Rejoicing in the Lord, and letting my gentleness be known to all men go hand in hand.

I Must Rejoice in the Lord, and Let My Gentleness be Known to all Men

Philippians 4:4-5

(Children's Sheet for Sermon Interaction is at bottom. Notes are throughout sermon)

Please turn to Philippians 4:4-5. As you are turning there, I want to tell you about a time in my life when I doubted my call as a pastor. It was after I had already been pastoring for some years. It was a low period, where manifestations of divisiveness, pride, selfishness, and carnal malcontentment, were running rampant through the church. Contempt, and sewing seeds of discord, were going on all around me in a weird way. This kind of thing always effects pastors. It effected me. The main reason is because God is not pleased with it, but this time I was particularly hard hit by the bizarre attitudes going on in our fellowship. I found it very difficult to rejoice in the Lord. Ironically, I had just spent close to two months in verse to verse preaching, and teaching, where God clearly spoke to the body against this kind of thing creeping in and infecting His church.

What happened to me in the midst of that time, was that I began to question myself in such a way that on one particular day, I wondered three things. All three things had to do with me, and not anyone else. They are the kinds of thoughts that a lot of people who are self-critical can go to. I tend to be very critical with myself. So, instead of analyzing everything from a purely objective manner; and recognizing the problems that others had produced out of their own sinful hearts, I began looking at myself. What happened on that day was that I wondered, first of all, if I was cursed. I don't mean in a hex kind of mystical sense. I was just wondering whether God did not have His hand of blessing upon me. The second thing I wondered is if I was a curse--meaning I began wondering if I was the source of the problems that others fostered. If you are not familiar with self critical thinking, here's how the thinking process generally goes:

Both the way, and the reason, everybody else acts from their own hearts must be my fault.

Again, you would know when you start thinking this way because it is really simple: Both the way, and the reason, everybody else acts from their own hearts must be your fault. I know it may sound strange, but this is what I was thinking. The third thing I wondered is if I cursed others--meaning that when people came around me, or came under my preaching and teaching, then I must somehow be hurting them, and because of my cursing them (corrupting them, damaging them, or something like that) then, this is why they have personal problems. If you have ever gone through a thinking process like that, it can become very depressing. If you want to try to take the weight of the world upon your own shoulders, then you better be ready for your shoulders to fall off. There is only one Person Who is both worthy and capable of taking the weight of the world on His shoulders, and we are not that Person. Like I say, though, I found it very difficult to rejoice in the Lord. Maybe you can relate to having similar kinds of self critical, self condemning thoughts. I have counseled spouses, where one of the spouses will think this way about their own influence upon their marriage and family. I have talked to other pastors who have had similar thoughts. Just last week I talked to a pastor in another state who was going through the same kind of thinking process. He called me specifically to talk about this exact same, bizarre, mindset.

In my situation, I was focused upon the problems that others were fostering, and in that focus I started focusing upon myself. Being focused upon their heart problems, and the chaotic results of their sins, I focused upon myself as being the problem. It got so bad that I called a fellow minister friend of mine to seek the Lord in prayer. I told God that I wanted a miracle to happen in my life. I was standing on the verge of walking away from preaching and teaching, and I could barely recollect the confirmation of my call that I had when I first answered God's Spirit with an exuberant "yes!" But, I was on the edge. I was going to quit if God did not do something. But, I didn't just say that I wanted God to do something. I said I needed a miracle. I didn't know what it would be, but I needed it. I began praying with the other man. As I prayed, in the midst of speaking to God, God spoke to me. What I mean is that as I prayed, I realized that I am blessed; Scriptures began coming to mind.

I am the righteousness of God in Christ.

It is God Who is at work in me.

I am God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that I would walk in them.

