As you're turning to Ephesians chapter 4, I feel compelled to remind us of a scripture that hopefully you can complete the rest. By this shall all men know that you are my children or disciples. You know the rest? Let's hear it if you know the rest. If you love one another, if you have love one for another, the evidence The certainty, the tangible awareness of who are the people of God is the love we express toward each other. You know that? Sometimes we get busy or focused or worried about the stuff, the things, the duties, the obligations. C.S. Lewis said something like this, I'll misquote it, but it's close. He said, religion makes us tend to think that God wants us to accomplish a certain series of things. But in fact, what He wants is a certain sort of person. He doesn't want us to accomplish a series of particular things. He wants us to be a certain sort of person. The Lord put this message on my heart. It came to me as just one Bible verse, and in some ways it felt encouraging, but in some ways I just was troubled. I could hardly sleep. I stayed up late, not to prepare some sort of compelling performance or intellectual speech, but because God has put on my heart to preach something that I feel like I fail so badly at. and I'm having trouble even finding my place here. Ephesians chapter 4. We'll read more than just this verse, for context, but this verse is our text. Ephesians 4 verse 32. Be ye kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you. This came to me, the whole verse. I wasn't reading it. I was just trying to feel after, Lord, what would you have me preach tomorrow? Because I wasn't sure yet. I want God to help me Do this. I want him to help me live this. I want him to help me be this. Kind. Tenderhearted. Forgiving. Our flesh doesn't possess those attributes. Even if you have a temperament that is less given to offending other people. It requires a work of the Holy Spirit for you to be truly forgiving, or truly loving, truly kind. And we stand in need of that because this is a direct instruction to us from the Lord through His Apostle that this is how we are supposed to be. This is the sort of people we're supposed to be. Kind, tender-hearted, forgiving. It doesn't mean that's all that matters. There are other things that matter. We talked a little bit this morning about courage. That's important, and boldness is important, and these things are important, but they're not substitute virtues. We should be courageous. Be strong and courageous. I, the Lord, will go before you. That theme is throughout Scripture. Do not be afraid. Hundreds of times in Scripture in some form or another. Be not afraid for I'm with you. We're not supposed to be afraid. We're not supposed to live with any kind of restraint of that way. And we're also supposed to be kind and loving and forgiving and gentle. If we feel in our analysis of this that something like boldness and kindness are competing virtues, they're not. It might feel that way sometimes. Sometimes a person seems bold and they're really just harsh. You know? Sometimes they seem confident in who they are and they're really just critical. And then sometimes other people seem very gentle and we have words like demure. It's a word I like. I like it when women are demure. But we're called to something deeper than that. That is something that you can develop in yourself. What God is calling us to is something that can only be created through the transformational power of the Spirit when you're conformed to His will. You can train yourself to be polite and to act a certain way. Those are good things for society. But this verse is talking about something so much deeper than behavior modification. And that's what really troubled me as the Lord put this on my heart. I'll just tell you plainly. He put this on my heart and it was like my heart prayed to him, Lord, I hear you, but I'm not able. And it wasn't like verbal, but it was almost like you told me or impressed on me. Nobody is. I don't want you to misunderstand. If I tell you what Paul is writing here, be kind, and then you go home with this sense of, it's my job to be kind. So I can't hurt people's feelings, and I can't say things that aren't nice, and I can't raise my voice. And you conform yourself to all of that. That may be nice and good, but you might still be missing the point. And the second part, I'll get into the words, but this helps us understand tender-hearted, this is a heart matter. This is why it convicted me so much. I can restrain my lips, not all the time, but sometimes I'm able to. It doesn't mean my heart doesn't feel some way it shouldn't. You may think a person is nicer than they are. And then have you not met people who on the surface seem to be not very kind or loving, but then you talk to them and the love is felt. Do you see what I mean? It's deeper than the surface appearance. