The Fruit of the Spirit: Part 4 - Gentleness

And we're talking about the fruit of the spirit. We probably got about two or three more week on the fruit of the spirit. There's a lot to be reminded of. Most important is this, the fruit of the spirit here are listed in contrast to the works of the fruits of the flesh. It is our natural inclination in the flesh to do those things that are contrary to the will of God.

And if we are listening to the flesh, if we are seeking to satisfy the appetites of the old nature, then, we will not fulfill the will of God. But if we walk in the what? Spirit. If we walk in the spirit, then we won't fulfill the lust of the. Flesh.

It is vital. Paul's solution in Galatians five is please, I beseech you, I beg you, walk in the spirit and not in the flesh. Jesus said to his disciples, when he left him to pray and he found him sleep and he said, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. The flesh does not have the ability to fulfill the will of the Lord. It pulls us contrary and if we are not walking in the spirit, if we are not drawing close to the Lord, if we are not following his word, then, we will find it very very difficult even as Christians to do God's will in our life.

We will find it unfortunately still quite easy. To fulfill the lust of the flesh. That's why it's so important that we walk with the Lord and so important that we feast upon his word daily and so important that we are led in our lives by the spirit that he has given to us. If we do, then God will produce in us and through us the fruit that pleases and honors him. Look, if you would in Galatians five twenty two and twenty three.

There it reads, but the fruit of the spirit is love. Joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such, there is no law. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, we thank you again for this day. We thank you Lord for the rain that you've given.

We thank you Lord for the abundance of spiritual blessings that you have poured down upon us. By your grace and through your son, Jesus Christ. Beginning with the Holy Spirit whom you have given to us. Lord, that we whom we take for granted in our life. So often.

Lord, make us sensitive to the guidance of the spirit in our lives. Lord, keep us in the word. Lord, produce fruit in our lives to your glory, Lord. We thank you now for hearing our prayer and we thank you Lord for answering it and we pray Lord that as we do, testify today of the grace of Jesus Christ that Jesus indeed would be exalted and that others would be drawn to you. We thank you Lord.

For this blessed opportunity to worship you today. In Jesus name, amen. Amen. As we look of the fruit of the spirit, these these fruits that the spirit produces in the lives of his children as we walk in the spirit. We begin with the first three, love, joy, and peace and we spend a couple of weeks looking at these first three particularly the first one because it seems as you go through the fruit of the spirit that you're always connecting it back to the first one.

There remaineth faith, hope, and love but the greatest of these is love. If it weren't for the love of God, then everything would be lost. But because of God's love for us He sent his son to save us, to make a way of escape. That through faith, we might be saved. But if it weren't for the love of God, how great his love for us.

Even when we were lost in sin. And what joy and peace it should bring and should grow and blossom every day in the heart of God's children as we dwell upon the love of God for us. We're going to look at the next three today. Actually, we already looked at the first of the next three last Sunday morning. These are long suffering, gentleness, and goodness.

These next three fruits of the spirit are demonstrated particularly in our dealings with one another. Our long suffering, gentleness, and goodness are manifested in our actions. Towards our Christian brethren and towards others in our life. The first one, long suffering, we looked at last Sunday morning. This fruit of the spirit exhibits patient endurance and forbearance.

It exhibits patient endurance, patiently enduring and forbearing with others and with circumstances. In first Corinthians thirteen four, it says, charity suffereth long. The point there mainly being this, charity or love suffers long. It patiently endures the shortcomings of others. It endures with patience, the frailties, and even the provocations of others.

The the the mean things, the the forgetful things, the hurtful things that others do. Long suffering patiently endures. Not only does it endure patiently the frailties and the provocations of others and we spend a good deal of time on that one last week because we do deal with that. We rub each other the wrong way. Sometimes, we talk without thinking and sometimes you just wish they'd get it.

Why can't they get it? We have to be patient with each other because we're all kind of thick headed sometimes and we all have habits that aggravate each other. But because of the love of God that God has placed in our heart, it overcomes the irritations. It it doesn't give up on other people. That it endures patiently waiting for God to do a work in the heart.

For God indeed is able. We endure patiently with the frailties and provocations of others but we also endure patiently the inequities and unexpected trials of life. We all have faced, are facing and will face trials. We will face trials, many of us, of a financial problem. We will face most certainly trials in our health and physical well-being.

