How to Love People Better

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Amen, so good. Hey, you can be seated for just a quick minute, and welcome to the local church. My name is Carson Pedraza. It's my privilege and honor to welcome you here today, especially if you're a guest in our house. We're so grateful that you're spending your Sunday morning with us. In fact, we have a free gift just for you. It's our little way of saying thank you for joining us. If you haven't already done so, do us a favor, fill out that Connect card in the seat back in front of you. We wanna put a free gift in your hands so much more than that. We wanna get to know your name and your story. Make sure you get a proper welcome here today. And hey, one thing that you will learn about is pretty quickly, one of our core values here at the church is that we believe help happens here, that the way that we serve God is by serving other people. And we do this through various CityServe projects we shared last week as our bin was overflowing with backpacks. This summer, our CityServe project is really a back-to-school project to support schools in our local community that are under-resourced and under-supported. And so, we kind of did a poll and said, hey, to these schools, how many backpacks do you guys need for the kids in your schools?

And we even asked our church familia, hey, those that we know as single parents or kind of are struggling, need extra support. And we did a big old count. We said, okay, we need 250 backpacks. And so this week, we had a team of serve team members come in and go through every backpack and make sure it had all the supplies needed and put a little note in there that says, hey, Jesus loves you, that this is a gift from God. And then we counted them. And so we knew that we needed 250 backpacks. And by the grace of God, we ended up with 257 backpacks. And so way to go, church. Way to go. And I was just speaking to some families outside. They said, yeah, we did the campus cleanup thing yesterday or the other day. It was fun, it was exhausting, but it was great. And so just loving what God is doing through, in and through our church as we are loving and serving our community. These people are learning, hey, this is not just good deed. This is God loves you. This is what service looks like. This is what care looks like. And when you give to the local church, that's where it's going. You're giving through this church that's serving its local community.

It's meeting real needs right here. And it's letting people know it's not just physical need, but it's spiritual too. If all we do is feed people, but we don't let them know God loves them, we haven't done our part. And so it's all of it combined. And so if giving is part of your worship today, there are several ways you could do so. They're on the screens behind me. You have some offering boxes on your way out, a giving kiosk in the lobby. You can always give safely and securely online, but right now we're gonna pass some buckets. And so if you're on the left-hand side of your row, if you'd do me a favor, reach down and pass that to your right, it would be greatly appreciated. And as those are being passed, had a really cool kind of God moment this past week that I wanted to share with you guys. I was heading to my car to step out for lunch really quick, which doesn't happen super often. And as I was almost to my car, I was met by a part of our church familia who had just pulled up in the parking lot with a family member and just said, hey, like life has gotten a little too tough and we don't know what else to do but to pray. And around here, we believe that prayer

is not our last resort, it's our very first response. I'm gonna invite our prayer team to come join me up front right now. And maybe you're here today and life has just hit a little too hard. You don't quite know what to do. You don't quite know what step to take next or maybe you just need God to show up in a circumstance. And you could always meet us in a parking lot and on a Wednesday afternoon, or you can come forward right now and we'd love to pray with you. We'd love to stand in the gap with you, believing that God has called us to leave our burdens at his feet, believing that it's the safest place for them, believing that's exactly who God is, the character to show up and care and provide and all those things. So I'm gonna ask all of us stand to our feet. And if you're here right now and you need prayer, I'm gonna invite you to come forward. But maybe you're here and you don't need to pray about anything specific. God's blessed us with the community of each other that we get to lift each other's burdens in prayer. And so I'm gonna pray for a handful of prayer requests representative of the many, if you're comfortable. Would you just extend a hand in agreement this morning? God, we come before you recognizing

