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that song a lot and our mind
goes to before we got saved and how the Lord didn't give up and
didn't give up but I'd like to say I'm glad he hadn't give up
on me since I've been saved amen I've done enough since I've been
saved, not proud of it, but I've done enough since I've been saved
to be cast into hell, but He never gave up. Amen. I'm glad
tonight I am not in charge of keeping my own salvation. I would
lose it before daylight if that's the case. I'm glad we are kept
by the power of God. Amen. What a Savior tonight. Appreciate the good singing.
That's been an encouragement to my heart. If you would, let's
turn in the Bible to 1 Corinthians chapter number 13. 1 Corinthians
chapter number 13 and we're beginning a new chapter tonight in our
study of 1 Corinthians. I was thinking a couple of days
ago about what we have left. We've got 13, 14, 15 and the
16th chapter and I thought that we may finish this book before
the end of this year but it doesn't look like it and I'm not in a
big hurry anyway. I have enjoyed just studying
this book verse by verse. It's been a help to me, and I
hope that maybe we've come across a few things that we reminded
you of. It's been a help to you, I hope.
And this is going to be one of those enjoyable chapters right
here that I believe the Lord will help us out of tonight in
chapter 13. And we want to read tonight just
the first three verses of this chapter, and then we'll pray
together and we'll bring the message. So if you're able to
stand with us tonight, Let's stand together in 1 Corinthians
13 and read the first three verses of the chapter. The Bible said,
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have
not charity, I am become a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. 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. 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. Let's go to the Lord
in prayer tonight. some kind of horrible problem.
And Lord, I'm thankful tonight we still live in the nation of
America. I realize tonight, Lord, we're
not what we used to be and not what we ought to be. But I pray
this evening as the church, Lord, You'd help us just to do everything
we can to make this place what it ought to be and our nation
to be what it ought to be. God, we pray You'd help us tonight
to get a hold of the Word and speak to us out of this great
chapter Lord, I believe there's a tremendous thought here this
evening. I pray You'd help us to relay it to Your people in
the right way. I pray the Holy Ghost would be
real in the service tonight. Lord, touch my lips. Help us
say exactly what needs to be said. And then, Lord, help each
one of us to take it into our heart and put it into action
in our life. Lord, we love You. Thank You
for first loving us. In Jesus' name we ask. Amen. Thank the Lord for the reading
of His Word. Now, if you were with us last Wednesday night,
we finished up chapter 12, and chapter 12 showed the church
as a dysfunctional church in the church of Corinth, and how
they were perverting the gifts that was given to the body of
Christ, and they were in competition one with another, who may have
had the best gift, or who was doing this better than the other.
And as the Apostle Paul wound up the chapter in verse 31, On
last week, he mentioned this, he said, but covet earnestly
the best gifts, and yet I show you a more excellent way. And
tonight we're going to begin in that chapter of the more excellent
way. And the thought for this chapter,
chapter 13, is the delinquent church. There was something that
they were missing. There's no doubt there were a
lot of things. that the church of Corinth was delinquent in. But probably the main thing they
were delinquent in, which would have fixed everything else, is
what we're going to deal with in the next few services in chapter
13. Chapter 13, the central theme,
if you don't know already, is charity. And we're going to find
out tonight how important it is to have charity. We're going
to see what God has to say about charity in the life of the believer
and in the local church. There are a lot of things that
we should have. A church ought to be separated.
A church ought to be scriptural. A church ought to be soul winning.
A church ought to be a shining light. But a church also ought
to have charity. Amen? And I fear in this hour,
it's easier sometimes to get other things straightened out
without having charity where it should be. And I trust this
evening God will give us some insight on this and it would
be a help to us. Tonight's thought in the first
three verses of this chapter is this, on the charity and the
charge of charity. We're going to look at three
or four different things in this chapter over the next few weeks
concerning charity. But the first three verses give
us a charge, if you will, concerning charity. If Charity were a person,
and we know that it's not, and Charity could speak to us tonight,
this is what Charity would say in the first three verses that
we read. There are places in the Scripture
where men, or God, is charging men through the Scripture. And
I believe tonight that these three verses we're going to deal
with is a charge to every believer. And a charge is something that
we can't just ignore and we can't just bypass. We've got to get
a hold of it and let it be effectual in our life. And that's what
we're going to look at tonight here just for a few moments.