We may suffer trials in respect to family. We may suffer trials in emotional ways. We may deal with trials brought upon ourselves by our own foolish decisions at times. But we will all suffer. We will all have to deal with these things in our life and sometimes those trials are but for a moment and sometimes they can go on for years.

Brother Steve called me this morning. Brother Moore, Steve Morrison, it's good to see him here today. But he is a testimony. An encouragement to me when he's here because he's had to deal with several trials in his life and he still comes with a smile on his face. And with the Lord very evident in his life.

And that is example to me as he has patiently suffered long with things in his life that would have caused many just to shut down but not Steve. It's good to see miss Judy here this morning. She she went through treatments for cancer About how long from the start to the finish, miss Judy, did that take? About five months. And there were times when she could make it.

The church, there were times when she was really sick and there are times when she wasn't as sick. But I would enjoy calling her because I would call her to encourage her and she would usually encourage me. Even when she was sick and what seemed to her to be down though it didn't seem that way to me at least. She she didn't come across that way. And she endured a lot.

And it was unexpected. But things like that come into our lives. And if we're walking in the spirit, God gives us grace. To endure patiently, to get through, to deal with the things that that cross our path, some that again are for a brief time and some for a much longer. I'm always blessed to see miss Dolores when she makes it.

She's got two or three different physical ailments that don't make it very easy to get out. And but she's here and it it is a blessing. It's a blessing to visit with them and to see how God produces the fruit of the spirit of patience and long suffering in the lives of his people. There's much we can learn not only from the Lord but from one another as God manifest himself in the lives of others. That's one of the reasons we gather together as a church.

So that we can help one another and so we can be encouraged and strengthened by the testimonies others. In second Corinthians twelve nine, it says, and he said unto me, that is God, the Paul says, my grace is sufficient for thee. For my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore, will I most gladly therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Paul came to God several times and says, Lord, please take away the thorn in the flesh and God said, no.

My grace is sufficient for you. We don't know what that thorn in Paul's life was but what we know is this, it did not stop him. From trusting the Lord, from following the Lord, and for for moving on in his ministry and how could he do that? The grace of God in his life and that's how these other people and others in our lives are here and they're following the Lord and they're serving the Lord. They can't do always everything they'd like to do.

But God's grace is sufficient that they're able to do many things that others would have long ago given up on. They have a hope and a joy that is the fruit of the what? The fruit of the spirit that is evidenced in their lives. The next one of these fruits is gentleness. The next one of these fruits is gentleness.

Gentleness means kindness, tenderness, graciousness. These things are the marks of the mature and compassionate person who like his or her savior is sensitive to the needs and the feelings of others rather than insensitive or rude or self centered. A gentle person who exemplifies, exhibits gentleness in their life is a tender hearted and kind person. It reminds me when I think of this fruit of the spirit. It reminds me of a mom with a little child.

And that little child will kick and scream and pout and throw temper tantrums and fight sometimes. But the tender hearted mom is very gentle with this precious treasure that God has given to her. And so I think of the gentleness of a new mom and that little precious treasure. I thank the Lord that God gave me a gentle mother. There were sometimes that I didn't make that easy.

I don't remember when I was that little baby, but I do remember when I was that stubborn, self centered teenager. Some of the things I said and some of the things I did which I wish I could take back. But my my mom never ceased to be that gentle person. Oh, there were times she had to raise her voice because if she didn't, I'd have never done what she said. There were times I needed discipline which sometimes was a paddle to the backside.

Though my mom really didn't do it hard enough. My dad on the other hand but it is an important fruit of the spirit because people need understanding and people need gentleness and people need kindness in their lives in a very unkind world. And it is the fruit not of the flesh but the fruit of God in our lives that produces a gentleness of spirit that is contrary to the world. In James three seventeen, it says, but the wisdom that is from above. Wisdom that is from where?

From above. God's wisdom. This wisdom is first pure and then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy, and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now, we could spend the rest of the sermon just on that verse, okay? And and what the wisdom from above is like but one of the things that the wisdom of God is like is this, it's gentle.

It's gentle. It's not it's not harsh. It's not overbearing. It's not not understanding. Use a double negative there.

It is gentle, easy to be entreated. As a pastor, I want to be somebody that you feel comfortable coming and talking to and asking questions of. I don't want to be somebody that you feel like you cannot ask questions of. I want to be easy to be entreated and gentle and understanding. I don't always quite measure up.

But with God's help, I can. Be gentle. It is the fruit of his spirit. Proverbs fifteen one says, a soft answer turneth away wrath. A soft answer.

