I it. How are you guys? So how old are you guys? Yeah, turn it on. All right. Good morning. If we all can find a seat. It is good to be here with you all. As you can tell, I am not Pastor Randy. I have hair. Most of you know that Pastor Randy and his family are celebrating birthdays of grandkids, and they're going to be out this week as well as next week. So you're stuck with me one more week. I won't say that was you. Yeah, I did that. 50 is coming to you afterwards. So my name is Jeff Crossen. For those of you who might not know me, my wife and I thank you. My wife and I and our four kids and now one grandkid live in Trinidad, Colorado. And we've been there for almost 16 years. So we've been doing that, administering and doing what we can. And anytime that Pastor Randy has to leave, I'm usually the one that he asked first. And it is a true honor of mine to be able to come down. And I was just explaining to John that my wife and I feel like this is our home church, and it's just a nice thing for us to be able to come to. I just wish you guys were a little bit closer, but not too bad at all. So we'll go ahead and get started this morning. We'll pray, and then we'll get into our hymnal. Father, we thank you for this morning, and we thank you for this opportunity to gather together to worship you. We do pray for Pastor Randy and family, and we pray that you would just bless their time and give them traveling mercies when they do head on home. Lord, we also just pray for the fellowship here. Pray that, Lord, it would continue to thrive and, Lord, that people would grow. And, Lord, we ask that you'd be glorified in your name. Amen. Okay, Charles and Susanna, are you going to come help me, please? I'm up here all by myself. So if y'all will stand, take your hymnal. Turn to 600. We're going to sing when the roll is called up yonder. And we will do all three verses. When the sa divers shall gather over all the other sh and the rose called up yonder I'll be there when the Ro is called up yonder when the Ro is called up yonder when the ro is called up y When the rose called up yonder I'll be there. Oh, that bright cloud this morning when the dead in Christ shall rise and the glory of his resurrection shall watch together and the rules called up yonder I'll be there when the roll of yonder when the roll of yonder when the roll of yonder when the roll is called up yonder I'll be there Let us labor for the pastor from the D till setting sun Let us talk of all his focus on and when all of life is over and our work on earth is done and the rose called up yonder I'll be there when the roll up yes, when the room is called up yonder when the room is called up yonder when the rose gold appear I'll be there okay, now turn over to 499, victory in Jesus. And we'll do all three of those as well. I heard an old, old story how the Savior came from glory how he gave his life on Calvary to save a wretch Right, King? I heard about his groaning of his precious blood's atoning Then I repented of my sins and of the victory O Victory Jesus, my Savior forever he shunned me and bought me with his redeeming blood he loved me ever unto him and all my love is to him he blushed me to victory beneath the cleansing flood I heard now his healing of his twisted power Revealing how he made the lame to walk again and cause the light to see and then I cried dear Jesus coming through my broken spirit and somehow Jesus came and brought to me the victim story oh Victory Jesus, my Savior forever he sought me and bought me with his redeeming blood he was the air I knew him and all my love is to end he blessed me to victory he need the cleansing flood I heard about a mansion he has built for me in glory and I heard about the streets of gold beyond the crystal sea all the angels singing and the old redemption story and some sweet day I'll sing up there the song of victory oh Victory Jesus, my Savior forever he sought me and bought me with his redeeming blood he loved me I knew him and all my love is to him he plunged me to victory he, me the cleansing blood. Thank you. May be seated? All right, so we have a few announcements this morning. Let's see, next Sunday, as I had already mentioned, I will be here, and it will be just 1045 only for the service and then the regular Sunday services, the Sunday school and all that will resume the following week. So what would that be? The 16th, I think. I think that's the 16th. It's hard to believe we're in March, isn't it? Like, okay. I'm not the only one. I drove through snow to get here. So I know what you're talking about. All right, Wednesday. No Wednesday night activities until March 19th, as well as men's breakfast on Thursday until March 20th. So, man, you'll have to find some your own food on your own. Think you might be able to manage missionary of the month? So our missionaries of the month for March are Clayton and Vivian Maynor. I don't know. I'm saying it right. Does anyone know? Okay. Serving in Paraguay with Grace Ministries International, since relocating in late 2020, they have been instrumental in establishing the Berean Bible Church, Presidente Franco. Their diverse ministries encompass church planting, children's community outreach, prison ministry projects, and leadership training across eastern and southern Paraguay as well as neighboring Brazil. So any giving that you want to give today to go to them. If I remember correctly, you're supposed to mark missionary of the month missionary. Okay. So if you give and the boxes in the back, mark missionary, and that will go to these missionaries. Have these people been here? Does