In this episode of Discovering the Jewish Jesus, Rabbi Schneider moves from theological discussions to practical applications in the book of Ephesians. Learn about the unique call God has placed on each of us and how we can walk in humility and gentleness as true reflections of His kingdom. Through personal anecdotes and biblical insights, Rabbi invites you to embrace patience and kindness, turning them into strengths that defy external pressures and internal struggles. Discover how living a life that is patient and gentle can lead to profound transformation and deeper connections with others.
Welcome to Discovering the Jewish Jesus. I’m your host, Dustin Roberts. And today, Rabbi Schneider shed some light on how to use effective gentleness in God’s kingdom. Today’s message, it’s gonna bring us to a pivotal turning point where theology meets everyday life. So what do you think it means to walk worthy of our calling? Well, to help answer that question, we’re gonna be exploring how true spiritual strength, it often shows up in an unexpected way. And we’ll also look at how our weaknesses can become opportunities when they’re placed in God’s hands. So whatever you’re struggling with, this is a practical message that’s going to help you move from frustration to faith. And now here’s Rabbi to unpack these powerful principles from Ephesians chapter four.
SPEAKER 01 :
You know, David said, revive me, O Lord, with your word. And I love Psalm 119. If you’re not familiar with Psalm 119, I really want to encourage you, read a section of Psalm 119. Every day for the next year, I’m telling you, it’ll do something for you. One of the things I love so much about Psalm 119 is how David is so dependent on the Lord to do all these things for him. Turn my eyes from evil. Incline my eye to not listen to gossip. Revive my heart, O God, by your word. And he’s looking to the Lord, trusting God to do everything for him. Well, today, as we’re going to continue in the book of Ephesians, let’s just open our hearts and prepare ourself to receive the word implanted into our soul by opening up our hearts and praising him. Most of you know this little chorus. You can join me, okay? We exalt you.
SPEAKER 02 :
We exalt you. We exalt you, O Lord. We exalt you, we exalt you, O Lord.
SPEAKER 01 :
Baruch Hashem. We got done on the last episode, beloved ones, with chapter three, and we’re going to move right now into chapter four. Chapters one through three of the book of Ephesians are theologically based. Paul was revealing to us mysteries of our salvation. that by grace through faith we’ve been saved. We were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, made us alive together with Christ and raised us up with him, seating us with him in the heavenly places. And then Paul went on to talk about the mystery of the fact that Jew and Gentile have now been made one in Messiah. Following that, Paul bowed his knees and went into a prayer for us. And he prayed that we’d be strengthened in our inner man by the same power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead. And then being supernaturally strengthened, that we would be established in faith and that faith would expand our hearts to be able to comprehend the love of God, and as a result of that, you and I would walk in God’s fullness. So Paul covered all that in chapter two, and he covered similar information, theological information, in chapter three. But now as we approach chapter four, beloved ones, Paul moves from the theological to the practical. And so we’re moving now into the practical. Now knowing what we know, how should we then live? And so let’s pick up now with this practical application, beginning in verse number one of chapter four. Paul continues, therefore, in light of everything that I just told you, you’ve been chosen by God. God chose you in Ephesians chapter one before the foundation of the world to be his. You’re not like the rest of the world. God chose you out of the world. Jesus said, you do not choose me, I chose you. Paul continues, he says, therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord, Paul’s saying, I’m as the prisoner of the Lord in light of what I just told you, imploring you. Think about that word imploring you. It’s like I am begging you. I am challenging you as strongly as I possibly can in light of everything that I’ve told you that you’ve been chosen of the Lord, supernaturally sealed by the Holy Spirit, God’s own possession. He says, I’m therefore imploring you. to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. Think about this. I want you just to get this again. In Ephesians chapter 1, Paul tells us that God chose his own in himself before the foundation of the world, and then he, listen now, predestined us If you know God, it’s because you were, listen, foreloved. God does not love you because he saw that you were gonna choose him. Jesus said, you did not choose me, I chose you. So when the Bible speaks of foreknowledge, it doesn’t mean that God knew that you would