Bible, Bros & Brew
Bible, Bros, & Brew is all about helping you navigate your relationship with God in practical, real-life ways. Hosts David and Phil dig into scripture—'chopping up the word'—and bring it to life with insights you can actually use every day. And while they’re at it, they share their favorite 'brews'—don’t worry, it’s not booze! Just a solid lineup of classic coffees and teas to keep the conversations flowing.
Bible, Bros & Brew
Meekness is the Opposite of Weakness | Walking in the Spirit | Bible, Bros & Brew
We've been journeying through the list of the fruit of the spirit outlined in Galatians 5:22, and this week's episode is all about meekness. Perhaps one of the most misunderstood fruits, meekness is actually a trait of true strength, especially in light of all the hostility, strife, and contention we see in today's society. Grab your bibles, your notebooks, and whatever other study tools you need (along with some nice brew, of course) and join us as we dig into this fascinating word study.
gotbrew@biblebros.net
Hey everybody. This week we are in the immortal words of Boyz II Men, we have come to the end of the road. At least we've come to the end of the road when it comes to talking about the different fruit of the Spirit and what each one of them means to us and how, most importantly, we're going to walk and live those things out and have them nurture our lives. We're going to talk about meekness and temperance or, as sorry or some might say, gentleness and self-control. We'll explain. We're up next.
Speaker 1:I'm Bible Bros in a Brew. Ooh, that tastes good. Yes, hey, everybody. Hey, yeah, I just have a little sip from in another cup. It's a completely holistic cup. There's nothing unsaintly in there. Yeah, so I was like that. I was reminded that that was good. I forgot I had that hiding in the cup. I thought it was just water. Anyway, welcome to Bible Bros and Brew. We are so glad you're with us. I'm David. Along with me is my good friend Phillip. Glad you're with us. I'm David. Along with me is my good friend Phillip, my other friend Ryan, and my new friend John.
Speaker 1:Even though he's not new, he's just the newest one here and he's here by marriage. So he married my daughter and if you want to ask me if I'm still hostile about it no, I'm just kidding he's a good guy. We're glad that you guys have joined us for this episode. Tonight we're going to be talking about, as I said, the last couple of the fruit of the spirit. Now, that's going to bring us to the end of the fruit of the spirit, but we still got a little more scripture that we want to cover. That comes after that, in 523 and 24, and even into the beginning of Galatians, chapter 6. So let's jump into these last two fruit of the Spirit, but before we do that, let's take a minute and find out what's in everybody's cup. John, I'm going to start with you what's in your cup.
Speaker 4:Man, I have something that I experimented with. I put a little ice in my coffee. I wanted it cold. It's a little hot and the temperature is a little hot, so I wanted my coffee to be a little cold and it goes well with this. I believe it was like a mocha mint flavored coffee and the mint, like chilled mint flavor, is doing it for me. Okay, it's good, it's like smooth and it's strong and it's minty. I'm a huge fan of mint flavor anything. So I'm having a great time. You guys, it was an experiment gone right and I don't have to start a fresh new cup of coffee because of that.
Speaker 2:Nicely done, Matt Nicely done.
Speaker 1:Congratulations to you and the Mint. How about you, Ryan? What are you drinking?
Speaker 3:Well, I've got a. I stopped by a place here that they have on the West Coast called Dutch Brothers or Dutch Bros.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I'm familiar with Dutch Brothers.
Speaker 3:Dude. Yes, so I got an iced Americano. You know, you know me no flavors, no, nothing. We're just getting straight to the point and we're gonna take it real strong make americano great again.
Speaker 2:Dude by the way shout out to dutch brothers. We um I remember, my wife and I, my whole family. We went out to colorado last um about two or four years ago, and that was our first time ever experiencing Dutch Brothers. Man, we were flipping out like dude it's a drive-thru, but for coffee.
Speaker 1:You know what I?
Speaker 2:mean so, and there was one right by the hotel where we were staying, so we were like hitting that thing up. Man, it's a nice spot, dude, for real.
Speaker 1:Nice, nice.
Speaker 2:Phillip, what's in your cup tonight? Okay, so I tried to go, for I thought about man, am I going to brew something hot tonight? No, man, the weather's too balmy, it's too warm. Let me just go with some cold brew. So I went with the Stoke cold brew coffee. This is the unsweet black high octane bro. It's good man, I love it. I drink it all the time with some heavy whipping cream in it and you can't beat it. Always excited about that.
