River Church NOLA
Wed Nov 6 Gentleness
  • Counting On God
  • Set A Fire
  • Rest On Us
  • Great Are You Lord
  • Introduction
    We have been in a series on the Fruit of the Spirit. all of these are qualities in the life and temperament of Jesus.
    Here is our theme verse Gal 5:22-23
    Galatians 5:22–23 NIV84
    22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
    So now we come to the quality of gentleness. The KJV called this quality meekness.
    So now, let me ask.
    How many of you would love to be immensely wealthy? I mean how would you like to have more money than you could ever spend?
    How would you like to have the wisdom to know how to use that wealth? How would you like to have the guidance, leadership, and insight, no matter what you faced in life, you would know exactly and precisely what to do?
    And, how would you like to have, along with that wealth, and that wisdom, great peace and great serenity that came out of a relationship with the Lord… and a way to worship the Lord that brings you great peace.
    How would you like these? You may think that there is no way to have all of these… no way to have all that wealth, all that wisdom and have peace along with it.
    I want to tell you tonight that you can have this incredible wealth, that you can have this supernatural wisdom, that you can have this leadership in your life AND that you have great peace and joy in the middle of it.
    So let me talk to you about that wealth. Look at Matt 5:5
    Matthew 5:5 NIV84
    5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
    That’s a lot of wealth.
    What about the wisdom and guidance that you need? Psa 25:9
    Psalm 25:9 NLT
    9 He leads the humble in doing right, teaching them his way.
    What about the peace and the rest? Look at Matt 11:28-30
    Matthew 11:28–30 NLT
    28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
    He is humble and gentle. And you can have that kind of peace.
    How can we get a handle on it?

    1. What is the meaning of Gentleness?

    The NIV and KJV call this meekness. Here is what it’s not.

    Gentleness is not cowardice.

    Some people think that gentleness or meekness is cowardice, but it’s not. Some think that if you are gentle that you can’t stand up for what is right, and that you have to be a timid sort of character. Gentleness is not cowardice.
    Matthew 11:29 NLT
    29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
    Let me ask you. Was Jesus a coward?
    He took a whip and cleared the moneychangers out of the temple. No one tried to stop him either. He wasn’t a coward.
    He fasted and prayed for 40 days all alone in the wilderness with all sorts of wild animals out there. Do you think he was a coward?
    He was laser focused on going to Jerusalem to pay the price for our sins and embraced the Cross. John 10:18
    John 10:18 NLT
    18 No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded.”
    He laid his life down for us.
    Then when he went to the Garden to pray, he sweated drops of blood. He took a beating for you and me. Do you think he was a coward?
    No one would say that Jesus was a coward but he did say, in Matt 11:29
    Matthew 11:29 NLT
    29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

    Gentleness is not weakness.

    Gentleness or meekness is not weakness but is the opposite. Gentleness is actually strength.
    Other than Jesus, the most gentle person in the world was Moses. Num 12:3
    Numbers 12:3 NLT
    3 (Now Moses was very humble—more humble than any other person on earth.)
    Let me ask you. Was Moses a weak man? Moses was the commander and chief who lead over a million Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. He was a mighty man of great valor but the Bible says he was more humble than anyone else.
    Gentleness is strength under control.
    In the early days of our nation, cowboys would catch an stallion and then break him in so that he could be ridden. And when they would domesticate an animal as a work horse it was said to be “meeked’ or broken so that he was useful.
    Gentleness or meekness is strength under control.

    What can you do with your abilities, drives, and ambitions?

    People come into the world with all sorts of drives, instincts, abilities, ambitions and dreams… that are all gifts from God that the devil would like to take and pervert for his own use.
    But all these natural gifts, and strengths, and ambitions and dreams are all gifts from God. And what God does is not to take the things away from us, but what God does is want to bring these things under his control for his glory.
    But the devil, on the other hand, wants to take these things and pervert them, to bring shame on Jesus.
    So there are three things that you can do with those natural abilities, drives, abilities and dreams.

    1. One option is Self Assertion.

    People just assert themselves. They just let the horses run wild. People say if it feels good do it. Whatever is natural is beautiful and whatever is beautiful must be right, so just do whatever you want to do.
    In ancient times, if people wanted to do whatever was evil, they wold deify it and make a god out of it.
    If they wanted to drink and get drunk, they made a god to legitimize it… Bacchus was the god of wine.
    If they wanted to commit adultery, fornication, and lust, they made a goddess… they named her Venus, the goddess of sexuality.
    Or if they got angry and wanted revenge, they made a god… Mars, the god of war.
    A philosopher named Nietzsche said this, “Get rid of your pious priests, and their weak-livered gospel of mercy. Purge out of your souls this disease—this devil—of Christianity. Progress depends upon the strong man, and strong people. Therefore, be strong. Assert yourself. Be a superman.”
    Hitler bought into that, and the gas ovens were the result.

