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you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you charity let's pray. you you an example example you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you talks about the mind that was in Christ that he had that mind of not considering just your own things, but the things also of others and having that humility. But look at chapter 8 verse number 1 of 1 Corinthians. The Bible says, Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. The Bible says, Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth. I mean, it's a true statement, it's a fact, and this is another thing I've witnessed over and over and over again. And this happens, you can see this in whether it's in religious circles or not, people who learn a lot have a tendency to be more proud. Look at academic institutions, look at, you know, anywhere in the world where you have people who have done a lot of learning and received a lot of education, you're gonna find a higher percentage of people who are proud. Cause knowledge puffs up. Because when you start to learn and understand more, you have a tendency to look on other people that don't have the same knowledge as you, as different. Right? I mean, think about it. This is natural. I think everyone can understand like, what are you, stupid or something? Why is that? Because you have knowledge and they don't. And that's common when people gain, the more and more knowledge you get, the more you're gonna think of people as just kind of being dumb and ignorant around you. But how, so what does that do? That just lifts you up. It puffs you up as, well I know all this stuff and they don't know it. So how do you balance that out? Because we, hey, it's important that we have knowledge. We need to know things. We ought to just hold that up. We don't just deal with that by saying, well then you know what? To combat that, I'm just not gonna learn anything. And I'll just be, you know, ignorance is bliss. No, that's not in the Bible. Right? We need to have the wisdom. So how do you balance that? The Bible says, knowledge pluppeth up, but charity edifieth. So you balance your knowledge with the charity. So you use that knowledge to help others, to care for others. So while you're accumulating more and more understanding and knowledge, you need to have the charity in your heart and the care for other people to use the knowledge to say, how can I help people with this? What's this gonna do for them? Not how can I just ridicule people for not knowing. No, what can I do now knowing this to help other people? To help them to know it? To help them to learn this? You know, what are you gonna do? The charity is gonna cause you to help the people to do that. Cause you're gonna care for them. That's how charity's gonna edify. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. And you know, I've seen this so much, and especially in a religious setting, because churches like ours I think do a great job of teaching the Bible, like going through doctrine and really going through and teaching verse by verse and going through and just giving explanation for the Bible. So people learn a lot in churches that are similar to ours, in fundamental Baptist churches. Let's face it, right? They're the ones that care the most about what the Bible says and teaching of the Bible. So you're gonna learn the most, but you can't just use that as something that's going to cause you to just be looking down on people and have a puffed up attitude. Cause again, what does that accomplish? You can be the smartest person in the world, know all this stuff, but it's like, if you're not doing it to help anyone, what's God gonna reward you with? Congratulations, you learned a lot. But what did you do? Right? I mean, Jesus has a name that's exalted above all other names, but what did he do? Jesus had all knowledge, but what did he do? He didn't just keep it to himself, he went out and served and ministered to other people, right? And he was willing to to even sacrifice himself. Look at verse number six. Excuse me, verse number five. Doth not behave itself unseemly. So this goes more to last week's sermon, but having charity is also tied into you know, not doing things that are unseemly. That is not right. Seeketh not her own again, tied into the motivation that is it all about yourself or is it about others? Seeketh not her own is not easily provoked. Goes along with suffering long in his kind, right, when you're not easily provoked. So someone can't just come up to you or do something wrong and be like, oh, let me just fly off the handle, man. What are you doing? You shouldn't be so easily provoked. Right? Suffer long. Be able to deal with things without flipping out about it. Not easily provoked. Thinketh no evil. Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth. So if you have charity in your heart, you're not going to be rejoicing about iniquity. You're not going to be happy with sin or even just treating it as not a big deal. Again, I preached more on that last week. But having a charity in your heart is going to recognize we shouldn't be just making a joke about sin or reveling in our sin or anything of the sort. We rejoice not in iniquity, but we're going to rejoice in the truth. We're going to be happy about hearing the truth. Hey, here's what the Bible says. The Bible condemns this. I love the Bible for condemning the things it condemns. I'm not going to rejoice in the iniquity. And that has charity. Well, how is that charity? Because, one, you're being an example. And what do you rejoice in? Are you talking fondly of wickedness and sinfulness? Well, when you are, that doesn't help anybody else at all. All you're going to do is encourage other people to sin or participate in wickedness because they look at you as an example, as a believer, going, oh, if it's okay for this person, then it's okay. It must be okay for me. You know, here's an example from my life where I saw I witnessed this myself firsthand. I had a friend who his he had a child that was baptized. And this was a real personal family friend of mine years and years ago. And I went to, I didn't go to the actual baptism because there