How to Grow in Charity
Date: June 7, 2024
Well, we have had great testimony from everybody so far. I was really touched by Brother Frank’s Wednesday night, and I was going to say something about that, but then Brother Marlon mentioned it this morning. Oh, that’s what I was going to say tonight. Brother Marlin did a good job, too. But I told the pastor when he asked me to give a brief testimony, I said, well, you know, I said, I think most people there have heard how I got saved. And he said, well, just kind of fill in with what God’s been doing in your life and your family’s life, you know, just recently.
So I think I’ll go back about nine months. Last September, as most of you are aware, Mary had to have really serious, life-threatening surgery. She was in the hospital. We didn’t even know if she was going to make it or not. It really humbles you because when you get in positions where there’s nothing that you can do but look to God, then all you can do is trust him.
God did answer our prayers and the prayers of the people of this church miraculously. Mary’s here tonight, and I can say tonight she’s got almost all her strength back. Everything’s almost back to completely normal, just like before she ever went in the hospital. So that’s a blessing. That brings me, I think, to Brother Glenn. I can relate a lot to him. You remember, I was out of church for quite a while while Mary was in the hospital and in rehab. I was staying with her.
Now Brother Glenn is going through something similar with Ritha, and I even think it’s a little bit harder on him because they’ve been giving him a hard time. They didn’t want to let him in the hospital right away to visit because of all this stuff about the virus and quarantine. They finally let him in, and I guess now, as far as I know, since she’s been in rehab, they transferred her, but they haven’t let him in over there. So it’s got to be really tough on him, so pray about that. But when I think about how God did for Mary, I’m sure that God’s able to answer prayers. I know everybody’s praying, so I’m looking for good things to happen.
But it’s how God’s been working in my life about the last four or five months with this virus situation. Let’s see here. I like to use this iPad because it’s so much quicker to find a verse or something. But anyway, when this virus hit, you know, we know that there are no signs. The next thing on God’s calendar is a rapture, and nobody knows when it’s going to take place. There are no signs. Nothing has to be fulfilled for it. But God is so good.
The rapture is going to be a global event. It’s going to affect the whole world. The tribulation period is going to be a global event and affect the whole world. And then when this virus came out, it’s affecting the whole world. It’s a global event, people in every country being asked to stay home, be in quarantine. And then this thing about the mask. I just started thinking about it. I thought, you know, maybe they’re using this to condition people. Maybe people aren’t aware, but maybe the devil is using it to condition people, you know. If the government can tell you you’ve got to wear a mask and you can’t go to church and you can do this or that, can the mark of the beast be very far off? I’m thinking that’s what they’re conditioning people for.
As I started thinking along those lines, I thought, well, what am I going to do? I’m not going to become an activist and get on the internet and start socially blogging about telling people that. Because the most important thing is—and I’m not going to read every one of them—but the Bible says, “He that winneth souls is wise.” And then in Matthew and Mark and even Luke, Jesus gave us the commission: Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. So that’s what his command is. That’s what he wants us to do.
I’m thinking, you know, okay. I think the rapture could take place at any time. If they’ve gotten this far and they’re pushing for global government, they’re telling people when they can come and go and all. This is, to me, like a foreshadowing. I can see these events coming. They’re conditioning people and getting ready with this. Whether the leaders or governors know it or not, I believe Satan is behind all this. So what I started doing is just trying to witness more. I can’t say, as I told the pastor, that I’ve seen a lot of results of people getting saved.
Besides the church track, I had a couple of these in English, but I don’t know what I did with them. I misplaced them, but I got these Chick tracts. I ordered them. For the longest time, I just ordered this one: “This Was Your Life.” I use that. I have it in English. This is Spanish. And also I got a few in Arabic. But in light of what’s going on in the world recently, I got this new one called “The Beast.” I mean, it’s not a new tract; it was written probably decades ago. It’s about the Antichrist in the last days, and I thought—and it’s amazing, I’ll tell you—people are really receptive to it. I have had, I’d say, nine out of every ten people that I offer a tract to have taken it, and a lot of them have even said, “You have been right.” Well, thank you. I really appreciate that. They really like it. And the ones that have turned it down have been polite about it, you know, or just something like, “Oh, I’m good,” or “That’s okay, I’m not interested in all that.”