I began rejoicing in the Lord. This was clearly a move of the Holy Spirit, reviving my soul in a fresh way. And so I found myself praying this and thanking the Lord that I was blessed. More scriptures began coming to mind as I continued rejoicing in the Lord. Then I realized that I am a blessing; and I prayed that too. In exuberance, I thanked God that I was seeing it as the truth that it really is. I realized that the Holy Spirit was ministering to me in a deep way. Then I became overjoyed with the revelation from the Spirit that I bless others. I bless others by loving the body. I bless others by accurately handling the word of truth. I thanked God for that as well. As I prayed, I started realizing my position in Christ in a fresh clear way. I began realizing my call once again. I had an overwhelming recognition of God's confirmation of my call that I had when I first answered God's Spirit with an exuberant "yes!" I found myself saying "yes" all over again. I remembered the evil days we live in, the importance of ministry, of staying the course, the blessing of suffering, and the blessing of pruning away that which must go, and so much more. I started thanking God for all that had taken place because I realized my position in Christ. I entered the throne room of God with oppressive thoughts, but I did not leave that way. Before I left, I began rejoicing in the Lord, and by His Spirit I continued doing so. Right there, I told God that no matter what others may do, I will be faithful to Him and His word. Even if I lose everything, You are my Lord in Whom I will trust. What I was doing was rejoicing, but, rejoicing in the Lord. And, as soon as I prayed these things, I realized God's miracle. I realized that God, by His Spirit, was reminding me, in a dramatic way, about what I had already been told in His word. In this way, it became personal, and life changingly miraculous. I was experiencing joy in the Lord and I began rejoicing in the Lord.

I share this story with you because that revelation from God about me is not something that ever changes. In other words, being blessed, being a blessing, and the fact that I bless others is not something that I lose or gain based upon the hearts of others. I rejoice because of where my heart is. That same place is why you should also rejoice. Paul touches upon this in his urging from our passage this morning. Let's read it now. Paul says,

"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is near." Philippians 4:4-5

Please prepare your hearts with me to learn from the preaching of God's word in this sermon titled,

"I Must Rejoice in the Lord, and Let My Gentleness be Known to all Men."
[prayer]

What a beautiful urging:

"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!"

@1 God wants me to __________ in the Lord.

This urging is beautiful, and it is also so important because of our attitudes. What I mean is how are you going to rejoice in the Lord if your attitude is that you think you are cursed, or you are a curse? You would not think you were equipped, or capable of doing it. But, God would not tell you to do something that you are not equipped to do, or capable of doing, and He will not urge you to do it if you are not worthy to do it. The point is that all of God's children are blessings. All people who are blessings are equipped, and capable to rejoice in the Lord. Further, God would not tell you over and over to rejoice in the Lord always if there were times that you are exempt from doing it. Paul knows that there are all kinds of things that we can rejoice in, but just like that period of time I shared with you where I found it very hard to rejoice in the Lord until he comforted me with what I call a miracle, Paul also realizes that we do not always consistently rejoice. But God wants you to rejoice in the Lord, and you need to be reminded to do so, and so this is why the urging is both necessary, and is repeated so many times in this one epistle alone. And Paul is not talking about a mere bodily feeling either. When we are downtrodden, a command to have a mere physical sensation, is odd. Think about it.

How do you make a mere feeling in your flesh come, just because someone tells you to feel a certain way?

When I am really depressed, and downtrodden, my body is not having feelings of joy even when I try to obey an exhortation to have good feelings. My flesh hurts. My soul is shocked. When you are depressed, you aren't going to muster up a kind of mere physical feeling that dissipates all depression. Paul knows this. God knows this. But, somehow you and I can find inner joy, and we must rejoice. God's word urges all of us to do it. The Joy that Paul is talking about is unique. It is more than a mere something that comes in the flesh. It is miraculous. It comes from the Spirit, where it is happiness of the soul, in the midst of the pain. It's like my knee right now has a torn cartilage. The medial meniscus is damaged, and so as I walk around, there is always this lingering pain there. Sometimes the pain shoots through my knee like someone just pressed a knife in there. Right now, as I am preaching, I can feel the ambient lingering pain. No form of rejoicing makes the pain go away. But, while I have had this pain, I have had some of the sweetest rejoicing in the Lord imaginable. It is joy that I have while I also have the pain. Follow me. The reason is because this inner joy must be through the Holy Spirit in our salvation. To accomplish this rejoicing we must do it in the location of the Lord. This is what I want us to see here. God is telling us to rejoice in the sphere of the Lord, which means we do so by the power of the Holy Spirit. Whether we think it is true or not, God enables you and I to do this when our soul is shocked. Lord means Master. Christ is your Lord. Christ is God. We serve Him. Paul is telling us to rejoice in the Master by using a grammatical construction called the locative case. What this means for you is important. Paul is saying, that we are supposed to rejoice in the location and sphere of the Lord Jesus Christ, Who is God. So, the question is,

How do we do this when we don't have the feeling?

