Aug. 17, 2024

Gentleness and Meekness

Gentleness and Meekness

A discussion about Ephesians 4:2 and the attribute of gentleness and meekness

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A discussion about Ephesians 4:2 and the attribute of gentleness and meekness

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Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is

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the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good morning everyone.

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It is Saturday, August seventeenth, twenty twenty four. It is

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currently ten oh seven am Central Time, and I am

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coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located

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right here in Abilene, Texas. Now, I have a number

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of rule books. I'm looking through all of these rule

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books trying to find the rule that tells me what

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should I do after there is a delay between one

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broadcast and the next broadcast. What is the role? Specifically speaking,

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if you are kind of doing a series, you're focusing

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on a specific say, chapter of the Bible. Right, You're

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working on a specific chapter. You're giving everyone specific assignments

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to do on that chapter. You're having everyone listen to

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sermons specifically on that chapter. Everything is there, and then

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there's a delay. Let's say you kind of just stop

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talking about it. You don't do another broadcast about it

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for like a week or over a week. What is

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the rule? Is? The rule is you just wait until

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someone emails you going, hey, you were working on Ephesians

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chapter four. I've done all the assignments. Where are you

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you just kind of leftists there, come on, finish this,

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bring it to some kind of conclusion. Do I wait

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for that email? And if I don't get that email,

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do I take that as a sign to mean, well,

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no one cares, so you should just forget about it

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and move on? And well, then I have to ask myself, well,

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can I move on or will I not kind of

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be obsessed with the fact that I left it unfinished?

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Ano there are many times I leave things unfinished. A

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lot of times is because of well, no, if you

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don't get an email, if you don't get anyone asking

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you about it, then you kind of have to just decide, well,

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maybe no one is interested. Now sometimes that's a wrong

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conclusion to come to, but you just you don't know.

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So what is the rule? I've been looking at the

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rule books and there is no There's no rule. But

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I feel like we have to go back to Ephesians four.

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We have to write because we were working on Ephesians

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chapter four. I told you to read the chapter over

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and over and over. I remember there was a specific

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church that held a conference, the Assault and Light Conference

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of twenty twenty four, and their key text for their conference,

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the key verse for their conference was Ephesians chapter four,

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verse five, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God

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and Father of all, who is above all and through all,

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and in you all. And once I realized here's an

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entire conference dedicated to Ephesians four five. Remember how excited

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I got. I was like, Oh, this is going to

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be awesome, right, we will review some of these sermons.

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This will be great, and we'll dig into the Book

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of Ephesians. So everyone read it and then and then

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what happened, Well, what happened is I started getting extremely frustrated,

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right because this is a conference where Ephesians four to

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five is like the key and the first speaker. I

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think we review two sermons, maybe three sermons, and they

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didn't really deal with a Book of Ephesians. It was

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really frustrating. It was almost maddening. It's like, wait a minute,

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if you're going to have a conference on Ephesians four five,

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don't you have to then establish what Ephesians one, two

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three was about. Then you have therefore in chapter four,

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verse one, and so we have then a transitional transitional word.

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Therefore is a transition from the three chapters one, two,

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and three, which was a philological exposition. Now chapter four

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begins the practical exposition, and the practical exposition relies and

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is built upon and flows from the philological So remember

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I told everyone to go through chapter four and then

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find how each thing relates to chapters one, two, and three.

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I remember, I give you all these assignments, but it

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was maddening how they were handling the text, and so

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I kind of got irritated. To be honest, I got aggravated.

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Probably you even heard a little anger in my voice

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at times, because I'm just like, can we just deal

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with the text. But what I try to do is

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when I get frustrated, when I get aggravated in a

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sermon review, I could just sit there and be negative

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and be critical. That's easy to do, But then I

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always say, okay, all right, even though that frustrated me.

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Even though that irritated me, even though I may disagree,

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I am forever grateful that they put their content online

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because now I can use that as motivation for us

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to dig into the text and really try to get

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something from it. So what did I do. I provided

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you an entire message, I think almost an hour long,

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of giving you the structure of Ephesians one, two, three, four, five,

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and six, trying to give you kind of an outline

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and how it all fit together. I think that was

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very beneficial. And then they even acknowledged in the conference.

