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I have been working through the fruits of the Spirit, and we are going to hit on two more qualities. But while you got Proverbs 25 open, I just want you to notice what it says in verse 8. Go not forth hastily to strive, lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof, when thy neighbor have put thee to shame. Go not forth hastily to strive. We'll talk about in a moment, but you know, before I got into the fruit of the Spirit, we're looking at the works of the flesh. And you might recall that one of the works of the flesh is strife. Okay, it's strife. Now keep a finger there in Proverbs 25, and just come with me to 2 Timothy, please. Come with me to 2 Timothy. And while you're turning to 2 Timothy, I just want to just read from Galatians 5 22 that says, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering. We've looked at all those qualities so far. The next two that we're going to be looking at this afternoon is gentleness, goodness, gentleness, and goodness. Then there's faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law. So we're going to be looking at gentleness and goodness. And I just told you, just the thing about that word strife, that word strife is to essentially go and just be combative, be in someone's face, always having to correct the other person, maybe in a harsher sense or a harsher tone. But the first one that we're going to be looking at when it comes to fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit part three, this afternoon is gentleness, gentleness. Now, I just want to read to you a dictionary definition for the word gentleness. When it comes to gentleness, it says here, the first definition, the quality of being calm, kind, or soft. Is that your life? You know, if you look at your life, if you look at your testimony, you look at your character, would you say, pastor, people say that I'm calm. People say that I'm kind. People say that I'm soft. Or do they say the other way? They say, well, you know, they're always in distress or, you know, they're always a bit rough. They're not very kind when it comes dealing with one another. You know, they're not soft. They're very hard to deal with. You know, what would people say about you and your life? You know, one of the fruits of the Spirit, like we see here, the fruit of the Spirit is gentleness. If we're going to be God's people, if we're going to be people that allow the Holy Spirit of God to work in our lives, we must be gentle. We must be gentle. You're there in 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 24. Now, you know, the term gentle gentleness doesn't come up that often in the Bible, but it is definitely through the Spirit. Definitely something that God wants to develop in our lives. Now look at 2 Timothy chapter 2. And of course, when it comes to the book of Timothy, we're looking at the epistle through the pastors, the letters to the pastors. But this is true for all men. Like what we read about, as far as the qualities of a man or the characteristics of a pastor, this should be true for all people. Because it says in verse number 24, and the servant of the Lord must not strive. You know, I'm the servant of the Lord in context of 2 Timothy chapter 2. I'm not someone that should be in constant strife, constantly striving with people, you know, back and forth. It says this, but in comparison to this, the opposite reaction, but be gentle unto all men. You know, the way that I'm supposed to interact with you is to be gentle. Not just my church members. It says gentle unto all men. Now, this is something I want you to think about. Do you think this is just something that pastors need to have? It continues, I have to teach patience. But being gentle unto all men is something that if you ever desire to be a pastor one day, you have that desire, you must learn gentleness. You must learn how to be gentle to all men. Why? Because all men won't see eye to eye with you on everything. In fact, not even your wife is going to see eye to eye with you on everything. Okay. But how do we deal with people that have different points of view? Do we enter strife? You know, do we strive one with another? Do we argue one with another? Be gentle. In fact, you know, when it comes to, you know, even before I was a pastor, you know, you deal with people on a, you know, whether you're a church or you just see life in today, life would just at work, but people are going to live life differently. They're going to see things differently to you. And, you know, I'll tell you the truth. The number one way that I've gotten people to come my way and to see my point of view or to change their positions on certain doctrines was through gentleness. A hundred percent of the time, you know what, when you start to strive one with another, you don't win them over. You win an argument. You might win an argument, but the winner of the argument doesn't win them. Okay. One of the biggest issues I have with social media is, especially something like Facebook, is the strife. You know, if you quote something, you post something on social media, someone's got to respond. You know, someone on the internet is wrong. I've got to respond. It's like that, you know, and then you, you know, then you have, oh, I've got to respond to that. And you know what, in