anyone know? Not to know. Okay, so. And youth group ages 12 to 18 will resume March 16, 5:30pm to 7, in the fellowship hall and save the date potluck lunch, March 23rd. So sounds good, right? And I don't know if there's a theme. Do you guys have a theme for your potluck lunches? We don't. It's the Wednesday night dinners. Yes. And right now we don't have themes for those either. Usually in the summers. Ah, it's in the summers. Okay, well, let's go ahead and have the singers come on up for the daylight savings. Going to start next week. Ooh, I think you're right. This is for your benefit. So you'll be here on time. I will be here on time. Spring forward, yes. Thankfully, our phones all just automatically do it. You know, all of our watches do it, though. Oh, well, yeah, that's true. You actually have a watch watch. But yeah. So that's it. Thank you. So make sure you set your clocks forward. Saturday night, all of us. So I don't think there's anything else. So why don't you guys come on up and we'll finish our worship. Okay. Stand up again. 3:17. There's just something about that that Jesus there's just something about that Name master savior Jesus like the fragrance after the rest Jesus, Jesus, Jesus Let all heaven and earth proclaim Kings and kingdoms will all pass away but there's something about that name Jesus, Jesus Name master savior Jesus like the fragrance after the rain Jesus, Jesus, Jesus Let all heaven and earth proclaim kings and kingdoms will all pass away. But there's something about that way. And now is the time that if you would like to give the box in the back and again, for the missionaries of the month, if you would just put on it that it is for missionaries. And we'll just have a time of reflection. Okay, can you all hear me? All right, let me get this all situated up here. So this morning we are going to be looking at First Corinthians 13:1. And as you can see on the screens behind me, the title of the message today is Charity or Love. Charity or love. And we see that in chapter 13, verse 1. Let's go ahead and pray and then we'll get into the teaching this morning. Father, we thank you for this morning and for this opportunity to be able to be here. Lord, we thank you for the rain and the snow and the sunshine. And Lord, we also just thank you for your grace and your goodness to us. And, Lord, we just pray that you would speak through me now this morning in your precious and holy name. Amen. So I'm someone who likes three points. And so my three points this morning are what is charity when love is wrong? And the third and final point, without charity. So we're going to be looking at just chapter or. Excuse me, chapter 13, verse 1. Let's go ahead and look at your Bible. And it says, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And really, we're just using this as a jumping off point to discuss the word charity and look at what it means throughout the Scriptures. So point number one, what is charity? The King James Version haters have often derided the Bible, the King James Bible, specifically for using the translation of the Greek word agape as charity here in First Corinthians, chapter 13. In fact, they'll even say it's so old and antiquated, we don't need to bother with it. And then we'll look into modern versions in a little bit as well. By the way, I'm not fancy like Randy. I don't have all the slides and everything for you guys. So that's why you guys have the handout. That's why my handouts are pretty thorough. So they'll say this type of stuff. And you know, me for many years was like, yeah, King James translators were really dumb. Why would they use the word charity? Do they not know? And I don't know if you guys have ever Done a study or research the translators of the King James Version. I forget. And this is off the top of my head, so I'm sorry, this is free. It's not in your notes. But there was one of the translators, he would go on vacation, and every year he would take. I don't know, I can't remember, it was two or three weeks. And part of his vacation was such that he would spend that entire time learning another language. How many of you do that when you take a vacation? Oh, yeah, I'm just going to go learn another language. And these people were brilliant scholars. I mean, brilliant men. They knew languages. They knew a lot more than we give them credit for. And that was just one small example of that. The word charity, or charibly, is found in the Greek scriptures 29 times in 25 verses. And I believe I gave all of those times to you in the handout. Now it is translated as love 87 times in 81 verses. I did not give you guys all of that. That's your own homework. Charity is found nine times alone here in First Corinthians 13, which means that this should not be called the love chapter, but should be called the charity chapter. Most people, like I said, call it the love chapter, but I would like to say First John, chapter four should be called the love chapter. First John, chapter four uses love, loved, or loveth 27 times in 21 verses. Whereas, like I said here in First Corinthians 13, 29 times charity and 25 verses. So why did the brilliant translators of the King James Version use the word charity? To answer that question, we need to look at how charity is used in the Scriptures, which we should use as the final authority for the meaning of this particular word. How did God inspire the men of God to write various books and then use the word agape? That's the word that is often used for charity. And why were the King James translators deciding, hey, this would be the perfect time to use the word charity instead of love? What is the difference? And that's what we hope to look at this morning. According to the Scriptures, when you see the word charity, it's the greatest of the three virtues. Look in chapter 13, verse 13, where Paul says, Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three. But the greatest of these is charity. Charity is not only the greatest of the three virtues, but it is also the bond of perfectness. Colossians 3:14, the end of the commandment, 1st Timothy 1:5, and is the seventh thing Peter tells his readers to add to their faith in 2nd Peter 1:5 through 7. 