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. Now, just a note about translation and what things really say. The literal, which I think is far better than the way King James translated it here, is, even as God in Christ has forgiven you. That's deeper than for Christ's sake, and I'll get into that. Let's look at a few of these verses to give us a little context, and excuse me one moment. I want to begin reading in the 23rd verse of Ephesians chapter 4. And the context of this whole chapter is Paul is writing as a prisoner of the Lord, begging and beseeching people, us, to walk worthy of this calling that God has given us. He's saying there is a way to live. He's saying live as children of light. And then in this passage he's talking about what that's like. Some specific things, but let's begin. Actually I'll start in 22nd verse, that you put off concerning the former conversation or lifestyle, the old man which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lust, and you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness, wherefore putting away lying, speaking every man truth with his neighbor, for we're members one of another, Be ye angry, and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole still no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have something to give to him who has need. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you, along with all malice, and be you kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. I pray the Lord will help me get this across to us as He burdened me with it. We talk sometimes about not grieving the Holy Spirit. And a lot of times when I hear people say that, they're talking about in some way not quenching the Spirit. Don't do something He's not happy with. But the context of this verse, the Apostle Paul is talking about a lifestyle that causes offense to the Holy Spirit of God. It gives Him grief. And to put this in perspective, this would be kind of like a parent who raised their child in godliness, and the child goes out in the world and turns their back on everything they ever learned, and the parent never stops loving that child, but their heart is grieved. This is teaching us. That's how the Holy Spirit feels. like an unconditionally loving, broken-hearted parent at some of our behavior. I never understood it in this way until this message. Have you ever grieved the Holy Spirit? We have. Now you may take seriously the command, don't take the name of the Lord your God in vain. And you've never said that phrase? I pray you haven't. And try not to hear it. Try not to listen to it. I grew up in a house where we were taught to not even say G-O-S-H. Because it harkens back to that. Don't take the Lord's name in vain. I'm glad I was taught that. But I want you to understand that command is deeper than not saying a phrase. It is claiming the name of the Lord. He saved me. I'm His child. And then living in a way that's not conformed to His will. That's taking His name in vain. When you're adopted, you take that man's name. God adopted us as His children. We take His name. We have the name of Christ upon us. And living in a way that's not conformed to His will is taking His name in vain. Do you understand? It's an empty conversion. So, we've grieved the Holy Spirit at times. And thank Him for His mercy and kindness. But now I want to be specific because the context here, don't grieve the Holy Spirit whereby you're sealed. You're sealed to the day of redemption. One of my favorite verses for support that God saves you and you're saved. You're sealed. Then he says, let all bitterness. Have you ever grieved the Holy Spirit by being bitter? Do you know bitterness in your heart grieves the Lord? You know why? Because if you have bitterness in your heart, you can't forgive. Have you ever grieved the Spirit by having wrath when you shouldn't? The wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. My wife has learned in being married to me, I process everything through anger first. Everything. Hurt feelings, sadness, it all goes through anger first. And I think my son's that way. It's just people are wired different. But the wrath of man doesn't work the righteousness of God. I have to be reminded of that. There have been so many times I've been unnecessarily angry. I hide it pretty well. A lot of people don't even know. I know. God knows. It grieves Him. Maybe that applies to some of y'all. Maybe that doesn't specifically apply to you. Maybe you're not temperamentally angry. Maybe you're just a really happy-go-lucky gentle person. Some of these other things will apply to you. Wrath, anger, clamor. Evil speaking, let it all be put away from you with all malice. Be ye kind to one another. Let me ask you something that maybe is also true for many of us. Have you ever grieved the Holy Spirit by being unnecessarily unkind? I phrased it that way on purpose. Kindness is not always the appropriate response. If somebody is threatening the safety of my wife or children, they don't need me to be kind to them in that moment. That's why I said, have you grieved the Spirit by being unnecessarily unkind? You know, though, there's plenty of times that my people closest to me, my wife, my children, my mama, some of you, maybe I have been unnecessarily unkind. And it grieves me. Now this message is not about me, but I'm the one who lives my life. You have to examine your own heart and see what applies to you. Have you been unnecessarily unkind? Are you temperamentally that way? Sometimes as a defense mechanism, people that are like that, that kindness is not one of their strengths, we cover it up by saying things like, well, people just don't like the truth. They just can't handle the truth. They just don't want to be told what's right. Now, maybe we're just not being as kind as we should be. If that applies to you, let it apply. Let