real life, in reality of life, like life, real life people, no one cares. You look like fools just going back and forth arguing online. It's garbage. It's a waste of your time. You know, honestly, when I, the way I've dealt with people and I've won people over to my view is by being gentle. You know, there are many people that I've gotten to see the errors of dispensationalism, different friends and people that I know about, you know, I've, I've shown them the difference, the, or the errors of a pre-tribulation rapture. Do you think I did that by strife? You think I did that by arguments? No. You know, I've had people sit down with me, you know, Kevin, I want to talk to you about the end times. And I'm like, brother, I don't want to talk about the end times. I want to talk about you. I want to know about you, brother. How are you doing? How's your week? How's your family? How's your work? How's your walk with the Lord? The last thing I want to talk to you about is the end times, because I feel like in that part of our time or our relationship, all it's going to cause is strife. And so by showing people that you love them, by showing people that you're interested in them, not what they're thinking up here, interested in your life, your real life. I'm not a thought police. I'm not here to strive and make sure you think exactly how the way I think, or you believe exactly how I believe in this issue. What I've seen in my life is when I'm gentle with people, which is one of the qualities of a pastor, that's when you win them over. That's when they start to realize, hold on, you know, Kevin or whoever it is, is not interested in just arguing with me. He's not interested in just tearing me apart and, you know, ripping me apart with scriptures. He actually cares about my life. And I promise you this, when you start having those qualities about yourself, gentleness with all men, you know, you're going to start helping people. You're going to bring them to the Lord, or if they're already saved, you're going to be able to show them different doctrines of the Bible. Or if they, your coworker, and they're not saved, and they don't care about the Lord, they're going to understand why you homeschool your kids. They're going to understand why you live your life by certain standards, okay, when you're gentle with people. It's true. And I'm just telling you from testimony of my life, how gentleness has helped people, you know, come to my position. Another quality of gentleness is the quality of not being violent, severe, or strong. The third definition here I've got is the quality of not being steep, steep, or sudden. Like as soon as something bothers you, I got to respond, don't react. Hey, no, no, just gentle, calm, relax, gentle. Okay. You know, if you go and knock on someone's door, and they don't want to hear the gospel, you don't say, well, go to hell, I don't care about that anyway. Or you can just go to hell, then or not, you be gentle with people. You say thank you for your time. Okay. You know what, if someone's not being rude to you at the door, God bless you. Because we want God to bless them. We want God to open their eyes, to remove whatever veil might be blocking their spiritual understanding. We got to be gentle with people at the door when we're trying to give them the gospel. We got to love them. They're a real human being. They're not a statistic. They're not just a number, this person got saved. It's a real human being with a real soul that you ought to love. And you know what, my church members are real human beings with a real soul, with a real personality, with real pains and suffering in their life, with a real life, not just a number that makes up the church. We ought to be gentle, kind, tenderhearted, one toward another. Affectionate, like not harsh, not abrasive. You know, I'm not interested in you guys being like me, and I've just got to make you, and I've got to, I've got to just, you know, have a mental arm wrestle with you every time so you can see it exactly how I see it. I am not that insecure. I know what I believe. I know why I live my life the way I live. And that's between me and the Lord. And my job is just to teach you God's Word. And you know what, you guys need to understand that, hey, life is not about strife. It ought to be gentleness. There are other times that we are going to answer strife. Yeah, it happens. I just preach God's Word, there's going to be strife. You just go door to door and people are going to hate you for it. But you know what, I'm not interested in that life. I want my life to be one of gentleness. I want the fruit of the Spirit coming through in my life. You know, if I ever have to correct you, I want to do it with love and gentleness. And I've done that before. I want you, if I ever have to correct you, I want you to be able to walk away from that conversation and says, well, I've just been rebuked by my pastor, but I've got no doubt that he loves me. I've got no doubt that he was gentle with me, you know, and kind-hearted toward me. That's the kind of attitude I want you to have if I ever have to correct you, you know, or rebuke you for some issue. Now, if you actually drop down, you're there in 2 Timothy. Are you in 2 Timothy? Did you turn there? You did? If you can come with me to verse number 14, 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse number 14. 