choose him, therefore he chose you. If that was the case, his choice of you would be based on your choice of him. But that’s not how it is. Paul told us in chapter two of Ephesians that you and I were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. There was nothing different about you and I from everybody else. But God simply chose to love us. You were for love. God, for reasons that we don’t understand, had nothing to do with who we are. He just chose for his own sovereign purposes to love you. So Paul says in Ephesians 1, he chose you before the foundation of the world, and as a result of being chosen, he predestined you to adoption through Jesus to himself. And so now Paul, in light of this, says, I’m there for knowing you’ve been chosen. Knowing you’re for love, I mean, you’re not like the world. Jesus said, if you were of the world, the world would love you, but I chose you out of the world. So Paul says, therefore, I’m imploring you, come out from the world, be different because you’re not of the world. So listen, he says, therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord, because he was in prison for most of his ministry, I implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you’ve been called. You’re the temple of the Holy Spirit. And how do we walk out in such a way that we’re revealing to the principalities of the air, as I covered in the last broadcast, that we’re the dwelling place of God? How do we walk as one that’s walking worthy of our calling? Number one, he says, you do it by walking in humility and gentleness. So Jesus modeled this for us. He came meek and lowly. A bruised reed he did not damage. Everybody that came to him with a humble spirit, he treated so tenderly. And he talked about his love for children. He said, if you cause a little one to stumble, it’d be better for you to have never been born. He had such a heart of gentleness towards childlike people. And he’s asking you and I to become like a child. to come in that spirit of humility, to strip ourselves of all our defenses because of our insecurities and our fears, to come out of all the false personas that we put on to try to be macho and strong and manly. and for women to come out of walking in a spirit of sensuality, to try to attract attention because they want to feel love. You want to feel love, precious one. He says, no, I want you to come out from that and walk worthy of your calling. I want you to walk as a child in the spirit of humility, because we know as it relates to humility, that but by the grace of God, my friends, there go we. Again, there was nothing different about you and I. God just chose to save us. Paul says, you are by nature a children of wrath, just as the rest. But then he continues, but God, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved you, he saved you. He made you alive in Christ by grace through faith. And even the faith is not your own. It was given you as a gift of God. So we’re to walk in humility. We’re no different than anybody else. We need to not judge people, not accuse people, not condemn people. We need to be tender towards people. We need to think not more highly of ourself than we should. We need to humble ourself. And humility also means that we’re walking in dependency on God. A lot of people say, oh, I’m going to be doing this. I’m going to be doing that. Jesus said, don’t say you’re going to do through the prophet. He said, don’t say you’re going to do this tomorrow or that tomorrow. You don’t know what your life’s gonna be tomorrow. You don’t know if you’ll be here tomorrow or not. You don’t have that kind of a spirit. That’s evil. Walk in humility. Recognize you’re like a vapor. You’re here today and gone tomorrow. Because you’re a child of God, you go into his glory when you die, but you have to recognize that we are simply at the mercy of our creator. This should humble us. And one of the things that helps us be humble is to recognize if we’re not humble, God’s gonna judge us in discipline. He’s not gonna judge us and reject us, but he’s just gonna discipline us until we become humble.
SPEAKER 03 :
You’re listening to Discovering the Jewish Jesus, and Rabbi will be right back. But first, did you know that you can receive real-time encouragement straight from Rabbi through text message? Visit discoveringthejewishjesus.com and click on the link that says Rabbi Text Me. Or you can text the keyword Rabbi to the number 88777. Rabbi sends these special text messages as the Holy Spirit leads, and he looks forward to connecting with you real soon. Thank you for remembering that Discovering the Jewish Jesus is a listener supported ministry. Rabbi Schneider’s teachings are made possible through the generous gifts from people like you who understand the importance of sharing the good news of Jesus’ return. Because of you, we are changing lives all over the world. Give online by visiting discoveringthejewishjesus.com or call 800-777-7835. That’s 800-777-7835. And now let’s get back to Rabbi’s message.