look at what the Lord has done. Look at what you've done, God. You've provided hope. You provided care. You provided your love and your grace. You provided healing in circumstances that we never could have imagined. And so we call upon that same God, that same God who is worthy of all praise, who can do all things, who can move a mountain, who can make the blind see. We call upon that God for the burdens of this house, Lord, believing that when you show up, things change, God. And so right now we come before you asking for Glenn who needs a kidney replacement, God. We pray right now that you'd move him right up that list, that he'd be the first on the list. We pray right now that you provide a healthy kidney, a kidney that is a match, not just a kidney that is a match, but a kidney that will make him better, that will provide healing. We thank you in advance for what is coming. We pray right now over the heal, over those doctors. We pray right now over that surgery. Pray right now over that healing process for what is yet to come. believing that you are not done with him yet, that you have a plan of health, a plan of restoration, a plan for him to stand on his two feet and lead his family and love his children well and step into the fullness of the calling that you have for him and you are still in the midst. So we

thank you for what you're going to do in that circumstance. God, we pray for Dan, whose business has been good, where life looks good but it's just gotten a little heavy, God. For the leadership, the responsibility, all that it takes to carry a successful business, God, and as his arms have grown tired, Lord, we pray that you surround him with the people who can lift him up. We pray that he would keep his eyes on you and as you continue to show up in blessing and overflow in his business, you do that in double in his personal life, God. In his heart and in his mind, a peace that can only come from you would show up, God. We pray right now for Florence, who has a mass has shown up on some scans on her brain and God, we pray right now against that mass. We pray that not only is it not cancer, not only is it bad news, God, but it is no longer there. We pray that the doctors would say it was here one day and it's gone the next. It can only be by the grace of God. Pray the name of Jesus over that mass that'll be removed, that'll be a smudge on a picture, that would be just a shadow and then it is forgotten and that you would get glory and praise because what you're going to do in and through her body, God. Pray for the people in this room right now, Lord, who are on a path and they don't know which way to turn. They're weary and they are tired, God, that you have not left them. We pray that you would lift their arms. We pray that your grace and endurance in all circumstances, God, we pray for those who are carrying burdens you have not called us to care that would put them down and we carry the burden and the calling that you have placed for us, God. Pray for people in this room right now who are battling things that nobody knows, Lord. We pray that you would remove the secrets, the things we called out of darkness into light, God. We pray for your grace to show up in their circumstances. We pray for truth to show up in their circumstances, God. We pray that you would show up in all the things and all of the lies and the deceits and the worry that is in the darkest places of our hearts and minds, God, that we were replaced with your truth, with your promises, with your grace, believing that when you show up in these things, God, that your grace and your goodness and your power and your presence, God, you are so worthy of our praise. We're so grateful that you show up in all of it. We're so grateful that you show up in our mess, grateful that you take it and you do something with it. Thank you. Grateful that you are God who redeems. Grateful that you're God who's not done with us yet. We love and praise you. In your great name we pray, amen and amen. Amen. Church, we're going to continue to worship together today. Let's do just that.

Father, we honor you this morning. We give you glory. We open our hearts, Lord, and welcome you to this place. There was a moment when the lights went out When death had claimed its victory The king of love had given up his life The darkest day in history There on the cross they made for sinners For every curse his blood atoned One final breath and it was finished But not the end we could have known Before the earth began to shake And the vampires stung What sacrifice was made As the heavens roared And all hail King Jesus For the king of love had given up his life The darkest day in history There on the cross they made for sinners For every curse his blood atoned One final breath and it was finished But not the end we could have known For the king of love had given up his life The darkest day in history There on the cross they made for sinners For every curse his blood atoned One final breath and it was finished But not the end we could have known Before the earth began to shake And the vampires stung What sacrifice was made As the heavens roared

And all hail King Jesus For the king of love had given up his life The darkest day in history There on the cross they made for sinners For every curse his blood atoned One final breath and it was finished But not the end we could have known Before the earth began to shake And the vampires stung What sacrifice was made As the heavens roared And all hail King Jesus For the king of love had given up his life The darkest day in history There on the cross they made for sinners For every curse his blood atoned One final breath and it was finished But not the end we could have known Before the earth began to shake And the vampires stung Kingdom life was on the move Yeah For in a dark cold room ♪ Through where our Lord was laid ♪ ♪ One miraculous breath ♪ ♪ That will forever change ♪ ♪ All hail King Jesus ♪ ♪ All hail the Lord of heaven and earth ♪ ♪ All hail King Jesus ♪ ♪ All hail the Savior of the world ♪