So I haven’t really had anybody, you know, blow up or get mad or anything. I kind of do it apologetically because I’ll be with somebody in a store. It kind of depends. If I see somebody that looks like they might be Hispanic, but I’m not sure if they are Arabic or not, I always ask them first, “Do you read Spanish?” And I hold up a tract like this. If they say yes, and a lot of times they’ll say yes. So I hand this to them. I said, “I think you’d like to read this.” And they look, “What’s this?” you know. And I tell them, “Well, it’s an illustrated tract. It’s got a storyline, but it tells you how you can be saved, how you can go to heaven.” And I said, “Under each of the illustrations, you’ll find a verse from the old King James Bible. That’s the one the Pilgrims brought over 400 years ago. So that’s the Bible we use at our church.” And I give them one of those. Sometimes, for the English, I’ll just say, “Has anyone ever offered you one of these before?”
Some people say, “Oh, I haven’t seen one of those in a long time.” Or some people say, “Oh, what is this?” And I’ll tell them. I always say, “I’ll let you look at it for a second, and you decide if you want to read it or not.” You see, this way, I’m not like forcing it. I always tell them, “All I’m saying is, I’m not forcing this on you. Now, if you don’t want to read it, if you’re not interested in this sort of thing, just tell me; I won’t be offended if you give the tract back to me.” In a way, that’s kind of efficient, because these things cost about 15 cents apiece. If somebody isn’t interested, they’re just going to throw it in the garbage anyway. I’d like to know about it so I can take it and give it to somebody else. I know a lot of people put these—they take rubber bands, they put them on gas pumps, they put them in bathrooms and stuff.
I don’t do that that often because they’re kind of expensive. What I do is just keep them in my pocket. And everywhere I go, I’ll just approach somebody and hand it to them. Every now and then I’ll offer somebody one of these tracts. If you read Spanish, and I’ll say, “No, no.” I say, “Oh, do you read English?” “No, Arabic.” And so then I pull out one of the—this is “Your Life” in Arabic. So far, the Muslims that I have offered it to have been very friendly and taken it.
I just tell people, and there’s a verse that kind of speaks to me: Revelation 7:9. John writes, he said, “After this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.” So salvation is for everybody.
It’s like the pastor starting to point on charity. One of the things I told the pastor I’ve been concerned about is trying to make sure—sometimes I catch myself giving these tracts mostly to men or mostly to women or sometimes mostly to Spanish speakers. I’ve tried to remember to give them to everybody because salvation is for everybody. I even tell some people this: I’ve often had people of other nationalities, ethnic groups, look at me like, “You’re a Christian? You’re inviting me to come to church? You’re giving me a tract?” They can’t believe it. If I see that look on their face, I’ll just say, “Well, you know, salvation’s for everybody. I’m trying to get these out to everybody because God wants—the Bible says God would have all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.” So that’s how God’s working in my life right now.
I just want to encourage everybody. I think when this is going on, people are more receptive than ever, and I think God is showing them things. I’ve had several people—I just got this tract about “The Beast” several days ago, and there have been several people I’ve given it to already that have said, “Oh, you know, me and my husband, we were just talking about that this morning at the breakfast table.” Of course, they were Christians. They said they went to Franklin—she said, “We go to Franklin Road”—but they said, “We were just talking about that this morning.” So I believe the time is getting close. The reason, one reason why I’m doing this, a guy kind of spoke to my heart and said, “You know, if you’re going to get people saved, you better get busy and get at it.” Another thing, sometimes I’m slack on that; I don’t always do this.
I thought of a verse the other day where Jesus said about who will the Lord allow, I guess, in the future in the kingdom to give food to his household in due season. It said, “Blessed and happy is that servant whom when the Lord comes shall find him so doing.” So I believe Jesus comes back. I want him to find me trying to get people saved. And that’s my testimony. I’m really happy about it.
Turn your Bibles, if you would, to 2 Peter chapter number one. Second Peter chapter number one. Okay, good deal. We’ve had some—I don’t know what’s different. I don’t seem like one of these monitors were loud early. It’s down, but I’m not hearing it. Of course, maybe just because the pastor is getting old. Maybe that’s what that is. You’ve seen that text going around with the monkey, and he’s got these big old ears sticking out, you know. And the caption is, “This is what we’re all going to look like after we’re done wearing these masks,” all these bumps, you know. I just put my ear—my hearing—my earring in, all right. I just put my little ear thing in. And I thought, I’m just going to have one ear sticking out from this thing here. That one’s going to be flat. You know, that’s even worse, one sticking out and the other not. But Second Peter, chapter number one, in God’s Word. This morning we preached on what is charity. I thought it was interesting. I was standing in the back of the auditorium after it was all over, and little Charity scooted up to me. I got to pick her up and hold her. I said, “Well, she knows I’ve been talking about her all day long,” you know, so that was good.
