Real Life Community Church Sermons

Fruit | Part 9 | Gentelness | Pastor Ben Burnett

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Ever faced off against a rooster in your own backyard and realized it's time to reevaluate your approach to life? That's exactly how an unexpected encounter led Pastor Ben to explore the profound virtue of gentleness. Inspired by Jesus' teachings in Matthew 11:29, we examine how embodying gentleness can transform personal struggles into avenues for growth, even when it involves a comical showdown with a neighbor's feisty bird.

Through this sermon, you will learn how Jesus’ gentleness often defied societal expectations. By prioritizing mercy and goodness over rigid rules, as seen in his dealings with the Pharisees and his healing miracles, Jesus built a legacy not of force, but of compassion and humility. Pastor poses a bold challenge: How can we align our lives with such a mission, choosing gentleness over aggression, and selflessness over personal comfort?

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Speaker 1:

This morning I'd like to begin with a question that I asked you last week. If you remember, last week, during communion, I asked you what is God like? And this morning I'd like to begin with that question again. Go ahead. What you got, oh, thanks man. I was afraid he was going to take my notes and then I was going to be up a creek. But this morning I want to ask you what is Jesus like? Same question what is God like? What is Jesus like? Have you ever thought about it? Well, let me ask you one more question, just in case. How does Jesus describe how Jesus is like?

Speaker 1:

So this morning we're going to look at that question. And so we are looking at Matthew 11, 29. Jesus is going to describe himself, and then we're going to look at the following chapter, because if you're a Christian for very long, you know, or if you've been a Christian for very long, you know that the goal of the Christian life is to be more and more like Christ. And so, as we've been in this study of the fruits of the Spirit, if you remember, the fruits of the Spirit are the traits, the very characteristics of Jesus that he had that we then take on as His followers. The fruits of the Spirit are the things that the Holy Spirit places in us, helps us attain, works out through us as we live the Christian life. And so, if you remember, we have looked at all of these fruits of the Spirit of love and joy, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. And so this morning I have the great privilege to preach on gentleness and self-control. And so this morning I have the great privilege to preach on gentleness. And so let's look and let's see how Jesus describes himself, and I think you'll realize the importance of that fruit. And so Matthew 11, 29, or, I'm sorry, yeah, matthew 11, 29 says take my yoke upon you and learn from me. This is Jesus' words, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls when you look through the list of fruits. I don't know about you, but I see gentleness often and I go, eh, it's gentleness. Sure, okay, jesus was gentle, and I move on. But it's interesting to me that when I look at the word gentleness, it's one of the two things that Jesus says that he is in Matthew 11, 29. He is gentle and lowly of heart. And so if you're sitting out there this morning and you're going gentleness who cares? Well, let me tell you, it's really, really important, because if you want to be like Jesus, then you'll learn to be gentle. Like Jesus, then you'll learn to be gentle. So we're going to study this fruit this morning through the book of Matthew, in chapter 12. And so, if you would stand to your feet in honor of the reading of the word, as we do in this church, we're going to be looking at Matthew 12, verses 1 through 21. Matthew 12, verses 1 through 21. It says this Matthew 12, verses 1 through 21. It says this At that time, jesus went through the grain fields.

Speaker 1:

On the Sabbath, his disciples were hungry and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath. He said to them have you not read what David did when he was hungry and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the presence, which is not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the law how, on the Sabbath. The priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless. I tell you something greater than the temple is here, and if you had known what this means I desire mercy and not sacrifice you would not have condemned the guiltless, for the Son of man is the Lord of the Sabbath.

Speaker 1:

He went on from there and entered their synagogue and a man was there with a withered hand and they asked him Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? So that they might accuse him. He said to them which one of you has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out Of how much more value is a man than a sheep? So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. Then he said to the man stretch out your hand. And the man stretched it out and it was restored, healthy like the other. But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him how to destroy him. Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there and many followed him and he healed them all and ordered them not to make him known.

Speaker 1:

This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah Behold my servant, whom I have chosen, my beloved, with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my spirit upon him and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break and a smoldering wick he will not quench until he brings justice to victory. And in his name the Gentiles will hope. You may be seated.

