Christian Character - Gentleness

Good evening, everyone. So we're going to talk about gentleness today. I want to start us off by asking the question, where does gentleness rank on your fruits of the spirit list?

! You know, if you're thinking about fruits of the spirit, you go, ah, well, love. I mean, gotta have that one. God is love, right? Joy. I mean, who doesn't want joy in their life?

Okay, so that's number two. Joy. I mean, peace. A lot of people pray for peace, think peace would be pretty good. And if you were even here two weeks ago, David Brown was talking about self-control.

And he mentioned self-control as kind of a foundation for almost all of the other fruits of the spirit. So you start to make a list and you go, ah, well, not top three. Does gentleness crack the top five?

And you start to think, oh, well, it's kind of way down there. The good news is when Paul is listing the fruits of the spirit in Galatians 5, he doesn't list them in order of priority.

He is saying, hey, all of these are important for the Christian life, whether it's love or gentleness. All of these are important.

And so we all know that and we acknowledge that. But when it really comes down to it, we go, ah, but that's really hard, Seth.

And I understand completely. I am not a gentle person. See, when we think of gentleness, a lot of times we like to think of this picture right here.

I call this picture Renaissance Mary, or if you have a better accent than me, Renaissance Mary.

See, this Mary, who we kind of think of, right, when we think of gentleness, she's very poised. She's very calm.

This Mary, you look like you could come up to her very gently and say, Mary, I am so sorry. I just ran over your dog.

And she would go, God bless you. That's okay.

See, this is what we think of when we think of gentleness.

But we just never can attain to this. Instead, I like to think of myself, at least, as more Byzantine Mary.

So this is a picture of Mary from Byzantine, and it's a little far away.

But if you can peer into Byzantine Mary's eyes, she looks like she is so done.

She looks like if the little baby Jesus there reaches up his hand and touches her, one more face,

she is going to be not only on the edge, but she's going to be pushed over that edge and screaming bloody murder.

She looks completely done.

And this is not how we respond a lot of the times, right?

At least for me, in general, I, when responding to people not with Renaissance Mary,

but rather Byzantine Mary style, of being very upset and very just mute and honestly right on the edge with people.

Well, so how? How can we go from responding like Renaissance Mary to Byzantine Mary?

Well, it's the entire reason why I labeled this talk and titled it Back to the Future,

is that we need to go back and understand where we have come from

to then understand how we can be gentle as we understand our future as well.

So as we dive into this, let's start with the question, why be gentle?

So I know I kind of asked the question earlier about how can we be gentle,

and I kind of switched it around on you right here, and I'm saying why, but I think the why question is important.

If we don't understand why, what would happen here is that we would go, you know, 20 minutes here,

I'd tell you how to be gentle, you'd go out of the doors, and you would try really hard, two days.

I mean, if you're really good, three days.

But then something would happen.

You'd mess up.

We're all human, right?

And then, once you've messed up, you'd say, ah, maybe this just isn't me.

I'm not a gentle person.

You'd forget about it.

But if we know why we're supposed to be gentle, well, that can transform the how.

So why?

Why should we be gentle?

Well, it's a very churchy answer, but the answer is Jesus.

We should be gentle because Jesus was gentle.

See, Matthew 11, 29, Jesus describes himself as gentle.

He 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.

See, Jesus here has an opportunity to describe himself.

And what does he say?

He could have said he's powerful.

He could have said that, you know, he's God.

And he says, I am gentle and humble.

I am gentle and lowly, if you choose a different translation.

And see, his gentleness comes out in many ways.

In the Old Testament, you look at Isaiah 41 through 2, it says,

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for.

Basically, the people have rebelled against God.

And while they're in exile, God says, listen, I know you deserve this, but I am going to act gently towards you and give you,

I'm going to free you from this captivity here in a little while.

See, it's in the New Testament.

If you go to the New Testament, well, you just have to look at the person of Jesus, right?

We already talked about he describes himself as gentle and lowly in Matthew 11.

In John 8, there is a woman who's caught in adultery.

The Pharisees catch her in the act of adultery, bring her before Jesus, and say,

Master, the law says that you have to stone her, and that we should stone her.

