April 2, 2025 • 45 mins
The choice between being right and being kind defines so much of our daily interactions. While society has conditioned us to value intellectual superiority and winning arguments, scripture repeatedly calls us to prioritize kindness, gentleness, and humility in our relationships with others.
Through a thought-provoking exploration of passages like Ephesians 4:32, Colossians 3:12, and Proverbs 11:17, we discover that kindness isn't just a nice suggestion—it's a biblical mandate that directly reflects the character of Christ. "Your kindness will reward you, but your cruelty will destroy you." These aren't just pretty words but a spiritual principle with real-world consequences.
The distinction between correction and condemnation marks a crucial dividing line in Christian relationships. Correction comes from a place of love and helpfulness, usually delivered privately with gentleness. Condemnation, however, stems from self-righteousness and often plays out publicly, especially on social media where vague posts and gossip damage relationships and misrepresent Christ's character. When we treat others harshly or focus on being right at all costs, we fundamentally contradict Jesus' mission: "God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him" (John 3:17).
Consider how your words and actions today might reflect God's kindness rather than human judgment. Are you known more for your theological arguments or your compassionate responses? Remember, kindness isn't weakness—it's the strength to value relationships over being right. Ask yourself today: what relationship might heal if you choose kindness over righteousness?
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, I've had a phrase that I've used for a long
time and I use it prettyregularly.
As a matter of fact, there aresome of you who have heard me
use it so regularly.
You're probably sick of it.
But today I decided that I wasgoing to say it from the pulpit,
as a formal stance on what Ibelieve the Bible wants us to do
and, frankly, how I want you totreat me and how I want to
treat you.
Amen, is that fair?
Okay, sometimes you have achoice.
(00:32):
You ready Be right or be kind.
Amen, you have a choice to beright or to be kind.
But see, the world hasconditioned us that we should
always be right.
We live in a society thatvalues being right more than it
values being kind.
Amen, how many of us like to beright, right.
(00:54):
But now here's the thing If wemarry a strong-willed partner,
sometimes we just have to beokay with not always being right
, right, and sometimes that'sdifficult.
I find it really hard to not beright.
I find it a real challenge tobe able to have a conversation
(01:16):
with somebody when I'm lookingthem in the face and I know that
they're stupid, without tellingthem that they're stupid.
Amen, we've been there.
Right, listen, I'm going to.
Just, I'm already off track.
We're going to go there.
I had a cash interaction withsomebody the other day, okay,
and I've realized that peopleare really stupid when it comes
to money.
So I walk up to this concessionstand and I said I'll have a
(01:38):
soda and I'll have a bag ofpopcorn.
And the lady goes I can't sellyou soda.
Now the guy next to her who waswas ringing out other people is
selling soda, like, apparentlyshe can't sell it.
I don't know, Maybe she didn'tknow how, right, and I'm like
okay, that's fine, the water'sfine.
And the guy goes no, you cansell the soda, it's just $3.
And I was to myself I have achoice Be right or be kind.
(02:11):
Right, I could have looked ather and said can you not do math
?
But you know what?
It was $1, and it was going toa good cause.
So I just let it go.
Sometimes that's hard to do.
Right Now I want to be, becausethere are people sitting in
their seats right now that arealready upset with me.
Right, oh, no, you gotta beright.
(02:33):
Listen, just hear me out.
Okay, it can't work 100% of thetime, but generally speaking it
can I want to say that ifsomebody comes at me and says
that Jesus isn't real, that's afight I'm willing to pick up,
right.
I'm not willing to pick up thatfight so that I may be right.
I am willing to pick up thatfight so that they might know
the truth and be saved, right?
(02:55):
Okay, so there's a reason to beright in some situations.
But let me give you anotherscenario.
Okay, let's say your elderlygrandmother calls you.
This is not about my grandma,so I want to be clear.
She has probably done this toone of the grandkids, but not me
(03:16):
.
Okay, let's say, your elderlygrandmother calls you and she
says my tablet won't work.
Right, okay, we're followingalong.
Okay, so my tablet won't work.
And you say Grandma, did youcharge it?
And what does Grandma say?
Well, yeah, right.
(03:36):
So you make the 20-minute trekto Grandma's house.
You walk in the house and it'son the charger, with the wrong
charger plugged into it.
Right, it takes the USB-C andthey've got some lightning
adapter plugged in.
Who knows what they've done,but they think it's charging and
it's not.
Now you have a choice.
You can look at her and goGrandma, what are you doing?
(03:58):
Why do you have this.
You don't even have anythingthat takes this charger.
Throw it away.
But it's probably because herhusband kept it, because they
think they should keepeverything right.
I got 152 cords that go tonothing in my house.
I got a bucket of them, but younever know when you're going to
need one, right?
So you have that choice to say,you know, to talk down to
(04:21):
grandma and ask her, butotherwise you could just say, oh
, you know what, grandma, itlooks like you might have the
wrong chord.
Let's find you the right one.
Right.
There's a choice in being rightand being kind.
Now, it's not always easy to dothat, but that's something that
you simply don't have to beright about.
I don't have to prove that I amsmarter than you in something
(04:43):
that is so trivial in life.
Amen, because there are thingsthat are trivial in life.
Listen, I was on social media,matter of fact, I think it was
this morning and there was anews article on there, and I'm
always there for the comments,right, because it's always split
down the middle.
But you get to hear who'scalling names and see how
(05:11):
they're treating one another,and I'm thinking like, if you
are a Christian and you'reposting these things.
I have to ask you do you knowthe value in being kind versus
being right?
Because let me tell yousomething, typically, you're not
right anyway.
You've only gotten a part ofthe story and you think you know
the whole story.
Chances are, you don't evenhave the surface of what's going
on.
All the time, though, we feellike we have to prove that we
have more knowledge than theperson sitting next to us.
(05:33):
Now I want to tell you why it isimportant to be kind and not
always be right.
We're going to just we're goingto start.
We're going to do a marathonrun through scripture today.
Okay, we're going to start inEphesians 4.32.
It says instead, be kind toeach other, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, just asGod, through Christ, has
forgiven you.
(05:53):
Now, this is an importantpassage of scripture, but we
always get stuck on theforgiving one another, just as
God, through Christ, hasforgiven you.
But I want to start withinstead be kind to each other.
Like we could stop there, andthen we wouldn't have to worry
about the forgiveness part.
Right?
If we could just learn to bekind, the forgiveness would be a
(06:15):
whole lot easier.
Our next one is Colossians 3.12.
It says since God chose you tobe the holy people he loves, you
must clothe yourself intenderhearted mercy, kindness,
humility, gentleness andpatience.
Well, this doesn't say anywherethat we need to be right.
(06:36):
It tells us that we need to bekind.
Amen, Okay, proverbs 11, 17.
Here it is.
Your kindness will reward you,but your cruelty will destroy
you.
Sometimes, being right, you'rekind of cruel, aren't you?
You ever said something tosomebody just to prove that you
(06:58):
were right and it hurts theirfeelings or it's mean or
malicious.
You remember I told you to runit through the filter.
Am I gonna regret this later?
Does it glorify God?
All of those?
You guys remember that If we'reusing that filter every day, we
will find ourselves not sayingthings that are cruel, but
always showing kindness.
The problem is is sometimes thefilter just gets stuck on open
(07:21):
and if it comes into the brain,it comes out the mouth, right?
The problem is, is everythingthat's etched upon our hearts
those are the real thoughts ofour body, right?
And so the problem is is we'realways focused on the brain and
not on the heart.
We're always focused onthinking kind thoughts and being
kind here and doing kindnessthere, but really, what's in
(07:43):
your heart?
Have you ever said to somebodyoh, you're just lucky you don't
know the old Michael, becauseI'd have chewed you up and spit
you out.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
Hold on a second.
When God came into my life, hechanged me from the inside out.
Right Now, I'm not saying thatthe flesh doesn't still take
(08:04):
over every now and again right,there's nothing wrong with that.
But I'm telling you that whenGod changed my life, he changed
my whole life.
He didn't just change part ofit.
Now I choose to hold onto somefleshly things, but at the end
of the day I want God to havefull control.
So I'm not gonna make excusesfor my behavior and say, oh well
, that's me doing, no, that's mebeing selfish, that's me being
(08:26):
in the flesh.
Amen, all right.
Galatians 5.22 says but the HolySpirit produces this kind of
fruit in your lives Love, joy,peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness not beingright, faithfulness not being
right.
Can I tell you that you canknow God, be in relationship
(08:53):
with Jesus and still be wrong.
Right, because sometimes weinterpret the word wrong or we
use the word as a weapon againstthose who don't necessarily
know Jesus.
Amen, hallelujah.
Okay, all right, we're stillmoving.
Luke 6.35,.
This is a hard one.
Love your enemies, do good tothem, lend to them without
expecting to be repaid.
Then your reward from heavenwill be very great and you will
(09:17):
truly be acting as children ofthe Most High.
For he is kind to those who areungrateful and wicked.
For he is kind to those who areunthankful and wicked.
If he is kind to those who areunthankful and wicked, why can't
(09:37):
we be kind Now?
He's perfection, right?
So again, there are some thingsthat people say that might
bother you and it might make youwanna say something mean to
them.
But can I tell you that youhave to run it through the
filter.
You have to allow your heart tobe changed.
You have to allow it to bepliable.
Romans 12, 10.
(10:01):
Love each other with genuineaffection and take delight in
honoring each other.
Love each other with genuineaffection and take delight in
honoring each other.
Love each other with genuine.
What is genuine affection?
What is genuine affection?
Right, real it's.
It's, it's real life.
Like I don't just say to tojenny.