When you're being attacked and when things are being said about you, when you're being confronted and you are on the defense, the flesh tells us to do what? It tells us to be angry, tells us to be loud, it tells us to be aggressive, but God says, a soft answer turneth away wrath. Well, how does that happen? How do we continue to give a soft answer? When somebody is pointing their finger at us?

I'll tell you how. Through the power of the what? Through the power of the spirit. God can enable us to not respond in kind, but to turn the other what? Turn the other cheek.

Sometimes that's painful, but if you will learn to trust God and to allow Him to speak through you so that it's not all about you. You'll be able to respond differently than you sometimes do. Than I sometimes do. Colossians four six says, let your speech be all way with grace. Seasoned with salt that you may know how you ought to answer every man.

It doesn't say that you will know what to answer every man. Sometimes, I've looked at that passage and I I didn't focus on that word how but I thought about the word what which isn't there by the way. Now, there are other passage that talk about what you answer but this passage talks about what? How you answer? You can answer with the right words but you could do it in the wrong what?

In the wrong way. Jesus Christ always answered with the right words but Jesus Christ always answered in the right what? In the right way. The way that was appropriate for the situation. Now, were there times when Jesus seemed a little harsh with his rebuke?

Yes, but there were those were times when that was appropriate. They were not times when Jesus felt that his back was up against the wall. They were not times when he was personally hurt. They were times when he was trying to get through to somebody. And warn them.

To help them see Most often, when we raise our voice at somebody, it's because we are taking it how? Personally. And we're aggravated. But God can help us to answer in the right way and have our speech always with grace. Turn if you would in Ephesians chapter four.

Ephesians chapter four. Four and verse 29. Ephesians four twenty nine and we'll read down through verse 32. Ephesians four twenty nine, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace into hearers. Let's stop there for just a moment.

Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. There's no reason for which a Christian has, you know, to speak things that are corrupt, to speak things that are ungodly, to speak things that are mean, to speak things that are vile. There should no corrupt communication come out of our mouth, but that which comes out of our mouth should be edifying to others. Now, sometimes that edification can come in the form of a rebuke, sometimes a warning, sometimes encouragement, sometimes instruction. There are many things that people need at different times, but it should help to what?

To point them in the right direction. It should help to build them up, which is what the word edify means. It means to build up and to encourage and to help and not to tear them what? To tear them down and destroy them. It's sad when you see an animal that has been beat and mistreated.

But what is 10 times more sad is to beat a human being who has been beat and mistreated. Not just with hands or fists, but with words that cut and hurt. When my brother was four or five years old and I was 14 or 15, he did things that a four and five year old kid would do. And sometimes as a 14, 15 year old, I thought those things kind of foolish and I would tell him. And I would say, Jonathan, that's stupid and he'd run off to his room and jump in his bed and cry and mom would get all mad at me.

Why did you call him stupid? I didn't call him stupid. I just said what he did was stupid. Did that justify it? No.

I may not have said he was stupid but really I was saying. And what I said didn't help, it was tore down. We have to learn and we should and we can grow as Christians. Say things that build up people, that minister grace unto the hearers. Verse 30, and grieve not the holy spirit of God whereby you are sealed to the day of redemption.

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. Why do we speak than those ways? Why do we get bitter and full of wrath and and speak evil of others? Because we're hurt and because we're lashing out. That's where the word what?

Malice comes in. For some reason, something has happened and we maybe sometimes we're actually lashing out at somebody else. The person that's hurt us isn't there. So, we take it out on somebody else. That's what sometimes happened to my mom at home.

I'd have a bad day at school. When I got home from school, guess who was there? Mom, who caught it? Mom, sometimes. It wasn't her fault.

You know, it wasn't really even the fault of the kids at school that picked on me. When I lashed out in upset and anger, whose fault was it? It was my fault. It was my fault for responding in an ungodly way. You say, but you were just a kid.

Yeah, but I was a kid who after nine years old had the Holy Spirit living in my heart. Verse 32, and be you what? Kind. Kind, one to another. Tender hearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

God says, Be ye kind one to another because I always deserve it, right? Are you? No. But because we can be kind and therefore we should be because God is kind and loving and forgiving towards us of things that we can never set right. Only he could by his death on Calvary's Cross.

We can never repay the evil that we have done towards him and yet he is kind and merciful and gracious to us. We have that opportunity to be kind and merciful and gracious to others. Whether they deserve it or not. For Christ's sake, It is his fruit in our lives. God's children should not be afraid to say thank you and mean it, nor should they be afraid to say sorry and mean it, Nor should they be afraid to say, I forgive you and mean it.

