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So until next time Cue the music. All praises to the Most High God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And peace to everyone joining us on this program. This is the Fountain of Israel's Bible Studies program, and as always, it's an honor for me to stand before you on the Lord's Holy Sabbath day.
This lesson we're going to continue in our series entitled, The Fruit of the Spirit. Okay, The Fruit of the Spirit. Now, last week you should have watched maybe one of the Works of the Flesh videos, and this week we're going to be talking about...
Long-suffering goodness and gentleness. Long-suffering goodness and gentleness. Okay, so with that we're gonna jump right in there now.
The scripture that got us started is in Galatians chapter 5, right? So we started there at verse 19, but we're gonna go to Galatians chapter 5 in verse 22 to show you what we're gonna be focusing on this week, right? So at Galatians 5 and 22, It reads, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness.
So for now, we're just going to focus on long-suffering, gentleness, and goodness. Long-suffering, gentleness, and goodness. Now what we're going to do is we're going to look at the meaning.
We're going to look behind the words first, and then we get into our lesson, right? And in the Strong's, long-suffering means patience, endurance, constancy, steadfastness, perseverance, right? Stick-to-it-ness, what we would say today.
Then it also means, in the Thayer's lexicon, it means patience, forbearance, long-suffering, slowness in avenging wrong. So some of these things are going to be very important. The Strong's definition is longanimity.
That is forbearance or fortitude, long-suffering, and patience. So we see the growing theme is patience, long-suffering, endurance, patience. So that's what we're dealing with today.
So we're going to look at it from, obviously, a fruit of the Spirit, one of the things that we should be manifesting in our spirit. And we're going to also look at how our Father manifests these things or demonstrates these things as well. OK, so we're going to look above and we're going to also look within ourselves, which, of course, comes from above.
Right. All the good things come from above. So with that, let's go ahead and look back at Exodus 34. And we're going to look at goodness. OK, Exodus 34, Exodus 34. And we're going to do one through six, chapter 34, first six verses. Right.
And it says in the Lord said unto Moses. Hew these two tablets of stone like unto the first. And I will write upon these tablets the words that were in the first tablet, which thou breakest. OK, so we already knew when Israel went a whoring after other gods, almost immediately after Moses went up to get the first set of tablets, he break them out of anger.
He broke them out of anger. OK, so now at this point here, he's making the next set of tablets. All right.
The second set of tablets. In verse 2, he said, Be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto Mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount. And no man shall come up with thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount, neither let the flocks nor herds feed before the mount. And he hewed two tables of stone, like unto the first. And Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took his hand and the two tablets of stone.
and the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. In verse 6, and the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth. So we got to understand he has, he's long-suffering and he has grace and gentleness and he has all these things, he manifests all these things because we have to remember that When they cried out in Egypt, who came to save them?
It was the Most High God of Israel, right? So he came and he saved them. And when they were going through the wilderness and doing all these different things, who provided for them?
Now he did it by the hand of Moses, but who provided the manna? Who provided the water from the rock? Who provided all these things?
And I'm talking overall, you know, who provided all these things? Okay, who saved them from Pharaoh and the armies that were chasing behind them, who got them in the Red Sea? Who fought the fight for them when they could not fight for themselves?
And yet, when they go a whoring after other gods, when they go and abandon the God who saved them, when they go and abandon the father who saved them, he still had long suffering for them. He still had patience for them. So we're going to continue.
Let's go to Ezra. Let's go to Ezra. Talking about the most highest goodness. Ezra chapter 3. Let's go to Ezra chapter 3. We're going to read the first six verses and then we'll skip.
alter upon its basis. For fear was upon them because the people of those countries, and they offered burnt offerings thereon unto the Lord, even burnt offerings morning and evening. They kept also the Feast of Tabernacles, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number according to the custom and the duty of every day required, and afterwards offered the continual burnt offerings, both of the new moons and of all the set feasts of the Lord that were consecrated.