the Holy Spirit of God show you, and to the extent that it does, repent. And if it doesn't apply, that's good. Have you ever grieved the Holy Spirit by holding a grudge? You know what a grudge is? That's kind of a funny word. It's refusing to let go. There are some things embedded so deep in our past experience, we've held on to it so long, some of us, that we don't even know it's there. There's some things you don't even know to let go of until the Lord shows you. But we have to be careful about knowingly holding on to something that we shouldn't. And that's what forbearing, we're taught to forbear one another in love. We're talking, this message is about the interrelations of God's people. We know we're supposed to love people out in the world, we're supposed to love sinners. But this message today, I'm talking about how we're supposed to interact and feel toward each other. What did Peter ask the Lord? If my brother offends me, how often shall I forgive him? And I don't remember exactly how it went, but the number 70 times 7 came up. Is that enough 490 times? Now, I'll tell you, if you are counting the number of times you've forgiven a person and you get up to 490, you're not really forgiving them. You're keeping a record. And we know from 1 Corinthians 13, love bears no record of wrong. Again, we're talking about the way that God's people... I'm not talking about how you interact with an evil person who's trying to destroy you. You need to be aware of the evil and the wrong that they're doing and protect your family against it with God's help. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the people of God, the body of Jesus Christ that you're part of. You're a member of His body. We are supposed to keep no record of wrong. We are supposed to completely forget any offense that my brother or sister did to me. That's hard. It's hard. You know why it's hard? It goes against this biological nature. We're made in a way that that's a self-preservational thing. I'm supposed to remember because that's a danger signal. But God has called us to something deeper than biology or evolution or chemistry or whatever these people want to talk about. Have we ever grieved the Holy Spirit by refusing to forgive? He says, be kind, be tender-hearted, forgive. As God in Christ forgave you. Before I go any further, I want to read something I have read before, but it's been a few years. Just relax and listen to it. It's a powerful analogy. It was in a church in Munich where I was speaking in 1947 that I saw him. A balding, heavyset man in a gray overcoat, a brown felt hat clutched between his hands. One moment I saw the overcoat and the brown hat, the next a blue uniform and a visored cap with his skull and crossbones. Memories of the concentration camp came back with a rush. The huge room with its harsh overhead lights, the pathetic pile of dresses and shoes in the center of the floor, the shame of walking naked past this man. I could see my sister's frail form ahead of me, ribs sharp beneath the parchment of skin. Betsy, how thin you were. Betsy and I had been arrested for concealing Jews in our home during the Nazi occupation of Holland. This man had been a guard at Ravensbrück concentration camp where we were sent. It was the first time since my release that I had seen him, and my blood seemed to freeze. Now he was in front of me, hand thrust out. A fine message, Fraulein. How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea. And I, who had spoken so glibly of forgiveness, fumbled in my handbag rather than take his hand. You mentioned Ravensbrück in your talk, he was saying. I was a guard there, but since that time, he went on, I've become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well, Fraulein. Again, the hand came out. Will you forgive me? And I stood there. I whose sins had to be forgiven again and again and could not forgive. Betsy had died in that place. Could he erase her slow, terrible death simply by asking? It could not have been many seconds that he stood there, handheld out, but to me it seemed like hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do. For I had to do it. I knew that. The message that God forgives has one prior condition, that we forgive those who have injured us. If you do not forgive men their trespass, Jesus says, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespass. But still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is an act of the will. And the will can still function regardless of the temperature of the heart. Jesus, help me, I prayed silently. I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling. And so, woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands, and then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being. bringing tears to my eyes. I forgive you, brother, I cried with all my heart. For a long moment we grasped each other's hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God's love so intensely as I did then, but even so I realized it was not my love. I had tried and did not have the power. It was the power of the Holy Spirit, as recorded in Romans 5.5, for the love of God has been poured out in your hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. That's one example, that's what I'm talking about. God empowered her to do something to forgive her captor. You can't, now you can pretend to, but