Now, notice with me in verse 1, I'm going to give you three
things tonight concerning charity. and what charity is and how it's
going to affect the body of Christ and those around them. And in
verse number 1, charity is a must to be tolerated. Notice what
the Apostle Paul said. He said, Though I speak with
the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity. You'll
see if you haven't already that that little phrase, have not
charity, is the tie for those three verses. There's a theme
here in these three verses of a church with believers that
did not have charity. And he said, though I have not
charity, I am become as a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. In verse 1, Paul lets this church
know that was delinquent with charity, that if they were going
to be tolerated, I believe not only by God, but also by the
society around them, they needed to be a church that had charity.
Now I realize tonight that society, the world as a whole, has always
been anti-God and anti-Bible and anti-truth. And I realize
that they don't like our truth, and they don't like our Bible,
they don't like our preaching and our singing and our stant.
I understand that tonight, and those things, it's okay to not
be tolerated in. Matter of fact, if the world
thinks highly of us all the time and in everything, then there's
something wrong. There ought to be some places
that we come in conflict when it comes to us and the worldly
system. But I fear tonight that many
fundamental churches are not being despised because of their
stand on the truth, but they're being despised because they have
no charity. And we have a lot of people in
these last days that believe that they can just do anything,
any old way, and treat people any old way, and as long as they
have the Bible, and as long as they're standing on the truth
of the doctrine of the book, then they think they're okay.
And they leave out this very important element of having charity. Now, I think I mentioned this
to you last week. Charity is more than just love. I try not to substitute the word
charity for love. I'll give you this. I've given
it to you many times. A great saying says, you can
give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. And
charity is love giving. It is love in action. It is a
love in motion, if you will. Do you know there's a lot of
people that will stand around and say, I love the Lord, but
there's no action in their life. They don't go to church. They
don't read their Bible. They don't pray. They don't listen
to Christ-honoring music. There's no evidence in their
life that they know the Lord. There are those tonight that
would say they love an individual, but they never do anything for
them. They never buy them a gift. They never give them a word of
encouragement. They never pray for them. But real charity tonight
is love in action. And Paul is telling the church
of Corinth here that that church was delinquent in their love
in action. They were majoring from chapter
12 on the gifts and excited about the fleshly things or the fleshly
feelings of having these gifts, but they had no desire to have
charity. Now notice in verse 1, Paul lets
us know that without charity, it's going to be hard for us
to be tolerated. I mentioned to you that the world
will not tolerate the Word of God and the things of God. And
that's true, and that's understandable. But we should never be guilty
of the world not tolerating us because we do not have charity.
In all of our standing and in all of our truth, the book of
Ephesians tells us, speaking the truth in love, in all of
our separation, in all of our doctrine, everything should be
saturated with charity. And if we have charity or love
in action toward God, then it won't be hard to have charity
or love in action toward our fellow man. not only in the local
church, but also outside of the church. Now, I believe probably
what the Apostle Paul is dealing with here is primarily for the
inside walls of this church. I'm sure there was very little
charity among the members in dealing with the past chapter
and how they love to be exalted with their gifts. They really
didn't seem to care one for another. There was no active love in the
membership of this church the way it should have been. Now,
let me give you a few things here in verse 1 that I noticed. First of all, we see the ability
that is mentioned. He said, "...though I speak with
the tongues of men and of angels." is an ability. We'll see in chapter
14 some things about it, but we know in these days that we're
reading about in the Bible, there was still the transition time
and there was still some speaking in tongues in that day. And I
want to remind you tonight, it was not a gibberish, it was not
some kind of unintelligible language. It was a different language is
what he's talking about in the speaking of tongues. You remember
the day of Pentecost where all the different nations were represented
there and Peter stood up? and he spoke in his language,
and all those other representatives understood and heard, that was
a miracle of God. That was one of the signs that
God had moved in, and that upper room in the church had been birthed
into the world. So that's what Paul is talking
about here tonight. He's talking about in verse 1
of having ability, and of speaking maybe with another tongue, or
he said the tongues of men and of angels. Now, notice secondly
in verse 1, we see there's an absence. And we're going to notice
this absence that is common in all three of these verses. Notice
the next phrase. He said, "...and have not charity."
