A Gentle Answer Turns Away Wrath | Proverbs 15:1

Transcript is automatically produced. Errors may be present.

I love that. I love that. Hey, as Nathan prayed yes, my name is Dan, and I have been here… Hi. And I’ve been here for a long time. As I like to say, I’m the old guy on staff. But every once in a while I get the opportunity of being up here, and I enjoy it. And it’s great to see you all.

We’re in the middle of Proverbs, and Nathan shared a little slide, I guess Aaron shared it before too. But just a, a definition of how we’re approaching Proverbs. Proverbs are short, pithy statements about how the world generally works. They’re principles, they’re not promises. Now, when I say that, you know what you might say?

Now wait a minute, I thought this was the word of God. Isn’t that inspired? And doesn’t that mean it’s always gonna work? Yes, it is inspired by God, but these are principles. And especially as we look at what we’re gonna look at today, you may say, “I’ve tried this and it didn’t seem to work.” Let’s go on.

They’re principles, not promises. Look at them as wisdom and guidance rather than as guarantees tied to outcomes. And you’ll see there’s a little half outcome at the end. I forewarn you, the way I did my PowerPoint, I did it wrong. So you just have to put up with the old guy on staff. But, y- as we look at the times we live in- They’re contentious.

I think we’d all admit, sometimes it seems like we argue more than really getting along sometimes. Y- you turn on the TV to listen to the news and you hear a lot of opinions. Y- you go on social media and my goodness, I will just tell you as a pastor, I swore off Facebook from the very beginning because I knew it would get me in trouble.

So Keri’s on Facebook, so I keep up that way. But there’s a lot of stuff, contentiousness that, that goes on. It was interesting when when Alex came and gave me this proverb to work on. I just thought, boy, the times we live in, there’s just so much disagreement. There’s the…

and there’s so much out there about how to talk and how to deal with each other. When I say it’s not just our times, we just went through a 250th birthday for our country, and Keri and I got on this kick of watching biographies of our founding fathers and different folks who were leaders in our country, and I was amazed.

Every one lived in contentious times. I don’t think anything’s changed, and I think God knew about that from the very get-go. That’s why he gave us this proverb we’re gonna be looking at. And the world has tried to deal with this aspect of contention. Keri and I are doing some kind of medical stuff.

We went to a medical clinic just the other day to get started, and as we walked in, we saw this sign. To ensure a comfortable and welcoming space for everyone, we kindly ask that conversations about politics and religion be avoided while in the clinic. Isn’t that a kick? You under- your understanding and cooperation are greatly appreciated.

Signed, the clinic management. I got a kick out of that. And to tell you the truth, sometimes I think that’s the way the world deals with disagreements. Let’s not talk about it Yeah, a boy. Okay, so the proverb that Alex has given me is Proverbs 15:1. Let me go back here. “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”

I should have probably had us all stand when I read that. This is the word of the Lord Thank you. Thank you very much. In fact, let’s bow our heads in prayer Oh, Lord, I love you, and I thank you so much. Wow, centuries ago, you gave us this pithy statement, a challenging statement. It- yeah, and many of us have tried to give gentle words in situations, and doesn’t seem like maybe it eased some of the tension.

Lord, I pray that you might speak to us today. Open our hearts. Show us what is this all about? Thank you, God. We love you. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen. Amen. A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Okay, seems like it’s an obvious thing that it’s saying. I, I kinda wrote down just a basic meaning.

Basically means responding with gentleness and calmness can diffuse anger and prevent conflict from escalating, while responding harshly provokes more anger and makes situations worse. That seems like the obvious meaning. And aren’t you glad I did not write Proverbs? Because the book would probably be four times longer than it is now.

Proverbs are pithy little statements that hit the nail on the head. But I sit there, and I see this, and I understand this, kinda, but I have to ask: What is a gentle answer? What is gentle? So some of the things we can do is do a l- a little word study. We live in a time where we’ve got a lot of translations of the Bible, and I love that.

I love to have different translations I can look and I can compare. So I go back to the one that I showed you first. It was the NIV, or the New International Version. It says, “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” I like to use the NLT, and some of you are probably saying, “Where does he get all these letters?”

The NLT stands for New Living Translation, and it translates this verse, “A gentle answer deflects anger, but harsh words make tempers flare.” So you see it expands the temper bit, but it still says a gentle answer deflects anger, so I don’t get much help in what gentle means. There’s another translation called the ESV, the English Standard Version.