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse number 14. It says this. Now, what I'm trying to show you in verse number 24 is even though the word gentleness doesn't come up very often in the Bible, we definitely see that strife is the opposite of that. Okay? Strife is the opposite of that. And then look at verse number 14. It says, of these things, put them in remembrance. So as a pastor, I've got to remind you, remembrance means I'm going to have to preach this from time to time. Okay? There you go, pastor. You preached out a year ago. You preach out two years ago, or in fact, through to the spirit. I preached out five years ago. I've got to bring you back into remembrance. What? Charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers. See, I've got to remind you, I've got to teach you not to strive, not to strive, not to get into arguments and, you know, fight, especially over words of no profit to no profit. You know, there are people that will make arguments and cause strife over words. You didn't use the right word. Just, just use the Bible word, whatever it is, right? Oh, you know, you taught that incorrectly. You should have said it like this. Striving about words. People just care. You got to say it like this, or you're not right with God or something like that. I'm not interested in those kinds of battles. And I hope you're not interested in just arguing every time someone says something wrong. You know, I know when I preach, even when I preach, sometimes I say, quote the wrong thing. You know, say the wrong term. And man, I'm glad you guys are gentle with me. I want to be gentle with you. And we need to remember that we need to be gentle one with another. You know, there are words that people are going to say that's going to frustrate you. It's not strive over words. You know, we believe the same doctrine, but we're not wording it the same. You got to be like me, or there's something wrong with your doctrine. It's just, it's ridiculous. Strife. It's not the works of the spirit, or through the spirit. It's the works of the flesh. Now you were in Proverbs, weren't you? I don't know if you kept the finger there. Come back with me to Proverbs 25 where we had the reading from. Proverbs 25 and verse number 8. Proverbs 25 and verse number 8. Go not forth hastily to strive, lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof, when thy neighbor have put thee to shame. You know, sometimes you're going to feel like, I've got to fight this battle. I've got to get into an argument. I've got to have my two cents and your neighbor is going to put you to shame. They're going to know more about the situation. They're going to have a better understanding about that than you do, but you go forth. I've got to quickly get my two cents in there. And then you show yourself to be ashamed. You don't, you don't really know what you're talking about. You're entering into an issue that doesn't belong to you. It says in verse number nine, debate thy cause with thy neighbor himself and discover not a secret to another. This is the same issue that if we ever have an offense one to another, you know, you take that by yourself to that individual person. You know what? There's something you've done. I'm not going to go broadcast it to the whole church. I'm not going to broadcast it to everybody that needs, that I feel needs to know about. No, no. We go to our neighbor ourselves and discover not a secret to another. We don't go around gossiping. Did you know this brother did this and this brother did that, and we don't want, I don't want gossip. That's not being gentle. Gentleness is what we're seeking for. Verse number 10 says, lest he hear of it, lest he that hear of it put thee to shame and thine infamy turn not away. Infamy is like the word famous, but you're famous for the wrong reasons. You become famous for your strife. You become famous for your insecurities. You become famous for your strife, like, you know, being argumentative. That's not the testimony that you want to have in your life, which is why gentleness is so key. Okay. Cause if you wrong me, for example, I wrong you, we ought to have the fruit of the spirit of gentleness. So you know what? I want to deal with this situation gently, not harsh or abrasive or being loud mouthed or, you know, creating gossip, creating divisions, creating issues. No, we ought to be gentle in the way we deal with one another. If we have something that we've offended one toward another. Can you come with me to 1 Thessalonians chapter two? 1 Thessalonians chapter two, please. 1 Thessalonians chapter two and verse number seven. 