He said, now I might be able to speak with the tongues of
men and of angels. He said, but there's a possibility
that I have not charity. So ability is dealt with to begin
with. And I really believe the church
of Corinth, they were majoring on an outward ability. With those
gifts, they were majoring on what they could work up, what
they could do. They were very much like the
charismatic movement today. They would go to church, and
it had to be from one high to another. They'd show up on Sunday
morning and have a service, and if they didn't have a better
service on Sunday night, they felt like God didn't meet with
them. And I say that's in the charismatic realm, but I'm afraid
it's in the Baptist realm now. Amen? We are living in a day
where many preachers have surrendered their calling to performers,
and many singers have surrendered themselves to performers, and
they feel like if they don't awe the crowd and woo the crowd,
and you know, when you go out the door, if everybody doesn't
pat them on the back for a good performance, then God didn't
show up. And I want to tell you, that's far from the truth of
what this Bible teaches us, amen? If you and I could go back about
250 years, everything I've read about that, or even a little
farther back, everything I've read about that great awakening
time and the time after that, those men, those leaders were
not performers. They were not dynamic personalities. We live in a generation where
people have their favorite preacher. And I understand we all have
certain preachers we like to listen to more than another.
But anybody that is dealing with the Word of God rightly, dividing
it, ought to be someone that's worthy of our attention. We live
in a time where people have their favorite singers. If their singer
is singing or their group is singing, then they'll be there,
and if not, they don't want any part of it. I heard a preacher
say one time that many church people have become like those
safety matches. They only strike on their own
box. And that's kind of funny, but that's true, and it shouldn't
be that way. There ought to be a love for the entire family
of God. There ought to be a charity,
a love and action. And Paul said, I may have an
ability. He said, but yet there's a possibility of an absence,
having not charity. Now look what he said in the
last part of verse 1. Then he shows us an aggravation. Notice what he said. He said,
I am become as a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Now I want
to give you a little illustration tonight before we go on. I don't
do this quite often, but Scott, where are you at? If you come
up here and get the piano just a minute. I saw this illustration years
ago and it helped me understand verse 1. And I'm going to try
to give it to you like I saw it and see if it will help you
tonight. Now what Paul is talking about here, He said, I can have
all the ability in the world that I want. I can speak with
different tongues. Tongues of men, tongues of angels.
In the church of Corinth, if that had happened and it did,
someone would have sat back and said, wow, look at them, they're
in tune with God, they're spiritual. But Paul said, even though I
may have that, he said, if I have not charity, here's what I've
become. He said, I'm not somebody that
people can tolerate. He said, I've now become intolerable. He said, I've now become an aggravation,
a sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. Now Scott, if you will,
just play the first line of the chorus of Victory in Jesus. Listen to this. Alright, you heard that. Now
listen to this. Let me get there just a minute. Here's the same
piano. I'm going to use the same book.
He didn't need a book, but if I had a book. And I'm going to
do the same thing he did. Let me try it again. I can't
get it. Now if I keep doing this, And I don't know how to play
the piano. So what am I? I'm a sounding
brass. I'm a tinkling cymbal. Now you
could sit there and listen to Scott play that all day. You
know why you could listen to him play that all day? He has
a love in action for that instrument. Now, I love to hear the piano,
but I don't love it enough to learn how to play it. I remember
Scott, when he was little, probably six, seven years old, getting
on that piano, playing it every day. It drove us absolutely insane. But finally, he learned how to
play it. Amen? And I did that for a reason tonight. When we are interacting with
the world or with the church, and we say we're Christians,
and we say we love God, and we say God's called us to do this,
and we're this and that, and when we do it with charity in
our heart and in our life, then to the world and to those around
us, it sounds like it did when Scott played the piano. You could
sit there and listen to that. But when we do it without charity,
it sounds like what I sounded like. And you're not going to
listen to that very long. And I know I probably didn't
give that illustration the best way, but I hope that got across
to you. Paul said, when we have not charity, we are a sounding
brass and a tinkling cymbal. We're an aggravation. You want
to know why sometimes the world doesn't want to hear our message?
