I want to ask you. What is the worst health threat, the worst health threat, to a woman today? Well, you obviously are thinking about this. A lot of things are popping up in your mind. It is the men that they live with. You can check the references. They will be on the web. Violence in the home is the leading cause of injury to women aged 15 to 44. More common than car accidents and cancer deaths combined. Ok? This is a major, significant thing.
Now, if you are seated here in the sanctuary, or there in the fireside room, and you are a man, and you have a problem in this way, listen to this sermon. If you are a woman, and you are experiencing this, listen. Ok?
My question is, “Where are the gentle-men?” The gentle men. There is apparently a short supply of gentle men and gentle women today. Because if a woman is not gentle, you understand, she can bring out the worst in a man. I’m not casting blame here. Nobody should ever be violent. But I hear of violence and abuse even in Collegedale, even here in this church. I know of it. I know several homes where the poor battered wife struggles with a decision. “Should I stay? Am I really, is my life really under a physical threat here?” And the truth is that if he has become her feared danger and she is at physical risk, then she must escape his presence by ordering him out, or leaving. Leave, if you’re in physical danger, if your life is in physical danger.
Now, I don’t understand why God made men so much stronger than women. I don’t think He did. I think if you read Genesis, chapter 3, verse 16, it says, speaking of Adam, “He will rule over you.” That happened after the fall. I think originally men and women were equal in every respect. But somehow, Eve ate the apple first. That’s part of her curse. Part of it. Originally men and women were, I think, equal strength. I firmly believe, though, that God allowed Adam to be stronger than Eve so that he could be her protector. So that she could depend on him. And her life would be one of security. She could trust her husband. That’s what a godly husband needs to be. Trustworthy. A good marriage is based on trust. It’s based on commitment.
Adam. I think, must have become a gentle-man. How would I suspect that? Because Jesus was the second Adam, and read with me here in Matthew 11 something about Jesus. In fact, this is the only place I know of in the entire Bible, that Jesus comments on His own character. You know, we don’t brag about ourselves too much. And Jesus wasn’t doing it in a way to brag, but notice what He says about Himself in Matthew, chapter 11, and verse 29. He says, "Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am", what? "Gentle", says the N. I. V. and most modern translations, "and humble in heart." Jesus says of Himself, “I am gentle.” Jesus was a gentleman. Now. Gentle Jesus. Jesus had such a sweetness of manner that produced a kind, loving, easy way in all that He did. He was polite. He was honorable. He was respectable. He was refined. He was tender. He was meek. A gentle Saviour. That’s what we have.
Now I am convinced that we are changed by beholding. That’s how we’re changed. So, if you behold wrestling, boxing, bloody stuff all the time, it makes you a certain way. I think we need to behold Jesus. If you want to become more like Jesus, behold Jesus. Amen? It is said that a good Pastor should be like Jesus. I would agree with that. It is said that a good pastor must have the mind of a scholar, the heart of a gentle shepherd, and the hide of a rhinoceros.
If we could peek in on several incidences of Jesus' life where the quality of gentleness shines through, I think it would benefit us. So let’s look at one.
Window number one is in, probably, the next page in your Bible. Matthew, chapter 12. So let’s go to Matthew, chapter 12. And the window that we’re going to be looking at, Jesus healed a man with a withered hand. His hand was withered. It had been withered for a long time. And this made the Pharisees mad, when they saw that his hand would work properly. You know, the pharisees were not wired correctly in every instance. So what did Jesus do when they wanted to kill him? They wanted to kill Him because He healed this man. So what does Jesus do? Well, verse 15. He withdrew. Why would he do that? Matthew 12:15. Did He withdraw because He was afraid? Because He was a sissy? No. Verse 17 to 21 tells you why Jesus withdrew, and look specifically at verse 19. "He will not quarrel or yell out. No one will hear Him agitating in the streets." Verse 20, "A bruised reed He will not break, a smoldering wick He will not snuff out." He’s gentle.
Jesus withdrew because He wasn’t a trouble maker. That’s why. Isaiah predicted that Jesus would be gentle. He would not shout, He would not agitate. He would not be a strife maker. He was not a quarreler. Jesus would not, He was not a rabble-rouser. He was gentle. A gentle person. He never joined in a shouting match. You never read of Jesus in a brawl. The more agitated his enemies became the quieter Jesus became. He was in control of Himself. He was quiet, serene, strong. Jesus would not injure anyone who was already hurting. Jesus would not snuff out a bruised reed.
I was down with the pathfinders this past week, at Camp Kulaqua, in Florida. And I will tell you it was hot down there. I still have my arm band on, and I’m still with them in my heart. Your kids said to tell you guys hi. There’s a lot of our kids down there. In fact, the McDonald Road Church has the largest contingency of people in the Georgia-Cumberland Conference, McDonald Road. We’ve got the biggest, and I think the best. And I noticed, where the Collegedale bus had been. They use the Southern Adventist University bus, the nice big one, it stuck. Wherever the buses drove, the grass is mashed down. And there was no bermuda grass. I didn’t see one strand of bermuda grass in the whole place. That is shocking to me. That’s down there in Florida. I try to get rid of it in my yard. But the grass was crushed. But if there’s any hope for that grass, Jesus is the type of person who would not snuff the last flickering hope, the injured grass, the broken reed. He would try to give it, still, a chance. Which means, that Jesus, as long as you’re trying, He is not going to give up on you. So you keep trying.