Speaker 1:I almost cried racism when you said Unsweet Black, but then I said no, no, I shall hold on because it's just coffee, right? Sorry, I've been watching a lot of news lately, so everything the coffee didn't do anything to you, not yet, but maybe it did tonight I am. Thank you, phil, for sharing what you're drinking and know you're not racist because of well, thank you, man, I appreciate that.
Speaker 1:Tonight I'm drinking a little butter pecan from New England coffee. I know I shared this one a couple of nights or a couple of weeks ago, but I'm back to it. Honestly, you guys, if I'm being honest, my coffee is off right now. So right now I'm circulating a lot of old coffee because I need to get it out. A couple of weeks before you see me drink something fresh and new, I probably will be busy getting rid of old coffee so that I can restock the cabinets. Nothing wrong with that? Dude Favors as well.
Speaker 3:Can we just take a minute and let's just pray, lord you, we just pray for David in this coffee game.
Speaker 4:May it be resurrected May his coffee game, may it be resurrected.
Speaker 3:May his coffee game be caffeinated like never before.
Speaker 4:Yes, in Jesus' name.
Speaker 2:Yes, all I need is that organ in the background. Thank you, Ryan.
Speaker 1:I already feel like this has amped up my coffee game right now. And by the way, not only did I have the butter pecan, but I also put a couple of drops of vanilla in it and I topped it off with a couple of shakes of cinnamon Dude. Okay, barista, watch out, man. When you have to use what you got, you dress it up Oof.
Speaker 2:I got to ask you, man, I got to look at that mug what's going on with the mug dude this.
Speaker 1:I got to ask you, man, I got to look at that mug. What's going on with the mug dude? This is one of my goofy mugs. It says gorge. That's him on that side, and then if you look at him on the other side, if it'll there you go.
Speaker 2:Oh, the mellow blend Watch out.
Speaker 3:He's in deep thought, so you get two images on this cup.
Speaker 2:So that's a great thing, dude. I saw a cartoon with Goofy one time and he was. I think he had just bought a new widescreen TV and he was trying to install it. Have you ever seen this? No, phillip, oh my gosh man I was in tears Phillip.
Speaker 2:Oh, my gosh man. I was in tears, dude this thing because he was supposed to follow along with the instructions and stuff like that and everything was going wrong. Dude, but Goofy, he's one of those guys, man, that always make me crack up. I don't know, he's one of my faves in the Disney universe.
Speaker 1:How about that? Who knew You're a goofy dude?
Speaker 4:I love how we instinctively all tried a little goofy impression the moment we saw it on the bus Gorsh.
Speaker 1:I like the goofy cut, but I'm actually a Pluto dude. Pluto rocks. I like Pluto. He's my dude.
Speaker 2:He's not flashy, he just does his thing. Pluto's just kind of like he's a gangster man.
Speaker 1:He's usually the only one with common sense around.
Speaker 4:That's true.
Speaker 1:All right enough about what's in our cup and what we've been doing with Disney. Let's talk about the word tonight. You know, as I said, we've got two words and I want to start off by saying that, just like we've been seeing, we're going to hit two words tonight, that if you look at them in the King James, they give you one word. In this case we're looking at meekness and temperance. But then when you look at translations like the New Living and other translations, what you get out of meekness and temperance is gentleness and self-control. And I want to just have you, or you know, send you back a couple episodes to listen for a more engaged reason why?
Speaker 1:But it has to do with translations and how different translations of the Bible use different text for their translations of this content from the Greek into the English. And remember, like translations like the New Living Translation, the NIV and some others, in some cases they're designed to help you to better understand what's being said and you'll see that that actually kind of helps and it does matter. As you're watching and reading through this, we've covered a lot of ground with the fruit of the spirit. Philip. Is there a fruit of the spirit that we've looked at over the last couple of weeks. That kind of stands out to you, that kind of has made an impact in your life.