I know many times it's because they don't believe, but many
times I also think it's because we've become a sounding brass
and a tinkling cymbal. We go to them and tell them that
they need to get right with God, but they've never seen any love
and action in our life. When they were sick, we never
went to them. When they were struggling, we
never helped them. When they were at the bottom
of the barrel, we never reached down with some kind of means
that we had and helped them up. And Paul said, listen, if we
have not charity, we're not going to be tolerated. And I believe
tonight that the church of God, we ought to have charity in everything
we do. When I preach a message concerning
sin, I still ought to have charity in my heart. When I preach a
message to this sodomite crowd, I still ought to have charity
in my heart. I do not love their sin. I do not love their lifestyle. I do not like the way they're
taking over in our nation. But they have a soul and they
need to know that even though they're lost and they're at enmity
with God, there is a God in heaven that loves them and wants to
save them. When I preach to the church,
I need to make sure when I'm dealing with things that need
to be dealt with, that I have charity in my life. And that
goes not only for the preacher, but for everybody that's in the
body of Christ. Our charity must be real or we
will not be tolerated. Amen? So he said charity is a
must to be tolerated. Notice verse number 2. Now verse
number 2 tells us that charity is a must if we're going to teach
or if we're going to be teaching. Now in this particular verse,
the teaching here I'm talking about is not standing behind
a pulpit. or a podium and being in the
office of a teacher. I'm talking about the teaching
that every believer should be about doing. The Bible tells
us, Jesus said in the Great Commission, that we're to go out into the
world teaching them and telling them the things of God. Our life
as a Christian is teaching somebody. And can I say to you tonight,
it's teaching them good or teaching them bad. You know as well as
I do that you can learn something wrong. Have you ever been working
with somebody and trying to learn something, and they'd correct
you and say, now don't learn it that way, because if you learn
it that way, you'll be stuck with it the rest of your life.
I know a lot of times playing a musical instrument and people
will begin to try to develop bad habits and the teacher will
say, don't do that, you've got to get it right, don't do that,
you've got to learn it the right way or that's the way you'll
be stuck with it. And tonight Paul is telling us
here that charity is a must if our life and our actions are
going to teach anybody else about God. Notice what he said in verse
number 2. When we get to verse number 2,
we see now an aptitude in the first portion of the verse. He
said, "...and though I have the gift of prophecy." And we're
going to see these things dealt with more when we get toward
the end of the chapter. Paul is referring back to gifts.
Remember, the church of Corinth in chapter 12, they were majoring
on the diversities of the gifts. They were coveting all the gifts
to edify themselves and to make themselves look good. They wanted
to come to a church service and make people think they knew more
than the brother or sister across the aisle, or make people think
they were more spiritual than the brother or sister across
the aisle. And Paul said this, he said, I may have an aptitude.
He said, the gift of prophecy. which in that day was preaching,
not only foretelling, but foretelling. Telling some things that were
going to come to pass. He said, I have the gift of prophecy
and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and though
I have all faith. Well, that's a big mouthful right
there. Paul said, I may have aptitude, the gift of prophecy,
mysteries, and knowledge. He said, I may have a great acquiring
in my life. He said, I may even have all
faith. Now you look at that tonight. You imagine somebody that is
in the situation of verse number 2. You imagine an individual
tonight that had the gift of prophecy in this day. You imagine
that same individual understanding all mysteries. He didn't say
some mysteries, he said all. You imagine that same individual
having all knowledge. Now we know tonight that any
individual human being will not reach that point. We understand
that only God understands everything. We know that not every man has
all knowledge, or not any man has all knowledge. We may think
we do sometimes, but we don't. There's always somebody that
knows more than you do and knows more than I do. But Paul said,
Even if I had gotten to that point, to where I had every bit
of ability there possibly could be to teach somebody else, and
to give somebody else understanding and wisdom and knowledge. Notice
what he said. He said, and though I have all
faith, that means nothing would shake him, he would not doubt
anything. That sounds like a super Christian
tonight. He said, "...so that I could remove mountains," notice
the phrase again, "...and have not charity." You see what Paul
is saying? Notice what he said in the next
phrase. He tells us in the next phrase, this is what he's worth,
his amount. He said, "...and I am nothing."