If you are honest with yourself, then you know that there are many times that you have had to say, I am sorry. And you say sorry to somebody, not for your sake, but for theirs, because you hurt them. And the best thing you can do is to let them know that you recognize and you'll do better. God's children shouldn't fight over a place in line or take the biggest piece of pie before others get a chance. I remember in fifth grade, I was we were lined up to go inside and there was this one kid who had a tendency to cut in front of me in line.

And he tried to cut that day and I was determined. He wasn't getting in front of me. And so we got into a fight and we both got drug into the principal's office and we both got paddlings and I was mad for years because it wasn't my fault. He was cutting in front of me. I was just standing up for myself.

But as I think about it now, did it matter? Was it something that had to be held onto or was it better to be kind? Maybe the teacher wasn't wrong in paddling me that day. I didn't see it that way back then. When I think of graciousness in the Old Testament, I think of a man named Abraham and Abraham and Lot, they had so much stuff that that their their workers were fighting one another over the land because they had so many flocks and Abraham finally went to Lot and said, we can't we can't do this anymore.

We're getting we're getting at each other. It's causing contention. So, Lot, you choose which way you want to go and I'll go the other. Now, who was older? Abraham.

Abraham was the eldest. He was Lot's uncle. Particularly in Old Testament times, the older did not defer to the younger. The older person was it was his right to take first and the younger next but Abraham didn't do that. He went to Lot and he said, Lot, you pick.

Lot picked the best land. For himself. Unfortunately, He trusted his eyes and he didn't go to the Lord and he continued to pitch his tent toward what? Toward Sodom, which got him in a lot of trouble. But I think of Abraham, I I think of I think of David.

I think of David and particular incident in his life, a man named Mephibosheth, anybody know Mephibosheth is? Nice long name, Mephibosheth. He was Jonathan's lame son. Jonathan being Saul's son, David's enemy who had been trying to kill David. And after David ascended to the throne, he he found, he searched for a descendant of Jonathan to show what?

To show kindness to. And he found Mephibosheth. Did he have to do that? He chose to do that. Out of love for Jonathan, out of love for God, and he took him in and he made him basically one of his own family.

God's children are sensitive to the needs of others and the situations of others. Sensitive to the needs of others and to the situations of others. It says in Philippians two, if there be any cons, therefore, any consolation in Christ, many comfort of love, of any fellowship of the spirit, if any bowels of mercies fulfill you my joy, that you be like minded, having the same love being of one accord of one mind, verse three, let nothing be done through strife or vainglory. But in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on the things of others but every man also every but not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

Well, how does that work? Well, it works this way. I bank next door at Bank of America, and they have cut down their number of employees, which means that sometimes you walk in the place and it's got a line a mile long. And the poor teller is running themselves ragged. Back and forth between the window and then and how do people often react?

They get angry and when they get up to that teller, they're mean. It's not usually the teller's fault. They're doing everything they can. But yet they take the brunt of the frustration of the people that walk in. Who very often times don't think about who.

They don't think about the other person. They are only thinking about themselves. I too are sometimes guilty of that. We went to our anniversaries today and we decided to celebrate to go out to eat, Kate and I, last night. And we went to a restaurant and the food was really good.

The service was really bad. And and I was I was talking to Kate about it and I was a little bit irritated, not extremely irritated but just enough to say, well, you know, they needed this and that. They didn't get, they didn't get over here, do that, and so forth and so on and and she said, well, but boy, he's got it rough. They shouldn't have given him our table because he had a party of 20 people on the table and I guess they all paid separately And so, the whole time we were there, he was running back and forth and back and forth, trying to get everything straight with these 20 people at the table beside us. And he, it wasn't that the man was lazy, He was just running himself ragged.

But the tendency that we have is to get upset because we're thinking about who? Ourselves. And when the person comes by, it's, why haven't you gotten me my, you know, well, That's the fruit of the wine. The fruit of the flesh when we respond that way. It's the fruit of the spirit that my wife demonstrated more than I and saying, well, he just had too much on his wife.

Too much on his plate. Somebody came to me a couple weeks ago and they said, I went to a yard sale and I was at the yard sale and and I accidentally knocked something over and this person, they just, they just tore into me and they they called me names and they said, get out of here and how dare you and and and this person, they were just all upset. You know, that this, how dare that person treat me this way? You know, and and should they have probably gone off the pant? No.