But tonight, how to have charity. Now, it’s a very informational message. Sometimes you can get so much information that you just kind of zone out. You’re like, “Yeah, whatever,” you know, or just so much that nothing really sticks, if you will. I’m not always one, and I can mess up. I have messed up many a time over the years by just giving too much information. So I want you to really just listen intently: God, what do you want for me? There will be a lot of information, and don’t just kind of get that glossed over so that nothing really goes in deep. Ask the Lord, “What part is for me?”
There are some steps to this thing of how to have charity. We’re just going to do a little bit of a Bible study, a word study tonight. Can you believe we’re studying the Bible in church? What in the world’s going on? I tell you what, in Second Peter chapter number one, we’re going to start at verse number five. Would you please stand as we read God’s Word together? Second Peter 1 and verse number five.
Verses three and four talk about how you can get the divine nature through all the wonderful promises of God. That’s kind of the foundation. Then verse number five: “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith; and to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity.” I think a lot of people would think charity would be lower down, but actually, as you read this, charity is on the top, if you will, in this growing cycle. Notice what it says in verse number eight: “For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” That’s amazing. You won’t be unfruitful, you won’t be barren. You’ll have an effective ministry for the Lord.
Verse number nine: “But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see far off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.” Some say, “Is it possible for someone to be saved and not know it?” Well, according to that verse right there, they never ever grow. They just backslide, and they get to the point—the worst of this thing is they forget that they were purged of those sins. They don’t feel saved because they’re so backslidden. There are so many things between them and their Heavenly Father. They are so convicted and miserable, they don’t feel like a child of God. We want to talk about these things, these building blocks here, and the top thing, charity. Just briefly tonight, pray and ask God to point out some of these things that you need, that I need. Would you do so tonight? I like to grow in charity. I need it. Ask God to help us grow in charity tonight.
Father, Lord, we come to you this week. Lord, I don’t know. It seemed like maybe it was Wednesday; you convicted me, Lord, about this thing of charity. Lord, I need to—I want to grow in this matter of charity. Help us all tonight. Lord, I’m trying to just rightly divide your Word and preach it like you wanted. So, Lord, would you grow us in these things you named? Lord, speak those things deep into the hearts of those that need the one particular one they need greatly. Bless the folks on YouTube, Facebook, the people here. Meet with us, Lord, wherever we may be. Father, thank you for what you do. And we do love him. In Jesus’ name, we pray to you, Father. Amen. Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.
I’m excited about building a building on that property over there. Can you imagine just getting off the interstate coming this way? You pass by McDonald’s there—not McDonald’s, McDonald’s is passed by that there, you know. And then you go by Legend Steakhouse. You can stop in there, get some food, get some chicken fingers, amen, you know. And then the O’Reilly’s and then the bread store. Boy, then that 15 acres right there. Can you imagine coming around that corner and seeing a big, beautiful church there? I mean, it’s so big it makes those warehouses look small. Well, okay, not that big. Any church looks small compared to them. We’re trying to keep it away from them. But just a beautiful building there. By the way, it’s not about us looking good, but it’s about our Lord looking good, you know. We want the Lord to look good in this thing. But, man, you see a beautiful, well-kept, well-manicured building, and it looks first class. Not contemporary at all, but it looks modern, looks right. And then you see a big, beautiful church steeple. Miss Wanda, don’t shout too loud, but Miss Wanda is into church steeples. In fact, our church didn’t have a steeple for years, and Miss Wanda took it on as a burden; she was going to get us a steeple. She and Brother Frank mugged about four people, found a rich one, and they got enough money. They really did. They did all the work. They really did. They didn’t, for the most part, get any money from church people; they raised the funds. And they ran it all by the pastor. God used it to put the steeple there. So if they don’t have—if we don’t have a steeple on the new building, they’re leaving the church, is what I’m trying to say. So we’re going to have one there. Can you imagine just a beautiful steeple on that building?
All these things—these eight things God lists here—but the thing on top is charity. We’re going to use that scenario of a building, and we’re going to use charity just at the top. If you’re going to build a good building, you’ve got to have a good foundation. Amen?