There was a person wishing to seal a letter. His name was Gotthold, and he called for a lighted candle to melt the wax and seal the letter. And the maid went running, got a candle, lit it, and came running with it. And by the time she got there, it was blown out. “And here," said Gotthold, "we have that which may well remind us of the gentleness and moderation to be observed in our behavior toward the weak and the erring brethren. Had this candle, when first lighted, been carried slowly, and shielded by the hand from the air, it would not have been extinguished,” he says, “but would soon have burned with vigor. And in a like manner,” he says, “when a weaker brother needs to be set right, if we only came to his help in the right way and with kindly advice, we could be helpful.”
Galatians, chapter 6, verse 1 says if anybody is caught in sin, restore him, how? Gently. Gently. We need to be gentle. And the wick of your life may be not lit very well. Take care of it.
I taught a class this past Monday night to the pathfinders out here in the picnic pavilion on how to build a fire with a bow drill. It was exciting. And we got a bunch of embers and fires going, and it was great. I hadn’t taught a class like that in a while, and I will tell you that the ember has to be treated gently. You don’t, “Oh well, here’s an ember. There it is. It’s gone.” You have to nurture it. Nurse it. Take care of it. You have to be gentle with it. And if you yourself are a crushed reed, under a heavy load of sin, just know that Jesus will not throw you out.
I think it’s refreshing when we meet some kind, gentle person. There was a little girl who went to an ice cream store. It was hot. Probably like it was down there in Florida. It was a hundred and five degrees in the shade where we were. Yesterday. And there was a little girl who went to an ice cream store. She saw all the ice cream flavors there. She had money in her pocket. She went in and said, “I’d like some ice cream.” And the eagle-eyed, legalistic clerk pointed to the sign and said, “NO SHOES---NO SERVICE, you go out. We don’t serve people with no shoes.” The little girl went out, turned around, looked in through the window at all the ice cream. Tears started running down her face. It was so hot. And there was an old gentleman, probably like Osborn Bennett, like a lot of you maybe. A kind gentleman sitting there on a bench. And he saw what happened. He got up. He came over to the little girl, and he said, “I saw what happened.” He said, “I’ve been watching you.” He took off his size 12 shoes and put them there beside her. And he said, "You won't be able to walk in these shoes, but if you put your feet in these shoes, and you kind of slide along, you can go in there, and they will have to serve you.” And so he lifted the little girl up and put her down into those big shoes, helped her in the door, and she shuffled up to the counter, and the old eagle-eyed, legalistic clerk said, “What would you like?” You know, the gentleman said, "You take your time in there. I’ll sit on the bench. I’m tired of hauling those big shoes around all day, and I'll just rest, and you enjoy your ice cream." He was a big man, with a big heart. And big as a gentle man. We need gentle people.
Jesus would have done that. Jesus was a gentleman. And you know, the Greek word for ‘gentle’ means strength. It means power under control. That’s exactly what it means. The word ‘gentleness’ means ‘power’. You wouldn’t think that, would you? Nothing is so strong as gentleness and nothing is so gentle as strength which is controlled.
My wife and I went to the world’s fair in Knoxville. How many of you went to the world’s fair in Knoxville? Did anybody else go there? Wasn’t that great? Was that back in like 1982, or some time right in there? We went there and we avoided some of the places because the lines were miles long, it seemed. But we went in a place, and I remember seeing a robot. And this robotic arm could reach out and it could crush the hand of the strongest man, but it would reach out and grasp an egg. Do you remember that? And it would not crush the egg, and it could move the egg and put it down somewhere else. I thought, “That is awesome. That is power under control.”
That’s exactly what gentleness is. Strength under control. I firmly believe that when we get to heaven, only dear hearts and gentle people will live there. Do you believe that? That’s why, when we get to heaven, we won’t have to have keys. Not because the angels will be guarding our place, but because the people who live there are dear hearts and gentle, trusting, and trustworthy people. A tame bear is harmless like Gentle Ben.
There was a little girl. It’s a true story. A little 3 year old girl named Becky. She loved dogs. She’d never had a dog, and so she loved dogs, and any dog that came by, she was always friendly. She had stuffed dogs, and she loved dogs, but she couldn’t have one in her own house. And so one day she came running into the house and said, “Mommy, mommy. Come and see my new dog.” Mommy had heard this before and said, “Yeah, I’ll be out in a few minutes.” So the girl ran back out. The mother eventually came out and when she did, she saw her daughter cradling the head of a huge, black, Mexican lobo wolf. This wolf had been injured by a gunshot and had backed into a hollow log. And the little girl was holding the head of the wolf. The wolf was alive. And the mother was terrified. She said, “Becky, back away. Come slowly, quietly to me.” And she called the police. She called the veterinarian. The veterinarian came, treated the wolf. It did not have rabies. The parents decided, well, the little girl maybe could keep it, and it became Becky’s gentle friend, and Becky had this wolf for the next 12 years until she was 15. The wolf was 12, and then the wolf died. What an experience. A hundred and 50 pound wolf had the strength to tear her limb from limb, but was gentle. That’s gentleness. Strength under control. Power under control. Nothing beats that. I just think that’s awesome.