Notice that again there in verse 2. He said, I am nothing. I wrote a note in my Bible, worthless
to God and men. That's what nothing is. Paul
said, I could be the wisest man in the church. He said, I could
understand the Bible forward and backwards. I could have all
the gifts of prophecy, all the knowledge that could be gathered
together in that day. He said, if I have not charity,
I'm nothing. You know, tonight, many times
our life is not effectual in teaching those around us because
we have not charity. I have known some people that
knew a whole lot and they wanted you to know they knew a whole
lot. Amen? Every time you got around them, they wanted to try
to speak out and edify themselves and lift up themselves and try
to correct you on everything. You ever been around somebody
like that? You couldn't even say a sentence without them correcting
you and telling you what needed to be done here and what needed
to be said there. That's a know-it-all. And Paul said, I could even be
a genuine know-it-all. He said, I could have all this
under my belt, in my heart, in my mind. He said, but if I have
not charity, I'm going to tell you what I'm worth. He said,
I am worth nothing. Now boy, that's pretty sobering
tonight, ain't it? That shoots down a lot of the
bigwigs in our movement tonight. That shoots down a lot of church
members that think they're the stuff. He said, if I do not have
charity, He said, I am absolutely nothing. None of that matters
without charity. I wonder this evening how many
times do we try to go after the outward things, but we never
try to develop our charity. We never spend time trying to
develop charity in our life. We never spend time trying to
love on one another and love those that are hurting and reach
out. Now, I want you to understand, this charity does not mean that
we look over sin. This charity does not mean that
we water down the Word of God. That's not what Paul is saying.
This charity does not mean that you just take a blind eye to
everything and nothing's right and nothing's wrong. That's not
what he's saying. He's talking about that love that when you
do step up and you're teaching somebody, or when you do try
to get involved with somebody's life to help them, whether it
be from a pulpit or one-on-one or in your home, I am convinced
tonight, there are a lot of children, I've often wondered this, and
I don't know everything about children, I'm still learning,
and I'll be learning until Jesus comes. But I'm convinced tonight,
a lot of our children in our fundamental churches that go
wrong, have you ever noticed that? They'll be in a family
that's faithful to church. They'll be in a family that seems
like they've got everything together, and then all of a sudden, several
of those children will go wrong in a family, and it just seems
like things are not right. I am convinced that a lot of
that is a lack of charity in that home. I am convinced a lot
of that is a lack of that love and action in that home. Yes,
we should be the disciplinary. Yes, we should call a spade a
spade. We should stand on the Word of
God. And I believe in that, and I believe what the Bible says.
But we better do it with charity if it's ever going to have the
effect that it's got to have. Amen? Hey, when you discipline
your children, and you better discipline your children, do
it with charity. I believe in the rod of correction, amen?
I believe in taking privileges away from them when they're wrong
and putting borders and barriers in their life. But you better
let them know you're doing that not to hurt them, but to help
them. And if you'll have charity in your life, the message will
get across, amen? Paul said, listen, that charity's
got to be there if we're going to be tolerated. And he said,
it's got to be there if our life is going to be a teaching instrument
to somebody else. I don't know about you tonight,
but I want to help people. I really have a desire to help people.
I don't preach tonight just because I like to collect a paycheck.
I'll preach if there is no paycheck. I don't preach because I'm scared
to death God's going to kill me if I don't. I know that He
could, but I don't come and get in the pulpit because I'm scared
not to exercise the calling in my life. I come tonight because
God birthed something into me over twelve years ago to preach
the gospel, amen? And God's given me a desire.
When I get into the Bible and I'm studying the Scripture, my
mind and my heart is always searching out another message. I'm always
looking into the Scripture when I do study, and I'm saying, God,
help me, what do we need? What does the church need? What's
the situation here? What needs to happen? Why? Because
I have a desire to take the Word of God and impart it to somebody
and be a help to them. But do you know, if I have all
the degrees in the world, and I have all the knowledge that
goes with it, it is absolutely no good without charity. So you see, charity is a must
to be teaching. Now, let me give you this third
thing tonight, and we may be done a little early, but I wanted
to get this point across to you if we don't get anything else.