2nd Peter 1:5 7 reads this. And besides this, giving all diligence. Add to your faith virtue. And to virtue, knowledge. And to knowledge, temperance. And to temperance, patience. And to patience, Godliness. And to godliness, brotherly kindness. And to brotherly kindness. Charity. Charity today is often assumed. And I did, and I felt like this before I did this study on First Corinthians 13 often thought of when someone gives money to an organization that works for those who are less fortunate. And that's the common definition of charity today. Yet the Scriptures contradict this common belief according to First Corinthians 13. 3. Let's look at verse three, since we're already here. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, though I give my body to be burned and have not charity, Paul says, it profiteth me nothing. Paul says I can give everything I own, give it to charity. And he says, if I get well, let me rephrase that, give it to an organization. And if I have not charity, he says, it profiteth me nothing. When we read about famous people with gobs and gobs of money and they give that money to an organization, they make the front page news. Everyone lauds them, everyone applauds them. Everyone thinks, man, these are great benevolent people. By the way, most of the time when they're giving, they're giving sometimes the equivalent of $15 for the average person like you and I, that's just how wealthy they are. And the world lauds that in applauds it and says, this is a great thing. But why are they doing it? They're doing it not only for the tax write off, right? We all know that. But they're doing it to get that positive news, to get their names in the newspaper, to get that promotion, to get that continue to make their name famous. Because if you, if I start naming some people who've given to quote, unquote, charities today, a lot of people on the street. If we were to go downtown, Taos, right, and we asked people about certain individuals, and they'll say, oh, man, he gives millions of dollars to charity. He's a great man. But that's not what the Bible says. Like Paul says in verse three, and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Jesus did say that we will always have the poor with us. That doesn't mean we ignore them, by the way, because if you are led, then, yeah, you give Matthew 26, 11. Jesus says, for ye have the poor always with you, but me ye have not always. And that works in conjunction. Conjunction. Excuse me, with what Moses wrote to the nation of Israel. All the kids who were the kids of the. The adults who left the nation of Egypt. That's what Deuteronomy is. And he wrote to them, and it said, as they're about to enter the promised land. For the poor shall never cease out of the land. Therefore I command thee, saying, thou shalt open thy hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy in thy land. What did Moses say there? For the poor shall never cease out of the land. Do you know when the poor will cease out of the land? In the coming kingdom of God. In the coming kingdom of God, no matter how hard we try, there will be poor. Why? Because there's sin. Charity in the Scriptures is defined as the Christian love that we have toward other men. That self sacrificing love that is marked by grace. Paul writes that we are to walk charitably being gracious towards those who are weaker in the faith. Romans 13. Excuse me. Romans 14, 13, 15 and that reads, Let us not therefore judge another anymore, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. I know, and I'm persuaded by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself. But to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. But verse 15 of Romans 14. If thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. By the way, this is the first time that we see the word charity in the Greek Scriptures. And he says, now walkest thou not charitably? Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died. Paul commended those in Thessalonica because of their charity. He wrote to them of second Thessalonians 1:3, and he says, and the charity of every one of you all towards each other aboundeth. Paul was grateful to them. He commended to them their charity. In first Peter 4, 8, 9, Peter tells his readers, above all things have fervent charity among yourselves, for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. Then he goes on to say, use hospitality one to another, without grudging. The author of 3 John commends Gaius for his charity towards the brethren and the strangers. 