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They acknowledged this because if you'll notice and Ephesians four five,

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one Lord, one Faith, one baptism, one God, and this

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idea of one and so they said that this section

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really emphasizes unity. We need unity, and the body of Christ,

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we need unity, so that there's one God, there's one faith,

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there's one baptism. There needs to be unity. And I'm like, well,

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that that's great. And they even argued that this section

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was calling for unity. And I'm like, that's great because

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if you go to Ephesians chapter four and you read

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verse three endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit

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and the bond of peace, and I'm like, okay, here,

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even in a four Ephesians four three is saying there's

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something you have to do. You have to endeavor, endeavor

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to keep the unity. You have to endeavor. It's something

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we must pursue, it's something we must do. So there

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is a And again Ephesians four is the practical exposition,

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So practically you must endeavor, not endeavor endeavor, You must

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endeavor to maintain that unity. To keep the unity. It's

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not something that's natural, it's actually unnatural. So we have

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to figure out what is required for us to endeavor

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to keep the unity. Now, remember, the practical unity flows

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from the spiritual unity. What do I mean by that? Well,

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when you put your faith in Christ, right, when you

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put your faith in Christ, you are in Christ Jesus.

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So you are in Christ. I'm in Christ. Doesn't matter

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what country you came from, does not matter, your racial

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background does not matter, your gender doesn't matter anything. We

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are one in Christ spiritually. Or we could use the

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word positionally. Now that positional reality we must endeavor to

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live out practically. That's the again, that's the Christian life. Positionally,

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you are a new creature. Old things are passed away,

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all things have become new. Positionally, you're perfect and holy

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because of imputed righteousness. Positionally, you're perfectly obedient because Christ

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obedient obedience has been accredited to your account. That is

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true positionally. Now, practically we have to endeavor to live

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out even though it's not going to be anywhere close

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to perfect. We try to live out some level of

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reality of what is true positionally. So positionally we are

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one in Christ. Positionally we are unified. Practically we have

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to endeavor to keep that. Now what is required for

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us to endeavor to keep that unity? Well, I believe

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the text lays it all out. Look at Ephesians four one.

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I Paul speaking therefore the prisoner of the Lord, wanted

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to do a lot of work on the word prisoner.

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But we've never we've never gotten a chance to get

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to that. All right, But I therefore the prisoner of

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the Lord beseech you. Now, Paul's like, okay, I beseech you.

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I beg beg you. I played with you. Look at this.

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To walk worthy of the calling which you were called,

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walk worthy of the calling which you were called. We

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were called with a holy calling, with a sovereign calling,

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with an eternal calling, with a gracious calling, with a

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loving calling. And so now we that is true. Now

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we are to try to walk and practice worthy of it.

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We're never going to come close. We're only worthy in Christ.

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But practically we endeavor to do so. Then look what

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happens with all Now here's the characteristics and the attributes

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that are very important to walking worthy. When we say

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walk worthy, we immediately say, well, don't do this and

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don't watch this and dress this way. That's not what's

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given immediately. It gives us these very important characteristics and attributes. Right,

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you're ready, lowlyess, gentleness, with long suffering, bearing with one

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another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity. If you

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want to keep the unity practically, what is required is

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that we maintain and have these characteristics in these attributes.

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And what are they? I told you to write them down.

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The first one is a lowliness, the second one is gentleness,

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the third is long suffering, the next is bearing with

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one another in love. Those are the attributes. And remember

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I told you to write them down and to think

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about them. I know, I know, it feels like it's

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been six months since we talked about this, but we

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needed to circle back. We need to finish this. Like

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if you're gonna do a conference on Ephesians four about

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one faith, one this, one this, and we need unity, Well,

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you can't just tell everyone have unity. Just remember there's

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one faith, one God, one baptism. That's just giving them

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the philological motivation for it. But the philological motivation for

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it flows from Ephesians one, two and three, So you

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would really have to go back to Ephesians one, two

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and three to get the philological basis for this idea

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of one God, one faith. But even if you're not

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going to do that, what you really need to do is, like, okay, guys,

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before we talk about the fact that there's one God,

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one faith, one baptism, and we need to have unity. Well,

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what to endeavor to keep this unity, to endeavor to

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maintain this unity, to endeavor to even experience this unity.