Speaker 1:

So as you prep for any message and this is just a little insider trading for you, but as you prep for any message, you always look at passages in know passages and their surrounding context, right, you always look to see what the Bible really says about a topic. And so, as I was prepping for this message, I looked at this word gentle, and you know, you pray and you say, lord, where should I go from here? And so I pull out what I call the second most well, actually I call it the third most theological book in the world. It's the concordance. It's the place where, if you look up a word, you can find all the places where that word is also mentioned in scripture. And mine's an old King James concordance, and so I had to kind of simultaneously work out of King James and ESV.

Speaker 1:

And it's interesting that if you do that, king James has a totally different list of words for the fruit of the Spirit, and actually what it says for gentleness in the King James is meekness, and Chris and I were talking about this on Wednesday. What's the difference between meekness and gentleness? And then I look at the King James and I'm checking my concordance and I'm looking through all these things and it turns out that meekness is the exact same word as gentleness, or they're really close. There's a tense difference, right, so you can say I walk or I walked. It's the same difference in the scriptures, because the New Testament was written in Greek and so that answered a question for me. In Greek, meekness and gentleness are the same thing.

Speaker 1:

And so it got me looking at the scriptures further to see where do we see these same kinds of words? And so, again, as we found Matthew 11, 29, I also found Matthew 5, 5. And if you've been around this church and you were here for the Matthew series, you know that Matthew 5.5 is Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. And so, as I went through this whole message prep, as I looked at the word gentleness and meekness and what it means in Scripture, one of the things that I began to notice was that chapter 12 really is the context of what happens at the end of chapter 11. In case you don't know, the chapters and the verse markers were added later. They are not inspired scripture.

Speaker 1:

But when you look back at the end of chapter 11, it begins in this kind of section where you find 1129 with at that time, and then it goes on and it tells us that Jesus describes himself as gentle. And then in chapter 12, it says at that time Jesus went through the grain fields. So these things are happening, it would seem, in sequential order. These things are happening maybe day to day or even hour by hour. And so chapter 12, again, again begins with at that time, and Jesus has just described himself as gentle and lowly of heart. So what we can gather from all that is that we can find out a little more about gentleness in Jesus' life through looking at chapter 12. And so again it starts and it says at that time Jesus went through the grain fields. On the Sabbath, his disciples were hungry and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.

Speaker 1:

Jesus starts out chapter 12 by causing some trouble. Actually, if you think about it, it really wasn't him, it was more his disciples. His disciples start out chapter 12 by causing Jesus some trouble. And I don't know about y'all, but I know that I've caused Jesus lots and lots of trouble. So thank God he doesn't just get rid of us when we do so. I know right Preach. So chapter 12 begins this way. And then, if you skip down to verse 9, you almost really have two different stories here, but they are linked together. Verse 9 says he went on from there and entered their synagogue and a man was there with a withered hand and they asked him is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? So they might accuse him. Now Jesus is going to cause trouble for himself, trouble for himself.

Speaker 1:

You see, gentleness does this amazing thing it chooses to care more about people than trouble. If you want to say it a different way, it chooses to care more about people than pettiness. Now you may say, ben, what do you mean? It chooses? Well, gentleness isn't just one of those things that we are all inherently just born with? I don't know.

Speaker 1:

I think I'm a pretty gentle person. I think most of you, if you've known me for any length of time, would describe me as such. And Hunter likes to aggravate me. He says I'm not a gentle person at all because I'm always getting on to him. Well, you know, if Hunter would just act right, I, you know, wouldn't have to be so mean to him. You know, if Hunter would just act right, I, you know, wouldn't have to be so mean to him. But I think for the most part I think most people, if they know me long enough, have a tendency anyway I've heard people describe me in such a manner that they would say I'm gentle. I even have a former boss of mine. He would always see me and he'd be like hey, gentle Ben, I hated that. There's two things that if your name's Ben, you hate. You hate being called Gentle Ben and you hate it when people walk up to you and they say hey, big Ben, what time is it? That is not original. It's not original and you should stop saying that if you ever said that to me. No, I'm just kidding but serious at the same time. But I don't know that we're always just born with an inherent sense of being gentle.