you can't muster that up on your own. And what we're called to today, we can't muster up on our own. There will be a temptation for some of us to hear a message like this and go home and try to be nicer. And that's okay. But you won't accomplish the purpose of God if that's where it stops. I'm talking about something God has to do in us. I'm talking about, I tell people this when I perform weddings. You aren't capable of loving your wife the way God requires. That's how I feel. I don't possess the ability to love my wife as Christ loved the church, and yet I'm commanded to. The only way it's possible is if God does it in me. And it's the same with what I'm talking about today. I want to take a few minutes and look at each of these three words, because there's some depth of meaning here. Be kind. What does that mean? And I want to be clear that this is deeper and more purposeful and it's more than being nice. We need to know that. There are plenty of nice people who aren't loving, and not kind, and not pleasing to God. We're not talking about just being nice. This word is the word kratos, the Greek word kratos, it's used In Scripture, it's translated as kind, easy, better, goodness, good, or gracious. It's only used a handful of times in Scripture. If you look up the definition, it says, fit for use. You see why I felt convicted before I even started studying? Fit for use. I'm not fit for the Lord's use if I'm not kind. I can't be kind without His help. Fit for use, virtuous or good. We know that there's nobody good. Jesus said there's none good except the Father. And yet only good people can go to heaven. Those declared righteous is what I mean. The imputed righteousness of Christ. So it can be fit for use, useful. It can also be, in the sense of being manageable, mild or pleasant as opposed to harsh, sharp or bitter. Have you eaten something that goes down easily? It's mild to the taste versus bitter? You know what quinine is? Or turpentine? I put a post on social media recently. I wanted to know who ate turpentine as a child. Their parents fed you turpentine. Some of you. I haven't had that. I've had quinine. It's bitter. I gave Micaiah some cranberries yesterday. He saw the cranberries. I said, it's bitter. So he'll know what bitter is. Funny side note, he ate one, tongue pushed it out like some type of ejector, and grabbed another one. He did it about 10 times. Chew it up. I don't know if he was expecting the next one to be less bitter or if there was an initial flavor he liked. I'm not sure. And there's an analogy there. What I'm preaching today, it may be something that we want to just eject. No, let's keep trying it till the Lord helps it. Let me give you some examples of how this is used in scripture. It'll show us God's mind with this word. Matthew 11 30. My yoke is easy. My yoke is kind. That's the same word. It's manageable. There's a gentleness in it. People I hear talk about God whooping them, the harshness of God, I don't know what they're talking about. That's not the God of Scripture. And if you feel that's your relationship with Him, something's missing. But there's something missing. And I would ask Him about it. My yoke is kind, it's gentle. " Luke 5.39, I like this one, "...no man, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new, for he says, the old is better." Better, that word kind, Christos. The old is gentle, manageable. Now, most of us are teetotalers, so you have no frame of reference for that. But you can think of Like I said, food that is gentle on your palate versus harsh on your palate. And that is how our behavior is before the Lord. We're supposed to live our lives as a sweet-smelling savor, a sacrifice, an offering that pleases Him, not a noxious, smoky odor. There's a gentleness He wants from us. Luke 6.35, Love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again, and your reward shall be great, and you shall be the children of the highest. For He is kind to the unthankful and to the evil. Romans 2.4, Or despisest thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? There's a mirror here for me as a parent of small children. Sometimes I try to get them to conform their behavior by demands. Sometimes I'm probably too harsh. No, I'm sure I am. Sometimes I'm too harsh, too sharp, too severe, too demanding. It's hard to know. I'm human. It's hard to know. You want them to live in society in a way that's It's like one well-known person says, the best thing you can do for your children is raise them in such a way that other people will like them. Some people's kids aren't very likable, right? And it's hard to manage that. But then I look at the way God gets us to conform our behavior to his. In fact, the way he first drew us to himself is through this gentle kindness. And I want to say, Yeah, I don't ever know who's been saved and who hasn't. Somewhere, we adopted, I say we, I mean just church people, especially Baptists in this area, adopted this harshness. That you're going to scare people into heaven. You know? I've had people tell me I don't preach enough fire and brimstone. And yet, I've never been accused of being a gentle preacher. So it's interesting. And it's a cultural mindset. I want to be clear. Now, the Bible talks about hell. It talks about the punishment of God, and God's justice is sure. And if you are an evildoer who hasn't surrendered to Him, that's what I'm concerned about. His judgment. Not depictions of a final resting or non-resting place, but sometimes with that approach, it's missed. His gentleness, His kindness and His love. It's the most compelling thing there is. And the best way we can help people recognize who God is and surrender to Him is to accurately and honestly be messengers of His love. to depict who He really is, the kindness of God. And then another example of this word used in Scripture, be not deceived, evil communications corrupts good manners, manageable behavior, acting the way we should. 