(10:22):
Well, you know, I love Tanya,but Right, because that's not
genuine.
Everything said before the word, but is a lie If I say I love
Tanya but I don't love Tanya.
I just want to.
You know, it's like saying,with all due respect, and then
saying something disrespectful.
(10:42):
Right, with all due respect,that is the ugliest dress I've
ever seen, right?
Isn't that true?
That's not.
This isn't using that statementis not the ability to just say
whatever you want.
Listen, when we're living forChrist, we are saying kind and
edifying and uplifting things.
It's hard to do because thebody of Christ is broken and
(11:06):
it's ugly sometimes.
Let's be honest with each other, but we have to learn how to be
kind in all of those situations, because if we continue to be
ugly to them, what are theygonna do to the rest of the
world?
Be ugly.
We can't figure out.
Why the world is so ugly isbecause we're ugly, right?
We're ugly to one another.
We're ugly, right.
We're ugly to one another.
(11:26):
We're ugly to the world.
We think that when we meetsomebody who doesn't believe in
Christ, that if we yell loudenough or we tell them long
enough that Christ is real andwe try to convince them of
something, that they're going tochange their ways.
They are not.
You are going to sow a seedwith love and kindness and joy
and patience and faithfulness.
You're going to sow seeds.
God is going to see that seedgrow.
(11:47):
He is going to continue towater and continue to water and
bring to life the good deeds intheir life.
Amen, all right, what was thatone?
Romans 12, 10.
1 Corinthians 13, 4.
I love this passage of scripturemainly because everybody uses
it in weddings, but I thinkabout this as life in general.
(12:10):
Love is patient and kind.
Love is not jealous or boastfulor proud.
Now I'm going to hang on tothis one for a second, because
love is patient and love is kind.
My wife is patient, my wife iskind.
Those are wonderful things, andI know that my wife loves me.
Right, I try to be both ofthose things, and I know that
she loves, she knows that I loveher.
Here's the problem.
Love is not jealous or boastfulor proud.
So in my marriage those thingswork.
(12:32):
But outside of that, whensomebody gets something that I
don't got, especially when Idon't think they're as saved as
I am, I ain't happy, right?
Well, god, wait a second.
Why is it that they got X?
Listen, we aren't supposed tocovet, right?
(12:56):
I look at some of those otherchurches.
We got one in Berlin.
As I go to work, they'rebuilding a brand new building.
This thing's humongous, right?
Every time I drive by, that'sthe ugliest building I've ever
seen.
That's the ugliest.
Why did they paint that thingwhite?
It is hideous, right.
And here's the thing.
It's just because I'm jealousof what they got, right.
(13:17):
They got brand new windows.
I bet they open.
I bet they don't get shockedwhen they turn on a light switch
in that building, right?
But the thing is is why am Ithat way?
I'm that way because God hasgiven them something that I
can't understand, right?
Why isn't he doing that for us?
He's not doing that for usbecause if he does it for us,
(13:38):
we're probably going to waste it.
We're going to squander it,right, because we can't fully
understand the goodness of God,right?
No, I'm not saying us like eachof us individually.
I'm saying generally speaking.
The church is that way, us, ourflesh is that way.
Amen, all right.
Titus 3, 4, and 5.
It says but everything beforethis was a lie.
(14:01):
When God, our Savior, revealedhis kindness and love, he saved
us, not because of the righteousthings that we had done, but
because of his mercy.
Listen, he washed away our sins, giving us new birth and new
life through the Holy Spirit.
(14:22):
Can you go back one slide forme.
But when God, our Savior,revealed his kindness and love,
when he revealed that to us, wegot all of the other things.
He didn't just do that becauseof what we've done.
He did it because he is good,he is sovereign, he is righteous
(14:44):
and he knew that he could giveit to us freely.
We didn't have to earn it, amen.
If we didn't have to earn itfrom him, why do other people
have to earn it from us?
I'll be kind to you when you'rekind to me.
No, I'm going to be kind to youbecause you're ugly to me.
Going to be kind to you becauseyou're ugly to me.
(15:08):
Right, I'll be kind to youbecause you are ugly to me,
because if I continue to be kindto you, maybe you will be kind
to somebody else.
The only people we want to bekind to are the people who think
like us, and sometimes not eventhem.
Amen, amen.
Where were we at?
Was that 2 Timothy?
No, that was Titus.
Okay, 2 Timothy 2.24.
(15:30):
A servant of the Lord must notquarrel, but must be kind to
everyone, to be able to teachand be patient with difficult
people.
How many of us know a difficultperson?
If you don't raise your hand,you are the difficult person.
All right, I just.
We need to be clear about that.
Clark and Lacey are pointing ateach other over here.
I have a feeling we're going tohave a domestic dispute in the
(15:52):
parking lot after church today.
A servant of the Lord must notdo.
You know anybody who likes tofight for the sake of the fight.
It doesn't matter if they'reright or wrong, they don't care,
they just want to argue, toargue.
Listen, come at me sometime andask me if Elvis is really dead.
I do believe that Elvis is dead, but I will argue with you just
(16:13):
for the sake of the argument,because I think it's fun, right,
because I think there's enoughevidence that I can probably
convince you that he ain't dead.
But it's just something thatsome people like to do.
Now, that's very minor, butsome people like to argue about
everything.
They like to argue about theword.
The word is not something thatcan be disputed or argued.
Right, it says what it says andthat's the end of the
(16:36):
conversation.
But we often want to argue itbecause we want to be right.
Amen, all right.
The last piece that I have onthis particular portion
Zechariah 7, 9, and it saysthat's not NLT.
I hate to tell you.
Thus speaketh.
(16:58):
I've got an NLT up here.
This is what the Lord ofHeaven's army says Judge fairly
and show mercy and kindness toone another.
Did you get it that the Bibletells us to be kind?
Are we all on the same pageright now?
Great, wonderful.
Then we're going to move on andwe're not going to waste a lot
of time.
(17:18):
My question to you is are wesharing that mindset today?
Each day when I start working,I have two choices to show
Christ in me or allow the fleshto take over and show the world
in me.
My desire is to have moreChrist than I have world.
Unfortunately, that's notusually the case, right, because
when we leave these four wallsand we walk into work, sometimes
it's very easy to.
(17:38):
Maybe you work with people thatlike to swear, or you work with
people who are just like dirtyor mean or whatever, and then
you just like that's what youbecome right and you turn that
on and off based on the placethat you're at right.
I don't imagine that any of uslike to openly admit that,
because we like to have Christin us and we like for our
(17:59):
brothers and sisters in Christ,to think that that's what we are
and who we are.
I'm going to promise yousomething.
Chances are we already know,because we've seen it somewhere
else, right, okay?
Would you believe this is gonnabe a shock to you guys that the
world wants more of itself andless of Jesus?
Why wouldn't it?
(18:21):
Why would it want Jesus?
Because if it gets Jesus, ithas to give up on the fleshly
things and take up the spiritualthings.
And the world does not.
It doesn't have interest in thespiritual things.
Because if we start moving intothe spiritual realm, then we
have heaven on earth.
And heaven on earth requiresaccountability, and
(18:42):
accountability gets scary forthose who don't believe in Jesus
, right, okay?
Picture it like this.
Let's say you go to a dinnerparty with your spouse, pastor
Holly, and Dave.
They go to dinner.
You go to a dinner party atsomebody's house.
Dave's over talking to hisfriends and Pastor Holly has
(19:03):
eaten some spinach and it'sgotten stuck in her teeth, right
?
So Pastor Holly's wanderingaround, she's got this wad of
spinach stuck in her teeth,right?
That happens.
Anybody ever had that happen.
You go somewhere, you got foodstuck in your teeth.
Now let's say that Dawn walks upand says to Pastor Holly Pastor
Holly, it looks like you mighthave some spinach in your teeth.
And Pastor Holly goes oh geez,let me go take care of that.
(19:26):
She runs off to the bathroomand she handles her little
spinach ordeal right and shecomes back out and nobody's the
wiser.
Do you realize the importanceof what just happened?
Most people don't See.
What just happened wascorrection, amen.
(19:48):
Don in private said you gotsomething going on and Pastor
Holly went and took care of it.
What could have happened wasinstead, don saw it and came
over here and said Chris, didyou see the big old chunk of
spinach in Pastor Holly's mouth?
You've got to go talk to her.
(20:08):
You have to see this.
It is absolutely hilarious.
And then Chris goes to Tanyaand says Tanya, listen, pastor
Holly has this great big wad ofspinach sticking out of her
teeth.
You have to go talk to her.
It is so funny and pretty sooneverybody in the room is looking
for an opportunity to go talkto Pastor Holly.
What does Pastor Holly think?
(20:28):
She's popular, right?
Everybody wants to talk to her.
Everybody's coming over to talkto her.
But really what they're doingis making fun.
You know the person thatstarted it might even come over
and go, pastor Holly, let's geta selfie together, just so they
could commemorate the spinach inher teeth.
Right, right Dawn says shecan't take a selfie, it don't
matter, she wouldn't be the oneto do that.
(20:50):
But isn't that the truth?
And what has happened in thatconversation?
That's called condemnationright, and what they're trying
to do is make somebody feel badfor what's going on in their
life rather than helping themfix it.
Amen.
Any of us ever been on thereceiving end of that?
It doesn't feel good.
It doesn't feel good at all.
(21:11):
I would much rather have acorrective conversation and
listen as your pastor.
There are some people who cometo me and say hey, when you read
that passage of scripture, Idon't think it was quite like
you had read it.
I always hear those words, butI don't always put a lot of
weight into that until I go homeand study out whatever it is
that they'd shared with me.
But I will never, ever blowsomebody off because of it.
