Reformed Baptist Church in O'Fallon, Missouri
HomeSermonsBe Reasonable for the Lord is…

Be Reasonable for the Lord is Near – Philippians 4:5

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

Let Your Reasonableness Be Known

That’s where we are at today, and the kids can head to children’s church. We’re going to look at verse 5 today. We usually just don’t look at one verse at a time; sometimes we do. So we’ve been looking at verse 4 for a couple weeks. We’ll spend one week looking at verse 5. In verse 5 of Philippians 4 it says,

Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand.

(Philippians 4:5)

Amen. Anyone heard of Allie Beth Stuckey? She’s a Christian apologetics teacher. Does some amazing work. When she was younger, she was going through a particularly challenging time. And she talks about it and says, I praise God that there were zero adults in my life—because she was kind of going through an identity crisis—zero adults in my life who interpreted this as me needing to transition to become a man. In fact, a very important man in my life, my softball coach, confronted me, stood between me and evil. Even though I brushed them off and acted like everything was fine, that moment became a massive turning point for me. It was one of those singular moments in my life that caused me to rethink my path. One person taking a chance and speaking truth. And one person using their position to lovingly challenge a young lady.

Was this reasonable for him to do, or was this gentle, as some versions say, for him to do? Well, I would say we have to be careful how we define reasonable or gentle. Because if not, we’ll water down the word and pack it with the meaning that it doesn’t have. So a blunt word and a straightforward word and a tough word can still be reasonable, and they can actually still be gentle. In a different version, the NASB has reasonableness. I know the NASB has gentle spirit, the NIV, the NKJV gentleness, and the KJV moderation. We’re going to kind of look at what the different definitions of this particular word mean and how it’s used in some different contexts. But usually when we think of being reasonable, we think of it as using rationality for the basis of our thinking and actions. But here’s the thing: reasonableness is not always the safe route. I mean, Jesus was reasonable, he was gentle, but he didn’t always take the safe route. In fact, he often didn’t take the safe route. It is level-headed, it is calm, it is collected; in that sense, it’s gentle. But it doesn’t always lay back. It doesn’t always lay down. We don’t have the greatest understanding of being reasonable, gentle. So that’s why we’re going to spend just a sermon looking at it.

This second verse of this passage that we’ve been looking at is really what Paul is starting to wrap up the letter. The fancy term is paraenesis. It’s the hortatory section where we just get some quick, like short little commands for us to do. So we’ve already seen, “Rejoice in the Lord. Again I will say, rejoice.” Then we get this short one, “Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.” Then we get, “The Lord is at hand.” Well, we’re going to look at those two today. And I want to step back by asking, is Christianity reasonable?

Is Christianity Reasonable?

So we get a couple different definitions of this word reasonable or gentle. One is when you look at it and how it’s defined, it’s not insisting on the right of the letter of law or custom. And it has the idea of being yielding, kind, courteous, gentle, and tolerant. Tolerant in the old-fashioned sense, not in the new-fashioned sense. Another dictionary, a Greek dictionary, had it as having a clement or mild, merciful, reasonable, accommodating, generous. Well, these are things we all want Christians to have, yes? And these are all ways we’d want Christians to act.

What we’ve seen, if we kind of take a step back and we look at our culture, we’ve seen a shift to some extent in the intellectual level of the attitude towards Christianity. It’s been very interesting if you follow along. Now, kind of like at the popular level, I mean Christianity, people have a pretty negative view of it, but some of the cultural elites, some of the cultural critics, have acknowledged something. Guess what they have acknowledged? The value of Christianity for society. And that’s where you get the term kind of cultural Christians. Now there’s cultural Christians maybe in like a layman’s term where, especially if you start heading down South, it’s like everybody’s a Christian, right? But are they really? So there’s that sense, but there’s also a cultural Christian where those who appreciate the civilizational benefits of Christianity, they like that part, but they don’t embrace the faith. So they want what we would call the civilizational fruit without the religious root. They want all the benefits, essentially. And who doesn’t, right?

Cultural Christians

So our country and all of Europe are still benefiting from the Christian roots that were laid down hundreds and hundreds of years ago. Like we’re still reaping the benefits. And it’s fading real quick in Europe. They’ve all but just about lost it. It’s very sad, most of those countries there. But even America to some extent. But we still have it, and it can come back. I believe it will, by God’s grace.

