On Monday, August 9, 1993, a 31 year old woman, Sopehia White, burst into the hospital nursery at USC medical center in Los Angeles, wielding a 38-caliber handgun.  She came 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, but Nurse Black gently pushed her arm down and continued to hold her.  At last Sopehia White gave the gun to the nurse. She was disarmed by a hug, by understanding, by the second weapon in our arsenal, gentleness.

Last week we began to explore how we fight as warriors of God.  We need to think of ourselves as significant to God.   We are the way he has chosen to do battle here on earth. We fight for the most important thing in the universe; people’s hearts.  But we don’t do that with brute force, might or intimidation rather we fight with a different set of weapons.

Ephesians 4:1-2 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;

Humility is our first weapon.  Gentleness is the second.  For you see, the way of God’s warrior is the way of weakness. How do you react to that statement? My first reaction is no.  “You have got to be crazy.  Weakness leads to vulnerability. And vulnerability leads to being hurt. No, no I don’t want to be hurt I want to be strong.  I want to succeed!  I want to dominate!”

But that is not the way of God’s warriors.  Weakness leads to vulnerability, but vulnerability leads to honesty, and honesty leads to humility, and humility leads to gentleness and that is how we win the hearts of people.  That is how we fight for God!
 
1 Corinthians 1:26-27  Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.  But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
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Dennis Miller 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 in his ability to travel to his friend's house without disaster striking, he began to forget.
          The first time he forgot, I called to be sure that had arrived.  We 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."
         
Listen this may be as profound as I get this morning. Remember several weeks ago I talked about listening to the Spirit. As we are open to the Spirit, as we ask for help, the Spirit will guide us to gentle solutions.  Sure we could stomp on those who make mistakes.  We could slam them with our authority and let them have it.  We could go with a zero tolerance attitude toward wrong!  But the way of the warrior is listening to the Spirit and finding gentle solutions to helping people.

Isn’t that what we are really all about?  We are not God’s warriors to prove that we are smarter or righter or better than others.  We are God’s warriors to help.  But that helping comes with humility and gentleness.  We are not out to win arguments, we are out to win hearts.

Galatians 6:1-3 Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.  Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.  If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
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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 part of the burden. As they walked Mark discovered the boy's name was Bill, that he loved video games, baseball and history. As the conversation continued Mark found out that Bill was having lots of trouble in school 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 of the Spirit and he works through gentleness.  Those of us who have the Spirit living within us and listen to his nudgings will find themselves living in gentleness. We will be led to opportunities to use that gentleness to save lives and capture hearts.

NLT Titus 3:1-2 Remind your people to submit to the government and its officers. They should be obedient, always ready to do what is good.  They must not speak evil of anyone, and they must avoid quarreling. Instead, they should be gentle and show true humility to everyone.
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There once was a young woman who was married and had two beautiful children, but one day as she was standing over the sink, washing dishes, she thought, "There must be more to life than this." When her husband came home, he found a note she'd written that his wife was gone. She would call him once every week to check on the children, and he would always tell her of his great love for her and beg her to come home. She would always say no and hang up.

Finally, he hired a private investigator to find her and he went to the apartment where she was staying, nervously holding flowers in his hand as he stood at the door. He had rehearsed over and over what he would say and he finally got up the nerve to knock on the door. She opened the door and he started to speak, but she suddenly began to weep and fell into his arms. Through her tears she said, "Let's go home."

Months later, when things were starting to heal, he finally asked her something that had been bothering him all along: "All those times I talked to you on the phone; I asked you to come back and you refused. Why did you come back now?"

"Before," she said, "you were just telling me that you loved me. When you came, you showed me."

The husband, not demanding his rights, not threatening to sue her, not using brute force, but putting all that aside, he humbly and gently went to his wife. Gentleness has the power to win hearts! It is the way of God! It is the way of his warriors. Notice the following verses but note that it can work both ways.

NIV 1 Peter 3:1-3 Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.  Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes.  Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight.
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It’s fun to show people where they are wrong. There is a feeling of righteous indignation, “I am right and you are wrong!” Do you know what I mean?  O won that argument.  I showed them! There is a perverse pleasure in slamming the pagans, condemning the hypocrites, pointing out the flaws in the others.  You can work yourself into a frenzy pointing out all the shortcomings and mistakes of those you disagree with.  But that is not the way of the warrior.

2 Timothy 2:20-26  In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble.  If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.  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.

Why?  Why are we to be gentle?  “It makes more sense to nuke 'em.  Let's blow them away with what is right.  Let's show them we are not pushovers.  Let's show them what we are made of.  Let's hammer them with the Gospel.”  Why? Why gentle?  Perhaps our gentle reply will allow them to change.  Our gentleness can lead to repentance.  Our gentleness can with their hearts.

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Violet Slaughter’s father died in 1969. Before he died he gave her an antique pitcher and wash basin; the kind that before the turn of the century used to be found in guest bedrooms. The pitcher would be full of water and the guest would pour water into the basin to wash off at night before going to bed.

It was Violet’s most prized possession because it came from her parents’ home. And it became even more precious to her after her father died. She kept it on display in a very special spot in her home.

One day guests came to visit, and they brought with them an unruly dog that jumped around a lot. In doing so it wrapped its leash around the little table on which this pitcher and basin were displayed, causing the pitcher and basin to fall and break.

It was a tragedy to Violet. Her husband says, "I watched as she took the dust pan and picked up every piece of that broken basin and pitcher. She kept all the pieces. And every evening, she would bring out the ceramic glue and glue pieces back together again."

That is God. He gently glues the pieces of our hearts back together. He reaches out and takes us in His arms and holds us close to His heart. He gently works with us.  That is our model.  Jesus says “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”  These are the first two weapons of God’s warriors; humility and gentleness.