(21:31):
But let me tell you something.
If Jenny comes to me and sayswell, beth told Pastor Holly,
who told Tina Newman, who toldChris Crone all of this stuff,
and they just can't believe thatyou blah, blah, blah and I'm
not going to hear that.
Do you know why I'm not goingto hear that?
(21:51):
Because I don't know how trueit is, from where it started to
where it ended right, becausethat may have not been the
conversation at all.
I've been involved in that.
I've been on the receiving endof that.
I've gotten phone calls thatsay I can't believe that you
would and I'm like I didn't, Icouldn't believe that I did it
either.
I was shocked.
(22:12):
I was shocked that I had donethat because I didn't know I did
it.
It's fascinating how fast we canturn correction into
condemnation.
Amen, okay, the Bibleemphasizes the importance of
correcting others withgentleness, humility and most
times in private, amen.
So we're going to jump intosome scripture again real quick.
(22:34):
All right, matthew 18, 15.
If another believer sinsagainst you, go privately and
point out the offense.
If the other person listens andconfesses it, you have won that
person back.
Jenny, what you said about mewas hurtful and I'm not sure why
you felt that way.
But next time come and have aconversation with me.
(22:56):
That's a lot easier than sayingI can't believe Jenny would say
something like that.
And I say it to Pastor Rogerand Pastor Roger.
He goes and tells somebody else, who tells somebody else, who
tells somebody, and eventuallyJenny hears it.
She hasn't gotten correction,she has gotten condemnation
right, because this wasn't aprivate conversation.
(23:16):
This became public very quickly, galatians 6.1.
Dear brothers and sisters, ifanother believer is overcome by
sin, hear me out, guys.
If another believer is overcomeby sin, you, who are godly,
should gently and humbly helpthat person back onto the right
path and be careful not to fallinto the same temptation
(23:39):
yourself.
Now we use this scripture asthe reason that we fellowship
with people who aren't saved.
Right, we want to say well, youknow, I go to the bar because I
want to be able to give mytestimony to all of those people
who are drinking.
I'm an alcoholic, but I don'tdrink.
When I go, I just tell thesepeople about Jesus, and then all
of a sudden, you're drinkingand then you can't stop drinking
(24:00):
and now you're a drunk.
Right, we've been there, we'velived that and it doesn't have
to be that.
Well, you know, listen, I havethese old friends that used to
party hard.
They did a lot of drugs.
I don't hang out with themanymore, but I do still call
them or text them because I wantto make sure that they know who
Jesus is.
And the next thing you knowyou're addicted and you're in
(24:20):
this mess of a situation again.
Listen, it is ourresponsibility to gently bring
them back to God, to bring theminto the fold, but we've got to
be careful what we do, becausewe can't fall back into that
trap.
Amen.
I used to tell people that Ionly smoked so that I could tell
people about Jesus.
While we were smoking Did thata total of zero times, by the
(24:42):
way, but it was a great story,right?
It sounded good, you know,because those people probably
don't know Jesus, right?
So I'm gonna go out there andsmoke with them and tell them
about.
Never, never, once, did I everdo that because I was too busy
smoking and gossiping about thepeople who didn't smoke, right?
(25:02):
Because that's a club, that'smy safe place.
These are my people.
These are the people that Iknow that I can tell them
whatever I want, and while theymay go tell somebody else,
they're not going to sail medown the river and tell them.
I told, right, if I tell PastorRoger that Mike's a terrible
card player, I'm sorry, I'msorry.
(25:24):
Dale is a terrible card player.
He ain't in here.
See, I can do that.
So if I say that to Roger andthen Roger tells Mike, and then
Mike tells Marcus, marcus tellsDave of course they already know
because they were there.
But if we do that, I wouldtrust that none of them are
going to tell Dale that Istarted that because that's my
group right.
Those are like we were togetherand if you tell him I said it,
(25:48):
I'm going to tell him.
You said it.
Right, and that's how we do.
We hold each other over a barrelso we can't like, listen,
that's not what God wants fromus.
He wants kindness, he wantsgentleness.
All right, okay.
Proverbs 27, 5 through 6.
An open rebuke is better thanhidden love.
(26:11):
Wounds from a sincere friendare better than many kisses from
an enemy, right?
How many of you have thosepeople who are always wanting to
spend time with you and sendyou text messages?
Oh girl, you just look so goodand I love you so much.
And you walk out the room andthey're like did you see her
good, and I love you so much?
(26:33):
And you walk out the room andthey're like did you see her
Right?
Listen, guys are the exactopposite.
We'd be in a room with eachother calling each other names
while we're in the room and whenthat person leaves, we're like
man, he's a good guy, I reallylike him, but just, we're
different in that way.
But see, a lot of times theenemy will send people into our
groups or into our circles andthose people will want to
(26:54):
destroy that circle becausethey're jealous of the
friendship inside of it.
Right, and so that person gets.
Their feelings are always hurt,they're always offended by
something and they're alwayswell, I didn't get this and I
didn't get that.
Why is it that everybody elsedoes it, doesn't?
It's not about that.
Listen, that time of fellowshipis to make you stronger, not
make you jealous, not make youfeel weaker or insecure.
(27:16):
Listen, I lived it for a longtime in groups of pastors, a
long time, and I had to realizethat I'm a man among men, that I
am equally as anointed as theyare, that my calling is the same
as theirs is.
But the problem is is I felt soimmature in that group that
took me growing up spiritually.
(27:37):
And if you're standing in agroup of like-minded Christians,
offended by something anotherChristian said to you, chances
are you need to maturespiritually.
And listen, ladies, I'm goingto be honest, some of y'all be
mature by age, but spirituallysome stuff be rough in your life
Because what's happening isyou're allowing yourself to be
upset with somebody that doesn'teven want you to be upset with
(27:59):
them.
They didn't try, they did orsaid or acted or whatever.
But listen, we're all stupidsometimes, amen.
We all do and say things wedon't necessarily mean.
There is no reason to beoffended in Christ.
You can be convicted in Christ.
Listen, if somebody says to mehey, pastor Michael, I really
don't like it when you preachwith your shoes off because your
feet stink Probably a fairstatement, right.
(28:22):
And I have to take that and Ihave to process it.
Now I can be mad at that personand I can say well, that was a
dumb thing to say.
But I've said plenty of dumbthings and God has forgiven me
of all of those things.
So why is it not myresponsibility to forgive you?
Chances are that fell out ofyour mouth before it ran through
the filter and there's noreason for me to be upset with
you.
You didn't mean it to behurtful.
Now, sometimes we do, but notmost of the time, right, amen,
(28:44):
okay.
Proverbs 15.1.
A gentle answer deflects anger,but harsh words make tempers
flare.
If you know me, you know I'mreally good at this.
This is a gift of mine and I amproud of this gift because you
can say something to me and Ican hear it and I can go.
(29:05):
Okay, my response has to bedirect, but it has to be kind,
right, I have to be able to tellyou that you're not going to
say that to me again, but youneed, so.
There's a level of respect thatyou're going to have to come to
.
But at the same time, I wantyou to know that I'm not mad at
you, right, that I'm notcondemning you for what you said
(29:26):
or you did.
That's a challenge, because alot of people they just go to 10
, right, I'm really good aboutand listen.
Longer I'm in ministry, thebroader my shoulders get, the
more I can take people mad at meBecause, honestly, at this
point you're not really mad atme.
(29:47):
You're mad at the situation,you're mad at the conviction
that's happening in your life,but you're projecting that anger
on me.
Listen, people get hurt by thechurch because they think their
pastors are perfect, right,right, listen.
People come into the church allthe time and they're like, oh
well, you got a really youngpastor.
I'm not gonna tell that story Ishould, but I'm not gonna.
Just gonna move on.
All right, that dinner partycould have taken a whole
(30:08):
different turn.
If that dinner party could havetaken a whole different turn If
, rather than addressing thatsituation privately, they would
have made that lap around theroom telling everyone about the
spinach in Holly's teeth,everybody would be getting a
good laugh, but nobody would bedoing the right thing by
correcting the situation.
Right Now, dave's off talkingto his friends and finally Dave
(30:29):
wanders over and he's like Holly, you got something in your
teeth and she cleans it out, andthen everybody in the room goes
aw because Dave just ruined thefun, right?
Have you ever been the butt of ajoke that you didn't even know
you were the butt of?
Listen, one of the popularthings in ministry is nicknames.
(30:49):
Right?
Anybody ever nicknamed somebodyin the church?
One of the popular things inministry is nicknames right?
Anybody ever nicknamed somebodyin the church?
Everybody's like I ain't sayingnothing, nope, everybody's dead
quiet.
Listen, I know some of you havedone it because you've used the
nicknames with me, right?
Listen, let me tell yousomething.
(31:10):
If that's what you're doing,the maturity in christ needs to
come up a notch.
Because nicknames are hurtfuland you're not saying it to
their face, you're saying itbehind their back.
What good are you as a brotheror sister in christ if you're
making fun of somebody behindtheir back?
Let me tell you, not everybodyin here is perfect like you are.
In the eyes of Christ they areperfect, but somehow in your
(31:35):
eyes they don't meet your level.
Right?
Listen, I'm sure there arenicknames for me and I'm okay
with it.
I don't care.
The only thing you can't callme is Mikey.
Anything beyond that fair game,all right, because here's the
thing If you're picking on meright now, you're leaving
(31:56):
somebody else alone and myshoulders are broad enough that
I can take it and I don't carewhat you think about me.
All I care about is what Godthinks about me.
Am I living inside of the willof God today?
Okay, correction comes from aspirit of helpfulness matched
with a spirit of love and caringAmen.
