|
Gal 5:16 …let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be
doing what your sinful nature craves. (NLT) 5:22… the Holy Spirit
produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23a gentleness, and self-control. (NLT)
1) When we have the Fruit of Love we:
a) Often feel waves of affection when in large crowds of people
b) Listen only to radio stations that play sappy love songs
c) Find ourselves selflessly giving of ourselves to meet the needs
of other people
2) The Fruit of Joy is:
a) The knowledge that God is in control and all the ravages of sin
are temporary and will suddenly end; and what comes next will be an
eternity not one second of which is like what we are experiencing now.
b) Joy, unlike happiness, is not connected to what is "happening" to
me…Inner joy does not come from the world around me…
c) Inner joy is always connected to the presence of God in my life
d) All of the above
3) The Fruit of Peace is:
a) The absence of conflict… life without tension?
b) What is coming to this world once we figure out how to write the
perfect treaty
c) What is coming to this whole world once the effects of all beauty
pageants are added up.
d) Resting in God because our life circumstances are lined up the
way God designed them to be. Peace often grows on the inside while
chaos is taking place on the outside.
4) Patience means:
a) Always allowing others to best you, never responding to your
attackers, and never giving an opinion that differs with anyone else's.
b) Is two sides of a coin that includes : Being longsuffering toward
other people:
and being steadfast and enduring in life’s circumstances:
c) Describes one who just keeps doing the right thing no matter what
obstacles they meet….whether it is the obstacle of interpersonal
relationships or the obstacles that one slams against in life.
d) Both b and c above
5) Showing the fruit of Kindness means:
a) Telling someone they "don't look fat" when they really do
b) Following a "call 'em like I see them"… nobody's going to get
stronger by being coddled philosophy of life.
c) An attitude that is sympathetic, friendly, gentle, tenderhearted,
generous, cordial, loving… whether the person deserves it or not… just
like the attitude God demonstrated to us.
6) God's Fruit of Goodness flowing through us includes:
a) The goodness of God is what makes the bad things in our lives go
away! The goodness of God is what leads us away from troublesome spots
and makes our lives smooth like a glassy un-rippled pond? b) God's
Goodness: those gifts from the kind, benevolent, gracious, loving
compassionate heart of God that most allow us to leave behind our
selfish sinfulness, to draw increasingly closer to God, and to take on
more and more of his nature as our own. c) God's goodness is displayed
through us when the actions of our lives focus on the best interest of
others and draw others increasingly closer to God d) B and C above
7) God's Fruit of Faithfulness includes:
a) Believing that God always does what he says! He never forsakes
his children! He never, ever has in the past… and he isn't going to
start now.
b) Growing an inner faith that is based on God's faithfulness to us
c) Allowing God's faithfulness to produce in us faith that exhibits
to others outwardly as a Constant, Reliable, Dependable, Trustworthy
rock that can always be depended on…
________________________________________________________________________
I. The Fruit of Gentleness
Gentle- not violent, harsh, or rough… polite, refined, courteous…
calming, soothing, serene….. easily handled, tame ….
(There is a signup sheet on the door for all you men who would like
to be described as "easily handled and tame"… please use the scented,
lavender pen)
Actually that's not such a joke. The whole concept of gentleness,
when introduced by God, into Old Testament times was not a wildly
popular theme… Do you have a mental picture of what society was like
during Old Testament times? There wasn't a lot of talk about men
getting in touch with their inner child or showing there sensitive
side…
When you watch movies about ancient times when people were invading,
raiding, raping, pillaging…. that's one time when Hollywood gets it
close to right.
Society in Old Testament times was largely "barbarian". Human life
meant little… there was no moral code of ethics… before God's law set
one up. The Assyrian empire, Babylonian empire, Egyptian empire, the
Oriental dynasty's…. they had laws for living… but they didn't look
anything like the righteous rules God set up for Abraham and his
descendants. (There is nothing in the writing of these civilizations
left behind about the virtues of meekness and humility.)
When the Assyrians invaded Israel any moral rules that applied to
their society went out the window in a foreign land. There were no
rules… killing and rape were part of everyday life….we don't look back
now and call them barbarians and pagans for nothing…. That's what
many…most were.