♪ All hail King Jesus ♪ We surrender to him now. ♪ All hail the Lord of heaven and earth ♪ ♪ All hail King Jesus ♪ ♪ All hail the Savior of the world ♪ ♪ Savior of the world ♪ ♪ Let every knee come down before the King of Kings ♪ ♪ Let every tongue profess that he is Lord ♪ ♪ Lift up your shout, let us join with all of heaven ♪ ♪ Singing oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ Come on, sing it out. ♪ Singing oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ That's why I'm holy ♪ ♪ Singing oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ Raise your voice, church. ♪ And all hail King Jesus ♪ ♪ And all hail the Lord of heaven and earth ♪ ♪ And all hail King Jesus ♪ Come on, we're talking about the King of kings. Raise your voice and sing it out. ♪ And all hail the Savior of the world ♪ Come on, sing it one more time. ♪ And all hail King Jesus ♪ ♪ And all hail the Lord of heaven and earth ♪ Let your voice fill this room. You deserve the glory. ♪ All hail King Jesus ♪ ♪ And all hail the Savior of the world ♪ Come on, let's sing it one more time. With everything you have inside of you, sing it out.

♪ And all hail King Jesus ♪ ♪ And all hail the Lord of heaven and earth ♪ ♪ All hail King Jesus ♪ ♪ All hail the Savior of the world ♪ Let's pray together. Fathers, we come to you. We're grateful that we can worship you as the Lord of heaven and earth. Father, thank you for who you are, for the things you do for us. Father, we're grateful that you love us so much that you let Jesus come and be a sacrifice for our sin so that we can have that eternal security that only you can give. So Lord, as we cry out to you today, we tell you we love you, we praise you, and we're grateful that we can be here, that we can learn, we can grab hold of the things you want us to know. So we give this time to you and we praise you. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, you can be seated. Well, good morning and welcome to the perfect place for imperfect people to experience the presence of God. That's very important to us and we want this to be that kind of place for you because it is for us because we're imperfect. That's why we need a perfect Savior. My name's Garland. I'm one of the pastors here at the local church

and we're just grateful that you're here spending part of your day with us. a weekend with us. We're gonna continue our series, it's called Warning Signs. And we are looking at God's wisdom and how it often comes to us in the form of a warning sign. God warns us when there's danger ahead. He warns us when we drift off course and then this one is really good for me. He warns us when we lack the common sense to stay out of trouble. And I need that help often. You know, when you get out on the road and you do a road trip, there's a lot you have to be aware of. You gotta prepare for it. But as you're driving, there's a lot of things going on. My wife and I, we just did a trip up to the Carolinas a couple weeks ago and took us 10 hours to get up there and it took us 12 hours to come home. There was a terrible accident on I-95 and we were using Waze to kind of help us along and let us know there was a bad accident. So it gave us a detour, added two hours to our trip, but according to what it said, it saved us an additional two hours, which is good. But Waze gave us warning signs so that we could be aware of what was ahead of us and hopefully save us some time, right? Well, 12 hours is a long time on the road.

Talked to someone after the first service and they said, we just drove home from North Carolina. It took us 14 hours yesterday and that's a long trip. But here's some of the things my wife and I learned after our 12-hour trip home. We've done this, I don't know, 100, 200 times. So we have family up in that area. But here's what we learned this trip. Maybe it's our age, whatever, but number one, next time we're gonna fly, okay? And at least my wife will fly and I will drive and pick her up at the airport, all right? But one of those is gonna happen, all right? Here's the second thing, and I really believe this is true, that people now are getting their license from Amazon. All right, I think it's 4.99, free shipping. You choose whatever state you want and you just drive however you want, you know? And they have a ball with it, doesn't matter, okay? Here's the third thing, I need to pray for me before we get on the road and be a little more sensitive when I'm driving, okay? Those are some things that we kinda learned from this trip. Well, my wife and I, we have different driving skills. All right, let me explain that. She is a right-lane driver and I am a left-lane driver, okay? Now, if you don't understand that, I will be glad to explain and hopefully educate you in some driving skills, okay? The right lane is for people