3rd John 5 and 6. There's only one chapter in 3 John. The Scriptures speak of the importance of love, but also define for us that charity is a specific kind of Christian love which we have seen in some of these previous verses that we just looked at, as well as is keenly seen in First Corinthians, chapter 13. Scripturally, charity can only be done by those who are saved. Charity, scripturally speaking. In fact, the Oxford English Dictionary defines charity as a word representing caritas in the Latin vulgate, as a frequent rendering of agape in New Testament Greek. It goes on to say the Christian love of one's fellow human beings, Christian beniety or benevolence of dispossession, expressing itself in Christlike conduct. That's the Oxford English Dictionary of the word charity. It is exhibiting Christlike love to the. To others. Why is charity defined as this Christian love of one's fellow human beings? Because that's what it is. It's not just donating money. It is not just doing stuff. Oftentimes in this world, as I was bringing up earlier, we have people who give examples of doing things for the notoriety. I'm going to donate money. I'm going to put this. And I want my name up on a plaque. I want part of the college wing to be named after me. I want this hall to be named after me. I don't know about you, but all I could afford is the trash can. So I'll donate a trash can. It'll be the cross and trash can at Towers First Baptist Church. And if I donated a trash can, you can bet definitely I would not say anything. Please do not put my name on there. But is it not the way of the world? That is the way of the world. You see, back in the day, those who attended church discovered God's unconditional his agape love for people by allowing his only son to die on the cross for them. Romans 14:9, where Paul says, for to this end, Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord, both of the dead and of the living. And this was in the early church. And their response, guys, was to then act in charity. So what did they do? They went and they built hospitals, they built orphanages. They built, literally, charitable organizations to display the love of God to those who were in need. You can look it up in history. Most of the time, most hospitals, charitable organizations, anything like that, orphanages were done by believers because they saw a need and said, I have the means to meet this need. And isn't that the great thing about Christians is that there are Christians with the means to be able to do this, to be able to help bring those people up in a rightful way of living and be taught the word of God. And these institutions were built and established by men and women of the Christian faith who saw a need and wanted to help meet that need. They wanted to display in those organizations the self sacrificing, gracious agape love of God to their fellow man. And this was only done by Christians, or I should say primarily done by Christians throughout history. This charity, this agape love is not based off of emotion. You know what's based off of emotion is when you are watching TV and you see that commercial with the little puppies and the little kittens and the sad, sad music and then you get your 17 year old daughter saying, dad, we need to adopt one. Not speaking from personal experience whatsoever. If it was up to my 17 year old daughter, we would actually have a zoo. She's got a precious heart. Listen, they're playing on your emotions. That is not. Charity is not about an emotion, nor either on the attractiveness of the object, meaning it doesn't have to be beautiful, it doesn't have to be something amazing, but instead on recognizing that God's love towards them is unmerited, undeserved. And so they wanted to display this divine love to the less fortunate. Romans 15:1 2. Paul writes, we then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak. And not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification. This is charity. Not to please ourselves as Paul says, but let every one of us please his neighbor for, for his good to edification. Charity is something that you cannot do unless you are saved. I said that before and it's my contention that only believers, truly believers, can do charity. Only believers can do charity. But even still to this day, those who are religious, now this is a very broad category I'm talking about today. Those who are religious. It can mean anything. It can mean, you know, you, you go to church on Easter and Christmas, right? People responded to a certain survey. Those who are religious give four over four times the amount of those who are not religious. And that's just a generic thing. Seen it myself in growing up in multiple churches, how people in the churches are willing to give and to help. There was a situation that my wife and I were in probably, let's see, close to 18, 19 years ago. We had four little kids and we were living in California and we had two cars and probably within a two week period, both cars broke down. And it would have cost way too much to fix them. Let me just put it that way. I was on staff at a church. So you can imagine how much I was making with four little kids. And my wife and I are like, well, what do we do? And we live close enough to the church. I said, I'll just walk to work every day. And then someone in the church heard about our situation, and they said, here, borrow our car for. Until you can get one. And that was great. Funny thing about that car when you're trying to fit four kids in four car seats. And it was a really small car, and we would make a turn and the passenger door would just swing open. So I'm turning. Nisha's holding on, you know. But you know what? We weren't complaining because we're like, man, you know what? These people were gracious. They let us use an extra car. And then I remember I kept getting these phone calls from a car dealership. I'm like, how do they know I need a car? You know, we were talking about, you know, our phones spy on us. This was before phones were spying on us, because nothing. It