SPEAKER 01 :
Some of you heard me share this before, but I had a really supernatural incident. And I was in New York City and I just got done preaching to a group of pastors in New York City. It was a wonderful experience. And I was staying at a hotel with my team who was coming to film the event. And that night in the hotel in New York City, right before I was leaving the next day to fly back to Columbus, I had a dream and the Lord spoke to me in the dream, clear as a bell. And the Holy Spirit said to me, you don’t always have to use power. Sometimes it’s more effective to use gentleness. And of course, even gentleness comes only from power. But the Lord was saying to me, you don’t always have to use force to get your point across. Sometimes I can more impact my people when you’re gentle. It really stood out to me. It was a very marked word, so clear, so specific. Laura was saying to me, you don’t always have to use force. Sometimes my tool, the anointing that I wanna bring from you is gentleness. So I woke up the next day and I met downstairs at the hotel as we were waiting for our ride to the airport. I met one of my team members and I told him about this dream I had last night when the Lord spoke to me and he showed me the book he was reading. And the book he was reading was called gentleness. Here I’ve got the dream, and lo and behold, he’s reading a book, and the main theme of the book was on gentleness. So the fruit of the Spirit is gentleness, the opposite of this caustic sound behind me, right, that siren. Soon there’s going to come a time there won’t be any sirens, right? When we’re in the New Jerusalem, we’re not going to hear any sirens going off, this alarming sound to the soul. We’re thankful for ambulances and police, but hey, the time’s going to come when we’re not going to need them. We’re just going to be surrounded by gentleness and peace and shalom. And so we should do our best to walk in a way that people aren’t threatened by us. We need to have supernatural insight into other people’s vulnerability. Sometimes we’re intimidated by people and because we’re intimidated, we get threatened and we come across harsh and we come across rough. But notice once again, what Paul says, walk worthy of your calling with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love. I love that word patience because for me, this is something that I’ve really had to work at in my life, being patient. Some people are born just more naturally patient. Others of us are born with the natural disposition that is less patient. We all have to work on developing supernatural patience, but it’s harder for those of us that are real high energy, we’re external, we’re driven, we’re focused on things, and we run into situations in life that slow us down. And when something slows us down, our soul gets disturbed. And so this was something in my own life that I had to really work at because in the natural, I had to stop operating when I got angry because something was slowing me down because I lacked patience. But the thing is, is that overcoming these things is what produces God’s strength in us. So don’t let your weaknesses become discouraging to you, because your weaknesses are God’s opportunity to make you strong. Because we get strong, beloved one, by overcoming our weaknesses. The more we have to work at overcoming something, the more strength we build. So don’t be discouraged with yourself. Just recognize this is an issue that needs to be overcome. And as you face this thing and begin to climb the mountain, you’re gonna have a great reward and you’re gonna be supernaturally strengthened because as I’ve said so many times, his power is perfected in your weakness. But patience is a virtue of the Holy Spirit and all of us need to work at developing it. And oftentimes the result of not being patient, as I said a second ago, is that we get angry. Because when something comes, you know, we’re in traffic, What do we do when traffic is real slow? We have a tendency, you know, we cram on the steering wheel. Here in Jerusalem now, sometimes I hear people honking. There’s no place to go. Everything’s backed up. You can’t get around anybody. It is what it is. And yet some people are so impatient. They lay on their horn and they leave their horn blaring for like 40 seconds and blaring on their horn. It’s not going to accomplish a thing. No one’s able to move, but they’re so angry, they’re so impatient that they just bam, they go on that horn and it’s going and it’s going and making a ton of noise, disturbing everybody that hears it. And rather than just blaring on your horn, which accomplishes nothing, some of you are challenged with your driving, When you feel that, you just pull yourself back and you say, God has called me to develop the virtue of patience. And this applies to many of us in our marriages or with our children. How many of us struggle with patience in our marriages? I don’t naturally like, personally like going to the grocery store because it’s just like, I have to really work on my patience with that when I’m with my beautiful