I don't know, what has it been here? November or so, it'll be, anyone, 39 years. No, no, no, no, that ain't right. It'll be 33 years or four maybe, something like that. I can't remember now, I can't think, but the first time I preached. But it was pretty short and sweet. Yeah. Well, I just remember I've studied and wrote things, and boy, I was about 15 minutes all I could come up with. Sure have changed, ain't it, Granny? Yes, it has. And I'm kind of like that one preacher I heard about. He said when he started preaching, he thought surely he'd preach everything there was in that Bible in just a year or two, surely. And then what would he do after that? But after he'd been preaching all these years, he found out that there was way more to preach now than was when he started. He hadn't even scratched the surface, and that's how I feel about it, too. You know, it's just different. God just puts something in you, and it's there. That's all there is to it. 1 Corinthians 13. Let's read verses 4 through 9 tonight. Do you all want to stand up? There you go. All right. All that can, and would you please stand? Now, if you can't stand, Esther, that's OK. Nobody's going to condemn you or judge you for it, all right? Esther and her injured foot. Okay, let's read the scripture here, 1 Corinthians 13, verse 4. Charity suffereth long and is kind. Charity envieth not. Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil. Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth. Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Now don't y'all get worried. You're sitting there saying, boy, if he's gonna preach on all that tonight, we're gonna be here all night long. Charity never faileth, but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part." Isn't that what we've been doing on Sunday morning? Isn't that what we've been memorizing? Alright, let's pray. Father, thank You for the Word of God. Thank You for the truth. And Lord, help us if we ignore it, fail to avail ourselves of what's here tonight for us. I pray you'd help us to have hearts and minds attentive tonight to hear the Word of God, hear what the Spirit of God would give us. Help us now in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, y'all can be seated. Now to understand the message of the Scripture here requires that we do some meditating upon what the word charity means. And you know, I want to say this too. This will do you no good. You know, knowledge does you no good if you don't apply it to your life, to your heart, your mind, your understanding. If you just hear it and you just revel in the knowledge, and gives you something to go tell somebody else, you've not gained a thing. Knowledge puffeth up, makes you proud. Boy, that's a terrible thing. You know pride grows on a human heart like lard on a pig. Yeah, so that's ugly. No, that's just how it is. Pride's the only disease that makes everybody sick except the one that's got it. Nobody likes a proud walk. God hates it. It's one of the first things that he hates, that proud look, that haughty nose in the air, cocky walk. God hates that and so does everybody else. Nobody likes it. And that's what knowledge will do for you unless you apply it to your life. Now I hope that you'll think about what's preached here tonight and the words we've read out of the scripture and that you'll think about yourself and not somebody else. Don't practice pitchfork religion. I've seen a lot of it. I've seen a lot of husbands and wives elbow each other when the preacher says something. or point to somebody. I've seen him actually point to somebody. Boy, you got him. I've heard people say that to me. Boy, you really got so-and-so tonight. Man! It's like old Claude Williams, you know, preaching that time. And he said, we had a woman in the church, and she was wagging her tongue all the time. Said she had everybody in an uproar. She was on the phone and gossiping all the time. And he said, I just had it with her. He said, I was going to preach the devil out of her that Sunday morning. He said, I got up, and I was preaching on, gossiping. And boy, this. And he said, I just made it just as plain as I could make it. And said, she sat back there amen-ing me. Hey, man, preacher, tell them like it is. He said, finally, I just went right back there, too. And he said, lady, I'm talking about you. I imagine she got kind of mad. Don't be that way. You know, not all of us ought to. It's about me. You know, it's me. It's me. It's not my sister, not my brother, but it's me, Lord. Let's do that. Now to understand what he's talking about here, we've got to think about what the word charity means. Charity is love, but it's not a, a feeling or an emotion does not constitute love. Now you hear me? That's right. Love is not a feeling and love is not an emotion. God wouldn't command us, God wouldn't describe the word in the terms that he does here if it were just an emotion or a feeling. Now we need to say that and we need to think about that because really it's drilled and hammered into all of our minds, all of our lives that that is what love is. It's a feeling. All the songs say it's a feeling. All that's talked about when it comes to love is that feeling. And that's wrong. Love is not a feeling, an emotion. That excitement or feeling that you experience when you're in the presence of someone you love is not evidence of love. That feeling you have is not evidence of love. You know, I've got a message that I preach here, it's been a couple of years ago, something like that, but is it lust or is it love? Boy, listen. Need to understand the difference. Just having a feeling