wasn't. It was the good old flip phone that I had at that time. And I kept ignoring the calls, the messages. The guy was like, I want to talk to you. I want to talk to you. I'm like, dude, I have no money to buy a brand new car. And I'm going, how does he know? Well, finally the pastor of our church said, hey, have you been getting these calls? I said, yes. How do you know? He said, go down. Just go find out. Just. He said, just humor me. So I go down in this car, and I think I literally had, like a bungee cord to keep. Because I went down by myself, had a bungee cord to keep the passenger door from flying open every time on turns. I'm not kidding. You guys think I'm exaggerating, but. And I get to this car dealership, and I already just had a lousy attitude because it was my day off and I didn't have much time with my wife and kids. I didn't want to go to a car dealership. And this guy shows me a couple cars. I'm like. I told him, I don't have any money. I can't, I can't. And he goes, well, what about this car? It's nice. I said, it would fit all four of my kids, and, you know, it would be really nice. And he goes, just sit in it. I said, no, I'm not going to sit in it. Why am I going to sit in it? I don't want. Well, I should say I can't get this car. Would like the car. He was just sitting it. So I sat in it. And he goes, congratulations, the car is yours. I'm like, what? And what were those hidden TV shows, those prank shows? You know, I'm kind of looking around, making sure no one's trying to prank me. He goes, no, seriously. And what it was is someone in our church knew about our situation and bought us a car. And still to this day, my four kids, and they were all old enough, and believe me, we were telling them as they're all growing up, this is charity. This was charity. And I was just like, are you. You know, I thought the guy was the salesman was joking. He goes, nope. He goes, all taxes have been paid for all licensing. All the fees were paid for. And I remember signing the papers, drove home. Anisha comes out to look at the car because I'm like, hey, babe, come check out this car. I said, I'm just test driving it. And she's like, what are you doing? Why did you get this? And I said, just. Just checking it out. Said, sit in it. She goes, no, I do not want to sit in it. I said, listen, it was given to us, okay? I said, I was hoping to play a little prank on you and you're not going along with it really well. And she sat in it. And I'll tell you what, that was one of her favorite cars that we had. And you know, that is charity. And still to this day, we do not know who gave that car to us. You see, that's how God's people work. And the person who did it, they did not want to be known. They did not want to be applauded. They did not want that recognition. So what is charity? Charity is response that one has to the gracious self sacrificing love that God has displayed to us. And this person said, here is a need. I can meet that need for this young family. Charity is God's perfect grace and love that the world has cheapened. Point number two. All right, we're doing good on time. Let's see. This Service ends at 2:00, right? There was a positive head nod there. Point number two. When love is wrong. When love is wrong. Often today we hear the word love thrown around all the time. Yes. We say we love God. We say we love our family. If you know me, I will tell you, I love the Dodgers. I love Reese's peanut butter cups. I love chocolate chip cookies, especially homemade. Oh, and I love my wife, my kids, my grandson. Now, how can you say just Flippantly that I love Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and people in the same sense. Would I be willing to die for a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup? No. See, the word love we throw around so often. In fact, I think these were. These people were really well known theologians in the 60s and they sang a song. All you need is love. All you need is love. All you need is love, Love, love. What happened to them? They lost their love. They broke up. Right. Love is not all that we need. We need charity. But the word love gets thrown around so often that we've cheapened the word love. And oftentimes we forget to realize that love is more often in an affection and emotion for something that pleases us. Now, like I said, I can say I love my wife and in the next breath I can say, I love Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. I don't think my wife would appreciate being compared to a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Love gets so cheap. Now, why do I love Reese's Peanut Butter Cups? Because they make me happy. Why do I love my wife? Well, see, there's a deeper now kind of love that I'm talking about when it comes to my wife. You see, true love is not, or, excuse me, love today. Let me rephrase that. Love today can be greedy, can be self pleasing, whereas charity, charity is the opposite. It focuses on the love and grace for the benefit of others. So husbands, when you say, excuse me, you love your wives, what does that mean? That you're willing to love them, as the scriptures say, as Christ loved the church and you serve them and you self sacrifice for them. You put them first. In Luke chapter 6, verse 32, Jesus says that there are sinners that love people that love them. Isn't that true today? Listen to what Jesus said. For if you love them which love you, what thanks have ye? For sinners also love those that love them. Isn't that true of what love is most often displayed today? Oh, I love you. Oh, now you don't like me? I don't love