1 Peter 2.3, if so be that you've tasted that the Lord is gracious, is kind. Have you tasted that the Lord is kind? I know some of you have because I hear you talk about it, but I've also heard some talk about just how mean God is. Have you tasted His kindness? Have you? If you haven't, seek Him! If the only God you've encountered is the one who's going to get you, you don't yet fully know the God of Scripture. I'm not saying you're not saved, but you have some type of idea about Him that's not Fully biblical. The second word, we'll just look at these three and I won't be a whole lot longer. Kind, and then tender-hearted. Now there's something happening in our culture right now, in Christian culture where, I don't know if you've seen this, there's a movement of men trying to reclaim lost ground, something like that. This is a whole other sermon for some other time. The religious model we've inherited is far too feminine. It's all about making people feel good, being gentle, kind, patting them on the back. There's also a masculine side to the things of God. And we can go too far in the other direction. And the reason I'm saying that is that some of these men who are trying to rebalance things, I don't think they understand that even men are supposed to be tender-hearted. Maybe especially. Maybe especially. It's not supposed to be that women are gentle and kind and men are harsh and critical. That's not biblical. I say that as a person who's too harsh and critical. It's not pleasing to God. You're not a better man if you're sharper, nastier, meaner, more severe. That doesn't make us better men. What makes us a better man is being willing to bear up under the burdens we've been given. And this word tender-hearted, that's what it really means. It's used twice in scripture. And the King James is translated tender-hearted once and pitiful once. It says be pitiful. Now pitiful is not my four-year-old crying because she didn't get her way. Pitiful is full of pity for others. What the word really means is having strong bowels. And this is why I say, this is not some feminine thing that men, we're too tough for this. If you understand what this really means, it takes a man to do this, or a woman. Be tender hearted, it's the manliest thing you could do. Because it means being able to bear up under the weight of another person's suffering. That's what it means to be tender hearted. I care enough to be affected by what you're going through." Are you tender-hearted? It doesn't mean you can't be resilient or strong. That affects me too, brothers and sisters, that God help me. And finally, the word forgiving. I think we sort of know what forgiveness is, but sometimes we lose sight of it. It's the Greek word charizomai here. And it's in scripture translated as forgive or sometimes give freely. When you forgive somebody, you give freely. That means without any expectation of return or payment. You give freely to them something they don't deserve. Forgiving is pardoning somebody. Forgiving is choosing to let go of the claim that you have. to cause suffering to another person. If you live long enough, you'll encounter people who do things that they don't deserve that kind of treatment. They don't deserve to be forgiven. You still need to forgive him. You know why? Because it's about the relationship between you and God. Like Corrie Ten Boom wrote. She took that verse to heart. She said, I must forgive this man. I'm commanded to. He killed my sister. He was my captor. He held me in prison. I still have to forgive him because God said to. That's heavy. I don't like it. I mean, do you like that? That you have to forgive somebody you'd rather destroy? You'd rather have eliminated from your life? Only God can give that. And this is what Jesus modeled on the cross. Father forgive them, they know not what they do. And that's why I said there's some of us, I'm one of them who use anger as a defense mechanism. You don't have to feel that if you can just be angry. It's a shield. Stephen, God empowered him to have the same sort of supernatural forgiving power. He said, behold, I see Jesus. Listen, like I preached last week, it takes a vision of the Lord Jesus Christ to help us be able to live how He wants us to. Forgive. As God, and I said I want to mention this phrase, King James says, as God for Christ's sake, I think is how, yeah, as God for Christ's sake, but a literal translation, I think a better translation would be as God in Christ forgave you. God's forgiveness is expressed in the person of Jesus Christ. who He was, that He was the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form, that He was the radiance and is the radiance of the glory of God, that if you want to know what God looks like, you can look at Jesus, that Jesus, the very man