What do you say?

And Jesus, he kneels down, writes something in the sand, and then says,

You who are without sin, you go ahead and cast that first stone.

Well, one by one, the people, the Pharisees, they start to trickle off.

Jesus looks up, it's just the woman there.

And he says, oh, in almost a sarcastic tone, oh, no one can stone you.

Well, I don't condemn you either.

Go and sin no more.

See, Jesus, this woman deserved death, and yet Jesus' gentleness overflows into her being spared.

Just before Matthew 11 is Matthew 9, Jesus is going through the countryside,

and he sees the people, and he looks at them and has compassion on them.

See, he sees the crowd and loves them so much that he starts to heal them.

That's what his gentleness leads to, is him healing people.

And actually, I would say that Jesus' healing is actually his greatest showing of gentleness.

But not physical healing, like he does in Matthew 9,

but in healing our relationship to the Father.

See, at one point in time, we have all decided that we wanted to be God, right?

It's what the Bible calls idolatry.

We decide that we know better than God, so we sin.

This sin separates us from God.

I mean, Romans 3.23 says,

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

And so since we have sinned, we need somebody to set us right.

That act of setting right is called justification.

Christians for centuries have called it justification.

And we need justification.

And how do we get it?

Jesus.

Jesus is our justification.

He lived the perfect life.

He took our place on the cross.

And because he took our place, Romans 5.1 says,

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith,

we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

See, but there's something interesting here.

I don't know if you caught it, if you're listening.

Romans 5.1 there, the tense of the verb.

Paul says that we have been justified.

This is a past act.

It's accomplished.

So what does that mean right now?

What does that mean for Jesus?

That's the question that we have to ask ourselves.

What is Jesus doing now?

Is he hit retirement age?

Is he 66, collecting his pension, sitting by the pool, drinking mocktails,

and about to go play 18 with Elijah and Moses?

While I would love to see Jesus play golf,

so I can maybe take a few strokes off of my own game,

that's not what's happening here.

See, Hebrews 7.25 says that Jesus right now

isn't just hanging out in heaven chilling,

but instead is interceding for us.

It says,

Consequently, he's able to save to the uttermost

those who draw near to God through him,

since he always lives to make intercession for them.

See, Jesus' job is not done.

He doesn't just give us this path to new life,

this justification,

and say,

Hey, here it is.

Figure it out.

No, he is walking alongside us as we go along.

He lives to constantly make intercession for us.

Now, I want to say something to make something clear.

This does not mean that justification is not fully complete.

But instead, through intercession,

Jesus is applying constantly what justification accomplished.

Again, this does not mean that justification is not complete.

Once we are saved, we are saved.

Jesus has a one-time act.

Jesus has done it.

But intercession, what Jesus is doing now,

once you are a Christian,

once you are saved,

is that he is constantly applying that justification to your life.

And that's great news, right?

Dane Ortland, who wrote the book Gentle and Lowly,

which a lot of this stuff is based off of,

high recommend on the book.

And if you want a copy, we have plenty,

so please come ask.

He says,

the intercession of Christ is his heart,

connecting our heart to the Father's heart.

See, right here, I think that this is something

that you can kind of grasp in your head,

but I honestly think a word picture

and even just a picture up here would be even better.

So I've asked a few friends to come help me.

Lucy, will you come up here?

And Anderson, will you come up here?

Lucy, go ahead and stand on this side.

And Anderson, stand on this side.

So we're going to,

Lucy right here, Anderson there,

we're going to call Lucy God in this instance.

Don't let it go to your head.

We're going to call Anderson here.

Anderson is man.

And so at one point,

this relationship was perfect, right?

It's the very beginning of our Bibles.

But as I said earlier,

men, all of us,

we have decided to sin at one point in time

and it ruined this relationship.

So Jesus, as our justifier,

he comes in and justifies this relationship, right?

He says, no, no, no,

the wrath that he rightly deserves

because he's chosen to be his own God,

it doesn't go to him anymore.

It comes to me

and the grace that I earned

because I lived a perfect life,

me being Jesus in this moment,

goes to Anderson, to man, right?

