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Amen, alright, we're in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, and can you take care of that ringing that's going on? Is that better? Yeah. Alright, 1 Corinthians 13, and this is of course the famous charity chapter, I don't know why I got that going there, but it's one of the greatest chapters in the whole Bible, and it's definitely looked upon as such, and notice it says charity, but a lot of the modern Bible versions will change that to love. Now, charity does mean love, but it also, it's not just a superficial love, it's a love that's an action. A love that's a selfless love, a love that you would give that you don't expect anything back from. I guess that's the best way for me to explain it, and as we go through the chapter, you kind of see that that's exactly what it's talking about. We can do all kinds of things, but if we don't have love in our hearts, then we're nothing. And so we need to understand that this, if we catch what this chapter is teaching us, then it's going to help us in our Christian life big time. So turn one chapter back if you're on the same page there, but just in chapter 12, verse number 31, the Bible says, but remember we're talking about the gifts. Maybe three weeks ago or so, we were talking about the gifts of the Spirit, and at the end of this chapter, it talks about have all gifts of healing, do all speak with tongues, that's verse 30, do all interpret but covet earnestly the best gifts, and yet I show you a more excellent way. So the topic is still kind of, it's still on the subject, but he's going to show us a more excellent way. That's where he leads into this chapter in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. So again, this is a revered chapter, and it's, like I said, one of the greatest chapters in the whole Bible, and it helps us to put things in perspective as to what is our motivation for doing works? What should the motivation be? That motivation should be love. That motivation should be a love that has action behind it, because there's a lot of people, you know, love in the English language is just like, you know, it can mean a lot of different things. I really love that cookie recipe that you gave me. It's so good. You know, I mean, that's not the kind of love that this is talking about. So when you love a cookie recipe or you love some kind of food or, you know, we say love, we throw that word around a lot, but people say that the King James translator is messed up, and that should be love. That's why the ESV, the NIV, the HIV, and all these other modern Bible perversions change it to love, which it is, but this is a different type. You know, it's a love that actually has some teeth behind it. It's a love that God wants us to show other people because ultimately God is love, right? And God wants us to show forth his love. We're supposed to be a reflection of him on earth. We're supposed to reflect, you know, the sun to the rest of the world in a dark world, and it's not just soul winning that we do that would be good works. I mean, it's going to list a whole bunch of things that, you know, you could do these things and without love, it means nothing. So look at 1 Corinthians 8 verse 1. It says in 1 Corinthians 8, 1, it says, Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edify us. So charity, remember I was talking about edifying on Sunday morning, and edify means to build, like in a literal sense, you know, but we would say it also could have a spiritual sense. You know, when you're edifying someone, you're trying to build them up, but it also can be a negative thing to help you fix things, and I kind of talked about that on Sunday morning. It also means to instruct and improve the mind and knowledge generally and particularly in moral and religious knowledge in faith and holiness, and it also means to teach or persuade. So you know, charity, love, is what will bring this edification, and so when you're preaching the truth in love, as the Bible says, that's a good thing. Now people will say to preaching like ours, you know, or my preaching, sometimes they'll be like, well, you're just mean, you have a mean spirit, all this other stuff, but you know, I mean, what does our church show? Our church shows love and action, I believe. I believe our church is very charitable, and there's not a lot of churches like this church. There's not a lot of churches in this town like this church. There's no churches in town like this church, actually, and I'm not saying there's no other good church. I'm just saying there's no other church like this church, and we're not afraid to hit the hard parts of the Bible, and sometimes people look at that as being nasty or venomous or, you know, whatever, but if you're really going to love someone, you're also going to tell them the truth, so when you preach the truth in love, that might have a negative connotation to it. You know, sometimes people, you know, have you ever heard of that term tough love? You know, sometimes someone's screwing up so bad that you just got to give them some tough love, you know, but that's the truth, and you can do that with preaching, too. You can preach that tough love that people need to hear. You know, otherwise, if I'm just making you all feel better about how rotten you are all day long and all week long, you know, what good is that going to do? You know, we need to know that we need to fix things continuously. It's a maintenance. You know, why do you come to church? Well, to be edified, you know, and I want to show you love by telling you how rotten you are. No, I'm just kidding, but sometimes we have to do that. You know, I'm the one that has to study these messages, and I'm the one that has to, you know, first deal with my own problems before I preach it unto you, so, you know, some of this stuff hits you right in the heart, and it's just like, man, that's tough, but that's the way it should be, you know. But let's look at verse number one. It says in our text, though I speak of the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. So even though, like the Apostle Paul, he speaks in tongues. He says it, you know, in one verse, more than you all. So he obviously, you know, he can speak a lot of different languages, and he has the gift of tongues, and it says of angels. Now, don't get all crazy with this and start saying that's a heavenly prayer language, and he's just like, and that somehow sounds like Hebrew gibberish that people try to say that they're pretty, you know, the tongue stuff is going to come up in our next sermon. I'm going to hit that real hard, but, you know, he's just talking, you know, if you have this great ability to communicate with people and you have no love, you have no charity, then you're like sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. What does that mean? It just means you're making a lot of noise, you know. What is a sounding brass, or whatever, and a tinkling cymbal? You know, you're just making noise, but you're not really putting any real love or action in that. You can talk to people, you know, and you can be the best preacher in the world and get up and preach, but if you have no love in your heart, if you don't love people, if you don't actually care about people, then people are first of all going to see that, but it's also not going to help, you know. If you have no love and you're just a communicator, you know, maybe you're the best communicator in the world. There's a lot of preachers that are really just right out of the gate. They're great preachers, and they just have that gift, well if they don't have love in their heart, it doesn't do them any good. Billy Graham had a great preaching style, I mean, but did he have love in his heart? No, he had the devil in his heart. I mean, so people can be, you know, and God usually doesn't pick the most, you know, the greatest orators to preach. He usually