Speaker 2:I have to say, long suffering, and I say that mainly because it's one I've been challenged with probably the most out of all of them. So just you know, because we talked about it and I guess it's maybe two episodes ago we were talking about the translation meaning a long temper, you know, not a short temper or a short fuse, but a long temper. And it's just interesting to me, David, I know you probably have dealt with this too in some way when you read the word and you get something awesome out of it and you're like, oh man, I'm going to put that into practice, I'm going to do this thing. Next thing, you know, dude, all of a sudden you get this challenge and that challenge and another challenge that seems to come right up against what you were just talking about.
Speaker 2:That seems to come right up against what you were just talking about and I thought about Mark 4, when he says you know, when the word is sown, satan tries to come immediately to take it away, and that tribulation and persecution will arise on account of the word, and so I definitely had that experience of quite a few times things, testing my patience and sometimes in ways I wasn't even expecting I was like dude, you know.
Speaker 1:So I think it's just a matter of being sober minded, you know, to recognize when those things are trying to come to challenge it and go ah okay, I see what's going on here, man, you know, yeah, so if, if there was one for me, I think it's probably, um, long suffering definitely got me, yeah, but kindness, that's the one that, that's the one that's been standing out to me and and part of it is just where I am, I think, in life right now, yeah, um, there's just so. There's been so much going on and there's just been, I feel like I've been within myself and you know, I live in a world where there's me and then there's all these ancillary characters around me that also in you know, fulfilling this world, and I've had to stop and be like these are not ancillary characters. They're your family members, your friends, they're people you love and you need to stop and consider and engage with them and be kind to them. So I think kindness is probably the one that stood out to me and I think tonight's first word that we're going to look at.
Speaker 1:Looking back at Galatians, chapter 5, verse 23,. And actually, if we look at 22, let's read it. It says but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. And you know we've got the segments of three and we talked about this before that love, joy and peace have to do with some internal things within yourself, and they extend to others, whereas long-suffering, gentleness and goodness have a lot to do with how we treat others, that's good.
Speaker 1:And our last three faithfulness, meekness and temperance really communicate how we ought to be. Wow, and characteristics that should dwell in us, that should just abide in us. And all nine of them are characteristics that should abide in us. But you just think about it if you're a person that has all of these fruit working in your life you know the scripture tells us, and we'll probably get to a little bit later on you're really an unstoppable person yeah yeah, and that's that's the place that, ultimately, we all ought to desire to be, is to be the kind of people where it says against such, against those who bear these fruits and abide.
Speaker 1:In this there is no law, wow and so, um, that it's such a great thing, but we talked about faith last week and we determined that faith was actually faithfulness, and so this week, our next word is the word meekness meekness in the New.
Speaker 1:Living Translation, for example, it actually is the word gentleness, and so I think there's a lot to be gained here. So let's dig into this a little bit. Let's first take a look at this word, meekness, and let's look at the word study on it and find out what we've, what we've got here. So there we go. Thanks, john. So this is, of course, a greek word, and it it's phonetically spelled, or its pronunciation is pra-aut-ace. Again, we claim no standing when it comes to the proper pronunciation of these Greek words. We're doing our best and ask that you pray for us that we might find our Greek.
Speaker 2:Yes, that our scholarship may increase.
Speaker 1:That's exactly so, but the definition of this word is gentleness or meekness.
Speaker 1:And its meaning is mildness, gentleness, meekness, kindness. So one of the things that we should be seeing as we're looking at this is we're seeing the overlap of these different fruits and how elements of it, or some of the pieces of it, flow into other pieces of the fruit. But it gives me this picture that, though there are many fruits, they still come from the same source, which is the holy spirit, and so it would make sense then that, because they come from the same source, that there would be some overlap in characteristic of each one of these fruit and that they would be, uh, overlapping our lives as these fruit are manifest yeah so it goes on to say that this is derived from the greek word, the greek adjective prouse, meaning gentle or meek.
Speaker 1:And then it goes on. It's often translated as humility or meekness. In the Old Testament and then the New Testament it is translated as humble or meek. Then, as we look at the usage, it goes on to say in the New Testament, paotas is used to describe a quality of character that is marked by humility.
Speaker 1:Gentleness, that's good. Wow. A deliberate choice to be gentle and humble even in the face of provocation and adversity Wow. Honestly. I'm so glad that it deals with this, because when we think about meekness or humility or anything like that I think that people have or gentleness. They make the mistake of instantly associating that with being weak.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And that is not what this means at all.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, dude, what's interesting. I was thinking about this. The other day I saw something on, I think, maybe Twitter, where it was like some footage, some kid evidently, and they were at the zoo and this kid fell into a zoo enclosure.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Have you seen that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Lori actually sent it to me to share.