who choose to drive under the speed limit, sometimes way under the speed limit. And that's okay, there's a right lane for that. There's even the side of the road, okay? The left lane is for people who have great driving skills, all right, and choose to drive the speed limit or maybe a little above it, okay? But that lane is so they can move around you, right-lane drivers, okay, and keep you out of the way. Very important, but that's kind of our skills, all right? She's right lane, I'm left lane. And anytime she has been with me and I've been pulled over, I'll just say it, okay, by the local authorities, she thinks it's the greatest thing in the world. I mean, she just starts laughing and she's just like, wow, this is great. And I'm like, why is this great? Am I gonna, I may have to pay, our points go up on it. She's like, no, this is awesome, you're getting a ticket. And usually when the officer comes up and he'll look at me and he'll say, sir, you know why I pulled you over? I'm not gonna lie, because he knows why he pulled me over. I just smile and say, yes, sir, I was speeding. I'm, you know, I was speeding. She's like, wow, an honest one. And like, usually it helps, okay? So for those of you who lie to the police, stop, all right?

Just be honest, it honors God and it might help you out, okay? But she's hilarious, she'll pull her camera out, her phone, and she's like, I'm gonna take pictures. Well, you can't do that. She's like, why not? She goes, I can't, I know, but you might tick the cop off and then he's gonna give me a ticket. She's like, well, you drove fast. You know, she just thinks it's wonderful. And you know, it breaks my heart, okay? But anyway, the other day I was sitting in the garage and I have a little table out there that I kind of use to work on some things here and there. And I'm sitting there and it's kind of facing the open door and she comes walking out of the house and she has an envelope in her hand. And I look at her and she's just smiling and she's all happy and I go, hey, what's that? And she goes, you've been served. And she hands me this envelope and I'm like, well, what is that? I thought maybe I had jury duty or something. And I look and it was a photo surveillance notice, which means they gave you a ticket because they took a picture of you doing something. something wrong. And I'm like, what is this? And it's got my name on it, it's got your name. And I was like, okay.

And so I'm looking at it, I'm a little frustrated. I just glanced at it and I sat it down and it just kept bothering me. So a few minutes later, I was like, I took it, I opened the envelope, I pull the paper out and I'm looking and it's telling me exactly when they gave me this ticket, when they took a picture and the whole deal and I'm like, that's crazy. I don't drive at that time and I don't go on that road. I have the same pattern I use every day when I come to the church. And so it's just frustrating me. And I look down and then there's pictures. They have pictures of your car and pictures of your license plate. The first thing I look at is a license plate and I'm kind of like pulling it in. I'm like, that's not my license plate. And as I look up, my wife's car is parked in the driveway and it's her license plate. And I was like, oh. And so I look further down and I see a picture of her driving her little car and she was speeding. She broke the law. I was just devastated my wife would do something like that. And so I took the letter and I folded it neatly, put it back in the envelope and I went into the kitchen and I handed it to her and I said, you've been served. Well, the bad part is the car's in by name. So, you know, so anyway, here's what we learn, okay?

As we go through life, if you don't pay attention to the warning signs that God gives you, then life's gonna give you some tickets. That's what it comes down to, right? Here's the big idea in our series. Write this down if you would. The spirit of God gives us warning signs. The spirit of God gives us warning signs. John chapter 14, it says this. I will ask the Father and he will give you another helper to be with you forever. This is Jesus talking to the disciples before he went back to heaven. And he said, it's called spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him because it does not see him or know him, but you know him because he lives with you and he will be in you. But the helper will teach you everything and will cause you to remember all that I told you. This helper is the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name. So Jesus said, I'm gonna give you a helper. It's the Holy Spirit. This is the one that will give you the warning signs. This is the one that will lead you, will guide you through life. And just like the lights on your car dashboard that tell you when something needs attention, the Holy Spirit leads and guides us. It's a gift from God.