picks someone who's just a normal person, that, you know, some plow boy on the side of the road, or just whatever, some shepherd, and picks those types of people that are just normal, everyday people, and has them preach. You know, it's God's Spirit that actually works through the preacher. It's God's Spirit is the one that is actually edifying. It's God's Word that edifies, and God has chosen the foolishness of preaching, you know, to save them that believe. He's also chosen the foolishness of preaching to edify his people. It's not, you know, it's not the communication that the world would have. Their communication is different, isn't it? They hate this kind of communication. They're like, this is ridiculous. You know, this is, why would I want to sit here for an hour and listen to some guy get up and talk? But, you know, we need to have charity, and the Bible is very clear in this verse that, you know, you can do, you know, and it's going to go through this whole series of things that, hey, even though you do this, if you have no charity, then it doesn't mean anything. So charity, you know, the modern day word for charity, like what most people consider it, is an organization set up to provide help and raise money for those in need. That's what most people think of when they think of the word charity. They don't think of it in a biblical light. But like I said, I mean, there's a lot of definitions of it, you know, in general sense, love, benevolence, goodwill, that disposition of the heart which inclines men to think favorably of their fellow man and to do them good. You know, Jesus said, peace on earth and goodwill toward men. He had a goodwill to do what? To save those people that would be willing to be saved. And so when he was born, you know, he had the angels say that, you know, peace on earth, goodwill toward men. And that is charity. You know, there's, well, God looks down on us and, you know, if we're not saved, he just kind of sees scum, you know, because that's basically what people are. They're sinning constantly. The older you get, the worse it gets. You know, it's, it's, he made us and he has to sit there and look at what his creation became. And he still looks at us with favor. And John 3 16 says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. So even though we don't deserve to have his only begotten son killed in our place and taking our place, he still did it anyway because of the charity of God, the compassion of God, the love of God. And he gave his only begotten son for us, even though we don't even come close to deserving that. So I guess, you know, in a nutshell, my definition, what I believe the definition, the best fits charity is love in action that expects nothing in return, love in action, that expects nothing in return. So you might have a different definition, but that's kind of what, you know, when you just look through the context of what is being preached here, that's kind of what it what it seems to me that it means. So anyway, you know, you can look in the dictionary, and the first thing is going to be, you know, you know, having some charitable organization or something. The only charitable organization that really matters is the local New Testament church. So I preach the whole sermon about that down in pure words about the charitable industrial complex. So that's I use the same chapter too, but it's a different sermon for sure. But love in action that expects nothing in return. Look at verse number two. It says, And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity, I am nothing. So you can have all these gifts of the Spirit, and if you have no love in your heart, it means nothing. You're going to be doing things for the wrong reasons. You're going to be doing things, and it's not going to count. So, you know, he's listing all these gifts that he talked about in chapter number 12, where he's talking about the gifts of prophecy, the understanding of mysteries, and all this knowledge, and Paul had all this. But Paul also is very obvious that Paul had love in his heart. He wasn't just going about because he wanted everybody to say, you know who the greatest Christian was? The Apostle Paul. No, the reason why the Apostle Paul is the greatest Christian is because he had love, because he had charity, because he put all this stuff into action and hazarded his life so that people could get the gospel in all these different places. That's love. You know, walking into a place knowing that you're probably going to get beaten with rods probably wouldn't be, you know, we don't have to face that kind of a situation. We never have. And so to have something like that be a reality where you don't know what the next village is going to do to you, that's pretty scary. But, you know, love, you know, love lifted him to go and do these things. Look at verse 3, it says, and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. You know there's going to be a judgment seat of Christ where, you know, he's going to give the rewards to those that are saved. You know, there is going to be a rewards, I don't know about ceremony, but it's going to be a rewards judgment where he says, here's the rewards that you earned while you're on earth. But if nothing you ever did was with a charitable heart, I mean it sounds like it says it profiteth me nothing. It's just like the Pharisees that would get up and blow their trumpets before they would give somebody alms. What did he say? Verily, they have their reward. They have their reward already. So there's no reason to, you know, to actually, you know, it's like the people that are fasting, you know, we have this bozo that was up in Spokane and he preached his sermon and it's just, I don't ever want it to see the light of day. There's a guy named Dane that left our church, but anyway, he's a complete bozo and a total troll, but he preached his sermon where he's talking about fasting. I mean it was the worst sermon like I've ever heard. I mean that's saying a lot. I've heard some bad sermons before, but it was bad and he's just like talking, you know, he's talking about how he fasted for 16 days. I guess he would like do that at lunch. He'd watch people eat their food and stuff. It was really weird. He was making his pregnant wife fast. It's like what's wrong with you man? I mean I don't think the doctors advised you to do that, but whatever, but he was like combining fasting, you know, you know how people are doing the fasting in the morning or whatever. What is it called? Intermittent fasting. Like that's a big thing right now. It's a big thing that people are doing, but he was like combining intermittent fasting with spiritual fasting and he was just like, you know, is it really that hard, you know, to fast? It's like yeah, it is. That's why it's called afflicting your soul, right? It's not called petting your soul. It's called afflicting your soul, but the guy, you know, it was awful, you know. I had to rebuke him and take the sermon down because it was so bad, you know, but of course he was a traitor, but anyway the point is is that when people sit there and talk about how they're fasting, look bozo you already lost your reward for sitting there bragging about how much you fast. You know, he's teaching it as a commandment. Now, I would say that it's definitely a suggestion to fast and I think that you should fast. I think that you should, but like even just skipping one meal is a fast, right? Even just, you know, taking your lunch time or you normally eat lunch at work and you maybe you read your Bible and you pray and you skip that meal, that's fasting too, isn't it? You're doing something because it does afflict your soul, especially if you're out working hard and doing construction or it doesn't matter what you're doing. If you get hungry, you know, and you're at work, you're suffering and that's what the whole point of the fast is, but it's not so you can get up and just