GENTLENESS IS ENGAGING WITHOUT ARROGANCE

This morning we are going to consider the eighth fruit of the Spirit.  We turn our attention to... Gentleness.  I believe there is a very good reason why gentleness follows goodness and faithfulness.  Paul is not randomly throwing words together to make up his list.  Each word is very much, intentionally chosen and intentionally placed in a sequence. 

Two sermons ago we talked about Goodness as living the standard.  I have a standard to base my life upon. I have the Word of God as the GPS of my life. Those who do not recognize the Jesus, who is revealed in the Word, are lost in the fog of relativism.  But I'm not lost in the mists of subjectivism.  I have direction in my life.  I know where true North is located.  I do not get lost because my GPS always points in the proper direction.  It points to Jesus!  I need an amen.  We have a standard to upon which we base our lives. We live in goodness!

Last week we studied Faithfulness.  We discovered the external nature of faithfulness as it speaks words of integrity.  We create who we are by the truthfulness of the words we speak.  We are the integrity of our words!  We reflect the image of God when we speak the truth.  The integrity of God's words spoke the universe into existence!  "Above all," James said, "Let your "Yes" be yes and your "No," no, or else you will be condemned."  We are people of integrity.  We are people who speak the truth. We are people who mean what we say and say what we mean!  We have faithfulness.  Another amen, please! 

After those two sermons, I am ready to slap fight a tree. I get cranked up on Living the Standard and speaking words of integrity! That is the one two punch Standard and Integrity.  I am ready to go off to war. I have the standard of truth as my shield and the sword of Integrity in my right hand.  I am ready to go smack somebody with the Word.  Let's have a debate a pagan.  I want to rip up someone with truth.  Who wants to join me? Say amen!

Paul, not only was a great theologian, not only was he filled with the Spirit, he knew how I would feel.  He knew I could very easily take the Standard of Good and the Integrity of Truth and roll the gospel chariot along.  "If a person's in the wrong, I will roll right over him.  If they disagree with me, I will roll right over them.  If she doesn't know the truth, I will roll right over her and I won't tag along behind."  Paul knew my inclinations.

So, the very next fruit after Goodness and Faithfulness, in order to make sure that I don't roll right over them, Paul, intentionally, put Gentleness. And he takes all the fun right out of it.  It's fun to show people where they are wrong. Do you know what I mean?  You can work yourself into a lather pointing out all the shortcomings and false teachings of everyone else around; if it wasn't for the word... Gentleness.  Wow, what kill-joy. Is Paul no fun, or what?  "But we do have the word Gentleness."  It is right there in the list for us!

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So, what do we do with the word Gentleness? What does it mean to be gentle?  How do we live in our world... gently?   Who all wants to skip this word and go right to self-control?  Every army must have discipline.  We have to give 110%.  Leave it all on field.  Take one for the team.  Wouldn't that be more fun than... gentleness?  What is Gentleness, anyway? 

(Point out similarities in Galatians 5:22-23)
2 Timothy 2:22-26  Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.

Those people who oppose who we are; who claim that we are wrong; who want to quarrel with us; who slam us and claim our motives are impure; those who are the opposition; we are to gently instruct.  Gentleness is not engaging in stupid arguments and quarrels.  Gentleness is all about helping others escape the trap of the devil through repentance.  A gentle engagement can lead others to repentance.  Wow, gentleness is amazingly powerful. 

On Monday, August 9, 1993, a 31 year old woman, Sophia White, burst into the hospital nursery at USC medical center in Los Angeles.   She was wielding a 38-caliber handgun.  She had come gunning for Elizabeth Staten, a nurse whom she accused of stealing her husband. White fired six times, hitting Staten in the wrist and stomach.  Staten fled and White chased her into the emergency room, continuing to fire.  There, with blood on her clothes and a hot gun in her hand, the attacker was met by another nurse, Joan Black, who did the unthinkable.  Black walked calmly to the gun-toting woman and gently gave her a hug.

Black spoke comforting words.  The assailant said she didn't have anything to live for, Staten had stolen her family.  "You're in pain. I'm sorry, but everyone has pain in their lives  ... I understand and we can work it out."  As they talked, the invader kept her finger on the trigger.  Once, she began to lift the gun to shoot herself.  Nurse Black gently pushed her arm down and continued to hold her.  At last Sophia White gave the gun to the nurse. She was disarmed by a hug; by understanding; by gentleness.

Is that what Paul is talking about?  They could have called the SWAT team and neutralized the threat.  But gentleness saved a life, maybe two, possibly more. Gentleness is amazingly powerful.

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Ephesians 4:1-3  As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.  Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

Gentleness is humble. Gentleness is completely humble. Gentleness is patient.  Gentleness patiently bears with each other.  Gentleness leads to unity.