around somebody, that's why the marriages are in such a mess. I mean, people, they get married based upon that feeling. And that feeling don't stay the same. Because that feeling is based on physical attraction. And physical attraction don't remain. I mean, as far as what you were attracted to to begin with doesn't stay the same. That's right. Beauty is vain. Help me. Favor is deceitful. Yeah. And beauty is vain. You know, you boys need to understand that. Just because some girl is shaped right, man, you love her? Come on, how could you be a bigger fool than that? Favor is deceitful. Beauty is vain. You're the sucker. Because it's going to get you before it's all over. Love is not based on those things. That is not love. That is lust. and it assigns you to hell. That excitement, neither do good deeds or benevolence alone constitute love. Just doing good things for others, that doesn't constitute love. The goodness that people bestow upon you is not true evidence of any love they have for you. People try to buy favor and buy attention. And so just because they give you stuff, just because they pay attention to you, doesn't mean they love you. You girls need to understand that. Because that's the way a boy, you'll attract him with your body and your shape, but he'll get you by talking to you. and telling you things and giving you things. There was an old song. It said like this. It said, tell her lies and feed her candy. Tell her lies and feed her candy. Tell her lies and feed her candy. That's how you get them. You girls ought to be ashamed that it's that way. You ought to be smarter than that. If you'd listen to the preaching in church like what's being done right now, you would be. If you'd hear it, believe it, and apply it in your life, and keep it, and understand, that's the way it is. This matter of life, charity is such an important thing in our life, and it'll change everything. It'll determine everything. You miss it, you miss what it is, you're gonna mess up your life. Now, true love is the habitual choosing of others before ourselves. Now, we talked about that last week. Charity seeketh not her own. It is the habit in your thinking, in your attitude, in the way you do to put others before yourself. That's charity. You don't love yourself supremely, you put others ahead of yourself. You put God first, you put others ahead of yourself. Charity must have as an object another person and not a thing. You can't love a truck. You can't love a car, a toy, a pair of boots. You can't love. No. Charity must have as its object another person. There's no other way. There's no other way that it works. That feeling that you have, that attachment that you have for that object is lust. It's not love. It's a deceived heart really. We ought to, I mean, we buy this stuff and pay our hard-earned money for it, but my goodness, it's just a piece of junk. You know, people go out and they buy these new cars, and then they make payments on them, and they spend every dime they can get on them, and they wash them and polish them and clean them and pat on them. And then one day, they come and crush them with one of them car crushers and just smash it into a piece of junk and haul it off and make soda cans out of it or something. Yeah. You know, that's a pretty poor thing to set your heart upon, ain't it? It's vain, it's fleeting, it's passing. Charity is to have as its object other people who are eternal. You're talking about eternal things here. God's eternal. The souls of other people are eternal also. Now there you go, there's something that you can invest in that's going to last forever and it's going to bring good results. So you see, that's the number of things we need to think about. Selfishness is not subdued until we choose God instead of ourselves and put Him first. Jesus said, seek ye first the kingdom of God. First. Not second, third. It don't come in somewhere along the line. First is the kingdom of God. Put God first. And in that context where Jesus said that, he was talking about food and clothing and the very necessities of life. Jesus said, don't put that before God. Don't worry about what you're gonna eat at your next meal more than you worry about God. Put God first. Put his concerns first. Regard God first above your own basic needs. And he said, if we'll do that, God will make sure that our needs are provided. He feeds the birds. He takes care of the flower of the fields. Solomon in all his glory wasn't arrayed like one of them. And how do you think God wouldn't care for you, O ye of little faith? So we ought to care about people instead of caring about things, shouldn't we? We should care about people than caring about our own needs, shouldn't we? If we care and we invest our strength and our life in the good of others for God's kingdom, gotta make sure that we are taken care of. We ain't gonna starve to death. Psalmist said, I've been young and I've been old. I've never seen God's children begging bread. And he's never forsook his own. He don't. I'll never leave you nor forsake you. God means what he says. A lot of people don't. They say that and then they walk away. But God don't do that. And if you make that kind of commitment to God that He's made to you, you'll find Him faithful. If God's willing to tell you that if you'll come and follow Me, I'll never leave you nor forsake you, you ought to be willing to say to God, I'll never leave you nor forsake you either. I'm here and I ain't going nowhere and I'll never leave you. I ought to be able to say that and commit to such a thing. Charity makes that easy to do. Yeah. And it's not based