act how, you know, beat your chest about how spiritual you are. You know, the Pharisees did the same thing. They didn't have any love in their heart, did they? They did it so people could see what they did and go, oh look at how spiritual they are and that's not how we ought to act. That should not be the form of charity. That's not charity, folks. That's just, you know, wanting men to see what you do, wanting men to admire you. Oh, I fasted for 16 days. Well, you're so great, you know. You lost your reward and you're not even saved, so it's like, you know, it's kind of like the Pharisees. That's a great, you know, he gets his chance to preach a sermon for the first time at our church and he gets up and preaches that garbage. It was bad. I felt bad that I ever allowed that guy into the pulpit. That's how bad it was. He was like getting on to people for eating donuts, like giving their kids donuts and telling them that they're killing their children by giving them sugar. I mean, in a sermon. It's embarrassing, you know, so and he was banned from preaching, you know. Apparently, he was mad about it, so that's why he left, but he wants to blame it on other things, but he was a complete bozo. So, anyhow, if you want to see it, I'll show it to you. It's pretty bad. I don't think it should go back into public circulation, though. I mean, it's real bad. So, but the point is, is that, you know, you can't have this attitude of I'm going to fast and then you're going to tell everybody that you're doing it. You've lost your reward. It's like, what are you doing the works that you're doing for so you can just lose them at the judgment seat of Christ? I mean, we ought to have an attitude where we have love and charity in our hearts for other people and that's why we do the good works that we do. And even if that, so just taking fasting, it's not mentioned here, but, you know, you can fast for certain things. You know, you can fast for things that, you know, maybe someone just wants you to fast with them and just say, hey, I got this real big problem in my life. Would you fast with me? You know, that's a good work, isn't it? Because you're afflicting yourself because you love that person. You love that Christian brother or that Christian sister in Christ and love should be the motivator for that. So, so what's Paul saying? He's saying, hey, you know, I'd bestow all my goods to feed the poor. There's a lot of people out there doing that today, isn't there? You know, we got whole cycles in Portland. I've said this before, but a Portland police officer once told me that you could get 11 free meals in a day if you just do like this circle and hit these places at the right time. And, you know, if you, but if there's people out there that are just so driven to help the homeless and they think that, but they think that their good deeds are going to get them some kind of favor with whatever God they believe in. They think that their good karma or is gonna give them to Nirvana or, you know, or Kurt Cobain's up there playing the guitar. I don't know. I don't know what they think. But a lot of people do charitable work because they want to be seen as men. That's why it's such a huge industry. There's always gonna be poor people. There's always gonna be someone there with their hand out trying to help them. And, look, I don't mind helping poor people that are actually, you know, just working poor. They just can't get by. Maybe they're destitute. Maybe they're not in America because we don't really know what poor people really look like until you go to another country and see what what kind of stuff's going on in the Philippines. I mean, where people are literally sleeping on the on the sidewalks or a bag of rice is thrown down in a park and they're all eating it with their hands as families is eating rice with their hands. It's like we have never had to experience anything like that. I mean, maybe you were hungry at a job site and did that, guys. But, like, eating, I mean, they're just literally eating rice with their hands. We don't we don't know what that kind of poverty is like. And I don't have a problem with feeding the poor. Don't get me wrong. But there's a there's a there's a system around the world. There's, you know, the Salvation Army brings in five billion dollars a year. Ringing that bell. Give your money to the local church. It's gonna go a lot further than going to that kettle, that kettle of hell. So, so Paul's saying, you know, we need to use the love as the driving characteristic of what motivates our actions. Actions without love are meaningless. And compassion is a synonym of charity. And the word compassion is used a lot in the Bible. It's a synonym of charity. It looks and it means it looks on the misfortunes of men and loves them and helps them anyway. So when Jesus looked on people with compassion, you know, he saw that they were like sheep having no shepherd. And he had compassion on them. He loved them. And so charity is, you know, if you want a synonym, that's a good synonym. Let's turn to Psalm chapter 78, verse 38. Psalm chapter 78, verse 38. Because God's a lot more loving than we are. God's a lot more charitable than we are. He's a lot more compassionate than we are. He's a lot more long-suffering. You know, we'll only suffer things for so long. They're like, all right, I'm done with you, you know. And, you know, we ought to be long-suffering. I believe that. So look at verse 38. It says, But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not. Yea, many a time turned his anger away and did not stir up all his wrath. See, God, you know, he looked down and he'd see the children of Israel doing all this wickedness. And he'd be like, you know, but I know they're but dust. I know that they got problems. I want to have compassion on them. I want to forgive them. You know, I don't want to destroy them completely. You know, and many times before he would get to the final straw, he would turn his anger away and not stir up all of his wrath. Because God is a God of compassion. God is a God of charity, and he loves people. You know, look at Psalm chapter 86 verse 15. Psalm chapter 86 verse 15. The Bible says, But thou, Lord, art a God full of compassion and gracious, long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth. So God is all those things. He's full of compassion. You know, people talk, you know, there's people that hate God and they say he's the most misogynistic. You know, you know, he's just, I can't remember all the stuff that Bozo said, but you know what I'm talking about? It's like Richard Dawkins or something. And he just like goes on this rant and he's just like, you could just see the hate seeding through his teeth as he says all this stuff about our Lord and Savior. And it makes me angry. But God is full of compassion. He's not all those things that Richard Dawkins calls them. He's gracious. You know, the fact that he's still breathing air is pretty gracious. That's pretty long suffering. You know, because if I was God, I might just shut his mouth. You know, obviously I'm not God. And you know, that's, there's a reason why I'm not, you know, because he's compassionate. He's long suffering. And I have compassion. I have long suffering to an extent, but God is holy. God is just, God is separate from sinners. And so where I would just be like, I don't understand why you're letting this guy breathe air, God, God allows them to breathe air for something. You know, maybe he's just a trash collector. I mean, that could be possible, but he's gracious. He's long suffering. He's plenteous in mercy and truth. He's willing to let things slide with us. So, you know, he doesn't punish us for all the wicked stuff that we've done. He forgave us all. And even as a saved person, you're still going to commit sin. And God doesn't always just hit you with the sledgehammer every time you do something wrong, does he? No. And obviously, you