You know this world is full of preachers, but just a few were chosen. Stay tuned for Treasured Heritage, a preaching program spotlighting those servants who have gone on to glory. Isaiah 5417 says, this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. And now, Treasured Heritage. I raise the question, As I begin the message, you reckon how many people will cry themselves to sleep tonight? Tears can be a wonderful blessing, but there's a lot of unnecessary tears. I want every one of you to tune in tonight now because you're going to need this message, all I do. And I don't believe there's anybody here but what needs this message. I'm preaching on one of the finest virtues of the Christian life, The fact is, I believe by this you can tell whether you're really right with the Lord or not. And I hope you'll take the measuring rod of the Word of God tonight, and I'll do the same. And we'll put the plumb line to our Christian experience and life and our living every day. I do not expect complete perfection as long as I live in the body that I've had for 57 years. But I do not expect to be satisfied for less than perfection. I could never be satisfied to be less than what the will of God plans me to be and what God by His grace could make me. I have some passages of scripture that I want to share with you tonight. And the first one is one of the psalms that our girls sing so much, Psalm 48. Psalm 48. I'd like to caution the girls, and I'm going to caution me too, because I think what you need, I also need. And the members of our church, you know one of the dangers is to get used to something good and just take it for granted. The 48th Psalm, we sing a lot, great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God. In the mountain of his holiness, beautiful for a situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion. On the sides of the north, the city of the great king. God is known in her palaces for a refuge. Verse 9, We have thought of thy lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple. Turn to Psalm 42 and verse 8, Yet the Lord will command his Loving kindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life. The Lord will command his loving kindness in the daytime, and in the night his song. Loving kindness in the daytime, and we'll be singing at night. The dark won't frighten us at all if we have his lovingkindness in the daytime. Psalm 51, have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness. According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Psalm 117. This is another one of our songs, our psalms to sing. I still believe that the singing of the scripture and the memorizing of the scripture is one of the greatest ways there is to get the word retained in the heart of a Christian. I don't expect the devil's crowd to sing the scripture. Oh, praise the Lord, all ye nations. Praise him, all ye people. For his merciful kindness is great toward us, and the truth of the Lord endureth forever. Praise ye the Lord. So that'd be a good chapter to memorize, wouldn't it? Just about anybody could memorize that one. And I promised the Lord this week that I'm going to get busy again working on the scripture. And I notice when I work on the scripture, it works on me. And that's good. The scripture doesn't need me, but I sure need it. The Lord can get along nicely without me, but I cannot get along without him. Psalm 141, verse 5, let the righteous smite me. Let the man that's right smite me. It shall be a kindness. And let him reprove me. It shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head, for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities. Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness. Turn to Jeremiah chapter 31. Jeremiah chapter 31, verse 3. The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. God draws us with his lovingkindness. According to thy lovingkindness, he said, I want you to blot out all my iniquities. Proverbs chapter 31, this is that last chapter of the book of Proverbs, has to do with a precious wife and mother. And I'd never seen this till this week when I read it to our early morning prayer band that meets with us at 6.30 at the office each day. The 31st chapter in verse 26, she openeth her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue is kindness. In her tongue is the law of canyons. Now, what law is that? What is the law of canyons? Did James talk about the royal law? What was the royal law? Love. Oh, tonight, how different this world would be if I could just get every one of you to practice, and if I could practice myself, this sweet and blessed truth that we've got for your heart tonight. I feel like we ought to stop and pray now. Everybody pray. Our Heavenly Father, we've come to another supernatural challenge and an impossible task without the Holy Spirit. And dear Lord, tonight I pray that you'll give us a real glimpse of what this great truth could mean to this home. and our work, and