So if you're sitting in a roomwith me and I'm trying to bring
(32:20):
spiritual correction to you, ifyou are offended, that is not
real offense, that is conviction.
Right, because I am going to bedoing that with love and care,
with kindness and gentleness.
Amen, that's my goal in allthings.
However, condemnation comesfrom a spirit of religion and a
(32:41):
spirit of self-righteousness.
Right, because I am right andyou are wrong.
I am going to tell you whyyou're wrong.
I'm not going to help you makeit right.
I'm not going to try to walkyou into making it right.
I'm just going to tell you whyyou're wrong and then I'm going
to say now get it fixed or poundsalt.
Right, we ever done that tosomebody.
(33:05):
You ever been in a relationshipwhere and I don't mean like a
romantic relationship, even afriendship where and I don't
mean like a romanticrelationship, even a friendship
where you're like well, if thatperson doesn't do this for me,
I'm not talking to them everagain.
Right, that's not how thatworks.
Do we talk to people with aspirit of caring or a spirit of
(33:26):
helpfulness, with a desire tohelp them make meaningful change
, or do we instead run aroundtelling everybody about their
dereliction and their sin?
Chances are it's the second one.
Right, because if you come tome with something that's going
on in your life, I'm not tellingother people, because it's none
of my business to tell them.
(33:47):
It's not their business to know.
If you wanted them to know, youwould have told them, right?
So when somebody asks me what'sgoing on with such and such, or
where is so-and-so, or how isthis going with such and such,
I'm like, hey, you shouldprobably talk to them right Now.
Don't get me wrong.
I might say, hey, just pray forthem.
They need some extra prayersright now.
(34:19):
But I'm not trying to shareyour life story, listen, and I
would hope that you're doing thesame for me, but most of the
time you ain't.
The problem is we instead liketo tell that story and make
correction in public.
How many of you ever postedsomething on social media?
This is my favorite.
You ever seen somebody post onsocial media?
It's like some ambiguousstatement, like, well, gee,
today just got really bad.
I wish people would treat melike I treat them right.
Just call it what it is.
(34:40):
Hey, listen, today I was atchurch and I heard Jenny call me
chubby and it hurt my feelings.
And now I'm posting about it onFacebook because I want to
bring public correction.
I want to bring condemnationrather than real correction.
Right, because that's what itis Now.
Here's the thing.
And then somebody comments oh,pastor Michael, what's going on?
I hope everything's okay.
(35:00):
And then I say this oh, this isthe one that gets me.
Pm me.
If you don't have the guts topost it online after you just
called, then get out of herewith your crap, right, amen?
Because here's then what you do, you in private.
You tell somebody about howsomebody's offended you and then
you hope that they go and telleverybody else.
(35:23):
Listen, you want a rumor tostart?
Just tell one person that youknow will tell everybody else,
right?
Like, if I want everybody toknow how Jenny has offended me,
I'm going to tell.
All I got to do is find theright person to tell, right?
Because then when I tell, theymay only tell one person, but
that person's going to tellanother two.
Those two people are going totell another two, and it's just
going to grow really quickly.
(35:43):
Right, listen, I don't doambiguous.
If I don't like you, I'm goingto tell you I don't like you,
right?
And I don't mean that I don'tlike you as a person.
I don't like what you have done.
It's not acceptable.
I'm not going to do it onsocial media.
I'm going to call you.
I'm going to have dinner withyou.
I'm going to try to have areasonable conversation with you
, and sometimes those don't endwell, and when they don't,
(36:06):
that's okay, you just go.
Well, god, I'm giving this oneto you.
I've said what I need to say,I've done what I need to do.
Now listen, there are timeswhen those don't end well, and
then you just have to eat crowbecause you realize, well, geez,
I probably shouldn't have saidthat, right, because sometimes
that self-righteousness takesover and even as a pastor, I'm
(36:34):
like well, that's not acceptable, get out.
Right, if that's how that works, then I got to go now, because
I am probably guilty of morethan every person sitting in
this building.
If you guys only understood theinformation that I have about
so many of you because you'veshared it with me personally, it
would be unfair of me to usethat against you, right?
The information that I haveabout so many of you because
(36:56):
you've shared it with mepersonally, it would be unfair
of me to use that against you,right?
Okay, I'm getting ahead ofmyself, all right, I don't even
know what I'm talking about now.
Can I keep going, are you guysgood?
Okay, I've only got a few more.
John 3.17.
It says God sent his son intothe world, not to judge the
world, but to save the worldthrough him.
(37:17):
Amen, hallelujah.
God sent his son into the worldnot to judge the world, but to
save the world through him.
Okay, we're going to bring thatone back up in just a second,
but we're going to keep going.
John 12.47,.
It says I will not judge thosewho hear me, but don't obey me,
for I have come to save theworld and not to judge it.
Are you guys noticing a themehere?
(37:38):
All right, luke 9, 56.
That's not right.
That's not right.
That's not right.
Is that Luke 9, 56?
You sure Nope.
(38:00):
So we're going to skip that one.
Thank you, jesus.
Romans 8, 1.
So now there is no condemnationfor those who belong to Christ
Jesus, and because you belong tohim, the power of the
life-giving spirit has freed youfrom the power of sin that
(38:21):
leads to death.
Luke 5, 32.
I have come to call, not thosewho think they are righteous,
self-righteousness, not thosewho think they are righteous,
but those who know they aresinners and need to repent, amen
.
Can you pull up John 3, 17 forme again real quick?
(38:43):
I want to just leave that thereas I give my final statement.
The Son of God did not come intothis world to condemn other
people, right, he came to savethem.
My question is is why do youthink he sent you to condemn
other people?
Why do you think that he saidlisten, christ was perfect.
(39:11):
I promise you I'll talk to youfor 10 minutes and realize you
aren't perfect, especially ifyou say things like especially
Right, what?
And then spell it wrong.
If you don't know thedifference between there, there
and there, don't talk to meabout perfection.
Right, two, two and two, halfand half right.
(39:32):
We can joke about this all daylong, but the problem is is we
sit in our seats and we thinkthat we are perfect and that we
have the right to judge otherpeople.
Jesus didn't come to judge theworld.
He came to save the world.
What is our responsibility?
To preach the gospel of JesusChrist, which is to save the
world and not to condemn theworld.
Amen.
(39:52):
Now I'm saying that when youlook at somebody that's living
in sin, we should know how totalk to them.
We should be able to correctthem in private, with grace and
mercy, with kindness andgentleness, and not with
half-hearted social media posts.
We shouldn't be poking fun atpeople who don't believe the
same things that we believe,because how do you think that
(40:12):
they perceive Jesus if that'show we represent him?
They expect a God that is mean,that is hurtful, that is
vengeful, that will allow hispeople to treat people just like
we are.
That is not what God has calledus to do.
Amen Today.
I expect that when we walk outof here, we walk out different
than when we came in.
(40:32):
Amen.
I expect that when we leave,that God has done something in
your life, that whenever youfind your tongue about to wag
about somebody else inside ofthis building, that you stop and
you think am I going to regretthis later?
Is this statement going toglorify God or glorify the
person I'm about to say it about?
(40:54):
Mike might be terrible atplaying cards, but that's not
what he identifies as.
He might be the world's worstpoker player, but he's really a
child of God, amen.
Listen, I'm not perfect ateverything that I do.
I did win two of the threegames that we played, but I'm
(41:16):
not good at everything.
I promised him I wasn't goingto say anything, but I said
something anyway.
I promised him I wasn't goingto say anything, but I said
something anyway, like Marcusand Dale did.
I'm not even sure they werereally playing at this point,
man.
They were just like, just takethem.
(41:38):
No, we know that that's not whatwe identify as.
I don't want to identify as agossip, right.
I don't want to identify assomebody that has nothing nice
to say.
I want to identify as ablood-bought child of the
Almighty who lives for Christand Christ alone.
Amen.
I don't want to be worriedabout what it is that's going on
in the world around me.
I want to be able to pray God'sperfect will for all things,
(42:01):
and especially in my life.
Right, I want him to work hardinside of me so that I can be
more of him and less of myself.
I don't want to be the worldanymore.
Listen, last Sunday I preachedhard on swearing and I'm going
to tell you what.
This last week has not been funfor me, because you think that
my daughter was bad before.
She's doubled down.
Her radar hearing has reallykicked in.
(42:24):
She hears anything that shemight even interpret as a swear
word.
She's yelling daddy, she'd bethree blocks away yelling at me
and listen.
I need that in my life, right,I need somebody who's going to
bring some correction, albeit mytiny little daughter.
But if she's going to hold me toa higher standard, listen, I
(42:46):
want her to grow up and marry aman of God her, listen.
I want her to grow up and marrya man of God, and we don't.
I don't want her to marrysomebody like me, because if I
don't, the things that areinside of me are not, are not
all good.
I want her to find a man whowill be able to treat her like a
princess and not swear aroundher, amen.
So I'm praying that I can bemore like the man that I want
(43:08):
her to marry Men.
If you don't have a daughter,you don't understand.
I'm telling Dave, is it true?
You want that daughter to growup and marry somebody better
than you?
You want somebody that canlisten.
That little girl was going toteach me how to be a better
(43:28):
follower of Christ.
Find that in your life today.
Amen, let's pray together.
Father, I just thank you and Ipraise you for all of the things
that you've put in our pathtoday, father, for all of the
scripture, all of the word,father, that we would just
continue to be able to read andunderstand and know who you are
and what it is that you expectof us, father.
(43:49):
We understand that none of usare perfect and that sometimes
that flesh will take over.
But today, lord, we are leavinghere changed people.
Father, we're taking control ofour tongues.