know, at some point he's going to. But, you know, God loves us and he wants to give us a lot of chances. He gives us more chances than we deserve. He's more merciful than we deserve. He's more long suffering than we deserve. He's more gracious than we deserve. Turn to Mark chapter 6 verse 34. Mark chapter 6 verse 34. Mark 6 verse 34 says, And Jesus, when he came out, he saw, or excuse me, he came out saw much people and was moved with compassion. So you see that term right there, it says moved with compassion. So compassion is a synonym of charity. Compassion is where you see the plight of somebody and you see that they're destitute and they're having all these issues and you love them. You care for them. And it's compassion, when someone has compassion on someone, they do something about it. They don't just go, well, that's too bad, you know. Sorry you don't have any food, you know. I only got a hundred thousand on me, but I can't really spare much change right now. I only got hundreds and fifties, you know. It's like, you know, that's just, Jesus wasn't like that. He was moved with compassion toward them because they were as sheep not having a shepherd and began to teach them many things. See, he's full of truth, but he's also full, he's full of mercy and truth. And so Jesus, he began to teach them many things, but he also cared for them. You know, when he started to preach to them, they received that preaching because they knew that he actually cared. And so when you have love in your heart, love in your preaching, when you're at the door and you're preaching to someone and you're like, you're just trying to get through that last layer of protection that they, you know, that last whatever wall of defense that they have, that's something that they don't quite understand about your presentation and you're just trying and you're showing them scripture after scripture after scripture. Hey, that's love. But do they feel that love as you're preaching it to them? Or are you just like, and then you're like Garrett Kirchway, you're like, and then you know, you gotta have some love and some compassion in your preaching. Even, you know, ladies, that's your time to wax eloquent. You know, you want to wax eloquent, you want to preach, you want to preach hard. You're like, you need to get saved from hell today. Oh, don't do that. But, but you know what I'm saying? Like, have you, haven't you ever had someone that you're preaching at the door and you're just like, you know, you're just, just putting everything into it. That's what, that's just showing love to them. And that's the way we ought to be when we're trying, you know, trying to get people saved. Now, I'm not saying be, you know, ornery and stick your foot in the door and just continue to talk. Once I say not interested, that's, that should be just like, okay, goodbye. You know, you just, bye. Don't say anything else. There's no reason to say anything else. That's, to me, that's God telling me they're not interested because they told me they're not interested. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. They're not interested. So, I mean, when we're going out, we're trying to get people saved. Why continue to talk to someone who's not interested? You know, it's more loving. You know, it's more charitable to go from that door to the next door that actually does want to hear it. That's more charitable. You know, but some people, you know, and look, I've done it before, too. And you're like, well, I want to give them a verse and see how they respond to that. And I've had people get saved after that. But generally speaking, it doesn't really happen a lot. And so, again, when they tell me no, there's something Pastor Mendez taught me a long time ago. I was out soloing with him. He just said, hey, when they say no, that's it. That's like God telling me they're done. Like, all right, that makes sense. And it's true. Like, when I put that into practice, it's totally true. So now look at Luke chapter 7, verse 12. Luke chapter 7, verse 12. Nobody was more compassionate than the Lord Jesus Christ. And nobody worked harder than the Lord Jesus Christ. And so when Jesus did work, he wasn't just... You can point to a few times when Jesus would get annoyed with people, but he still continued to minister to them even though he was annoyed, didn't he? I mean, Jesus cared about people. Look at what it says in Luke chapter 7, verse 12. It says, Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother. And she was a widow, and much people of the city was with her. You might not be very familiar with this story, but think about this situation. The only son of his mother, she's a widow, she's lost her husband, and now her only son is dead. And it says, And much people of the city was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not. And he came and touched the bier. And when they that bare him stood still, and he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak, and he delivered him to his mother. And there came a fear on all, and they glorified, who'd they glorify? God, saying that a great prophet is risen up among us, and that God hath visited his people. Isn't that what the message that we want to send to people when we go to their doors? That we have compassion on people, we love people, we have charity towards people, and when something's going wrong in their life, we actually stop and pray with that person. Say, Hey, I'm really sorry to hear that your husband died. A lot of times when we go out soul-wanting, we're ministering to people, and we don't even realize it. But do you actually do that? Do you actually care about people? I've gone to, I've gone soul-wanting sometimes, and I just, I feel like God sent me to that person's door just to encourage them. And hey, maybe they never come to our church, but you know what? I didn't take that time to sit there with them so I could say, Well, maybe they'll come to our church. I hope they do, but you know what? That's not the reason why I do it. And I think everybody in this room is probably ministered to somebody at the door when they're all out soul-wanting. I don't have a problem with anybody doing that. So obviously we're out to win souls, but sometimes you just end up in a conversation where someone has something really hard going on in their life. You know what Jesus did? He stopped and addressed this issue, you know, and he could probably feel the same. He knew he was going to be, you know, that he was God's only begotten son, that someday he was going to have to die, you know. And so Jesus is showing compassion on this woman. And you know, just like Jesus died and was buried and rose from the dead, so this young man who was the only son of his mother was brought back to life also. And you know what brought him back to life? Compassion, love, charity. And so it says that God had visited his people. See, when we go out and visit people, when we go out and help people, when we go out and get people saved, I want them to say, I want them to glorify God. And I want them to say, hey a prophet came to my door today and got me saved, or a prophet came to my door today and prayed with me and wept with me and loved me and cared about me. And that they look at that situation like God sent that person to my door. You know when people, well sometimes we go to people's door and they go, you know I was just praying that somebody would come and talk to me. I was just praying, I just was, that happens maybe not all the time, but it does happen. And there's no way that that's accidental. God probably sent you to that door because you were the right person to go to that door. Now why did Jesus do these acts of kindness for these people? Was it so he could go onto Facebook and you know post that he raised people from the dead? No. And look, I'm not saying don't post things on Facebook or don't go on social media, but you know if that, sometimes people have