the girls, and the boys, and all the people that come this way. And dear Lord, help us not to be difficult. Help us to be kind. Help us to be gracious. Help us to be like Jesus. Father, we've read your entire book many times. We never did find any unkindness in any action that you ever took. We followed Jesus all the way from Bethlehem's manger to that old hill called Golgotha. And we never have found him being unkind, not even one time. And Lord, that indicts us and rebukes us and shames us. It really does. And dear Lord, I pray that tonight you'll put just a load of love and gentleness and the law the law of kindness in our mouth. And then we believe that if we have the law, we'll have the love, and then we'll have the kindness. Our Father, bless tonight every home, bless my own home, and bless my loved ones tonight. And Father, I pray for the people who belong to this church. Help us to know how to conduct ourselves in holiness, knowing that We're being watched every day. And dear Lord, as the leader of this unusual opportunity, I really pray tonight that you'll help me not to live a threadbare life. And I'll not be a needler. And I'll not be unkind. But Father, I pray that I'll be like Jesus. and I'll be like the Holy Spirit can make me through his wonderful word. And Father, now as we wade off into this message tonight, we pray for our radio friends and just so many little children who cry themselves to sleep this night. Wives will weep tonight because of an unkind husband. Husbands will be greatly disturbed because of a nagging wife. and a nervous, neurotic, screaming wife and mother, dear Lord, remind us it's going to take more than a little tranquilizer from the drugstore. It's going to take more than counseling down at the courthouse or a divorce. It's going to take Jesus Christ to make us right with him. I pray tonight that you'll speak to our hearts and may we preach with love and with power and with spiritual understanding. In Jesus' name, amen. She openeth her mouth with wisdom, number one. Her tongue is the law of kindness. God has a divine law that he'd like us to abide by. I have a few more verses before I come to the main text, Isaiah 54. Isaiah 54, verse 8, In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 6. 2 Corinthians 6 and 6. In this chapter, he's saying we need to be approved. We need to be approved. And this is why he said you need to be approved. In much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, verse 4, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings, by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, and by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand, and on the left by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report, as deceivers yet true, as unknown yet well known, as dying and behold we live, as chastened and not killed, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing all things. Now turn to Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3, verse 12, forbearing one another and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on love, put it on, which is the bond of perfectness. Turn to Ephesians. This is the text. And be ye kind, one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Now, if you'll go back a little piece in that chapter, the verse 29, 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, And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you're sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice." And then he said, I want you to be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just like God for Christ's sake had forgiven you. We're living in a time of ruffled feelings. We're living in a time of nervousness and threadbare, and people are on edge. I mean, all over the country, don't make any of it, preachers are. I've never seen the like of preachers in my life that are jumpy and nervous and quick to judge and criticize and impatient. And a lady just called me from a distant state a moment ago. In fact, these five long-distance calls came in about five minutes. One of them said, I went to the pastor. I desperately, and I told her, I said, why would you have to call so far away for this particular kind of help? Don't you have any friends? Don't you have a pastor? Well, she said, I went to him, and he told me he didn't have time for me. He said, I'm too busy. and said, why don't you go to the welfare department? Let them help you. And that's one reason people are losing confidence in our churches and pastors today. The Bible said, if you do not take care of your own household, you've denied the faith and have become worse than an infidel. Now, as far as I'm concerned, that includes the church. That includes my home. And that includes, for instance, a man said to Jesus, who's my neighbor? He said, a man in a ditch. Find a man in a ditch, that's your neighbor. He's your next door neighbor right there. If you find him in the ditch, he's right next to