That’s why I’ve told this story before, but there was a guy from an Eastern country and he was driving along with a friend from America. They were driving along in America, kind of a busy road, and the ambulance is coming. And what do all cars do when the ambulance or the fire truck comes? Like everybody kind of pulls over and makes a way, right? And this guy from this Eastern country, he just starts crying. And my friend’s like—I guess he’s concerned about where the ambulance is going. So he’s like, okay. He’s like, in my country, we don’t, we don’t do that. So he was just moved that, hey, there’s an emergency and someone needs help. And it’s like, in a sense, everyone’s pitching in to help out, to make sure the ambulance gets where it needs to go. Well, that is a fruit, brothers and sisters, of Christianity. That’s a fruit. Things like that that we just take for commonplace, just, oh, the ambulance is like, we need to get out of the way. I mean, that’s a love-your-neighbor thing. But guess what? A lot of Eastern countries don’t have that approach. They don’t have the love your neighbor. Why? It hasn’t been ingrained into their culture, and it’s absent.

Douglas Murray, he’s a conservative author and a columnist, but he’s also an atheist. He warns that the decline of Christianity is a dangerous thing. I mean, this is coming from an atheist. So he says society has three options. First, we can reject the idea that all human life is precious. And some cultures, many Eastern cultures, they don’t have a view of all human life being precious. He says another is to work furiously to nail down an atheist version of the sanctity of the individual. Well, he basically concludes, like, good luck with that. Like, what are you going to ground it in? So he says, well, what if that doesn’t work? He’s like, well, then third, there is only one other place to go, which is back to faith, whether we like it or not. And Richard Dawkins, who at times has called for Christianity to be destroyed, has begrudgingly admitted that Christianity has good effects on society. And then Tom Holland, another author, has written some very popular books. He’s kind of been on a journey. I don’t know where he’s completely at, but here’s what he says. He’s a historian. He says, the longer I spent immersed in the study of classical antiquity, the more alien and unsettling I came to find it. The values of Leonidas, whose people had practiced a peculiarly murderous form of eugenics and trained their young to kill helots by night, were nothing that I recognized as my own. Nor were those of Caesar, who was reported to have killed a million Gauls and enslaved a million more. It was not just the extremes of callousness that I came to find shocking, but the lack of a sense that the poor or the weak might have any intrinsic value. As such, the founding conviction of the Enlightenment, that it owed nothing to the faith into which most of its greatest figures had been born, increasingly came to seem to me unsustainable. Today, even as belief in God fades across the West, the countries that were once collectively known as Christendom continue to bear the stamp of the two-millennia-old revolution that Christianity represents. He’s talking about the cultures and the values that have been inculcated into Christian societies. He goes on, it is the principal reason why, by and large, most of us who live in post-Christian societies still take for granted that it is nobler to suffer than to inflict suffering. It is why we generally assume that every human life is of equal value. In my morals and ethics, I have learned to accept that I am not Greek or Roman at all, but thoroughly and proudly Christian.

Again, he would probably, at least when he wrote this, it was in the context of a cultural Christian. He realizes the benefit that Christianity has for a society. Now he’s actually moved a little bit further. We’re waiting for him. I don’t know if he’s had a salvation experience, but the point is this: Christianity has transformed entire societies. Now our current society is built on Christian values and morals, and again we’re reaping the benefits of a society originally built on the foundation of Christianity. This speaks to the impact. But it not only transforms societies, right? It transforms individuals. Well, what does it do first? Does it transform societies, or does it transform individuals first? Well, we’d probably say individuals first, right? Because in order for society to be changed, the individual has to be changed. But once the individual changes and the society starts to be changed, then those that are coming up in the society that haven’t been changed, it impacts them. So in that sense you could say maybe the society comes first, because then those people come up.