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What we must determine is we have to find a

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way for these specific attributes and characteristics to be developed

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in our life, because without it, you're never going to

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have unity. And what are they again? What are they?

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Class Number one lowliness, Number two gentleness in the New

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King James, makeness in the King James. So lowliness, gentleness,

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long suffering, and then bearing with one another in love.

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Those are the attributes that we desperately, desperately need. So

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let me quickly remind you of lowliness. Right, Remember, lowliness

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comes from a very interesting Greek word, a very interesting

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Greek word. It's this Greek word lowliness comes from this

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Greek word. Everybody, remember this one. This is worth, This

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is worth like you know, fifty dollars if you can

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remember it, remember.

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This strong g fivey twelve tapai now for rasune, tapai

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now frasune.

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Tapa noaf rasune, Tapa naff rasune. If I look at it,

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I can do pretty good. Tapa noaf rasune. That's that's

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worth fifty dollars. If you just walk around the house

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today going top tapa noof rasune, topof not rasune. Just

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keep walking around saying it. Say if you say it too,

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fashion'll mess it up. You got to go really be

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You got to be very intentional in saying it, tapa

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not rasune. Like if you say it intentionally, I think

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you can get But you need to go around today

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saying it over and over and over. But you need

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to say the word so that you remember the characteristic

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and the attribute. Remember this word tappa rasune is used

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seven times. It's translated humility three times, humbleness of mine

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one time, humility of mine one time, lowliness one time,

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and lowliness of mind. The strongest definition is humiliation of mind,

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humiliation of mind, modesty, humbleness of mind, a lowliness of mind.

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It really the outline of biblical usage is really three

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having a humble opinion of oneself, Having a humble opinion

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of oneself. If you want to endeavor to keep unity,

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if you want to walk worthy of the calling, then

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you must maintain a humble opinion of oneself. And I

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think this idea of a humble opinion of oneself is

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really deals with your spiritual understanding of yourself. See a

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humble opinion of oneself. You're not gonna be like the

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Pharisees and the Sadducees, where you say, I think the

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God that I'm not like the homosexual. I think the

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God that I'm not like the coveteousness one, the one

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who covets. I'm not like the glutton. I'm not like

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the slothful. I'm not like the sloughtful person. I'm not

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like the No. No, no, no, that's that's not this

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idea of loneliness. No, the idea of humble, a humble

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opinion of oneself. Here's the key. You are more aware.

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You are more bothered about your own sin, your own

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spiritual shortcomings, than you are of anyone else's. You're more

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bothered by your own. You're willing to admit your own.

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Whenever you see anyone else's failure, your first thought is

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how you can relate to said failure. When you see

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someone else's sin, you immediately think of how you can

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relate to it. You may not be able to relate

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to the practice, but you may be able to relate

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to it. Internally, you see your own, and even if

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you can't relate to their sin at all, you'll be

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quick to it. No, you've got your own. And this

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is why I get so bothered by so much preaching

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in the American Church, because the American Church loves to

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go them, they them, and it's always about those people

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though those and we are always yelling and screaming about

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those outside of the church. Inside the church, we act

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like we're all perfect. Now we say, oh no, we

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don't admit that, we admit we're sinners. Then why are

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all the sermons always about them? And they and them?

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And how about? It should be about us and you

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and I about me? It's about we. It should be

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about us. If we're going to have unity, we must

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maintain a humble opinion of one's self. Second, a deep

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sense of one's moral littleness. This Greek word that's translated

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lowliness means you will have a deep sense of your

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own moral littleness. You'll know your own littleness when it

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comes to morality. And number three modesty, humility, loneliness of mind. Now,

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we did an entire hour on that one, so that

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means today we come to the second one, gentleness or meekness. Now,

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are you ready to try to dig into this? Now?