Now, just for your sake, w- that’s where we’re gonna stop, but I just wanted you to look at three of them. And here’s what the English Standard Version says. Oh, look at that. It got cut off. “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” A soft answer. So we got these two words, gentle and soft, and I’m trying to think, now wait, is this talking about the tone of my voice?

Do I speak softly? Is this talking about, I, a gentle what are we trying to get at? Another thing we can do that is available to all of us, in case you would ever like to look at it, it’s called an interlinear. And I don’t mean to freak you all out, but an interlinear is something where it takes the original language, in this case Hebrew, puts it across the top, and then it has a translation underneath it.

And then it’ll give all kinds of little helps underneath that. Yes, I did take Hebrew and I did take Greek years ago, and I can’t tell you a bit about them now, but that’s why I use an interlinear to help me out. And when I opened up the interlinear, here’s the word, rak. Rak is what’s translated gentle or soft.

Gentle or soft. And here’s the verse that was translated underneath it, “An answer of tenderness turns away rage.” An answer of tenderness. And suddenly I’m sitting there saying, “Okay, tenderness, that is different from soft or gentle.” That’s something that seems to be inviting my heart to be part of this process.

That, that’s an intentional aspect of my heart to get involved emotionally. Tenderness. This word isn’t used a lot in the Old Testament, but it’s used a few times, and so I’m gonna give you a few. I’m gonna give you three of them. The first one is in Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 4, “My children, listen when your father corrects you.

Pay attention and learn good judgment, for I am giving you good guidance. Don’t turn away from my instruction. For I too was once my father’s son, tenderly loved as my mother’s only child.” Sorry about that cutoff. That’s what you get for being an old guy. Anyway, “tenderly loved as my mother’s only child.”

Now, when I read that, y- you know what, when I put in softly loved as my mother’s only child, that doesn’t fit at all. When I put in even gently loved as my… it doesn’t fully encapsulate. Tenderly loved. I picture a mom holding her infant and just looking into his eyes and having a moment with that child, many of you who are moms know that tender love that you could have over and over.

Boy, there’s something in that word tender that I think God wants us to grab onto with these answers that we give when we’re in conflict. Here’s another verse. It’s found in Genesis chapter 18. And I’ll have to give you a little bit of background about this, but, “So Abraham ran back to the tent, said to Sarah, ‘Hurry, get three large measures of your best flour, knead it into dough, and bake some bread.’

Then Abraham ran out to the herd and chose a tender calf and gave it to the servant, who quickly prepared it. When the food was ready, Abraham took some yogurt and milk and roasted meat, and he served it to the men,” is basically what that says. He served it to the men. The background of this is there were three guys who showed up at Abraham’s tent.

Abraham and Sarah were living nomadically. They’re we s- we picture them out in the desert, and these three men come, and Abraham welcomes them to his tent, and he says, “I want you to sit and eat with us.” And they said okay. We’ll do it.” And he gets Sarah, his wife, to make some bread, and he runs out to the herd, and he picks a tender calf And that’s an interesting word to use about a cut of meat And it makes me think, okay, we’re talking more than just a nice cut of meat.

We’re talking about an animal here who was kinda special. And I think it was maybe Abraham’s best to be able to offer to these three men. It was something that cost him to be able to give. It was something that was important to him to share. I’d encourage you sometime to take a look at this chapter, Genesis chapter 18, ’cause it starts out with a verse, “And the Lord God appeared to Abraham another time.”

So these three guys, and one of them’s God in the form of a man. Now, I don’t think Abraham knew that at the time. A- and I’m not sure… if you read the chapter, you’ll catch on that these men said some amazing things to her, to h- to both of them. But God himself was there, and I think Abraham was somehow moved to be able to take the best of his flock and offer it.

So there we’ve got another aspect of tender. There’s that e- movement of the heart. There’s that providing of the best. Here’s another passage I wanna share with you from the Old Testament. It’s in Ezekiel. Oh, Ezekiel chapter 17. It’s a wild chapter. Let me t- give you a little bit of background about Ezekiel.

He was a prophet, and he was in captivity with the Israelite nation that had been conquered by Babylon, actually by Nebuchadnezzar and his armies. And Nebu- and Nebuchadnezzar and his armies took some of the, the key leaders back to Babylon with him and left some folks in charge in Judah, in Jerusalem.