on feelings. It's based on facts. Self has to be crucified with Christ before any true love can exist in the soul. Now we talked about that Wednesday night about the crucified life. But self must be put to death with Christ before any love can exist in your soul because self is the, selfishness is the root of all sin. Now you think about that. Every sin has as its root selfishness. My way. I want it and I want it now. And I'm gonna have it now. That's lust, that's selfishness, and it's the root of all sin. A selfish person can't possess true charity in their heart. Now, y'all listening to me? Because, I mean, boy, this is paring it down right down to the bone here. Salvation is not just a profession of faith. Salvation accomplishes more in your soul than just give you a home in heaven when you die. Now it does. And so in a selfish person, there really can't be any true charity in their heart. You either live for yourself or you live for God. And until you're living for God, there is no way that you're gonna be, you're gonna have, you're gonna possess true charity. You'll have affinities for other people, just natural affinities. There's natural affection that we feel toward others. But how is it that there can be so much fighting and fussing and ill feelings among families? Who's supposed to love each other? Who's supposed to have natural affection among them? They don't have charity, that's why. They're a bunch of selfish people who live for self and they are struggling and bumping heads all the time because they're trying to have their own way. Somebody is. True charity seeketh not her own. That means no selfish motives. That's what had to be in these men that Moses had to choose to put in places of authority and in places of judgment over God's people. They had to be that kind of a person who hated covenants. So they had to be the kind of people who had experienced the new birth and knew what it was to put self on the cross. and to be raised in a new life. Don't think that this being born again business started when Jesus died on the cross. Jesus told Nicodemus in John chapter 3 when he was talking about you must be born again, he said, Nicodemus, you're a teacher of the Jews and you don't know this stuff? It's always been this way. Yeah. Now, a selfish person has never been crucified with Christ. A selfish person is one whose life and decisions are guided by selfish interests and desires. That's what guides their life. That's how they make their decisions. That's how they make their choices. That's why boys make choices of a wife based upon their selfish lust and the feelings they get when they're around her. How many of them has been fooled? Oh, almost all of them. You need to make your choices based on something else then and it'll work better for you. Ain't that right? Selfish person is one who makes their decisions in life based upon their selfishness. A selfish person puts their own desires and interests before others as a matter of principle. It's me first. It starts when they're real little. As soon as they can start talking, you'll hear that out of them. One of the first words they learn is mine or me, me first. They're always trying to put themselves and jump up and get in the race themselves ahead of somebody else. The baby of the family don't like being the baby of the family, do they, Elizabeth? I heard her talking about that the other night, how hard it was being the baby of the family. There ain't nobody after you to make you feel like you've attained or anything. But it's in all children. I mean, I've watched it for a long time. I know it's in all of our children. I can remember. I remember Seth, when he was real little, one of the first things that I remember him saying as a sentence that he put together was, I gave him, or his mother gave him, or somebody gave him a cookie or something, and he said, give me two of them. Yeah. One. I mean, there's more there. Just give me two of them. He put his other hand up. Give me two of them. And that's the way it is with all children. Well, I don't want to get inside dragged there. Since the fruit of the Spirit of God is love. The fruit of the Spirit is what? First word. Love. Charity. The fruit of the Spirit is charity. joy, peace, and a lot of other things, but that's the first word in it. And charity is a character trait of the person in whom the Spirit of God dwells. See, the nature of charity is what we're talking about here tonight. It's a fruit of the Spirit. So if the Spirit lives in you, charity is going to be one of your characteristics. It's going to be a trait of your character. It ain't going to be something that you practice and try your best to do. And it ain't a work you do. It's not something that you strive to be. It's just what you are. Because the Spirit of God lives in you. I'm telling you, his yoke is easy and his burden is light. Being a Christian is not hard. It's not a heavy load to bear. He said, take my yoke upon you and learn of me. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. God don't make it hard to be a Christian. He makes it easy. It's easy. to love other people and put other people first if the love of God has been shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit. So if you have trouble with this, maybe you ought to examine your soul. I mean, that's the bottom line. Say, well, that's everybody. Everybody ought to examine their soul. I mean, I'm reading the Word of God here. This ain't my opinion. This ain't what I think. This is what the Word of God says. Charity. Without it, nothing else matters. Isn't that what we read last week? Nothing. Though you give your body to be burned and have not charity, what does it accomplish? What does it gain you? What does it profit you? Nothing. It's worthless without charity. So, charity is not something we do. It's not something we get. It's not something we give. It's what we are. It's just how we are. It just happens when God comes in. Makes me love everybody. Makes me love everybody. That's exactly right. That's how it works. Before, you hate everybody. You're an old grouch and a grump and you suspect everybody and you're criticizing everybody. But when God comes in and makes his abode in and his spirit takes up his abode in this body, which is the temple of the Holy Ghost, boy, the attitude, the outlook, the way you look at other men changes. And you have goodwill toward men. I believe the angel said something about that the night Jesus was born, didn't they? Peace on earth, goodwill toward men. What was they talking about? The fact that this is what does it. When Jesus saves a soul and his spirit comes into them, that's how they are. They have goodwill toward men. Since the fruit of the Spirit is love, charity is a character trait of the person in whom the Spirit of God dwells. And the consistent absence of any of the evidences of charity that are given here, that ought to be convincing evidence of the absence of the Spirit of God. Pretty simple, ain't it? If charity's not there, God is not there. He that loveth not, knoweth not God. Right? 1 John 7 and 8. All right, now, the consistent presence of these evidences is convincing evidence of the presence of the Spirit of God. Not this sporadic stuff, not this, oh, I'm so nice to you today, and I just love you, and I appreciate you, and you're just, oh, I don't know what I'd do without you. And then the next time, it's, what are you doing that for? No, the consistent presence of charity. It's important in everybody's life. I was talking to her today. We were talking about some things, and you know, that's mighty important. You can know so much, but if you're unstable, if you're always darting this way and that and nobody can tell what you're going to do next, you're a mess. Give me somebody who don't know nothing, but they're stable-minded, they're steady, they're not erratic, they're not jumping. Give me somebody like that any day of the week, I'll pick them over the one that knows everything, who won't stay on the tracks. You can do something with somebody who's steady. You can't do nothing with somebody who's unstable and erratic. It's consistent. This consistent presence of the evidence of charity is pretty good evidence that the Spirit of God dwells there. Man, charity suffereth long, the Bible says. It produces in you patient endurance. Charity suffereth long. Along with charity comes patience. What is patience? It's patient endurance. You can just wait and wait and wait. This is something that by the nature of life and the way that life plays out, this is something patience that is generally worked into a person after they live a long life. Have you ever noticed that? Older people are more patient. Why? Because they give up on trying to change everybody and the whole world, trying to make everybody do what they think is right. They've learned that you ain't going to do no good. Best thing to do is just sit back and watch them. If they won't listen, just watch them while they go over the cliff. That's a shame. Ain't that awful? Patience. You can just wait and wait and wait. Wait on God to work. Wait on people to change. Charity will help you with all that. We get impatient waiting on God. But how long God wait on you? God waited a long time for most of us. And then He's waited a long time on us to grow and develop and learn and come under His authority. We just buck and we just so dumb, really. I mean, we just got admitted. We just ain't too bright. We'd just listen. We'd save ourselves a lot of grief and a lot of trouble in life. It will, but charity, it produces patient endurance. It helps us to wait on God to work. Just be patient, wait on God. It makes you not worry about all the criticism and all the other people saying, well, y'all do something, y'all do something, when you gonna do something? You just learn to wait on God. Charity helps you to wait on God. We want it now. We know what we want and we want it now. That's lust. Faith is waiting. Waiting. Trusting and waiting on God to do it in His time. That's faith. Man, you need that. God is not a vending machine. He ain't a puppet on our string. He does what's wisest and best. And we don't understand because we only know in part. And charity will teach us to wait. And it'll teach us to wait on people to change. That's something I'm really beginning to get a hold on, I think. I think I am. Because I've seen it, here's been, you know, I'm a, I guess I'm a hard driver, you know. That's what my wife says. She says I drive her, but sometimes maybe I do. But somebody's got to push, you know. I mean, the car ain't going nowhere. If it ain't running, then nobody will push. Somebody's got to do it. But I'll tell you what, and so, you know, that's a failing of me through the years is thinking, well, now look. I mean, one, two, three, that's the way it is. Don't you understand? I mean, if you understand this and this and this, then come on, do it. and they don't understand. They know it, but they don't understand. I'll tell you how I've come to understand this is by my own self. I've known things, and I thought I was right on it, but I've had it revealed to me through very hard circumstances I wasn't on it like I thought I was. It took