you. Go pick him up. Get him out. But you know, we'll never have kindness until we have the law of kindness, and that's love. Love is the law. for the Christian. We live under law all the time. We sing the song, I'm a Prisoner of Love. I'm a Prisoner of Love. The song, Chains of Love. Chains of love all around. Chains of hate, chains of sin, and then chains of love. But you'll never in this world be able to practice kindness and be consistent You'll never be able to stay in this kind of work without a double portion of the love of God. You'd never make it. You're going to wear out. You watch and see. You'll wear a threadbare. And the first thing you know, when you lose your resistance, then sin will set in, and down you'll go. I've been in this 38 years. I've been in rescue work 20 years now, 1 5th of a century. And we must never get mechanical, or cold, or hard to get along with. in this work. And that's the reason I've asked, and I've had special meetings at times when I've asked people to pray. There must be complete kindness. When you get saved, you're to be very kind and very easy to get along with. You're not to present any more problems to Mount and Vanguard if you get saved. You're to grow in grace. I've been back home today, and I've had a lot of emotions and I've walked that old field today, where I walked as a lad. I got up in the hayloft, where I was when I was a boy, and went down to the tank where I used to go swimming. And a lot of changes have taken place. The old homestead's gone. I only saw the cistern, the curb there. And the water was stale on the inside. And I've thought about a lot of things. I've wept a bunch of times today. But I long to be kind. I really do. To me, kindness is the expressions of Christ and his love. And I have to guard day and night lest I become fractious. People could irritate me on the phone. So many calls, many of them unnecessary, and then too lengthy. And the other phone's waiting. And all that, yet I've got to be kind, and you've got to be kind. In this kind of work, it's just love all the way, or we'll grow mechanical and difficult. And unkindness, to me, is as bad as adultery. It's as bad as murder, because you can kill somebody with your unkindness. You girls have killed your mother almost with your unkindness. I know of boys that have killed their loved ones with unkindness. I know some people now that are dead and buried, and they were killed. But girls and boys and men and women, I'm preaching on something that's as practical as a work glove. You're going to have to learn how to be kind. Learn how to be kind. I think, really, I think the most difficult task I've ever put on people, I've put on our workers out here. And they're gonna need God's supernatural strength and health and power and love, lest they become mechanical and threadbare. I was thinking about a preacher. He just sure didn't have any education. And he gave me a report one night. He called me on the phone, he said, he called me, he called Brother Luster. He said, Brother Luster, He had a great meeting. Said, I had a great meeting. Said, I tell you, I had a great meeting tonight. He just went on and he said, I tell you, he said, we had seven saved and about 15 come get rewound. Well, bless his heart. I knew what he's talking about. They came to rededicate their lives, renew their vow, and get fixed up with the Lord. But oh, tonight, my plea is for God's people to be kind. Listen. The husband or wife that has never apologized is not right with the Lord, because they've got to be imperfect enough to need to apologize. I've had to apologize to my wife. I remember one morning, I beat it down to study. Many years ago, I was passing a church in this city, and I've had to do this a number of times. And my imperfections haunt me. They work me over. They trim me down. And I got down to the study, and I I got my Bible, and I was getting ready to preach, and there wasn't no sermon in the book. I mean, ordinarily, it's just full of them, you know. I said, wouldn't it be good to preach on that? And I said, that's right there. Oh, me, that'll preach right there. But not that morning. And that was before I really learned to preach by faith. I mean, I just felt like I had to have at least a text. And I couldn't find it. It wasn't a text in the Bible. I was in bad shape. And I said, Lord, what am I going to preach? And the Lord seemed to say, I don't think you are. Well, I said, why? He said, do you know your home number? I said, yes, sir. He said, how did you leave everything at the house? I said, pretty bad shape. He said, I believe I just called home. So I dialed TU47925. And you know who answered? The very one I was supposed to talk to. And I said, honey, I'm sorry. I'm just sorry. Well, she said, it's all right now. I'll forgive you. And everything's fine. And she said, really, it was my fault. See? And then we nearly got in a fuss about whose fault it was. Yeah, I really did. I