was like an infant baptism and I didn't believe in that. But I did decide to go afterwards. They had like a luncheon. And I just wanted to talk to him because I felt like he was a believer or whatever. It's irrelevant to the story. But what happened then at this luncheon is that the and I forget what religion is, like Catholic or Greek Orthodox or something of the sort something of that flavor, that persuasion, right? And the minister or whatever he's called I'm not going to call him father whoever the guy was that did the service was there too. And someone, like in celebration someone was ordering shots of booze. Right? And the brother of my friend was there and the guy who ran the thing, the minister took a shot. Right? And drank a shot of booze. And I remember my friend's brother saying like well if he's going to have one then I'll have one. Right? It's a bad example. It's a horrible example, right? I mean you're supposed to be an example we know what the Bible teaches, now that guy's some heretic whatever, that minister he's false religion maybe a false prophet, whatever but the example of what how it influences other people. Right? That's not very charitable because now you're encouraging other people to do something wrong. And that's, you know, that is not having charity. So when you rejoice in iniquity, that's not charitable. So that's why I said to rejoice not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth. Verse 7, beareth all things. Being able to bear, again suffering long very closely tied in with bearing all things, believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things. Charity is going to be consistent. As it says in the next verse, charity never faileth. Charity sticks it out. Charity suffers long. Charity continues. Right? It's kind of the driving force behind all of it is that love. Like, you know, all the law hangs on what? To love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. Everything kind of falls on those two main principles in scripture. Love God. If you love God you're not going to blaspheme his name. You're not going to use his name as vain. You're not going to, you know, sin against God directly. And if you love your neighbor as yourself, then you're not going to be sinning against man. You're not going to do evil unto them. You're not going to, you know, all these other things. So it kind of encapsulates all of it. So at the heart of it is that love or charity. Charity never faileth but whether it be prophecies they shall fail. Whether it be tongues they shall cease. Whether it be knowledge it shall vanish away. So all those other things hey, that can, that can come and go but the charity remains and charity needs to stay there. So charity is being exalted above those things and that while yes you can have those things you have to have charity as a driving force behind all of it. For we know in part we prophesy in part but when that which is perfect has come then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child I spake as a child. I stood as a child. I thought as a child. When I came a man I 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. Verse 13 the last verse. And now abideth faith hope charity these three. But the greatest of these is charity. So when comparing faith and hope and charity the Bible is putting charity at the top. So clearly extremely important part of the Christian life. And the Bible says that not only should you have that but you ought to be an example in charity. And you know I leave the application to you. Do you can you look at your life and say yeah you know my life is pretty much characterized by charity. You answer that for yourself. You just think about your day to day. Think about how you deal with people. Think about how you respond. And you know what if you're honest with yourself I bet we can all find areas where we need to improve on. Sometimes it's even the people that's closest with us that we don't have enough charity for. Our spouses, our children whatever right like there's always room for improvement. And of course long suffering balances with being in a position of authority for example. Right like you're talking about kids. You need to be able to discipline but you also need to have mercy. So you got to find the proper balance between the two. But one I think the kindness can really go a long way as well. And being able to treat people right. The Bible says this in 1 Timothy 1.5 you don't have to turn there. You can turn to 1 Peter chapter 4 please. 1 Timothy 1.5 says now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned. So that's like the end of the commandment. This is the point of it is charity out of a pure heart. It's not fake. It's unfeigned. It's real. It's genuine. You have real charity real care. You're not just putting on a show. It's not just an act. You actually start caring for people. Look if you have to fake it. If you have to fake love and fake charity you got big problems. Now I would recommend if that is an issue just try to keep going through the motions but get your heart right. Focus on getting your heart right. You'll meditate on God's love for you. Whatever it is that's going to make you understand and realize look I really need to care about people like a lot. I just hope that's not the case for anyone because I'm having a hard time figuring out what you can do if that's you. You need to genuinely care about people. You need to think about the consequences of sin. You need to think about hell. You need to think about whatever you know. Think about yourself before you knew whatever it is that you know because often times again people just treat others as like well you're just idiots anyways so whatever I don't care. It's kind of a heartless attitude towards people. We need to think of it and have the right charitable heart to help people and help those that are in need. And you know this actually just popped into my head and you know people may disagree with me on this. I don't know whatever but this is just an explanation of why I deal with people who come to our church asking for money the way that I do. Because I believe it's actually really charitable in many cases to not give money to