We will learn to bringcorrection and not condemnation,
(44:12):
lord.
We will learn how to have kindand gentle conversations in
private and not chase people onsocial media and not argue with
people for the sake of arguing.
But, father, that we would beable to tell them exactly who
you are.
(44:33):
Lord, I just thank you forcontinuing to move in this place
and lead us so that we can grow.
In the mighty name of Jesus,father, I just give you praise,
honor and glory this day, father, I pray for traveling.
Mercies for every person inthis place.
Lord, bring us back here at ournext appointed time.
Fill up your house, father God,and allow us to pour this word
(44:58):
into the world.
We give you all the honor andglory in the mighty name of
Jesus, and the church says amen.
Love you, guys.
We will see you at the Lentenservice on Wednesday night.
Well, I've had a phrase that I've used for a long
time and I use it prettyregularly.
As a matter of fact, there aresome of you who have heard me
use it so regularly.
You're probably sick of it.
But today I decided that I wasgoing to say it from the pulpit,
as a formal stance on what Ibelieve the Bible wants us to do
and, frankly, how I want you totreat me and how I want to
treat you.
Amen, is that fair?
Okay, sometimes you have achoice.
(00:32):
You ready Be right or be kind.
Amen, you have a choice to beright or to be kind.
But see, the world hasconditioned us that we should
always be right.
We live in a society thatvalues being right more than it
values being kind.
Amen, how many of us like to beright, right.
(00:54):
But now here's the thing If wemarry a strong-willed partner,
sometimes we just have to beokay with not always being right
, right, and sometimes that'sdifficult.
I find it really hard to not beright.
I find it a real challenge tobe able to have a conversation
(01:16):
with somebody when I'm lookingthem in the face and I know that
they're stupid, without tellingthem that they're stupid.
Amen, we've been there.
Right, listen, I'm going to.
Just, I'm already off track.
We're going to go there.
I had a cash interaction withsomebody the other day, okay,
and I've realized that peopleare really stupid when it comes
to money.
So I walk up to this concessionstand and I said I'll have a
(01:38):
soda and I'll have a bag ofpopcorn.
And the lady goes I can't sellyou soda.
Now the guy next to her who waswas ringing out other people is
selling soda, like, apparentlyshe can't sell it.
I don't know, Maybe she didn'tknow how, right, and I'm like
okay, that's fine, the water'sfine.
And the guy goes no, you cansell the soda, it's just $3.
And I was to myself I have achoice Be right or be kind.
(02:11):
Right, I could have looked ather and said can you not do math
?
But you know what?
It was $1, and it was going toa good cause.
So I just let it go.
Sometimes that's hard to do.
Right Now I want to be, becausethere are people sitting in
their seats right now that arealready upset with me.
Right, oh, no, you gotta beright.
(02:33):
Listen, just hear me out.
Okay, it can't work 100% of thetime, but generally speaking it
can I want to say that ifsomebody comes at me and says
that Jesus isn't real, that's afight I'm willing to pick up,
right.
I'm not willing to pick up thatfight so that I may be right.
I am willing to pick up thatfight so that they might know
the truth and be saved, right?
(02:55):
Okay, so there's a reason to beright in some situations.
But let me give you anotherscenario.
Okay, let's say your elderlygrandmother calls you.
This is not about my grandma,so I want to be clear.
She has probably done this toone of the grandkids, but not me
(03:16):
.
Okay, let's say, your elderlygrandmother calls you and she
says my tablet won't work.
Right, okay, we're followingalong.
Okay, so my tablet won't work.
And you say Grandma, did youcharge it?
And what does Grandma say?
Well, yeah, right.
(03:36):
So you make the 20-minute trekto Grandma's house.
You walk in the house and it'son the charger, with the wrong
charger plugged into it.
Right, it takes the USB-C andthey've got some lightning
adapter plugged in.
Who knows what they've done,but they think it's charging and
it's not.
Now you have a choice.
You can look at her and goGrandma, what are you doing?
(03:58):
Why do you have this.
You don't even have anythingthat takes this charger.
Throw it away.
But it's probably because herhusband kept it, because they
think they should keepeverything right.
I got 152 cords that go tonothing in my house.
I got a bucket of them, but younever know when you're going to
need one, right?
So you have that choice to say,you know, to talk down to
(04:21):
grandma and ask her, butotherwise you could just say, oh
, you know what, grandma, itlooks like you might have the
wrong chord.
Let's find you the right one.
Right.
There's a choice in being rightand being kind.
Now, it's not always easy to dothat, but that's something that
you simply don't have to beright about.
I don't have to prove that I amsmarter than you in something
(04:43):
that is so trivial in life.
Amen, because there are thingsthat are trivial in life.
Listen, I was on social media,matter of fact, I think it was
this morning and there was anews article on there, and I'm
always there for the comments,right, because it's always split
down the middle.
But you get to hear who'scalling names and see how
(05:11):
they're treating one another,and I'm thinking like, if you
are a Christian and you'reposting these things.
I have to ask you do you knowthe value in being kind versus
being right?
Because let me tell yousomething, typically, you're not
right anyway.
You've only gotten a part ofthe story and you think you know
the whole story.
Chances are, you don't evenhave the surface of what's going
on.
All the time, though, we feellike we have to prove that we
have more knowledge than theperson sitting next to us.
(05:33):
Now I want to tell you why it isimportant to be kind and not
always be right.
We're going to just we're goingto start.
We're going to do a marathonrun through scripture today.
Okay, we're going to start inEphesians 4.32.
It says instead, be kind toeach other, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, just asGod, through Christ, has
forgiven you.
(05:53):
Now, this is an importantpassage of scripture, but we
always get stuck on theforgiving one another, just as
God, through Christ, hasforgiven you.
But I want to start withinstead be kind to each other.
Like we could stop there, andthen we wouldn't have to worry
about the forgiveness part.
Right?
If we could just learn to bekind, the forgiveness would be a
(06:15):
whole lot easier.
Our next one is Colossians 3.12.
It says since God chose you tobe the holy people he loves, you
must clothe yourself intenderhearted mercy, kindness,
humility, gentleness andpatience.
Well, this doesn't say anywherethat we need to be right.
(06:36):
It tells us that we need to bekind.
Amen, Okay, proverbs 11, 17.
Here it is.
Your kindness will reward you,but your cruelty will destroy
you.
Sometimes, being right, you'rekind of cruel, aren't you?
You ever said something tosomebody just to prove that you
(06:58):
were right and it hurts theirfeelings or it's mean or
malicious.
You remember I told you to runit through the filter.
Am I gonna regret this later?
Does it glorify God?
All of those?
You guys remember that If we'reusing that filter every day, we
will find ourselves not sayingthings that are cruel, but
always showing kindness.
The problem is is sometimes thefilter just gets stuck on open
(07:21):
and if it comes into the brain,it comes out the mouth, right?
The problem is, is everythingthat's etched upon our hearts
those are the real thoughts ofour body, right?
And so the problem is is we'realways focused on the brain and
not on the heart.
We're always focused onthinking kind thoughts and being
kind here and doing kindnessthere, but really, what's in
(07:43):
your heart?
Have you ever said to somebodyoh, you're just lucky you don't
know the old Michael, becauseI'd have chewed you up and spit
you out.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
Hold on a second.
When God came into my life, hechanged me from the inside out.
Right Now, I'm not saying thatthe flesh doesn't still take
(08:04):
over every now and again right,there's nothing wrong with that.
But I'm telling you that whenGod changed my life, he changed
my whole life.
He didn't just change part ofit.
Now I choose to hold onto somefleshly things, but at the end
of the day I want God to havefull control.
So I'm not gonna make excusesfor my behavior and say, oh well
, that's me doing, no, that's mebeing selfish, that's me being
(08:26):
in the flesh.
Amen, all right.
Galatians 5.22 says but the HolySpirit produces this kind of
fruit in your lives Love, joy,peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness not beingright, faithfulness not being
right.
Can I tell you that you canknow God, be in relationship
(08:53):
with Jesus and still be wrong.
Right, because sometimes weinterpret the word wrong or we
use the word as a weapon againstthose who don't necessarily
know Jesus.
Amen, hallelujah.
Okay, all right, we're stillmoving.
Luke 6.35,.
This is a hard one.
Love your enemies, do good tothem, lend to them without
expecting to be repaid.
Then your reward from heavenwill be very great and you will
(09:17):
truly be acting as children ofthe Most High.
For he is kind to those who areungrateful and wicked.
For he is kind to those who areunthankful and wicked.
If he is kind to those who areunthankful and wicked, why can't
(09:37):
we be kind Now?
He's perfection, right?
So again, there are some thingsthat people say that might
bother you and it might make youwanna say something mean to
them.
But can I tell you that youhave to run it through the
filter.
You have to allow your heart tobe changed.
You have to allow it to bepliable.
Romans 12, 10.
(10:01):
Love each other with genuineaffection and take delight in
honoring each other.
Love each other with genuineaffection and take delight in
honoring each other.
Love each other with genuine.
What is genuine affection?
What is genuine affection?
Right, real it's.
It's, it's real life.
Like I don't just say to tojenny.
(10:22):
Well, you know, I love Tanya,but Right, because that's not
genuine.
Everything said before the word, but is a lie If I say I love
Tanya but I don't love Tanya.
I just want to.
You know, it's like saying,with all due respect, and then
saying something disrespectful.
(10:42):
Right, with all due respect,that is the ugliest dress I've
ever seen, right?
Isn't that true?
That's not.
This isn't using that statementis not the ability to just say
whatever you want.
Listen, when we're living forChrist, we are saying kind and
edifying and uplifting things.
It's hard to do because thebody of Christ is broken and
(11:06):
it's ugly sometimes.
