Gigantic point that we have nothing to offer. If we do not offer the truth of God's word, because it's the only truth that has saving lasting value. So we would just graciously encourage you read the Bible. Enjoy the Bible embrace the truth of the Bible because it contains wisdom from above. It contains wisdom that comes from the person and the nature and the character of the one true sovereign God. And that wisdom from above that we find in the Bible says that true wisdom is gentle. But if you're truly going to be wise, you need to be gentle. Now, if we consider the the state of things in the world right now, when we consider sports and politics and, and finances and, and just about anything else, even religion, we may here be gentle and we go what? That's a terrible thing. Don't, don't be gentle. Being gentle is, is weak, being gentle is if you do that, people are just going to run over you. If we let gentle people be in charge of the country, they'll run it into the ground, just what we've been been trained to think that is the wisdom from below not the wisdom from above. So what does it mean to be gentle? Well, very simply, it means to be forbearing. You're able to, to put up with a lot, it means to be considerate and it means to be humble. I heard about a, a military research study that was looking at leadership in the military. And one of the things it found in the study was this, that when you look at at all the different personnel in the military, the only ones that advanced to the highest level of leadership, all had one trait, one trait that they didn't find in the people that didn't advance to those levels. And that trait was humility. In other words, you can't be the proud, arrogant, gung ho man and woman and make it to the highest ranks because in order to make it to the highest ranks, you need a sense of forbearing, considerate, humble, gentle attitude. That that's, that's what you need. Robert Morgan defines gentleness like this gentleness means staying calm in conflicts and kind in conduct, but that's not all he goes on. And when we learn to do that, it reduces anxiety, it reflects Christ, it gets things done and it pleases God. I'm just listen to that list again, staying calm, being kind, reducing anxiety, getting things done and pleasing God. Those things don't sound weak and they don't sound wimpy, not even close in God's economy. The manliest man is gentle in God's economy. Paying attention to the drama queen is not what we're supposed to do. We're supposed to pay attention to the gentle woman. That's where our attention should be. They're deserving of our affection and our attention. When things are stressful, when things are difficult, when things are frustrating, when things are not working out, we need people who have been downloading wisdom from above. We need people who are gentle when it comes to making decisions in life, hard decisions in life or, or easy decisions in life. When it comes to dealing with unreasonable people in life, we need wisdom from above. We need to be gentle. Now. Look, none of us are, are perfect. We're just not but just kind of generally speaking. Take a shot at your life. Look around at your life. Are you gentle? Are you ready to be considered? Are you ready to be forbearing? Are you ready to be humble? Are you calm in conflict? Getting things done and pleasing God, that's wise is being gentle. Easy. If you're married, it ain't easy. If you got kids, it ain't easy. If you work anywhere, it ain't easy. If you're alive, it ain't easy. Being gentle. Is, is not easy but it's wise. Is it popular? No, but it's wise because it is wisdom from above. Now someone may say, look, I I'm not gentle. I I just wasn't born that way. You're right. You weren't born that way. The Bible says that you were born with an inward knowledge that you exist to glorify and enjoy God. But you pushed against that inward knowledge and with a rebellious heart, do all and did all that you could to please yourself and get your way. In fact, that's all of us without Christ, all of us without Christ, we're the exact same way. However, if we've turned from sin, if we've received the salvation that comes only through Jesus, God does something amazing. He takes that rebellious heart and he gives us a new heart, a heart that is overwhelmed every second of every day that we are no longer condemned. We've been rescued, we've been redeemed. And when that happens, that means that our spirit and our attitude have an overhaul. We have a new spirit, a new attitude and that new spirit and that new attitude is based on our brand new status in heaven. When our status in heaven changes, when our status 10,000 years from now, when that changes, it changes us, it changes how we think and how we act and how we speak. So actually, if you're a Christian, you can be gentle. Now. You, you don't have to keep saying well, I wasn't born that way or you know, my parents did this or my friends did this or my brother or my sister did