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I know that was about a fifteen minute review, and

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I apologize for that, but I want to get us

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all back on the same page. Okay, I gotta get

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myself on the same page because I'm just gonna be

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honest with you. I haven't given him much thought. I

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kind of moved on, like I was like, Okay, we're

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working on Ephesians. We're working on Ephesians. We're working on Ephesians.

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And then I was just kind of like, all right now,

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I'm just moving on. We didn't really come close to

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finishing this. Can you imagine what your family would look like?

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Can you imagine what your church would look like if

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everyone truly had lowliness of mind, where we all had

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a humble opinion of oneself, We all had a very deep,

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deep deep sense of our own moral littleness, and we

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had modesty and humility and lowliness of mind. Now the

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next one, I'm going to go back to the anti linear.

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The next one again is translated meekness or gintness, meekness

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or gentleness. It comes from this Greek word. Are you ready?

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Here's the Greek word.

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Strong g forty two thirty six pratase, pratase.

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Pra atas, pra ATase, pra atas. Much easier to say

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pra atas, not as much fun, but much easier to

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say pra a tastes. Now this one is used nine times,

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nine times. It's translated meekness, all right, strongest definition gentleness

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by implication humility or meekness. All right, gentleness, mildness, meekness.

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Seems pretty straight forward. So let's do some work on

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this and see what we can find again. Ephesians chapter four.

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All right, these are things that are required to walk worthy.

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These are things that are required if we're going to

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keep unity. Right. We need lowliness, which we just spent

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a fifteen minutes talking about, and then we need meekness, gentleness,

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meekness or gentleness all right. The Greek word does not

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give us a lot, does not give us a lot

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to go on, So let's do a little bit of

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work here, right. Gentleness, often translated from the Greek word,

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which we've already looked at, refers to all right, here

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we go. This is kind of what it refers to,

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a quality of mildness, humility, and meekness. So clearly this,

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I think if lowliness kind of gives you that humble

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way of thinking, and I think this is kind of

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building upon it. It's kind of like lowliness to me

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in some ways lowliness should lead to meekness or gentleness. Right,

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So this is still dealing with humility, but I think

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it's dealing with with a practical impact of a humble mind,

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I think. So let's see if this if a number

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of sources agrees with this, disagrees now here. Now this

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is where it gets very practical. This meekness or gentleness

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is described, at least by one source, it is the

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ability to remain calm and composed in the face of provocation. Wow,

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the ability to remain calm and composed and the face

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of being provoked. See lowliness, Is that true? Humility, that

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true humility. You are. You are so in a sense

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almost broken and brought low because of the awareness of

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your own frail to your own sinfulness, your own ungodland.

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You're you're brought low. But from that lowliness should then

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arise a meekness and a gentleness, where this gives you

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the ability to remain calm even when being provoked. All

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right there, I just kind of want to just say, well,

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we're having some technical difficulties and we're just going to

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end this broadcast, and I think nobody really cares about

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Ephesians for maybe we should just be done, because I

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have to admit to you, I'm not very good at that. See,

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my way of thinking is in the face of provocation

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and being provoked, my way of thinking is I'm going

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to respond, not in an equal way, but I'm going

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to respond so far above and beyond that by the

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time I'm done, that person will never ever even think

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of provoking me ever, ever, ever, ever, ever again. I'm

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gonna want them to regret provoking me like they have

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never regretted it in their entire life. I'm going to

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go for total annihilation and destruction. But see that not

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show lowliness does it, and it definitely doesn't show meekness

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or gentleness. It is to be considerate and carrying towards

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others and to avoid harshness and speech and action. Now,

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the thing with the Bible, though it just looks, make

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sure this is very clear, the Bible also would allow

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at times a righteous kind of anger and a very righteous,

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very blunt response. Now, the thing is typically in men

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will go find those passages where John the Baptist is

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saying some harsh things, or Jesus is picking up a whip,

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and we utilize that to justify our We'll call it

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righteous indignation, where we're saying things that ultimately really are

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not very godly. And the reason Jesus could do that

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well because while he was the eternal son of God,

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and you know, perfect and righteous and holy and without

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a sinful nature, so obviously his way of doing that

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would be always something that we probably will never even

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come close to pulling off. John the Baptist said a

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lot of things we could we could try to justify

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our words. I think I think sometimes we try to

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justify our actions by pointing to some of these. But

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we are called whether whether we like it or not.