Speaker 1:

This past week or so, I did some things that were not gentle in my own life. I was attacked by a chicken a rooster to be more specific and, in case you don't know, this rooster had it coming. I'm just going to tell you before I finish the story. This rooster attacked my wife first, y'all, and a couple weeks ago she was walking in the door and it tried to run in our house and she did that thing. You know where you like put out your foot and like try to stop it, and the rooster got her and it cut her leg. So I told her, I said y'all, and I shouldn't tell this story because I'm talking about gentleness. But I told her, I said y'all, if that rooster comes back, it's a dead rooster, we're going to eat that thing, we're going to call this place Kentucky Fried Chicken and we're going to fry that sucker up. And so I waited and it stayed away and it was really smart until one day, about a week, half a, whatever ago, week ago, I think.

Speaker 1:

I turn around, I am outside, I'm getting ready to cut my grass Praise God, I hope for the last time. And you guys out there, you're like yeah, I know what you're talking about. I'm about to cut my grass hopefully for the last time and I hear something behind me. So I turn around and there's this rooster and it's all like looking at me, right. So I turn around and there's this rooster and it's all like looking at me, right. And if any of y'all have been around chickens, roosters, in particular roosters have this like these neck feathers and when they're about to like do something, they fluff them out. So this thing's like poof and it's looking at me and I'm like what's happening? You know, because I was not raised around chickens, I'll just go ahead and admit this to you now. I may have a good Eastern Kentucky accent, but that does not mean I was raised around chickens.

Speaker 1:

And this rooster and I'll apologize to him later if he sees this this rooster belongs to my neighbor and I don't know if, like my neighbor's practicing free-range chickenry right now, I don't know, like he hasn't had his chickens out until about the last three or four weeks, but this rooster puffs its little neck feathers out and it's like it jumps at me. What do you do when a rooster jumps at you? I kick that sucker as hard as I could. Boom, and it flies and it hits my garage door and I don't know what came over me, except it was fight or flight, and I had no flight. And so I ran at the rooster and he jumps up, and he jumps at me again and I kick him again, and I kick him, and I kick him and he stops like messing with me, right, and I'm like yeah, and I back up and the rooster just stumbles away and then, and then, and then I think he's learned his lesson and he hasn't. And he runs up on the hill and he turns around and he starts going and he goes Okay, if you want to play that game, we can play that game. So he comes back a few days later and it's morning and we're leaving for work and it's me first, followed closely by my wife. She's getting ready to leave too. This rooster's already attacked her, it's attacked me.

Speaker 1:

I walk outside the house and there's this rooster sitting beside my picnic table and he's walking around strutting his stuff. And you would have thought he learned his lesson, but he didn't. He came back and I thought to myself if he attacks my wife, this is going to be bad. I already told her I'd take care of it. As a man, I've got to do this thing. And I walk up and I say, rooster, I didn't say this really, but what I thought was I'd challenge you to a duel, right?

Speaker 1:

So I walk up and I look at that rooster and he is just far enough away from me that I can't reach down and grab him. And I don't know if you all have noticed, but I carry a little extra insulation right here so I don't move as fast as some of you probably do, who could catch it by hand. And so I'm trying to drive him away and he runs and then he comes back and I'm like, oh, what happens if he attacks my wife? So I pick up a stick and I swing it and I really, if I'm honest, I didn't intend to hit him in the head. I intended to scare him away so he would leave, so my wife could leave and go to work in peace and never know.