In verse number 3, we find charity is a must to be trusted. Now, I believe tonight, If we're
going to reach those in the church and help them, minister to them,
if we're going to reach those outside of the church, we've
definitely got to have a little bit of toleration about us as
far as people being able to tolerate us. got to be able to teach people
with our words, with our actions, with our deeds, but then I think
tonight we definitely must be able to be trusted. If we're
not trusted, we can't help anybody. If you can't be trusted, nobody
is going to put any confidence in you. Now, I know the Bible
said, the Apostle Paul said, having no confidence in the flesh,
and that's exactly right. But if we're walking in the Spirit
and exercising charity, then we ought to be a Christian that
is able to be trusted in the things of God, and for people
to see that in our life and say, I believe in the way they're
living, I believe in what they're saying because I see their life,
And it's trustworthy. Let me give you a few things
in verse 3 here tonight, and we'll finish up. Notice this.
In the first part of verse 3, Paul deals with the service. Notice what he said. He's just
compounding this thought every verse. He said, "...and though
I bestow all my goods to feed the poor." and though I give
my body to be burned. Now let's look at that first
phrase. He said, though I bestow all my goods. He said, I can
take everything I've got, every dollar in my pocket, every possession
I have, every bit of clothes on my back. And he said, I'll
take that and I'll bestow it to feed the poor. He said, that's
a good thing. Amen? And would you agree with
me tonight? That's a good thing. There's a lot of religious systems
that do that, but that's as far as they go. And I believe tonight
the church ought to do that. Matter of fact, we were able
to do just a little bit of that last week and try to help some
people that were in a disaster situation. And I think the church
should always have the mindset of reaching out and serving others. I think that's one of the greatest
failures of the local church in these last days. I fear that
we've drawn in a lot of times inside the four walls, and we
don't carry it outside, and we don't reach those around us,
and we don't serve our neighbor, and we don't serve our brothers
and sisters in Christ. Every one of us tonight ought
to have a servant's heart. Every one of us ought to have
a desire throughout our life every day to try to prefer others
and serve others. That goes against the flesh.
That's not a natural desire. The natural desire is to self-serve.
The natural desires take care of number one. But as a Christian,
we all ought to have a desire to serve. And Paul said, hey,
I may do that. He said, though I bestow all
my goods to feed the poor. Notice the second thing he deals
with here. He deals with the sacrifice. He said, and though
I give my body to be burned. Now think about that tonight.
We have seen that happen before. I remember years ago I had a
book on the Vietnam War, and it showed a Buddhist monk there
in Vietnam, and he set himself in a street and poured gas on
himself and burned himself up. And I remember reading that when
I was a kid in that book I had. And I don't remember everything
I thought about it, but I do know that most of the time when
we see something like that, in the natural realm we would say,
wow, that individual's given all. I mean, that individual
is given their life for what they believe. When we hear about
these suicide bombers, as wicked and sorry as it is, you have
to stop and think, what do they believe to go that far? What
do they believe that they would strap a bomb upon themselves
and end their own life in taking out a few more people. What kind
of mindset does a person have to have? What kind of devotion?
Now we know it's demonic, and we know it's ungodly, and we
know it's anti-Christian, but looking from the fleshly side
of it, what kind of devotion would you have to have? You would
say in the fleshly nature, that individual is devoted to their
cause. And Paul said, listen, I may
have all the service down. Thank God for service. He said,
I may have all the sacrificing down. Thank God for sacrifice. I appreciate people that sacrifice.
I appreciate people that give. I appreciate people that give
time, talent, treasures, anything you can think of. They take their
whole life and pour it into the work of God. That's an amazing
thing. And you and I would stand back
tonight and say, wow, what a Christian they're serving. Wow, what a
Christian! They're sacrificing. They have
given more than anybody else gives. But look what Paul said.
Paul said there can still be a shortcoming. Here's our little
phrase again. He said, "...and have not charity."
Notice what he said now. Here's the sadness of it. He
said, "...it profiteth me nothing." Boy, isn't that something tonight?
That these three verses kick the props out of empty religion. These three verses, if you will
read them and let them soak into your heart, you will find out
how much of a Christian you really are. When I was looking at this
this week, I mean, they were chewing me to pieces, amen? I
was looking at this and I thought in verse number one, okay, is
my spirit tolerated? How many times have we lost our
temper? How many times have we said something ugly to somebody
that we shouldn't have said? How many times have we had a
bad attitude because we had a bad day? And then we maybe tried
to witness or tried to say something for God, and it was of nothing,
amen, because we couldn't be tolerated. In the second verse,
how many times have people looked at our life and we've wanted
to impart some truth? but they've never been able to
get a hold of it because our life was not full of charity.