me a long time to understand some things that should have been very obvious to me. It took me a long time to understand some things that I knew. I can get some preaching notes from 30 years ago and show you where I said things. And I knew it then. It amazes me because I look at it and say, you know, I knew it then, but I didn't know it. I said it, but I didn't understand what I was talking about. And it took many, many years for me to finally get it. So, I tell you what it's helped me with. I can look at other people and say, you know, hard-headed, stubborn, what is the matter with you? It's helped me to not do that so much. I look at people and think, well, you know, they're young and they just don't understand. When I was young, I didn't understand. They've got to experience life for a while. They've got to, Come through some hard things and they'll understand. Charity will help you to wait on other people to change and not be impatient and exasperated because they don't do it as soon as you think they ought to do it. I mean, they know everything they need to know. They've heard all they need to know. They've got what they need to do. Do it! Well, now everybody's going to do it. Hope you can get a hold of that. God will help us, the charity will help us to wait on God to work, on people to change, and on circumstances to change. We get impatient with our circumstances and we think, gotta do something, gotta do something. No, charity will help you to understand that you need to just sit tight and wait. Circumstances will change. But if you'll trust God and wait on Him, most people give up just before. I mean, they're just almost there and they give up. They jump ship just before they get there. Well, just wait. Charity will help you to do that. And if God lives in you, how long can you wait? How long can you wait? I can show you in the Bible where a lot of people waited a long time. A long time. Old Joseph rotted in that prison for years and years and years on end with no hope whatsoever. And he waited until his word came. That's what the Bible says. One day. The time came, and it was the time appointed by God. One day, after all those years of being in the dungeon, and he didn't belong there, he hadn't done anything to be put there, he was innocent, and he was a good man and a godly man, and he trusted God, and finally the day came that he got up that morning in the prison all dirty, and he slept in the palace that night. with Pharaoh's ring on his hand, and his chain around his neck, and he was the king. See, circumstances will change in due time. You got to trust God. Moses trusted God. We've been talking about him so much, but we talked this morning about how everything changed. See, it took a long time to change, but it did change. They said, who made you a ruler and a judge? And now he's a ruler and a judge. The thing changed, didn't it? So, love never gives up. How long can you wait? Forever. Love never gives up. Charity never faileth. It never stops hoping in God, in His work. and in other people. You never, I mean if charity is what you are, you don't give up on people. You don't just throw them into hell and say, well, it ain't worth it. Charity won't do that. Charity never faileth. It never stops hoping. It never stops hoping in God. It never stops hoping in what God's doing. And it never stops hoping in other people. It never stops loving, even when hatred is returned. You see, charity is not reciprocal. Charity is a one-way deal. Real charity, true charity, that's the fruit of the Spirit of God, It's there whether they hate you or they love you. They drove the nails in his hands and they spit in his face. And he said, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. That is charity. Yeah. No matter what you do to me, no matter what you think of me, no matter what you say to me, You're not going to change the way I view you." How did He view him? With hope. For the joy that was set before Him, He endured the shame. He endured the cross despising the shame. He endured all of that because He had hope in people, in what God was doing, and in the fact that it was worth it. Charity never stops loving and charity never stops giving even when evil is returned. You see the world, normal, carnal way of doing it is sinners give to those whom they hope to receive again from. You know, they give in order to get. Sinners do that. God ain't involved in that. But when God's involved in it, you give whether you get anything in return or not. The earth gives. Everything God created is that way. It gives and gives and gives. God's that way. He gives and gives and gives. And what does He get in return? What does He get in return from you? From us, from humanity. Do you think it's a fair deal God's getting? No it's not, but the only reason that it's that way is because God so loved the world. Because God is love. That's the only reason that it's that way. If God wasn't love, if God was like us, buddy, it'd be a different world. You talk about the blood running deep. If God was like the pagan gods, there wouldn't be nobody left because they'd all be dead by now. So he would have killed them all. God so loved the world. No matter how the world treats Him, He still reaches out. He still gives. He gives to the evil people even, to the unthankful and the evil. He's kind to them. He gives to them. The rain falls on the just and on the unjust. Love certainly doesn't bail out or jump ship quickly or lightly. Sure don't. When relationships are broken easily, it's because of a lack of true love. One or both of the parties were in it just for their own