He was, expressed the forgiveness of God. The forgiveness of God was in Him. It was in His demeanor, His behavior, His identity. He walked around, I mean, really, what He did on this earth was walk around forgiving people. That's what he really did. Scripture says he went about doing good. That was the good he was doing. Healing visible illness, disease and problems and forgiving invisible spiritual iniquity. That's the tenderness and kindness and forgiveness of God. But also God's forgiveness as God in Christ has forgiven you. His forgiveness is contained in Jesus Christ. Jesus was a vessel and is a vessel of God's forgiveness. And brothers and sisters, we, His people, I mean individually, but even more so, the body of Christ, this assembled body of His people, we are supposed to be vessels of the forgiveness of God, just as Jesus was. God's forgiveness should be in us. I want to expand on that, 2 Corinthians 5.19, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. It's so beautiful that God exercised his will in his son. A couple of verses before I close, just as maybe some support or some cross-references. Colossians 3 verse 12 through 13, Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with hearts of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, bear with one another, and forgive any complaint you may have against someone else. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Can I put this in In perspective, I don't have any right to hold any grudge against anybody for anything. When I understand what God did for me, who I was before He saved me, I don't have the right not to forgive. And in the body of Christ, you know what that looks a lot like? A lot of times, forbearing. A lot of times, it looks like overlooking something that doesn't matter. And really, brothers and sisters, how do you know it doesn't matter? None of it matters. Nothing matters but the glory of God. Nothing else matters. You say, what are you talking about? I'm not talking about anything specific. I'm preaching what the Lord put on my heart. This is how his body needs to operate. Forgiving and living in peace with each other. Luke 6.36, be merciful just as your father's merciful. Just as your father's merciful. Now we may extend a little bit of mercy, but the same mercy he extended, I can't do that. Except he helps me. Do you realize we're not called to a higher standard, we're called to something humanly impossible. It can only be accomplished through the supernatural power of God, through the Holy Spirit at work in us. That is why it is essential that we be not conformed to this world, but we be transformed by the renewing of our minds. That's why it's absolutely essential. You can't make yourself a better Christian. You can make yourself nicer, but you can't make yourself more loving. 1 Peter 3, finally all of you be like-minded, sympathetic, love as brothers, be tender-hearted and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called, so that you may inherit blessing." I've heard stories all my life about conflicts in churches. I've seen some of them. You know, one person, this person, and everybody, it's like they just buck up bigger and bigger. Just fight, ready to fight. These things should never be. Y'all have seen some things, I've heard some crazy things that I don't know if it's worth repeating. I'll tell you sometime if you're curious. We're supposed to be tender-hearted and humble. Don't repay evil for evil. You know what that means in the context of the body of Christ? You ever been offended that somebody was offended at you? Sometimes I get mad that somebody was mad at me. And I try in the moment to restrain myself. I'm just going to tell on myself for a minute. I don't say the things I want to say and I pretend that I'm really nice and then I go away mad that I wasn't meaner to them. And then I have to repent. Lord, You know my heart. That's not pleasing. But do you understand what I'm saying? I can conform what a person sees. I don't know how to conform my heart till God changes it. It's the same for you. And He must change us. What I'm preaching is not easy. And it's not pleasant unless we surrender ourselves to Him, and then it is pleasant because He's pleasant. Finally, let me end with this verse. Romans 12.10. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Are you devoted to each other? You know what that word makes me think of? Betrothed. Holy matrimony. Are you devoted? It doesn't mean you can never go to another church or go to another congregation while God leads you elsewhere, but it does mean, I believe, you don't get up and leave the first time somebody hurts your feelings. You don't run the first time something's hard. We don't have that luxury. Let's just be real. We can't do that. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love and then this, outdo yourselves in honoring one another. Isn't that beautiful? Outdo yourselves in honoring one another. I'll tell you this as I finish. You can't be too good to your brother or sister. Can't be too good to each other. Can't be too loving to each other. Outdo yourselves. This congregation, I'm so thankful there's so much love here. I want to see more. Love covers a multitude of sins. I want to see more. God wants more. More of His love is more of Him. That's the message. I pray it's a help, encouragement. God bless you.