    2. The second option is self-restraint.

    This is the opposite of the let the horses run wild mindset. So what you do with your desires, your ambitions and drives, is to hold yourself down… restrain yourself. The first way is to let the horses run wild. The 2nd one says to cripple the horse. The first person says express yourself… the 2nd one says eliminate the rider.
    Some religions say to do this. Buddhist say that you take these drives, these ambitions, these desires and dreams and you just dampen them. This is like cutting off your head to get rid of a headache.
    All other faiths are negative faiths. Christianity is a positive faith. God’s way is not to eliminate the rider, nor to cripple the horse; but God’s way os to take that strength, that ambition, that drive… all that God has given you, and then take it and yield it to Jesus and let him take control of our lives. Paul wrote in Rom 6:19
    Romans 6:19 NLT
    19 Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy.
    We are to yield ourselves as slave to righteous living.

    3. Self Control or Self-Surrender

    So what does God want to do? Does God want to take your abilities, your gifts, your ambitions and dreams… and cripple you? NO. What God wants to do is to take all that he gave you and control it for His glory.
    For example, if you have a temper. God says to not lose it. God doesn’t want to take the temper out of you. Eph 4:26
    Ephesians 4:26 NLT
    26 And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry,
    The Bible says that when Jesus saw the money changers in the temple, he became angry. put the scripture here.
    He didn’t lose his temper, He used it. He wasn’t out of control, he was in control. We all have temper but Jesus wants to take our temper and harness it and use it for his glory.
    There are things that ought to make you and I angry. We ought to rise up against pornography, against the drug trade, human trafficking, and all sorts of moral atrocities … we should be angry with these.
    What about your tongue? God doesn’t want you to lose your tongue. He wants you to use your tongue but under control.
    If you are a singer and get saved, he doesn’t want you to stop singing, he wants you to use that voice to praise him.
    He doesn’t want you to stop talking, he wants you to tell people about him.
    So let me ask you…
    “If you had a wagon hitched to a team of wild horses, and those horses were running away, and you couldn’t control it, and you were afraid for your life, and afraid for the wagon, and all that you had there, and you were afraid there was going to be a terrible catastrophe, and the horses were running wild, and,” I said, “sitting next to you was someone in that wagon that you knew who could control those horses,” I said, “what would you do?”
    He said, “PR, I’d hand the reins over to him.” And I said, “That’s right; and Jesus is that person. And what you need to do is turn those reins over to Him, and say, “I can’t control these wild horses. I can’t do it. But Lord Jesus, I yield the reins to You. And Lord Jesus, I want You to take control.”
    A meek person is a person who has turned the reins over to the Lord to let him do for him, in him and through him what he could not do for himself.
    This is not self repression, but it’s self control, under the lordshp of Jesus Christ. IOW,
    Turning the reigns over to Jesus is not self control, but self surrender.

    2. The method of gentleness.

    How are you going to be a meek or gentle person? Check out James 1:21
    James 1:21 NLT
    21 So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.
    Soul - psyche…
    James 1:22 NLT
    22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.
    We are to receive the word with gentleness. Remember, gentleness is strength under control.
    Now to be controlled by the Lord, you have to know hi swill, and his way. And in order to know His will, you have to know his word with gentleness. I don’t know enough to guide my life… you don’t either.
    A man was in a courtroom, and he was asked to swear to this: Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? He said, “If I knew the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, I would be God.” That’s pretty good.
    We all need guidance. God knows what we don’t know.
    And so if you are going to be a gentle person, if God is going to have the reins of your life, if God is going to guide your life, if God is going to bring you to this wealth, wisdom, and worship, then you’ve got to receive the engrafted word with meekness, which is able to save your soul.
    Here are three things that are necessary according to James.

    A repentant spirit.

    We have to have a repentant spirit. James said in James 1:21
    James 1:21 NLT
    21 So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.
    The word filth is the Greek word “Rhupos” which means wax in the ear. So James is saying get the spiritual wax out of your ear. What is wax in our ears? filth and evil in our lives.
    We have to say, I am turning from wickedness to God. God want’s to speak to us and if we want to heat from God, we have to get the spiritual wax out of our ears.
    The way to do that is called repentance.

    A receptive spirit.