Speaker 1:

The rooster was outside. That's not what happened. I caught him right across the neck and hit him in the back of the head and that rooster falls to the ground and doesn't move anymore. And I'm like, oh no, doesn't move anymore. And I'm like, oh no. And I have this momentary crisis where I'm like I either have to go to work and leave the thing and let something else eat it, or I have to take off work and I have to feather this thing and I'm going to eat it. And I'm silly y'all, but I don't like to kill anything unless, like, there's a purpose and I'm like this thing could be eaten at least. And so anyway, I'm standing there and I'm having this moral quandary and I'm holding a stick and you know that, like you know how at least little boys you know how they like poke stuff with sticks. I'm thinking to myself I wonder if it's alive, poke. And when I poke the rooster it stands up and walks away like this and I think surely it's dead. I walk out yesterday and it's crowing. So Jerry has this theory that this rooster is going to kill me in my sleep one day.

Speaker 1:

We are not I say all that story to say we are not born inherently gentle. And on top of that, sometimes sometimes I don't think that you have to always be gentle that rooster had it coming, it attacked my wife and I was going to take it down and I think I would have been justified. But that's beside the point. But the point is, honestly, we are not all born inherently gentle, and neither was I, and yet the Lord has done a work in my life. Now, obviously he has more to go, but the Lord has done a work in my life that really and truly is something that I almost can't overstate.

Speaker 1:

I was one of those people that was really mean and if you had known me when I was in high school, I was a huge metalhead. I was one of those people that you know. I didn't I won't say I liked to fight, but I was a fighter and I was one of those people that had no fight or flight Part of my testimony and I always feel bad for my mother when I stand up and tell my testimony, because I always tell a little bit more of it than she knew. Luckily she's not here today, but the last time I told it she didn't know that I used to drive fast and use my road rage and a whole bunch of stuff. Well, this morning she's going to find out a little bit more.

Speaker 1:

My testimony includes when I was in high school. There was this kid and he kind of thought he was a thug and that he could mess with people and used to. When I was in high school. I liked to take high school shop classes. I liked to work with my hands you know I like all that stuff and we were standing out, we were getting ready to switch classes and in my high school all the buildings were outside and so you had a shop building and you had a math and science building and you had a social studies and English building and you know, on and on it went, and so we're getting ready. We're standing outside getting ready to walk to our next classes in our next buildings and this kid starts throwing rocks at me and saying words that I can't repeat at it from a church house, and you know, just saying general stuff. And I thought to myself when I was in high school, this was pre-save days, that I was going to get him. And so I walk over and you know you're standing with your buddies and you want to show off, and you know we fought it out, did all the stuff right.

Speaker 1:

I was not always such a gentle person, but what I've discovered over time is the fruit of the spirit of gentleness has really changed my very existence. The fruit of gentleness isn't something that we're necessarily born with, but it is a fruit of the spirit that develops in our lives, the more we pursue Jesus. And that's not if you're out there and you're going. Well, I'm a man. I can't always be gentle, I understand, can't always be gentle against a rooster, but here's what gentleness looks like in the life of Jesus. Gentleness in the life of Jesus again chooses to care more about people and pettiness.

Speaker 1:

If you look at the beginning of the story in chapter 12, it says they were going through the grain fields on the Sabbath and they picked heads of grain to eat. What does that mean? Except his disciples were hungry. And if you look at the story contextually, they're on their way to church and it was breakfast time and they apparently had nothing. And the thing about the edge of a grain field is that the edge of a grain field is that the edge of a grain field was intentionally left unpicked at harvest time so that the poor could come by and pluck heads of grain or whatever as they would walk by. And that was okay. That was a matter of mercy for people, so that they could eat if they had nothing. And what we see is that Jesus and his disciples probably had nothing at this particular time, and Jesus cares enough about his disciples that he allows them to pluck heads of grain on the Sabbath.

Speaker 1:

Now, obviously, this is an issue for the Pharisees and they bring it up. And Jesus goes on in verse three. And he said to them have you not read what David did when he was hungry and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the presence, which is not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests. That's interesting. And then Jesus, in his gentleness, also says or have you not read in the law how, on the Sabbath, the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless Because they work right the priesthood, they bring the sacrifices and they take care of all those things? If you've ever wondered, well, we're not supposed to work on Sundays, but pastors, they always preach on Sundays.