Let's be honest with each other, but we have to learn how to be
kind in all of those situations, because if we continue to be
ugly to them, what are theygonna do to the rest of the
world?
Be ugly.
We can't figure out.
Why the world is so ugly isbecause we're ugly, right?
We're ugly to one another.
We're ugly, right.
We're ugly to one another.
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We're ugly to the world.
We think that when we meetsomebody who doesn't believe in
Christ, that if we yell loudenough or we tell them long
enough that Christ is real andwe try to convince them of
something, that they're going tochange their ways.
They are not.
You are going to sow a seedwith love and kindness and joy
and patience and faithfulness.
You're going to sow seeds.
God is going to see that seedgrow.
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He is going to continue towater and continue to water and
bring to life the good deeds intheir life.
Amen, all right, what was thatone?
Romans 12, 10.
1 Corinthians 13, 4.
I love this passage of scripturemainly because everybody uses
it in weddings, but I thinkabout this as life in general.
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Love is patient and kind.
Love is not jealous or boastfulor proud.
Now I'm going to hang on tothis one for a second, because
love is patient and love is kind.
My wife is patient, my wife iskind.
Those are wonderful things, andI know that my wife loves me.
Right, I try to be both ofthose things, and I know that
she loves, she knows that I loveher.
Here's the problem.
Love is not jealous or boastfulor proud.
So in my marriage those thingswork.
(12:32):
But outside of that, whensomebody gets something that I
don't got, especially when Idon't think they're as saved as
I am, I ain't happy, right?
Well, god, wait a second.
Why is it that they got X?
Listen, we aren't supposed tocovet, right?
(12:56):
I look at some of those otherchurches.
We got one in Berlin.
As I go to work, they'rebuilding a brand new building.
This thing's humongous, right?
Every time I drive by, that'sthe ugliest building I've ever
seen.
That's the ugliest.
Why did they paint that thingwhite?
It is hideous, right.
And here's the thing.
It's just because I'm jealousof what they got, right.
(13:17):
They got brand new windows.
I bet they open.
I bet they don't get shockedwhen they turn on a light switch
in that building, right?
But the thing is is why am Ithat way?
I'm that way because God hasgiven them something that I
can't understand, right?
Why isn't he doing that for us?
He's not doing that for usbecause if he does it for us,
(13:38):
we're probably going to waste it.
We're going to squander it,right, because we can't fully
understand the goodness of God,right?
No, I'm not saying us like eachof us individually.
I'm saying generally speaking.
The church is that way, us, ourflesh is that way.
Amen, all right.
Titus 3, 4, and 5.
It says but everything beforethis was a lie.
(14:01):
When God, our Savior, revealedhis kindness and love, he saved
us, not because of the righteousthings that we had done, but
because of his mercy.
Listen, he washed away our sins, giving us new birth and new
life through the Holy Spirit.
(14:22):
Can you go back one slide forme.
But when God, our Savior,revealed his kindness and love,
when he revealed that to us, wegot all of the other things.
He didn't just do that becauseof what we've done.
He did it because he is good,he is sovereign, he is righteous
(14:44):
and he knew that he could giveit to us freely.
We didn't have to earn it, amen.
If we didn't have to earn itfrom him, why do other people
have to earn it from us?
I'll be kind to you when you'rekind to me.
No, I'm going to be kind to youbecause you're ugly to me.
Going to be kind to you becauseyou're ugly to me.
(15:08):
Right, I'll be kind to youbecause you are ugly to me,
because if I continue to be kindto you, maybe you will be kind
to somebody else.
The only people we want to bekind to are the people who think
like us, and sometimes not eventhem.
Amen, amen.
Where were we at?
Was that 2 Timothy?
No, that was Titus.
Okay, 2 Timothy 2.24.
(15:30):
A servant of the Lord must notquarrel, but must be kind to
everyone, to be able to teachand be patient with difficult
people.
How many of us know a difficultperson?
If you don't raise your hand,you are the difficult person.
All right, I just.
We need to be clear about that.
Clark and Lacey are pointing ateach other over here.
I have a feeling we're going tohave a domestic dispute in the
(15:52):
parking lot after church today.
A servant of the Lord must notdo.
You know anybody who likes tofight for the sake of the fight.
It doesn't matter if they'reright or wrong, they don't care,
they just want to argue, toargue.
Listen, come at me sometime andask me if Elvis is really dead.
I do believe that Elvis is dead, but I will argue with you just
(16:13):
for the sake of the argument,because I think it's fun, right,
because I think there's enoughevidence that I can probably
convince you that he ain't dead.
But it's just something thatsome people like to do.
Now, that's very minor, butsome people like to argue about
everything.
They like to argue about theword.
The word is not something thatcan be disputed or argued.
Right, it says what it says andthat's the end of the
(16:36):
conversation.
But we often want to argue itbecause we want to be right.
Amen, all right.
The last piece that I have onthis particular portion
Zechariah 7, 9, and it saysthat's not NLT.
I hate to tell you.
Thus speaketh.
(16:58):
I've got an NLT up here.
This is what the Lord ofHeaven's army says Judge fairly
and show mercy and kindness toone another.
Did you get it that the Bibletells us to be kind?
Are we all on the same pageright now?
Great, wonderful.
Then we're going to move on andwe're not going to waste a lot
of time.
(17:18):
My question to you is are wesharing that mindset today?
Each day when I start working,I have two choices to show
Christ in me or allow the fleshto take over and show the world
in me.
My desire is to have moreChrist than I have world.
Unfortunately, that's notusually the case, right, because
when we leave these four wallsand we walk into work, sometimes
it's very easy to.
(17:38):
Maybe you work with people thatlike to swear, or you work with
people who are just like dirtyor mean or whatever, and then
you just like that's what youbecome right and you turn that
on and off based on the placethat you're at right.
I don't imagine that any of uslike to openly admit that,
because we like to have Christin us and we like for our
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brothers and sisters in Christ,to think that that's what we are
and who we are.
I'm going to promise yousomething.
Chances are we already know,because we've seen it somewhere
else, right, okay?
Would you believe this is gonnabe a shock to you guys that the
world wants more of itself andless of Jesus?
Why wouldn't it?
(18:21):
Why would it want Jesus?
Because if it gets Jesus, ithas to give up on the fleshly
things and take up the spiritualthings.
And the world does not.
It doesn't have interest in thespiritual things.
Because if we start moving intothe spiritual realm, then we
have heaven on earth.
And heaven on earth requiresaccountability, and
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accountability gets scary forthose who don't believe in Jesus
, right, okay?
Picture it like this.
Let's say you go to a dinnerparty with your spouse, pastor
Holly, and Dave.
They go to dinner.
You go to a dinner party atsomebody's house.
Dave's over talking to hisfriends and Pastor Holly has
(19:03):
eaten some spinach and it'sgotten stuck in her teeth, right
?
So Pastor Holly's wanderingaround, she's got this wad of
spinach stuck in her teeth,right?
That happens.
Anybody ever had that happen.
You go somewhere, you got foodstuck in your teeth.
Now let's say that Dawn walks upand says to Pastor Holly Pastor
Holly, it looks like you mighthave some spinach in your teeth.
And Pastor Holly goes oh geez,let me go take care of that.
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She runs off to the bathroomand she handles her little
spinach ordeal right and shecomes back out and nobody's the
wiser.
Do you realize the importanceof what just happened?
Most people don't See.
What just happened wascorrection, amen.
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Don in private said you gotsomething going on and Pastor
Holly went and took care of it.
What could have happened wasinstead, don saw it and came
over here and said Chris, didyou see the big old chunk of
spinach in Pastor Holly's mouth?
You've got to go talk to her.
(20:08):
You have to see this.
It is absolutely hilarious.
And then Chris goes to Tanyaand says Tanya, listen, pastor
Holly has this great big wad ofspinach sticking out of her
teeth.
You have to go talk to her.
It is so funny and pretty sooneverybody in the room is looking
for an opportunity to go talkto Pastor Holly.
What does Pastor Holly think?
(20:28):
She's popular, right?
Everybody wants to talk to her.
Everybody's coming over to talkto her.
But really what they're doingis making fun.
You know the person thatstarted it might even come over
and go, pastor Holly, let's geta selfie together, just so they
could commemorate the spinach inher teeth.
Right, right Dawn says shecan't take a selfie, it don't
matter, she wouldn't be the oneto do that.
(20:50):
But isn't that the truth?
And what has happened in thatconversation?
That's called condemnationright, and what they're trying
to do is make somebody feel badfor what's going on in their
life rather than helping themfix it.
Amen.
Any of us ever been on thereceiving end of that?
It doesn't feel good.
It doesn't feel good at all.
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I would much rather have acorrective conversation and
listen as your pastor.
There are some people who cometo me and say hey, when you read
that passage of scripture, Idon't think it was quite like
you had read it.
I always hear those words, butI don't always put a lot of
weight into that until I go homeand study out whatever it is
that they'd shared with me.
But I will never, ever blowsomebody off because of it.
(21:31):
But let me tell you something.
If Jenny comes to me and sayswell, beth told Pastor Holly,
who told Tina Newman, who toldChris Crone all of this stuff,
and they just can't believe thatyou blah, blah, blah and I'm
not going to hear that.
Do you know why I'm not goingto hear that?
(21:51):
Because I don't know how trueit is, from where it started to
where it ended right, becausethat may have not been the
conversation at all.
I've been involved in that.
I've been on the receiving endof that.
I've gotten phone calls thatsay I can't believe that you
would and I'm like I didn't, Icouldn't believe that I did it
either.
I was shocked.