these, you know they want to have their work shown before men so badly that they're just willing to, you know just everything that they do, they have to, you know, I don't care what you ate, I don't care what you had for dinner last night. It doesn't really, you know, it's not that big of a deal to me. Maybe it is for some people, but you know I really don't care unless it was something really cool. But you know the reason why we go out is not so we can get some kind of cred on social media. You know it wasn't because he wanted, you know, he wanted to be the next TikTok star and be famous. You know, so God would let, so God would get the glory and people would seek after God to be saved. Turn to Jude 22, Jude 22. You know, and speaking of soul winning, our compassion makes a difference in people's lives. And it says in Jude 1 22, it says that if some have compassion making a difference, you know, when you go out and you love people, when you go out and you have charity for people and you care about them, then you're showing your love, that you're showing God's love to that person because God loves them. God, you know, he doesn't want anybody to perish, but that all should come to repentance. He wants all men to be saved. He would have all men to be saved, but we're the ambassadors that go to do that. And it's very important that we have love in our hearts when we do that. It's not about numbers. It's not about Facebook. It's not about, you know, posting them all the, you know, and obviously there's nothing wrong with numbers, okay? I'm not trying to discourage that. I'm just saying that have the right reason for the reason why you do stuff. Look at verse four. It says charity suffereth long. So what does that term suffer mean? Well, it means that you're allowing things to take place for a long period of time. You suffer things for a long time. You put up with stuff for a long time and is kind. You know, you're kind to people. That's the kind of love that's love and action is that you're actually kind to people. You know, how do you treat people that come to our church? How do you treat people out in your everyday life? Are you the jerk that yells at the people like Karen, you know, at the store because they didn't get something specifically right? You know, we ought not to be like that. You know, we're testimony to our church. You know, when we go and go to some restaurant together, I mean, are you a Jew with a tip or what? You know, don't tell them to come to our church if you're going to be skimpy with the tip. You know, if they do a good job, they get 20%. That's the way I roll. I don't know how you roll, but if you're like a 10%er, I don't know about you. No, I'm just kidding. But if you go to a restaurant and they give you great service and then you give them a dollar, you know, it's like a $60 meal or something. That's not right. That's not right. I mean, they're just hustling for you. You know the difference between good service and bad service? Good service, someone gives you good service, you better give them 20%. That's not in the Bible anywhere, but you know, it's just not right. Charity tippeth 20%. But so you're kind. I mean, how do you treat people? How do you treat people at work? Are you nice to them? Are you kind? Are you kind to people out in society or are you just ready to just pop off at any second? Charity envieth not. Now, envy and jealousy get mixed up, don't they? People actually say jealous when they actually mean envy. And envy is when you want something, you're desiring something that somebody else has. You're desiring their wife. You're desiring their, you know, their job or their house or things like that. Jealousy is always a positive thing, isn't it? You know, I was jealous for the Lord of Hosts. You know, if you're jealous for your wife, you should be jealous for your wife. Wives, you should be jealous for your husband. You know, you belong to each other, right? When you did those oaths, or not oaths, but when you do those vows, sorry, don't do any oaths. When you bow the vows, your wedding vows, till death do us part, you know, now you have the right to be a jealous freak, you know? That's just the way it is, you know? And obviously, you got to tone it down sometimes, but you know, every once in a while, my wife will still like settle down. Nobody likes me. But I, you know, that's a good feeling to know that your spouse still is jealous for you, or if someone's, you know, talking, spend too much time talking to you or whatever, like, you know, she doesn't do that all the time. You know, but jealousy is when it's something that belongs to you, and you're, you know, fighting for that thing, or you're upset because someone's stepping into a territory where they don't belong, you know? So, but envy is basically, you know, they kind of mean the same thing, but it's actual, envy is sinful. Envy is when you want somebody else's. You're designing everything from everybody else, and the Bible says, charity envieth not. Charity is not, you know, and envy is a wicked sin. It really is, and it shouldn't be something that, you know, first, if you're struggling with envy, you know, that's definitely not love in action. That's the opposite of that. Charity vaunteth not. Now, vaunt means to boast, to make a vain display of one's own worth, or attains, I mean, or decorate, or decorations, to talk with vain ostentation, to brag. It's basically to brag. That's what vaunting means. charity vaunteth not itself. You're not bragging about how great you are. I got 30 people saved today. You know, that's the kind of bragging that we should not be doing. You know, God allowed you to get that many people saved. It wasn't because, you know, everybody has different days when they're doing great at sowing, you know, and sometimes you have a really good day fishing, and sometimes you don't. You know, it's just God's the one that gives the increase. So that's what we got to, you know, it's not us. So when we start getting up and bragging about how great our presentation is, or something along those lines, or how great of a Christian you are, this would be like the ultra spiritual, you know, people that they're so holy, they never even say, you know, dang, because they're so holy. You know, it's it's sickening to God. Some of them would brag about how holy they are, you know, you're just filthy rags, just like everybody else, quit acting like you're better than everybody. And it says itself, it's not puffed up. puffed up is like, when you're just full of your own self, you're full of your own knowledge. No, you know, when it's talking about people being puffed up in the Bible, you know, it's it's a it's basically like a selfish knowledge that you have. And you think that you know more than everybody. You think you know the Bible better than everybody. You're always correcting the pastor, you're always correcting other people. Oh, there's nothing wrong correcting people in the right spirit. You know, the sweet you do that would do it with the sweet spirit. I'm just kidding. But sorry, I'm on a roll. But, you know, we got to have right and loving ways of what how we do things. You know, you're not puffed up. Someone that's showing love and action or charity is not puffed up. You're not bragging, you're not envying. It says in verse five, and doth not behave itself unseemly. You know, we just because we're new IFB doesn't mean that we need to act like jerks all the time. And that doesn't shouldn't be part of the badge. You know, sometimes people need to get smoked. But it doesn't have to be everything. Everything just always has to be fights. And, you know, obviously, and I'm not against fighting because fighting is part of the Christian life. But it doesn't always have to be like that. So the way you behave, you know, when it's saying behave itself unseemly, that's something that's not charitable. Seeketh not her own. You know, you're not seeking