Main Idea: The Spirit’s gentleness is seen through me as I surrender my highest dreams in exchange for God’s deepest satisfaction.

Today we are going to talk about gentleness. It is the eighth fruit of the Spirit that Paul mentions in Galatians 5:22-23. He said, "But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness…." Now for whatever reason, I found this fruit the most difficult to present. I suppose that if you are like me, when you think of gentleness you think of someone who is soft spoken, quiet, unassuming and who likes dogs and children not necessarily in that order. They are someone who really doesn’t bother anyone and goes about their life being nice and not stirring up trouble. They are the kind of person you want to be because you feel your life is so frantic and turbulent.

The problem comes when you compare our idea of what gentleness is or how it is to be demonstrated with what we see in the life of Jesus and hear from the lips of Jesus. Jesus said in our texts for today: "God blesses those who are gentle and lowly, for the whole earth will belong to them." and "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke fits perfectly, and the burden I give you is light." (Matthew 5:5 and Matthew 11:29) Now from those words you would get the idea that at all times Jesus was that passive, mild, quiet person that we normally assume is gentle. Yet twice in his ministry Jesus wrecked the tables of the moneychangers who were defiling God’s temple. John writes, "Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple. He drove out the sheep and oxen, scattered the money changers' coins over the floor, and turned over their tables." (John 2:15) I think you would agree with me that making a whip, using it to drive people out of a building and turning over tables is really someone who needs anger management, not referring to themselves as gentle!

So how do you reconcile the statements of Jesus about his gentle and humble ways with the actions of aggression and anger he displayed at other times in his ministry? To do that, let’s take a few moments and try to understand the meaning of the word "gentleness." It generally means mild, quiet or friendly. Yet it also referred to an animal that had been tamed or trained to do a specific task, such as a horse that has been conditioned or trained for battle or racing. We imagine that gentleness is the equivalent of weakness when actually it is strength that has been put under control. The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, said it described a person who was "angry at the right time and never angry at the wrong time." So a gentle person or a person who expresses gentleness is someone who has chosen to bring their emotions, passions and desires under control or containment for a higher or greater purpose than their own satisfaction. They have surrendered their claim to personal satisfaction in order to achieve a greater good.

That is what Jesus did before his coming to our world: he surrendered his rightful privileges as the Son of God in order to achieve the greater purpose of God. Paul would say in Philippians 2:5-11, " Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God. He made himself nothing; he took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form. And in human form he obediently humbled himself even further by dying a criminal's death on a cross. Because of this, God raised him up to the heights of heaven and gave him a name that is above every other name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.." He surrendered all that he claimed as his rights as God’s Son to satisfy all the achievements God required.

It would be this surrender that would penetrate his life and ministry that turns our view of success and achievement upside down. When we expect a king to be born in a palace, he is found naked in an animal feeding trough. When we expect that he would take over John the Baptist’s ministry, he, instead, submits to his baptism. When we look for him to organize an influential network with the powerful, he, instead, secluded himself with twelve misfits. When we anticipate his claiming his rightful place in history, he rides into Jerusalem on a donkey accompanied by children’s songs. When we imagine his last actions will be planning the overthrow of Rome, he washes the feet of his followers. When he is arrested and abused, we are sure he will call down angels; instead, he is silent and doesn’t defend himself. When we believe, he, at last, will refuse unjust execution and show his power, he is nailed to a cross between two thieves. What kind of person is this? What kind of God is this? What kind of example is this?

It is the example of gentleness. Jesus received God’s deepest satisfaction because he had surrendered his highest dreams. That is why he could say; "God blesses those who are gentle and lowly, for the whole earth will belong to them." (Matt. 5:5) and "Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls." (Matt. 11:29) Jesus knew the satisfaction of surrender that freed him from trying to achieve his or God’s purposes by force or manipulation. He was freed from the temptation to think more highly of himself. He was freed from always wanting to be recognized as right. He was freed from having to push his way to the front to get his place and he was freed from having to retaliate in order to secure justice. He knew the satisfaction of surrender so he had the freedom to call himself "gentle" and knew that gentleness was the way to find lasting achievement.

Let me ask you: What are your highest dreams? I mean look at the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:5. He is promising us that the "whole earth" could belong to us. I’m not really interested in the "whole earth" and I don’t think that Jesus was talking about the physical alone. I think his words really apply to the things I dream about as my goals or achievements. So what are the things you really want? What are your highest dreams or greatest expectations? You may be a person who has dreams that drive you continually. They are more than just temporary but ones that are firmly planted in your soul and whatever else may come there in this one thing that you are directing all of your life to achieve. On the other hand, you may be a person who has certain temporary goals that are like rungs on a ladder. You want to improve your ACT score, get a scholarship, get your degree, get a job, get married, have kids (change diapers, stay up all night, wipe noses), get a house. Those are sort of temporary stair steps that we find are our heart’s passion and we are steering our life toward them with purpose and intention.

You could be a person whose dreams have just begun to take shape after getting a little further down the road. You have accomplished all the steps on your plan and now you feel like you want to go in another direction or that you have something extra to give or share at this place in your life. You feel like there is still a lot of "tread" left on the tires and you want to spend the next portion of your life significantly impacting the lives of others. You may be a person who feels that you really are at the end of your effectiveness and you are looking back and see how God has used you. The only thing left for you is heaven and as far as you are concerned there is no higher dream.