This first thing, if you look at verse number five, it starts off with, “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your…” What’s the next word? Faith. It’s your foundation. Really, your Christianity starts with that. Someone spoke the Word of God to you. They may have lived the Word of God to you, and that word planted created some faith in you. So then, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” You took that faith and placed it in Jesus Christ. You were saved. You put all your faith in Him and said, “He’s my only hope. I’ll never be good enough. I’m going to put all my faith in Christ.” You put your faith in, and you are born again. That’s what the Bible speaks of—1 Peter 1:23—being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. You put your faith in Christ. Your Christian life, your being a child of God, began. You got the foundation laid. “No other foundation can any man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ,” 1 Corinthians 3 says that. By the way, if you want a big building, you’ve got to build a big foundation.
Just talk about faith. Your faith. I believe I’m lacking a little bit there. By the way, you can’t have the steeple unless you’ve got a foundation. Maybe.
I was listening to Brother Bobby Robertson. He’s in heaven now. He was talking about going through a tough time in his life. He said he didn’t really know what to do, and God spoke to him: “Start reading more Bible during that time.” He said that was really—I think he was talking about a mid-life crisis. I remember he said, “Boy, some people say it’s not real. It’s real. I was going through it.” And he said the answer for him was reading more Bible, which gives you more faith. One of the fruits of the Spirit, the nine-fold fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5, one of those is faith. Sometimes, just by yielding to the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit gives you more faith. Sometimes you exercise your faith. God gives you somewhere to put your faith into action, and you begin to pray for something or seek after something, get involved in administering—you’re praying, you’re exercising your faith—and that will grow your faith. But the foundation here is faith.
All right. Now you get a good foundation laid, then you’ve got to put some walls up, and you’ve got to get those walls together. Wall number one—let’s get wall number one. The foundation, help me out, the foundation is what? It’s faith. Good. All right. Wall number one, he says, giving all diligence, add to your faith. What’s the next word? Virtue. Virtue is one of the walls. What is virtue? Virtue is mentioned seven times in the Bible. The best dictionary of the Bible is the Bible itself. The first three times virtue is mentioned in the Bible, it’s actually Jesus healing someone. Remember that lady who said she was just touching? She touched the hem of His garment, and she was healed, and He said, “Virtue went out of me.” The first three times virtue is mentioned, it’s always Jesus healing someone, and He says virtue went out of Him to touch someone, to help someone.
Let me try to put it in practical terms. Brother Marlin gave his testimony this morning about how God saved him a couple of years ago. Man, he’s gotten involved. A year or two after he was saved, he began to teach the boys’ Sunday school class. A year or so later, he started working the media ministry. He’s been busy winning souls, been part of their soul-winning ministry. Now, here’s the thing: He began to grow, and he began to give out strength to others. See? Virtue has to do with strength, but it’s always—if you study it, let the Bible define it—it’s always Jesus giving out and somebody receiving. Virtue went out of Him. See? And I get my faith, I get my Christian life started, but now I get busy serving others. It may be the nursery. It may be my neighbor. It may be a bus ministry. Get involved with a bus ministry somewhere. It may be part of ushering in the church. It may be the choir. It may be someone God just wants you to be a blessing to. But you’re giving out; you’re giving strength out. See? And these things are just growing in the Lord.
We have the foundation. What is the foundation? Help me out. It’s faith. Good. All right. We have wall number one. What is it? Virtue.
All right. Let’s look at wall number two here. We’re just going along quickly; we’ve got a lot of things to cover tonight. He says, “And to virtue knowledge.” All right. This thing of knowledge. The first time—and I’m big on letting the Bible define itself, you know that if you’ve been around here very long—the first time a word is used, the Bible is so good at giving a definition of that word. The first time the word knowledge is used in the Bible is Genesis 2:9, where it’s talking about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If I have to put a biblical definition on the word knowledge, it may have to do with when I learn what is good and what is bad. I gain knowledge.
You get saved—faith—and then you begin to serve the Lord, and the Lord will lead you to serve others. You start serving others and giving out strength there. Then you begin to grow. You learn what’s good for you and what’s bad for you. “Oh, I got to change my music. Can’t listen to the devil’s music. He’ll put you to sleep with the tune of it so he can pump in his filth.” And also, the world has its tune. You learn, “Wow, what’s good for me, what’s bad, what’s right, what’s wrong.” Can’t listen to that music. Can’t hang around those friends. By the way, that’s part of church; you get good friends in church. That’s why one thing that hurts so many across America is that they’re not able to be in the house of God. A big part of that is fellowship, and you get good friends you’re hanging around. You’ve got to have good friends; it’s a necessity. It’s important. Whatever you hang around, you can become like.