The chapter tells a parable, a story of two eagles. One eagle comes, plucks the top of a cedar tree and takes it over to a place where there’s lots of business and another eagle comes and works with another pluck of the tree. And you wonder, w- what is with all these eagles? What’s going on?

Fortunately, the chapter gives an interpretation. The eagles represent Babylon and Egypt. The tree represents David’s lineage, David’s descendants, David’s dynasty, King David. So we’re talking about Israel. We’re talking about Babylon coming, plucking off the top of the tree, in other words, plucking off the king and taking him to Babylon.

But Egypt comes… You can read the chapter. I won’t fill you in. Yeah. The chapter’s got exciting stuff. But this is at the end, the very end. Chapter, verse 22: “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself took a shoot from the very top of a cedar and planted it, I… and plant it. I will break off a tender sprig from its topmost shoots and plant it on a high and lofty mountain.

On the- The mountain heights of Israel, I’m gonna plant it. It’ll produce branches and bear fruit and become a splendid cedar. Birds of every kind will nest in it. They’ll find shelter in the shade of its branches. So it’s talking about the cedar, which again we would say is David’s dynasty. God himself is gonna take from the top of that cedar, from the new growth of that dynasty, he’s gonna pluck off a tender branch and he’s gonna plant it, and it’s gonna spread into a worldwide kingdom.

Now the Israel the Jewish scholars view that as a messianic prophecy, and many of them don’t believe their Messiah has come yet. So they’re looking forward to this. We, as followers of Jesus Christ, see that this tender sprig is Jesus himself, that God says, “I’m taking him from David’s dynasty and I’m gonna plant him and there’s gonna be a worldwide kingdom that’s gonna come.”

So I think since Jesus is a tender sprig, maybe we should look at how he talks when he gets into testy situations. And one of those situations right in the beginning of his ministry in John chapter 1, we see a guy named Nathanael. And Nathanael, interesting guy. Philip went to look for Nathanael and told him, “We found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about.

His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.” “Nazareth?” exclaimed Nathanael. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Nathan sounds kinda like a cynic. And I guess you could interpret it different ways. Nazareth, ah, could anything nice come from Nazareth? I don’t interpret it that way.

Nazareth, are you kidding? That’s a hick town. I’m waiting for the Messiah who’s gonna come and plant a worldwide kingdom. Can anything… The Messiah can’t come from a place like Nazareth Philip says, “Okay, meet him yourself.” Jesus came to him and says, “Now here’s a genuine son of Israel, a man of complete integrity.”

“How do you know me?” Nazareth Nathaniel asked. And Jesus replied, “I could see you under the fig tree before Philip found you.” And Nathaniel exclaimed, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God, the King of Israel.” Now let’s back up to the beginning of that. He’s just said, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” If Jesus came to him when, he could have said, I lo- I know a lot of good people from Nazareth.

I grew up there.” He didn’t. Instead he looked at Nathaniel and he said, you’re a man of good integrity. You’re a man who speaks his mind. I can tell that.” I still hear Nathaniel saying, “Give me a break. How do you know me?” And Jesus says this interesting thing I could see you under the fig tree before Philip found you.”

And there’s a 180, and Nathaniel says, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God.” I don’t know what he saw under the fig tree But he saw Nathaniel, and he saw Nathaniel in such a way that Nathaniel knew he’d been seen. And he, and Nathaniel responds by saying, “Oh my goodness you really are the Messiah.” Hopefully, someday when we get to heaven, we’ll be able to ask Nathaniel what was he doing under that fig tree.

But it was transformative, the fact that Jesus saw him. And you can come up with any number of ways that you believe he saw them. I don’t know how. I don’t believe he had a pair of divine goggles that he was looking two miles away and saw Nathaniel. I believe he was right there someplace in the crowd, and he saw Nathaniel under this fig tree.

But you know what? It could have been a word of knowledge, it could have been anything that, that Jesus was given insight. But I will tell you, Jesus was fully human. In other words, when he came to earth as the Son of God, he took that divine nature and he set it aside, and he lived fully as a man. And if he was given inside information about Nathaniel, he was given it by the Holy Spirit, not by himself.

Interesting, but I think what’s important here is he said, “I saw you. I could see you,” and Nathaniel felt that. Another time that Jesus is dealing with a testy situation. The woman caught in adultery. Jesus is teaching a crowd in the temple and, I think, having a good time. And all of a sudden, in come some religious folks dragging a poor woman before them saying, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.

