Fruits of the Spirit - Part 1: Gentleness

This week was an unusually long sermon, and we turned it into a 2-part sermon for everyone. We hope you enjoy.

Transcript

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Welcome everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Bread of Life with JJ. So glad for you to join me on this special time and special occasion where we get to taste what the Lord has to offer. The Lord said, and Jesus says, as I as I quote his word, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst. Because we're going to drink also from the living water. So I'm grateful that you can join me on these morsels that the Lord has presented for you on this day, as you join me. And I appreciate that. Very sincerely. It means a lot to me. As you know, too, and those that tune in, I I have a a want to say, like, regiment of what the Lord, I feel the Holy Spirit allows and puts together for me. Culmination, conglomerate of this. Like I have devotions, um, words or stories that I've I've read, I'll paraphrase from that that were so meaningful, impactful, encouraging. Things are part of my life that I have experienced, so I can be always transparent and intimate, so you get to know who I am and who the Lord is using for me, through me to speak, which I do believe that, most sincerely. And I know that he has that available gift to everyone that's willing and able. Because he did say, hey, the uh the workers are few. The labor is plenty, though, right? Like the harvest is plenty, but man, we need we need more workers, we need more laborers. Be one of those, whoever's listening. Encourage yourself. Don't give up. You feel a word or you feel the Lord is using you for a specific reason, and catapult yourself and jump into those things and and see where it takes you. Pretty soon, again, my listeners, we are gonna be getting the video together. A producer here at the studio has been getting things put in an array of order and and with microphones, updated equipment, um, things that we can put cameras on. So pretty soon, pretty soon we're gonna be doing some YouTube things and going through and having a wonderful time and experience so we get to share together. I'm grateful for that. But on the segment that we're doing, the continued, because we have one more after this, we're doing fruits of the spirit. The fruits of the spirit that we're doing is gentleness. Last week we touched on goodness. This week we are on gentleness. Very important. So join me with this bread of life as we partake. And also, we're gonna do communion. So please join me in that as well. We can partake in what the Lord has done and what he's done and what he's shed for us. Those that believe, those are called according to his purpose, right? So before we get started, I'd like to pray and open in prayer, and we'll get going here. Heavenly Father, thank you for those listening. Thank you for this word that you have for them. But more than anything, Lord, I thank you for allowing me to speak and be used as a platform. So, Heavenly Father, we come before you this day and those listening, asking for a discerning eyes. Help us see clearly what weighs us down, the good things that have quietly become heavy burdens. Give us courage to release what hinders our pursuit of you. Teach us the difference between what is permissible and what is beneficial for our journey in this life. Take our burdens so that we may run freely toward the calling you have placed on our lives. I pray that. I ask that in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Thank you for that. Gentleness, though. We're gonna touch upon that. We're gonna touch on the meaning of gentleness and what's behind it. What's behind it if y'all know the definition thereof? Gentleness. Colossians 3 12, 13 speaks of this as well, along with Galatians 5 and talks about the fruits of the Spirit, where it says in this word, therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another. If any of you have grievance against someone, forgive as the Lord has forgiven you. In the Bible, gentleness is defined as a calm, steady spirit that is not easily provoked, not self-serving, and not domineering. Some of these examples, Jesus talked about that with his gentleness. I respond with gentleness like Jesus, like right, casting the first stone, John 8, 1 through 11. Another one with the Lord is my shepherd, Psalm 23, Bible truth. God guides me with his gentle love. Amazing things. Another word or another name for gentleness, you could say, would be meek. And people get that confused. They're thinking meekness is weakness, but it's far beyond that. It's anything but weak, it's actually power under control when you're meek, when you can respond in gentleness. That is the character trait that we all should emulate. That's what the Lord says, Matthew 11, 29. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Jesus Himself describes his heart as gentle. His imitation shows that true strength is expressed through humility and compassion. Gentleness is supporting others during their times of weakness so that they can achieve their full potential in the Lord. The characteristic involves being pretty much down to earth, right? Having a quiet ego, humility, being quick to let things go, forgiveness, having a soft and supportive demeanor, kindness, and being oriented towards the other. Now I know those listening, gentleness, maybe you struggle with that as well. Because I know I do sometimes. And what I mean by that is how I respond. Sometimes I'm not calm. Sometimes I'm easily provoked. I shouldn't be that way. Things get checked, I get my heart's checked, you know, like I and that it's important. It's important to understand that to serve