(22:12):
I was shocked that I had donethat because I didn't know I did
it.
It's fascinating how fast we canturn correction into
condemnation.
Amen, okay, the Bibleemphasizes the importance of
correcting others withgentleness, humility and most
times in private, amen.
So we're going to jump intosome scripture again real quick.
(22:34):
All right, matthew 18, 15.
If another believer sinsagainst you, go privately and
point out the offense.
If the other person listens andconfesses it, you have won that
person back.
Jenny, what you said about mewas hurtful and I'm not sure why
you felt that way.
But next time come and have aconversation with me.
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That's a lot easier than sayingI can't believe Jenny would say
something like that.
And I say it to Pastor Rogerand Pastor Roger.
He goes and tells somebody else, who tells somebody else, who
tells somebody, and eventuallyJenny hears it.
She hasn't gotten correction,she has gotten condemnation
right, because this wasn't aprivate conversation.
(23:16):
This became public very quickly, galatians 6.1.
Dear brothers and sisters, ifanother believer is overcome by
sin, hear me out, guys.
If another believer is overcomeby sin, you, who are godly,
should gently and humbly helpthat person back onto the right
path and be careful not to fallinto the same temptation
(23:39):
yourself.
Now we use this scripture asthe reason that we fellowship
with people who aren't saved.
Right, we want to say well, youknow, I go to the bar because I
want to be able to give mytestimony to all of those people
who are drinking.
I'm an alcoholic, but I don'tdrink.
When I go, I just tell thesepeople about Jesus, and then all
of a sudden, you're drinkingand then you can't stop drinking
(24:00):
and now you're a drunk.
Right, we've been there, we'velived that and it doesn't have
to be that.
Well, you know, listen, I havethese old friends that used to
party hard.
They did a lot of drugs.
I don't hang out with themanymore, but I do still call
them or text them because I wantto make sure that they know who
Jesus is.
And the next thing you knowyou're addicted and you're in
(24:20):
this mess of a situation again.
Listen, it is ourresponsibility to gently bring
them back to God, to bring theminto the fold, but we've got to
be careful what we do, becausewe can't fall back into that
trap.
Amen.
I used to tell people that Ionly smoked so that I could tell
people about Jesus.
While we were smoking Did thata total of zero times, by the
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way, but it was a great story,right?
It sounded good, you know,because those people probably
don't know Jesus, right?
So I'm gonna go out there andsmoke with them and tell them
about.
Never, never, once, did I everdo that because I was too busy
smoking and gossiping about thepeople who didn't smoke, right?
(25:02):
Because that's a club, that'smy safe place.
These are my people.
These are the people that Iknow that I can tell them
whatever I want, and while theymay go tell somebody else,
they're not going to sail medown the river and tell them.
I told, right, if I tell PastorRoger that Mike's a terrible
card player, I'm sorry, I'msorry.
(25:24):
Dale is a terrible card player.
He ain't in here.
See, I can do that.
So if I say that to Roger andthen Roger tells Mike, and then
Mike tells Marcus, marcus tellsDave of course they already know
because they were there.
But if we do that, I wouldtrust that none of them are
going to tell Dale that Istarted that because that's my
group right.
Those are like we were togetherand if you tell him I said it,
(25:48):
I'm going to tell him.
You said it.
Right, and that's how we do.
We hold each other over a barrelso we can't like, listen,
that's not what God wants fromus.
He wants kindness, he wantsgentleness.
All right, okay.
Proverbs 27, 5 through 6.
An open rebuke is better thanhidden love.
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Wounds from a sincere friendare better than many kisses from
an enemy, right?
How many of you have thosepeople who are always wanting to
spend time with you and sendyou text messages?
Oh girl, you just look so goodand I love you so much.
And you walk out the room andthey're like did you see her
good, and I love you so much?
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And you walk out the room andthey're like did you see her
Right?
Listen, guys are the exactopposite.
We'd be in a room with eachother calling each other names
while we're in the room and whenthat person leaves, we're like
man, he's a good guy, I reallylike him, but just, we're
different in that way.
But see, a lot of times theenemy will send people into our
groups or into our circles andthose people will want to
(26:54):
destroy that circle becausethey're jealous of the
friendship inside of it.
Right, and so that person gets.
Their feelings are always hurt,they're always offended by
something and they're alwayswell, I didn't get this and I
didn't get that.
Why is it that everybody elsedoes it, doesn't?
It's not about that.
Listen, that time of fellowshipis to make you stronger, not
make you jealous, not make youfeel weaker or insecure.
(27:16):
Listen, I lived it for a longtime in groups of pastors, a
long time, and I had to realizethat I'm a man among men, that I
am equally as anointed as theyare, that my calling is the same
as theirs is.
But the problem is is I felt soimmature in that group that
took me growing up spiritually.
(27:37):
And if you're standing in agroup of like-minded Christians,
offended by something anotherChristian said to you, chances
are you need to maturespiritually.
And listen, ladies, I'm goingto be honest, some of y'all be
mature by age, but spirituallysome stuff be rough in your life
Because what's happening isyou're allowing yourself to be
upset with somebody that doesn'teven want you to be upset with
(27:59):
them.
They didn't try, they did orsaid or acted or whatever.
But listen, we're all stupidsometimes, amen.
We all do and say things wedon't necessarily mean.
There is no reason to beoffended in Christ.
You can be convicted in Christ.
Listen, if somebody says to mehey, pastor Michael, I really
don't like it when you preachwith your shoes off because your
feet stink Probably a fairstatement, right.
(28:22):
And I have to take that and Ihave to process it.
Now I can be mad at that personand I can say well, that was a
dumb thing to say.
But I've said plenty of dumbthings and God has forgiven me
of all of those things.
So why is it not myresponsibility to forgive you?
Chances are that fell out ofyour mouth before it ran through
the filter and there's noreason for me to be upset with
you.
You didn't mean it to behurtful.
Now, sometimes we do, but notmost of the time, right, amen,
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okay.
Proverbs 15.1.
A gentle answer deflects anger,but harsh words make tempers
flare.
If you know me, you know I'mreally good at this.
This is a gift of mine and I amproud of this gift because you
can say something to me and Ican hear it and I can go.
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Okay, my response has to bedirect, but it has to be kind,
right, I have to be able to tellyou that you're not going to
say that to me again, but youneed, so.
There's a level of respect thatyou're going to have to come to
.
But at the same time, I wantyou to know that I'm not mad at
you, right, that I'm notcondemning you for what you said
(29:26):
or you did.
That's a challenge, because alot of people they just go to 10
, right, I'm really good aboutand listen.
Longer I'm in ministry, thebroader my shoulders get, the
more I can take people mad at meBecause, honestly, at this
point you're not really mad atme.
(29:47):
You're mad at the situation,you're mad at the conviction
that's happening in your life,but you're projecting that anger
on me.
Listen, people get hurt by thechurch because they think their
pastors are perfect, right,right, listen.
People come into the church allthe time and they're like, oh
well, you got a really youngpastor.
I'm not gonna tell that story Ishould, but I'm not gonna.
Just gonna move on.
All right, that dinner partycould have taken a whole
(30:08):
different turn.
If that dinner party could havetaken a whole different turn If
, rather than addressing thatsituation privately, they would
have made that lap around theroom telling everyone about the
spinach in Holly's teeth,everybody would be getting a
good laugh, but nobody would bedoing the right thing by
correcting the situation.
Right Now, dave's off talkingto his friends and finally Dave
(30:29):
wanders over and he's like Holly, you got something in your
teeth and she cleans it out, andthen everybody in the room goes
aw because Dave just ruined thefun, right?
Have you ever been the butt of ajoke that you didn't even know
you were the butt of?
Listen, one of the popularthings in ministry is nicknames.
(30:49):
Right?
Anybody ever nicknamed somebodyin the church?
One of the popular things inministry is nicknames right?
Anybody ever nicknamed somebodyin the church?
Everybody's like I ain't sayingnothing, nope, everybody's dead
quiet.
Listen, I know some of you havedone it because you've used the
nicknames with me, right?
Listen, let me tell yousomething.
(31:10):
If that's what you're doing,the maturity in christ needs to
come up a notch.
Because nicknames are hurtfuland you're not saying it to
their face, you're saying itbehind their back.
What good are you as a brotheror sister in christ if you're
making fun of somebody behindtheir back?
Let me tell you, not everybodyin here is perfect like you are.
In the eyes of Christ they areperfect, but somehow in your
(31:35):
eyes they don't meet your level.
Right?
Listen, I'm sure there arenicknames for me and I'm okay
with it.
I don't care.
The only thing you can't callme is Mikey.
Anything beyond that fair game,all right, because here's the
thing If you're picking on meright now, you're leaving
(31:56):
somebody else alone and myshoulders are broad enough that
I can take it and I don't carewhat you think about me.
All I care about is what Godthinks about me.
Am I living inside of the willof God today?
Okay, correction comes from aspirit of helpfulness matched
with a spirit of love and caringAmen.
So if you're sitting in a roomwith me and I'm trying to bring
(32:20):
spiritual correction to you, ifyou are offended, that is not
real offense, that is conviction.
Right, because I am going to bedoing that with love and care,
with kindness and gentleness.
Amen, that's my goal in allthings.
However, condemnation comesfrom a spirit of religion and a
(32:41):
spirit of self-righteousness.
Right, because I am right andyou are wrong.
I am going to tell you whyyou're wrong.
I'm not going to help you makeit right.
I'm not going to try to walkyou into making it right.
I'm just going to tell you whyyou're wrong and then I'm going
to say now get it fixed or poundsalt.
Right, we ever done that tosomebody.