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We are called to be lowly, a lowliness, and gentle

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and meek, which means to be considerate and caring towards

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others and to avoid harshness and speech and actions. And

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if you've listened to this podcast, you know I'm not

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always meek or gentle, and my response because I get

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very angry and very frustrated. In Ephesians four, Paul list

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gentleness as a crucial attribute for maintaining unity within the

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body of Christ. Now, if you want unity anywhere, if

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everyone is lowly or lowliness, and everyone is gentle and meek,

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there should be a high degree of unity, you would think.

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So it is paired with humility, patience, and love, emphasizing

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the need for believers to interact with one another in

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a manner that fosters peace and cohesion. Now, some of

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the characteristics of gentleness, according to one's source self control.

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Gentleness involves exercising control over one's emotions, especially anger. It

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is the opposite of being easily provoked or reacting impulsively.

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So if we're going to be gentle or meek, it

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means that we exercise control over our own emotions. We

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control our own emotions, especially when being provoked. We do

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not react and pulsively, so there's a sense of self

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control with the idea of gentleness and meekness. Second, humility,

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a gentle person recognizes their own limitations and does not

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assert themselves over others. The humility allows them to serve

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others without seeking recognition or asserting dominance. See the gentle person.

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The meek person recognizes their own limitations. Now, this is

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why I believe the gentleness and meekness flows from the lowliness.

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If we have lowliness, that already we already more aware

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of our own sin. We're already aware of our own

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moral littleness, we already understand that, we're willing to admit that.

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And now that manifests itself in a gentle and meek

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attitude where you know your own limitations. I wish many

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Christians would be willing to admit their own not only

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their own moral littleness, but their own limitations, because so

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many times Christians think that they are an expert on everything.

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If they want to talk about medical issues, they think

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they're an expert, even though they demonstrate they don't have

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a clue what they're talking about. You have Christian men

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who think that they're experts when it comes to hermoneutics

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or theology, and they don't even have any formal education.

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But then they will mimic, mock ridicule those who do

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have the education and act like that they're smarter and

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they know more there and they're the ones who have

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the understanding. Well, everyone else are just idiots. Self control

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Humility number three consideration for others. Gentleness is marked by

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a thoughtful concern for the feelings and well beings of others,

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and involves speaking and acting in a way that is

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considerate and avoids unnecessary harm. You're gentle and meek, then

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you should show that in how you consider other people,

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how you think about how you are impacting other people.

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Sometimes all we think about is ourselves. We don't think

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about well, if I do this, this is what's going

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to happen. No, I only worry about me. But see

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if your lowly lowliness, then you'll be so broken that

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whenever you consider yourself, you will see your own failures,

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your own shortcomings, your own sinfulness. But then that should

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lead to them a gentleness and meekness, and how you

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consider other people, and you are more you're considerate of

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other people, You take thought of other people, you may

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even put them before yourself. So some of the characteristics

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of gentleness is self control. Number two is humility. Number

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three is consideration for others, or you're considerate of others.

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And next calmness and conflict. A gentle person is able

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to maintain peace even in challenging situations. They respond to

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conflict with calmness rather than aggression, seeking resolution rather than escalation.

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See the gentle the meek person. It's calm and conflict

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A man or O me. How do we obtain meekness

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and gentleness? I don't know if there's any specific way

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I think. I think the key is to maintain I

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think loneliness and gentleness and meekness are very much related,

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very much connected, right, And I think the only way

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to bring us low, the only way to keep us humble,

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The only way to bring about gentleness and meekness, I

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think requires really two things, is a constant reminder of

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the greatness, sovereignty, power of God. Because the more you

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see the greatness of God, the more aware you are

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of how little and insignificant and small and broken you are.

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Right again, I know it's You've heard me say it

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a million times. It comes from Calvin's institutes. When we

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see God as he truly is, then we see ourselves

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as we truly are. We have to see God and

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his greatness, which then will demonstrate our littleness. It will,

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It will break us, hopefully and humble us. It should,

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it should, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes the more we know

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about God, the more it makes us arrogant. It should

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break us. So I think we have to spend much

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time acknowledging and studying and meditating on the greatness of God.