Speaker 1:

This is the passage that we look to. He says have you not read in the law how, on the Sabbath, the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? He said I tell you something greater than the temple is here, and if you had known what this means I desire mercy and not sacrifice you would not have condemned the guiltless, for the Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath. What we see is that Jesus provides for the needs of his disciples, and in doing so, the disciples are working on the Sabbath. The reason why that's not sinful, though, is because they are serving Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath. They are serving God through the things that Jesus told them to do. Right, they are serving the Lord, and Jesus, out of his gentleness, is looking out for them, though he knows it's going to cause him trouble If you go on down again. He went on from there and entered their synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand, and they asked him is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? So that they might accuse him? And Jesus tells them a whole bunch of things, but, basically, that man is more important than the animals that you would rescue should they fall into a ditch or whatever, and he heals the man with a withered hand.

Speaker 1:

Jesus cares more about people and pettiness. Jesus chooses to care more about people than the trouble it may cause him, and we are to do the same thing. It's interesting that the trouble that Jesus is going to get into he suffers because he cares more not only about just people in general. But he cares about his friends, which we see in the beginning of chapter 12. He cares about the perfect stranger, who we see in the middle of chapter 12. And he cares about his foe, his enemy, which we see all through chapter 12. His friend, the disciple, the stranger, the man with the withered hand, and the enemy, the Pharisee.

Speaker 1:

Jesus cares more about people than pettiness. And on top of that, jesus only cares more about people than pettiness. And we should do the same if we are gentle, but also gentleness chooses to care more about truth than it does trouble. What does Jesus do every time he is providing for the needs of his disciples or healing the man with a withered hand? What does he do every single time? He teaches the truth of scripture. At the beginning of chapter 12, he said to them have you not read? At the beginning of chapter 12.? He said to them have you not read? In the middle of chapter 12, in verse 11, he said to them which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? That is a direct reference to the law of Moses in scripture. Jesus cares more about truth than trouble. And if you are gentle sometimes, you must do the same. If you are to love like Jesus loved, if you are to be the meek who inherit the earth, as Jesus talks about in the Beatitudes, you must care more about truth than trouble.

Speaker 1:

There are people out there today who would rather we, as Christians, twist truth just a little bit. Matter of fact, I think that they would even point to what Jesus says about caring more for man, and I think they would point to how Jesus says I desire mercy, not sacrifice. And they would look at that and go, okay, well, that must mean that it's okay that we accept the homosexual agenda and we ordain homosexual priesthood, it's okay that abortion floods this country and it's okay that we legalize marijuana. And it's okay, right, pick your sin, insert here. But Jesus never did that. What Jesus does is he cares more about truth than the trouble it will cause him. And Jesus teaches the word of God to people who are professional word of God people. Jesus cares more about the truth than the trouble it will cause him. And so it goes on.

Speaker 1:

Jesus heals a man with a withered hand, jesus provides for the needs of his disciples, and then it finishes, chapter 12, verse 15. It says Jesus aware of this, where of what? Let's go back to verse 14,. But the pharisees went out and conspired against him how to destroy him. Now, jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there and many followed him and he healed them all and ordered them not to make him known.

Speaker 1:

This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah. Prophet Isaiah writing 500 years before this would have happened. Something like that, verse 18,. And behold my servant, whom I have chosen, my beloved, with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my spirit upon him and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break and a smoldering wick he will not quench until he brings justice to victory, and in his name the Gentiles will hope. Brings justice to victory and in his name the Gentiles will hope.

Speaker 1:

Why is Isaiah quoted right there? Well, it's because Jesus is on mission. Jesus, the son of God, is on the mission of God to bring the kingdom of God, and in that, he is the gentle, suffering servant who is going to bring about, inaugurate a kingdom that is so unlike anything that they would have ever thought possible. When they would have read this thing in Isaiah, they would have thought that Isaiah was talking about judgment for the Gentiles. Behold my servant, whom I have chosen, my beloved, with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my spirit upon him and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. A Jew would have read that before Jesus' day and they would have thought justice for the Gentiles means he's gonna kick out Rome, their occupiers, the ones who were not Jews, who were in their land, and they were so mad about it. They would have thought this Messiah is going to come and he's going to bring justice. But Jesus was so unlike anything that they would have thought. You see, jesus was gentle and in that, what we see is that to be truly gentle means to choose the mission over the man. To be truly gentle means to choose the mission over the person that you are.