everyone that asks you for money. I think the loving thing to do is to be like what do you mean? I thought you know like if someone comes to you you know they'll tell you well don't you know what it means to be a Christian? It means you need to help those in need so you got to give me money. Like no that's not what that means. Now look I will gladly do my best to help when a brother's in need like the Bible says. If I have goods if I'm able to help and they're in need then I can help them. But it's not always beneficial to the person which ultimately is who you should be caring about. Right? Caring about the people and the people that just come in looking for money I care about those people and they come in frequently. They come in from time to time right? They come in and they'll ask to speak to the pastors like no one else is good enough they have to talk to me because they're asking for money. And many of you have witnessed this. I'll sit down and I try my best to give them the gospel. If we gave them all the money in our bank account and they die and go to hell what good is that? It's meaningless it's pointless right? The best way that I can help anybody and I don't care what your situation is if you're not saved to give you the gospel. That is the most loving thing that anyone can do for anyone else. But then besides that okay you say whether they're saved or unsaved receive the gospel or not there's still the aspect but what about giving them money though if they're in need? Well that's not always the right thing for them. And you have to be able to consider the cause of the poor. Why are they in the condition? Are you going to be helping them? And in some cases there are people who have had things happen maybe seemingly outside of their control whatever and they give medical emergencies and whatever and they're trying and they're working and they're doing everything that they're supposed to be doing but they still need a little bit of help. Okay. But the vast majority of people are addicted to drugs or alcohol or something else they don't want to work they have all these excuses and they just want money from someone else. And they think that the church is an ATM that they could go and just get money out of someone else's account and use it for themselves. And I'm sorry there's nothing charitable about just giving people money for nothing. There's not. Anyways 1 Peter chapter 4 verse number 8 and above all things have fervent charity among yourselves for charity shall cover the multitude of sins use hospitality one to another without grudging as every man hath received the gift even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Above all things it says in verse 8 have fervent charity. Fervent is like fire I mean it's like passionate charity not just like eh I got charity. You know it's like no I really care about this I love people have fervent charity among yourselves and why is it charity is going to cover the multitude of sins. Because the more charitable you are you're going to have more long suffering right and be able to endure a lot more and overlook and forgive sins. So it's going to cover the multitude of sins because you're being charitable towards people. Which you know generally speaking that's how we ought to be. Alright let's shift gears now turn to the book of Proverbs we're going to look at Proverbs chapter 16 to start so that's charity I spent about half the time going through charity. Now we're going to look at being an example in spirit. Spirit might be a little bit harder to nail down but it really is and you just got to understand when you look at all the uses of spirit in the Bible there's kind of multiple different ways it's used but I think one of the best ways to think about spirit is first of all when you go through the Bible you're going to see there's spirit of jealousy there's a spirit there's a spirit of things that are bad there's a spirit of things that are good right? So we can all get kind of wrapped up in or caught in a spirit of something so it could be a spirit of even a spirit of drunkenness Bible talks about that there's many different references all these different things it's called a spirit of and it's not talking in some cases when it's talking about a spirit it's literally talking about like a devil spirit or something right? People being possessed but that's not what this is talking about here that we're an example in spirit cause spirit also has to do with you think about this okay like in high school or in school right? You have school spirit what does it mean to have school spirit it means you're all for and promoting and ra ra ra for the school for the home team or whatever it's professional sports it doesn't matter you have spirit for the team what that means is you are exhibiting and excited about and performing for and holding up whatever it is that your spirit is in right? That's what the Bible is talking about is what is our spirit what is our demeanor what's kind of driving us what is our motivation what are we doing what are we spending our time with what is it that's that's our spirit does that make sense? This is what the Bible is talking about being an example in spirit it's more again and this has more to do than just checking a box or being robotic with how you obey God and the commandments and the law and the book right? It has to do with your passion with your desire with your heart so in that sense it's similar to charity because it's really an inward thing it has to do with your desires and in your heart now one of the things I notice about the spirit because we want to be an example in spirit so one thing that's important with your spirit is one that you have control of your spirit so if you're going to be a good example in spirit you have moderation over your spirit and I'm not saying don't get too zealous but our spirit our spirit can be led to different things our flesh can kind of have an influence on our spirit but the holy spirit can also have an influence on our spirit of what we're motivated about what we want to do kind of what we're getting into so number one we need to have good temperance and moderation control Proverbs 16 look at verse number 