The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?” They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger, and they kept demanding an answer. Now, we did use the word soft. This is probably one of the softest responses that you’ve never heard.

Jesus just stoops and, I say, doodles in the dirt. Who knows what he was doing? I, I’ve preached on this sermon numerous times on this passage, and I ha- I almost have to go, “Oh, why did I say that?” I’ve even wondered did he write the names of the people that were bringing this woman?

Did he write sins that they committed? I used to believe that. Now, you know what? I believe Jesus was just taking some time. I think when these men came, dragged this woman, I think Jesus was heartbroken to be just interrupted like this. I can almost hear him saying, “Not these guys again.” And stooping down and just tracing things in the dirt while this crowd of people were watching expectantly and these folks that dragged this woman wanted to have an answer and kept demanding.

There’s a verse that Jesus’ brother James writes years later after Jesus had ascended into heaven. And it says this, “Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters. You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.” Now, I believe Jesus is just taking his time. I wonder what he would’ve said.

And sometimes we say, now come on, he’s the son of God. He’s not gonna sin. We saw him get angry before I think he was taking his time, getting his thoughts, and I think asking the Spirit, “What do I do with these people?”

They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and he said, all right. But let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone.” Then he stooped down again and began writing in the dust. When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman “He who’s without sin, cast the first stone.”

Look at that. It says Jesus said, “All right. What you’ve said is in the law, all right. But he who’s without sin, let him cast the first stone.” I’ve mentioned this before, but let me see if I can get it out of my pocket without knocking all my keys out. Here we are. When I was in when I graduated from seminary, I had an aunt.

Her name was Ella. Aunt Ella. She was a fine old lady. She called me Danny and she gave me a little box. And she congratulated me on graduating from seminary, and I opened the box and I pulled out this little stone, and I looked and I said, “Huh.” And then I flipped it over, and it had the number one written on it.

And I looked at Ella, and she said, “Keep this in your pocket.” Now, the number one’s gone. Who knows what’s on this stone? I don’t know. But- I’ve kept it in my pocket, and it’s a reminder to me, grace. Grace. And yeah, y- we don’t give up on truth, no. But grace, because God showed us grace. I’ve even been tempted when I pulled this out for this message.

I may, I’m gonna put a number one back on it just so I don’t forget Anyway, simple response that Jesus gives This response that Aunt Ella gave me is one of the gentlest reminders for me to realize I’m a sinner, too, and I need to love people and share the love of Jesus Christ first and foremost Well, Jesus isn’t finished.

The accusers leave one by one. Isn’t it interesting, from the oldest down to the youngest Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.” And I see in that simple response, this picture of Jesus going to the woman who’s standing there.

I wonder if she’s shaking. I don’t know. But asking her, “Didn’t anybody condemn you?” And I just picture her looking down and saying, “No, Lord. No, no one did.” And I kinda picture Jesus going over to her and taking her chin and moving it toward him so that he’s looking her in the eye and saying neither do I.

I don’t condemn you. Now go and sin no more.” And in that little statement, Jesus, in such a loving, compassionate way, recognizes the sin and speaks to her truthfully. He does not lessen what has occurred, but he gives her, in a gentle way the orders to move on and keep living

Let’s fast-forward to our time. Got a little story I wanna tell you, which kind of blows me away, about two folks who are pretty diametrically different. One is a pastor. I’ll show you his picture pretty soon, but, he was one, and he had the habit of saying some pretty outrageous stuff.

Sometimes, offending people, but, he was speaking the truth. He was laying it out there. He- I remember when, oh my goodness, th- this was something that got him into trouble, when we had 9/11, and we were just reeling from that, and he came out with a statement, said, “Oh, that’s God’s judgment against the sin of our nation.”

Oh my goodness. He retracted that about three days later. Some of you are probably remembering who it was. Jerry Falwell, who was the leader of Moral Majority, which was a Christian political group. It was big. It was big in the 1980s I think it was. ’70s, ’80s. I don’t know if it went much into the ’90s.

But yeah, Jerry Falwell. Wonderful man, started a university, loved Jesus Christ. But he said some pretty hard things, and some of those hard things he said to a man who I’m gonna put up here now, a guy named Larry Flynt. And I’m seeing some of you shake your head. Larry F- Larry Flynt was the publisher of Hustler Magazine, which was a grody pornographic magazine in the day.