(33:05):
You ever been in a relationshipwhere and I don't mean like a
romantic relationship, even afriendship where and I don't
mean like a romanticrelationship, even a friendship
where you're like well, if thatperson doesn't do this for me,
I'm not talking to them everagain.
Right, that's not how thatworks.
Do we talk to people with aspirit of caring or a spirit of
(33:26):
helpfulness, with a desire tohelp them make meaningful change
, or do we instead run aroundtelling everybody about their
dereliction and their sin?
Chances are it's the second one.
Right, because if you come tome with something that's going
on in your life, I'm not tellingother people, because it's none
of my business to tell them.
(33:47):
It's not their business to know.
If you wanted them to know, youwould have told them, right?
So when somebody asks me what'sgoing on with such and such, or
where is so-and-so, or how isthis going with such and such,
I'm like, hey, you shouldprobably talk to them right Now.
Don't get me wrong.
I might say, hey, just pray forthem.
They need some extra prayersright now.
(34:19):
But I'm not trying to shareyour life story, listen, and I
would hope that you're doing thesame for me, but most of the
time you ain't.
The problem is we instead liketo tell that story and make
correction in public.
How many of you ever postedsomething on social media?
This is my favorite.
You ever seen somebody post onsocial media?
It's like some ambiguousstatement, like, well, gee,
today just got really bad.
I wish people would treat melike I treat them right.
Just call it what it is.
(34:40):
Hey, listen, today I was atchurch and I heard Jenny call me
chubby and it hurt my feelings.
And now I'm posting about it onFacebook because I want to
bring public correction.
I want to bring condemnationrather than real correction.
Right, because that's what itis Now.
Here's the thing.
And then somebody comments oh,pastor Michael, what's going on?
I hope everything's okay.
(35:00):
And then I say this oh, this isthe one that gets me.
Pm me.
If you don't have the guts topost it online after you just
called, then get out of herewith your crap, right, amen?
Because here's then what you do, you in private.
You tell somebody about howsomebody's offended you and then
you hope that they go and telleverybody else.
(35:23):
Listen, you want a rumor tostart?
Just tell one person that youknow will tell everybody else,
right?
Like, if I want everybody toknow how Jenny has offended me,
I'm going to tell.
All I got to do is find theright person to tell, right?
Because then when I tell, theymay only tell one person, but
that person's going to tellanother two.
Those two people are going totell another two, and it's just
going to grow really quickly.
(35:43):
Right, listen, I don't doambiguous.
If I don't like you, I'm goingto tell you I don't like you,
right?
And I don't mean that I don'tlike you as a person.
I don't like what you have done.
It's not acceptable.
I'm not going to do it onsocial media.
I'm going to call you.
I'm going to have dinner withyou.
I'm going to try to have areasonable conversation with you
, and sometimes those don't endwell, and when they don't,
(36:06):
that's okay, you just go.
Well, god, I'm giving this oneto you.
I've said what I need to say,I've done what I need to do.
Now listen, there are timeswhen those don't end well, and
then you just have to eat crowbecause you realize, well, geez,
I probably shouldn't have saidthat, right, because sometimes
that self-righteousness takesover and even as a pastor, I'm
(36:34):
like well, that's not acceptable, get out.
Right, if that's how that works, then I got to go now, because
I am probably guilty of morethan every person sitting in
this building.
If you guys only understood theinformation that I have about
so many of you because you'veshared it with me personally, it
would be unfair of me to usethat against you, right?
The information that I haveabout so many of you because
(36:56):
you've shared it with mepersonally, it would be unfair
of me to use that against you,right?
Okay, I'm getting ahead ofmyself, all right, I don't even
know what I'm talking about now.
Can I keep going, are you guysgood?
Okay, I've only got a few more.
John 3.17.
It says God sent his son intothe world, not to judge the
world, but to save the worldthrough him.
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Amen, hallelujah.
God sent his son into the worldnot to judge the world, but to
save the world through him.
Okay, we're going to bring thatone back up in just a second,
but we're going to keep going.
John 12.47,.
It says I will not judge thosewho hear me, but don't obey me,
for I have come to save theworld and not to judge it.
Are you guys noticing a themehere?
(37:38):
All right, luke 9, 56.
That's not right.
That's not right.
That's not right.
Is that Luke 9, 56?
You sure Nope.
(38:00):
So we're going to skip that one.
Thank you, jesus.
Romans 8, 1.
So now there is no condemnationfor those who belong to Christ
Jesus, and because you belong tohim, the power of the
life-giving spirit has freed youfrom the power of sin that
(38:21):
leads to death.
Luke 5, 32.
I have come to call, not thosewho think they are righteous,
self-righteousness, not thosewho think they are righteous,
but those who know they aresinners and need to repent, amen
.
Can you pull up John 3, 17 forme again real quick?
(38:43):
I want to just leave that thereas I give my final statement.
The Son of God did not come intothis world to condemn other
people, right, he came to savethem.
My question is is why do youthink he sent you to condemn
other people?
Why do you think that he saidlisten, christ was perfect.
(39:11):
I promise you I'll talk to youfor 10 minutes and realize you
aren't perfect, especially ifyou say things like especially
Right, what?
And then spell it wrong.
If you don't know thedifference between there, there
and there, don't talk to meabout perfection.
Right, two, two and two, halfand half right.
(39:32):
We can joke about this all daylong, but the problem is is we
sit in our seats and we thinkthat we are perfect and that we
have the right to judge otherpeople.
Jesus didn't come to judge theworld.
He came to save the world.
What is our responsibility?
To preach the gospel of JesusChrist, which is to save the
world and not to condemn theworld.
Amen.
(39:52):
Now I'm saying that when youlook at somebody that's living
in sin, we should know how totalk to them.
We should be able to correctthem in private, with grace and
mercy, with kindness andgentleness, and not with
half-hearted social media posts.
We shouldn't be poking fun atpeople who don't believe the
same things that we believe,because how do you think that
(40:12):
they perceive Jesus if that'show we represent him?
They expect a God that is mean,that is hurtful, that is
vengeful, that will allow hispeople to treat people just like
we are.
That is not what God has calledus to do.
Amen Today.
I expect that when we walk outof here, we walk out different
than when we came in.
(40:32):
Amen.
I expect that when we leave,that God has done something in
your life, that whenever youfind your tongue about to wag
about somebody else inside ofthis building, that you stop and
you think am I going to regretthis later?
Is this statement going toglorify God or glorify the
person I'm about to say it about?
(40:54):
Mike might be terrible atplaying cards, but that's not
what he identifies as.
He might be the world's worstpoker player, but he's really a
child of God, amen.
Listen, I'm not perfect ateverything that I do.
I did win two of the threegames that we played, but I'm
(41:16):
not good at everything.
I promised him I wasn't goingto say anything, but I said
something anyway.
I promised him I wasn't goingto say anything, but I said
something anyway, like Marcusand Dale did.
I'm not even sure they werereally playing at this point,
man.
They were just like, just takethem.
(41:38):
No, we know that that's not whatwe identify as.
I don't want to identify as agossip, right.
I don't want to identify assomebody that has nothing nice
to say.
I want to identify as ablood-bought child of the
Almighty who lives for Christand Christ alone.
Amen.
I don't want to be worriedabout what it is that's going on
in the world around me.
I want to be able to pray God'sperfect will for all things,
(42:01):
and especially in my life.
Right, I want him to work hardinside of me so that I can be
more of him and less of myself.
I don't want to be the worldanymore.
Listen, last Sunday I preachedhard on swearing and I'm going
to tell you what.
This last week has not been funfor me, because you think that
my daughter was bad before.
She's doubled down.
Her radar hearing has reallykicked in.
(42:24):
She hears anything that shemight even interpret as a swear
word.
She's yelling daddy, she'd bethree blocks away yelling at me
and listen.
I need that in my life, right,I need somebody who's going to
bring some correction, albeit mytiny little daughter.
But if she's going to hold me toa higher standard, listen, I
(42:46):
want her to grow up and marry aman of God her, listen.
I want her to grow up and marrya man of God, and we don't.
I don't want her to marrysomebody like me, because if I
don't, the things that areinside of me are not, are not
all good.
I want her to find a man whowill be able to treat her like a
princess and not swear aroundher, amen.
So I'm praying that I can bemore like the man that I want
(43:08):
her to marry Men.
If you don't have a daughter,you don't understand.
I'm telling Dave, is it true?
You want that daughter to growup and marry somebody better
than you?
You want somebody that canlisten.
That little girl was going toteach me how to be a better
(43:28):
follower of Christ.
Find that in your life today.
Amen, let's pray together.
Father, I just thank you and Ipraise you for all of the things
that you've put in our pathtoday, father, for all of the
scripture, all of the word,father, that we would just
continue to be able to read andunderstand and know who you are
and what it is that you expectof us, father.
(43:49):
We understand that none of usare perfect and that sometimes
that flesh will take over.
But today, lord, we are leavinghere changed people.
Father, we're taking control ofour tongues.
We will learn to bringcorrection and not condemnation,
(44:12):
lord.
We will learn how to have kindand gentle conversations in
private and not chase people onsocial media and not argue with
people for the sake of arguing.
But, father, that we would beable to tell them exactly who
you are.
(44:33):
Lord, I just thank you forcontinuing to move in this place
and lead us so that we can grow.
In the mighty name of Jesus,father, I just give you praise,
honor and glory this day, father, I pray for traveling.
Mercies for every person inthis place.
Lord, bring us back here at ournext appointed time.
Fill up your house, father God,and allow us to pour this word
(44:58):
into the world.
We give you all the honor andglory in the mighty name of
Jesus, and the church says amen.
Love you, guys.
We will see you at the Lentenservice on Wednesday night.
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