You know, it’s interesting, and it’s really sad: for about, I’d say, two decades, and really right when I was in seminary and coming out back in the late ’90s, early 2000s, there is this like strong emphasis—it’s still there to some extent—but this strong emphasis, oh, we gotta reach the urban people, not just like the inner city and the poor and that, but we have to reach the urban elites, you know. So if you really want to do ministry, you’re either moving to the inner city and doing it amongst the poor, or you’re moving to those inner cities where there’s wealth and you’re trying to reach those people. And that was the going thing that was emphasized from seminary to seminary for decades, right. And these urban elites that are super liberal, they need Jesus. Well, they do need Jesus, right. And some people do need to go to the inner cities, and some people do need to go to the upper elite and reach them for Jesus, but guess what was left out for decades? Just the average Joe, the coal miner who needs Jesus, the person who grew up in the Bible Belt that is the cultural Christian, who never trusted in Christ. Just the common suburban was greatly de-emphasized. It’s super sad, but here’s what people have come to realize and recognize, and the stats point it out. Like, guess who is more likely to trust in Christ and get saved? Do you think someone who leans more conservative or someone who leans more liberal? What do you think? You’re like, oh, I don’t want to give the wrong answer. It’s the one who’s more conservative. That kind of blew my mind a little bit too when I first heard it, because you’re like, maybe they’ve just been inoculated, so it’s like they have it and they think they already got it. A lot of people, when they’re challenged and you put their feet to the fire, and you talk about trusting in Christ—yes, some of them might feign a fake trust. That’s true. But they’ve been brought up in that cultural Christianity, very likely, that sees the goodness in conservative values. So when you come and talk about Christ and what he’s done, and those different things, like the whole picture and the puzzle kind of fits together. And so for decades, the focus has been on the super liberal people, when those most primed, all the stats show it, are those that have conservative-leaning values. And those are the ones that the seminaries and the pulpits have ignored for decades. Super sad. Now we need to do both. You can be awesome, but you still need Jesus.

Reasonable in Thought, Word, and Deed

And this is how we usually think of the reasonable. Usually we’ll tell people—I’m sure you—you’ve never told your spouse, be reasonable? But that, I mean, what are we saying? Hey, your thinking is not in accordance with reason. So when we think they’re not thinking properly on an issue, we say that, or we’re tempted to say that, or we think that. But we want to be reasonable in thoughts. We want to think rationally. That’s good. We should do that. But we also want to be reasonable in our words. And I would say reasonable—I mean, reasonable and gentle, they kind of go together a little bit. But being reasonable is knowing when to speak. And it’s knowing when not to speak. And then when you actually speak, using reasonable words, and making sure that our speech, I mean, is not just reasonable, but it is gracious and kind and filled with love. Doug Wilson said it in part. And then also reasonable in deeds. Well, what does that look like?

Well, we want to be doing things in a way that honors Christ, that glorifies him. Things that people would look at, that those cultural critics might look at and be like, yeah, that’s reasonable. I would expect believers to do that. They are acting in accordance with the truth that they believe. But we should also be able to gather here, right? And we’re acting in accordance with being reasonable. Now this doesn’t mean compromise. It doesn’t mean giving in. It doesn’t mean you just go to the middle ground. It doesn’t mean giving on morals. No, this word reasonable, or moderation as the King James translates it, it refers to restraint on the passions. That’s where you would think of someone who’s gentle. They’re not going to be bouncing off all over the walls. Well, same with reasonable. You’re not flying off the handle every day. You have self-control. Your emotions don’t get the best of you. You’re reasonable. The other idea is this general soberness of living. You know, one day you’re not over here on the map and the next day over here and the next day over here. I mean, there’s consistency, there’s reasonableness, you’re on a trajectory that’s good. The word properly means that which is fit or suitable, and then along with that, propriety, gentleness, mildness.

Here’s what one—actually one of my favorite commentators, Albert Barnes, great commentator by the way—he said this: They were to indulge in no excess of passion or dress or eating or drinking. They were to restrain their appetites, restrain their temper, and to be examples of what was proper for men in view of the expectation that the Lord would soon appear. So you don’t demand your way. Now, some people, I like this, and it can be annoying to try to talk to them. Like literally, they won’t listen to you or to reason. It doesn’t matter what you say, they won’t even consider it. You ever had a boss like that? That’s tough times.

