus comes back at him and says, I say not unto thee seven times, but unto thee seventy times seven times. And this is a scary chapter. And we know and we believe in church discipline. We believe in it. We've kicked people out. Why? So they can get right. We kick them out, they get right, we bring them back. Sometimes people just don't know that this stuff works. We kick people out, they're calling them right away and saying, listen, brother, I heard what happened. You know, I just want to say that I'm sorry and I'm praying for you. And they just give them an ear to be able to unload all the bitterness that they have told the church that they kept in, couldn't hold it. We ended up having to kick them out because it became railers, whatever the case may be. And church members that are immature, they give them an ear to hear and they end up just kind of causing more damage. Versus if you just cut them off, just say, if the church says you're out, you're out, that'll make them feel bad and get right with the Lord a whole lot quicker. If I go to verse 21, Matthew 18, 21 says this. Then came Peter to him and said, Lord, how off shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Told seven times, Jesus says unto him, I say not unto thee until seven times, but until seventy times seven. Therefore is the kingdom heaven liking unto a certain king, which will take account of his servants. And we all know the story, if not, you can read it later. But what I want to focus on is the very end where it talks about if you don't forgive others, God's going to be angry with you. So go to verse number 34. And this is referring to the Lord Jesus Christ. And it says in verse 34, so Matthew 18 is talking about a guy who gets forgiven, is dead, and sure enough, they let him go. And somebody owes him money and he gets all mad because this person can't pay him back like he wants to get paid. And he takes that person, throws him in jail and doesn't forgive the guy. And then the other person finds out and basically gets upset at him. And this is in verse 34, and his Lord was wroth. And that's what happens when we don't have charity and we can't forgive. Because if you truly love someone, you will forgive. But somebody that tells me, well, I love him, but I just can't forget him. I can't forgive him. Because the Bible says, if he repent, forgive him. And that's true, amen, all day long. The Bible says he that confesseth and forsaketh shall have mercy. So you don't have to be someone that's super, super knowledgeable of the Bible. That's in Proverbs. You'll come across that early as a Christian, where God, yes, just confessing, God, I'm sorry, that's not enough for him. He wants you to repent. He wants you to go and sin no more. I totally get it. I totally understand it. I'm 100% behind it. Because it is true, just saying, God, I'm sorry, but you're continuing your drunkenness, you're continuing your pot smoking, you're continuing whatever. Hey, you're not gonna prosper. God says, confesseth and forsaketh. And the Bible says in many places to repent. We should repent all the time. I get that. But what's up with this verse? If your brother repents, forgive him. What's up with that? Obviously, in this situation, it's a picture perfect situation. You know, brother offends me, whatever, I go to him. Sure enough, he says, I'm sorry. Hey, let's just be at peace with one another. I'm like, I agree, just wanna let you know. I'm upset at you. You said this, you said that, you did this, you did that. You both agree. He repents and says, I'm sorry, brother, forgive me. It's good, it's over with, you forgave him. But what about the person that gets booted and never actually comes back and says sorry to you? What about that guy? That guy hasn't repented. He hasn't said sorry to me at all. You know, I'm not gonna forgive him. You know what you're showing? You ain't got no love for that person. You're no Esau, brother. You know what I'm saying? If God were to say, hey, now that he's back, give him a kiss, you'd be like, hell no. But God's not asking us to kiss all the people that done us dirty, but he does want us to rejoice. Remember the prodigal son? What happened to him? He screwed up, bad. Comes back, his brother is a bitter butterfly. Why is that story there? To remind you, don't be that guy. Be a loving person. A loving person will let things go. Says it's an honor to a man to pass over a transgression. God says, hey, it's an honorable thing. When you love somebody so much, you let little things go. It's not worth it. The little things don't mean jack to God. If he punished us for every little thing we did, do you imagine how life would be? Do you imagine for one second, every time you have, not even in adulterous, like thought or lustful thought, just a foolish thought. That's what the Bible actually says. The thought of foolishness is sin, is sin. And I always used it also when I always tell the person, listen, you think that my thoughts are perfect every day? And the person out there at the door is like, no way. It's like, no way. I believe I sin every day. I'm not stealing or killing or committing adultery, but I believe that I have a foolish thought here and there every day. I have something stupid come across my mind. Either I think something or even say something. But God, I believe, let those things go. It's kind of like Jacob. He says, few and evil have been my days. And obviously God, I don't think punishes you for every little thing you do, depending on how bad it is, because he will just let it go because he loves us. Because he loves us and he doesn't want us to be miserable. So when we may be out so when he dropped the F bomb or the S bomb because we had a problem with profanity, from our previous careers or whatever, because I did, I got out the military and I don't know about you brother, but I struggle with profanity. Did you? All right, don't confess it. All I'm saying is this. Little things, come on guys. You know, if you love the person, you're not even going to tell your spouse probably, just because you want your spouse to think the best of this individual, because that's what you want. You want to be someone that helps edify people, not break them down. And that's what it's all about tonight. It's about charity. But what was the second part of the sermon? Chastisement. In other words, if you can't forgive people, God's not going to forgive you. That's just the facts of life. And God commands us to love one another. He commands us to edify one another. He commands us that if we kick someone out, they come back, not just to receive them, but to comfort that person and to confirm that person, let him know, hey bro, I'm glad to see you. Hey man, hey, it's great to see you again. Brother, call me if you need me. And if you can't do that, then I understand, but you got to get to that level or you're going to miss out on life. And I don't want anybody here to miss out in life. We already sinned too much in my opinion, not that we're out committing adultery or whatever, but we all know that we're going to regret many moments when we just gave in too easy to sin. And that causes God to just kind of hold off from fully blessing us. But tonight it's all about charity, learning about it and realizing the danger of not having fervent charity. And God will come down on you. Why? Because if you can't forgive, neither will he forgive. And guess what? Maybe those little thoughts that you had, those foolish thoughts, hey, he might take those and say, you know what? If he ain't willing to forgive, then you know what? I'm going to punish him for the littlest things. And he can't forgive the littlest things. But if you can't forgive the littlest things, God will forgive the littlest things that you do. And even some things that may be even bigger, like if you loan someone money and they don't pay you back or you loan somebody something and they lose it or get it stolen and you get all upset and you're just all bitter and angry and hateful and you think evil, because guess what? This person, they lost your whatever that you let them borrow. If you're not willing to say, whatever, man, hey, I should have known, hey, I gave it to you. Hey, I'm the one that's fully to blame, not you. I'm the one that decided to give it to you. But if you can't forgive that person after they say, I'm sorry, brother, I lost your phone. I lost this, I lost that. Hey, you know what? I won't be able to pay you this week. I know I promised you, but I can't. Hey, if you're not willing to say, man, no worries. No big deal, brother. Then you ain't got the charity that you need and you need to step it up a little bit or you're going to receive chastisement. And that's why I'm here to remind you, remind us all to be charity, to have charity, fervent charity. Because if you don't, then guess what? If you don't have charity, you're going to have chastisement. Which one do you want? Amen, let's pray.