It is like an operating system.  How many of you have upgraded to Windows 7?  On Tanya's laptop I installed it on the day it was released.  I may be the first person you know to have installed Windows 7.  Aren't you special?  Tanya's laptop works in Windows 7.  It is the operating system.  It is the foundation of how everything else works.  Gentleness is our OS. How does the program called Goodness work?  In the framework of Gentleness!  How does the program called Faithfulness operate? Within the OS of Gentleness.

How are we to treat each other? With gentleness.  The operative word in our relationships with each other in this congregation is... Gentleness.  How do I treat you? With Gentleness.  How do you treat me? With Gentleness.  How do we treat our children? With Gentleness.  How do we treat teenagers? With Gentleness.    How do we treat parents; kids? With Gentleness.  How do we treat our elders? With Gentleness.  How do we treat our visitors? With Gentleness.  How do we treat those with handicaps? With Gentleness.  How do we treat our elderly? With Gentleness.  What is our OS?  Gentleness.

A father wrote the following story. Out of parental concern and a desire to teach our young son responsibility, we required him to phone home when he arrived at his friend's house a few blocks away.  He did this for a while. But as his confidence grew; as his ability to travel to his friend's house without disaster striking grew; he began to forget.  The first time he forgot, I called to be sure that had arrived.  I told him that the next time he forgot he would have to come home.  A few days later, however, the phone again lay silent.  And I knew, if he was going to learn, he would have to be punished.  But I did not want to punish him.  I went to the telephone, regretting that his great time with his friend was going to be spoiled by his forgetfulness.  As I dialed, I prayed for wisdom, "Treat him like I treat you," the Lord seemed to say.  With that as the telephone rang once, I hung up.  A few seconds later my phone rang and it was my son.  "I'm here, Dad."  "What took you so long to call?" I asked. "We started playing and I forgot.  But then I heard the phone ring once, I remembered." "I'm glad you remembered," I said.  "Have fun."
         
Is that Gentleness or what?  As we are open to the Spirit; as we rely upon the Spirit; he helps us to find gentle solutions to helping people, even to overcome mistakes.  Sure we could stomp on those who make mistakes.  We could slam them with God's Word and let them have it with the Truth of Integrity.  We could have a zero tolerance toward sin. But Paul teaches us not to shoot our wounded. Gentleness is our OS.

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Titus 3:1-2  Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility (same Greek word as gentleness)  toward all men.

I am about to go to meddling.  Who are we to be gentle towards?  All men.  Right keep going. What does it say before that?  Rulers and authorities.  We are to show true humility/gentleness toward our rulers by not slandering and doing good toward them.  Gentleness is humility and considerateness to all men.  Wow.  I told you this wasn't going to be any fun.  "Come on Tim.  Let's roll right over them!" I wanted to skip it and go to self-control.  Paul is the one who put Gentleness in the list. 

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James 3:7-13  All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.  With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness.  Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.  Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?  My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water. Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.

Guess what the Greek word here for humility is?  That same word as in Galatians 5:23... Gentleness.  Who is wise?  Those whose tongues speak words of Gentleness and whose deeds are done in Humility. 

Mark was walking home from school when he noticed the boy ahead of him had tripped and dropped all of the books he was carrying, along with two sweaters, a baseball bat, a glove and a small tape recorder.  Mark knelt down and helped the boy pick up the scattered articles.  Since they were going the same way, he helped to carry some of the boy's stuff.  As they walked Mark discovered the boy's name was Bill, that he loved video games, baseball and history; that he was having lots of trouble with his other subjects and that he had just broken up with his girlfriend.
         
They arrived at Bill's home first and Mark was invited in for a Coke and to watch some television.  The afternoon passed pleasantly with a few laughs and some shared small talk, then Mark went home.  They continued to see each other around school, had lunch together once or twice; then both graduated from junior high school.  They ended in the same high school where they had brief contacts over the years.  Finally, the long awaited senior year came and three weeks before graduation Bill asked Mark if they could talk.
         
Bill reminded Mark of the day years ago when they had first met.  "Did you ever wonder why I was caring so many things home that day? You see, I cleaned out my locker because I didn't want to leave a mess for anyone else.  I had stored away some of my mother's sleeping pills and I was going home to commit suicide.  But after we spent some time together talking and laughing, I realized that if I had killed myself, I would have missed that time and so many others that might follow.  So you see Mark, when you picked up those books that day, you did a lot more, you saved my life."

That is the way the Spirit works through gentleness.  Those who have the Spirit living in them and who have the fruit of Gentleness as their Operating System will be led to opportunities to use Gentleness to save lives!

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Here is my definition of Gentleness.   Gentleness is engaging without arrogance.

It is true that we must live by the standard of God's Word and our Faithfulness is the integrity of our promises, but that is never a reason to arrogance anyone.  There is never any reason to roll right over them.

Instead, we rely upon the power of Gentleness.  We rely upon being absorbed into the Spirit.  We rely upon humbly engaging others with the Standard and Integrity to change their lives.  If we look at it that way, perhaps it can be fun.  The fruit of the Spirit is Gentleness. 

Los Alamos Church of Christ
November 8, 2009