said, no. I said, I was just plain mean. I mean, I was ugly. And she forgave me. And you know, the text began to jump at me. I mean, it just, Bible's plumb full of preaching, see? That's right. I got a preacher, friend. I'm talking to you about something simple. This works in everybody's life. Just make the application right where you are. Don't expect God to bless you. Don't expect to get your prayers answered as long as you're unkind. We got girls in the home. You just plumb hard to get along with. I mean, you just ought not to be that way. We got people that are just hard to get along with all over the country. In church, preachers, I've gone in the homes. A preacher that I know of, he goes to bed at 10 o'clock at night, about that, and he fills up with pills, sleeping pills. You walk into his room, he's so nervous and keyed up, and if you go in there 15 minutes after he goes to bed, brother, you're too late because he's knocked out. His tongue is thick. He can't talk with you, he's full of dope. And yet he'll go up in the pulpit and just preach to the people and talk about how big God is and how great the Lord is. It don't mean much to me anymore. If you can't practice what you preach, then I believe I'd stop preaching until I could get caught up with my practicing. Kindness. You know, grace is the father and the distributor. And then on the string of grace are the links of love. And one of the links is kindness. But you'll never have kindness until you have love, L-O-V-E, love. Love suffereth long and is what? That's what I thought it said, kind. Don't talk to me about how much you love me when you're unkind. I think I've enjoyed the kindness of God's people today. I don't know how many people kissed me and hugged me and squeezed me and shook my hand. I mean, oh, the sweetest people in all the world. I hadn't seen them in many years. One of my dear school teachers 40 years ago, and there she is still going strong for the Lord. Been sweet ever since I knew her. Just a great Christian. Must be 80 or 90 now. And she's so precious. And I just looked out across the congregation, and there sat my first convert, first one ever gave his heart to Christ. I don't know who's happier, me or him, that morning. I tell you, I got so excited, I didn't know how to vote him in or vote him out. I mean, it didn't make any difference. I'm telling you, he came down on that cold December morning, and the old stove wouldn't draw, you know, and it wouldn't heat, and it was cold. But I tell you, when old Cullen Neesmith came down the aisle and gave his heart to Christ, And there he introduced me today. My, how precious. To see him just walk with the Lord all these years, and kind, and everybody in the community knows he's one of the most consistent Christians that ever lived. And you know what changed it all? The love of Jesus. Kind to his family. His family's kind and sweet and precious. That's the way it ought to be. You know, while children leave home, mothers and dads are unkind. You know how to make a child run from home quicker than anything else? And that's nagging, fussing, backbiting, criticizing parents. Mothers and dads need to constantly walk together. And listen, I don't believe it's possible for a husband and wife to get together and stay together and walk together except through prayer and the Bible. I don't care what I do up here at this church house. And on the radio, that's no substitute for a spiritual relationship with my wife. She and I are going to have to pray together and read the Bible together. And some of you look on me as a mature Christian. I don't feel mature. I mean, I don't feel my maturity. I just feel like I'm still in the kindergarten. But I'll tell you one thing, as long As I live, I believe I'm going to have to take the Bible, and my wife and I are going to have to read together and pray. Not any problem we face, and that goes for all you men and women out there tonight. And I want to say this, if I've got any men and women that don't pray together, husband and wife don't pray together, as far as I'm concerned, if I could give a command, you get at it. You just get at it. If we got a member of this church and you don't pray with your wife, you don't pray with your husband, as far as I'm concerned, you get at it. I don't believe you can make it without it. And I don't believe you can be the challenge to your wife or to your husband without praying together and reading the Bible together. I'm at home so little, probably less than most any preacher of this generation. so far as time. But I tell you one thing, when I go by that house, and it might be at noon, or it might be in the late afternoon, or I might run by in the morning, but I tell you what, we got a big old Bible over there, and I said, honey, let's read and pray together. And she's always willing, always willing. Don't make a difference what she's doing. I mean, everything stops right there. because we've got a chance