Just like the road signs on the highway that tell you what's coming ahead, a school zone sign tells you to slow down. A one-way sign tells you that there's only one direction here. A stop sign tells you to what? Brilliant, okay, good job. All right, a yield sign tells you someone else has the right away. A U-turn sign, which we talked about last week, tells you that you can change your direction. Love that. When our series warning sign over the past three weeks, we've looked at the stop sign. God has given us the Holy Spirit to say stop when we're headed the wrong way. The yield sign following Christ is about yielding the right of way to others. And then last week, Pastor Dan talked about the U-turn sign, repent, turn away from the wrong direction into the right direction. Incredible message. If you missed it, you need to look it up and watch it. Last week was an amazing week. We had a lot of people make U-turns in their life. Eight people gave their lives to Christ last week. How incredible is that? Yeah, we need to celebrate that. 25 people took their next step of baptism in their life. 12 of those were spontaneous.

At the end of the service, decided they needed to take that step. We can clap for that too. Love celebrating those things. That's what the local church is about. Let me share one other thing that happened this past week that the local church opened their doors to. And thank you for that. We were blessed to honor the life and legacy of Hollywood Fire Rescue Battalion Chief, Mike O'Donnell on Thursday. He passed away recently. He had a job related sickness and they did full honors and they called and asked if they could do it here at the church. And we were happy and honored to be a part of that. A lot of you know David Shapiro. He's the tall guy with that long beard. Okay, some of you might say he's a good looking guy. I'll leave that up to you, all right. But David and I have the honor of being chaplains for Hollywood Fire Rescue. We got to be a part of that. And the local church continues to be a place that the local community calls on for things like that. And we're so blessed to do that. So thank you for making that possible. Well, let's continue with our. This series is called Warning Signs. The warning sign that we're looking at today

is deer crossing, deer crossing. Now, some of you are like deer crossing. We don't even see many of those signs down here. That's true. You will down in the Keys. There's a key deer on a couple of keys down there and different places in Florida, you may see it. But as you go north from here, you'll see more and more. When my mom was six, she lived up in South Carolina. I used to drive up there quite often. Just wanted to spend time with her. And it was usually a two or three day trip and then I'd head home. And I would always try to leave very early in the morning, beat the traffic, get home. Well, it was still dark out and there's a lot of deer crossing signs there. And the reason why is there's a lot of deer up there. And every time when I would head home and it was still dark out, I would see a lot of deer. Sometimes right on the side of the road, sometimes they run in front of you, but you had to be careful, you had to avoid them. When I was growing up, we lived in Indiana for a few years. In Indiana, there's a lot of corn, there's a lot of soybean and there's a lot of deer, okay? And you have to be careful. And I had several friends who hit deer. You have to pay attention to the warning signs. Now, I love deer.

I think they're great little animals, but my wife loves them more than I do. And I mean, she can spot a deer when we're driving along. She loves it. And if I ever hit a deer with her in the car, I'm gonna be in trouble. I mean, that's just it, whether it's my fault or not. She would say something like, you just killed Bambi. And I would just say, oh, you know, because, well, it happens sometimes, right? But here's the reality. We all have Bambis in our life. And these are people who are very sensitive people and we have to look out for them. We have to be careful. Here's the reason why, write this down. We all have the tendency to run over people and not even know it. Sometimes they just jump out in front of you and you run over them. You didn't even mean to. It's not always intentional. Sometimes it's in our conversations. It's the way they hear something. Sometimes it's in our actions. Maybe it's the way they see it, or maybe our actions were on purpose. Sometimes we just talk too much. That's usually when I get in trouble. Well, today's lesson is on how to quit running over

the Bambis in your life, because we all have to learn how to deal with sensitive people. And if you're thinking, well, I really don't need to learn how to be sensitive. Well, this lesson's probably for you, okay? Because you do. Here's the directive for today. Write this down. Be sensitive. Be sensitive. Check out what scripture says about that. In Romans chapter 15, verse one, it says, we who are strong must be considerate of those who are sensitive about things like this. We must not just please ourselves. We should help others do what is right and build them up in the Lord. So we have to be aware of the people around us and their sensitivity. The idea is to quit running over the Bambis in your life. We must all learn how to deal with sensitive people. So to be honest, sometimes we're kind of proud when we run over them, aren't we? I mean, that's just the reality. Some people, they like to say, well, I just tell it the way it is, right? I just speak my mind. I speak the truth and I speak it loud, right?