Speaker 2:But he fell into where the gorillas were and, dude, this gorilla came over there and the way that gorilla treated the little boy, he was very protective of that boy and it was like he knew that this was a kid that was hurt. I'm sure there was something instinctive in him that was like I got to protect this guy. And I thought about it, because you know gorillas, man, they are some of the most insanely strong creatures on the planet.
Speaker 2:I mean, they could tutorial dude, yes, territorial, they're very uh, I mean they're, they're pure muscle number one. These dudes are jacked, you know, totally jacked, and so, um, like, they can tear a grown man limb from limb. Like don't, don't mess with a gorilla dude, so for him to have that kind of a demeanor. He has all the strength in the world, but he was showing control, you know, he, he was showing purposeful gentleness with that kid and that made me think, you know that, that that I don't know, I've just had that picture of gentleness in my mind. That it's, it's.
Speaker 2:You could be so much more forceful, so much more overbearing, but you choose not to. You have, in other words, you like have nothing to prove, if that makes sense, and I think that that's probably the better way to go in human relations. I mean, you can tell me, david, what you think about it. But it's like the abrasive personality isn't always, it should not always be your first go-to. If you think you have to get things done, or want people to get on your side, or want them to do what you are asking, maybe it's not always the best choice to be abrasive and blunt and heavy, hitting up front. You know, choose the gentleness route. That way you can connect with people and not have them throw a wall up before you even get a chance to really find common ground with them, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I completely agree. I love that. I love the picture you paint through telling about that, because Lori shared it with me too. She was thinking along the same lines that you were about the gorilla. That I can take care of this. Yeah, right here. But I'm willing to demonstrate my power should somebody come and try to mess with what I'm overseeing.
Speaker 2:Come on.
Speaker 1:And it goes back to that thing that I mentioned about Jordan Peterson either last week or a couple of weeks ago. That is this concept of I don't want to have to demonstrate that I can be a monster because, I don't want that right but I could be, so don't bring me there right right and you?
Speaker 1:you see that one of the things that this translation, even this word study here even mentioned, is the concept of that it's oh gosh, bring it back up for me just a moment, john, if you would. It's the deliberate choice to be gentle even in the face of provocation and adversity.
Speaker 4:Right, right.
Speaker 1:You know you, you may have seen it. Just all you gotta do is scroll through any social media and there's always this provocation, and you know it's um, if I might be even so bold as to say this is you can tell that this fruit is at such um we're lacking it yeah in our lives because you see people all the time on the internet. They're provoking other people because, they're mad, they're angry about something. They're calling you out by your name, by well, anything other than your name.
Speaker 1:You know, calling you this, calling you that, and all of it's meant to do is provoke you to get into a fight. And unfortunately, we see over and over again. And unfortunately, we see over and over again. I watched a video yesterday of a man who got into it with like five dudes and one of them was carrying a knife behind his back.
Speaker 4:Oh boy.
Speaker 1:And I'm like, why would you? Where is your self-control, you know? Even though we're not talking about self-control yet, but why would you let these guys provoke you into something? You've got a baby stroller, which means there's a baby in the stroller and you can't bring yourself under control. Yes, you could fight them but you ought to allow your string to be demonstrated by your ability to walk away from the foolishness and not be provoked.
Speaker 1:And there's just so much provocation. There's so many opportunities for you to get mad, to get angry and to do anything but be gentle. But I think that in the kingdom of God, gentleness is going to come out as the greater string than so many of the other ways that we can respond and react to the situations and circumstances that happen in our world today.
Speaker 2:True, indeed, man and John. Actually, if you could put that back up on the screen. Yeah, there we go For the cultural, cultural, historical background. I thought this was interesting. Here it says in the greco-roman world, the concept of meekness was often misunderstood as weakness or lack of courage. That's so I mean, dude, I mean I, and I understand it because in that time, you know, might made right.
Speaker 1:That's the way they thought about everything you know um but it says can I just, can we just say something right here? Please it's even in how people see and see it in scripture. Because what do we say? We say the meek shall inherit the earth. That's, that's what you know. The beatitudes say, yeah, we just, and it's often like oh, the meek, theek, the weak and the lowly right, we'll get back with you, none of that stuff. But you know what?