Known to Everyone

But I want you to notice something additionally. Look back in the verse, verse 5. Look what he says: to everyone. So this has far-reaching implications. Everyone. That means believers. You should be known by the people in your church, by your brothers and sisters in Christ, as being someone who is reasonable. But it also means unbelievers. Right? You got unbelieving neighbors. They should know you as being reasonable. They come over and have an issue. You’re not losing it. You’re reasonable. They want to talk to you about something, you know, you’re mowing your lawn at five o’clock in the morning, like they want to talk to you about that. And they probably should. Probably everyone wants to talk to you about that. But you’re reasonable when you’re approached. You’re reasonable when believers approach you, when they, hey, I just need to talk to you about something. Maybe it’s not something that you want to be talked to about. They’re concerned about an issue or something. But you’re reasonable. You listen, you respond graciously. It’s also the same with close family. Why is it like the people that we’re closest with, they get like the least amount of grace and love and fruit of the Spirit shown to them sometimes? That’s not right. But it’s like the people that we’re closest to, our spouse, our kids, or if you’re a kid, parents, right? I mean, we do this. But what happens? Oh, well, with our family, there’s more than 30 seconds. So that runs out pretty quick. And then what? Oh, then they get the real you. No, when it comes to our close family, when it comes to our extended family, like we want to be people that are enjoyable to be around. Like that’s our testimony. That’s our testimony to our extended family that doesn’t know Jesus. How we interact with them is a statement about the gospel and what we believe about Jesus. So we want to come across as reasonable. Same with our bosses. It doesn’t matter how mean, horrible, awful your boss is. You still have to be reasonable. If you have someone underneath you, a direct report, you should be known as reasonable to those under you.

The Lord Is at Hand

Well then comes, “The Lord is at hand.” Why is it followed with “the Lord is at hand”? Well, part of it is so that it grounds us in being reasonable. We realize that the Lord is here with us. The Lord is at hand. And Jesus wants us walking like he walked, talking like he talked, acting like he acted. And Paul just said it a little bit earlier, right? Imitate me as I imitate Christ. So that’s what we’re supposed to do.

This idea of the Lord being at hand is the term that theologians use called the immanence of God. So he’s immanent. And the idea is this, that God is present and active within creation. He’s immanent. He is very near. He doesn’t just sit back and watch. No, he’s involved. And he’s working within creation. You know, deism, it’s like God winds the clock of the universe and just sets things into motion, and then he just steps back and he doesn’t do anything else. That’s deism. But when we talk about Christianity, no, God is present and active within creation. He doesn’t just sit. He’s involved. He’s working. He doesn’t wind the clock and idly watch. Now he’s separate from creation. If he is part of creation, that’d be pantheism. But he’s separate from creation, but he’s very much involved in creation. And this word immanent literally means remaining in. It’s from the Latin, remaining in. So he’s daily involved with creation. So he’s not abstract or out there somewhere or uninvolved. He’s everywhere present and active in the universe. And he’s near to us all the time. So what’s emphasized with this word is his presence. So you know, immanence and omnipresence, I mean, they kind of go hand in hand—omnipresence, the idea that he’s everywhere. But immanence brings it a little bit further, that it’s like he’s not just everywhere, but he’s near and he’s involved and he’s here right now.

Now some of you at times, I’ve been there myself, you might be like, well, I don’t sense his presence. I don’t sense his nearness. You don’t have to. This doesn’t change the truth of whether he’s present or not. Thankfully how you feel doesn’t change objective truth about the Lord. So yes, you might not sense it. That’s okay. I know you want to sense it. But it’s not about like some sense or emotion. Like the Lord is near whether you think it or not. The Lord is near whether you sense it or not. You’re like, well, I don’t sense he’s close. Well, again, your senses are wrong. The senses can be tricked, they can be deceived, they can be duped. He is near. Let’s look at a few verses on this. Let’s start in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter 4. This is where Moses is commanding obedience. And he says in verse 5:

See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him?

(Deuteronomy 4:5–7)

I mean, even in the Old Testament, God was near. How was it visualized to them in the Old Testament when they’re going through the wilderness? Right? Cloud by day, fire by night, but he was there, right? They had a visual representation. Well, do we need a visual representation today? No. Who do we have? We have the Holy Spirit. We’ve got something better than the visual representation in the Old Testament. We’ve got the Holy Spirit. So he is always available. “A God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him.” I mean, what a comfort to know that we can pray anytime, anywhere, anyplace. We don’t have to go to the temple, we don’t have to go to the tabernacle. No, right here we can do it. Out there we can do it. At home we can do it. On the way to work we can do it. At work we can do it, anywhere. We can approach the Lord. Why? Because he’s right there.

