Galatians chapter number 5, be our starting place this evening. Galatians chapter number 5. I would like to be part of a family that practices the fruit of the Spirit, not the works of the flesh. I would like to be part of a church that practices the fruit of the Spirit, not the works of the flesh. I would like to live in a world where everyone practices the fruit of the Spirit, not the lust of the flesh. And that's where you're headed if you're saved for a world like that. In the meantime, in the meantime, here's what the Bible says. We just keep reading this over and over. Hope it sinks in to my heart and yours. Verse number 12, I would they were even cut off which trouble you. That's a hard thing that Paul didn't say. That's a hard thing the Holy Spirit said. None of us, none of us, honestly, none of us wants to see anyone leave a church. We want to see everyone in the church get right. with the Lord and live right. But if somebody's gonna just tear up a church, the Holy Spirit said, I wish they were out of there. That's what he said. Now the pastor can't feel that way. He's not allowed to feel that way. And the leaders aren't supposed to feel that way. And the church members aren't supposed to feel that way. Because we're trying to help people and build them up and help them go on. But the Holy Spirit said, there's some times you just better letting me letting me move someone along, letting me move someone along. And my father in law, for many, many years, he was a such a big help to the work we were getting started. And and he told me more more than once. He told me, he said, I'm not I am not trying to tell you what to do except for this right here. He said, if somebody wants to leave and you don't let them go, you will regret. You will regret talking someone into staying who doesn't want to be here. And you know, this isn't for everybody, shockingly, surprising. And some people, you know, spiritual things, they get out of sorts. And some people, personal things, they get out of sorts. And there's sometimes that people just need to find their own company. You understand? Birds of a feather flock together. And if you want to be a buzzard, you don't need to be hanging out with bluebirds. Honestly. I don't want to hang out with ravenous birds, and carrion feeders. And so the Lord takes care of those things. For brethren, ye have been called unto liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion of the flesh, but by love serve one another. So if you're saved, I'm saved, you're saved. So we're free to live as we choose. Don't use that liberty to choose sin, to choose flesh, use it to choose following the spirit and fruit of the spirit, okay? So for all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. That fixed every relationship that we ever had. Because we love ourself. Nowhere in the Bible does God say, you know, you really need to love yourself. You know why I didn't ever say that? Because it's just automatic. It's just automatic. So just love the other person like you love yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed one of another. See, when you start loving people and treating people with longsuffering and goodness and these other fruit of the spirit, you have no idea how far God can carry that. Well, if you start biting each other, starting devouring each other, you have no idea how far the flesh can carry that. And so the Lord said, don't start something that could end up consuming, destroying the entire fellowship of believers. This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would. The big hindrance in my life is me. Big hindrance in your life is you. One of you fights against the other one of you. One of me fights against the other one of me. We're all double-minded to some extent, and it's a great hindrance to us. But if you be led of the Spirit, you're not under the law. Now, now, right now, tonight, the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness. Some of the young guys were disappointed that I covered all of these in one evening. They were looking forward to 17, consecutive sermons of slashing and burning, but we got through it. Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, end beings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like. That's all the stuff that isn't mentioned in that verse. Of the witch I tell you before, as I've also told you in time past, they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God, but the fruit of the Spirit is love. I like that better than the list we just read. joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness. Goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law. So tonight, having covered long-suffering this morning, tonight, gentleness, gentleness. Our word gentle in all that it means derives from the word genteel, which means well-born, of a good family, or respectable birth. Think of this. Think of this. Have you been born again? You have been born into the finest family on earth. Your first birth might not be much to brag about. And your family tree might be a pretty crooked operation. But if you have been born again, you are genteel. You have been well born. You have been born into a good family. You have a very, very respectable birth. Amazing. All of us who've had a second birth can certainly rejoice in knowing this regeneration has made us part of the greatest of all families. And we have the opportunity as a result of this new birth, to manifest the fruit of the Spirit. That is, to live in accord with our second birth, to conduct ourselves according to the character of our Heavenly Father, not in conformity to our earthly