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And I think this is important. We need to spend

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much time acknowledging the reality of us. Christianity is so

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much about putting on fig leaves and putting on robes

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of self righteousness and pretending, pretending, pretending, pretending, pretending, pretending, pretending, pretending, pretending,

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and acting shocked at everyone else's sin and acting horrified

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that other people would How dare they do this? You

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need to look at yourself. You need to see your

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own struggles, your own issues. I know we like to

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pretend that we're so great. If we could just be

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honest with ourselves. Gentleness is essential and maintaining unity in

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the church because it fosters an environment where people feel

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respected and valued. It prevents division and promotes harmonious relationships.

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Without gentleness, conflicts are more likely to arise, and unity

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is harder to maintain. Gentleness is a vital attribute for

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Christian unity, characterized by self control, humility, consideration, and calmness.

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It is cultivated through prayer, scriptural reflection, and intentional practice

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and community support. Now, I didn't go through the ways

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as they said to develop it because I'm not completely

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convinced that those ways actually develop it. I think what

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actually develops because lowliness and meekness and gentleness they're connected. Well,

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how are you going to be brought low by seeing

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how hot? Again? Isaiah, when he saw God high and

454
00:30:37.240 --> 00:30:40.039
lifted up, then he saw how little he was. Right,

455
00:30:40.079 --> 00:30:42.599
he saw what he really was. That's the When we

456
00:30:42.640 --> 00:30:44.519
see God as he truly is, we see ourselves as

457
00:30:44.599 --> 00:30:46.880
we truly are. And then if we will spend time

458
00:30:47.039 --> 00:30:50.960
actually acknowledging what we are. I don't think. I know.

459
00:30:51.480 --> 00:30:55.160
Church doesn't allow that, right, Church doesn't allow you know,

460
00:30:55.559 --> 00:30:58.480
you're sitting around in a semi circle, goes, So how

461
00:30:58.559 --> 00:31:01.799
was your wig? Well? You know, I spent six hours

462
00:31:01.839 --> 00:31:05.039
on a porn site. That's how my week is going. No,

463
00:31:05.160 --> 00:31:07.640
you can't say that, well, you know I was. I

464
00:31:07.720 --> 00:31:10.079
was thinking how my life would be so much better

465
00:31:10.240 --> 00:31:13.720
if I wasn't married to my stupid husband. No, you

466
00:31:13.759 --> 00:31:17.599
can't say that, well, I have this desire or I

467
00:31:17.680 --> 00:31:19.680
have this, or I was thinking this, or I was

468
00:31:19.720 --> 00:31:22.400
wanting this and I'm sick of this and I'm really

469
00:31:22.440 --> 00:31:25.759
irritated about God about You can't say any of that.

470
00:31:25.880 --> 00:31:29.039
You can't. So everyone puts on their nice little church

471
00:31:29.119 --> 00:31:31.599
clothes and they put on their nice little church smile,

472
00:31:31.839 --> 00:31:34.599
and everyone goes and saying, how you do it? I'm

473
00:31:34.680 --> 00:31:38.680
blessed brother, How you doing? Oh I'm doing so great, sister. Right,

474
00:31:38.759 --> 00:31:42.920
Everyone's like, oh, great, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. The sun

475
00:31:43.000 --> 00:31:47.319
comes up and there's a rainbow of skittles. Everyone's happy.

476
00:31:47.480 --> 00:31:51.720
There's unicorns, there's butterflies. Life is wonderful, life is great.