He Is Near When We Call

We can also go to him in times of need. Look at Isaiah chapter 55. This is amazing. We have this invitation to everyone, starting in verse 1:

Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you. Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near.

(Isaiah 55:1–6)

This amazing passage of being invited basically to the banquet feast—like you don’t have money, but you can buy it. Well, where’s that coming from? From the bountiful blessing of the Lord. And how does it go? Seek the Lord. Look at his goodness. Look at what he has provided, and seek him while he is close. Seek him while he is near. So there’s an evangelistic element to it as well. But the idea is, go to him in times of need. He’s always available. What about when you need rescuing? Well, there’s hope for rescue. Look at Psalm chapter 34. In verse 17 he says, “When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.” And then one of my favorite verses right here, verse 18: “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” That’s Yahweh. That’s our great God. What is he doing? He’s near to the brokenhearted. What is he doing? Saving the crushed in spirit. If you’ve had a dark night of the soul, you’ve walked through some challenging or troubling times, gone through some maybe bouts of depression or melancholy, you know the truthfulness of this verse. He’s near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. In Psalm 145, it says something similar, verse 18: “The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.”

We also see this is important for us to remember in terms of perseverance. Look at James chapter 5. James chapter 5, he starts in verse 7: “Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.” Right, so that’s the first exhortation for them in this passage. Be patient—what? Well, the Lord’s coming. So persevere. “See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.” And over and over and over, the Scriptures talk about this idea of like, the Lord is near, the Lord is near, the coming is at hand. Right, he’s got his winnowing fork, he’s ready to thresh. So there’s this idea of grace coming, but there’s also this idea of judgment coming. And you look through the day of the Lord in the Old Testament, a lot of times it’s described as a scary and sobering day. Why? Because judgment has come; it’s going to be poured out on you. That’s not good. But other places, it’s a very reassuring thing. You see that come out probably a little more clearly in the New Testament, but even in a passage like this, he’s like, hey, brothers, I know what’s going on. I know the persecution you’re going through. Keep persevering. Just like that farmer, he plants the seed, right? He doesn’t expect the crop to come up the very next day, but the crop is coming and it’s going to come up. So what is he saying? Hey, just like that farmer’s patient, you need to be patient. The Lord is coming, be patient, continue to persevere. So the Scripture reminds us over and over again of him being near.

Here’s how one author said it. The idea is that the expectation that the Lord Jesus will come ought to be allowed to produce moderation of our passions—he’s talking about how the King James Version translates it, moderation or reasonableness of our passions in our manner of living as well, and our expectations of what this world can furnish, and in our desires of earthly good. On him who feels soon to die and to stand at the bar of God, on him who expects soon to see the Lord Jesus coming in the clouds of heaven, it cannot fail to have this effect. Men indulge their passions, are extravagant in their plans of life and in their expectations of earthly good for themselves and for their families, because they have no realizing sense of the truth that there is before them a vast eternity. He that has a lively expectation that heaven will soon be his will form very moderate and reasonable expectations of what this world can furnish.

Our Society Needs Jesus

Our society needs Jesus, amen. I mean, it drastically needs Jesus. Just last week in the Parkway West Middle School, a student brought a loaded gun in his backpack to school. I mean, how does that even happen? Our society needs Jesus. Our churches need Jesus. I mean, you would think all the denominations, like the Baptists, would be pretty solid, and many are, but the denominations have compromised and the non-denominations have compromised. But even the Baptists—First Baptist Church in Columbia, Missouri, they held a drag queen event. The Baptists. So yeah, the churches need Jesus. Brothers and sisters, we need Jesus. Amen. It starts with us.

The government needs Jesus. Yes. Did you all know that the Biden Department of Justice partnered with Planned Parenthood to track down the movement of pro-lifers before ultimately charging them? And if you remember, don’t forget, it’s really not been that long, just a couple of years ago, pro-lifers were sentenced to prison, some as old as I think 70 or 80, simply for standing outside an abortion clinic praying and singing songs. And the Department of Justice under Biden allowed, encouraged, and accepted research and investigation dossiers from Planned Parenthood and another organization called the Feminist Majority Foundation to help plan the prosecution of Christian pro-lifers. This isn’t something that is like hidden under a rock. You can go find this out. It’s admitted now. Even Jeff Durbin, some of you know him, he’s part of Apologia Ministries, does a lot of great work abolishing abortion. They had him under surveillance. Literally. Surveilling this pastor for his views, in large part because he is against abortion. And then additionally it came out that the Department of Justice was working actively to prevent Christians from fostering. That should blow your mind and upset you. Our government needs Jesus, and healthy doses of it. We have some men and women in leadership in various key positions, not just in our state, which we’ve been blessed with some very godly men and women, but also at the national level, Pete Hegseth being one of them. But all aspects of our society, of our churches, and our families need Jesus.