And of every one that willing willingly offered a free will offering unto the Lord. From the first day until the seventh month began they to offer burnt offerings unto the Lord. But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid. OK, so at this point, we're going to drop down to verse nine. We're going to read nine through eleven.
This is. uh jeshua with his sons and his brethren cagmel and his sons and the sons of judah together to set forth the workmen in the house of god the sons of henod with his sons and their brethren the levi And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets and the Levites, the son of Asaph, with symbols to praise the Lord after the ordinance of David, king of Israel. Now look in verse 11. And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord because he is good for his mercy endured forever toward Israel. and all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the lord because the foundation of the house of the lord was laid okay because all his goodness for he is good all his goodness because he done he had done things for israel that israel did not deserve and when israel messed up He had a lot of patience. He had a lot of long-suffering for them.
How many times do we have to read in many different places when Israel turned back and turned back and turned back? Look at the book of Judges. You can look at the beginning of almost every book in there. And they did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. And then the Lord sent a judge or deliverer.
And he kept doing it over and over and over. And he still has all this patience. giving each of us an opportunity to turn it around that's what we have right now and that's all grace is and this lesson isn't about about grace but that's all this is about when he has this long suffering that is me and your opportunity This is our opportunity to turn it around.
We should be lucky that he is long-suffering. And in the last passage, we should be lucky that his mercy endures forever. That's the benefit of it.
And we should be the same way with one another, having a little bit of patience. Guess what? Because you're not perfect.
Neither am I. So we should have a little bit of patience, a little bit of long suffering for our brother or sister. How much patience do we have for our children?
So we should have some patience for our brother because we're not perfect. Yeah, we're going on to perfection. We're on the road to perfection. We're headed in the direction of perfection, but we're not there yet. Let's keep that in mind.
Let's read Psalm 23. Psalm 23, you guys know, half of you probably know about heart, but Psalm 23 really points out all the goodness that the Lord has for us. There's only six verses, but it really points out the goodness that he has, the long suffering that he does. for us, his gentleness for us. Look at what it says here. The Lord is my shepherd.
I shall not want. He making me to lie down in green pastures. He leaded me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul. He leaded me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake. So we do what we do for his name's sake and for his glory. 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.
Thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou prepare the table before me in the presence of mine enemies.
Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup with oil. running over surely what goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever do you guys understand that that I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever he says goodness and mercy shall Follow him. We're looking at that goodness.
It means in the lexicon is good and pleasant and agreeable. All these things good, rich, valuable in estimation, good, appropriate. Okay. Better, glad, happy, prosperous.
All these things shall follow him because we walk in the path that the most high has set before us because we walk in that path. Morally good. Okay.
Prosperity, happiness. Okay. That's what we have for that goodness.
Those type of things will follow us. Those type of things that this is what we want. We should also exude it.
We get it from him and we should also pass that on, of course. And it starts at home. Goodness starts at home. Let's keep that in mind. We're still in Psalm.
We're going to go Psalm 145. Let's go to Psalm 145. And when I get there, I'm just going to read verses 5 through 7, then I'll skip a little bit. It says, I will speak of the glorious honor of thy majesty, and of thy wonderful works. And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts, and I will declare thy greatness. So we're talking about his greatness now, right? They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, goodness again, and shall sing of thy righteousness.
Now let's read verse 9. And the Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works. How patient has the Most High been with you? How patient has he been with you?
How much long-suffering has he demonstrated when we are acting like children? How much goodness can we recall in our minds, can we imagine in our minds right now, that he's been good to us, that he's been patient and long-suffering. When you've been trying to get rid of or trying to repent of something so bad, repent of a particular sin or a particular iniquity, and it's like a monkey in your back, and you're constantly saying, you know, Lord, forgive me, and he hasn't yet condemned you there's long suffering that's goodness that's mercy that's gentleness that he didn't punish us immediately i don't want any of us to forget that see because there were times in the bible when you sinned against him and you got your judgment immediately now we don't get the judge we don't all the time we don't get that judgment immediately and we get careless sometimes you But the point is, look at the long suffering.