you. Is that really love? First Corinthians 13, 5:6. Notice though, that Paul is talking about charity. And he says charity doth not behave itself unseemly. Now I'm going to just insert the word charity each time. Charity seeketh not her own. Charity is not easily provoked. Charity thinketh no evil. Charity rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. This is interesting because in John 3:19 we see a passage where love is described as greedy and self. Serving John 3:19, Jesus says, and this is the condemnation that light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. We see a love that is greedy and self serving. Jesus describes these men that love darkness rather than light. And he now you can't say, guys, that that is charity. He says, this is love. This is the love of the world. It's full of greediness and they would rather love darkness than light. In First Corinthians 13:13, Paul writes and says that love is the chief of all virtues. No, he did not say that. He said charity is the chief of all virtues. Now where does this confusion come in? This confusion comes in because today we have substituted the word charity and put love instead. And we have made it now a commonality. Charity is not self serving, my friends. Charity is a love marked with grace. Charity is self sacrificing love with no expectation for thanks and notoriety. We're only which only comes from having a relationship with Christ. Whereas love, excuse me, is an affection and emotion. Charity goes beyond that. It is not transactional. Charity is something that doesn't matter whether you like it or not. Charity is still there. And any of you who have been married for any amount of time, you know, sometimes there's real charity being at work. Sometimes my wife and I counsel young couples about to get married and they're like, we're just so in love. I love everything he says and does that will change. You see, charity looks upon the flaws of others and still loves them. Charity is one thing that, like I said, it looks upon the flaws of others and still loves them. You can have love without charity, but you cannot have charity without love. You don't need God to love, but you do need God to have charity. Point number three. Without charity, without charity. So what happens when you remove charity from one's life in scriptures? We're going to take a couple looks at this. Got questions. Now Pastor Randy talks about Got questions. I know it's as one of his favorite sites to look up. And so I did the same. You see, I regard Pastor Randy as my pastor. Okay, the old what would Randy do? No, I'm just kidding. The word charity. This is from Got questions. The word charity is found primarily in the King James version of the Bible and it nearly always means love and the great love. Chapter First Corinthians 13. The KJV translates agape as charity, while the modern translations render it more accurately as love. Notice that they say the modern translations and render it more accurately as love. The Only use of the word charity to indicate giving is found in Acts, chapter 9, verse 36, which refers to Dorcas, a woman full of good works and charity. The Greek word here. Okay, got questions? The same. The Greek word here means compassion as exercised towards the poor. Beneficence. The KJV translates it as alms giving. Turn your Bibles to Acts chapter 9, verse 36. Let's take a look. Acts, chapter 9. I'm sorry, 9:36. Yeah, sorry. Acts 9:36. And those of you with a Schofield Bible, once I could find it, page 1162, Acts 9:36. In the King James, it says now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas. This woman was full of good works and alms deeds, which she did. Now remember what God Question said. It says that this Greek word here means compassion is exercised towards the poor. And the King James Version translated as almsgiving. So what you see there in almsgiving, they say that's the word I think I gave to you. In your notes, an example from the English Standard Version of the Bible, one of the modern versions, if you will. And in there we read in Acts 9:36. Now there in Joppa, a disciple named Tabitha, which translated means Dorcas. She was full of good works and acts of charity. Interesting. The Greek word for charity. There a completely different Greek word than agape. It's not agape. It's not the same. In fact, I would try to pronounce it, but let's just give it a try. In the Greek, if you have a Greek strong's, you can look it up as it's G. 1654 is the Greek strong's notation for it. It's something like that. Take my word for it, okay, that's the Greek word. Wait, remember at the very beginning, what did I say the Greek word charity. Where did we rephrase that? What is the Greek word behind the word charity when it's translated in the King James Agape. But yet the English Standard Version takes this Greek word and says, no, this is the word for charity. The word for charity, according to the modern versions is doing good works for those less fortunate. In fact, I have a few other examples for you. In the new King James Version, In Acts chapter 9, verse 36, that same word is translated charitable deeds. I don't think I put that in your notes. The notes were already three pages long in an nasb. Now, if you guys have been around Pastor Randy any length of time, what does he always say about the nasb, he's got nasbe stained fingers or something along that line. Yeah. Okay. The NASB in Acts 9, verse 36 translates that word as charity. The NIV translates that word as helping the poor. The message. What does Randy say about the message? Definitely not. He says