They've never been able to learn from us because when they watched
us doing the things of God, they couldn't get over the fact that
we had no charity. They couldn't get over the fact
that we had no love. I mean, sometimes people will
go up to people and tell them they're going to hell and act
like they're glad they're going there. There's something wrong
with that. I've heard preachers do that. I've heard young men
do that. Street preaching before. They totally miss what it's all
about while they're out there, while they're trying to reach
people. Yes, you ought to tell them they're going to hell. But
we ought to tell it with tears in our eyes. Yes, we ought to
preach the truth of the Word of God. But we ought to have
a yearning, burning heart of love, charity for them to get
right with God. So you see tonight in all three
of these verses, we find a charge from charity. And it's a pretty
sobering charge, amen? It's pretty sobering to think
about many times that we're not tolerable because of our lack
of charity. Many times I have not been able to have the influence
on the life of others because I didn't have charity in my life.
And you know, many times, maybe somebody's not been able to trust
me 100% because I did not have charity in my life. And I want
to leave you with this thought tonight. Let's take the charge
from charity and put it into action in our life. Let's be
the kind of people that, yes, we should have this right. Yes,
we should be doing this. Yes, we should stand firm over
there. But we better have charity in our life. And again, charity
is not bypassing sin. Charity is not winking at sin
and looking over it. Charity is having a genuine love
for the person you're dealing with and trying to help them.
I try to do that as a pastor. I know sometimes as a pastor,
I am faced with decisions and every pastor goes through this.
Sometimes a pastor will be faced with decisions to make, things
in the church that he has to do and get involved in. And sometimes
other church members on the outside, they'll look and they'll say,
why ain't the preacher dealing with this like this? I remember, I
remember when I sat under my pastor, and there was a time
or two I thought, well, why ain't my pastor dealing with this like
this? You know, if I was a pastor, I'd deal with it this way. You
know what it was? I was not the pastor at that time. I didn't
have the charity for those people. But my pastor had charity for
those people, and he was working with them according to the way
God wanted him to work with them. And he was dealing with them
through the eyes of charity. And tonight, if you and I could
just get a hold of these three verses, if everything we do in
our life, Everything we do within the church, everything we do
in the name of God, if it can be seasoned with charity, it'll
make the difference in our life. It'll make us effectual, amen?
Sometimes people we've witnessed to before that we didn't have
charity, we might could have won them to the Lord if we'd
have had charity. Sometimes that church member that I couldn't
help and they ran off down the road, if I'd have had charity,
maybe I could have helped them a little bit more, I don't know.
But tonight the message is the charge of charity. And I pray
tonight God would help us get a hold of what is being said
in these three verses. There's so much in here tonight
that if we'll get a hold of, I do not want to be a sounding
brass and a tinkling cymbal. I do not want to be nothing in
the eyes of my fellow man. There's too much of that now.
How many preachers we know tonight that in the eyes of a fellow
man they're nothing because they had no charity and because they
went off into sin and got involved in the things of the world? How
many of us tonight are not able to touch our neighbors because
we have not charity? I pray tonight God would burden
our hearts as a church that we'd have charity. I want to stand
right. I want to be a church when people drive by and say,
hey, that church believes the Bible. I want to be the kind
of church when people come visit, hey, these people love God. They
look like they love God. They act like they love God.
But in every bit of that, here's what I'd love to be said about
us tonight. That's a church that's got charity. I'll tell you this,
and I'm done tonight. There's a pastor down in Winston-Salem,
a tremendous pastor at a large church. And a preacher friend
of mine was talking to me about him. I don't know him that well.