They are the problem. They can't handle the truth. Well, here's a biblical response to that. Ephesians 4.15 says, speak the truth in love. It's just very clear. Speak the truth in love. We're called to speak the truth, but we're also called to balance it with love. Very important. Here's the issue. None of us are perfectly balanced in this. What do I mean by that? Some of us are better at the truth part and some of us are better at the love part. So let's ask a couple of questions. How many of you would say that you are better at speaking the truth? Raise your hand. All right. Okay, good. Being honest, you're speaking the truth. Good job. All right. So your challenge is to speak that truth with love. All right, now let's ask another question. How many of you would say that you're better at the love part? All right, every service, there's more hands on the love part. All right.

Well, your challenge is to love people, but also speak the truth to them. So we have to balance those. So how can we learn to be more sensitive? Well, here's our main scripture today. Ephesians 4.1, let's read that together. Therefore, I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to live a life worthy of your calling. For you have been called by God. Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's faults because of. of your love, make every effort to keep yourselves united in the spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. Paul starts this passage out making it very clear, you who have been called by God. The passage applies to us as believers because we've been called by God. So he's talking to us. Here's our first thing, let's look at three steps that are gonna help us be more sensitive. Number one, choose humility, choose humility. All right, Ephesians chapter four verse two says this, always be humble. The passage we just read tells us to be humble. And I want you to know a little secret, okay? The people who are loud and rough and in your face and it's all about me, often share one thing in common. And here's what it is, they're arrogant.

They're arrogant, meaning they're self-centered. They don't think about what they say and how it affects those around them. They don't think about how their words may hurt others in the way that they're sharing it. These are people that I like to call the finger pointers, okay, not that finger, this finger, okay? They're both bad, okay? And this one, they kind of shake at you, you know, and they let me tell you something, all right? See, now you know, all right, you got it, all right? My first reaction when somebody comes at me with their fingers is this, it's just like, not this, okay, that's important, right, Rick, all right? But it's like, stop, okay, back up. Because nobody likes a finger pointer, you know? It just doesn't work. Here's what Isaiah 26 five says about it. He humbles the proud and brings down the arrogant. Who does? God does. Wow, you want God to be against you? You want him to humble you? You want him to bring you down? Then be arrogant and insensitive. Here's what the New Testament says about that. James 4 six, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. He builds one up and he puts the other away. Why?

Because your arrogance, write this down if you would, let's translate, if you're in your arrogance, you run over sensitive people in your life, God is willing, or God is ready and willing to run over you to teach you some humility. He's not gonna let us be like that. God is all about something different. So we choose humility. We choose the Christ-like way. Here's how it works and what it comes down to. This helps me so much. When I realize my own flaws, I develop the humility to accept the flaws of others. I've got my own share of mistakes. I've got my own share of mess ups. And when I realize that, it helps me to accept the others who are walking through the same thing. I choose to extend grace to others because it honors God, but also because I need a lot of grace in my life. I love this verse. One of my favorite verses, Ephesians 4 32. Wanna know how to live your life? Look at this. Instead, be kind to each other. Be tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. When I realize the amount of forgiveness that God has given me, I develop the humility to forgive others. Because I need it.

I need that forgiveness. So first step towards being more sensitive, step one, choose humility. Here's number two. Choose gentleness. Choose gentleness. The Jesus way is to find a way to be gentle. When we are gentle, we don't destroy the unity and peace in our relationships. So back to our original passage, Ephesians 4. It says, lead a life worthy of your calling for you have been called by God. Always be humble and gentle. Gentleness is the next step towards being sensitive. So let's just stop here for an important side note. When the scripture tells us to be something, all right, in this case, be humble, be gentle, be patient. It's not telling us to do the impossible because we're all gonna make excuses for those things. Some people are gonna say, well, I'm not humble. Let me tell you how great I am, right? I'm not gentle. I'm harsh and I'm proud of it. I'm not patient. I am quick to be aggressive. I get it done. Well, Ephesians 4.2 says always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other. Make allowances for each other's faults because of your love.