So knowledge: you learn what’s good and what’s bad. I can say—and there’s so much to this we’re not covering—but I can say about this negative knowledge: sometimes it is you learning what’s good and what’s bad for you. You’re learning a little bit more about yourself, maybe how you tick, your strengths, your weaknesses. It may be a little bit you have to go back to your past, maybe even to your childhood, and you find out maybe a little bit more why you are what you are. Not to make an excuse so you can do whatever you want to do—no, no, no, no—but so you can grow and overcome those things in your life. That’s part of knowledge. You learn how you can build yourself up on your most holy faith, as the book of Jude says. You get some knowledge about you; you begin to grow in this knowledge of what’s right and what’s wrong and what helps you become a good Christian.
So help me out. We have the foundation of…? Yeah, good, good, good. We want to give you a test at the end. If you fail, you’ve got to stay till you pass. We have the foundation of faith. Wall number one is virtue. Wall number two is knowledge. Good, good.
What’s after temperance? What is the next thing? Patience. Wall number—about the walls—patience. It’s very interesting, and it’s just a word study tonight, so don’t lose me, all right? Patience. The first time the word patience is mentioned in the Bible, it’s actually Abraham. He went down to Gerar, and he was going away from Canaan where God told him to be. He was talking to his wife. He did this twice. That seems pretty sorry of him. He told his wife, “Now look, you’re a good-looking woman. They’re going to be after you. Don’t say you’re my wife; say you’re my sister.” You remember that? Half-sister. But that’s pretty sorry, the guy, in my opinion.
I apologize. Look over here, Matthew 18, and verse number 26. We’re going to talk about patience for just a second here. I’m getting them out of place. I’m about to put a roof where a wall is supposed to be. Amen. That wouldn’t look good on the building. Let’s get this wall of patience here. Matthew 18:26. Here is the first time patience is mentioned. “The servant, therefore, fell down and worshipped him, saying, ‘Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.’” Actually, the fellow ended up having compassion and just forgave the debt. But this servant is coming here. He said, “Look, I know I owe you something, but would you be patient? Would you give me more time?”
Patience, simply, is just allowing more time. It’s in your prayer closet, you understand. You might have to pray for some things over the long haul. Sometimes, when you have a real strong-willed child, it’s not going to be boom; it’s going to be over the long haul. You stay right in this thing. If you have patience, you’re not so demanding when justice needs to be served, thinking, “I’ve got to have it right now.” No, “Give me some more time to pay this debt.” It’s allowing more time. I’ve got to see somebody saved, and if I don’t, I’m going to quit witnessing. No, you realize sometimes you’ve got to stay faithful until God brings the fruit in His time. You just allow more time. You say, “I’m not going to give up on this sin and just say, ‘Well, that’s the way I am.’” You say, “No, I’m going to keep after this.” It takes time to grow beyond this thing. You allow more time in your life. You’re not so out of shape about it, but it doesn’t happen in your time frame. You allow more time for things. It’s just simply patience.
So, we have the foundation of faith. We have wall number one, and we have the wall of—now we have this. There’s supposed to be a wall. I was about to put a roof on, but this is a wall. Now let’s get one side of the roof. We’re going to divide it in two. We have one roof side over here: Godliness. Godliness. Can I just say it this way quickly? It’s when you begin to lose your resemblance to the world and you begin to gain a little resemblance to God. It doesn’t look just like the world anymore. You look a little different. Sometimes it can cause you to be a little odd in this old world. It’ll cause you to sing a song, “This world is not my home; I’m just a passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.” You lose—you don’t fit in here quite so much—as you begin to gain a little bit of resemblance to God. Can I just ask you on this point: Is the world holding on to you in some area? Is there an area where the world just has a hold of you, and you’re not really becoming godly there because the world has a hold of you there? Just think about that. We’re getting a structure up. I’ve got the foundation, the walls, and we’re getting one of the roof sides here; it’s godliness. I’ve got to have a little godliness in there, and I’m beginning to have a little bit of the characteristics and the love of God. I don’t resemble the world so much; I’m separated from the world under God. See?
So we have the foundation of faith, and we have knowledge, and we have temperance, we have patience, and we have godliness. Let’s get this other thing here. Now you can look over in Genesis chapter 20. I apologize; I was going all out at the wrong time earlier. This is where Abraham is talking to his wife and saying, “Hey, would you say you’re my sister?”