1 Thessalonians chapter two, verse number seven. Now I don't know what you think of the apostle Paul. The apostle Paul is pretty zealous, pretty zealous guy. He's very strong as well. Like he's very strong willed and a strong character. Even before he was an apostle, we see that he's zealous for God, even though it was misplaced in the persecution of the church. I want you to realize how he deals with his church here. In 1 Thessalonians chapter two, verse number seven, he says, But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherrifeth her children. He says the way I deal with God's people is being gentle, being gentle with you. You know, again, this is why I'm not just going to come in and interfere with your life. I'm not just going to come into your house and tell you how wrong you're doing things. You know, my goal again is just to cherish you guys as children, growing in the Lord, you know, having a shepherd, teaching God's words. Look at verse number eight. What is he gentle with? So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us. Dear. You know, I ought to look at my church as being dear to me, and I hope you guys look unto me and look unto each other as being dear and precious for one another. I love for one another. But I want you to notice that Paul deals with them gently. And when he says about being gentle, again, he says not the gospel of God only. So even the way he preached the gospel and got people saved was being gentle. Again, I want our church to be gentle, okay, when we go door to the soul winning. I still get complaints, you know, about people, you know, you've come to my door, you've left garbage on my door, what have you, you trespassed. And of course, you know, I'm always going to defend the soul winner. But I'm not going to defend you if you weren't gentle. If you were causing strife, you know, if someone told you, look, I'm not interested, and you just, you just stayed there, you stuck your foot in and, you know, I don't know, got emotional, whatever it is, I'm not going to defend you over that. You know, I'll be embarrassed. It's a shame. It's a shame to you, if you don't have the fruit of gentleness in your life. Can you come with me to Second Samuel, please? Second Samuel chapter 22. Second Samuel 22. Now, in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, when I think of someone that is a soldier, a real soldier, someone that is a hardened, you know, warrior, you know, one of my first thoughts, I don't know who you get in your head, but one of my first thoughts is David. In the David, right, he's the one that took down Goliath, you know, he was able to defeat the enemies of Israel, and give peace and hand over a kingdom to his son Solomon, during a great time of peace. King David is a hard man, like he's definitely a man of war. Okay. And so one of the ideas you might have with David is that surely David was not gentle, maybe like, you know, he was definitely a very hard man. And yet when you look at Second Samuel 22 verse number one, I want you to notice what he says here. And David spake unto the Lord, the words of this song, in the day that the Lord delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul. So this is a song that David sings. He goes, this is why he sings it, because God's delivered me from all of my enemies. He says, God's given me peace. I've won victory over these enemies. I've had war. But he's able to acknowledge it was God that delivered him out of his enemies. In verse number two, he said, and he said, the Lord is my rock and my fortress, and my deliverer. Do you notice what he says? Like, he says, like, essentially, it's God that gave me victory. It's God that strengthened me. It's God that's given me the ability to beat these enemies in warfare. Drop them to verse number 36. He says, thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation. And look at this, and thy gentleness hath made me great. I thought that was really interesting when I read that before, you know? No, no, because I think in the time of David, and you know, we know that, you know, what's that song that they sang when David killed Goliath? They said something like, Saul slays his thousands, but David is ten thousands. And like, David's been, he's making a great name for himself. And his great name is known for defeating Goliath. And of course, like I said, a powerful warrior was David. You know, David's able to turn around even in the midst of war, even in the midst of greatness. You know, this could go to someone's head and go, what a great warrior, what a great king I am. He says, you know what made me great? God's gentleness. That's what he says, in thy gentleness hath made me great. If you met David, if you, you know, when we go to heaven, we ask David, David, you know, what's the greatest thing that you've had? What made you a great man of God? You would think, oh, defeating Goliath or something like that, right? Defeating the Philistines, because now he was God's gentleness that made him great. God was gentle toward him. Okay. And when we look at the fruits of the spirit, don't forget, these are not fruits that's going to develop in your, from your physical life. Like you can't force this. It's not of the flesh. Like we saw earlier, like in the other fruits, right? You know, if we want to have the fruit of gentleness, we must have access to that gentleness from God. God can make you great as a gentle person. I want you to think about that. God can make me great with his gentleness. If I can receive his gentleness, he can bring this fruit into my life, this, you know, into my, into my soul. And I can live a life of gentleness. This can make me great. But see, a lot of people have the other idea. They think, no, no, if I'm argumentative and I win battles and I win Facebook arguments, that's going to make me great. No, your gentleness is going to make you great, as long as it's coming from the Lord God himself. So it's called the fruit of the spirit, coming from God that can affect and