Now, the same thing that he's given us, the same thing that he's given us, we need to do the same thing one to another. You want long suffering from him? Give it. You want goodness from him? Give it.
It's one of the fruits of the spirit. You want gentleness from him? Give it.
Because if not, why would you think you deserve it if you can't give it? Let's keep that in mind. Let's go to James 1 and 17. James 1, I'm just going to read one verse, 17. It says, Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and coming down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He's all good. All good.
Completely righteous. All light. Sometimes we don't understand his judgment.
Maybe we don't understand his ways. We don't understand how he thinks, but he said that also. My ways are not your ways.
My thoughts are not your thoughts. There's no surprise there. So all these things that we want from him, he's already given it to us, but all these things that we want from him. We have to demonstrate.
It's one of the fruits of the Spirit. All of these things. This is the evidence, that's the evidence that you are one of his. That's not the only, but this is one of the evidence that you have the spirit. Because that spirit should be bearing fruit.
The very spirit should be bearing fruit. So he's giving us an idea of how do I know, how do I know the spirit dwells in me? Well now you know, because you will be bearing fruit. You can't give what you don't have. And we know he's giving it to us.
We look back on it. Many of us, we have very, very humble beginnings. How many times have you thought the bill wasn't going to get paid in somehow, some way? You know what I'm saying. You know what I'm saying.
You know exactly what I'm saying. Let's talk a little bit more about this. Matthew 7. Matthew 7. And I'm going to start at verse 7 actually.
It says, Or what man is there of you whom if his son asks bread will he give him a stone he's asking a question or if he asks a fish will give him a serpent if ye then being evil he's called us that know how to give good gifts unto your children. I look at that and say, now if you're evil and you know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him? See, you and I, we have sin on our hands. And yet, somehow, someway, if our child needs food, we give it to them. If our child needs raiment, we give it to them.
Our children. See, so whatever it is that our children, we feel like that they need, we do everything in our power, everything that we can to give it to them. Even though we're sinners.
Even though we were formed in iniquity. We're born into iniquity. Even though we know that.
Even though we're fallen people. So how much more does the Father, how much more? He knows what to give, knows exactly what to prescribe you.
We don't always want to take our medicine, but he knows exactly what to prescribe for us. He designed us so he knows our programming. How much more?
Let's keep going. Let's keep going. Numbers chapter 14. Okay.
Numbers chapter 14. And I'm going to pick it up at 18. I'm going to focus a little bit on long-suffering. It says the Lord is long-suffering. and great and of great mercy let's look at the hebrew for long suffering okay it has a couple of definitions are eight in the hebrew are eight okay patient and slow to anger that's that long suffering he's patient and slow to anger look where he says the lord is long suffering and of great mercy forgiving iniquity and transgression and by no means clearing the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation pardon i beseech thee the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy and as thou has forgiven this people from egypt even until now and the lord said i have pardoned according to thy word but as truly as i live all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the lord look at this long suffering see they already we're in numbers they had already messed up a couple of times they messed up a couple of times already a bunch of times and again you know you have moses still asking the same thing would you forgive them you you you're long suffering you're merciful please forgive them he said you know what i'll pardon them it's okay i'll i'll pardon them Long-suffering.
Question is, do opportunities come your way to be the exact same way? We're talking about the fruit of the Spirit. Starts at home, start with your children. Is there an opportunity to be patient with them, to be long-suffering with them? His parents, right?
The family. It's a microcosm of what's going on above. What's going on in the heavens.
That's why at the most high he used family type terms. I'm your husband. I'm your father. We're brethren.
What's he trying to do? He's trying to make a family. To get us right.
So what does he do? He creates marriage. He allows us to have seed, you know, bless the fruit of our body and things like that.
And guess what? We have an opportunity, just like we were rebellious against our father, our children rebel against us a little bit sometimes too, right? And we have an opportunity to be long-suffering, to be merciful, to bestow goodness upon them. Do we not do this for our children?