So what are your highest dreams? You don’t want the "whole earth" but you do have a desire for just a little more. How are you going to satisfy or achieve your dream? There are a lot of different ways to get what you want. You could do it by sheer human will and determination. You just work hard and work harder than anyone else and there is a possibility that you can get what you are wanting. Other people have done it so you can as well. You may not be as disciplined as some to work as hard as it will take so you decide that you will spend your energy in force or manipulation. It takes as much work but you bully, intimidate or manipulate people or circumstances to get what you want. There is a possibility that you can get what you want by shear, raw power. People do it all the time so why not you?

You may not spend your energy in hard work or in deception to achieve your dreams. You may choose to see every person or situation as a battle that you must fight so you choose combat and conflict to get what you want. Every moment of every day you are ready to fight anyone or anything that stops you from finding satisfaction. The truth is that there is a possibility that it will work. I mean other people claw their way to success so why shouldn’t you? Every person is a battle to be won at any cost because, after all, we’re talking about what you believe is best for you.

So there is a possibility that hard work, manipulation or aggression can get you what you want. It’s worked for some. It may work for you. Who is to say? Let’s say you try any of these approaches for success, where does that get you? It may work but it may not. The result is what Jesus described in Matthew 11:28, "weary" and carrying "heavy burdens." The Message just says, "tired" and "worn out." That’s the price you pay for using those methods for achievement. The cost of force is always high: poor health, high stress, broken relationships, marriages, loss of integrity, respect and exhaustion. You may or may not have what you want but because of what it cost you to get there you may very well have paid more than what your success is really worth.

So Jesus offers you an alternative. He tells you to come to him and he will give you rest. I don’t hear that as passive, like lying down in a hammock under a tree. No, I hear it as fulfillment. There is nothing as fulfilling as achieving something. It is just a "good tired." He continues by saying, though, that to have this satisfaction we have to trade or surrender the burden of our dreams to the benefit of his direction. He says, "Take my yoke upon you." A yoke was what they put on the shoulders of cattle or oxen to direct them in the field. He tells us that his "yoke" or direction "fits perfectly" and the responsibilities are "light." They are not constraining or exhausting. His alternative to our struggle is surrender to his direction and purpose. He is content to let us struggle if that is what we want but it will cost us everything. He offers us the option of surrender to his direction and assures us that if we do we will receive God’s deepest satisfaction.

So let me ask where has your way taken you? You may have achieved everything you have set out to do but you may not ever be close to being truly satisfied. You may have tried all you have known to do and you are nothing but tired and satisfaction isn’t even a dream. It all boils down to surrender: receiving his direction and yielding to his responsibility. That is the only way he offers for finding our deepest satisfaction. And there is nothing like the satisfaction of surrender because it is then that we find the meaning of gentleness.

I have no doubt that there was a massive amount of surrender when Jesus chose to accept God’s mission and come to earth as a human. There was as well as tremendous amount of surrender in Jesus’ years, both as a child and as an adult, to fulfill the purposes of God. However, the only record we have of his struggle with surrender was in Gethsemane, where it says he cried out in agony: " Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will, not mine." (Luke 22:42) So great was his struggle that an angel strengthened him and the intensity of his praying resulted in his sweat and blood falling on the ground. Yet after that, after that surrender, there was an undeniable gentleness that flowed from him. The struggle of surrender was over and all that was left was gentleness. While he would go to the cross and cry out in pain, there was at the end the gentleness that was left when surrender was complete. You see gentleness is what’s left when surrender is complete. Through with gentleness, Jesus promises you God’s deepest satisfaction.

So what are the highest dreams that you have? Are you willing to surrender them to find God’s deepest satisfaction? Don’t misunderstand me: letting go is going to be painful. The question is do you want the gift of gentleness to invade your life or do you just want to keep on hitting your head against the wall to achieve your dreams?

Beth Moore tells a story that helps us understand the pain and power of surrender. She recalls a time when her then 11-year-old daughter Melissa called for her from the bathtub, "Mom, I need you!" She went in to find Melissa drenched from head to toe. Melissa said: "I’ve got a problem—a big problem. Last week I found a small knot in the back of my hair and I tried to get it out with the brush. It hurt so much that I quit. Every day it’s gotten bigger and bigger and now look!" In the back, nearly all of her very thick, long hair was in one huge knot. The knot was so big and so tight I could not imagine any other solution but scissors; yet I would have had to cut her hair to the scalp. I could not believe the mess.

Beth says, "I sat down beside her, asking God for patience and began to brush—one hair at a time! I tried to hold her hair as tightly as I could so that she would not feel it pull, but finally the knot was too close for me to fit my hand between it and her head. The tears streamed down her cheeks. I asked, ‘Do you want me to stop?’ ‘No, Mommy. If you do I’ll never get it out. Keep brushing.’ It took us many minutes to get through those tangles and those minutes seemed like hours. Totally submitted to untangling the mess she was in, she rested her head in my lap and endured the pain. Her tears were not those of resistance. They were tears of submission: know that the end was worth the means. Afterward I sat down, held her, and explained how to avoid getting her hair into another mess like that. But I assured her that if she did, we’d get through it, tears and all."

I realize that unless you are a woman or have had girls that story may seem a little distant. But regardless, the truth is that we can get ourselves into a knot trying to achieve our dreams. When we do, all we have left is a life of frustration and stress. Our life is nothing but tangles and chaos and certainly nothing that remotely resembles gentleness. If you want the Spirit’s gentleness, the only way is to surrender your highest dreams. When you do, the tears you have will be the result of God’s deepest satisfaction. A life of gentleness is what we discover when we have finally surrendered.

Sunday, November 5, 2006

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org