Speaker 1:Jesus was meek, he was gentle but, he was none of that weakness and lack of courage that so many people talk about, and you almost have to wonder where did that come from?
Speaker 2:Dude. I think first of all, man, we've done ourselves a great disservice in general, just about what we think Christians ought to behave like.
Speaker 1:Come on, man, you're talking.
Speaker 2:Especially Christian men in particular. I was thinking about this man because I read a book a while back and I still haven't finished it, to be honest but I read a part of it that just blew me away. It was a book called no More Christian Nice Guy. You ever heard this book, dude? I forgot the author's name, but it's called no More Christian Nice Guy, and it was talking about how one of the the antithesis of a Christian man uh, the way his character is supposed to be is to be a nice person, and I think people view Christians as you should be nice. How come you're not nice, he said. We focus so much on being nice that we do it sometimes at the expense of being good.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:He said I don't want to be a nice man, I want to be a good man. And that's what we see in Jesus. When he was walking the earth, he wasn't a nice guy, he was a good guy. He was a man who demonstrated righteousness, demonstrated the fruit of the spirit, demonstrated compassion and love and mercy, but he wasn't always nice quote unquote with how he did what he did. Nice quote unquote with how he did what he did. You know, we, of course, the biggest example being in mark 11, when he went into the temple and had a little, a little whip with him and started, you know, thrashing him jokers out of the temple for buying and selling goods. You know, um, he, I mean people could look at that one incident and go he's not nice at all. Yeah, he may not have been nice, but he was being good because he was cleaning the house where it needed to be cleaned.
Speaker 2:So I don't know, man, just those things have kind of you know, you tell me what you think about it, david, because those things have really kind of been rattling in the back of my mind for a while now for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I want to read something else to you about this from the New American Commentary about meekness slash gentleness. This word connotates a submissive and teachable spirit toward God that manifests itself in genuine humility and consideration towards others. It is regrettable that the English word gentleness has come to have popular connotation of a wimpish weakness and a non-assertive lack of vigor. Wow, as an expression of the fruit of the spirit, gentleness is strength under control, power harnessed in loving, service and respectful actions. Wow, I love that. Strength under control and power harnessed in loving, service and respectful actions, that's good. One who is gentle in this sense will not attempt to push others around or arrogantly impose one's own will on subordinates or peers. Arrogantly impose one's own will on subordinates or peers. But gentleness is not incompatible with decisive action and firm convictions. Ooh, that's good man.
Speaker 1:Wow. So you can be operating in gentleness, you can be operating in this meekness they're the same thing, right and you can be decisive, you can take firm action on things. And just because you're decisive, just because you're taking firm action, doesn't mean you're not demonstrating meekness.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, if you think about it, dude Moses, you know it says he was the meekest man in the earth at the time. I forgot where that scripture is, but I know it's there and you also. You know, you can see, moses was not an indecisive person, he was actually a very strong leader and it's like even to the point that God had to eventually rebuke him for for operating in anger, you know. So he kind of maybe pendulum swinged over the wrong way in that incident.
Speaker 2:But this is definitely something to think about man that you know we have, we, when we talk about the fruit of the spirit, these characteristics of God, and when we think that of that word meekness, we should not automatically default to nice. Or I'm a doormat, or I can't be honest with people, I can't speak my mind. You know there are ways to do stuff, as we know. You know you can't. You can always win people over more with tact than you can with just being, you know, a loose cannon. But at the same time there's no place in scripture given where latitude for dishonesty is given for the sake of trying to be nice.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:If that makes sense, yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm with you, Philip. I think we need to scrap this thought that when we're talking about meekness and gentleness, what we're not talking about is being wimpish.
Speaker 2:There you go.
Speaker 1:But what we are talking about is strength under control.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yep.
Speaker 1:Which means I determine when I demonstrate my strength and the degree to which I demonstrate it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:If I'm a man in authority, that means I demonstrate my authority at my own choosing, when I need to and as much as I need to, but I do all in love. I do all in the service of love and with the desire to help people and to move things forward. Jesus didn't turn the tables over just as something to do. He was doing it out of love for the people and he knew the people were being deceived and misled and that they had turned the temple of God into what's the word that he used, philip?