father, Adam. Correct? Now we all know how to act like Adam because we inherited these character traits from our father, and father, and father, and father, and father all down the line. But when we got a new birth, now we have imparted to us, by virtue of that new birth, the character traits of an absolutely righteous heavenly father. And that's the desire. A gentleman is one who is well born, belongs to a good family. Holy Spirit wants to teach us to be kind and soft and mild and tender and He desires, I'm a man's man, just stay with us. He desires to take off the hard edge and the arrogant approach. He does. One more thing before we run our references. Gentle is a noun that can be used as a verb. It just irritates me. I don't know when it started. It doesn't seem like it was all that long ago. I don't like this using nouns as verbs. Parenting, parent is not a verb, it's a noun. Partnering, would you partner together? No, I'm not gonna partner. You want some money, I'll give you some money. You want some help, I'll give you some help. I don't wanna partner with you. partners, and that's just me. I don't know why it bothers me, but it does. And things bother me that don't bother anyone else, but that's just one of them. But anyway, gifting. Don't gift me, give me something. Gifted, that's a whole different matter. Anyway, anyway. Here, here, gentle, This is a legitimate, long-standing, though seldom used case where a noun has a verb form. Gentle means to make genteel, or listen, or to raise from the vulgar. You were born a commoner. You have been reborn nobility. You were born just one more ordinary loser. You have been reborn as a child of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. What an amazing thing. By birth we're vulgar, common, like all others. But we've had a new birth, new birth. Our character and our actions may be elevated. The Holy Spirit wishes to raise us from vulgarity. and make us kind, benevolent, well, the word is gentle. So let's come to 2 Corinthians chapter 10. 2 Corinthians chapter 10. I'm gonna ask for a little feedback this evening, not commitment, but a little feedback. Have any of you read the New Testament, or in particular, read the book of Acts, and ever thought to yourself, just by a show of hands, ever thought to yourself, that Paul's a real sissy. That Paul is a wimp. That Paul, what a chicken little man. It's a wonder he didn't go around, bonk, bonk, bonk. What a cowardly little, nobody's ever read the Bible and thought that. 2 Corinthians 10 verse 1, now I, Paul, myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence and base among you, but being absent and bold towards you, but I beseech you that you may not be bold when I'm present." So look at that first verse. Here's what I want you to see. Paul said, I'm pleading with you, As Christ was gentle, and as I am gentle, I make this appeal to you. Now guys, we're for street preaching. Guys, we're for boldly proclaiming the gospel. Guys, we're for standing and not backing down. Guys, we are for man being man. But gentlemen, Gentlemen, Jesus Christ was never rude. He was never harsh. He was never vulgar. He never had to use profanity to prove a point. He never had to use curse words to try and strengthen his phrase. He never had to get nasty or insulting. Amen. And Paul came along. And the only time Paul ever lost control of his temper and his tongue and said to a man, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall, he apologized immediately for having spoken inappropriately to a man who was absolutely wrong and needed a rebuke. But you can rebuke someone without ceasing to be polite. Well, this is gonna be a long night, isn't it? Nobody's asking you to be a wimp. Nobody's asking you to be effeminate. But Jesus Christ is asking you to walk in his steps, and he was gentle. And the Apostle Paul is the example of following Christ that we are to follow, and he was gentle. And he made his appeal to rebel Christians in a messed up church at Corinth, gently. He never stopped being a gentleman. Can I say it this way? I lament the fact that I was taught and encouraged early on by preachers, Bible-believing preachers, to be classless. Saved people ought to have class. Save people ought to be above the fray, if you will. They should. They should. Now, I know people provoke you in anger. Jesus got angry. I know people irritate you and rub you the wrong way. I know you get out there 30, 40, 50 minutes an hour preaching out there in those public places and you see the things people do and hear the things people say. You are to be more influenced by the Holy Ghost than you are those people. And Christ was always a gentleman, Paul was always a gentleman. Don't lose your dignity, don't lose your class, don't lose your purity of speech. Titus chapter number three, let's try this one. Titus chapter three. Can I say, especially in this day and age, you understand, if you're in any public place, witnessing or just conducting yourself in your daily life as a Christian, somebody is quite possibly got you on camera. And they are not going to post for all the world to see the hour and a half you stood on that college campus or on that street corner politely giving out the gospel. They're gonna post the one time you got in the flesh and lost your cool and insulted a lady or threatened a child or got rude with a man or said something vulgar and inappropriate and that, that is gonna hit the social media. And they're not gonna give you a side-by-side opportunity to say, do you know what this man said to me? Do you know what these people were doing to me? Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. They nailed Jesus Christ to a cross, and he was still a gentleman. All right, Titus chapter three. Titus chapter three. Here we go, verse number one. Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers. magistrates, to be ready to every good work, to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing meekness unto all men." So why should I have to treat these horrible magistrates and these awful powerful figures in our world and these evil people? Well, verse 3, For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But after that, the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness as we have done, but according to His mercy, saved us by the washing, regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost." Here's what he said, you're not like them anymore. You're not one of them anymore. And you used to be like them, and you used to talk like they do, and you used to have their attitudes, and you used to lash out and strike out and throw harsh language around like they did, but God's love appeared to you, and God's kindness appeared to you, and Jesus Christ saved you, so don't talk like they do. Don't engage on their turf, make them engage on your turf. We used to, and I'd like to get it going again, we don't have the personnel right now. I'm going to talk in December about some things we need to start doing, we haven't done in a while, or haven't ever done. But we used to set up a booth at the farmer's market out there on Wednesday morning, give out Bibles and give out tracts. And there was a Jehovah's Witness fellow, he'd come through there every week. And he wanted to stand in front of that table and he wanted to argue with us. And I said, I'm not talking to you. And he'd say, what about this? I'm not arguing with you. He'd say, what about that? I said, if you want to come to my house or you want me to come to your house or you want me to meet you somewhere, we'll do it. But I'm not going to sit here and let all these lost people see two professing Christians arguing and going at it. I'm not going to do it. It's not our testimony. It's not the testimony we want to have. You think that guy's wrong? Sure, I think he's wrong. Just like he thinks I'm wrong. But those people don't know the difference between a Jehovah's Witness and an independent Baptist. They don't know the difference between a saved man and a lost religious man. And to see us jaw to jaw, yeah, you're wrong. No, you're wrong. Well, you're a meanie. No, you're a meanie. Well, you're ugly. Well, you're uglier. Accomplishes nothing. except to discredit the gospel. Now I'll tell you something happened to me one time and it left a mark. A painful mark, but a helpful mark. I started a church in North Carolina, 21 years old, and those were the good old days when I knew everything. I mean, I knew everything. And we were winning some people the Lord and getting some families together in that church. And my parents were on vacation in North Carolina, and they came one Sunday morning to the church service, and I preached. I mean, I let those people have it. My father have it, I didn't let my mother have it, but she just happened to be sitting next to my father, and so she got it, and she was sitting in front of behind people, and I was letting them have it. I was unloading on them, giving them everything that I knew from the Bible and more. Just the way the men were preaching that I was listening to preaching. Good preachers, straight preachers, hard preachers, sin-killing preachers, bless God, stomp the devil in the head preachers. And those people filed out that morning, I was standing at the door, good to have you, good to have you, good to have you, and my mother just lingered back, and everybody was gone but her, and on the way out the door, she took me by the hand and she said, son, I did not raise you to talk to people like that. I mean, if my dad had taken off his belt and whipped me in front of all those people, it wouldn't have hurt like that. It stung. And here I was in a pulpit with the Bible, with all my sincerity and all my zeal, shaming my mother. You know what, she didn't say it. Here's what she said. She didn't quote all the verses. Here's what she said. You were not a gentleman. You did not represent good birth and good upbringing. Now how much more, being born again in the family of God, should we represent good birth and good upbringing? You can preach hard, you can reprove, you can rebuke, you can exhort, but you don't have to talk like lost people. You don't have to have an attitude like lost people. It's not wimpy unless Jesus was a wimp and I don't believe he was. All right, so he says in 2 Timothy, let's go there. 2 Timothy 2. 2 Timothy 2. And verse number 24. The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men. Apt to teach, patient. In meekness, you notice meekness has showed up every time and right side by side with gentleness, we'll get to that next week. In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves. If God peradventure will give them repentance to the knowledge of the truth, that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will. So think about this, in this passage, here's a man, and this man is, he's dead wrong. He's dead wrong. Guess who's against him? The devil's against him and he's against himself. Now guess who's for him? The Lord Jesus Christ is for him. I don't need to come in there and be another person who's against him. I need to come in there and be another person who's for him. See, if I go in there and unload on that guy for his association with the devil, if I go in there and unload on that guy