That's what justification is.

Intercession is almost as if Jesus

is making this relationship right,

but just almost think of him

as turning and looking at God now

and he is saying, hey, hang on.

Not only did I make this relationship right,

but almost as a lawyer,

they would have their client here

say on behalf of this guy here,

I'm actually making intercession

saying that no, no, no, he is right.

I'm interceding for anything

on this guy's behalf.

So that's fantastic, right?

Jesus has got to be the best lawyer around.

But there's one more thing here

that when I was researching

and reading Day Northland's book,

this part kind of blew me away.

See, in this moment right here,

Jesus says that he's not only

our justifier,

he's not only our interceder,

but he is also our advocate.

So not only does he sit here

as the lawyer that says,

hey, this guy is innocent,

he comes and joins this team

and says, we're on the same team,

you can't punish him.

And in fact, it would actually be

unlawful for you to punish him

because the wrath that you had

was actually taken out of time.

Thank you, guys.

Thanks for your help.

We've lost our slides, but that's okay.

So Jesus is our advocate.

He's not only our justifier,

he's not only our intercessor,

but he is indeed our advocate.

1 John 2, 1 says,

my dear children,

I write this to you

so that you will not sin.

But if anybody does sin,

we have an advocate with the Father,

Jesus Christ, the righteous one.

See, this whole goal,

once you become a Christian,

you live this life

and you're supposed to become

more and more like Christ.

This is called sanctification.

This is our goal,

is to become more and more like Christ,

but we will never hit it.

In fact, if you are a new Christian

in the room and you think

or somebody has ever told you

that once you become a Christian

that your sins will,

you will no longer be tempted to sin,

that is a lie.

In fact, there's a lot of older saints

around here today

that I bet you could go and ask

and ask them,

and they would tell you

that when they became a Christian,

it actually got a lot worse,

the temptation did.

See, we need to become

more and more like Christ,

but because we are sinful,

we fail.

But 1 John 2, 1,

it says,

don't worry,

yes, you will sin,

but do not worry

because you have an advocate.

This guy that stands right here

beside you.

And see, he's not just an advocate

that says,

like a lackadaisical advocate, right?

So he doesn't go before God

and he's like,

all right, listen, God,

Anderson, yeah,

he talked back to his parents,

which I never know

never happens right now.

And, but listen,

that's 35 minutes

since his last sin,

and if we do like a year over year,

that's a 27% decrease

over last year

in sin per minute.

And so, honestly,

pretty good investment.

I think you should still keep going.

That's not what God is like at all.

See, instead,

he advocates for us

with a fervor.

I want you to grasp this,

that the angels

who constantly spend time with God,

he advocates for us,

with us so much

that the angels long

to look into this relationship.

They cannot grasp the kind of grace

that God has for us.

The kind of gentleness

that Jesus shows towards us.

Again, Dane Ortlund,

he would say,

we are called

to mature into deeper levels

of personal holiness

as we walk with the Lord.

Truer consecration,

new vistas of obedience,

what we would call sanctification.

But when we don't,

when we choose to sin

through,

though, sorry,

though we forsake

our true identity,

our Savior

does not forsake us.

So why?

Why should we be gentle?

Because we are mimicking

the Savior

who gave up everything

to save us.

See,

the Savior's heart

just overflows

with gentleness

for his creation.

So that's the why question.

We've answered it,

and I promise

that the next few parts

of this how section

will go faster.

I promise we won't spend

that much time

on all of these.

So now we get

to the point.

How?

How can we be gentle?

Well, we have to have

patience

and humility.

See, there's a reason

why patience is listed

as one of the fruits

of the Spirit

in Galatians 5.

Paul is saying

that without gentleness,

or there is no gentleness

without patience.

There's also a reason

why patience

and humility

are also listed together

with gentleness

in Ephesians 4.

Paul says

in Ephesians 4,

1 and 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.

Be patient,

bearing with one another

in love.

So then, okay,

Seth, great.

You've told me things.

You're supposed to tell me

how I'm supposed

to be gentle,

and you've told me

to be patient,

and you've told me

to be humble.