the Lord and to be someone who calls himself a Christian, you must be someone who characterizes themselves in these fruits of the Spirit. Gentleness is one of them. I know the world that we live in is not. But I tell you what, gentleness is one of the most powerful expressions of life. And it's a powerful expression of life changed by God. I know the Bible has a lot to say about it, why it matters, what it looks like in everyday life, and how God's spirit makes it possible. Gentleness is a fruit of the Spirit, a God-given quality that grows as we follow Christ. Being gentle does not mean being passive. It reflects strength under God's control. Gentleness shapes how we speak, how we lead, serve, and care for others, especially those who need that, that love. What does the Bible say about gentleness? Gentleness appears throughout the both the Old and New Testament as a quality God values deeply and embodied Himself. In the New Testament, the Greek word most often translated as gentleness is pratias, meaning a calm, steady spirit that is not easily provoked, not self-serving, and not domineering. It is a posture of someone fully yielded to God. Matthew 11, 29. Jesus even said, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your soul. The Son of God describes himself as gentle. That tells us everything about how seriously God takes his quality. What the difference between gentleness and weakness? One of the most common misconceptions about gentleness is that it means being a pushover. Especially as men, we're like, man, we don't want to be gentle. I don't want to be pushed over. I don't want to seem that way. And that's pride. Pride comes before the fall, as the Bible says. So as we go back to the Greek, Proutus, that was used to describe a tamed, wild horse. The power was still there, simply yielded to a higher purpose. Well, that's biblical gentleness, strength under control, and used for the benefit of others, not for the absence of it. This is why it appears in Galatians 5, 22 to 23, as a fruit of the Spirit, rather than a personality trait. It's not natural advantage for the soft-spoken. It's something the Holy Spirit produces in someone or anyone that's surrendered to him, including the strong-willed and impatient, which I definitely can be. Jesus himself flipped tables, rebuked religious leaders, yet he called himself gentle and humble in heart. Strength and gentleness were never opposite in his life. They worked together. Do you understand that? It's like Jesus, like his example, because that's why we serve him. We serve him because he is the example. You said, if you see me, you see the Father. I am the way, the truth, and the life. Though, you know, you see me, you've seen the Father. Like you must do what I do. That's the only way you get to heaven is through him, through Jesus, his way, and believing and walking that out. And he emulated that. Right? But he also had righteous indignation, which meaning more than once, I believe twice, he did go and had to change over the tables and whip people out of the temple. Because he said, This is not a place you do that at. How many times I got to tell you? This is my father's house. So he had to stand up for something that was right. When he was actually showing himself to others to save their soul, to say, amen, get right. This is not how you do things. Thank God for that and for his example. But it does say strength and gentleness, they were never opposite in his life because he showed that as an example. They work together. The Bible speaks about gentleness in many ways, describing it as a characteristic of God, a command for believers, and an essential quality for healthy relationships and leadership. These scriptures about gentleness reveal why it matters so deeply in our Christian lives. Galatians 5, 22 through 23. Since we're doing this segment on the fruits of the Spirit, and this is what exactly it says here. But the fruit of the Spirit, because we're not talking about the fruits of the flesh, we already know those works. The fruits of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, or forbearance, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Meaning, if you do things opposite of that, there is judgment against you. That's the law. You should not be doing that to those, especially those that God calls his. But if you practice these things here: love, joy, peace, patience, and kindness, and so forth, well, you're blameless because you are walking out the ways that Jesus Christ called you to walk things out. He did say it wasn't going to be easy in this life, right? Like he did say that you will have troubles, but count it all joy. He's overcome the world, right? We need to put our yoke, the yoke, upon him. For his way is gentle. Oh man. It truly is, you know, especially if you feel out of place or you feel low, or even if you feel like an anointing has been taken from you because of maybe some choices you've been making. The Lord is quick to listen to you. He loves you, and he wants you, those that are listening, to be quick to listen. To be slow to speak, to be slow to anger. Slow to anger. Be gentle. See the fruits are different, right? I can have anger or I can have gentleness. Right? I I I can have what Jesus describes his heart as gentle, his invitation. That true strength is expressed through humility and compassion. So I can have that, right? Ephesians 4, 2 says, be completely humble, gentle, be patient, bearing with one another in love. Gentleness is closely connected to humility and patience, shaping how believers treat one another in everyday relationships. Everyday relationships. We come to in contact with those in our lives and those that we don't want to be in our