How do I do this when my mind is racing away from joy?

How do I do this when every day seems like one big torn knee cartilage of existence?

The answer is that we are Christians. What I mean is that you are blessed in Christ, and you are a living blessing in Christ. As a Christian, you have a special privilege and love given to you that God never takes away from you. It doesn't matter how you feel because of your circumstances. It doesn't matter how Kerry feels because of my circumstances. We have a special privilege and love given to us that God never takes away. You have this special privilege and love, because you are in Christ. The person of the Holy Spirit is in you. That is what it means for you when Paul says to be in the Lord in this urging. It means that once you were a sorry mess, and you need to remember that it was really bad. It was worse than anything you can possibly go through after being saved. You may not think that there is anything worse than you are going through now, but you are wrong. Being lost is the worst state imaginable. Once you were lost. You were separated from God. You were doomed to perish without His miracle work in you. Your lost condition, (though it may have had times of feeling good), was much worse than anything that you go through now that feels bad. The main point is that once you were not born again in the Lord. You were a true curse. You were born originally in the lost. You were in the lost when you were conceived in sin. The life of the lost is horrible. In Luke 19:10 Jesus said that He came to seek and save the lost. The lost, are all who are not saved, which means they are found outside Christ. But when you are saved, you are specially and lovingly placed in the location and sphere of the Lord. This beautiful place of peace and rest is called your position in Christ. This means, you are always found in Him--always. To be found in Him, is to be the opposite of being lost in sin. This is why, and how, you can, and should, rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice! You see, there may be no other reason to rejoice in the flesh, but there doesn't need to be. God has given the reason to rejoice in your soul that trumps all others. So, to rejoice in the Lord, is for you to rejoice as a Christian who is joyous that God accepts you in is His Son, Ephesians 1:6. In His Son, you can, and should rejoice always because you know that you are accepted even though you fail. And you will fail. And you will fail, and fail again. You will sin. People will sin against you. People will malign you and speak all kinds of evil against you. This was the experience of the Philippian Christians. You may even pile blame on yourself for chaos going on around you. You may even be truly at fault. Life may be one huge torn cartilage of pain that you created for yourself. What I am trying to drive home this morning is that if you focus on your failures, or your circumstances, you will not want to rejoice. But, you can rejoice, because you are blessed in the Lord. So, in the midst of any experience, what you need to do is recognize the truth that matters to break through in rejoicing in the Lord always. You are not a curse. You are a blessing. God always sees you as pure righteousness because of your place in the Lord, and not based upon any works that you do to vainly attempt to attain righteousness. God always see your future, where all you go through right now is a quick flash, and then you are with Him forever in blissful glory. God always sees your past where you were purchased in the Son on the cross. So, when God urges you to rejoice in Himself, and do it always, what He is doing is talking to His child who has been adopted in His Son. The verse says,

"... in the Lord."

Your identity is in the Son. You are the body of Christ. He is your life. Unsaved people don't have this. There are unsaved Jews, for example, who will rejoice, and they will say that they are rejoicing in Yahweh, but unless they are rejoicing in the place that is Christ Jesus, then they are not rejoicing in the One true God of the universe, (though they may call Him the One true God). Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses and other false believers, do not rejoice in the Lord, but they claim that they do. The only way we can rejoice in the Lord, is if we are really there in the Lord. I mean, think about this, Paul says to consider yourself to be dead to sin in Romans 6. I can rejoice in considering myself to be dead to sin; but that is not the full picture of what to rejoice in. Paul went on--we are told to consider ourselves to be alive to God in Christ Jesus, Romans 6:11. You are made complete in Him, Colossians 2:10. You were elected in Him before the foundation of the world, Ephesians 1:4. You are a Christian.