to read one chapter at least and maybe two or three chapters and sometimes she reads and sometimes I read and sometimes I read a verse and she reads a verse and sometimes I just lay straight out on the floor and I said honey you just read to me a while and let me listen and there have been times and I'm just like a little child I know a lot of times and I've gone to sleep while she's reading to me and she'd just quietly ease out and let me sleep and I was a little embarrassed And there have been times in our family order, and I know this is just childish, but there have been times when my little children went to sleep on their knees while we were praying. And sometimes I pray too long, maybe, and I try to pray all my long prayers by myself. I really do. You remember the preacher, never forget this, he became a He became really one of the great Christians, one of the greatest Christians. Wilford T. Grenville, he was an unsaved man. He became the Labrador doctor that went away to the mission field and had some tremendous experiences. And he was in his spice of business, and somebody said, I'd like you to go hear the evangelist. Ah, listen, he's a great preacher. He'll preach. No, he said, I'm not interested. He said, when you see one, you've seen them all. When you hear one, you've heard them all. They all got the same tricks, the same pressures, everything. I don't care for him. But he said, I just wish you'd go one time. And I tell you what, if you don't find him different and refreshing and exciting in the message that he brings, I'll never ask you to go again. Wilford T. Grenville said, OK, I'll go one time, and that'll wind it up. I just get this off my chest right now, get it out of the way now, right here in the beginning of the meeting. And so sure enough, Wilford T. Grenfell walked up under the tent of the tabernacle, and the pastor got up and said in his whang-doodle-ton, brother so-and-so, will you lead us in prayer? And the dear brother got up and prayed around the world. He stopped in Africa. And he headed for Europe and England, and he paused in Russia. He landed at every airport, crossed every sea, waded the oceans. And everybody's kind of getting restless, you know. And finally, the evangelist jumped up and said, brother song leader, lead us in a song while this dear brother catches up on his praying. Wilford T. Grenfell had gotten up to walk out. And when that evangelist said that, He came back and sat down. He said, what kind of fellow is that? And he heard him preach. And you know what happened? He got saved. He went every night, and God laid his hand on him and sent him away to Labrador and back to the coal regions. And he gave his life for the Eskimos. He sent their broken bones. and helped to heal their bodies and was used of the Lord in a magnificent way as the beloved doctor of the Eskimos. But he ran into a preacher that was a little different. I tell you what, the Holy Spirit will make anybody different. He never makes any two people alike. What I'm saying tonight, there's no substitute for kindness. It's the law that brings about the love. And apart from that, every time you get up to testify, here's what you say. I was looking for love, but I couldn't find it. I've heard that 1,000 times already. And I guess maybe you're right about it. But I tell you what, when you got to Jesus, you didn't look any further. You found what you were looking for. There's not any love outside of Christ. It's impossible for me to love the people that I work with apart from this book and the Holy Spirit, because he sheds abroad the love of God. I hear people say, well, I tell you, he's just so mean, it's hard to love him. Well, that ought to be the easiest person in town to love. Just think how much he needs loving. I tell you what, I can love these old rough, rowdy boys. I can love them more than I can love some of these little sissy goodies. These little church members, you know, that are just no excited about anything. He's up today and had a great crowd. Business as usual with a lot of them, though. I've known them all their life. They've known me all of my life. And yet some of them came into the altar. God spoke to hearts and blessed them. There's just a lot of people that never get moved about anything. And I want to say to you folks out there, and you adults, you mothers and dads, I don't think you need to go too long without you beating the trail down to the altar yourself. I mean, I don't know why I'd be so much worse than most of y'all. I don't know why the Lord would have me on my face in this altar, and down on my knees. These little old girls come and trotting down the altar, and a lot of you old coal-backed, slidding moss-backed outfits, you don't feel led to come. I believe sometime God ought to just stir you up out of your silly nest and make you run to God. I believe that the adults ought to be the examples for these girls right here. Now, I don't see how you can go