32 he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he that ruleth his spirit then he that taketh a city so in this context what are we talking about so you could be caught up in a spirit of anger right in a spirit of vengeance in a spirit of retribution and what the Bible is teaching in Proverbs is hey if you could control your spirit you rule your spirit that's better than even taking a city and we have a good example of this in scripture remember when Dinah was defiled when the children of Israel himself his family was living in Shechem and she gets defiled she's hanging out with a guy and they fornicate and he wants to marry her and then what are her brothers her brothers are really angry about this they're really upset they're not able to control their spirit and they devise a plan to go out and they kill all the people or they kill all the guys they have them circumcised they get them weakened and they destroy them and what they do they took the city they took the city right they're mighty men they were able to go in and destroy them it says but he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he that ruleth his spirit then he that taketh a city it wasn't wise for them to do that it wasn't their job to go and do that you know they should have left the vengeance to God on on on dealing with that matter or their father right who was the one who was responsible for the family on what he was going to do they didn't need to take matters on their hands they didn't rule their spirit well those were talking about that's one example of of ruling your spirit and being in control of your spirit that makes sense uh look at Proverbs 17 and you see how that's that's associated with charity because charity suffers long so if you're if you're able to control your spirit you're not just going to fly off the handle you're going to be able to to suffer wrongs long verse uh verse 27 Proverbs 17 he that hath knowledge spareth his words and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit and again associating the having knowledge and understanding is associated with having an excellent spirit and someone who's sparing their words why again you control your spirit you're not just going to start saying a bunch of stuff as a response as a knee jerk reaction you have control you're ruling your spirit you're not allowing yourself just just to go off the handle in that regard too even a fool when he holdeth his peace is counted wise and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding and remember a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit and even a fool can look like a man of understanding when he keeps his mouth shut right hey great words of wisdom great words of wisdom and so so what does that mean hey if you're going to be an example of the believers in spirit learn how to control yourself and control your spirit right you're going to be temperate so when people do things you're not just saying whatever you're not just doing whatever you're going to be well measured and an appropriate response can come forth that's that's part of being a good example in spirit Proverbs 25 a few more pages forward Proverbs 25 verse number 28 verse 28 the Bible reads he that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls so if you can't rule your spirit you're really vulnerable right you're going to be really easily taken down you need to control yourself and that control is also a defense for you right because you start running your mouth you don't have any control over your spirit you're opening yourself up to be taken down to be humbled to be made low or just you're opening up the door for iniquity for yourself as well which you know got to be careful with that so ruling your spirit that's a really important aspect of being an example in spirit but not the only thing let's let's look at some other examples from scripture Isaiah chapter 66 you want to go forward a little bit Isaiah the last book of Isaiah last chapter excuse me not last book so not just controlling your spirit but what kind of spirit should we have right we're going to be an example in spirit well then you need to control your spirit but you want to control maybe some more of the negative aspects of your spirit too right we're not just being rash you're not just flying off the handle you're going to control that but we also want to try to have a good spirit so what would be a good spirit example of having a good spirit verse 1 the Bible says thus saith the Lord the heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool where is the house that ye build unto me and where is the place of my rest for all those things hath mine hand made and all those things have been saith the Lord but to this man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word so what God is looking for is someone who has a contrite spirit what is contrite means it means you have contrition which would mean that you have you know you're really low you're humble so a contrite man is going to be humble you're not lifted up you're not proud you're not full of yourself and having contrition often times associated with you know kind of being sorry and grieved and having repentance in your heart for things that you might have done wrong when you're contrite you're humble you're easy to accept yeah I've done wrong you know that that's a contrite heart it's really just someone who's really humble so if we're going to be an example of the believers in spirit then we ought to have a contrite spirit if that's what God's looking for and he says we should have that type of spirit then we ought to have that so our spirit is kind of going to characterize who we are and what we're all about and what we're into and how you're known well if you have a contrite spirit that's one way that you could be a good example of believers look at Malachi chapter number two actually no just go to Luke chapter 9 I'm going to skip Malachi chapter 2 go to Luke chapter 9 Luke chapter 9 we're going to get the context of this story we're actually going to start reading in verse number 51 if you're in Luke chapter 9 go to verse number 51 it came to pass when the time was come that he should be received up