Open—Aaron Deaver
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Let's turn back to Second Timothy 2.
Second Timothy 224 says in The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apartment to teach, patient in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves, if God per adventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.
That they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil.
You know, my dear, beloved brothers and sisters, there's two ways that we can face people that don't agree with us.
We can tell them you should.
Or we can tell them. Let us.
The apostle Paul is a wonderful example. In the book of Hebrews, 13 different times, he says let us, let us go together, let us do this. And brethren, when we tell people you should, a wall immediately goes up. This is what I see. You should do that immediately a wall goes up.
When we say this is what I've enjoyed.
This is what I've enjoyed. This is this has been winsome to me. Maybe you, you could consider this, maybe you should, you could try this. It sets them free to consider that. Well, maybe, maybe I could try that. Maybe I could consider that in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves. Let's turn to Colossians chapter 4.
It says the apostle Paul here says to us, let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt.
What's so winsome to other people is how we treat them. If we love them, if we care for their soul, people feel that what goes, what comes from the heart goes to the heart.
Condemnation doesn't work. Judgment doesn't work.
It's the work of the enemy.
When we love other people, I love you. Maybe I can't have to do with what you're doing, but I love you as a person. The other person hears that and Romans it says, know ye not. The goodness of God leads you to repentance. It's His goodness. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt. He needs us to have light and to have love.
They're both true, 100% true. One isn't even more true than the other one.
Turn to Hebrews.
Chapter.
6.
There's thirteen of these.
That the apostle Paul uses, let us, he'd found the pathway and he reaches back and he says, let us go this way. I found it. It's worked for me. And dear beloved brothers and sisters, what is so winsome to other people is something that we've enjoyed.
I enjoyed this, this verse made a difference to me. This helped me and my family. This helped me in my business. When we tell people you should do that, you should do that, it just drives people away. I just I just ask you to consider this. So in Hebrews 6 verse one, it says, therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection. Let's let's go, let's go on.
In chapter 12.
It says this, it says wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight. We're going to run a race. We don't want our pockets full of keys and wallets and so on. They just slow us down. And the sin which just so easily beset us. And let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Let us lay aside all these weights. Let us run. And as our dear beloved brother already encouraged us.
The hymn Looking unto Jesus.
Looking unto Jesus, not looking down at my feet, not looking at your path.
Looking at him.
That's a preservation.
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That's the sure way. We're not going to go astray. We're not going to get into this ditch. We're not going to get into that ditch. We may wiggle, waggle a little bit on the road.
We'll be safe, and I just want to share something my dear, beloved Walt Porter shared with me.
Turn to Ephesians 5 and I'm just going to share this one last thought so there's room for another.
Ephesians 5 verse 26. This is Speaking of the Lord Jesus, that he, the Lord Jesus might sanctify.
And cleanse it with the washing of the water by the word.
There's two different ways to make smaller stones from bigger stones.
The one way is you go to a quarry and you have a giant machine and it crushes the rock.
It crushes it, it breaks into smaller pieces, and it creates a lot of dust.
And it creates a lot of friction, it creates a lot of heat, and it's really noisy.
And if we try and press things on other people, it causes problems. It says right here the washing of water by the word. Another way to make smaller stones out of bigger stones is in a stream.
And the water's there, and the stones, they roll down the stream, but it's quiet.
It's not noisy.
And it's not dusty because the water is moving all those stones.
And there's no heat, there's no friction because the water is there moving the stone. So I would just encourage you, our dear brother at the end of the last meeting had such a sweet spirit to encourage us to consider things. And if if we could just have that spirit instead of saying you should say, let us and may the Lord Jesus be glorified.