And Jerry Falwell got into a, a war of words with Larry Flynt, called him everything in the book. “You sleaze merchant.” Larry Flynt even wr- wrote about it. “Falwell was blasting me every chance he had. He would talk about how I was a slime dealer responsible for the decay of all morals. He called me every terrible name you could think of, names as bad, in my opinion, as any of the language I used in my magazine.”

So at least he recognized his magazine was pretty grody. This war of words went on for a while, and finally, Flynt came up with an article he published. It was a parody. It was a made-up story, but it was, he was making fun of Jerry Falwell, and he was describing his first sexual encounter Too disgusting to share.

Needless to say, Falwell was so angry, so he brought a, a libel case against Hustler Magazine. And for the next five years, it went from one level to the next level, to the next level, to the next le- because what was happening was, as the arguments were presented legally, every court ruled in favor of Jerry Falwell and said, “Yes, this went too far.

This magazine had no right to publish that.” And every time, Hustler Magazine and Larry Flynt would appeal and go to the next level, until finally it made it to the US Supreme Court five years later, and the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hustler Magazine, and Jerry Falwell was crushed. The words he said publicly criticized the decision and referred to Flynt as a sleaze merchant.

It didn’t stop They didn’t see each other for five more years. No, I think it was 10 more years. It was 10 years. And then one day, a guy by the name of Larry King calls up both of them and says, I got this talk show, and I’d love to interview both of you together, and we can talk about the c- the case.”

Amazingly, both of them agreed. Larry Flynt said, “I couldn’t imagine sitting in the same room as that guy, but I agreed to it.” And they met, had an interview together, and in the middle of the interview, something happened. Jerry Falwell stood up from his chair, walked over to Larry Flynt, and gave him a big hug, and then went back and sat in his chair.

And Larry Flynt was finally at a loss for words. A few days later Falwell calls Flynt’s office and said, “I’d like to t- come and talk to you about something.” And Flynt’s going, “Oh, no, I’ve got to put up with this guy again.” Anyway, Falwell came over. He sat on one side of the desk, Larry Flynt on the other side of the desk.

In the middle of the desk were all these Hustler magazines, and they discussed, and Falwell asked him, he said, would you be willing to maybe travel with me, and we’d go from college campus to college campus and discuss our moral values and have a debate together?” Flynt thought that was the stupidest idea, but he agreed with it, and they did it for the next year, and it actually proved to be very effective as they went Falwell died shortly after that.

But in that process, it was amazing. They began to visit each other’s home. They began to find out about each other’s family. They even gave each other Christmas gifts. They began to talk about what it’s like to get older. And finally, Jerry Falwell passed away in 2007, and Larry Flynt wrote a eulogy for Jerry Falwell.

I’m just gonna read these words taken from the eulogy. “The truth is, the reverend and I had a lot in common. We steered our conversations away from politics, but religion, that was well within our bounds. He wanted to save me, and he was determined to get me out of the business. My mother always told me that no matter how repugnant you find a person, when you meet them face to face, you will always find something about them to the more I got to know Falwell, the more I began to see that his public portrayals were merely caricatures. They were just made up. In the end, I knew what he was selling, he knew what I was selling, and we found a way to communicate. Every time I’d call him, I’d get put right through, and he’d let me berate him about my- about his views.

I’m sure I never changed his mind about anything, and just as he never changed mine. I’ll never admire him for his views or his opinions, but the ultimate result was one I never expected. It was almost as shocking as winning that Supreme Court case. Jerry Falwell and I became good friends.” Wow. I hear that, and as I was working through this message, I have to confess to you, I was approaching it totally from the aspect of saying, “Okay, how do I fuse the anger that’s directed toward me?

The conflict that’s there that I step into? I have to use a gentle answer somehow. I have to be tender somehow.” And when I read this story, I began to realize, “Ooh, I have to deal with my own anger” When I walk through these steps of trying to be gentle, trying to be tender, trying to, oh, have the proper response when I’m in conflict, it does a wonderful work on me in preparation for that.

And I think the wisdom of the proverb is so much directed toward our hearts to change so that we can enter into a relationship. Yeah, we may win the argument, but many people have lost the relationship in the process. I love what Falwell did. I just wanna share just a few simple ideas, nothing profound, but some reminders when it comes to this gentle word, this tender word.

Take time to see the other person Take time to, even to look eye to eye. And that may sound like it wouldn’t accomplish much, but I’ll tell you like Flint’s mother said, if you look them in the eye, you’re gonna find something. You’re gonna find something. I think Jesus wants us to look in the other eyes of another person and say, “That person is in the image of God.