    You hav to have a repentant spirit and now there must be a receptive spirit. Look at James 1:21
    James 1:21 NLT
    21 So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.
    He said to humbly accept the WOG. That word is the same as meekness or gentleness. The word receive here is “dechomai” which means to receive like you were to receive gift.
    Dechomai - receive as a gift
    What do you do when someone gives you something? You say thank you and receive it like a welcome guest. If a guest knocks on your door, you say, come on in… we are so happy to see you.
    That’s how we are to receive the WOG. Like a welcome guest… a wonderful gift. Have you welcomed the WOG? Did you say I receive that truth?
    There are people who will look at the WOG and try to make it pass their own their judgement… to make up their mind whether they will receive it or not. You will never learn truth that way.
    You have to decide that you will welcome the WOG in your life and then receive it. So we have to lay our intellectual pride aside and receive the WOG into our lives.
    So we have to have a repentant spirit and a receptive spirit. Next,

    A responsive spirit.

    Look at James 1:22
    James 1:22 NLT
    22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.
    When you welcome the WOG, you have to respond to the WOG. It’s not about learning facts; it’s about instructions for life. Once you receive it, James says we have to do what it says to do.
    If you are coming to church or even in your daily devotions and you get a Word from the Lord but you don’t act in it, you are deceiving yourself.
    James 1:8 NLT
    8 Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.
    Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, that if we hear his words and do not act on them, we are being foolish. To hear Jesus through his Word, and not do what he is telling us to do is soul insanity.
    Impression without expression leads to depression.
    Knowing the facts but living by them will have negative side effects in your life. Someone once said that a college education is where material in the professors notebook gets into the students notebook without passing through is brain. Sometimes, I feel like that is like our Bible knowledge is like that. It goes into our notes without passing through our brains. But, it now only needs to go through our heads, it need to get into our hearts.
    We need to receive the word that is able to save our psyches with meekness or gentleness and we do that with a repentant spirit where we get the sin out. Then with a receptive spirit and with a responsive spirit.

    3. The motive for Gentleness

    Why do we need to be meek or gentle?

    The wealth gentleness brings.

    Remember at first when I said I want to show you how you can be incredibly wealthy? … how to you can have guidance, insight and leadership in every crisis of life? … How you can have serenity, and rest for your soul? Let’s see if that’s a good motivation.
    Look again at Matt 5:5
    Matthew 5:5 NLT
    5 God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth.
    You may think that you don’t get much by being meek or gentle. You may think that you have to go out and fight and kick and scratch to get ahead.
    That’s not what God says. Mankind lost his inheritance in the Garden because of a lack of gentleness / meekness when Adam sinned. And people today are not able to enjoy what they think they have, because of a rebellious spirit instead of a receptive spirit towards God.
    What does it mean when Jesus says the meek or humble will inherit the earth? Look at what Paul said in 1 CO 3:21
    1 Corinthians 3:21 NLT
    21 So don’t boast about following a particular human leader. For everything belongs to you—
    All things are yours. Well what does that mean? Look at 2 CO 6:10
    2 Corinthians 6:10 NLT
    10 Our hearts ache, but we always have joy. We are poor, but we give spiritual riches to others. We own nothing, and yet we have everything.
    We own nothing, but we have everything.
    Here is what that all means… look at Psa 24:1
    Psalm 24:1 NLT
    1 The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him.
    We belong to the Lord and because of that, everything he has, we have, and it all belongs to us. Yet nothing belongs to us because we are not owners, we are stewards for the Lord. We manage what he gives us responsibility for.
    The devil will tempt you making you feel that if you don’t do it his way, he will take all away… He can’t it’s not yours anyway… it’ God’s.
    he may say of you will do this, I will give you this… You can tell the devil you don’t need what heis peddling because you have all you need now from the Lord.
    The Bible clearly says that we will inherit everything and that on day we will rule and reign with Jesus.
    Revelation 20:6 NLT
    6 Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. For them the second death holds no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him a thousand years.
    Jesus is coming back and he will rule and we will rule with him.

    The wisdom

    Look again at Psa 25:9
    Psalm 25:9 NLT
    9 He leads the humble in doing right, teaching them his way.
    It’s not that God isn’t speaking to us on a daily basis. It’s that we are not hearing. We are not humbling ourselves so that we can hear God.
    Do you want God to speak to you? to guide you? Here is what you need to do. You have to humble yourself with a repentant spirit, with that receptive spirit, and with that responsive spirit. Then God will guide you and you will not be like in the ocean without a rudder being driven by the winds and the waves of this world. He will guild the gentle… the meek… the humble.
    Just like the stallion who has been broken. He can take your reigns and guide you.

    The worship.