for his self-destructive behavior, I'm just the third person on the side of those beating that man into the ground. I need to go in there, we need to go in there and be the person on the side of the Lord Jesus Christ who's trying to help him out of that and lift him up above that. You can be against sin, you can be against sinners, you can be against the wrong things that people are doing in a wrong way. But you've got to be an advocate for their rescue and their deliverance, not one more person who's just pouring gasoline on the fire of their anger and confusion and bitterness. Is that fair? I think a lot of daddies, and I don't, don't want to go too far down this road. But I think a lot of dads are well-meaning, but they're not gentlemen toward their children. They're harsh. They're cruel. They're insulting. You can rebuke your children, you can chasten your children, you can correct your children, you can point out the error of their ways, but you start calling them stupid and an idiot and you're a loser and you can't do anything. What profit is there in that? You're supposed to be the one that's for them and on their side. You understand? We took our young people one time to a meeting. We were on a boy's trip. We went to a meeting. This preacher got in the pulpit, and he's calling women heifers and stupid and calling the men just all kinds of names. And I sat there, and I thought, how in the world, how in the world can that woman not be ashamed as that man stands in the pulpit and be brave? He's calling his wife names and stuff to show what a man he was. You ain't a man. Not a man like Christ. I never heard him say things like that about his bride. Jesus' disciples, they were a disaster. And he just kept picking them back up and dusting them off and picking them back up and dusting them off. Praise the Lord. We okay, everybody? Hanging in there all right? All right, James chapter number three, let's go there. James chapter three. And verse number, James chapter three, verse number 14. Try this. If you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. Have you ever been to a church, we endured this for about two years around here, you ever been to a church where there's all kind of strife, envy, undermining, people trying to get a little group over here to go against the pastor and a little group over here to go against the standards of the church, and you just, man, I guess as a saved person, to me, there's nothing worse than going to church and not being able to enjoy it. Nothing worse than going to church and knowing it's gonna be another fight, another quarrel, another argument, another battle. That is not of God. That's not of God. Lost people can act like that. People without the Holy Spirit can act like that. We're supposed to be able to live better. And verse 17 says, but the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy, and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. You want to go a long way toward a good home life? Gentleness. You know what goes a long way toward good church life? Gentleness. Just conduct yourself with dignity, with class. Act like you're born in a good family. Act like you were raised right. You ever hear that old phrase, who raised you? That's an insult, you know. What you're saying is, your dad failed to train you. Your mother failed to train you. Well, maybe your daddy did fail. Maybe your mother did fail. But you got a new father now. You're part of a new family now. And we ought to reflect and represent the fact that we've got some good character, had some good training from our father. Amen. We've been trying, as you know, since about the time of the fall of Babylon, we've been trying to get a building permit. And sometimes I think it's the county, sometimes I think it's the engineer, and we can't get anywhere. And this, what I had called and called and called and called, tried to get a meeting with the engineer, response to the engineer, and didn't get any. And so I finally went down there to the office and the woman at the front desk when he came in, she said, he's not in here. I said, I'm going to go back there and see if he's in here. And I went back, walked right past her and went back to the office. And he wasn't there. She's just lying. People lie, you know, and she just lied. And I went in there and he said, oh, man, he said, go ahead, cuss me out. That's what he said. Go ahead, cuss me out. And I said, I'm suspecting the reason we're not getting this work done is because, you know, I won't cuss you out. And he said, yeah, you're I think you're right about that. Now you know something? We're not supposed to act like the world expects us to act because the world knows how people act when they are mistreated. We're supposed to act the way Christians act when they're mistreated. And you say, well, you get anywhere being gentle as opposed, well, not with him, but with the Lord. So you say, well, next time, just don't be a gentleman. No, no, if there's 10 more times, God wants me to be a gentleman. It's more important to bear the fruit of the Spirit than it is to get what you want. I'm not gonna go in there and start acting like a lost man with a lost man so I can get something from a lost man. I'd rather have the blessing of God. And the Lord can take care of that stuff. I was in a situation once in an airport. I get in a lot of situations in an airport. be inconvenienced, air travel is not for you. Anyway, so I was in this situation, airport, and these people all lined up, and everybody got up to the counter, you know, just unloading on those people working there, who didn't, by the way, who didn't