They’ve been created by Jesus himself. Lord, can you show me some of your image?” And it may be hard sometimes, but keep looking. See that person. I think that’s what made a difference with Nathaniel. He was seen. When I was on vacation, one of my vacation books was Theo of Golden. And I don’t know how many of you have read this book.

It’s a great book. Carolyn Schmidt came up to me before my vacation, and she said, “Oh Dan, I gotta give you this book.” And I looked at it, and I realized, you know what? Carrie just read it. I’ll take her copy. You give that copy to somebody else. She uses the words, “Theo of Golden is one of the kindest books I’ve ever read.”

And I had to agree with her after I finished it. It’s a story of a guy, an old guy, goes to a small town, starts meeting with people. I’m not gonna give it away how he does, but starts meeting with people and shows a direct interest in these people, and it brings life change for them. Here’s what one of the reviewers of this book wrote.

He listed five different points that really hit him, but the fourth one was something that jumped out at me. “Listening is not passive. It’s the rarest form of love. One of the most gut-punching insights in this entire book is how Theo listens. He does not wait for his turn to speak. No. He does not scroll in his mind while someone talks.

He asks questions. He notices details. He gives people the space to unfold naturally at their own pace, in their own time. The author, Helen Levi, is holding up a mirror to the way most of us actually communicate, and it’s not very flattering. We live in an era of hot takes, rapid responses, where everyone’s broadcasting and almost nobody is truly receiving, and Theo’s way of being with people feels so countercultural that it even borders on miraculous.

Reviewers across Amazon and Goodreads consistently name this as the element that wrecked them the most emotionally because somewhere in Theo’s listening, they recognize the listening they have always longed for and rarely received.” Levi is telling us that to truly listen to someone is not a small thing.

It’s, in fact, an act of love so profound that it can change the trajectory of a person’s life. Take the time to see this person To hear this person. That’s not easy, but I think Jesus calls us to stuff that’s not always easy. Another thing for us to remember, let go of the need to win. Sometimes when we get in these conflicting situations, sometimes when we get in these disagreements, we’re so bent on trying to win the argument.

Like I said before, we end up winning the argument, but many times we lose the relationship

I believe when we come to share about our faith, oh, I love that. But you know what? Sometimes I always felt like I’ve gotta convince the people about this And I had to come to realize, no, the Holy Spirit does the convincing. I do the living, I do the talking, I do the, the sharing of… I do the watching them.

I t- I, yeah I try to meet them where they are. The interesting verse in Ephesians, “Don’t let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what’s helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” What is it that would build this person up, not tear them down?

What is it that I can see that led them to their opinions that maybe I can understand a little bit better why they’re coming from the direction they’re coming? Yeah, that one hits me There’s a third one though, and it’s probably the most important because when I think of this calling to, to give a gentle answer, to give a tender answer, sometimes I just have to might shake my head and say, “Oh, God this is…

That’s asking an awful lot.”

The last thing I would say is request s- wait, request the Spirit to work, and that little line that’s almost cut out, expect the Spirit to work Because one of the fruits of the Spirit is gentleness. The Holy Spirit produces fruit in our lives, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

There’s no law against these things. Gentleness, tenderness, it’s not natural for us on our own. And if you try it on your own, ah, I would just say stop it Ask the Spirit to bring changes and look for those changes that he might bring. We’re coming to a very important thing that we do every month, and that is to take communion together.

And I would just say, oh, it is so important recognizing the sacrifice that Jesus gave for each and every one of us. But do we realize that because of that sacrifice, there’s no need for any other sacrifice made? And because there’s no need for any other sacrifice, there’s no need for any kind of a physical temple Because of Jesus’ work, the temple of God is now inside of each and every one of you.

He dwells within us, and he says, “Ask me. Ask me, and I’ll work with you, and we’ll develop these things that I wanna see in your life.” Gentleness sounds like a big ask after a sermon like this. Don’t be afraid. Expect the Spirit to bring the changes. I invite you to come to this table. We got three in the back, three in the front.

When you come, take each element. Go back to your seat. I’d really ask you to take the bread. The bread is when Jesus said, “Boy, remember that this is my body that’s broken for you.” Reflect on his sacrifice. Hold the cup, ’cause we’ll take the cup together. Why? ‘Cause that talks about a new covenant, a new agreement.

But come. Come to the table, because we need to.