To show gentleness. These are the fruits of the Spirit. See, we have all these, what do we call, you know, in the natural, we just say teachable moments and everything. Sometimes it's for us to learn. Sometimes it's for us to demonstrate that.
So when we ask our children the exact same thing, they have the opportunity to do that. They can be long-suffering in patience with their siblings. All this is the proving ground. All this is training.
All this is an opportunity for you and I to demonstrate we bear those fruit. It starts at home. And then it starts with your brethren. It starts at home and then you do that to your brethren, to Israel, and then to the Gentile.
Order and protocol. You show those. You demonstrate those fruits of the Spirit.
That's the only way we know. You say we should know them by their fruit, right? That's the only way. And it's not about proving anything to anyone. It's not about that.
It's just about living it. It's about you making it a part of who you are. It has to be engrafted in you, right? If it's in you, it's going to bear fruit and come out. That spirit will come to fruition.
So again, keeping with the topic, do you have long suffering? Goodness. Gentleness.
because i submit to you we both have plenty of opportunities to demonstrate it let's continue let's go to jeremiah 15 jeremiah 15 and i'm going to start it at 15 jeremiah chapter 15 verse 15 O Lord, thou knowest, remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors. Take me not away in thy long suffering. Know that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke. This is Jeremiah talking.
Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart, for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts. Now, of course, he's just saying, look, you know, I hear what you're saying. saying and I accept it I took it into my heart it was wonderful it was great it was wonderful right 17 I sat not in the assembly of mockers nor rejoice I sat alone because of thy hand for thou has filled me with indignation like I can't okay I one thing I can't do I can't stand what these other people are doing that they're disrespecting you Lord so people mocking you I'm not gonna stand for that right why is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable which refuses to be healed without be altogether unto me as a liar and as as waters that fail therefore thus said the Lord if thou return Let them come to you. You don't have to go to them.
And 20, and I will make thee unto this people a fence brazen wall, and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee. For I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, says the Lord. And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible.
So I got you. He's going to do all those things because one, he's long suffering. He's patient, even when we mess up.
And then he's going to demonstrate this goodness. and in this case upon Jeremiah because he said take me not enough and I and I long suffering take me not away and I long suffer be patient with me and sometimes that needs to be our cry that needs to be our prayer we need to be a hey Lord just be patient with me now of course we have to have a you know contract spirit We got to be willing to humble ourselves because he resists the proud. So when we get ourselves in line, we get ourselves in order, then maybe we can get something happening. Maybe he'll hear our cry.
but this is the only way we're gonna know if we have the fruit of the spirit it's the only way we're gonna know amen so let's go to ephesians chapter 4 ephesians chapter 4 and first three Which reads, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering forbearance one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. Okay, what did I say earlier? Being a little patient with one another.
Not everybody's on the same level. Not everybody's on the same page. Okay?
Not everybody's on the same page. I do videos sometimes and people jump smooth out the window over something that I say or something that I make and they jump right out. Boom. They feel like, hey, I gotta correct this guy.
Let me go, you don't know anything. Brother, you stupid. You unlearned and all that. I go to their page.
Boom. Nothing's there. Nothing there.
No lessons. No nothing. Just...
criticism. Finding videos they don't like, they take exception to something somebody said, and boom, they go at it. They go to town.
And I'm not saying, hey, I cannot be wrong about something. Of course I can. I'm fallible. I'm a human. But...
if I am wrong, then be patient. And sit down with me, or over the phone, and let's talk about it. Let's edify one another. How's that for an idea? Let's talk about it.
Let's sit down like men, and let's talk about it. Let's pull out the scriptures and let's talk about it. But to condemn someone or make a final judgment right off the rip, we never even spoke face to face.
Does that make sense? Is that patient? Let's continue.