I can not begin to tell you the many times in my life that I have not wanted to rejoice in anything. In my mind, I get to the end of my rope, and it seems to me that there is nothing around me left to rejoice in. But the same God who gives me His word, reminds me of His word, and I realize that I am in Him. I was elected, in Him, to be there since before the foundation of the world. But there is so much for my soul to rejoice about in this. Paul goes on in Ephesians 1 to say that we were elected in Him, so that we would be set apart by Him, and made blameless by Him in love, in the Lord. Instead of working, and working to gain God's approval by making yourself righteous, God has already done it in His son. Your joy, and my joy when we hurt, or are depressed, is that God loves you when you hurt and are depressed, and God's approval is not based upon you. It is all Christ. If it was all you, then you would be lost, and then you would have a reason to quit rejoicing. Paul does not say that the circumstances of the pain in life dissipate away. He just says to rejoice, and Who and where to rejoice in, in spite of the pain. If God's approval was based upon a little bit of Jesus, and a little bit of you, then you can't rejoice in that, because a little bit of me is always way too much sin. But you should rejoice in the fact that God made Christ Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin on your behalf, so that you might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21. So, when you sin, (because you still sin, though saved), you can rejoice because you still have an advocate with the father when you sin, 1 John 2:1. Your old self died on the cross with Christ. It is now Christ who lives in you, Galatians 2:20. This is why we should rejoice in the Lord, again I say rejoice! Right now, I want you to do something. I want you to think this about yourself right now:

I am a blessing.

I am not a curse.

God loves me and He is truly taking care of me right now, even if it doesn't look like it, because He takes care of everyone who is in the Lord.

Christ is the place, and He is alive in you. It does not matter if we don't immediately see this when we get angry, or when we get moody, or when we succumb to some kind of sinful temptation. Nothing has changed with your blessing of being in the Lord. But those mistakes occur. And they are problems. But the big problem to be ready for is when you start looking at the sphere of yourself in the problem, and you aren't seeing yourself in the sphere of Christ. Why? Because then you are looking at your circumstance like it is all there is to the picture. In other words, all you see is a wounded knee oppressing you with relentless pain. When you do this, then you are seeing what seems like a curse; and then what happens? You quit rejoicing in the Lord from your soul. God's favor is not based upon how perfect we operate in life, but it is so easy to think this way. There is a difference between doing things because you are in the Lord, versus activity that wears you out and robs both you and God of the rejoicing in the Lord that should be coming from you. That joy robbing activity is when you start doing things to gain God's favor. But, you are already blessed. You are already a blessing. God always sees you as the righteousness of Himself in his Son,

"He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him [in the Lord]," 2 Corinthians 5:21

@2 God made Jesus, who knew no _______, to be _______ on the cross for me, so that I would become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

So, since God always knows us as having become the righteousness of God in Him, then we should always see ourselves there too. Seeing yourself there, and trusting God there, is how you rejoice in the Lord always. I remember meeting with a man a month ago who was doubting God. He was doubting His own salvation. I began talking to him about who we are in Christ--his position in Christ. I reminded him of what he already knew. He said to me, "You need to preach this more often." I try to preach our position in Christ as often as I can. It is one of the most important doctrines of the New Testament. It is the foundation of rejoicing in the Lord always.

This leads us then to what Paul says next, because we start with rejoicing in the Lord. Rejoicing in the Lord is a kind of worship and adoration for Him. So, when you do this, what you are doing is expressing the Holy Spirit, and when you do this, you are doing the law of love. The law of love is to love God with your whole heart, and to love the body as Christ loves you. Love is expressed to God when we rejoice in Him. Now, from here, we are moving to the other part. We express love to our neighbor--Love God, and love your neighbor. They are the two points of God's great law, and Paul moves to a manifestation of the second one,

"5 Let your gentleness be known to all men."

@3 God wants me to show my ___________ to all men.