These are the qualities that we can't always produce on our own, the being humble, the being gentle, the being patient, but we can allow Christ to produce them in us. That's what makes the difference. God wants to change us. He doesn't want us to stay the way we are. Check out this list of characteristics of someone who is full of Jesus. Galatians chapter five, verse 22. It says, but the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. There's no law against these things. There's no law against that. Underline, highlight, circle, and memorize this verse, because this verse is so important in our lives as believers. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. These are called the fruit of the Spirit, because they are what grows in us when we let Christ control our lives instead of us. That's the difference. And if you wanna do anything great for God, this is the first step. You can't be rude, you can't be obnoxious and run over people and do great things for God.

We are all without excuse in this. It just lays it out. One of the hardest things for me to deal with is people who are angry and they claim to be believers. You can't live there. The Bible makes it very clear. It says, don't let the sun go down on your wrath or your anger, you deal with it and you fix it. But people who are angry and they just, they use almost the word of God and they use God's name to run over people. I'm just like, I don't know, that doesn't seem like it fits. Because this passage, the fruit of the Spirit tells us that we start with love and joy and peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Now, here's a very important truth here. Being gentle does not mean being weak. And for some of us, we may think, well, you know, if you're gentle, you're weak. No, it's not the case, not even close. There's a difference between being weak and being gentle. Weakness is a lack of strength or an inability to act. Gentleness is strength under control. Please catch that. It's strength under control. You have the strength, but you choose gentleness. You have the ability to be hard, but you choose to speak softly. Here's another way to say it.

Gentleness is choosing finesse over force. Finesse over force. We choose to be gentle. We use as little force as necessary, use as little volume as necessary, use as little pressure as necessary. Proverbs 15, one, it says a gentle answer deflects anger, but harsh words make tempers flare. The gentle answer is the way to go. So our steps towards becoming sensitive, number one, choose humility. Number two, choose gentleness. Number three, choose patience. Choose patience. Bambis or sensitive people require patience. Now this is not always easy, is it? It's not always easy, but if you run over them, you're gonna break their spirit. If you're patient with them, you can build them up. Ephesians 4, two, again, it says be patient with each other. Make allowance for each other's faults because of your love. So let's get honest, okay? We've all got some people in our lives that drive us a little crazy, right? I do, several of them. It's just the way life is. But when they're Bambis, people who are oversensitive, it even makes it crazier, doesn't it? There's always gonna be people in your life

that are easily offended. And they are usually people that love drama. That's just the reality. They're the ones that post how they've been mistreated on social media, and they just keep putting it up there. And what they're wanting you to do is to give them attention and even to have some people argue with them. Don't be the person that argues. You need to be humble, you need to be gentle, you need to be patient, and then you need to run, okay? That's the reality. Here's the thing to remember. Patience grows when forgiveness grows. We make allowance for the fault of others because we love them. We choose to be patient with others because we love them. Romans 14, one, it says, accept other believers who are weak in the faith and don't argue with them about what they think is right or wrong. My favorite professor in seminary used to always say, you can't argue. anyone into heaven, but you can love them there. And that's the difference. Here's another thing to remember. I will never have to forgive someone more than God has forgiven me. Man, when I think of it that way, I think, wow, what has God forgiven me of? I need to forgive others.