I've met him. But my preacher friend knows him well. And this
is what he said. Now, don't take me wrong. He
wasn't making a lie to this pastor. He was making a point. He called
his name and he said, that dear brother, he said, you know, as
far as preachers are concerned and as far as what people would
judge preachers from, he said, that dear brother is not a tremendous
preacher. I mean, he's not got great messages
plastered out everywhere that everybody says, wow, I remember
when he preached that. He said, but I'm going to tell
you why that preacher's got the work he's got. He said, because he
loves people. Amen? He said, because he cares seriously
about the needs of people. And I'm telling you tonight,
whether it be preacher, whether it be church member, whoever
it is tonight, if there ought to be charity anywhere, it ought
to be down at the house of God. If there ought to be charity
anywhere, it ought to be among God's people. If there's bad
things going on at work, one of God's people ought to step
up and show some charity. Amen. Charity tonight, I believe,
is the glue that holds this thing together. And I pray tonight
God would help you and I to look into ourselves tonight and see
whether we have charity or not. If we don't have charity, it
doesn't matter what else you've got. If we don't have charity,
it doesn't matter what else you claim to be. It's nothing in
the eyes of this world, and I'm convinced tonight it's nothing
in the eyes of God. When we get to heaven one of these days,
some of the people we think are going to get the most crowns
are going to have to stand back. And there's going to be some
people that nobody ever knew their name, and they never had
the big fanfare, and they never had the light shining on them,
they never made a big splash, so to speak, but they had charity,
and God used them, and one of these days God's going to honor
that. Amen? You have the message tonight. I know it's been a little
scattered, but I hope it'll be a help to you. Let's stand. Heads
bowed a moment. Sister Regina, if you'd come
to the piano tonight. God spoke to your heart tonight
about this thought of charity. I want to ask you just to do
business with the Lord. Charity is not something that
is produced in our flesh. Charity is not something that
you're just going to wake up with every day and have it in
your life. It's something we're going to have to strive to have.
I believe that charity is a product of the Spirit of God living in
us, but not just living in us, but having free ride away in
us. For the past twenty-five plus years, almost twenty-six
years, the Spirit of God's lived in my heart. But can I say to
you tonight, in those twenty-six years, there's been a lot of
times charity has not come out of my life. Why was that? I was
hindering the work of the Spirit of God in my life. If the Lord
spoke to you tonight concerning charity, you come. and you pray
tonight and ask God to help us, we'd be a people with charity.
While she plays this evening, let the Lord deal with your heart
tonight. You know who you are. You know how you are. When I
don't have charity, I know right away I don't have charity. When
I'm dealing with an issue and my anger overrides my care, I
don't have charity. God help us tonight to have charity.
I do not want to be a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.
You know, I read somewhere in one of the commentaries, I read
that in the society of the church of Corinth, that many times they
would use a banging gong to do idol worship. It was a very idolatrous
society. And we've read about it and seen
about those things, those witchcraft tribes and stuff in Africa would
beat on the drum and make that noise to worship those evil spirits. Could it be tonight I thought
about this, and I didn't mention it in the message, but I thought
about this studying it today. Could it be our work without
charity is glorifying the devil more than it is God? It's a thought,
isn't it? I thought about that. Could it
be what I do without charity hinders the work of Christ more
than it helps? I believe that's true tonight.
I hope the Lord will help us. I hope and pray tonight God will
put this thing in our hearts and we'll get a hold of it like
it is. Amen. Thank you for your good attention
tonight. Trust the Word of God. Find its place. That's three
sobering verses in the Word of God. If you'll study them out,
I challenge you, go home this week and study these three verses
out. Let them sink in. Put yourself
in the position here. Ask yourself, am I this way or
do I have not charity? And I'm telling you, it's a sobering
thought, but I'm glad God will help us tonight. And especially
in these last days. If you think you're frustrated
at where our nation's at, think where lost people are at tonight.
They're frustrated. They don't know. We know the
Lord's coming back. I know as bad as this thing gets,
I'm going to heaven one of these days. They don't know that tonight.
They don't know that. And now's the time. You've heard
the saying before, the darker the night, the brighter the light.
I'll get it out. The darker the night, the brighter
the light. That's what we need to be tonight. We need to be
a burning and a shining light. That's what was said about John
the Baptist. A burning and a shining light. John came in a time where
there had been no open word of God for 400 years. And they said
he was a burning and a shining light. Man, what a man. I'd like
to be just a little bit of that tonight.
The Charge Of Charity
Series 1 Corinthians Chapter 13 Study
The greatest gift to the body of Christ is charity. We are charged to have it.
| Sermon ID | 11416151996 |
| Duration | 43:31 |
| Date | |
| Category | Midweek Service |
| Bible Text | 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 |
| Language | English |
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