lives. But see, that's where the where is the true love at? Where is actually not even that? The reward that we talk about, think about this, the reward that we talked about. We have to understand where God is coming through in this. We have to understand where our part, where we need to be. How I need the dwelling the Lord, as his pastor told me, to direct me, to help me overflow in love, to prepare me to meet the Lord. Because one day he is coming back. We have to understand that we forgive because Christ forgave us. We love because Christ loved us first. We need to pursue his holiness because he has already been accepted, and we have been accepted. Right? We have been accepted through Christ, because of Christ, what he's done. Those that are believed, believers. Yes. I know the Lord works in other ways. We don't understand, but we have to walk this out through faith. And remember, as I said before in the other segment, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Properbs 15, 1. A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. See again. Another works of darkness of anger. That's a spirit. I truly believe that because when that gets inside you, my goodness, the things that it does or wants to do. That's not what God called us to be. Like He definitely says to be gentle. Even the moments when it's hard to be. You know, I used to, I would complain sometimes about my children because I'm like, man, like, and my wife too, like we would sit there and talk to say parenting is like a man. Thank you, mom and dad. You know, like I not love my babies with all my heart. Like it's not, that's not an issue. But, you know, there's moments where you look at it and you're like, man, you know, they constantly calling my name over and over again. I instead of getting impatient, I'd probably just be, you know, gentle and just work on that, you know? Because I'm like, yes, son, yes, dear, yes, dad, dad, yes, you know, and over and over, and you're just like, come on, man. But it's so sweet. Because one day I'm gonna miss that. So let me be gentle. Let me show them the example of how one should be. Let me give them a gentle answer and show them that I do care and that I always have the time for them because God always had time for me. So words spoken with gentleness can calm conflict and preserve relationships. Relationships matter the most to the Lord. They really, really, really do. And how we can build upon each other. As Proverbs 27, 17 says that. 27, 17, as iron sharpens iron, so does one sharpen another. That is how we communicate in this life, in this walk, as believers. We help each other, encourage each other, sharpen each other, and do our best when we're not in public to respond with gentleness because the world does not see that. They're opposite. And if you don't believe me, go to New York. I love my New York people, by the way. I've been there many times. Let me tell you, man, I went down the street once and I asked a person to say, Hey, how are you doing today, man? You know what? I and this is what I randomly do everywhere I go, man. But I was like, hey, uh, how are you today, man? God bless you. Have a good day. Person looked at me like, what? They stopped in their tracks, turned around, and looked at me and said, They're just looking at me like, how dare I just talk to them? And I'm like, whoa. You know, and then another person I said that to, man, came by and they said some sly remark, whatever, kept walking. I'm like, wow, that's crazy. Almost like that spirit wants to snuff you from being kind and responding in gentleness. But you gotta be tough skinned, you've got to have the arm of God upon you when you go places like that. 1 Peter 3:15. But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks of you, to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. Even when sharing our faith, the posture of gentleness matters. Philippians 4 5, let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Gentleness should be visible in the lives of all believers. Others should notice how we interact with people. Correction within the Christian community is meant to be restorative. Not harsh. I know sometimes it can be. We have to learn to be gentle, everyone. That's very important. 2 Timothy 2 24 says, the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance, leading them to the knowledge of the truth. Gentleness is essential for anyone who teaches and leads or represents Christ. 1 Peter 3:4, it should be that of yourselves, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. Because the Lord does value inner character shaped by the Spirit. We have to also understand not to slander anyone. Titus 3.2 says to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone. Gentleness should never or it should extend to everyone, including those outside the Christian community, but it it shouldn't it should never be something where you are slandering someone, right? You should never do that. You should really work on that. And even though you hang around to those that do that. Maybe you need to pick something else or someone else to hang out with. You have to think about this when you have intentions in this, and when you want to be gentle with people, where it should be, those listening, I want you to think about this as homework. I want to give you. I want you to look for opportunities to serve gently. Sometimes gentleness appears simply moments like listening to someone's feelings, encouraging a discouraged individual, showing patience with someone who's struggling. People at your job, wherever you're at, family. You know, fill your mind with scripture when you're struggling. God's word shapes our attitude and reminds us of Christ's example. That's why that's