benefit. That's the way it is in most churches now. People hit the door just as quick as, I mean, first time anything crosses them, rubs them the wrong way, they're gone. And it ain't supposed to be that way. Church, there's a covenant. It's a covenant relationship like a marriage is a covenant relationship. I mean, it ought to be the same thing. I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee. That's the way it ought to be. Shouldn't jump and run just because something ain't going right or just because you can't have it your way or whatever is going on. There ain't no excuse unless the whole thing goes to the devil. Now, if we started having junk in here and ungodly stuff like everybody else is doing, this ungodly entertainment and music and stuff, then I'd be out of there. If that's what you're going to do, you can't do this. But when it's over, just little issues and little personality conflicts and stuff like that, that ain't the way a family operates. Man, when I was a kid, me and my brothers fought all the time. I mean, that's what brothers do, ain't it? Well, if they don't, it's an unusual situation, let me tell you. They might all smile and perk up when they're in public, but behind the closed doors, I guarantee you, I know that's the way it was with my brothers. You know, if you got one over on him, I had one brother in particular that if it was a week later, he'd get you. While you wasn't looking, he'd get you. But he's still my brother. We never just fell out with each other and said, I'm sick of this, I'm leaving, I ain't part of this family no more. Never did do that. And then, you know, if brothers like that and siblings and families, I mean, if somebody comes along and starts picking on one of them, you know, not my brother you ain't going to do that to. Well, there's a reason for that. There's a bond there that's more than just trivial little junk. And it ought to be that way with God's people. Love never stops giving. And when there's no true charity, people will quickly bail out for the slightest thing. I don't have to put up with this. That's why marriages don't last. That's why. They're in it for the selfish reasons. And when self quits getting what he wants or she wants, they're gone. I don't have to put up with this. Even though they stood there and vowed before God and everybody that they'd never until death do us part. Boy, I've seen it not last a few months. I've seen them within a month or two split up and done with it. I'm going to put up with this. How's that for sincerity? Charity doesn't allow that. Don't happen with charity. People bail out of friendships. People bail out of marriages. People bail out on their children. People bail out on their church. And people bail out on God when they don't get their way. And that's because there's no charity there. And where there's no charity, what else is lacking? Spirit of God. There's no God there. God is love. He that loveth not, knoweth not God. For God is love. You can't have God involved in anything without charity being the rule of the relationship. Y'all hearing me? Where there's no charity, there is no God. God's not involved. I don't care if you say He is. I don't care if you're a preacher, if you're a member of a church, if you say you're a Christian family, whatever. He's not. If charity isn't the ruling principle in the thing, then God's not involved in it. When you abandon somebody, there can be no true love there. You're lying if you say, I love you, but I can't stand to be around you anymore. Now the Bible says, charity suffereth long. Love doesn't mean that it's all joy and gladness. Boy, you do well to listen to this. Love doesn't mean that it's all good and everything's going to be wonderful and you're not going to face any problems. It's not all joy and gladness and fun and pleasure and ecstasy. See, you read too many romance books, you shouldn't read any of that junk. Or watch these Hollywood movies where they portray their love as this thing, this feeling that just makes everything wonderful and anything will work because we love each other. Oh, make me puke. I know better than that. And I think it's so foolish. When I see people doing that, I think, what fools, what fools. What a disaster lies ahead for them. Because they're building their thing on an air castle. I mean, they're building it on nothing. It's not real. The idea that it's just gonna, everything's gonna be wonderful because we love each other. The word means to endure pain. Charity suffereth long. It means to endure pain, to endure hardship, mistreatment, injustice, wrong. Charity suffereth long. That means if charity is what you are, and it won't be unless the Spirit of God is in you, then you'll be able to endure anything. Any kind of offense, any kind of criticism, any kind of attack, no matter what people do to you, it's not going to take away the charity out of your soul. That's pretty hard stuff, ain't it? Yeah. I'm trying to think of a verse, Psalm 165. 