very long without getting your private altar and coming to this altar and praying and seeking the Lord's face and helping these girls and helping boys and witnessing. How long to see a real church built out here? I'm not talking about a conventional. I'm not talking about a traditional. I'm not talking about a customary. I don't care anything about that. I'd love to see a gospel preaching soul in I mean a church that'll build homes, that'll make them just congeal and gel together for God. And Jesus will hold us together and give us the love, just give us the love for each other that we ought to have. My, listen, I cannot, I cannot put up with unkindness. We've got to be kind. Be a kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. Kindness. Oh, the patience that Jesus would give his children if we just let him, if we just let him. We'll never bless till we bleed, never will. And somebody's unkindness to me ought not to precipitate unkindness on my part, not at all. It ought to bring about a brokenness. I see my good boy back there, our missionary down in St. Thomas, and it was so sweet to see them when I landed. I'll tell you, You never appreciate your friends like you could until you land on a foreign field. And then you just see it less. Twice he's met me. The only two times I've been down there. He's the one that met me over on Beef Island that dark night. And I tell you, that plane let me out. And I started walking down that dismal road, and there wasn't a soul on the island except me. more funny sounds and crickets, and I don't know, I never heard that kind of sound over here. Of course, I know that my imagination magnified their sound, but I was walking along, I left my suitcases, wasn't nobody to bother them, I couldn't care of them, not all the stuff that I had, and to hear his voice ring out across that water and said, it's Leslie, and I've come to get you. And then to meet him over there, and this time, all my keys I planted in the Caribbean Sea. Every key I had on the string, I left it, I think, in the baggage compartment. And somewhere between Nassau and St. Thomas, those keys went swimming. And we didn't go back to look for them. But we couldn't get anything open. And Leslie, I guess, is a good deal like his dad. His dad can fix anything on earth nearly that needs to be fixed. I mean, he's the greatest mechanic that I've ever seen in my life. I mean, it doesn't make any difference what it is. He can just sort of look through a motor and tell you what's wrong with it. My, that's right, Leslie. He really is. He's just some mechanic. And, uh, fix anything. He could be down in the coastal and an outboard could just look like come unwound and he'd stick it back together and run in with it. I'm telling you, I guess some people are gifted like that. I think old Jerry is learning a little bit and it won't be long. He's had too many experiences, you know, working on these things. But Leslie reached in his pocket and pulled out a bunch of keys. And so help me. He kept jiggling the key and open came the baggage for all of our lifelong savings were and all of our stuff that we needed. And I use that key all the way on that trip and then send it back to him. And the Lord provides, doesn't he? Yes, that was a kindness on his part, wasn't it? Did you know that when you're a real Christian, you'll be looking for somebody to be kind to? Did I ever tell you about the man that just exemplified the very truth and it just popped in my mind? A little boy came down one day to the store and he ran in the store and he came out in reverse. I mean, he was really squalling and aballing. I mean, he stood outside that store. And he just pushed the panic button. He was just trembling and crying. And a great big old fine businessman just walked up to him and put his big old arm over on his shoulder and pulled him up. And he said, hey, bud. He said, what's the matter? He said, it's terrible. He said, what's happened? He said, I'm going to get a beating. He said, you're going to get a what? I'm going to get a beating. He said, when? He said, when I get home. He said, well, what have you done? Oh, he said, I lost the grocery money. He said, my daddy sent me to store. And he said, I run across the lot through that grass out yonder and said, I guess I had a hole in my pocket. I'd come out, I lost it. And he said, you'll beat me when I get home. Oh, he said, son, not your daddy. He wouldn't beat you for that. I mean, wouldn't he give you? Oh, no, said he'd beat me when I get home. The man said, well, son, how much was it? He said, $0.87. Oh, he said, son, $0.87? Yes, sir. He said, that's what it was. He said, that's what he sent me after. He said, I lost every bit of it. It's gone. And little old fellows are sniffing and snuffing. And he was having the time. And the business man reached in his pocket. And he said, you know, I might have some money. The little boy looked up at him. And he pulled out some