When God instituted his "code of ethics" for mankind… it was weird
stuff to their society. What do you mean I can't kill somebody I don't
like…What do you mean I need to be sexually faithful to one woman I am
married to… What do you mean I shouldn't be sacrificing my kids to the
god's… What do you mean I shouldn't be cutting off my enemies body
parts and wearing them as jewelry…. Why that's just civilized society!!
Imagine… into that kind of world…God institutes the idea of
Gentleness…it's seems absurd. How do you get that idea across? "You
know, when you are out their pillaging villages you seem to be a little
rough…. Could you possible do that more gently?
Even among the Bible patriarchs… they would have this Biblical word
used about them in one chapter and be leading an army into battle the
next…declaring that every man, woman, and child should be put to
death..
You need to know:
The word gentle in the Bible is used interchangeably with
meekness and humility.
Gentle = Meek = Humble
For instance you read about Moses:
Numbers 12:3 (Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than
anyone else on the face of the earth.) (NIV)
What that must mean…. as he's holding out his staff and the waters
of the Red Sea are drowning the entire Egyptian army…. He' saying
loudly… I hope you warriors don't see this as being violent, harsh, or
rough… I'm trying to be polite, refined, courteous… I hope your last
gurgling thoughts of me are calming, soothing, serene…
Imagine King David, the warring King, sitting down to write the 37th
Psalm…He writes
Psalm 37:9 For evil men will be cut off, but those who hope in the
LORD will inherit the land. 10 A little while, and the wicked will be
no more; though you look for them, they will not be found. 11 But
the meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace.
He gets up from his writing, stretches, calls his generals in…. "Get
the troops ready… It's time to go to war!" But David… you just wrote
that the meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace…. I know… now
let's get out there and snuff out our enemies.
Watch this Psalm take a sudden turn….
Psalm 149:4 For the Lord delights in his people; he crowns the
humble (meek) with victory. 5 Let the faithful rejoice that he honors
them. Let them sing for joy as they lie on their beds. 6 Let the
praises of God be in their mouths, and a sharp sword in their hands— 7
to execute vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples, 8 to
bind their kings with shackles and their leaders with iron chains, 9 to
execute the judgment written against them. This is the glorious
privilege of his faithful ones. (NLT) (good gracious, what just
happened there?)
Clearly the idea of gentleness, meekness, humility wasn't associated
with weakness in Old Testament times. The guys who talked most about
meekness and were described as the most humble were some of the
toughest birds on the planet.
II. Gentle before our Creator
I discovered, just this week, by accident, that the root word for
being humble is identical to the root word for sing and shout.
It may be that the Ancients linked humility/gentleness, meekness
more to their attitude before God, than they did to their attitude with
other people. David could be humble before God and leading Israel into
battle all at the same time.
That understanding of humility may have been enough for that time.
God is reaching into a barbarian society and trying to convince them
that "all of life" is not really about gaining the upper hand over your
enemies.
All of life is really about a sovereign God trying to convince
rebellious sinful men to humble themselves before him and be reconciled
to their Creator.
- Not by force…but by choice!
- Man is sinful, depraved, barbaric
- Man is incapable of saving himself
- Mankind must humble himself before loving sovereign God will save
him from his sins.
Humility/gentleness.. starts with the spontaneous recognition of the
creator's absolute dependence on his Creator.
That how it was then…and that part really hasn't changed much now…
Micah 6:8 He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the
LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk
humbly with your God. (NIV)
Perhaps it slowly began to dawn on the God followers that the reason
they had each other by the throats was because they were
not in proper relationship with God!
A lack of humility/meekness before God invariably shows up as a lack
of humility with other human beings.
Two people who are rightly related to God "vertically" will not be
caught up in constantly trying to get the best of each other
"horizontally"!
The more perceptive ancients began to realize that it took more guts
to befriend the unfriendly than it did to spill his blood on the
ground.
Perhaps the fact that Israel seemed to always be being beaten up on
by somebody was not accidental. Maybe God knew that they needed to lay
down their dog-eat-dog attitude and replace it with one of gentleness
and humility. By keeping the whole nation subject to Egypt, and
Assyria, and Babylon, and then the Romans… perhaps God was draining out
of them the attitude that they had to claw their way to the top of the
heap.