Speaker 2:A den of thieves right A den of thieves?
Speaker 1:yeah, and so he wanted the people to prosper and get the most out of the temple of God. So he evicted those who are interfering with their ability to take advantage of the benefits of the temple and what it's supposed to mean to people.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's right man.
Speaker 1:So we've just kind of we've got to free ourselves from this thought process that, like you said, it's okay to be wimpish, it's okay to just, you know, pretend, even to lie in order to make sure that people feel good, because we haven't necessarily been called to a ministry of lying to make people feel good.
Speaker 2:Right, Absolutely Ryan tell us your thoughts.
Speaker 3:I just have a question for you. So then, how do we deal as men of God and even as women of God? You know, I think I have good lessons in how not to deal with this, but how, in your view, do we deal with confrontation?
Speaker 2:Great question, man, and I was thinking about this because of what in Matthew 5, I don't know, John, if you can pull that up for us real quick In Matthew 5, Jesus talked about this stuff. Jesus talked about this stuff and it was specifically talking to the disciples and talking in the context of you know, when you're out there sharing the gospel, here's how you should conduct yourself. Let's see here, alright, it's coming. If you could throw it on the screen. There we go.
Speaker 2:In verse 38 it says you've heard that the law says you've heard the law that says the punishment must match the injury an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. But I say do not resist an evil person. If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek. Also, If you're sued in court and your shirt's taken from you, give your coat too. If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles. And so you know there is a principle especially in context of when he was talking about sharing the gospel, of not retaliating.
Speaker 2:We've seen like I don't know if you've seen videos on YouTube and different places where maybe a guy's doing street evangelism and somebody comes up and spits in his face, the move would not be to start just punching that person and knocking them out. You know, that may be how you feel, though Maybe how you feel for sure, man, Lord knows I'd. Yeah, that's why I probably hadn't been called to street ministry like that, but anyway. But I think to your point, Ryan. I wanted to point that out because I was thinking about it. But to your question about confrontation, like you're talking specifically about just interpersonal relationships, right yeah?
Speaker 3:right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do think that there has to be a level of tactful honesty that you deal with. I don't think that you should avoid confrontation for the sake of just trying to keep the smooth sailing, because that's actually a form of like it's an evasiveness based in fear, and I don't think that's good man. Um, it doesn't solve anything. Every time and you're talking about somebody, you're talking to someone who, for a long time in my life, I was afraid of confrontation. I was, I was scared of it. I avoided it as much as I could because I thought I was being godly by not ever dealing with stuff that I that bothered me about people or or things like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so, in other words, I would just keep taking the same crap, you know, and, and not ever come into a place of being able to honestly talk to somebody about it and go look, man, you did this and I don't like it. You know you did this and I don't appreciate that, you know. Whatever the case is, I think there's a place for tactful honesty, including coming to them in an unassuming way, you know, saying hey look, you may not have meant for it to be like this, but this is how it came across to me. You know, that way you're not immediately accusing them of something, You're more saying, hey look, you may not have intended for it to look this way or seem this way, but this is how I took it. Tell me that I'm wrong or if I'm right, or whatever.
Speaker 1:Those kinds of things can help kind of smooth it over, because it's not going to be a perfect process, as we know, man, but at least you can kind of approach it with with tact so, and you know what I'll say, philip, I'll tell you all this something that I learned is being afraid to confront is not necessarily a good thing, because what I realized was that one of these other fruits was impacted by that, and that's the fruit of peace and inevitably, as I would avoid conflict with people.
Speaker 1:Guess who wasn't at peace right, right man. I was wound up, I felt aggressive. I was the one who wanted to punch people in the mouth quietly in my bedroom but in front of them, would never confront them about their stuff or about what they were doing. That was wrong and that I saw.
Speaker 2:And so.
Speaker 1:I've come to realize, through the help of my wife, that confrontation leads to peace.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, and when?
Speaker 1:you start confronting some things and some people, you begin to sleep better at night, because at least it's not a quiet thing. It may not all be resolved but it's out there and you said party or all of your peace about it, and now it's up to that person to make an adjustment or it's up to further conversation. But it's not just a secret thing hidden in you that you've not dealt with. Now my wife is a kind of personality that you've not dealt with Now.