119, 165, tell me, help me. 176 or whatever it is. Not be offended. Blessed are they. Why did I do that? It stopped. Nothing shall offend them. Nothing shall offend them. Great peace have they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them. Make them stumble. It's 165, Psalm 119, 165. Nothing's gonna make them stumble. Why? Because charity suffereth long. What they have in their soul is an outlook and a view of everything that's not selfish. So whatever you, I mean, you can insult me, you can say whatever you want to about me, and it's not gonna make me. Just throw the whole thing to the wind and walk off because I'm offended What's our society running on now that offends me that offends me Well, there's a lot of things that offend me as far as It's offensive to me. It's disgusting is an abomination to me a lot of these things are I It's not the same thing. To be offended means to cause to stumble. Are you listening? Nothing will do that if charity, because charity suffers long. The word means that. Now to feel or bear what is painful, disagreeable, or distressing, either to the body or mind. I wish that I could, I wish I was eloquent enough to make you understand tonight how important this is to your life. You're going to face, everybody here is going to face hard things. Things that are harder than you can possibly imagine sitting here in the pew tonight. You don't look ahead in your life and see things, hard things, you see good things ahead for you. You can't imagine. I mean, that will never happen to me. There's probably not any of us in here that have not said that. I'll tell you one thing, that's one thing that will not happen in my life. But even beyond that, the worst thing, you can't imagine what hardships, what sorrow, what pain, what injustices lie ahead in your life. And you are going to need this so bad. So you better listen and you better remember, charity suffers long. We suffer pain of body. We suffer grief of mind. We often suffer wrong. We suffer abuse. We suffer injustice. But charity suffereth long." Remember the patience? Waits and waits and waits. Suffering and you wait anyway. You don't run and jump and try to get away from it. It means to charity suffereth long, it means to allow, to permit, not to forbid or hinder. Will you suffer yourself to be insulted? You know, you see what I'm saying? That's another meaning of the word. Charity suffers long. Will you suffer yourself to be insulted? Will you put up with it? It's another form of patience. Charity suffereth long. It's more than just waiting, it's suffering while you're waiting. It's waiting with pain added into it. Charity is patient, and charity suffereth long, waits a long time, while there's pain involved. Charity also means to sustain, to be affected by, like to suffer loss or damage. Paul said he had suffered the loss of all things. Paul lost everything he ever had for the sake of the gospel. And what did he say he counted it as? Dung. I don't think you could put it any lower than that." He said, that's what I think of all that stuff that I used to think so much of. He said, I had to give it all, I lost it all. But to me, he said, I just counted all as done. That's about the nicest way you can put it. But he put it mighty low, didn't he? Charity will take us down a long road of suffering for others. Suffer for what? For others. If you're a parent, you're going to suffer. You're going to suffer for your children. You're going to suffer to make a living for them. You're going to suffer when they break your heart. You're going to suffer when you watch them do things that are going to mess up their life. It's going to cause you to suffer. You're going to feel pain in your heart. It's going to grieve your mind and trouble your mind. You're going to suffer. Charity involves suffering. If you love, you're going to suffer for it. But it's okay. Charity suffereth long. And it's kind. But I don't think we'll get to that tonight. And it's always because of others. But not complaining and feeling sorry for ourselves, but for them. That's charity. Instead of worrying about what they've done to me, the focus is not on self because selfishness has been put away, you see. Not, look what you've done to me. I mean, you need to straighten up because of what you're doing to me and how you're hurting me and what you're costing me. You notice that never gets anything done. You got a rebellious, wicked child. They don't care if they hurt you or not. They don't care what you feel like. They'll trample you right under their feet. You love them, they'll do you that way anyway. So begging and pleading with them because of your sake, that ain't going to do it. No, charity suffers long. And the concern that goes with it is for them, not for me. The very fact that charity has as its object another person makes the prospect of being hurt and having to suffer almost inevitable. If you love somebody, you're going to get hurt. It goes with the game. If you pick you out a wife and you do it right and you love her the way Christ loved the church and it's all in order like it's supposed to be, still going to hurt you. Somewhere in all of the deal, you're going to suffer pain. Shouldn't be, but that's the way it is. Part of the vows that both of these made were, I promise never to willfully hurt you with my words. That's a hard vow to keep, ain't it? But it ought to be kept. But when it's not kept, you better hope there's charity there, real charity. Real charity that suffers long. your heart open before somebody else and giving them the power to hurt you will sometimes bring just that, suffering. Man, that's how it is. God created man and he loved him. Look what happened to God. You see, people talk about losing their soul. Who loses? God loses. When man sinned, it was God who lost, suffered loss. Man gets what's coming to him. If he won't turn to God and avail himself of all God has done to draw him back to himself, he deserves to burn in hell forever. It's not his loss, it's God's loss. It's a soul that God would have had but won't have in eternity because they lost it. Laying your heart open before other people, someone else, the charity has to have another person as its object and when it's that way, You're going