things for yourself. It's not all about you. It's about other people. Joy, Jesus, others, you is not easily provoked. You know, can you can someone just provoke you easily and get in a fistfight? You know, I get angry sometimes. And I get angry enough to probably get into a fistfight sometimes. But I haven't been in a fistfight since I was saved. So what does that tell you that I'm not a brawler? You know, I just dream about it sometimes and wish I could. But, you know, we're not supposed to be easily provoked. There's been times when I thought it was close. But, you know, I believe that God that's just God's provision, honestly, you know, because I used to be a really angry person. And, you know, I just a little hot temper every once in a while. There's nothing wrong with getting mad about righteous things. There's righteous indignation. There's righteous anger. There's nothing wrong with that. But are you easily provoked? Does everything someone say just make you so mad that you're ready to get into a fight with them or get into some kind of screaming match? You know, we shouldn't be easily provoked. That's part of being charitable. Thinketh no evil. Now, when you think about this, it's not like talking about that you're just thinking about evil thoughts like sinful thoughts necessarily. I think it's probably talking about what you would want to do to somebody. You know what I mean? So, like, evil is when someone puts harm on somebody else. So, if you're thinking about harming somebody else, that's not very loving. All right? And that's not how we should behave as Christians to want to hurt somebody, you know, at least somebody that's saved or someone that could be saved or whatever. But look, it says rejoice is not an iniquity. So, you know, rejoice not in other people's iniquity or your own iniquity. You know, iniquity just basically means sinfulness, lawlessness. You know, you don't want to rejoice in that. That's not very charitable. But rejoice in the truth. So, you know, if you want to have charity, hey, don't rejoice in iniquity, rejoice in the truth. I think everybody in this room is here because they love the truth. And so when you love the truth, you're going to rejoice in that. That is okay. That is fine. That is charitable. And there's nothing in the world wrong with loving the truth. In fact, you know, the truth shall make you free, the Bible says. You know, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. That's what Jesus said. So, and then it goes on in verse seven to just talk about like all these things that you will do. So, it goes from saying things you shouldn't do and then it goes to things that you should do as a person with charity, a person with love and action. Verse seven, beareth all things. You know, how much can you bear? Can you, you know, it's talking about things that you will, again, allow yourself to put up with, things that you'll carry, you know, for people. You know, bearing is like talking about basically like something that you would pick up and carry, right? Bearing the burdens or whatever. So, you know, and it says believeth all things. And I think that what this train of thought is talking about is talking about being positive. You know, you want to believe the best things about people. You want to believe that person is a good person, even though they might have set off a couple of red flags in your mind. You know, it's being positive, you know, and we shouldn't just be waiting to unmask the next reprobate or whatever. You know, we should believe, you know, we should have a positive attitude. Do you have a positive attitude? Do you have a positive outlook? You know, here's a way to know that you don't bear and believe and hope all things is that you're just constantly negative every situation you're in, you're complaining about. And obviously, everybody gets in that mode sometimes. But if that's you every single day, then maybe you should just take a self-inventory check and say, hey, am I just a super negative person? Because if you are, then you're not bearing all things. You're not believing all things. You know, it's not saying believe every religion. That's not what it's talking about. It's not, it's talking about believing the, you know, obviously believing the best that people have the best intentions. Hopeth all things. You know, you're hoping everything goes right. You're hoping that everything is right in our church. You're hoping, you know, it's a good, it's a positive attitude. It says endureth all things. You know, when you, you know, the Bible talks about enduring till the end. And it's not talking, it's not talking about that you will lose your salvation. All right. But enduring all things, you know, how much are you willing to put up with? How much are you willing to endure from people? Well, if you, if you, you know, have charity, these are things that you will do. Now, again, we're not perfect. We're going to fail in these areas. It's like, there's a lot of stuff here that's, that the Bible is pointing out to us. But how, how are you doing on this list? Are you doing, are you doing okay on this list? You know, most people think that they're, most men will proclaim their own goodness. You know, when we knock on people's doors, they'll say they're going to heaven. Why? Because they're a good person, right? Because a lot of people think that they're good and Christians fool themselves into thinking they're doing better than they actually are. We do it all the time. We lie to ourselves probably more than we lie to anybody else. Let's just be honest. But the Bible says in verse eight, charity never faileth. Charity never faileth, but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether it be tongues, they shall cease. Whether it be knowledge, it shall vanish away. So charity is not going to fail. But these other aspects of what he's been talking about in the last couple chapters are going to fail at some point. It's talking about the prophecies. They're going to fail. You know, because I've talked about this before that I believe once this book was done being written, there's no more prophecies to be put there. I mean, if it was a prophecy that's going to come true, it'd be in this book, don't you think? So at some point, prophecies are going to fail. And guess what? This book is a closed book. There's nothing else to add into it. We're not supposed to add to it or take anything away, Joseph Smith. You know, we're not supposed to add anything to it or change the commandments, Pope, whoever did that. You know, the Catholics have all the, you know, they took the graven image, I think, commandment out of the Ten Commandments or they did some trickery there to make it seem like it was okay. But it says, whether there be tongues, they shall cease. So that gift of tongues, you know, does anybody in here have the gift of tongues? Can you speak to me and I hear it in a different language? I mean, that's the gift of tongues. So, but I mean, maybe you have the gift where you can just learn a lot of languages. That's a totally different thing. But, I mean, and I believe God can give that gift to you. But like, as far as the thing that happened in the Book of Acts, that doesn't happen anymore. You know why? Because where there's tongues, they shall cease. Whether it be knowledge, it shall vanish away. So Paul understood all knowledge, all mysteries, and when the book was closed and done, that was the end of these prophecies, this knowledge, and it all ceased. The prophecies failed. You know, if someone gets up and says they heard a message from the Lord, they're lying through their forked tongue. They didn't hear a message from the Lord. The Bible says, for we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but that when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. Now, I just have an opinion. I'm not saying that I believe, you know, that I'm 100% right on this. But I