money, and he said, well, look at that. That's $0.50, and there's a quarter. And look at that. There's a dime, and there's two pennies. Is that it? Yes, sir. But he said, that's not mine. That's yours. And he said, I couldn't pay it back. He said, just suppose I give it to you. Just suppose I give it to you, because I believe I'd give $0.87 to keep you from getting a beating. And he said, you know, I don't have a little boy myself. I've always wanted one. And he said, hold out your hand. The little boy held out his hand. He put 87 cents in his hand. He squeezed it down and started in the story to turn around and said, say, mister, I wish I had a daddy like you. And the man said, you know what I did? He told his testimony. He said, I walked around the block looking for another boy that lost his grocery money. Fine. He wanted to be kind to somebody else. He got a blessing out of it. Folks, you've got to come to the place where you enjoy being kind. You don't do it just because, well, I've got to prove I'm a Christian. After all, that's my duty. No, that won't get it. That won't get it. Suppose I go in and tell my wife, I said, well, I'll bring you some groceries because it's my duty. I mean, 30 some odd years, what a tremendous burden you are. But oh, no, dear friends, that's not it. Are you going to be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another? even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." I'd never be able to understand how a Christian could say no when I say to him, will you forgive me? It's a blessing to me for people to ask me to forgive them, but it's also a blessing when I have to ask for forgiveness and God gives me enough grace to do it. You're not growing in grace until you've gotten to the place where you can ask somebody to forgive you when you do wrong. And when you're unkind, you must ask forgiveness as soon as you can. Now, don't talk about praying. I know this. I can be unkind and ugly, and I can cheat and do wrong. And just as soon as I kneel down to pray, as it is on the screen right up there, I had my eyes just closed as tight as they'd go. I still, there it is right there. And the Lord said, don't ask me for nothing. I mean, you better never sin again, because the Bible said, if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will I forgive you your trespasses. That's the one sin. Unforgiveness is the one sin that will block your spiritual life. When you will not forgive somebody else, God will never hear your prayer. Just quit your praying. No need hollering. You can holler as loud as you want to, and you can memorize some scripture, but God will never hear your prayer as long as you have unforgiveness in your heart. And as long as I'm unkind to the workers in that office over yonder, and they dread to see me come walking in that door, and they rejoice to see me walk out the door and take a long trip, and the longer, the better they like, then there's something wrong with my Christianity. The older I get, the easier I ought to be able to get along with people, and you ought to be able to get along with me. If you grow in grace, I'm talking about kindness tonight. You know where it starts? It starts right in your home. I told you about this preacher a while ago. He said he had a terrible home life. And he said, and he lived a discouraged life. And his wife, he and his wife could not get along. And he said, Brother Olaf, there's one thing I can't preach over, and that's an unhappy home life. I cannot get over that. It saved my life. I can preach, I just preach. And he told me something else. He said, I never preach on soul winning anymore. I said, why? He said, because I don't win souls. And I just can't be that kind of hypocrite. If I'm not going to be a good witness, how can I preach to other people about being a soul winner? I'm challenging every worker I've got is going to hear this message, because it's going to come to every home that we've got. There is no substitute for kindness. Every one of us is to be kind. We're to be kinder to each other than we are to anybody else. But this whole thing, when it gets honeycombed with unkindness, will cave in and down she'll go. There's no substitute for the law of kindness that ought to be in our mind. Did you notice where it said, the law of kindness is in what? Her mouth. Where does the expression of kindness come from? It can come from your eyes. It could come from a smile. But it must come from your lips and your tongue. You must talk kindness and you must walk kindness every day. Oh, don't think you can get along with God now and have his power and help people in trouble until you learn how to treat Christians. We must learn this, and this is for every one of us. Who's gonna preach the Bible and never compromise at all? Who's gonna give their heart and soul to spread the gospel? We appreciate you listening to Treasured Heritage. Tune in at the same time every weekday to hear God's Word.