this or this is how I grew up. No, none of those things apply doesn't mean they don't have influence but they don't apply. Because if your heart has been transformed by the Savior of the world, you can actually be gentle. Now, Jesus becomes our fuel and our motivation to be gentle. John the Apostle wrote this in first John 4 19. We love because he first loved us. So the love of God in a sense, we could say this too, we can be gentle in wisdom because Jesus was first gentle in wisdom toward us. And when the whole world was completely unreasonable, when the whole world was full and dead in sin, that was the moment that with gentle strength, power and authority, Jesus died for me and Jesus died for you. Wisdom, true wisdom is gentle and it's something else too. Verse 17. But the wisdom from above is reasonable, gentle and reasonable. Go together like butter and bacon man. They, they just go, they fit, they're like two sides of the same coin. In fact, we could say this being reasonable means that you're ready to be gentle like you're, you're ready to go with being gentle. Now, what does it mean to be reasonable? Well, it means that there is a willingness one, it kind of means you're easy to work with that you're willing to yield and that you're willing to defer it's the exact opposite of being proud and stubborn and obstinate. It. It's the opposite of those things. So just for the good of our souls, let's just put our cards out on the table here. Are you reasonable? A are you, are you, are you ready and willing to, to yield and to defer you? Are you easy to work with or are you more ready to be stubborn and obstinate and arrogant? So, don't elbow anybody next to you. All right. Talking, talking about you see that the reality is when we look at our lives, we have to consider our lives before we consider everyone else's. I came across this question in my reading this week. When was the last time you received criticism without getting defensive? Just chew on that for a second. Think about the last conversation you had with your spouse. The last argument you had with your spouse or your kids. The last argument you had at work the last time you were on I 26 in traffic. You know, when, when was the last time that you were criticized and you didn't get defensive, you know who the most stubborn obstinate person in your life is? You, you know who the person who is most unreasonable in your life? Yeah. Why would we say that? This is what God told the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah 17 9. The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick without Christ. And I would say even to a sense with Christ, our hearts are so selfish. We're, we're so sinful that we are desperately in need of wisdom from above all the time, we're desperately in need of being reasonable. Like, like we need it. Councilor and author Rick Thomas once said this, he said unrepentant people can't help but be defensive. So, so we could say when we're being unreasonable, we're being unrepentant and repentance means turning from something, it means doing the opposite of what we're doing. So, if we're being unrepentant, that means we're unwilling to bend, we're, we're unwilling to say I'm in need. We're unwilling to say I, I need God's grace and I need God's mercy to be unrepentant and be unreasonable means that we are unwilling to say, you know what, maybe the way I'm thinking or feeling or acting right now might be wrong. We're unwilling to say that and, and just to let all of us off the hook, we're all unreasonable. Ok? I am. And so are you, we're unreasonable people. We all have moments where we are unwilling to turn to God. We are unwilling to yield. We are unwilling to say that we are wrong and that's not wise. That's wisdom from below. It's not wisdom from above. We all have moments. We all struggle. But let me also say this when we talk about being reasonable, we're not talking about not being accountable. Ok? Being reasonable doesn't mean you just throw accountability out the window. We don't just say, well, you know, our spouses and our kids and our, our parents and, and pastors and politicians and athletes and celebrities and, and criminals and people at work and, and people at church and people at school and people in traffic, they can just do whatever they want whenever they want. And I'm just going to be gentle and reasonable. That's not what we're talking about. There are times for accountability, there are times for justice, there are even times for war, but all of those things could be dramatically decreased if Christians and I would even say non-christian were more gentle and reasonable. You may be thinking, well, that sounds like a fluffy fairy tale in our world today. And you know what? You're right? It does sound like a fluffy fairy tale. But is it true? It is absolutely true. You know why? Because it's wisdom from above and the wisdom from above says that we should be ready to be gentle and reasonable because that is some