think that this is, I mean, obviously I think this talking about when that which is perfect has come, Jesus is going to come back. He is perfect, right? I believe that. But also, this book is perfect, is it not? And how long have we had a perfect book? About 2,000 years, right? So why did all those things vanish away, and why isn't there tongues talking going around? Why isn't there gifts of healing anymore? Because that which is perfect has come. I mean, that's, again, my opinion. I don't think I could be dogmatic about that, but I mean, tell me why these prophecies aren't coming true anymore, because this book is closed, and there's no reason for those signed gifts anymore. There's no reason, you know, God wants us to believe things by faith. He wants the gospel to be preached to people. He doesn't want you to have to do some kind of, you know, miracle for everybody to believe anymore. He wants people to believe by faith. And when it says, when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part shall be done away. So when did all those signed gifts disappear? When the last apostles died. So, and that's when, you know, who's the last apostle to write in the book? John, right? So that's, again, my opinion. I'm not, you know, if you're saying, Pastor Thompson, I have a bone to pick with you. I think it's both. I think it's talking about Jesus, and I think it's talking about the Bible. And why do I think that? Because it says, when I was a child, I spake as a child, understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. So right now we still see through a glass darkly. Do you understand everything in Revelation? I know there's lots of video, there's lots of sermons about it. There's lots of preaching about it that's good preaching. But there's some things we just aren't going to know until that time. And we're going to probably find out we're wrong on some stuff. You know, we're wrong about, I'm not saying the sequence of the rapture or anything like that. That's pretty easy to preach about. But like, there's just a lot of stuff in the book of Revelation that's not super clear. But when we're in it, we're going to understand it because we're going to be in it, if we're in it. But it says we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. So obviously we're going to see Jesus Christ face to face. We're going to see God the Father face to face at one point in time, a little way later on down the road. But it says, now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known. So I mean, I can't be dogmatic and say that it's talking about the Bible necessarily. But it does seem to be, you know, if the Bible is perfect, then it's already come. It's been around for a long time. And that's why you see those sign gifts are not around anymore because I believe that when the canon was closed, when the scripture was done, then there's no need for any of that stuff. And that's why I believe it's talking about the word of God. But again, it's my opinion. So I'm not going to be dogmatic about it. So but anyway, look at verse 13. It says, now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three, but the greatest of these is charity. And you think about like, well, faith is so important. You know, you think faith, faith, why wouldn't faith be more important? Why wouldn't hope be more important? Because love is what gets those other attributes going. You know, if someone doesn't show love to someone and bring that faith to them, so they have that hope, you know, that's what makes charity better. It's the greatest of the three. That's what the Apostle Paul said. And you know what, he was the Apostle Paul, so I believe him. Turn to James chapter 2, 14. I'll wrap, begin to wrap this up here. James chapter 2, verse 14 says, What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith and have not works, can faith save him? Now again, these are some of the most twisted verses that you're going to, you know, people, false prophets get ahold of these verses, and they just go buck wild with it, and they just lie through their fang teeth. So, but there's scripture, and we believe them, but just not in the context that they would probably present it. But it says, If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled. Notwithstanding ye give them not the things which are needful to the body, what doth it profit? So what James is trying to tell people here is that, you know, you have, you say you have faith, but you never show it, you never prove it with your works. And that's what it's talking about when he's talking about how you can show your faith by the works that you do. That's true. Now, does everybody that does works have faith? We don't really know. You know, that's why we don't judge people by the works that they do necessarily, but you can see with people some of the works that they do. Abraham believed God was a counter to him for righteousness. You know, what did he do? Tried to sacrifice his son like God told him to. Was that a work? Yeah, it was. It showed that, it showed God that Abraham had that faith. So we still, you know, we should have faith. We should have works. You know, God didn't just save us so we could just do nothing. He wants us to work. And he wants us to work not just because it's duty, but should you go, should you go so wanting out of duty when you don't feel like it? Yeah, you should. You should still go. But do you think that, you know, the better thing would be to go with a little bit of love in your heart? And usually when you get to the prayer time, when you meet up with everybody, all that kind of changes when you start going to the doors, you know, it kind of helps you get that love back, right? But it says in verse 16, and one of you say, or excuse me, verse 17, even so faith if it hath not works is dead being alone. Now that's where they try to twist the scripture and say, see, you know, if you don't have the works and you're not really saved, that's not what the Bible is teaching though, because it's still faith, you know. Someone could rip all the pages out of this, right? And people, and even if the pages were ripped out and you set it right there, someone would say that's still a Bible. It might not have the insides of it, but it's still, it's still called the Holy Bible. Or if somebody was dead, if Alex was laying on the ground dead here, and we know he has a spirit, the spirit's going to go to heaven, but like if he was dead with no spirit in his body, would you still say that's Alex? Of course you would. It's just Alex that's dead, but he's still Alex, right? Sorry Alex, but he's like, I don't want to die. He said, I've got a few good years left. Three score and tens, all your promise bro. No, I'm just kidding. But yeah, I mean, so faith without works is dead, but that just means that it's not working. It's not doing anything. It says, yea man may say thou has faith and I have works. Show me thy faith without thy works and I will show thee my faith by my works. Thou believeth there is one God. Thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble, but wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? So he's not trying to say, you know, the devils believe and they're not saved. You know, that's another thing that people try to say. Well, the devils can't be saved, okay? So it doesn't matter whether they believe or not. They believe now, but they rebelled against God and obviously they don't have the same program going on as we do. So they're cast into outer darkness. Their judgment has already come to them. But the point of me showing you this is that, you know, we should still do works. But is he talking about love in these verses? He's not, is he? Faith without works is dead, but dead works without being saved are not saving anyone, are they? So you can have dead works, but that doesn't mean you're saved. But works without charity or love are not done for the right, you know, or not