change and mold your life in such a great way. Come with me to 2 Thessalonians, please. Second Thessalonians chapter one, second Thessalonians chapter one. Let's talk about goodness now. We look at gentleness. Let's talk about goodness. Now there is none good, except God, of course. Okay. But that's why, again, if we want to be good, if we want to know for our goodness, again, it must come from God. The fruit of the spirit, the Holy Spirit developing this in our life. This is the work of God in our life. Goodness. Second Thessalonians chapter one, verse number 11. Second Thessalonians chapter one, verse number 11. Wherefore also, we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, I love this phrase, to fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with power, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and ye in him according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to notice that. What is God seeking to fulfill in your life? What is your calling that our God will count you worthy of this calling? What calling? And fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness. So it gives God good pleasure if we're able to, as it says here, of his goodness, if we can be utilized for God's goodness, this gives God good pleasure. Do you want to please God? I want to. I want to please God. You know, I don't want to be at church and not please God. I don't want to serve him and not please God. You know, I want to make sure that if I'm going to do something for his kingdom, and sometimes I pray this, I just want to put a smile on God's face. Because I think about all the sin, all the offenses that I've done against God, and that this world continues to do against God. And I just want sometimes, Lord, I just want to put a smile. I just want to please you, Lord. And I know the only way that I can please him is to walk in the Spirit. And if I please him, if I walk in the Spirit, he develops the fruit of the Spirit. One of those fruits is goodness. That means I can do good. I can do something good on the behalf of God. And this gives him good pleasure. Goodness. And again, in verse 12, it says that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you. If we can do good, which only God can do, but if we through the power of God and through Spirit can do good, we can also see that we are glorifying the name of Jesus Christ in our life. Isn't that a great quality to have? Glorifying Christ, pleasing the Father, because we're doing something good for his name's sake. So the Lord has a calling for us, and he wants you to be worthy of that calling. Okay? But again, we can only do good, we can only truly do good through the power of his goodness. Can you come with me to Ephesians chapter 2? Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2. What are you saying, Pastor? What's your point? My point is this, and you know this already, but I want to remind you that God has a plan for your life. And the way he fulfills that plan in your life is by developing these fruits. And these fruits, whether it's goodness or gentleness or, you know, love and joy and peace, long suffering, whatever it is, God wants to utilize us to serve him, okay? To further his kingdom, to bless his name, to glorify Christ. That's the plan that he has for each one of us. But we must do it by the Holy Spirit of God and for the fruits that he develops in that spiritual life that we have. Like Ephesians 2, you guys know this passage, we always quote this when we, you know, when we're trying to preach to people that salvation is not of works, because it isn't. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And we should, you know, stand strong on that, that salvation, by faith and not of works, not of you. But one thing I do want to be clear is what follows in verse number 10. It says, For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God have before ordained, that we should walk in them. You know, this is why sometimes people say, what about the fruits, the evidence of salvation, the garbage, the evidence of salvation is your faith in Jesus Christ. But at the same time, I want to make sure that we understand there is something that we should do, something we've been created for, something God ordained before the foundation of the earth is to do good works, to be good. You know, whether you do good or bad doesn't show me you're saved. It's your faith in Christ that shows me you're saved. But at the same time, do I expect God's people to do good works? I expect it. I expect myself to do good works. If you don't do it, I'm not saying you're not saved. That's where a lot of people go wrong. I'm just saying that's the expectation. God wants to work in you. And you know why God's not working you the way you think, or the way you think you should have? Because we walk in the flesh. Instead of seeking the fruit of the spirit that God wants to develop in our lives, we do it in the flesh. You know, you can come to church in the flesh. We joke about it, brother Michael, don't we? Great to see in the flesh, but hopefully in the spirit. That's better! Okay? We don't want to be just in the flesh. And the spiritual man is still at home or something like that. You know, we can go soul-winning in the flesh. You know, I can preach in the flesh. You believe that? I can. When we do it for the glory