of the wisest wisdom that exist anywhere. And so when we talk about being gentle and reasonable, we're talking about being the wisest that we can possibly be in any moment in life. So it's not throwing away accountability nor when we talk about being gentle and reasonable. Is it saying that we are avoiding the infallible truth of the Bible? Look, the world may get mad at us. Non-christian may be mad at us or frustrated or, or aggravated with us when, when we are trying to uphold the truth of the Bible, they may say, well, look, that's, that's not relevant for today. That doesn't fit with our modern times. You're, you're just listening to some old ancient hocus pocus. But in those moments, those are times we cannot be bending. We, we have to be unbending with the truth of the Bible. We don't have to be loud and angry and spitefully unbending, but we do have to be gently and graciously unbending. Why listen again to these words from Matthew Barrett without the word, without the truth of the Bible, the church will not only starve but it will have nothing of lasting saving value to offer the world. Anyway, we can't bend when it comes to the truth of the Bible because it is the lamp that we have for the world. We have to be unbending when it comes to the truth of the Bible because it's the only lasting saving value, the only lasting saving lamp, we have to offer a dark world. But in all other things outside of the truth of the Bible, God's holy truth, we can be reasonable. We can, God's truth is primary and all other things in a lot of different ways are secondary and we can be reasonable and secondary things. Now someone may say, but you don't know my spouse, you don't know my parents, you know, you don't know my kids, you don't know my boss. You don't know these people in my life, maybe so. But for all of those people, in all the moments of life. The question above all the other questions is this, do you know Jesus? Because if you know Jesus, that changes the moment it changes what's happening, it changes everything. How well think of it this way? What do you think is a reasonable cost for a medical procedure that would save the life of your child or your grandchild? And what's a reasonable cost or, or someone else that you love? But what's a reasonable cost would you say to the doctor doc if you can do that thing for 10,000? I'm good with it. Anything over that? Now, we'll just skip it. Listen, you have been purchased with an unreasonable price to be rescued by God through Jesus Christ, an unreasonable price was paid for you. Jesus Christ was perfect, completely innocent and he came from heaven to earth born as a baby in a stable. So that as truly God and truly, man, he could be the only true substitute to pay for the penalty of my sin and pay for the penalty of your sin. He bore our sins in his own body on the cross. He loved us and gave himself up for us without Jesus. There is no lamp, ok? Vote for whoever you want to in the election. They're not the lamp put away as much money as you want to for retirement. It's not the lamp. You know, I'm, I'm having to, to, to care for all these things. For my mom since my dad's death. And one of the things I have to do is keep up with the stocks and investments and the money and stuff. Not my world, you know, not my world. But I, in talking to a girl on the phone this week I was telling her, I said, you know, last week I logged in and it said this number and this week I logged in and it did not say the same number. Those numbers change, they're not the same. And she chuckled. I said, you know what? That's why I'm going to quit logging in every week because the numbers will change. They'll go high, they'll go low. And you know what, when the numbers go high and low. If you're watching them, what are you going to do? Or you're going to go high and you're going to go low, you're going to lose your mind. The numbers, the money, the people you vote for the teams, you cheer for the turnips you make there, there's nothing on this planet. That's the lamp, none of it. There's only one lamp, there's only one light and it's the light of the world. And his name is Jesus. So without Jesus, there's no lamp for the darkness. Without Jesus, there's no hope in this world or in the world to come. Without Jesus, there is no life after death. But with Jesus, with Jesus, there is a promised guaranteed life and light and love today and forever and the reason it's guaranteed is because he was born in a stable and because he grew to be a man and because he was crucified and because he rose from the dead, because he ascended into heaven and because he is returning again, because of all of that guarantee, Jesus says there is light, there is life, there is love for the darkness. So if Jesus has set you free from sin, then you are. The Bible says free. Indeed. Actually, those are the words of Jesus. You're free. Indeed. And if you're free, indeed, if you're really, really free, you can be gentle and you can