All right, let's go to Colossians. Let's go to Colossians chapter one. and i'm going to go start at verse 3 colossians chapter 1 verse 3 i'll go 3 to 6 and then i'm skip a little bit right verse 3 says we give thanks to god and the father of our lord jesus christ praying always for you since we heard of your faith in christ jesus and the love which ye have to all the saints for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel which is come unto you as it is in all the world and bring it forth fruit and it's thus also in you since the day you heard of it and knew the grace of god in truth now i'm going to skip down to verse 9 and we're going to do 9 through 12 for this cause we also since the day we heard it do not seek to pray for you cease to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
Let's see what else it says in 11. Strengthen with all might according to his glorious power unto all patience and long suffering with joyfulness. So if someone come to me and they're brand new, they don't really understand, I'll be a little patient with them. They don't know.
Be a little long suffering with them because they don't know. Why condemn your neighbor and you don't know what level of understanding that they have? You don't know. So why not start off being patient to find out? That's how we have to deal with one another.
That's how we have to deal with one another. Let's continue. We're going to go to 1 Peter, if you will. 1 Peter chapter 3. Okay, 1 Peter chapter 3. And I'm going to begin reading at verse 15. 1 Peter chapter 3. And I'm going to begin at 15, which reads, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.
Having a good conscience that... Whereas they speak evil of you as evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. For it is better if the will of God be so that you suffer for well-doing. than for evil doing so they're talking about how uh how you walk your walk in life right so if we go back to that conversation that conversation let's show what it means okay the conversation says manner of life conduct behavior and deportment okay and the strongs in lexicon right so it just means your behavior your good behavior your good manner of life your good deportment okay in christ in verse 18 for christ Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.
By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing. Wherein few, that is eight souls, were saved by water. So long-suffering. Wow.
How long did it take Noah to build the ark? And then when we look over in Jude, he said, you know, that Noah was a preacher of righteousness. Or was that in Peter? But he said, it is said in the new and every new covenant that Noah was a preacher of righteousness.
So how long did he preach? Asking people to repent, asking people to do better, asking people to please God. Long-suffering, long-suffering.
Gave him a long time. How old was Noah when he entered the ark? What, 400 years old by that time or something? It was crazy. And the whole time he's building the ark, you tell him, hey, y'all need to repent.
Hey, you're making the Lord upset. Come back to the Lord. Stop being so wicked. Give them a chance. And what happened?
Noah and his household were saved. Eight souls. Because the Lord has long suffered and gave them a long time to repent.
Now obviously most of them knew they weren't going to repent, but they had an opportunity. They had an opportunity just because he knows the result doesn't mean that they didn't have an opportunity to repent. He was long suffering. The Lord is truly, truly good. We just, we got to get that.
We can't strive to become something. We can't try to demonstrate anything good because the goodness comes from the spirits, right? All this goodness comes from above.
It's not in our measly estimation. It's not within us to do it. You know how we were formed.
So anything good, it comes from Him. So we have to understand and believe that He is good. It's the only way we'll be able to get it.
Only way we'll be able to manifest it if we understand that. He is good. He is long-suffering. He is merciful.
He shows us gentleness. We have to believe that he has it. If we don't believe he has it, if we don't believe we serve a God that this is what he's about, then we'll never manifest it.
And if it were not possible, it wouldn't even be here for us to get. It wouldn't even be here for our ancestors to write us and say, Hey, look, boom, these are the fruit of the Spirit. This is how you know these are the fruit of the Spirit.
Please understand this, brothers and sisters. Please get this. We're going to go to 2 Samuel.
chapter 22 and we're going to read starting at verse 31 and we'll read to 37 it says as for god his way is perfect the word of god is tried he is a buckler to all them that trust him okay you For who is God? Save the Lord. And who is a rock?
Save our God. God is my strength and power and he maketh my way perfect. He maketh my feet like hinds feet.
He setteth me upon my high places. He teacheth my hands to war so that a bow of steel is broken by my arms. Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation and thy gentleness. gentleness now and I gentleness have made me great his gentleness has made me great thou has enlarged my steps under me so that my feet did not slip so that he doesn't make a mistake so that he doesn't mess up his gentleness you wanna look at you his gentleman gentleness Now we know David went through some things.