cause the flight to be late, and who didn't cancel the flight, and they're being paid to lie to the people that are, when they get up to the counter, and so we waited, what was it that night, come back from that funeral? Waited hours. hours in this line and finally get up to the counter and the woman there, I said, listen, before you say anything, I thank you for whatever it is you can do for me. And I'm sorry for all that these people are saying to you, because I know it's not your fault. And that lady, she got nice. She got really nice, because that was the first person that had not spoken to her. Now, when that was all over, I said to my wife, I said, that wasn't easy, because I wanted to say to her everything those other people were saying and more. But I couldn't say what I wanted to say to the people who were responsible for my problems and my difficulties and why unload on her. I remember my daughter, she was a cashier at Publix for years and years and years and she, 10, 15 times a day, she'd have to say to those people, do you think I set the prices? I'm just ringing you up. What are you yelling at me for the cost of the groceries for? But that's, see what we wanna do? We're inconvenienced, and so we inconvenience someone else. We feel mistreated, and so we mistreat someone else, and the Lord said, I don't want you to go there. And let me say, that lady was so nice, because I was nice to her. You know what she did for us? She got us a motel room for the night, and all we had to do was go downstairs and take the shuttle to the motel, and we're good to go. And we got downstairs and there was no shuttle. We had to pay 50 bucks each way to get to a motel on the other side of town. And I wanted to go back upstairs and punch her in the nose. But I didn't. I wanted to, but I didn't, and we got in the taxi Uber thing or whatever it is, and he drove us from, we were in, where were we, Charlotte? We were in Charlotte, and he drove us up to Greensboro and Winston-Salem, and then back around to the motel, and we paid him for all that, and I was nice to him, because he's just a guy trying to make some money driving people around in the car, and got to the motel, The free room turned out to be not so free. Look, what are you gonna do? It's the world. People lie to you, people cheat you, people tell you things that aren't so. And at what point do any of these verses come with a footnote that says, unless you're aggravated, unless you're inconvenienced, unless someone has lied to you. They're from a bad family. They've had bad training. They're not gentlemen. They're not gentle women. I'm from a better family. I'm from a better family. Can I give you an illustration? These days it's so frightening to say things like this. I hope you'll take this the right way. I was reading a book about the 1840s. And there was a man visiting from the north. He was visiting a relative in the south. And they were walking on a boardwalk. We call them a sidewalk. They're on a boardwalk. And the road was completely filled with mud. And it was just a mud track that went through the town. And as they were walking on the sidewalk, two slaves were approaching, coming from the other direction on the sidewalk. And a man stepped off the sidewalk and pulled his friend down off the sidewalk to allow the slaves to pass by. And the man who was pulled off the sidewalk, he said, what in the world are you doing getting down in the mud to let those people go by? And he said, I was not trained to move out of the way and give preference to certain people, I was moved out of the way and give preference to all of God's people. Look, if you're a gentleman for advantage, if you're a gentle woman for advantage, that's not the fruit of the Holy Spirit, that's just you trying to get somebody out of something. If you're nice, be nice all the time. If you're kind, be kind all the time. If you're gracious, be gracious all the time. You say, well, I'm above that person, or I have a higher status than that person. Christ's pretty much higher than you and above you and greater status than you, but he lets you in the family and everything. All right, 1 Thessalonians chapter two. 1 Thessalonians two. What I don't like about preaching these sermons is tomorrow I'll get an opportunity to practice them and probably won't do a very good job of it. 1 Thessalonians chapter two. Verse number seven. Again, I'll ask you a question. You think Pastor Paul was a sissy? Anybody think Paul was a sissy? I think he's a man among men, don't you? All right. Verse number seven. But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children. So being affectionately desirous of you, We were willing to have imparted unto you not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because you were dear unto us. I'm gonna say this, if you don't agree with me, you're just wrong. Something, something is really, really, really messed up. if a mother is cruel or abusive to her infant child. Would you not agree to that? When I read a story about a man battering, harming, abusing a year-old baby, an 18-month-old child, a two-year-old, I think whatever the punishment, whatever the max is, it ought to be doubled. Right? There's something wrong with that. You say, well, you know, but okay. So what if it was an 18-year-old that the man was mistreating rather than a, 18-month-old, what if it was a 30-year-old the man was mistreating rather than a toddler? Well, that's different. You know what Paul said? When I got to Thessalonica, I treated you men and you women, you adults, you grandparents, you soldiers, you people in false religions, I treated you with the