It's not really

a great how-to guide yet.

I'd agree.

So how?

How do we be patient?

How do we be humble?

How do we be gentle?

You have to remember

where you came from.

In about 2016,

Powerade,

which is a sports drink company

owned by the Coca-Cola company,

they started running

these advertisements

called

Just a Kid from Blank.

So it was a call

for these famous athletes

to remember

where they came from.

This one here

is a basketball player.

His name's Derek Rose,

and he's just a kid

from Chicago.

And part of the whole

emotion behind this campaign

was it doesn't matter

or what's really kept

these guys going,

despite Derek Rose

being an all-star,

despite him making

millions and millions

of pounds,

is the fact

that he remembers

where he came from.

See, he grew up

in the slums of Chicago

on the south side.

He at one point

had nothing,

and now

he has everything,

but he doesn't just

get complacent

with having everything.

The thing that keeps

pushing him,

the thing that keeps

driving him forward

is that he remembers

back when he used

to be a kid

with nothing,

and he wants to make

a better life

for himself

in the future.

Now, obviously,

Powerade is trying

to evoke some emotions

inside of us

to monetize

and make money,

but the sentiment,

the premise,

remains.

How do we,

as Christians,

be gentle,

patient,

humble

to those around us,

to an undeserving boss,

to impatient parents?

We remember

who we were

before Christ

saved us.

Remember,

Paul describes us

as enemies

of God.

We weren't neutral

to God.

We were actively

fighting against him,

and when we remember

that,

remember how much

God loves us,

how much Jesus'

gentleness

overflows to us,

we remember that

that changes

how we respond

to other people,

right?

It's point one.

Point two,

how can we be gentle?

We need to remember

our inheritance.

See,

we can be gentle

and should be encouraged

to be gentle

because it's actually

strength.

Again,

we can be gentle

because it's actually

strength.

In one of his most

famous discourses,

Jesus goes on top

of the Sermon on,

what we call

the Sermon on the Mountain,

he goes on top

of the mountain,

and he basically

reframes

all of Jewish thinking

at this time.

He says,

you have heard it said,

but I say to you.

And in this

famous discourse,

at the very beginning,

he says,

blessed are the meek,

for they shall

inherit the earth.

Meek here

is just another translation

for the word

gentleness.

Blessed are the gentle,

for they shall

inherit the earth.

See,

this may have been

opposite,

and was opposite,

to what the people

around him

were seeing,

right?

But Jesus

is redefining

success

for the people

around him.

So you may have

heard it said

that this Roman rule

that we are under

will never end.

You may have heard

it said that

this empire

will keep expanding

and expanding

through war,

through terror,

through slavery.

But Jesus

says,

not yet.

Let me actually

redefine what

is going to

happen here.

And for his

Jewish audience,

Matthew 5 here

would have

actually taken

them to a

passage in

the Old

Testament,

which was a

Psalm of David,

Psalm 37,

which says,

in just a little

while,

the wicked

will be no

more,

but the meek

shall inherit

the land.

The wicked

plots against

the righteous

and gnashes

his teeth

at him,

but the Lord

laughs at

the wicked,

for he sees

that his

day is coming.

Have you ever

shared something

you're passionate

about with

someone and

they have

laughed in

your face?

Whether it's

Star Wars

or knitting

or football

or whatever,

have you ever

shared something

you're passionate

about and the

person that

you're sharing

with looks

back at you

and laughs?

Makes you feel

small, doesn't it?

Makes you feel

insignificant when

it has happened

to me,

I just want

to crawl up

into a little

ball and just

dissolve into

the carpet.

Just pray that

the Lord would

take me in that

moment, actually.

But see,

here in this

moment right here,

wickedness is

gathering its

greatest army.

He's gathering

his best men

all together

and saying,

hey, if we

play our cards

right, we

might just

have a chance.

And then in

that moment

when they've

all gathered

for war,

and in the

moment when you

would say it

would be the

climax of a

movie, swords

drawn, armies

are about to

meet, everybody's

looking, everybody's

excited, Jesus

stops the battle.

How ridiculous,

right?