to get hurt. But even that will not cause you to abandon them or stop loving them. You'll wait and wait and wait some more. Never give up. If you really love somebody, you never give up on them. Is that true? Oh, yes, that's true. Yes, that's true. And that's not just your children who you love with natural affection. We're talking about something way higher than that here. We're talking about charity, fruit of the spirit. It makes us that way with other people that are not our family, not our blood kin. We'll look at some poor old lost soul walking down the street and we have that same concern about them. They're gonna die and be lost. I mean, nobody knows, nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care. Charity, I mean it's the key. By this shall all men know that you're my disciples. That you have love one to another. How you love one another, that's how they're gonna know. How you love people. And I'm not talking about this sicky, messed up way the world is presenting love. They don't know, they're as far as they can be from what we're talking about here out of the word of God tonight. Charity. Charity. There's a lot of traits about it. We've just talked about a few of them tonight here. Charity suffereth long. I think right after that, charity is kind. Do you really feel like that you have charity? Do you feel like that what you do in your life, your mind, the way you look at other people, is the fruit of the Spirit there? Do you look at people that way? Are you concerned for their soul, for their welfare? I mean, do you care? Do you care? Or are you just in it for yourself? Do you care more about yourself and your own concerns and your own needs and just let everybody else? You know how rich our lives would be if we were more concerned about others than ourselves? It's the key. There's the key that unlocks all the riches of God. Jesus came to this earth and he didn't He didn't own anything, the clothes on his back. He didn't have a place to lay his head. He didn't worry about obtaining any kind of possessions. He didn't worry about maintaining a house to live in. I mean, what did he do? Well, he went about doing good. He went about seeking and saving that which was lost. That's what he came to do. He went about helping people and meeting, I mean, the sick, the lame, the blind, those that were devil possessed and miserable and dying. I mean, even the dead, when he ran in, no dead person, he never even run into a funeral, but it was over. When he got there, the funeral was over. He never came in contact with somebody that's dead, they didn't come back to life. I mean, wherever he went, he helped people. And, you know, it changed the whole world forever. Don't you see? He's had more influence than any other person who's ever lived on this earth. Well, he was God. Well, yeah, but he was man. He was the son of man. He was born of a virgin. He was made flesh and dwelt among us. And he showed us how it's supposed to be. He showed us what it's like when a man is filled with the Holy Spirit of God and lives in accordance with the Word of God. Jesus, there he is. That's what a man is supposed to be like. Yeah. He was the second Adam, Bible calls him. When you look at Jesus, you're looking at what God meant for Adam to be. He fixed what Adam broke. And He showed us how we're supposed to walk. Now that's what He means when He says, take up your cross, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Me. When He told Peter and the other ones, follow Me. And He says to us, what are we supposed to do? Follow Him. Be like Him. He said, the works that I do, shall you do also, and greater works than these shall you do. Because I go to my Father, I'm gonna send the Holy Ghost, and it's gonna, and you're gonna receive power from on high. And you're gonna be witnesses of me. And you're gonna do it with power. and influence, and you're going to have a whole different outlook on everything, because the fruit of the Spirit is love. Don't you see how it all works? How it's supposed to work. How it does work, we just don't see it very good, do we? And we settle for a lot less. We stop way short of where we ought to stop in this matter of being saved, being a Christian, living for God. Don't we? Well, why don't you stand up. We'll have word of prayer. And we'll sing a little chorus. I know what I want to sing. It is, He that loveth not knoweth not God. Yeah. Beloved, let us love one another. Father, we thank you for the Word of God, and thank you for the liberty with it. Thank you for the wisdom that's there tonight for us, if we'll have it. Please help us, Lord. Please help us all. I pray we'd take it to heart, listen, and apply it in our lives. Pray you'd be real in our lives this week as we go away from here. Watch over us all, and lead and guide us. Help us to be sensitive to your will, and help us to be a blessing, and help us to have a right attitude as we look out on others in this world. And we have to deal with the profane people of this world and the ungodly around us. Help us, Lord, to remember these things here tonight. And help us to be profitable servants and not just unprofitable, just doing what's our duty to do, just barely hanging on to our profession. I pray we'd be more than that. Help us to be fruitful in Jesus' name. Amen. Let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God, he that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. Beloved, let us love one another. Beloved, Let us love one another. For love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love. Beloved, let us love one another. 1 John 4, 7 and 8.