Accidents what? Happened. But I reminded them, you don't know what's going on in that person's life. You know, they may have, they may have lost their closest friend that morning. And we get, we don't think in the flesh about anyone but ourselves.

But in the spirit, the fruit of the spirit that God gives us, if we'll walk with the Lord, indeed, we'll start to think about others first and ourselves second. And we'll learn to be gentle and kind, tender hearted and sensitive rather than selfish and self centered and easily frustrated. Does this tie in with being long suffering? Yeah. You see, each one of these, they they overlap one another.

No kindness, thoughtfulness, and consideration are not always the ways of the world and certainly not the ways of the flesh but they are the ways of the Lord and I want to close this morning with John eight and we're going to have to wait till next week to get to goodness. Alright? John chapter eight I want us to look at the example of our Lord. Our Lord was teaching in the temple. Chapter eight verse two.

When in the middle of his teaching in the temple courtyard, the scribes and the Pharisees come charging in with a woman taken in adultery which they set in the midst of the crowd before Jesus. That's in verse three. John eight four and they said unto Jesus, master, this woman was taken adultery in the very act. Now, these men that drug this woman in, first of all, I want you to notice this, they didn't drag the man. They just drugged the woman.

There is a lot of hypocrisy there and double standard because the law of the Moses' law that required that that set execution for adultery was just as much for the man as it was for the woman but the Pharisees who supposedly, I don't know if they did or not but supposedly caught this woman in the act didn't bring the man. He just brought the woman and they throw her, they threw her down in front of Jesus like she was, you know, a piece of meat. Without care, concern, without any love and they turned to Jesus and they said, now, you, you tell us, do we execute this woman for committing adultery? As Moses said to, or do we not? Now, see there was a division among the Jews.

Some said, execute them. We have to stick by the law of Moses. Others said, no. Times have changed. We don't treat it that way anymore and they wanted Jesus to get in the middle of the argument.

They wanted Jesus to take one side or the other because see, if he took the side of executor, then these people would be and if he took the side of no, let her go, don't, then these other people said, well, you say you abide by the law of what? Moses and you didn't do. So, what's Jesus going to do? Verse six, this they said, tempting him that they might acute have to accuse him but Jesus stooped down with his finger and wrote on the ground as though he heard them not. So, when they continued asking him, he lifted him up himself and said unto them, he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

Again, he stooped down and wrote on the ground and they which heard it being convicted by their own conscience went out one by one beginning at the eldest even to the last and Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst. Now, we don't know what Jesus wrote in the sand but whatever he wrote brought conviction upon these men who came in to condemn this woman who were obviously acting hypocritical. And as they became convicted of their own failures that hadn't been dealt with, they began to trickle out one by one. Until none of them were left. And so Jesus turns then to the woman.

And Verse 10, when Jesus had lifted up himself and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She said, no man, Lord. And Jesus said, neither I, neither said unto her, neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more.

You see, in order for her to be convicted and executed for adultery, there had to be two or three witnesses according to the law of what? Moses. What happened to the witnesses? They all left. There was no one left to accuse her.

And so he said, neither do I condemn thee, but he said this, go and sin no more. What did he demonstrate? He demonstrated gentleness. He demonstrated love. He demonstrated compassion that the world and the other leaders there did not.

He did not act contrary to the law, But what he did do is he found a way in accordance with the law to show mercy. Because for this woman, he would die and shed his blood as he did for each and every one of us. Therefore, be ye tenderhearted, be ye kind and tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. And let the fruit of gentleness pour out of our lives toward our fellow believers, towards our neighbors, our friends, our relatives, as we walk in the spirit and God reveals himself in us. Let's pray.

Dear Lord, we thank you for opportunity to worship you here today. We thank you for your example. That we said in scripture not only with this lady but as you hung there on the cross and you cried out, father, forgive them. For they know not what they do. Lord, place in our heart the gentleness.

Change our outlook. Help us to see others as people in need, as souls that will spend eternity somewhere. And not as obstacles in our path. Help us, Lord, to be forgiving and kind. And not miss opportunities.

To show the love of Christ Jesus, our Lord. And I pray Lord if there's anyone here today that doesn't know you as savior, I pray as we give this hymn of invitation. If there's any doubt at all in their mind, that they would come as we sing. For Lord, it is our desire that they know you. And that they not enter into eternity without you.

In Jesus name, we do pray. Amen.