gentleness a mother would use to ward the baby in her arms. I didn't want to do anything to hurt you because that's how much I loved you. That's how much I cared about you. I don't think it's sissy stuff for a man to hold his little baby and love that baby. I don't think it's sissy stuff for a grandpa to put his year-old son or year-and-a-half-old son up here in his arms and make funny talk with him and bounce him around. I think that's just love. Rosendo, he's a man's man. I've not ever known a man more of a man than Rosendo. Those two little grandbabies him into a teddy bear, man. I ask him Thursday, how's that new grandbaby? Oh, great. You know what, it's hard to picture the Apostle Paul. Did he preach hard? He did. Did he unload on sin? He did. But you know in his heart, in his heart, he treated everyone in that church at Thessalonica like he would treat his grandbaby just learning to walk. How about that? How about that? Got new Christians? They mess up, they fall down. How'd you treat your child two years old learning to walk? They mess up, they fall down? Did they break stuff, they get stuff dirty? Did they mark on the walls? We came in one day and our kids, Lillian was supposed to be watching them, but she's messing around. We'd been out in the yard and we came in and they had got a hold of two things, a bag of flour and a box of Cheerios. And the floor, our daughter's just sitting in the middle of the floor, Now today we could sell that for art and people pay big money online. Back then it was just a big mess and our son was getting handfuls of it and throwing it up and handfuls of it and throwing it up. And you know something, the thought never crossed either of our minds to throw them out of the house. To break their arms. You understand? And you know something, it's a great thing to have a church that's growing. It's a great thing to have a church with young Christians in it. It's a great thing to have a church full of people that are just learning the way around the Bible and just learning to serve the Lord. And some of them are gonna just make a mess. You don't throw them out. Some of them just dump Cheerios and flour all over the floor and some of them just throw it up in the air and laugh about it. And you don't break their arms, you don't break their legs. Some of you self-righteous Pharisees that just want to get in everybody's face and tear them apart because they're not as righteous as you think you are, you're annoying. You are. You're not righteous. You're not righteous. You're carnal. You're in the flesh. You don't treat your own children that way because you love them. Why do you treat God's children that way? You're supposed to love them too. You don't let everything go. We didn't let our kids go with that. We made them clean it up. Put some water on them, drug them across the floor, and just soak it. In fact, I misspoke, because I said we cleaned it up, and that's probably not true, was it? Somebody cleaned it up. Amen. Make a mess in your life since you got saved. Break something since you got saved. Write on the wall since you got saved. Dump something off the counter. Break the bowl. Let's treat each other like a nursing mother would treat her children. It's a great illustration. Who else would you love enough to feed them and have them throw up on you and say to them, are you okay, honey? It's my fault, I fed you too much. I mean, really. That whole mom thing, it's like the most insulting thing in the world. Get woke up in the middle of the night for what? Dirty diaper, thanks. Thanks, who do you think I am, Jill Biden? Not a good time to be a Secret Service agent. Just cut that out. I have black helicopters in the black midnight flying over my house. How do you know they were up there? It's so dark you couldn't see them, so they had to be there. Anyway. Can you picture Paul treating disobedient Christians in the church like a grandpa treats his two-year-old grandson? But that's what he said. That's what he said. You guys like hard preaching, you wouldn't be here. You guys like taking a rough stance against sin, or you wouldn't be here. But you can't be nasty with it. You can't be cruel with it. You can't be hateful with it. And you're married to somebody that messes up, and if you're parents, you're raising somebody that messes up. Gentle, gentle, gentle. At 12, like at two. At 16, like at two. 30 years into the marriage, like newlyweds. Why? Because you're from a good family. You were raised better than that. You were taught better than that. Amen, you know what I like? It happens all the time, I like this. We don't interfere with anybody serving God, we don't fight with anybody serving God, we stay out of their way, but I tell you what's a blessing, we go to these events, and the police and the public. It happens at UCF, it happens in Daytona Speedway, it happens at the football game, they'll say, are you one of those people? Just yells at us and condemns us and tells us how rotten we are. Listen, just stand there and listen, you'll hear, and the police will come over and say, we appreciate the way you guys do this. It's a blessing, it's a blessing. We don't hate those people. We don't want to think we hate them. We don't want to act like we hate them. We hate the devil. We hate what the devil's doing to them. We hate what they're doing that's destroying their lives. But if we give them the impression we hate them, we've just confirmed their preconceived prejudice. Amen. I was on an airplane next to this woman and started witnessing to her. She said, I don't want to talk to you. I said, why not? She said, because you hate me. I