he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem it's talking about Jesus and sent messengers before his face and they went and entered into a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him and they did not receive him because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem so Jesus is on his way he's headed to Jerusalem but you know it's a longer journey so he says hey let's turn aside let's go into this village here and it's a village of Samaritans and the Samaritans reject him being able to find a place to stay he's like sends people over hey find a place for us to stay and they're like oh you're going to Jerusalem no no vacancy for you right so I mean that's not very nice that's not very hospitable that's not very charitable I mean they're not doing Jesus any favors here at all right they're making it difficult for him and they refuse him so the disciples get offended by that like excuse me wait you're going to reject Jesus do you know who this man is and when his disciples James and John saw this they said Lord wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them even as Elias did they're like oh really they're rejecting you hey God should we just do you want to just command it do you want because he said do you will right do you want this to happen how about you just bring fire down and just destroy them I mean hey if they're just going to reject you like that then just kill them and they bring up Elijah right if you remember the story with Elijah Elijah was on top of this mountain like he was just he did all these great things and you know he had this great battle against the the prophets of Baal and he won of course and it was proven that the Lord is God and all these prophets of Baal died and everything but then it's like it's still like didn't like there's still people that didn't that didn't stand up for the Lord you know the Bible says there were 7,000 that didn't bother the need of Baal but it's kind of like where were they and Elijah is just sort of just still like on his own and then the king is sending for him and he's got these soldiers show up to where he's at in this mountain and they're calling to this man of God and he's like well hey if I be a man of God then let fire come down and consume you right but the situation is so not the same at all right there's soldiers being sent to like essentially take Elijah like just take him to the king like he's being arrested practically and he's just like well look you're calling me a prophet of God then let fire come down and in that situation I'm not going to get into all the details of that and more meaning behind that but that's different they're coming to him but they're now going to these other people's homes and basically asking like hey do you have a place for us to stay so one it's not the same thing at all two now Jesus rebukes them because they didn't have the right spirit but he turned and rebuked them and said ye know not what manner of spirit you're of verse 56 for the son of man is not come to destroy men's lives but to save them and they went to another village so Jesus says look if they're not going to receive us to their house tonight we're not here to destroy him let's go to another village you know this is a great example of you know you go out soul winning hey you could shake off the dust of your feet against people who are not receiving Jesus but then you just move on like don't take all of that personally and have the wrong spirit of like well now I'm going to curse them and now I want evil to happen to them like no just let God deal with that stuff they didn't do anything to you they just didn't open up their door to you right they're not receiving what you have for them but it's not like they're going out and attacking you and fighting you know like doing anything else against you they're just not receiving you they say okay so the spirit of Christ is to go and to seek and save that which is lost but he doesn't force anything on anyone he's not cursing them either like oh you're not receiving Christ then well then damn you which is what he'd be doing of just sending fire down on these people without receiving Christ like we don't want to do that so having the charity and your spirit in check you know you're bringing Jesus you're representing Jesus we don't want to you know we're not bringing curses to people if they reject you have a good attitude maintain a good attitude even with people who can be blasphemous or belligerent right when you are bringing this message you're trying to bring Jesus to them don't respond railing for railing just let it go control your spirit right be a good example in spirit and understand hey I'm here because I love it because Jesus love these people Jesus love the Samaritans he died for them on the cross now it's up to them if they're not going to receive him but that's still on them we're not going to our spirit is going to be in check and still maintain a spirit of love when we go out and preach to these people try our best to help lead them to Christ and hey if not fine shake off the dust of your shoes move on we're going to another village Romans 7 so that's hey having the right spirit be an example of the believers in spirit we're almost done I've got a few more references Romans 7 verse number 4 the Bible reads wherefore my brother and ye also become dead to the law by the body of Christ that ye should be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God for when we were in the flesh the motions of sins which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death but now we are delivered from the law that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter I think this ties back again with the charity with the knowledge with the law with the obedience to the law but understanding more about the law the law itself even has a spirit what's the purpose of the law what is it that God even did God make the law just so that everyone in the world can be damned like is that why God made a law because God wants to see everybody go to hell no but does it in a way does it do that yes but that's not the spirit of the law isn't to damn the spirit of the law is to be a schoolmaster to