Speaker 1:my wife is the kind of personality that you know. If something comes up, she's ready to pop. We're going to take care of this right now. I'm not wired that way. I'd rather keep the peace, but I've learned over the years that peace happens sometimes because of the confrontation.
Speaker 2:Right, david. Don't you think, though, man and I'm just saying it's, you know, having dealt with it before my own life don't you think that when you do something like that, where you avoid the confrontation to keep the peace, isn't it true that it's just a fake peace to begin with?
Speaker 1:yeah, it's not real and you can tell it's not real and you can tell it's not real, because sometimes it makes you sick.
Speaker 1:You are physically unwell. That's exactly the right way, aid up on the inside over the peace that you don't have, over a situation or circumstances, how you've been treated or any of that kind of stuff. So, yeah, I agree with you Phil. I agree with you 100%. It's not, it's not, it's all you and you can even think that it's peace, but it's not real peace and eventually it's going to come back to kick you in the tuchus.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 4:The buttock.
Speaker 1:Yes, and the posterior shall we say yes, yes, yes so that's a good question, ryan, do you think? Do we get your answer right?
Speaker 3:yeah, so I guess, like the way I visualize it in my head is like almost like a triangle. So on one you have like the passive aggressive, almost On the other side, like this fear of like, if I get confrontational, it's I'm going to be rejected, like you're, I'm winning you to my side and, if you can, and in the middle is the gentleness, um, ultimately leading somebody that you're in a disagreement with, leading them to, uh, I guess, the king, you know, to the kingdom of God, the principles of God.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'll throw one other word in there on this. Confrontation doesn't necessarily mean everything's going to end up okay.
Speaker 4:True.
Speaker 2:That's true.
Speaker 1:When we confront people, we are putting things at risk Because there's nothing that says that person is going to be okay with what you bring to them.
Speaker 4:True.
Speaker 1:And so in confrontation you have to risk losing a friend. In confrontation you're going to have to risk relationship, job, whatever it may be and I'd like to talk about having confrontations at work a little bit later on at some point. But in all of those things, confrontation is risky because there is the possibility for loss involved with your confrontation. But you have to be willing to take the loss in order to gain peace. Come on, man, think about it. When you willfully confront in a gentle way, to the best of your ability, even if you lose that person, what you gain is I've borne the fruit of gentleness and I've got peace Versus. If I never say anything, then I've never exercised the gentleness needed to deal with this situation and I've got no peace about it.
Speaker 1:So you have everything or you have nothing.
Speaker 2:Wow, man Gosh. And so I mean, at the end of the day day, it's like you got to ask yourself what is your piece worth? You know, and I'm gonna tell you, man, from from experience, like, if I lose my peace, I don't really have anything, you know, it's just, and I mean, I've been in some, some bad places in my mind before. You know, losing, you know losing my peace over things, uh, situations and relationships and stuff. And it's not fun, man, you know, and it's, it's one of those things that, um, I wish I would have valued peace more before things got, came to a head or just blew up, you know, and I probably would have been even more level headed to have dealt with it earlier on. But but sometimes, you know, it takes a while, especially if you're dealing with and I don't know who I might be talking to with this, but if you're dealing with relationships that are long-term, like family or spouse or whatever the case is, and it's, it's sometimes it's hard to work up the courage, know, to talk about this stuff.
Speaker 2:Um, I remember seeing a I forgot what tv show it was, uh, anyway, I think it's called parenthood, but it was a thing where somebody said you know, sometimes the fight isn't worth the blood on the floor. You know, and they were saying it like we should just avoid that because we don't want to deal with all the mess that might come from it. And you know you can take that route. But again, how valuable is your peace If you take that route and keep taking it, keep taking it, and every time the same thing pops up. You never deal with it, even though it's a thorn in your side, eventually it's going to eat away at your peace and once that's gone, man, I mean there's no way to get it back unless you deal with the issue Bottom line man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't disagree with that at all, phillip. That's good, all right. So we've got one more word to go through and, phillip, I'm going to make you make the decision. You've got about 10, 1012 minutes left.
Speaker 4:Oh boy.
Speaker 1:Oh, boy, do you want to, and Ryan, you can help us, you want to take this word now, or you want to hold it until next week.
Speaker 2:I'm going thumbs down on on going ahead with it bro.