Perhaps some were even starting to get the idea that it was
sometimes more powerful to be kind to others than it was to "win" over
them.
Getting at least some of humanity thinking this way is what opened
the way for the greatest object lesson of all time…
III. An Object Lesson of Humility
Israel have been promised a Messiah, a Savior, who would save the
whole world! They are given snippets of information about what he will
be like. Here is one of them…
Zechariah 9:9 Rejoice, O people of Zion! Shout in
triumph, O people of Jerusalem! Look, your king is coming to you. He
is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble,
riding on a donkey— riding on a donkey’s colt. (NLT)
When the Messiah came, sure enough, he was righteous, he was
victorious, and he even rode a donkey into Jerusalem. He carried on the
theme in his preaching to them.
Matthew 11:28"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I
will give you rest. 29 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.
30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
O.K. Jesus we get it. You're humble…so was Moses. He delivered us
from the most powerful nation on earth. We hear you with the whole
gentle and humble in heart theme… now roll up your sleeves and kick
these Romans clear back to Rome. (Give us the "ole humble King David
one two punch".)
Here's where the story gets all nutty…. This gentle Savior lets
himself get arrested and killed. The Jews had made some real progress
in their theology but this didn't fit in with anyone's concept of
gentleness and humility. Humility was found in one's position before
God but when faced with human enemies… they still had to be fought and
whipped.
Even when Jesus is being arrested…listen to his words…
Matthew 26:47-54 And even as Jesus said this, Judas, one of
the twelve disciples, arrived with a crowd of men armed with swords and
clubs.,… 51 But one of the men with Jesus pulled out his sword and
struck the high priest’s slave, slashing off his ear. 52 “Put away
your sword,” Jesus told him. “Those who use the sword will die by the
sword. 53 Don’t you realize that I could ask my Father for thousands of
angels to protect us, and he would send them instantly? 54 But if I
did, how would the Scriptures be fulfilled that describe what must
happen now?”
Do you see this huge cosmic tension that is unfolding in the
greatest object lesson of all time?
Isn't meekness the same thing as weakness?
Once the Jews discovered that Jesus was going to feely allow others
to win over him without fighting back…it was like painting a big "L" on
Jesus forehead (Loser!)
Actually, it seems like God had been trying to do that to Jesus his
whole life: - born in a cow stable, into poverty, in an insignificant
village - his mother always the "adultress", his family always
misunderstanding him - his friends thought he was Mad, his home town
openly rejected him - he was officially branded an imposter, a
blasphemer… - his disciples deserted him, one literally "sold him" for
a few coins - people mocked him, spit on him, and murder him violently
Hear me when I say this: This was a carefully planned ultimate
object lesson in humility that God wanted the whole world to see..
No more Mr. Hard-nosed Tough Guy, God is redefining what it means to
be tough!
Meekness is not weakness. What Jesus voluntarily endured for us was
an example of the toughest human who even walked the face of this
earth.
If you think you're hard as nails…. You can't get any tougher than
this!
Philippians 2:6-8 Though he was God, he did not think of equality
with God
as something to cling to. 7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges
he took the humble position of a slave and was born as
a human being. When he appeared in human form, 8 he humbled himself in
obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
The meekest, most humble, gentle-man who ever lived was also the
strongest man who ever lived!
He accomplished what 100 million other men could not have
accomplished, He bore the physical pain and the mental pain that a
million tough men could not have born. Now… the mere mention of his
name can bring a hardened criminal to his knees. Some of the meanest
people on the earth have put it all aside to try to become "just like
Jesus".
IV. Becoming like the Model
Ephesians 4:1 Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you
to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.
2 Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making
allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. 3 Make every
effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves
together with peace. 4 For there is one body and one Spirit, just as
you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. 5 There is
one Lord, one faith, one baptism
Colossians 3:12-14 Since God chose you to be the holy people he
loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness,
humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 Make allowance for each other’s
faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave
you, so you must forgive others. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with
love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony.
James 3:13-17 If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove
it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that
comes from wisdom. 14 But if you are bitterly jealous and there is
selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting
and lying. 15 For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of
wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. 16 For
wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find
disorder and evil of every kind.17 But the wisdom from above is first
of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing
to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no
favoritism and is always sincere. (NLT)
|