instruct us hey you need a savior one you're not as good as you think you are you can't do it on your own you need the Lord you need a savior you need to find that you need resolution here you need something that you can't provide the law does all of that and that is the spirit of the law that is what God gave the law yes it does provide us instruction and the way of life and truth and stuff but more importantly we need to be shown we're not perfect we're not that great please save us that's really the driving spirit behind the law is to show us that the law is our schoolmaster to lead us unto Christ so we shouldn't serve in the oldness of the letter especially just looking to the law as our salvation we need to serve in newness of spirit and you think of even the spirit of the law when it comes to the Sabbath day right Jesus clearly explained hey man wasn't made for the Sabbath but the Sabbath was made for man right so people were getting too over the Pharisees were getting way too overboard on trying to be overzealous with the law and just wanting to like just put people to death for just every instance because if you broke the Sabbath that was a penalty right it'd be cut off you're gonna you're gonna you're gonna die right the guy that was out collecting sticks was put to death on the Sabbath day but is the purpose of that law because God wants to see all kinds of bloodshed and a whole bunch of people being put to death no the purpose was it was a day of rest which I mean I think it's a good thing I would in a way I kind of want to go back to having a day of rest and you know some Christians who deserve a day of rest for themselves and I think that's a good thing to do it's not you know there's definitely a change made of law we don't we don't have to observe that but that was a good thing to have that but it was made for man God worked when he made creation six days and then rested on the seventh day he ordained the Sabbath obviously there's a lot more meaning behind the Sabbath Jesus is our rest it's a picture of entering into God's rest we have a rest at the end of the week the end of our life we enter into Christ's rest he did all the work for us so we don't have to do any of it he did it all all this imagery all this symbolism it's really really important but where was I going with that but the Pharisees they didn't look at it that way so they literally wanted to put the most righteous person ever Jesus Christ to death because he healed people on the Sabbath like he made people whole and he has to explain to them like look you've got the Sabbath law and you've got the law of circumcision well there's babies born every day and on the eighth day they need to get circumcised so if you're willing to obey this law of the circumcision even if it falls on a Sabbath day that's fine and that's appropriate and you should do that because it's not a violation of the Sabbath you have to understand what it's about right before you get too crazy about it but in that scenario you're making someone not whole literally like you're taking away part of their flesh in the circumcision and he explains well so if someone's going to make somebody whole like heal them you're going to say that's a sin like you got it backwards you don't understand the spirit of the law at all and they're trying to follow too close to the letter of the law and you know that was a huge problem with the Pharisees is that they were trying to get so hung up on the letter of the law and just completely were oblivious to the spirit of the law we want to have a good example of walking in the newness of spirit and having that understanding while still holding God's law in reverence and regard and respect because God does say you know we're not just going to say oh well see it's just the spirit of the law means that I don't have to care about any of this stuff anymore no that's going way too far out of bounds the other way right but keep it maintaining that balance maintaining that proper spirit understanding of the law to apply it appropriately last place I'll return 1 Corinthians chapter 14 1 Corinthians 14 so we need to serve in newness of spirit not in the oldness of the letter Bible says in Romans 12 11 not slothful in business means lazy right so don't be lazy but fervent in spirit there's that word fervent again fiery you know passionate spirit serving the Lord so our spirit a good example of believers will be someone who's excited about serving God you've got a good spirit you're not all hung up on the letter of the law you're going to apply it appropriately in your life you're going to try to get the sin out of it but you're not just so hung up your spirit isn't just about you to fall la la la la la it's hand in hand with the charity and the grace for others I'm going to do my best to live my life the way I think God would have me to do it according to his law according to his word right but I'm not going to be so hyper focused on the law that I'm just looking and concerned about everyone else and what they're doing and their life and making sure that they're all in the law no we're going to do our best to try to help people and have that charity and we're going to have a spirit that people can look at you and say wow he's got a great spirit he's got a spirit to serve God he's got a spirit that hey he controls his spirit too when bad things happen he doesn't just fly off the handle he's not quick to respond he doesn't just spout off the mouth that's his spirit and he's not lazy you're getting things done and just stay in 1 Corinthians 14 your spirit also kind of defines the manner of person you are and I think I brought this up recently but in Acts chapter 17 I just love this verse about the Apostle Paul Acts 17 verse 1 the Bible says Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia they came to Thessalonica where was the synagogue of the Jews and Paul as his manner was went in unto them and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures so the Apostle Paul is kind of on his own here and he's waiting for other people to arrive and he goes into the synagogue and just says as his manner was he went in unto them and reasoned with them of the scriptures so