It's easy to understand. I choose to forgive because God chose to forgive me. I choose to be humble because God has been humble with me. I choose to be patient with others because God's been patient with me. I will never have to be more patient with someone than God has been with me. So let's summarize and let's wrap this up. We've all got Bambis in our lives. People who require a little extra sensitivity. People who we can easily run over and not even know it sometimes. These sensitive people require humility, gentleness, patience. And if I run over people, I will break their spirit. But if I choose to be humble, gentle, and patient, I can build them up. That's what makes the difference. Jesus is in the building up business. And thank God for that, because I need that. He builds people up. Even the Bambis in your life, even you, even me. So this week, look out for those dear who are gonna cross your path. A lot of times it's when we least expect it. Sometimes it's the people we least expect it from. But look out for those that God is gonna send your way this week. So here's what I want us to do. During this series, at the end of the service,

we've taken time to just be quiet and pray. I want us to do that now. I'm gonna ask you, let's just take 30 seconds or so just to be silent. And then after we've done that and we pray together, we're gonna fill in our last blank. So let's just take a moment to be silent. I'm gonna ask you to pray this prayer with me. Just say this. Say, Lord, show me who I am running over in my life. And just hold that prayer for a moment. And let Jesus show you who is in your life that needs to be built up, not run over. Father, we need you. And sometimes it's so hard for us to be sensitive, to slow down. Lord, it's easier for us to run over people than to stop sometimes. But we ask for you to help us, to lead us, to guide us in that. Because we need you, Father. Make us aware of who that is. And Lord, lead us in how we can help them. Thank you, Father, in Jesus' name, amen. Well, thank you for praying with me. I want to ask you to fill in this last blank if you would. Here's the last blank. It says, Lord, the person I am running over is blank. That's for you to fill out. Because God's gonna lay that on your heart.

I don't know who that is. All right, if I do know him, don't tell me. Okay. But that's the person you need to be praying for. Let God open the doors for you to build them up. Lord, the person I'm running over is blank. Help me to choose to build them up. Help me to choose to be humble, gentle, and patient with them. You'll be surprised how God does that and how he'll use you to build up those people in your lives. You know what, maybe you're here today and you're just trying to do this thing all alone. And whenever you have to have strength in your life, you fall back on yourself and you need some help, we want to help you with that. I can tell you right now, the answer for that in my life is Jesus. We want to share that with you. So I'm gonna ask if our prayer partners would make their way up front at the end of the service. Even as we continue to worship, you can come up, you can pray with them. They'd be glad to talk to you, just walk through what you're going through. So let's pray together, okay? Fathers, we come to you. Thank you for who you are. Lord, thank you that you've been gentle, you've been patient, you've been humble with us

so that we can be that way with others. Father, we need you so much in our lives. And so Father, we cry out to you for that help. Help us in our lives so that we can help others. And Lord, I pray you'd lay on our heart who those are that need us to build them up this week. Let us be the ones that make a difference for you. Let us be aware of the warning signs so that we can share you with others. We give this time to you. We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name, amen. Let's continue to worship. Thank you for standing to your feet. Father, we open our hearts, Lord, continue to work in our lives, Father, so we can extend that grace that you've given to us, to those around us, Lord. Change us from the inside out. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh. A thousand times I've failed, still your mercy remains, and should I stumble again, I'm caught in your grace neverlasting. Your light will shine when all else fades, never ending. Your glory goes beyond all fame. Give my heart and my soul. I gave you control. Consume me from the inside out, Lord. Let justice and praise become my embrace to love you from the inside out.

Lift your voice and sing. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh. For real above all else, my purpose remains. The art of losing myself in bringing you praise neverlasting. Your light will shine when all else fades, never ending. Your glory goes beyond all fame. Give my heart and my soul. I gave you control. Consume me from the inside out, Lord. Let justice and praise become my embrace to love you from the inside out. Everlasting. Your light will shine when all else fades, never ending. Your glory goes beyond all fame. And the cry of my heart is to bring you praise from the inside out, Lord, my soul. Cry time. Everlasting. Your light will shine when all else fades, never ending. Your glory goes beyond all fame. And the cry of my heart is to bring you praise from the inside out, Lord, my soul. Rise out from me. Lord, my soul. Rise out. Oh, oh, oh.

Cry out to you, Lord. Oh, oh, oh. You are worthy. You are holy. Oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh. Everlasting. Your light will shine when all else fades, never ending. Your glory goes beyond all fame. And the cry of my heart is to bring you praise from the inside out, Lord, my soul. Rise out from me. From the inside out, Lord, my soul. Rise out.