First we have the love that we express upward for God in rejoicing from our souls in the sphere of the Lord, right? We love God who is grand, and great, huge, and bigger than we are, and we only do it because we are in the Lord. So, now here, Paul is talking about the love in the Lord that goes outward to others. But, they are both eternally connected. Think about this: As you rejoice in the Lord, your peace loving gentleness in the Lord is made known to all. In other words, you can not rejoice in the Lord, and not be manifesting this gentle manifestation of the love of Christ. Notice that Paul assumes that you and I already have this gentleness. It is already there. You have it, and I have it, but it needs to come out of us. It needs to be made known. Just as the world around us does not know rejoicing in the Lord, it also does not know the love of God that is a fruit of the Holy Spirit that we have in the Lord. This manifestation of the Spirit that Paul is talking about here is a Greek word that is often translated as mildness, patience, temperance, forbearance, fairness, and reasonableness. It is a very similar Greek word to the one Paul uses to describe those who are peaceable and are not fighters in 1 Timothy 3:3, and Titus 3:2. The apostle Peter used the same word, talking about

"... masters ... who are good and gentle, ..."

They are good and gentle. Gentle is the same Greek word. When you are good and gentle, you are being opposite of,

"... those who are unreasonable." 1 Peter 2:18

God is wanting us to manifest love by being good and gentle in contrast to being unreasonable. What is important is that this is not describing a mere personality trait--you know, like there are gentle people, and there are people who are coarse. This is describing a fruit of the Holy Spirit that we all possess, but we must appropriate what God has given to us. It is just like rejoicing in the Lord. We already have joy in our salvation. We are glad we are saved. But, we need to express that joy in rejoicing in the Lord. In the same way, you need to manifest being gentle with people, reasonable with people, mild with people, patient with people, forbearing with people, fair with people, and showing temperance with people. We must do this in the midst of relationships with others who are not perfect, and can irritate our flesh. When you and I do this, we are expressing the joy of the Lord out to them, which is a fruit of the Holy Spirit,

"22 ... the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; There is no law against such things." Galatians 5:22-23

@4 Gentleness is a fruit of the ___________.

This is what we have in the Lord. But this is so vital to manifest out to the people that God brings into our lives. We live in a harsh, sinful society. People are abusive, severe, and caustic. We all know this. People get angry, and instead of manifesting the fruit of the spirit, they manifest unreasonableness, disputing, fighting, and contention. God tells us that everything is driven by pride and selfishness, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life. Strength, and power is thought to be standing your ground and fighting. It is thought to be able to turn your anger into energy for survival. But God says that the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. God says don't be pugnacious, which means don't be quarreling with people. Let your gentleness be known to all men. This is the real way to turn your anger into energy. The only way we are going to achieve this power, is by being humble, loving, servants of the Lord. To manifest the law of love, we must get back to the basics of our relationship. From our joy in Christ, we die to the ways of the flesh that can so easily come out of us. To manifest love by manifesting our gentleness to all men, we need to abide in basic Christianity 101,

"3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Have this mind in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." Philippians 2:3-8

@5 God wants me to regard other people as more ______________ than myself.

This is why I said at the beginning that you must be grounded in who you are in your position in Christ. Christ is gentle with you. He hugs you with the same open arms that He had nailed to the cross. They are the same arms that He held Israelite children in. They are the same arms that reached out and touched dead people and brought life back into their bodies. They are healing, gentle, loving arms that Christ has for His church. The gentleness of Christ, is what God wants you and me to have toward others.