it's just Paul's personality it's who he is it's his spirit that he's just going to go he's in another area so what am I going to do hey I'm going to find the synagogue and I'm going to go reason with them about the scriptures because that's what he's all about that's what he's fervent about he's fervent about serving the Lord and he's all by himself he could have just like hung out slept in found the best tourist attractions and just totally relaxed until the other lay well I'm just going to chill here until everyone else shows up no but that wasn't his manner that wasn't his spirit that wasn't what he was all about that wasn't who he was as his manner was he went in and he reasoned with them out of the scriptures he's like oh hey great opportunity I'm going to go in and I'm going to go to the synagogue and I'm going to try to talk to these people I love that about just a simple verse a simple phrase as his manner was that's something that that defined who Paul was that was his manner that was his spirit and just remember and I probably should have brought this up in the beginning but in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 your spirit is under your control or at least it should be the Bible says in verse number 32 of 1 Corinthians 14 and the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets so whatever spirit is that's about you right if the disciples had a bad spirit maybe wanting to kill the Samaritans but it's still subject to them they have that ability to control their spirit and to you know renew their spirit and get right get their spirit right so it's not just something well it's just my spirit I have no control over that no you absolutely should have control over that and it has to do with your heart and your intentions and your motivations and your love your charity all this stuff it all plays hand in hand it all goes together really well but we've got one more sermon next week on finishing up being an example of the believers be an example in all these areas so every week we cover a couple different things look to your life look to your your heart in this place especially your motivation your spirit do you we're going out so in this afternoon I hope it doesn't become just a check box of what is happening with soul winning and yeah to some degree there's a level of that right that's kind of like something we ought to have as just a guideline or a rule for ourselves like yeah I need to go soul winning it's important because the Bible says I should but really you ought to be at the place where you want to go soul winning because you care about people you love God and you care about other people not going to hell like I actually I have a desire and I care for the people especially the people that live in our area here like the people that live in the neighborhood back here the people who actually are living in those houses day after day after day I care about them not going to hell when they die I actually care about that and I have a spirit that's going to drive me to want to go and give the good news and let people know how they could be saved you know you may start off where you kind of need to force yourself to do some things and that's fine but the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart we want to be able to just have this develop a spirit and develop our love so that we are sincerely not faintedly not fakedly but sincerely caring about people you'll be the most effective that way when you are genuinely caring about people because you're going to be so thoughtful about them that you're going to really be thinking how can I help this person and that's when you'll be the most effective sowing, ministering and doing the work of the Lord because like the Bible said without charity nothing nothing I don't care how many sowing demonstrations and everything else that you've studied and learned if you don't have charity you're nothing let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer dear Heavenly Father we thank you so much for even this one verse that we're able to dig into Lord about being an example and all the information that you give us on these different topics especially charity and our spirit dear Lord I pray that you please help us to improve in these areas of our lives help us to improve our charity our love help us to improve in our spirit and what we're about and kind of the things that drive us and motivate us dear Lord and help us to have good control over that thank you for providing wisdom and instruction from your word I pray that you would please help us to improve so that we could be good examples to others and as you continue to add to our church that other people can learn not just from the scripture and not just from the sermons but just through the actions and the spirit of the church itself and the charity that will go along with that Lord please bless us and help us as we strive to become more conformed to the image of your son we love you Lord in Jesus name we pray Amen Alright we're going to sing one more song before we're dismissed brother Peter would you please lead us right church if you can grab your hymnals and open up the song number 377 song 377 rescue the parishing song 377 let's sing this out with all our hearts on the first rest rescue the parishing care for the dying set them in living for sin and the grave we know that everyone's lived up the fall tell them of Jesus the body to save rescue the parishing care for the dying Jesus is merciful Jesus will save go where they are sliding still he is waiting waiting the dead and the child to receive lead with their earnestly lead with them gently he will forgive if they all may believe rescue the parishing care for the dying Jesus is merciful Jesus will save on the last rescue the parishing duty Jesus is merciful Jesus will save on the last rescue the parishing duty Jesus is merciful Jesus will save on the last rescue the parishing duty imagine the strength for thy labor the Lord will provide match to the narrow winding cage in the wind tell them the water the Savior has died rescue the parishing care for the dying Jesus is merciful Jesus will save Thank you so much for coming you guys Thank you