Jesus laughs at

wickedness, laughs in

its face, and says,

is this all you

have?

Really?

This is all you

can muster.

See, I created

you.

I own you.

And you, who

think you have

amassed a great

army and own

this world, you

will inherit

nothing.

But instead, I

will give your

inheritance to the

gentle that you

trampled over for

all of your

life.

So the reward for

gentleness is an

inheritance greater

than anything we can

ever imagine.

And that is how we

fight brutality,

hatred,

impatience,

force in our own

lives and people

against us, is that

we remember the

inheritance that we

will have.

We don't live for

this life, but the

life to come.

All right, last one

here, and then we'll

wrap up.

You should, oh,

sorry, that was

Psalm 37.

You should look for

gentleness in every

believer.

So this is not

necessarily answering

the question of how,

but this is just

helping us understand a

little bit more of

what gentleness looks

like.

Colossians 3.12 says,

therefore, as God's

chosen people, holy

and dearly loved,

clothe yourselves with

compassion, kindness,

humility, gentleness,

and patience.

Again, literally, this

should remind us of

putting on clothes,

right?

Just how you put your

shirt and trousers on

in the morning, you

need to put on these

attributes.

You need to put on

gentleness.

You need to put on

patience.

You need to put on

humility.

And if you look at the

text right there before,

at the very beginning,

Paul says, as God's

chosen people.

So this means, if you're

a Christian, these

attributes should describe

you.

And these aren't just

attributes that you

show towards other

Christians either, by

the way.

Titus 3.1-2, Paul makes

sure to let us know that

these are attributes that

you show to the world

out there.

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 always to be gentle

towards everyone.

Everyone means your

mom.

Everyone means your

boss.

Everyone means the

doctor that keeps

overlooking you and

won't give you your

results back.

Everyone means

everyone.

And before we go, I

just want to make a

second and specific

point that kind of

comes off of this one.

See, gentleness is an

attribute of every

Christian, absolutely.

But as the

congregation, you need

to look out and be

aware that gentleness

should be apparent in

leaders as well.

See, we're going

through 2 Timothy in

the morning at church,

right?

Timothy is a pastor, and

2 Timothy is a little

bit older, and 1

Timothy is a pretty

young protege of Paul.

He's pastoring a church

in Ephesus.

And in both of these

letters, Paul warns

Timothy that he has to

be gentle.

To Timothy, he says,

opponents must be

gently instructed in

the hope that God will

grant them.

In his first letter,

Paul says, but you,

man of God, flee from

all of this and pursue

righteousness, godliness,

faith, love, endurance,

and gentleness.

I don't think it's a

coincidence that in the

two letters that we have

of Paul writing to a

young leader in the

church, both of them

mention gentleness.

So it doesn't matter if

you're just the leader of

the hospitality team, or

you're just a leader in

your home, or an elder of

the church.

Gentleness must mark our

lives.

holiness.

So in conclusion, how do we

be gentle?

How do we go from Byzantine

Mary, if you go all the way

back to the beginning of our

sermon here, how do we go from

Byzantine Mary on the right to

Renaissance Mary there on the

left?

Well, see, if you're not a

believer in the room, it won't

be possible.

See, you will try and try, but

you will fail.

No matter how hard you try, you

will never get this relationship

right.

So stop trying.

Instead, let Jesus be your

justifier.

Let him be your intercessor.

Let him be your advocate.

He wants to have relationship

with you.

All you have to do is ask.

But for the Christian, how do we

do this?

Well, we just have to model what

Jesus taught us.

We have to go back to the

future.

We have to remember Christ's love

for us.

We have to remember how sinful we

have been, and then we look to

the promise of our inheritance in

the future.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you, Lord, for your

word that is living and active.

God, we thank you that you loved

us.

Lord, that you are indeed our

justifier, intercessor, and

advocate.

God, we thank you that you've done

these things and that gentleness

just overflows from you.

Lord, help us as we try and be

gentle throughout our next week,

month, year.

Lord, help us to remember these

things.

Lord, more than anything, help us

to remember your sacrifice and how

it should radically change our

lives.

Pray all this in your name.

Amen.

Thank you.