477
00:31:51.759 --> 00:31:53.200
And then you get in the car and scream and

478
00:31:53.240 --> 00:31:57.720
yell at each other all the way home. Now, I

479
00:31:57.799 --> 00:32:01.079
understand church is not necessarily the place for that honesty

480
00:32:01.119 --> 00:32:04.519
to be to be expressed. I understand that I'm not

481
00:32:04.599 --> 00:32:08.680
talking about making everyone uncomfortable. What I'm saying, though, you

482
00:32:08.920 --> 00:32:12.720
have to be aware of the reality. You've got to

483
00:32:12.839 --> 00:32:18.640
know and not become. Don't convince yourself by the game

484
00:32:18.680 --> 00:32:21.440
you play. Be willing to look in the mirror, going, man,

485
00:32:23.559 --> 00:32:26.519
if people only knew what was inside of me, if

486
00:32:26.559 --> 00:32:33.240
people only knew, and then you take what's inside of you.

487
00:32:33.319 --> 00:32:35.480
It's not necessarily you have to go tell everyone what's

488
00:32:35.480 --> 00:32:37.480
inside of you. The issue is that you are willing

489
00:32:37.519 --> 00:32:41.119
to admit it because then guess what. That brings you low,

490
00:32:43.319 --> 00:32:45.759
and then that should make you meique and gentle towards

491
00:32:45.759 --> 00:32:52.039
others because you've seen the greatness of God and you've

492
00:32:52.079 --> 00:32:55.319
seen the reality of self. The greatness of God and

493
00:32:55.359 --> 00:32:59.240
the reality of Self should bring you low lowliness, and

494
00:32:59.319 --> 00:33:05.640
hopefully from that flows a meek and gentle spirit. Not

495
00:33:05.720 --> 00:33:08.119
saying there's never a time to get upset, not saying

496
00:33:08.119 --> 00:33:10.079
there's never a time to get angry. The Bible also

497
00:33:10.119 --> 00:33:14.039
tells us to be angry and sin not. There is

498
00:33:14.079 --> 00:33:27.880
a place and time. So there's two attributes you need

499
00:33:27.920 --> 00:33:29.480
to put down. You can put rite them on your

500
00:33:29.480 --> 00:33:36.319
refrigerator today. Lowliness gentleness slash meekness don't worry about if

501
00:33:36.319 --> 00:33:40.000
anyone else in your family is maintaining having these attributes

502
00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:45.000
of lowliness, meekness, slash gentleness. Worry about yourself. Don't worry

503
00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:48.440
about other people in your church having lowliness, meekness or gentleness.

504
00:33:48.839 --> 00:33:52.799
You demonstrate this is about you. It's not about them

505
00:33:53.240 --> 00:33:56.599
or they. It's about us. It's about me, it's about you,

506
00:33:56.720 --> 00:34:04.160
it's about we. We need this. Christianity locks these attributes.

507
00:34:06.480 --> 00:34:10.039
But you can't tell people, hey, there is one body,

508
00:34:10.079 --> 00:34:12.440
one spirit. Even as you're call you can't go through

509
00:34:12.480 --> 00:34:15.519
all the kind of the philological realities of the oneness

510
00:34:15.519 --> 00:34:17.719
of all these things, because those oneness of all those

511
00:34:17.760 --> 00:34:22.960
things will not matter if the individuals who are called

512
00:34:23.000 --> 00:34:25.119
to endeavor to keep the unity, if we do not

513
00:34:25.239 --> 00:34:28.920
have lowliness, meekness, long suffering for bearing one another in love.

514
00:34:30.199 --> 00:34:32.679
So you could think we need lowliness, we need meekness,

515
00:34:32.719 --> 00:34:38.960
we need long suffering, and we need love. And we're

516
00:34:39.000 --> 00:34:42.039
never going to have these perfectly and Christ see and

517
00:34:42.119 --> 00:34:46.079
Christ there's perfect unity. But we then must endeavor to

518
00:34:46.119 --> 00:34:48.360
take that positional unity and then try to make it

519
00:34:48.400 --> 00:34:57.199
practical to whatever degree that we can. Two thousand years

520
00:34:57.199 --> 00:34:59.960
of Church history shows there's not a lot of lowliness

521
00:35:00.039 --> 00:35:03.159
sometimes within Christianity, and there's not a lot of jeepness,

522
00:35:03.599 --> 00:35:13.599
gentleness and meekness, but we desperately need it now. If

523
00:35:13.599 --> 00:35:16.039
you want to continue to work on Ephesians four, we'll

524
00:35:16.079 --> 00:35:18.599
continue to go through Efusians four, reading it over and

525
00:35:18.639 --> 00:35:23.039
over and over. Remember everything in Epusians four find its counterpart,

526
00:35:23.039 --> 00:35:27.400
its connection. Chapters one through three is the philological exposition, four, five,

527
00:35:27.400 --> 00:35:30.840
and six is the practical exposition. The practical must be

528
00:35:30.840 --> 00:35:33.639
connected to the philological, and one, two and three right.