be reasonable. If you're free in Christ, you can be gentle and you can be reasonable. But you know, if we take a casual look at, at Washington DC, take a casual look at, at ESPN. If we take a casual look at Wall Street, that's not the flavor of the day being gentle and reasonable is, is not what we will see. Did you know that that when you're on Facebook or Instagram or any other social media things, the algorithms that they've created around those things when you click on something that you like, you know what it does. Hey, Dow likes turnips. I'm going to start sending him turnip recipes over and over again. See it, knows what you're clicking on and it goes, you know what I'm going to send them more stuff like that. Not only social media works like that when you're searching things on the internet and, and you know what that does, what that's doing is it's us surrounding ourselves with things we agree with. So our actual culture is training us to be less gentle and less reasonable. You know, you don't have to be on the internet for that either. We tend to surround ourselves with people that look like us and, and talk like us and shop like us and see like us and, and believe like us and eat like us and, and when we do that, there's no way we can be a lamp and a light in a dark world because we're avoiding the darkness. You see every part of our culture, whether you're online or sitting at the breakfast joint is teaching us be less willing to yield, be less willing to defer, be less willing to say you're wrong and your opinion is wrong. See, we are being trained in the very world that we live in and the world that we are creating to say, if someone disagrees with you, they're from hell. And yet the scripture would say that's wisdom from below, not wisdom from above being gentle and reasonable. Reasonable may not be easy. It may not be popular. Being gentle is wise and being reasonable is wise. Why? Because it is wisdom from above, it's the wisdom of God. So are you ready to be gentle? Are you ready to be reasonable? Are you turning toward that kind of readiness in your life. Justin Dela Hay was writing about the concept of why we as believers and Christians need to be more reasonable. And he said this, we are not God and because we're not God, our way is not always best and we are probably wrong about a lot. We need to be ok with that. Only God has perfect wisdom. The rest of us have room to grow so we can begin by asking God for the kind of humility that can say, I'm sorry or let's try it your way. This time, the wisdom from above would move us towards saying things just like that. It was a story told about Abraham Lincoln that while he was president, he trying to please another politician sent a command that a certain that some regiments would be moved to some different locations. And when that command came down to the Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, when he received the order, he refused to carry it out said the president was a fool and this was the president's response. When he heard what Stanton said, if Stanton said I'm a fool, then I must be for he is nearly always right. I'll see for myself. Not long after the two joined together to talk, Stanton explained to him what was going on and the president immediately realized he was wrong and withdrew the command. Now, look, Lincoln wasn't a perfect man, wasn't a perfect President. He didn't always do everything. Right. Guess what? Neither do you. And I don't either, but he knew what it meant to be gentle and reasonable. How do you deal with unreasonable people? Here it is two words. You ready? Sorry. Three words. My mass off. Don't be one. How do you deal with unreasonable people? Don't, don't be one. How do you navigate through all the decisions of life? Well, you'll need a lot of wisdom from above and that wisdom is gentle and reasonable. That that gentle wisdom. Remember is not weakness. It's a confidence in God that creates kindness, gets things done and pleases God wisdom from above is gentle and it's, and it's reasonable. So if we're going to have to make some decisions in life, we'll need some of that wisdom. We'll need to be gentle and we'll need to be reasonable. And again, what's our motivation? Well, let me ask you, are you far away from God right now or are you near to God? Are you condemned in your sin right now or is there now? No condemnation? Have you been rescued and redeemed has Jesus set you free? If so you're free to be gentle and free to be reasonable. So be ready. There will be a moment when this service is over for you to be ready to be gentle. There will be a moment when this service is over for you to be ready to be, to be reasonable. It might be in the car trying to figure out where you're going to lunch. Ok? There will be moments for you to be gentle and reasonable. Be ready. Why? Because being gentle and being reasonable are one of the most ultimate evidences, the proof that you are ready for Jesus. So be ready, be ready.