wife, Cynthia Marjorie, that takes so great care of me. And if it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be enjoying all the comforts and preacher comforts that my wife blesses me with. But it takes work for me to be patient. But now I actually kind of like it because I’ve worked at it for so long. I just enjoy being with my wife And I just enjoy honoring her and blessing her just by being with her. But it took a lot of work for me to overcome impatience. So once again, your weaknesses are God’s opportunities. But you’ve got to recognize in yourself where your soul is out of sync with God’s spirit. and make it a challenge, take it on as a personal challenge to bring yourself in to the Spirit of the Lord. So God tells us here through the Apostle Paul that we need to walk in a spirit of gentleness with patience. So whether it’s with your spouse or your children, remember when you start feeling that irritation because you’re not patient, remember, pull your soul back. You have the authority to pull your soul back. You might feel like this. You’re anxious. You’re angry. You’re impatient. But you know what? You don’t have to release it. You don’t have to act on it. You pull your soul back in the spirit and you abide in him. And as you do that more and more, you’re going to get sealed. your mind and your psyche, your personality will become sealed by the Holy Spirit and you’ll find yourself living, beloved ones, God’s beloved ones, in more and more of his divine shalom. God bless you and God empower you to overcome every obstacle you ever face. In the Gospel of John chapter 6, we read the story of how the 5,000 that had followed Jesus were hungry and needed something to eat. They began to ask, well, what do we have to feed so many? One of the disciples said, well, one young lad here has five loaves and two fish. Jesus said, bring them to me. Yeshua blessed the five loaves and the two fish. Supernaturally, all 5,000 were fed and there was even food left over. Beloved, I believe that when you and I give to Jesus what we have, He supernaturally multiplies it. Let’s be faithful to Him with our finances. He has promised that what we give to Him would come back to us pressed down good measure and running over into our lives. If the Lord is feeding you through discovering the Jewish Jesus, I would encourage you, present a financial offering to Him through this ministry. I am confident, beloved, by the faith of God’s Word, that you’re going to be blessed as a result of obedience to Him. This is Rabbi Schneider. God bless you. I love you. And Shalom.
SPEAKER 03 :
Amen. And you can give a financial gift of any amount to Discovering the Jewish Jesus by visiting us online at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. And if it’s easier for you, give us a call. Our number is 800-777-7835. That’s 800-777-7835. And you can also send your gift in the mail. Our address is Discovering the Jewish Jesus, PO Box 777, Blissfield, Michigan, 49228. And I wanna let you know, if you’re seeking a deeper connection with our ministry, I’d like to invite you to join our Facebook community. We’ve got 1.8 million people there who have liked us and who are excited to join in on discussions about what Rabbi’s sharing. And you can experience his teaching and video there in a whole new way. You can put a face to the voice that you trust and cherish right here on the radio or podcast. And our content and stories and posts, they’ll bring Rabbi’s message to life with even more understanding. Once again, you can explore all that we offer and join our growing family of supporters by searching for us on Facebook. Just search for Discovering the Jewish Jesus or Rabbi Schneider, or you can also find links at DiscoveringTheJewishJesus.com. And also, while you’re on our website, I once again just want to invite you to stand with us this year by becoming a monthly partner or giving a gift of any amount. Your support, it’s what enables us to share these programs every day with you. You can give online or you can call us at 800-777-7835, or you can even text in your gift. Just text the keyword rabbi to the phone number 45777. We’re so thankful for all of your support and we look forward to connecting with you soon. And now here’s rabbi with a special blessing. And it’s our prayer that this special moment refreshes your spirit and it becomes a highlight of your day. Rabbi.
SPEAKER 01 :
In the book of Numbers chapter 6, the Lord gave instructions to Moses and Aaron to speak this blessing over his people. And the Lord said, When you speak these words over my people, I will place my name on them and bless them. Receive the impartations of the Lord’s blessings.
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up with His countenance. And the Lord give you, beloved one, His peace. God bless you and shalom.
SPEAKER 03 :
This program is produced and sponsored by Discovering the Jewish Jesus. And I’m your host, Dustin Roberts. Join us again tomorrow when Rabbi Schneider explains why you could be wasting your wilderness. That’s Thursday on Discovering the Jewish Jesus.