Speaker 3:That's me. I am too, because I'm like dude with self control. There's so much to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and one of the things, just pre think this to self control. Remember, the last two fruit of the spirit, the last two works of the flesh, were the sins of intemperance or sins of temperance, which is self-control. And here we are, ending the fruit of the spirit with temperance, which is also self-control. And so and I think it has something to say about everything that we've looked back at so I think we'll put a bookmark right here. We didn't mean to talk that long about meekness, slash gentleness, but it just happened that way, and you know we're not going to try to control what the Holy Spirit may want to say. So next week we'll pick up with temperance and we'll walk our way out.
Speaker 3:But before we, go to Dave just really quick. I want to just say he had really good self-control there.
Speaker 2:Yes, I agree.
Speaker 1:Ladies and gentlemen, your demonstration for the evening. Let's pray, philip, and, if you would, let's just pray for people to really just take on this new perspective that they may not have had before, but to take on gentleness and let it shine in their lives.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, all right. Heavenly Father, thank you first of all for what you shared tonight by way of the Holy Spirit. Thank you for his help with everything. Father, we know we can't do anything and go in or come out without his help. We just give you praise for the insight and the wisdom that comes from the Holy Spirit and we ask you, father, for everyone listening, everyone watching, that you would give them what they need in the form of wisdom, in the form of patience, in the form of gentleness, self-control, whatever those fruits of the Spirit they might need to deal with the situations in their lives.
Speaker 2:Father, you know what they're dealing with.
Speaker 2:You know the challenges they have, the things that maybe, even in the secret place in their heart, they haven't shared with anybody, but you know what those things are.
Speaker 2:You also said that you know what we have need of before we even ask you for it. So, father, I pray right now, over everyone listening and watching, that they would have a new perspective on what it means to be gentle and what it means to be a person of gentleness, a person who has strength under control, a person who is willing to be honest and straightforward, but also do it in a way that's tactful and helpful and promoting peace. And so we just give you praise, father, for giving them the wisdom for balance in those areas, that they'll have balance in how to deal in their relationships, balance in when to push versus when to hold back, that they'll know what time it is when they arrive at those situations. They'll know how to handle each one, father, and we just give you praise for that and we thank you for your help always, lord, because we can't do it without you. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen, amen. Thank you, lord.
Speaker 1:Amen.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Lord.
Speaker 1:You know, phil, as I sit here and think about it, maybe it was enough, because that's what everybody needs to go work on this week.
Speaker 2:Assignment for the week. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if we could make that an assignment for the week. You know, first of all, study some more on this. Read these verses, dig into what these words mean, and and particularly this word that we're dealing with tonight meekness or gentleness and then let's just practice demonstrating it and walking it out in our everyday lives. We owe it to ourselves, but you know what we owe it to others too, because the benefit will be for everybody that you come in contact with to see this fruit born in your lives. Thank you, and we're so glad that you guys have joined us tonight. Do us a favor. We want to hear from you in the comments. You know, what did you think about meekness or gentleness? What was your initial understanding of what that word meant? Put that down in the comments section. We'd love to check those out, see what you were thinking and how you saw it. We know how we're kind of ending up, so just share with us.
Speaker 1:We'd love to hear you whether you're on Rumble YouTube, on the podcast application, that platform that you're listening to us on. We'd love to hear from you. Also, remember that you can reach out and connect with us on social media. You can share these same with us on social media. You can share these same things on our social media, here under this episode of the podcast that goes live at least on Instagram and on YouTube, oh, and on Rumble too. It's everywhere, everybody, so we'd love for you to just share your thoughts with us. Don't forget that. You can find us on X, you can find us on Instagram. We're on Facebook as well, so don't hesitate to reach out to us.
Speaker 1:If you want to just say hello, that you appreciate the episode or you appreciate the podcast, or if you have questions or comments. We'd love to hear from you and we'd love to respond and help you out. You can also reach us by email at gotbrew at biblebrosnet. Now, in case you haven't always, I want you to go back and listen to last week's episode as well, because I think you'll hear some things that will encourage you and we'll connect some dots along with what we talked about tonight. Until next time. I'm David, he's Phillip, that's Ryan. John is again back in the closet somewhere, so we'll find them. Eventually. We'll fish them out, but until next time, I don't even dare. Yes, sayonara.