Right? Now why is it—can I just ask a question? It’s like a little tangent. But why, if I say, hey, families need Jesus, and everyone’s like, yeah, and society needs Jesus, yeah, and churches need Jesus, yeah, and the government needs Jesus? Crickets. The government needs Jesus. Its leaders, its people. There needs to be a healthy dose from top to bottom. It used to be there. We’re not a Christian nation because Jesus was left out of the government. We’re a Christian nation very much because Jesus and his rules and his laws were very much instituted into the government.

Walk in Light of His Coming

If you don’t have Jesus, it’s hard to give him to other people. So one, make sure you’re in the faith. The idea of the Lord being near should be very much a comfort to you. Whatever you’re going through, wherever you’re at, whatever you’re struggling with, like the fact that the Lord is near. I mean, he’s not far away. He hasn’t forgotten about you. He’s near. He’s here. He loves you. He cares about you. It says in Hebrews, it’s quoting the Old Testament, he’ll never leave you nor what? Forsake you. Every single step of the way, he’s there with you. He’s super gracious and kind and merciful. He pours out his steadfast love on a thousand upon a thousand generations. So make sure you have him. And then make sure you walk in accordance with the Jesus that you claim to have.

Think about the very ending. It’s the second-to-last verse in Revelation. Here’s what it says. It says, “Surely I am coming soon.” I mean, that’s Jesus speaking. Surely I’m coming soon. And then here’s how the second-to-last verse wraps up. It says, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.” Are you ready for his arrival? He’s coming back, and he will be here sooner than we think. The Lord is at hand, so we need to live accordingly. We need to live like it’s true. We need to act like it’s true. We need to think like it’s true. We need to believe like it’s true. Well, that also means like he’s our Savior, he’s our Master, but it also means that the Judge is at the door. So that means we can leave all wrongs for him to address. That’s why Romans 12 talks about it, right? Don’t avenge, let the Lord take care of it. That means earthly squabbles, some of them are so trivial, and we’re letting things get messed up by trivial stuff. We just need to get over it. There’s bigger issues at hand, or we might say bigger fish to fry. Again in 1 John chapter 2 it says, “And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.”

And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.

(1 John 2:28)

Right? So the idea is, we’re walking with him, we’re abiding in him. We don’t have anything to fear. We’re one of his. So be reasonable. Be reasonable. Let your reasonableness be known to who? To everyone, to all. People think of you, they should be like, yeah, he’s reasonable. People think of you, they should be like, yes, she’s reasonable. You’re displaying Christ to people in all the facets of life that the Lord has planted you, and you’re doing all that for his glory. Knowing that as you walk, whatever challenges you come upon, whether it is with a close family member or extended family member or a boss or co-worker, the Lord will be with you as you walk through that challenging situation. Remember what I said I think was last week or the week before, right? You got that challenging person in your life and you’re like, Lord, I just wish you could move that person on. Well, that doesn’t work if it’s your spouse, okay? So you need to learn to be reasonable and walk in mercy and grace and love, right? You have a covenant. Don’t break the covenant. But there’s other people that maybe the Lord would move on. But what happens, did I say, a lot of times when he moves that challenging person on, it usually replaces it with someone else. So sometimes you need to be thankful for the challenging people in your life, because it can always be worse. He can always bring someone worse. So be reasonable, reasonable because you want to make the gospel as appealing as possible. You want to be reasonable because you want to walk in righteousness and be upright.

Closing Prayer

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you. Let us repent and walk in righteousness in those areas and with those people. We pray, Lord, we continue to be faithful, as James exhorted us, to be patient, to persevere, to wait steadily. You will never fail us. You will never let us down. You will always be our good and gracious Father. You will always walk with us every single step of the way. Thank you for the salvation we have in your Son, Jesus. We love you. Amen.