said, you don't know anything about me. And she said, I sure do. She said, I know you hate me because I'm a lesbian. And I said, what? First of all, you're a very judgmental person. Second of all, I resent your bigoted attitude toward me. And third, why did you feel the need to tell me that? You know why? Because she thought If she told me that, I would manifest my hatred for her. And I don't hate her. I didn't hate her then, I don't hate her now, I won't hate her tomorrow. I hate what's gonna happen to her if she doesn't get saved. And I hate the sin that she practices just the same as I would have if she was involved in a Galatians 5 way with somebody the opposite gender. You know why she thought somebody telling her about Jesus hated her? Because she's seen video after video after video of people who claim to be representing Jesus who do hate her. And the news media wants lost people to see professing Christians that act like they hate lost people. So they get the publicity, we don't get the publicity, they get the publicity. So what you have to do is you have to counter that by being gentlemen, by being gentle women. Let me show you something off track here, but it's not off track, and then we'll look at our last verse. Well, I guess that wouldn't be, the last scheduled verse, this is a bonus verse. If you order in the next 20 minutes, you get this verse. Come to Acts chapter 19. Acts chapter 19. This is Paul. And Paul has gone into Ephesus where the people worship the goddess Diana. And they have gathered together in a riot to shout down the gospel preachers. and the town clerk is going to try and disperse the riot. And look at Acts 19.35, When the town clerk had appeased the people, he said, Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter, so that's their religion. Seeing then that these things cannot be spoken against, ye ought to be quiet, and to do nothing rashly. For ye have brought hither these men, which are neither robbers of churches, nor yet blasphemers of your goddess. Did you get that? The town clerk said, these guys are wrong. We don't believe these guys. Our goddess is what we worship. Everybody knows we worship our goddess. But these men have not spoken against our religion. They have not spoken disrespectfully of our goddess. Well then, how are all these people getting saved at Ephesus and turning that city upside down? Because they were preaching pro-Christ, not anti-Diana. And the lost man spoke on behalf of the saved people and said, well, I'll say one thing for them, they've been gentlemen. That's what he said. They have conducted themselves as gentlemen. and we completely disagree with them, but they didn't insult our beliefs. Let that sink in, guys. We are sent into all the world to preach the gospel, not to preach against other religions, to preach the gospel, not to preach against what people are doing or the people who are doing it. Bless God, I'm gonna go out there and preach against drinking and carousing. Okay, fine. What if they quit all that? And you never gave them the gospel and never get saved. So they go to hell sober instead of drunk. They still go to hell. We're gonna stamp out abortion. Okay, well, there's a lot of women in hell right now who never had an abortion. And up until now, men haven't been able to have abortions, but that's pretty soon we're gonna have to. This country's so fouled up. You understand what we're saying? God, God wants his people to treat other people gently. Okay? Not popular. Psalm 18. Anybody here think David was a sissy? Not our David. King David. That might have been why you were holding back there. Our David's not a sissy. King David, he's a bad boy. Sword, sling, army, battles, fighting. Right? It's what a man's got to do. People coming in trying to take your country, trying to take your family away from you, trying to take your life, your property, your fight. All right. Psalm 18. Psalm 18, this is the great warrior, king, David, verse 30, As for God, His way is perfect. The Word of the Lord is tried. He is a buckler to all those that trust in Him. For who is God, save the Lord, or who is a rock, save our God. It is God that girdeth me with strength. You think David is a strong man? I do. maketh my way perfect, he maketh my feet like hinds' feet, and setteth me upon my high places. He teacheth my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms. Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation, and thy right hand hath held me up, and thy gentleness hath made me great." David is strong, he's a fighting man, he's a warrior, he takes down enemies, he protects his land and his people, and he's a gentleman. He's a gentleman. We're not asking you to be a sissy. We're not asking you to be wimpy. We're not asking you to be effeminate. That would be wrong. but you can conduct yourself like you were born into a good family and raised by a decent man and raised by a godly mother. And that's how God wants us to conduct ourselves in our interactions with others, in our home, in our church, and out there in the world. Fruit of the Spirit is gentleness. Not wimpiness, but gentleness. Heavenly Father help us, help us not to act like the people around us act, not to act like for some of, for many like the people we grew up around act. Help us Lord to act in a way that brings honor and glory to our Savior Jesus Christ and shows this world that we live on a much higher plain of righteousness than where we would have lived had the Holy Spirit never been given to us. Help us we pray, in Christ's name, Amen. Alright, been a good day in the church house, stay as long as you will, we are dismissed.