of man, when we do it to be seen of men, when we do it just to look good in front of man, we're doing things in the flesh. You know, we ought to do things in the spirit. Goodness. God wants to develop that work in our lives. And sometimes, and like, I understand, I want to be careful. Because we sometimes get frustrated, you know, we who understand, and we want to make sure the gospel is clear as crystal. That it's not a works. And then when we hear a preacher say, you know, you know, if you're saved, you ought to be doing works. And you know, what's he saying? Is he saying that he's not saved? We get a bit too zen. No, no, we should be doing works. We should be doing good works. It's the fruit of the spirit, goodness. You know, we should be looking at areas that we can help. Now, going soul-winning is a good work to do. You know, serving the house, serving the church, you know, serving the house of God is a good work to do. Praying for one another is a good work to do. Getting baptized like we did between services is a good work to do. These are all good things to do. But we need to find out, Lord, where can I serve? How can I serve you? How can I do good? Because Jesus went around doing good. Jesus went around doing wonderful things. Lord, how can you utilize me to do good the way Jesus Christ did good when he walked this earth? Can you come with me to Proverbs chapter 20? Proverbs chapter 20 and verse number 6. Proverbs chapter 20 and verse number 6. Proverbs chapter 20 and verse number 6. I want you to think about this before you read it. I just want you to think about, do people, do others, do my brothers and sisters in Christ, do they say that there's gentleness and goodness in my life? Like, is that what others say? Because we can deceive ourselves and think we are good. In Proverbs 20 verse 6, it says, most men, most men, most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness. But a faithful man who can find. Most men, that includes church members. Most of us want to proclaim how good we are. Okay. Most of us want to mention that others aren't doing that good. Whether that's comparing them to themselves or comparing them to other brothers and sisters in the Lord. Most men have that attitude. I want to be seen as good. And either they'll praise themselves or they'll criticize others that are not as good as them to appear to be good, to appear to be righteous. That's what most men are like. And if I hear most men, like the Bible says, that's probably your default position in the flesh. You want to speak highly of your goodness. But a faithful man who can find. Come with me to Proverbs 27 verse number 2. Proverbs 27 verse number 2. Proverbs 27 verse number 2. Proverbs 27 verse number 2 says, let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth. Isn't that opposite the way we saw in Proverbs 20? Let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth, a stranger and not thine own lips. You know one way you can measure goodness in your life is if other people praise you. If other people speak highly of the things that you're doing. I want you to think about that yourself again. You know, what do others have to say about my life? Because we can deceive ourselves. We want to. Most men will praise their own goodness. Speak of their own goodness. But is that what others say about you? Do others say you're a person of joy, you know, peace, love, you know, long suffering, goodness, gentle. Is that what people say about your life? Are they praising you for the fruit of the spirit that you've got in your life? Because sometimes, and I hope I don't offend anybody, I'm not trying to, sometimes when there's a lack of people speaking of your good characteristics, that's when I better speak up and speak of my own goodness. But you see, it's your example to others. When they speak well of you, you can sort of assess, hold on, I am developing this fruit. This is something that has been recognized, you know, by my brothers and sisters in the Lord. This goodness, this gentleness that I have in my life. Can you come with me to Hebrews 13, Hebrews 13, Hebrews 13 verse number 15. You know, coming to church is a place that we should definitely do good one to another. Most definitely, coming to church, Hebrews 13, 15. Hebrews 13, 15 says, by him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips and the fruit of our lips. Sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. And look, I believe we're doing that well at New Life Baptist Church. I believe our songs, our praises, our worship is getting better and better as time goes on. You know, I do believe you come to church for the purpose of offering your sacrifice of praise to God. But don't forget verse number 16. But to do good and to communicate, forget not. So it says we can come to church and we can praise God. We can forget to fellowship. We can forget to communicate. We can forget to do good one to another. Forget not, for with such sacrifices, God is well pleased. Remember we talked about pleasing God? With such sacrifices, God is well pleased. And then verse number 17, obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls as they that must give account. They may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you. You know, one day I'll have to give an account to God from New Life Baptist Church and