529
00:35:34.159 --> 00:35:36.800
Make sure you're listening to sermons. Remember I told you

530
00:35:36.840 --> 00:35:38.840
to listen to the Salt and Light Conference of twenty

531
00:35:38.880 --> 00:35:40.760
twenty four. Listen to all of those messages. I think

532
00:35:40.800 --> 00:35:44.239
there was thirteen. You can just look up random sermons

533
00:35:44.239 --> 00:35:46.400
for the sermon's two point oh app challenge on Ephesians

534
00:35:46.400 --> 00:35:49.199
four if you so desire. But I really want you

535
00:35:49.280 --> 00:35:52.440
to focus on these attributes lowliness, meekness, lung, suffering, and

536
00:35:52.480 --> 00:36:00.280
then love. Now I could probably say more about gentlenessess,

537
00:36:00.280 --> 00:36:02.239
I probably could do a better job, but I think

538
00:36:02.239 --> 00:36:07.079
we'll stop right there and we will try to finish

539
00:36:07.159 --> 00:36:11.760
this up. At least those attributes. At least those attributes.

540
00:36:11.800 --> 00:36:14.199
Maybe we'll do more work on Ephesians four. We will see,

541
00:36:14.400 --> 00:36:17.199
but at least want those attributes very well known. All right,

542
00:36:17.239 --> 00:36:20.320
I'll stop there. Thank you so much for listening. I

543
00:36:20.400 --> 00:36:23.039
greatly appreciate it. I hope you will continue to work

544
00:36:23.039 --> 00:36:26.880
on Ephesians for and we will see what else the

545
00:36:26.960 --> 00:36:30.840
day has for us. Tomorrow Victory Baptist Church. Primarily, I

546
00:36:30.840 --> 00:36:32.800
think it's going to be a Romans day. I think

547
00:36:32.960 --> 00:36:34.559
it's going to be looking at the word therefore in

548
00:36:34.559 --> 00:36:36.800
the Book of Romans. I know we need to finish

549
00:36:36.840 --> 00:36:39.639
up the eschatology, but I may use both hours for

550
00:36:39.719 --> 00:36:45.079
that tomorrow. That therefore I want to do. I wanted

551
00:36:45.079 --> 00:36:50.280
to do a little bit more work on scrupulosity. Scrupulosity

552
00:36:50.360 --> 00:36:53.360
I think is I think that concept is far more

553
00:36:53.400 --> 00:36:58.599
important than anyone who knows. There was very few contacts

554
00:36:58.639 --> 00:37:01.000
about it. I don't think anyone else was impressed with

555
00:37:01.039 --> 00:37:05.400
the scrupulosity discussion. I feel like it's absolutely critical. But

556
00:37:06.199 --> 00:37:09.840
we we'll see. So maybe tomorrow we'll just do at

557
00:37:09.880 --> 00:37:12.599
the church. It'll just be all Romans, and then we'll

558
00:37:12.599 --> 00:37:14.880
see where else we'll go. But I think we may

559
00:37:14.880 --> 00:37:17.360
talk about scrupulosity again, I feel like we do, and

560
00:37:17.440 --> 00:37:20.199
obviously we'll continue to work on Ephesians. You've got all

561
00:37:20.239 --> 00:37:22.880
your assignments for Romans, so I already gave you your

562
00:37:22.920 --> 00:37:25.679
assignments for Romans. Hopefull you already started on that. So

563
00:37:26.039 --> 00:37:28.559
all right, with all that said, everyone have a great Saturday,

564
00:37:29.440 --> 00:37:31.280
and may God bless you as you read and study

565
00:37:31.280 --> 00:37:32.880
his word.