Now, I think there is something about this that is so very important. Being gentle does not mean being passive. This is something that you manifest. God used Paul to demonstrate this for us to see how it is done. We remember that God gave Paul to the church to be a vibrant thread in the beginning of the fabric of the body of Christ throughout the ages. Paul is an example we look to in the roots of the church. Paul knows the necessity that we all must know. He urged the Corinthian church;

"1 Now I, Paul, myself urge you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ" 2 Corinthians 10:1

Paul wasn't passive. He boldly proclaimed what God would have him say. But Paul was meek and gentle. It was Christ being manifested out of him. Paul also urged, which is also Christ being manifested out of him. This is how you show the gentleness of Christ. Paul knows that the preaching of God's word is important. It was Paul's calling to urge people to godliness. But there is more than one way to urge people on to living out the Christian life. We can urge people out of the anger of man. But God says that the anger of man does not achieve His righteousness. We can urge people out of pride. We can urge people out of harshness. But what does Paul say to the Corinthians? Paul is urging in meekness and gentleness. But Paul knows that this meekness and gentleness is not of Him. It is supernatural. It comes from being in the Lord, where the Lord is in Paul. This is also what you and I have. It is the meekness and gentleness of Christ. The meekness we manifest is of supernatural origin.

"... the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable ..." James 3:17

@6 The ___________ from above is gentle.

It is the wisdom from God. A lot of times people will try to correct another brother or sister, and what they will do is malign them. To malign someone is to speak unfavorably about someone in a harmful manner. So, they will rail on them in such a way that they beat them down instead of building them up. It is so easy to malign people and put them down. This is not the way of Christ as we live out His life. But, you know that letting your gentleness be known to all men is not passivity, right? God says,

"... be ready for every good deed, 2 to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men." Titus 3:2

7@ God wants me to be ready for every ___________ deed by being nice, peaceful, gentle, and considering others in all ways.

God wants you to be a minister for the moment. He wants us to be ready for every good deed. Now let me paint a picture for you. Let's say that you know someone who you think is wrong in something they are doing. Maybe they are not raising their kids the way you think they should. Maybe they are disagreeing with your opinion about something and even contradicting you. Maybe they have a doctrinal belief view that differs from your own particular view. What you could do is immediately malign that person as you tell them what you think. Or, you could manifest Christ in you as the wisdom from above, and you approach them peaceably, gently, showing them consideration by sharing your ideas. If your advice, or urging, is simply your opinion rather than something that God thinks, then they can decide if what you are saying is worthy based upon the word of God. If they don't do things your way, or believe things your way, then don't get coarse with them, or despise them, or malign them. The difference is that when we malign people, we turn what could have been a good deed in mildness, patience, temperance, forbearance, fairness, and reasonableness, into a bad deed. Fighting and quarreling is the same way. God says that

"24 The Lord's bondservant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, ... with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, ..." 2 Timothy 2:24

@8 As God's servant, I must be _________ to all with gentleness.

God doesn't want his servants to quarrel, and fight, but (and this is important) He wants us to correct those who oppose the truth. The key is to not act in the flesh, but to put on Christ, and act in the Lord according to His word. Finally, the consideration that Paul has here, is that the Lord is near. Manifesting love for God in rejoicing in Him as a matter of habit is necessary in the wickedness and persecution we Christians go through in our world. Manifesting love for others in gentleness is also necessary in the midst of our godless generation. But, in the sphere of the Lord, the bottom line is that we do these things knowing that the Lord is near. Contextually, in the epistles repeated thrust along this line, Paul's point is that the coming of the Lord will be the time for judgment. When the Lord comes, then rejoicing in Him, and gentleness to all men, should be found as the activity of the waiting church. Whether the Lord comes tomorrow, or you die tomorrow, we are to act, in each moment like the Lord is near. Near in time is the sense, but near, as in standing beside you, is a wonderful metaphor to get the sense of His presence as your reigning Lord. I urge you to rejoice in the Lord always, and be manifesting your gentleness to all men. Our time is short in this place. Eternity awaits us in a better place when we are with Christ in glory forever. Let's rejoice knowing this. Let's make the gentleness of Christ known to people around us.

@1 God wants me to __________ in the Lord.
@2 God made Jesus, who knew no _______, to be _______ on the cross for me, so that I would become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
@3 God wants me to show my ___________ to all men.
@4 Gentleness is a fruit of the ___________.
@5 God wants me to regard other people as more ______________ than myself.
@6 The ___________ from above is gentle.
7@ God wants me to be ready for every ___________ deed by being nice, peaceful, gentle, and considering others in all ways.
@8 As God's servant, I must be _________ to all with gentleness.