We know David messed up. He went through some things and stuff like that, but we can all agree that the Most High showed a lot of gentleness to David. A lot of long-suffering, a lot of gentleness, a lot of goodness.
He was winning wars that didn't look like he was supposed to win, but he did. Saul was trying to kill him, but the Most High didn't let him kill him. And then David turns around and does what he was receiving from the Lord. He's being long-suffering or patient with Saul who was trying to kill him. And could have killed him what?
Twice? At least twice. He could have killed him, but he didn't. He's like, you know what? No.
I know he's trying to kill me, but no. So this is the kind of stuff that happens all the time and we gotta get it through our heads. We gotta get this through our heads.
This is the kind of stuff that happens all the time and we miss it. And we miss it. Let's continue. Because this whole thing, I can tell you right now, this song, this... Let's get a little bit more to it.
2 Samuel, let's just go to the first verse, okay? Let's just go to the first verse. This is David, and he's just...
He's just appreciating everything that the Most High has done. So let's just look at it a little bit, okay? And David spake unto the Lord the words of this song. So he's making a song. So let's look at David's song.
The song, in a day that the Lord had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies. and out of the hand of Saul. That's what we're talking about, right? And he said, the Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, the God of my rock. In him will I trust.
He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my high tower and my refuge, my savior. Thou savest me from violence. Okay?
So we got to have this type of attitude if we want to keep experiencing God's long suffering and his goodness and his greatness and his gentleness. I will call on the Lord who is worthy to be praised. So shall I be saved from my enemies.
And when the waves of death compassed me, the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. The sorrows of hell compassed me about. The snares of death prevented me.
In my distress, I called upon the Lord and cried to my God. And he did hear my voice out of his temple. And my cry did enter into his ears. So he heard me. Verse 8, Then the earth shook and trembled, the foundations of heaven moved and shook, because he was wroth.
There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured, coals were kindled by it. He bowed to heavens also, and came down, and darkness was under his feet. And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly, and he was seen upon the wings of the wind.
And he made darkness, pavilions around about him, dark waters and thick clouds. of the skies. Through the brightness before him were coals of fire kindled. The Lord thundered from heaven, and the Most High uttered his voice.
And he sent out arrows and scattered them, lightning and discomforted them. And the channels of the sea appeared. The foundation of the world were discovered at the rebuking of the Lord, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils.
He sent from above. He took me. He drew me out of many waters and he delivered me from the strong enemy and from them that hated me, for they were too strong for me.
Do you guys understand? Are you hearing what David said? David said. Okay.
Verse 19. He prevented me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my stay. He brought me forth also into a large place. He delivered me because he delighted in me. Look at all this goodness.
Okay. For, uh, for I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God for all his judgments were before me. And as for his statutes, I did not depart from them.
I was also upright before him. for him and have kept myself from mine iniquity therefore the lord has uh recompensed me according to my righteousness according to my cleanness in his eyesight with the merciful uh with the merciful thou will show thyself merciful and with the upright man thou will show thyself upright okay so he he puts that out there we demonstrate that and he notices that you And with the pure thou will show thyself pure and with the froward thou will show thyself unsavory. And the afflicted people thou will say but thy eyes are upon the haughty that thou mayest bring them down.
He resists the proud. He will make the proud humble. You humble yourself or he'll humble you for you.
He'll do it for you. for thou art my lamp oh lord and the lord will lighten my darkness for by thee i have run through a troop by my god have i leaped over a wall and then we get right back to where we were before man i just wanted to read all that just so you can see exactly what david was thankful for So he can show you all the things that the Most High done for him, and he recognized it. Do you recognize what he done for you?
Do you recognize it? Do you see it? Do you get it?
Do we get it? Now you go do it. You do the same.