our go-to in any situation or moment that we're in. We have to find ourselves, those that believe, back in scripture. We have to know what the promises say. We can't be moved by our circumstances or the things that we see that are visible because those things change and those things are not maybe what God has for you, right? Like there's a different pattern. There's something that the Lord has that's greater for me. And I need to believe and walk this out in faith and trust in Him. But I also need to renew my mind, as Scripture says. And I need to have God's word shape the attitude, remind me. Remember that. If whoever's listening, if you have scripture highlighted anywhere in your wonderful book, The Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth, the only thing, the manual that you need, if you have that, I need you to you should open that and have those highlighted areas, and then remember those and study those and read those go-to's, go-to. Those are your go-tos, man. Not the phone. Pray for people who challenge you. So it's very difficult to remain harsh towards someone you constantly lift up in prayer. And in moments of frustration or conflict, take a breath and ask the Holy Spirit to guide your words. Make sure to always pause before you do any kind of responding. And if you fall up short, great. Guess what? Ask for forgiveness. Be humble. Show grace. Gentleness also shapes how we care for people. People that are vulnerable and hurting around the world, right? In our communities, everywhere we live. The way we treat them and how we see themselves. We have to encourage. Practice gentleness. Reflect a compassionate heart of Christ to those who in need. You have to understand again, gentleness is not weakness, it's strength shaped by grace. The willingness to choose patience when frustration would be easier, and compassion when indifference would be simpler. Gentleness is not weakness. It's strength shaped by grace. The willingness to choose patience when frustration would be easier, and compassion when indifference would be simpler. Jesus modeled it. The Spirit grows it. And every time we practice it, we reflect something of the character of Christ to a world that needs it. Or to people that need it. To anyone that needs it. Don't be ashamed of who you are, who you're growing to be. It's supposed to be this about progression. But don't give up on yourself. Stay the course. God has a plan for you. God has a plan for your life. You just have to take heed to that. And remember that. And remember with the words I was telling you with scripture. And highlight those things. Yeah. So before we get going here and we close out, we're gonna do communion and break bread with each other. As our lasting segment to go home and pray out. But it again, I appreciate your time and understanding in this matter. It's a great thing. Fruits of the Spirit, gentleness. Gentleness. So those that are listening, we're gonna do a communion and go to 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verses 23. 23 through 28. Paul's talking to the church in Corinth. And there's a letter, what he was reciting and telling them, though. For I received from the Lord what I also pass on to you. The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, he took bread. And when he had given things, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Take your bread. And in the same way, after supper, he took the cup, saying, This cup is a new covenant in my blood. Do this whenever you drink in it. And do this in remembrance of me. For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. And further on to go saying, So then whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and the blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink of the cup. And you can read further on later on your own time. But think about it before you drink this. Think about what this means, what your life means, what he's done for you, and it's not just something. This is an important thing, an important matter of the Christian walk and the life that a man that was innocent was broken his body, and he bled for us, so that we can be partakers of with him in this life to come. That he shed his blood for us in sins that we should have been guilty of paying on our own. He said, No, I'm gonna take it from you because I love you that much. I want you to be with me in heaven because I created you. I want to spend eternity with you. How much love is that in coming down as an example? God and flesh. Thank you. Examine yourself, repent of your sins, as I repent of mine. Any wrongdoing I've done. Thank you, Lord. Forgive me. Thank you, Lord, for your blood. Or take that now if you like. As times get harder, things seem uneasy in life. No matter what goes on around you, do your best not to let the pressures fold on you. And when people come at you in ways that are sideways, respond to them in gentleness. Let them see the characteristic of Christ in you. That's how you know you're growing. How you respond, changing your thinking and your ways. Because that needs to reflect Christ and His glory. So if anyone needs prayer, which I always say in every segment, I'm here for you, and we will at the studio and get information, but I would be so honored to do that. So if you need prayer, questions, um anything that I can trudge with you, help you, reach out. Bread of life with jj at gmail.com. The bread of life with jj at gmail.com. And we'd be more than happy to respond and help you in any which way we can. So thank you so much for tuning in. Remember what the word gentleness is in this life for you. And the fruits of the spirit. Until next time. May God bless you. Know that Jesus loves you. And thank you for the