Let’s get the steeple on there. We’ll talk about it all morning long. We’ll be done. We’re going to go home, amen, and we’re going to stop by McDonald’s and get us an ice cream over there, you know. But here’s the last thing: charity. We’ve spent all morning long preaching about what is charity. We used 1 Corinthians 8:1: “Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.” It’s no longer about you. It’s love in the graduate course. It’s where you’re focused on the other person. It’s not all this, “Well, I’m doing this so I look good. I’m doing this so me, me, me, so they’ll be good back to me.” No, it’s all about you building them up. You’re focused on what they need. Charity focuses on the object being loved. It doesn’t have selfishness all tangled in there. It’s focusing on their needs. Charity.
Now here’s a wonderful thing. Look at verse number 8. We’re back over here, Second Peter 1. Look at verse number 8. “For if these things be in you and abound…” Boy, you’ve got this building, you’ve got this steeple of charity on there. They make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. These are the Christians that make a difference in the world. Satan will try to keep you from being one of these Christians. These are the Christians that the world can’t change, so they change the world. These are the Christians that you can put them in a factory of a bunch of dirty, smelly, old guys, physically and spiritually, and yet they’ll make a difference there. These are the Christians that aren’t out there for their name and for their glory and so everybody sees them and talks about them and all the rest of that. They’re out there to make a difference that people take note and when they need somebody, they say, “I’m going to go talk to so-and-so.” These are the Christians that work when somebody says, “I’m having trouble with my marriage. I’m going to go talk to so-and-so.” They’re pretty sincere about it. They’re not “Holy Joe,” acting like they’re better than their brother, but they’re sincere Christians. I’ve seen them live it over the years. They’re the Christians when somebody says, “My aunt is so-and-so, she’s about to die, she’s got surgery coming up.” I’ve seen them at work; they don’t spend all their time focused on themselves. They truly care about people. They’ve got the steeple on, and they say, “I’m going to go get them to pray for my aunt.” These are the Christians that make a difference in the world. He said they won’t be barren; they won’t be unfruitful. God will use those people. Satan doesn’t like Christians like that because they make a difference in the world.
Hey, where are you at? Maybe does your foundation need to grow? You can’t have a big building unless you’ve got a good foundation. One of these walls: knowledge. Have you grown in what you need to be and do, and what you don’t need to be and do? Knowledge. Are you adding temperance? Are you gaining some self-control? Or are you just indulging, saying, “Well, I’ve been doing this forever; I’ll probably never change”? Or are you trying to grow through the grace of God and getting some control over things in your life? Maybe your mind, your critical thoughts, whatever may be. Are you adding? By the way, these things are all a process. You’re not going to get there overnight. No Christian ever has gotten there overnight. It’s a process. Add to your faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience. How about that? Or are you just impatient? You need to add some things in your life where you just say, “I can allow some time there. I realize God doesn’t work on my timetable, and I’m willing to stay in there for the long haul and allow more time.” Maybe with your prayer life, or maybe for someone who did you wrong, maybe for justice to happen in a situation. You can’t demand, “God, if you don’t do something right now, God…” God’s not going to listen to you. Yell all you want, but it’s on my timetable. I’ve had to learn that the hard way. You’ve got to have the wall of patience. Where are you at?
So you’ve got to add. You add these things: patience, and to patience, godliness. Is there a part of the world just hanging on to you, and you don’t look much like God because the world has got you in that one area, and you have to let go of that so you start resembling God more? And God is brotherly kindness. You say, “Well, they don’t deserve—they deserve for me to treat them like a dog because of the way they always treat me.” I’m going to let that go. I’m going to treat them better than they deserve. No longer about, “I’ll do this if they do that, how they treat me.” I’m going to be better to them than they deserve. Brotherly kindness. And you get that steeple. You’ve got to add. You can’t—we want charity. All morning long, we preached about the importance of charity, and I want that. I need to grow in that. I can’t get that steeple that caps the building unless I add and get this thing of charity. It’s no longer about you, what you look like, and what everybody thinks about you, what it’s going to do for you. It’s just caring about people. You like to help them. God said those people there, they won’t be barren; they won’t be unfruitful. God said, “I work through those people like that.” This whole world needs Christians with the foundation, walls, roof, and steeple.
Original File: How to Grow in Charity - Pastor Chisgar