done for the right reason. You do works without love or charity, they're also, it's kind of like a dead work. It might be helping someone, but like, it's not helping you because you will have no, you're not going to prosper through that. So what we need to get our minds wrapped around tonight is that when we go out and do stuff, we should do it for the right reasons. You know, and if you have a ministry that you do at this church, you have something, you're a soul winning captain, you clean the church, whatever it is you do, you know, I mean, I would say even cleaning the church. Why do you clean the church? Is it so people can pat you on the back and say, wow, the church will look really spiffy this week. You know, and maybe that doesn't get said to enough. And I really do appreciate the people who come and clean this church. I do. And maybe I should say it more often. I'll say it with a prime rib dinner on Christmas, but I do, you know, but why do you do things? What's the motivation for why you do something? Is it so pastor will pat you on the back someday and say, hey, well done. You know who's going to say well done? God is going to say well done. And the fact that you're doing it with a heart filled with love and that, you know, you're doing it with charity, you know, you're not getting paid for it, but you're still doing it. And that's love. And you might not always feel like it, but what's the motivation? Again, it's to do something that's loving. Look at 1 John 3 verse 16. 1 John 3 verse 16. So you can have faith, you know, there can be faith without works, but that's dead. You can have dead works and still not be saved or saving anyone. And you can have works without charity or not done with the right reason. And I mean, you might say, well, the work's still getting done, but is it really? I mean, if you don't have any love in your work, then you know that this is the Bible saying this. It's not me saying it. So you're the one that has to, you know, if you're like, well, I don't love cleaning the church, but you know, I just do it. I want someone to say I did a good job. I mean, that'd be a weird attitude to have, but I don't think that that's why people clean the church. I think that people clean the church because they want to, because they love God and they want to please him. That's what I hope. 1 John 3 16 says, Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. That's a very great scripture right there. Let's not just say, Hey, I love you. You know, I'm praying for you and not really do it. You know, neither, you know, you don't do it. And you know, you don't do it in tongue. You know, the talk of the lips tend to the penury. It says, but in deed and in truth. So we have to show love by doing things that show that we love people by doing those good works. 1 Peter chapter 4. I'll have you turn to Revelation 2 19. I'll read for you while you're turning there. 1 Peter chapter 4 verse 8. And it says in 1 Peter 4 8 says, And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves, for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. So yes, if you go out soul-wanting, it might cover up some of your sins. I don't know. That's just a verse I found in the Bible. But anyway, not my motivation for going soul-wanting though. I'm not saying that. I've just kind of heard that preached a couple of times recently and I just like, wow. Okay. I don't think anybody has that motivation that like, I'm just going to go soul-wanting this week so God will absolve me of all my sins. No, that's not what I believe. I don't think anybody in this room believes that or has ever even thought that way. I hope not. But the fact remains that fervent charity, that means that love and action, you know, among yourselves or charity will cover a multitude of sins. Isn't that what the Bible says? Okay. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry to confuse people with the Bible. But before I look at Revelation 2 19, I'm just going to read for you also 1 Corinthians 16 verse 14. It says, let all your things be done with charity. Let all your things be done with charity. So that all means all, right? So everything we should do, you know, and so maybe there's some things that I've touched on tonight that maybe, you know, you're not doing out of love or maybe you're just not doing it. Maybe you need to do more. Maybe you want to get more involved, but, you know, obviously get involved. You know, there's a lot of people that are involved in this church that do a lot of great things. Well, let's just make sure that we're doing it with love in our heart. And that's, it's not to be seen of men. It's not to, you know, be a star on Facebook or be whatever you guys do. Old people do Facebook now. So what is the new things like, isn't it Instagram or something? TikTok? I just, I can't deal with that. Sorry. I'm just too old. I kind of hit the old threshold on that and I'm just like, nah, nah, no. Yeah, nah. I still struggle. I can't do Twitter either. It's just like 48 words or whatever. I don't know. I can't do it. That's for old people too. So apparently I'm too old to get in to get with the program. But anyway, so you were in Revelation chapter two, verse 19. Look at what it says. It says, I know thy works. Who's this talking? If you've got a red letter edition, who's this talking? Jesus, right? I know thy works and charity and service and faith and thy patience and thy works and the last to be more than the first. So that's a good reminder of us that, you know, God knows our hearts. He sees the reigns. He knows what's going on. He knows the works we do. He knows the charity. He knows the service. He knows whether we're doing things for the right reason or not. And He also knows that we're doing the right things. He knows everything. And so if He knows our works, He knows our charity, He knows our service, you know, that should be something that we think about that like, because ultimately God, Jesus Christ is going to judge us, not our sins, but He's going to judge us at the bema, you know, the bema seat of Christ isn't even, that's a whole life thing. Anyway, the judgment seat of Christ. He's going to divvy out rewards. So are your rewards getting nuked? Are you doing something for no reason because you're not doing it with love and you're not going to get rewards for that? I mean, we need to think about those kind of things because, you know, hey, you can turn it around. God's a God of multiple chances. He's long suffering. You know, we saw the verses, right? And, you know, He loves us and He wants to give us chance after chance. He gives us grace upon grace. But, you know, have love in your motivation to do good to others, your soul wanting your alms, feeding the poor, giving things to people less fortunate than you. And you know what? We probably all got a lot of stuff that we don't even really need at our house, don't we? So maybe make someone else's Christmas a little better this year with all the stuff that you don't keep for no reason. I'm preaching to myself right now. But it's like, why do I have this? I just need to go to the dump. But anyway, let's make sure that things we do are motivated by charity because, you know, the greatest thing that we can do is have charity towards other people. All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, so much for the Bible and for this great chapter for the Apostle Paul, teaching us these things through the Holy Spirit. We pray, Lord, that you'd help us to have love in our hearts whenever we do things for you, Lord. And, Lord, that we'd be motivated by love. And, Lord, we get accused of not being loving a lot. But in reality, every time the Bible is preached from this church, it's done in love, Lord. Every time we knock someone's door in this town, Lord, I pray that it's done with love in our hearts. And, Lord, that we'd be motivated by charity. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.