Let us continue. Psalm 18 and 35. Psalm 18 and 35. He said, Thou has also given me the shield of my salvation, and thy right hand has holding me up, and thy gentleness has made me great. What has made him great? The gentleness. So we're talking about the fruit of the Spirit, right?
We said the Father demonstrates it to us first. He says, let me show you how to do it. The gentleness, right? So we're talking about his gentleness. Let's look at that gentleness.
Do we recognize it in the God that we serve? Because there's many things. Part of it, long-suffering, merciful, goodness, greatness, long-suffering.
And it just so happens to be some of the fruit of the Spirit. Just so happens. Let's continue.
Let's go to Romans 12 and 13. Romans chapter 12, verse 13. Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation. Continuing instant in prayer. Let's see if I got this.
And then 13. Distributing to the necessity of the saints given to hospitality. OK, to the necessity of the saints given to hospitality. That's 12 and 13. So this is part of goodness given to the saints.
Hospitality, part of being good. That's part of being good. Can you help out a brother or sister? Can you help them out? All the doctrine may not line up.
You may not believe every single piece of doctrine, but you do believe in Torah. You do believe in the Messiah. That's a start.
Let's start helping each other. How about that? Because the first thing that we normally do, we miss all these opportunities. We miss all these opportunities to demonstrate goodness and gentleness and long-suffering. We miss all these opportunities because first what we want to do is we want to examine somebody.
Okay, we want to go ahead and get our little checklist and examine people and say, okay, do they believe this like I do? Do they believe this like I do? Do they believe that like I do?
And all that. We want to put our little check mark and make sure that everybody, make sure that they agree with you before we're willing to help them. We're too anxious to teach. and not so anxious to help where's the goodness we're too busy we're ready let's let's well let me see what this brother know let me teach this sister everybody wants to be a teacher now nobody wants to be a doer everyone's a teacher that's their goodness let me just run my mouth let me just prove to you how much i know let me just prove to you how much of a scholar i am when it comes to the scriptures you Watch me juggle these scriptures real quick. Let me show you.
Look at this. Look at this. Look at that.
I can do three, four scriptures at a time. Throw me another scripture. I can do this.
Look at that. But to help someone? Well, I don't know, brother. Let me... I don't know.
Let me pray on it. Let me see. That's a missed opportunity to show some goodness. My goodness! Too quick to teach.
Real slow to help. What are we doing? What are we doing? Let's continue.
Luke 14. Let's go to Luke 14. And when we go to Luke 14... I'm gonna do I'm gonna start at 12 and stop at 14 it says uh then he said also to him that bade him when thou make it a dinner or a supper call not thy friends nor thy brethren neither thy kinsmen nor thy rich neighbors lest they also bid thee again and or recompense be made thee meaning oh well you invite these people to a party and a feast and a banquet and all that well when they have one they're just going to invite you over there and then you just have each other and you just you know you party with me one day i parted with you another day you have a feast with me one day and you're gonna have a feast with them one day and that's it then what good is that he said but when thou maketh a feast call the poor the main the lame the blind and thou shalt be blessed for they cannot recompense you they can't pay you back they cannot recompense thee for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just hello i'm sorry there you go you want to demonstrate some goodness try that try that one Try that one. You want some goodness? You want to show gentleness? How about you try that?
What am I making this stuff up here, brothers and sisters? Come on, come on. What are we doing?
Try that one on for size. Let's continue. 1 John. No, 3 John.
3 John. Verse 5 through 8. Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren and to strangers, which have borne witness of thy charity before the church. if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort thou shalt do well because that for his name's sake they went forth taking nothing of the gentiles we therefore are to receive such that we might be fellow helpers to the truth helpers doing something good showing a little gentleness showing a little goodness having patience for one to another is this a new concept or something love thy neighbors thyself why are we so can someone tell me why are we missing this It's supposed to be a fruit of the spirit, right?
Why are we missing this? Why is this not happening? Go meet Isaiah 58. Isaiah 58. I just want the first eight verses. I'm really focusing on six through eight, but we're going to start the verse. Okay, now he said cry loud, spare not.
Lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways as a nation that did righteousness or forsook not the ordinance of their God. They ask of me the ordinance of justice. They take delight in approaching of God.
They love putting you. We we. we love to look the part.
We love to sound the part. But are we actually doing it? Are we actually demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit? That's what he said.
They love coming to me daily with the sacrifices. Oh, we got to do this. We got to go serve the Lord.
Oh, okay, I'm going to go ahead and get this peace offering and this burnt offering and this meat offering. I'm going to go do this. They love to approach me. They want to know what thus says the Lord. They want to know.
That's what it says in verse 2. It says that they want to know that. They love that. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways as a nation that did righteousness.
and forsook not the ordinance of their God they asked of me the ordinance of justice they take the light in approaching to God verse 3 wherefore have we fasted they say and thou seest not wherefore have we afflicted our souls and thou taketh no knowledge behold in the day of your fast ye find pleasure and exact all your labor so you did so they said look God we we fast for you you you're not noticing this we do all this and you're not noticing that He said, yeah, but when you do it, you exact your own pleasure. You still go about and do your own thing. Did you do it for me?
Or are you just putting on a show? Behold, ye fast for strife and debate and to smoke with the fist of the wickedness. Okay?
You want to just do all that. Ye shall not fast as you do this day to make your voice be heard on high. Is it such a fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul?
Is it to bow down his head as a bull rush and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Without call this a fast and acceptable day of the Lord. So when you do all that, you put... on a nice show you put on your sackcloth and ashes that's what they did when they wanted to mourn put your head down and you look sad and you do all this you do all these things but he tells you exactly what he wants you to do that's why we're going to go ahead and continue go to six he said is it um it's not just the fast that i've chosen look at what he said to do he said to loosen the bands of the wickedness to undo the heavy burdens and to let the oppressed go free and that he break every yoke he telling you exactly what you do why don't you just do that is it not to deal bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house when thou seest the naked that thou cover him and that thou hide not thyself from thy own flesh from your own brethren from your own family don't hide yourself act like what you know family need you go run the other way is it not to do that and then verse eight then shall thy light break forth as the morning and thy health shall spring forth speedily and thy righteousness shall go before thee the glory of the lord shall be thy reward So he's telling you exactly what he wants you to do. Exactly how to be good, show goodness and gentleness and be patient.
Showing exactly, showing you and me exactly what he wants us to do. And we can go in many places. Are we getting this? Are we understanding this? the audacity the temerity the unmitigated gall of some of us let's go to our last place let's go to uh hebrews 13 and wrap it up hebrews 13 i'm gonna start it at 12. the camp bearing his reproach for here have we no continuing city but we seek one to come we seek a city to come we don't have a continuing city but we seek one to come by him therefore let us offer the sacrifices of praise to god continually sounds like something david did that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name 16 but to do good and to communicate forget not for with such sacrifices god is well pleased Are we not making this clear at this point?
This is how you have the fruit of the Spirit. How else will you know you have it? Try it.
You might learn something about yourself. You might discover you do have the fruit of the Spirit, or you might discover that you don't and you need to work on it. It can be a win-win. Do good. Have long suffering.
Show gentleness. It's for His glory. It's not for you. It's for Him.
I mean, ultimately for you, but it's first for Him. It's to glorify Him. Someone sings your praises.
Oh, you're so kind. You're so wonderful. You did this.
I didn't deserve this. Oh my God. It's for His... send that up.
and he'll keep sending it down. Are we starting to get it now? I want it to sink in.
This is what I want for you and me. This is what I want, family. This is what I want for you and me. This is what the Most High wants.
We want to possess the fruit of the Spirit so that we're good to one another, so that we are long-suffering with one another, so we can demonstrate gentleness one to another. I hope someone has been edified by this particular lesson. This has been the fruit of the spirit, long-suffering, goodness, and gentleness.
So, until next time, search the scriptures and prove all things.