all the members of our church and say, Lord, this person calls me grief. Oh, this person brought me joy. I hope I can bring joy in your life. I hope, you know, I'm not grievous to your hope. I hope so. You know, whether it's serving God in the preaching or whether it's our interaction as friends, our conversations. I hope you don't walk away, man. That pastor gives me a lot of grief. You know, we ought to do good and communicate and communicate, forget not. What I love about verses 15 and 16 is that verse 15 is about God. Our sacrifice to God. And I think we do pretty well at that. But sometimes we think, well, I've come to serve God. I've come to church, but I don't go to church for the people. I go to church for God. I'll offer my sacrifice to God, which is good. Not church, you know, people, strange people, strange pastor, strange families. No, no, no. What is well pleasing to God is that we do good, that we communicate, that we fellowship, that we don't run away from conversations, that we don't just get busy serving God with our sacrifices and forget our sacrifices one to another. I want you to remember the people here are real human beings with real pains, with real suffering, with a real week that they had to go through. And I guarantee you, you know, some of us did not have great weeks. Guarantee you, some of us have had tears and burdens and sorrows and stress. And one reason to come to church is not just to glorify God, which is excellent, which must do, but to be edified, to do good one to another, to love one another. We can do better as a church. You know, I often say, you know, people come to this church for the doctrine, but you know what's going to keep people at church? Your love, your gentleness, your goodness, your friendship, your fellowship. That's what's going to keep people at New Life Baptist Church. So we're not to forget to communicate, we're not to forget to fellowship, to do good one to another, to serve one another. Those sacrifices are well pleasing to God. Goodness. Can you come with me to 1 Peter chapter 2? 1 Peter chapter 2. Not only in church, but in our society. We live in a wicked world. We live in an ungodly world. We live in a corrupt world. But in 1 Peter chapter 2 verse number 12. 1 Peter chapter 2 verse number 12. I don't know these verses no one likes. I don't know why. I kind of like them. You know, I like him because he gives me a lot of peace. But honestly, when I talk to him, I'm not going to name any names, but I've seen as a general rule, people don't like these verses. Believers don't like these verses. As a general life rule. 1 Peter chapter 2 verse number 12. Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles. When it says Gentiles, it's about the unbeliever, okay? Just the people in society that we deal with. Being honest with the people, our neighbors, our work colleagues. People that you just come across at the shops, whatever it is. Let's have an honest conversation. Life with them. That whereas they speak against you as evildoers. Look at this. That that may by your good works, which they shall behold. Glorify God in the day of visitation. You know, our society ought to see how good works as well. They ought to see that we're good people as well. You know, when you go to work and everyone else is unsaved and there might even be reprobate and this and that, who knows? You know what? You ought to say, you know what? I'm going to shine the light of goodness, the fruit of goodness in my workplace. Even if they think I'm crazy, I'm going to do the best. I'm going to get busy. I'm going to work hard. I'm going to be a good employee. For my employer. You know what? When I go out and I see my neighbors, I'm going to say, hi, I'm going to wave. I'm going to smile, even though they think I'm crazy. Cause they don't see my kids go to high school or primary school. They see them at home. You know what? I'm going to show them my goodness. They can speak evil of me if they want, but you know what? They're not going to be able to turn around and say, they're going to turn around and say, well, you know what? They're a bit weird. They're strange, but there's, they're good people. There's goodness in them. Again, how well do people around you think of you? Not just your church members, your family, your friends, your coworkers, your neighbors, people that you just come across. Do they see your good works? Do they see the fruit of goodness in you? You know, I don't want this to turn into a lifestyle evangelism. The way you get them saved is by showing how good you are. And then they'll, you know, they'll go on their knees. What must I do to be saved? That's never happened. Or has it happened? I'm trying to think. In all my life, I've probably only ever had once or twice where someone says, Hey, you know, Kevin, I just want to know what's, why are you different? And I've been able to give them the gospel. But even those two times, I didn't see them get saved. I guess it works to some extent. But more importantly, what we do see with the good works is that they glorify God. They say, Hey, you know what? This person's a believer. And they're different. They're good. They're strange, but they're good. You know what? That glorifies God. Cause you're walking around showing them to be a child of God. There's only one good and that's God. And you're showing them that you are a child of God. Verse number 13 in 1 Peter 2 13. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. People don't like that. Whether it be to the king as supreme or unto governors. Do you really believe when Peter was writing this, that his governors and his kings were just these wonderful God fearing people when he wrote these words? I tell you, there is nothing new under the sun. His politicians, his kings, his governors were just as corrupt as ours were. And maybe even more so. Okay. And yet he says these words. Look, I didn't write that in your Bible. People don't like, honestly, people don't like those verses. Submit yourselves to every ordinance for man, of man for the Lord's sake. Whether it be to king as supreme, verse 14, or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of them that do well. You know what? I want to be the kind of person where our governors and our politicians will praise us for doing well. Is that such a horrible desire? And that's something that God wants, has asked of us to do? Ah yeah, we don't like what they preach. Their doctrine's strange. But really, when it comes to their daily life, there's nothing to accuse them of. Like they're good citizens. They just, even if they don't like it, they submit themselves to every ordinance. All right. They, they obey the, I need to learn this one, right? They obey the driving limit, speed limit. Okay, brother Oliver, that's your expertise. They obey, like, even the things that seem ridiculous. To not give God a bad name. They still submit themselves to these ordinances. That's how you can show goodness in society. Goodness to our governors, our politicians, and what have you. They don't have to like what we preach. They're not going to like the Bible. That's, I'm not expecting them to like the Bible. But I want them to turn around and say, you know what? We don't like them, but they're good. Like think of Pilate. He still got Jesus crucified. But he said, but he's innocent. Like this is a good man. Like Pilate had no issue. Like, you know, he still killed Jesus Christ. But he says, look, I can't, there's nothing against him. Like there's nothing worthy of him to be put to death. He's an innocent man. Can you come with me to Titus chapter three? Titus chapter three, verse number eight. Titus chapter three, this is our last passage. Titus chapter three and verse number eight. Titus chapter three and verse number eight. Gentleness, goodness. These are the qualities we must have in our life. In Titus chapter three, verse number eight, it says, this is a faithful saying, and these things I will, that they'll affirm constantly. We must affirm this constantly. We must be reminded of this constantly. That they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. Look, this sermon is not going to get the 500 views. You preach on the fruit of the spirit goodness. It's not going to get the views. It's not going to get the likes. You preach against a false prophet. Or, you know, whatever false religion exposed. Or you preach about the reprobates. Or you preach on the end times. Look, those are the videos that get views. But I'm not interested in how many views we get on YouTube. I want to know what must we constantly preach? What must we constantly affirm that we be careful, careful, full of care? This is something we ought to be thinking about on a regular basis. Man, God wants me to do good works. God wants me to be a good father, a good husband, a good pastor, a good church member. All right? A good worker. You know, a good citizen of Australia. You know, a good neighbor. That's what God wants from us. Regardless of who we come across, we must be careful to maintain good works. Look what it says, these things are good and profitable unto men. This is profitable even. You do good and God will bless you. God will reward you. God can bless you in this life or God can reward you in eternity. Like I said, this is not going to be my most popular sermon ever. Gentleness and goodness. People don't like that. But see, we don't develop it. You know, we feel like sometimes we've got to be this constant battle, constant striving, constantly just debating whoever's wrong on the internet. But really what God is looking for is gentleness and goodness. The fruit of the Spirit. Is that you? Say, Pastor, I am. We saw that most men. Yeah, I am. But is that what others say about you? Think about it. I don't know. I'm not saying you are or you're not, you know. I just want you to do some self-examination. I like David, like King David in the Psalms. When he says something, he sometimes says to God, God, can you search my heart, try my reins? You know, am I living the life that you want me to live? Am I expressing the qualities of the Christian life that you want me to express? Or have I just deceived myself? We can deceive ourselves. We can lie to ourselves. Maybe I'm not that great of a pastor. I don't know, right? So sometimes we need, Lord, Lord, can you help me? Lord, am I doing things in my flesh? Am I doing it for the praise of men? Am I doing it to criticize or do I truly love your people? Am I truly gentle with the people you've given me? Am I truly good with the people that you've given me, Lord? You know, Lord, please develop these fruits of the Spirit in my life. Okay, let's pray.