Speaker 1:

I have preferences, right? I have preferences about America and I have preferences about my household. I have preferences about what I'm going to eat for lunch today. America and I have preferences about my household. I have preferences about what I'm going to eat for lunch today. I have preferences that if it was up to me, I wouldn't necessarily have to suffer for my faith. That's not what the Bible teaches me and I bet Jesus had preferences. Matter of fact, I know he did.

Speaker 1:

There's this whole Garden of Gethsemane scene and, if you all remember, jesus prays Lord, if it be possible, let this cup pass for me, but not my will, but yours be done, jesus. If you look at honestly, it's one of my favorite stories. It's Matthew 26. I'll just tell you, jesus is in the process of being arrested in Matthew 26. And in verse 52, peter's the one who pulls out his sword. Right, and he's, you know, like. That's who you want to be as the man. You want to be the guy who pulls out the sword and fights for your master and your king, and you want to be the guy who takes up the stick and fights the rooster for his wife. You want to be that guy, and that's what Peter does. He's like it's my time to shine. And what does Jesus tell him? Put it up, that's right. Put away your sword, don't you know?

Speaker 1:

I could have called 12 legions of angels to come down and wipe this whole place out. It takes two to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, and I could call 12 legions of angels to come down and wipe this whole place out. It takes two to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, and I could call 12 legions of angels. I could end this thing in a minute. I could snap my fingers.

Speaker 1:

If you're reading Revelation, he's the one who has the sword that comes out of his mouth and wipes out a whole army of people that are gathered from all around the world. Done, it's not what he does. Jesus chooses the mission over the man, and that's what he calls us to do. Matthew 16, 24 tells us that we are to take up our cross daily and follow him. And the thing about being gentle is it has no clue about our preferences.

Speaker 1:

Many of y'all ever been in one of those situations where you really just don't like somebody and you're called to talk to him anyway, what about this one? Anybody ever been in one of those situations where you got $20 in your pocket and you're driving down the road, you're on your way to lunch and, man, you just feel really strongly that the Lord's like, hey, give that $20 to that homeless guy right there. And you're sitting there in your car going, but that's the $20 I'm going to use for lunch. And then you have that moral quandary, right? Do I give the $20? Do I buy my lunch? Do I give the $20 to buy my lunch?

Speaker 1:

Gentleness knows no preference. It chooses the mission over the man. Let me give you one more. While I'm stepping on toes, I might as well step hard, right, um, and I? I preach all these things because I'm the one who have done all these things at some point and I'm still praying through them that the lord would completely heal me of all these terrible things that I've done. Gentleness also tells me that when I'm driving down the road in my car and someone cuts me off in traffic, I don't do that thing where I stomp on the gas pedal and fly around them. And you know, gentleness chooses the mission over the man. What gentleness does is it tells me that I have a mission from the Lord as a Christian, to represent him everywhere I go. Sometimes that's hard. Sometimes what that means is I don't get to do the things that I want to do. I don't get to whip my chicken outside that's trying to mess with my wife. I don't get to cut that guy off in traffic Even though he just cut me off. I don't get my preference because I want to be more and more like Jesus and less and less like myself.

Speaker 1:

Gentleness just to recap, and I'm closing says it chooses gentleness, chooses to care more about people than pettiness. It chooses to care about truth over trouble. It chooses to be truly gentle. I'm sorry, it chooses the mission over the man. Read that wrong.

Speaker 1:

And so if you're sitting out there and you're going, what do I do? How do I live this out this week? Let me give you four applications. Y'all ready for this? If you're taking notes, now's a good time to sharpen your pencil. Here we go. Number one this week, if you want to apply this word, you will care more about people than the trouble it may cause you. It may be terribly inconvenient for you to give that 20 to that homeless guy instead of going and buying your lunch with it. It may be terribly inconvenient of you to love that person even though they just told you off at work. But we care more about people than the trouble it may cause us. And on top of that, number two is to make choices that would treat others the way we want to be treated. Maybe it just means that I am in traffic and you'll ever know those really long traffic lines.