    Not only the ealth and the wisdom, but the worship. Look at Matt 11:28-29
    Matthew 11:28–29 NLT
    28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
    Jesus was a carpenter and knew what it was to a yoke for oxen. no yoke that Jesus will make will misfit the ox. When the Ox was in the yoke, he was meeked, and although powerful, he was under control. Jesus wants you to have that same kind of meekness or gentleness. Strength under control.
    Conclusion
    Let me ask, how many of you want your sins forgiven?… to have peace with God? Jesus loves you so much. Do you want this wealth, this wisdom, this worship, and this rest? Come to Jesus, come.
    There was a man whose name was Henry Morehouse. He was a great evangelist, but he never held big, great meetings. He was in little churches. He had but one text that he used all the time. It was John 3:16. And almost everywhere he preached, he preached John 3:16: “For God so loved the world.” He was in a little Welsh mining town one time, and there was a man in that town who hated God, hated Christ, hated the Bible, hated churches, and hated evangelists, most of all. His name was Ike Miller. And Ike Miller sent out word. He said, “You go tell Henry Morehouse that, if he preaches tonight, I’m going to come to the service, and I am personally going to pistol whip him out of town.” The people came to Henry Morehouse, and they said, “Preacher, let’s don’t have the meeting tonight. Let’s just skip a night, or let’s get someone else to preach.” He said, “No, I prayed about it, and I really believe that God wants me to preach. I’ll trust Him. It’ll be all right. You come.”
    That night, that little church in that mining town was filled with people, and Henry Morehouse stood up to preach. About that time, the back doors burst open, and in came this big, burly man named Ike Miller. He plopped himself down in a seat, and folded those muscular arms, as if to say, “All right, Preacher, you do your stuff, and then I’ll do mine.” Mr. Morehouse, the evangelist, opened his Bible to John 3:16, and he preached, when God loved, He loved the world, and when God gave, He gave His Son. And he preached the love of God with such passion and pathos that the Spirit of God fell on that place. And then, he said, “I’m going to invite those who want to receive the Lord Jesus to come forward.” Ike Miller was the first on his feet. People wondered, “Could he possibly be getting saved? Or, is he coming down there to start the fight? What’s going to happen?”
    But he didn’t come forward at all. He just turned around, wheeled around, went out the back door, and slammed it behind him. And he walked down the main street of that little mining town. There were his buddies in the saloon, saying, “Hey, Ike. Come on in, and get a drink.” But he just kept walking. Some of the wicked women from the upper stories of that little town windows said, “Hey, Ike. Come up. Let’s have a big time, a good time.” He just kept walking. He walked right on through that town, until he got down to a little lane that turned right—a little dusty lane, and a little dirt road. And he went down that road till he came to a rickety fence, and a sagging gate, and a little weather-boarded shack, unpainted. He pushed that gate back, went up those splintered steps, and, with his fists, he knocked the door open. And in that house—that little one-room house where the bed and the kitchen were all in one room—was a faded wife, and little children.
    When they saw their drunkard daddy come home, those little children, like mice, scurried under the bed, afraid of what he might do. And this wife, who had been beaten and abused so many times, she just stepped back, and spread her skirt, as if to hide the children from their father. He looked at her, and said, “Woman, you don’t have to be afraid. It’s all right.” He said, “Get the kids out from under the bed.” He said, “We’re going to pray.” She said, “What did you say?” He said, “I said, ‘Get the kids. We’re going to pray.’ ” She said, “Well, all right.”
    The little kids scurried out from under the bed like little mice with big eyes, wondering about what was going to happen. He said, “Now kneel. You kneel, and you kneel, and you kneel.” Then, he knelt down, this big hulk of a man, and he tried to pray. He said, “O God.” He didn’t know how to pray. He knew how to curse; he didn’t know how to pray. He said, “Dear Lord.” But no other words would come. And then, he remembered a prayer that his mother had taught him when he was a little boy, and this is what he prayed: “Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, look upon a little child. Forgive my simplicity, and suffer me to come to Thee.” And there, on his knees, Ike Miller was born again, and wept his way into the arms of Jesus.
    You may not be a wicked person like Ike Miller was, but if you give your life to Jesus, you are saved just like he was.
    Pray
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      • Galatians 5:22–23NLT

      • Matthew 5:5NLT

      • Psalm 25:9NLT

      • Matthew 11:28–30NLT

      • Matthew 11:29NLT

      • John 10:18NLT

      • Matthew 11:29NLT

      • Numbers 12:3NLT

      • Romans 6:19NLT

      • Ephesians 4:26NLT

      • James 1:21NLT

      • James 1:22NLT

      • James 1:21NLT

      • James 1:21NLT

      • James 1:22NLT

      • James 1:8NLT

      • Matthew 5:5NLT

      • 1 Corinthians 3:21NLT

      • 2 Corinthians 6:10NLT

      • Psalm 24:1NLT

      • Revelation 20:6NLT

      • Psalm 25:9NLT

      • Matthew 11:28–29NLT

River Church NOLA
robert@riverchurchnola.com
504-578-8317
https://riverchurchnola.com
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