read the Bible, not the message. It translates it as helping out. Now, do you want to know why we today think charity is simply helping out people? Because all the modern translations translated as such. Because we have this idea that this is what charity is, is simply just helping people out. You see, charity was used by the King James translators to show when agape, the Greek word agape, was in need of an action. Love is a verb. It is a word that needs action. And so the King James translator said, this is when we need to put charity. Because some people will say, why do sometimes they translate agape as love? Why do they sometimes translate it as charity? It's when it comes down to it, when that word means action implies action, they then put the word charity. Now, the world and the modern translations has distorted this to say it's simply an alms giving. You know, when you. When you clean out your shed that you haven't been in for three years and you look at that stuff that you have to keep and you finally bring that stuff through a thrift store and people will say, oh, you're doing a charitable deed. No, you're not. You're just getting rid of excess stuff because your wife said, I told you to clean out that shed three years ago and now you're doing it. That's just. You're just doing it. What is charity? Charity is doing that stuff because you recognize what God has done for you and you want to turn that around and do it unto others. I hope that makes sense. I'm getting a couple positive head nods. All right. This is why, guys, we think charity means what the world teaches because the world teaches it. Modern translations essentially teach it because guess what the modern translations used for the word love in First Corinthians, chapter 13, when it needs action, they just translate it as love. I meant to say, when agape needs action, they translate it as love. This is why charity is such an obsolete word amongst us today. And this is why me, personally, I prefer the King James version because it's more specific. It shows me this is an action verb. This is something that needs to be done. If charity today was just given to the poor like it is used today, then our faith would continue to be a faith works. What is Charity. It is a response of what God does for us, not because we have to think about them. I'm looking around and there's. There's looks like a number of married people in here, right? You go to the store and you're shopping for groceries or whatever, and all of a sudden you see your husband's favorite peanut butter cups right there and you buy them for him. Why? Because you're like, he doesn't need them, but I just love him. That's charity. I'm hoping my wife is watching this. I'm just kidding. Charity is that act in response to what God has done for us, not just going and buying the Reese's peanut butter cups for your husband. Charity is legit. Just going out and doing this because this is what you want to do. Not because you have to, not because you're looking for a tax write off, but because you want to. And the world has distorted it so much and has muddied it in so many ways. What happens when you remove charity from your life? First Corinthians 13:1. Let's go on and turn back there. First Corinthians 13, verse 1. As we start to wrap this up. First Corinthians 13:1. Paul says, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Paul says, if we are not having charity in our lives, we just become like a sounding instrument. Just noise, a cacophony of noise. Think of an elementary school band. If you've ever had the pleasure of hearing an elementary school band, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Hey, but man, those kids are playing hard. They're doing their best, right? First Corinthians 13:2. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity, Paul says I am nothing. What is Paul saying here? Spiritual gifts without charity are just a performance of emotions. Just a performance of emotions. Verse 3. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Giving to noble causes without charity is like a screen door on a submarine. It's worthless. That's worthless. It is safe to say that charity does not have the same meaning as it did in 1611. And we Christians are partly to blame for that. We have taken on these new translations because we want a Bible that is easier to read instead of one that is most original and closest to the original Textus Receptus. We've seen all modern translations have removed the word charity and submitted it for love, thus further muddying those waters. Let us be reminded what charity is. Charity is our response to God's grace to us. And that is exactly why hospitals were originally formed, orphanages were formed, because it was a response of God's love to us. So let's start making the word charity a little bit more in vogue, and let us have a better understanding of the word charity as it is an act of grace done by believers. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word, and we thank you for this word of charity. And Lord, thank you for allowing us to see the difference between love and charity. And Lord, I pray that we, as followers of you, would desire to be ones to do charitable deeds for your glory and your honor. Be with us as we go and throughout this week. And we thank you again for all that you have done. And most of all, Father, we thank you for your son that you sent to die on the cross for our sins and that he rose again on the third day so that we all may have eternal life where you, God, showed us charity in your most precious and holy name. Amen.