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I always get super convicted when I'm in those really long traffic lines and there's always that person who wants in, you know, from a side street. I was on Lancaster the other day and it was right before. Like we have elder meetings on Wednesdays where we get together and we pray for you all as the congregation and I'm like I'm trying to get across town because I want a snack and then I'm trying to get back for elder meeting and so I'm driving across town and I don't know what it was. But Wednesday at five o'clock it was crazy. Lancaster Avenue was bumper to bumper all the way across town and I'm thinking I have 30 minutes, I'm not going to make it. And here's this person that's sitting on the side, like a side street, and they're wanting into that big line and I'm like, and then here's a second person that pulls up right beside him because it took me like 10 minutes to get to him and I'm going I don't have time to let y'all in, and conviction, sometimes I just know the Lord's going, ben, let him in and I'm going. Oh, I don't want to, I don't have time for this, but what is the golden rule that I would treat others the way I want to be treated and I would want somebody to let me into traffic. I would want somebody to ignore the stupid thing that I did, because I do stupid things. Connor, my name's Ben and I have a problem. I have lots of problems.

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Number three remember the importance of the mission. Sometimes the way we treat others with gentleness could change in eternity. It could see the one thing that you did, how you overlooked their sin, and it makes them realize that Jesus did the same thing for us. You never know the one thing that you may do, the gentle thing, the thing where you chose the mission over your preference, and it changes someone's eternity. And lastly, number four we don't compromise on the truth.

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People think that it is truly loving to compromise, to let people we just accept them the way that they are, because and I'm not saying that you go out and you become the sin police that is not what you do. What it does actually is it drives you first off to holiness and repentance. If there's sin in your heart, if you love people and you won't compromise on the truth, then it means you'll clean up your life first. Doesn't mean I'm going to go out and I'm going to tell whoever how terrible they are. It means I'm going to clean up myself first. I'm going to live the truth out in my life. I'm going to proclaim the gospel and when necessary, I'll use words, because if I love people like Jesus loved people, it is evident in everything that I do. I'll guarantee you people saw Jesus walking down the road and saw him acting the way that he acted and never needed Jesus to say I am gentle and lowly of heart. Four applications one more time We'll care more about people than the trouble it may cause. Number two we'll treat people the way we want to be treated. Number three we'll remember the importance of the mission. And number four we won't compromise the truth. We'll live out scripture in everything we do.

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Can I pray for you? Because if you're anything like me, you need the help of the Lord for you to do that. I look back on my life and I always am amazed at what God brought me from and I'm not perfect. That's why I try to tell you about things that I do that are done. My name's Ben and I have a problem, but, boy, when I look back at my life, the Lord has done so much in me and my prayer is that you could look back on your life and know the same thing. Would you stand to your feet today? I'd like to say a word of prayer for us, and then these altars will be open.

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If you need anything today, if you wanna know, if you need anything today, if you want to know this Jesus who is gentle and lowly of heart, today's your day.

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If you need prayer to just say guys, I want to be gentle, to come forward.

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If you need prayer for healing or anything, we want to minister to you this morning, let's pray.

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Heavenly father, we come and we love you, lord, and we are so thankful that you are the one who is gentle and lowly of heart.

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We're so thankful, lord, that the word of Isaiah says that you will not break off a reed that is bruised and you will not snuff out a candle that smolders God. We know that what that means is you will never cast us aside. You will never look at us and go well, they're too much trouble. No, your mission was to save us from sin and death, and you did it so well, lord. Thank you, father, for sending your son, jesus for our sins. And God, what we pray is that we would be made more and more, as Christians, into the image of your son Jesus. Lord, help us as we leave this place to go and to live out a life of gentleness like Jesus lived out when he was here. Lord, we pray that by our actions, by our choices, that people can know more about what Jesus is like, that we might live out a life of faith and holiness. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.