The greater the power the deeper the potential for gentleness. Christ had all of heaven’s power at His control. Christ, when they were pounding that crown of thorns on His head, could have called for an angel. Each angel probably has 1 million horsepower. He could have called for that angel. He could have called for a billion angels to come with a million horsepower each and vaporize the Roman soldiers, but He did not do that. He exhibited control.
And I think for a husband to strike his wife in abuse or anger is near the height of un-Christ-likeness. Un-gentleness. He’s out of control. He’s abusing his strength and power that God gave him to protect the one that he loves. A man should protect his children, too, and not abuse them. You’ve got to be in control of yourself, men. You have to be. I think a man who isn’t, isn’t a Christian, I think.
And for a mother to yell out hasty, angry, uncontrolled words of wrath upon her children is out of control. Proverbs, chapter 15, verse 1 says, "A soft answer turns away wrath." A soft voice. That’s the fruit of the Holy Spirit. A soft voice. It’s the result of God in the heart. And another type of a voice, a wrathful voice, an angry voice is the work of the flesh. So if you want to excel be gentle. In fact, the Bible says in Psalm 18:35, "Thy gentleness hath made me great." That’s what makes you great.
By gentleness a mother may, now listen to this. By gentleness a mother may at last win back to virtue the son whom no amount of loud threats, no storms, no upbraidings of passion could ever subdue. Let's use our horsepower, don’t you think, to praise God and to be gentle. To hasten His coming. To accomplish good here in Collegedale. To accomplish good here in Tennessee and in this world. Not to cause destruction. Not to give ulcers to our brothers and sisters or our kids or our wives for whom Jesus died.
Window number 2. Come over a few more pages to Matthew 21. Matthew 21, verse 5. This is a picture of the triumphal entry into Jerusalem when Jesus came in. I want you to notice one verse. Matthew 21, verse 5. It says, "See, your King comes to you," how? “Your King comes to you,” how? "Gentle, gentle, and riding on a donkey, on a colt, on the foal of a donkey."
Now if you were to schedule a grand entry, and you were a king, would you choose a donkey or would you choose a horse? What do you think? A horse is the show animal, right? Do we have donkey shows here in Tennessee? Walking donkeys and racking donkeys. I’ve heard of Tennessee Walkers and they’re horses. We don’t have donkey shows. At least if there are, I don’t know of them. You’ll have to wise me up. The horse is the show animal. So when a new king comes in and he’s riding a horse, what does that tell you about the king? In Bible days, when a king came in riding a horse, it meant that he came in the mount of a warrior. When a new king came in riding a donkey, it meant that he came in peace and gentleness. So what is Jesus saying? “I come to bring peace as your King.” That’s what it means, when He came on a lowly donkey. If Jesus came into Collegedale today, what kind of a car would He drive? Well, I’m not going to go there. But I will go here. What kind of a driver do you think Jesus would be? Would He experience road rage? Now when you’re at the stop light and the light turns green, and you’re behind, and this car, they’re on their cell phone, “Well, how are you today? Well, I’m doing fine.” Do you talk to them? They can’t hear you, but you’re, “Well, come on. Let’s go.” Do you talk to them? What would Jesus do? Jesus is a gentleman. Gospel Workers, page 121, Sister White says, “Christ is our Example in gentleness.”
Window number 3. Come over here to Luke in your Bible. Chapter 9, this is the last one we’re going to look at. Luke 9. The disciples and Jesus had passed through the village of an unfriendly group of Samaritans. The welcome mat was not out. And James and John made a statement. Luke 9, 51 to 56. I’m going to look here at verse 54 and 55. And James and John said, "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven and destroy them?" And Jesus said, “Sure, call the fire.” Is that what He said? What did Jesus say? Look at verse 55. "But Jesus turned and rebuked them and said, You do not know what kind of a spirit you are, for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them." Isn’t that beautiful? Aren’t you glad Jesus came on a donkey? Aren’t you glad He’s gentle? He’s not a warrior.
Too many folks think that their job description is the same here as James and John. That they’re going to call fire down from heaven upon people that don’t agree. And through videos and copy machines and cassette duplicating machines they call fire down on the General Conference. Have you seen them at camp-meeting? They pass out sheets of paper calling fire down upon the Georgia-Cumberland Conference, upon the church and on the ministry, on the hospital system. Jesus did not come to destroy, but to save. Not to tear apart, but to nurse.
If somebody slights you, don't say, “Well, you know, I can play that game too. If you scowl at me, I’ll growl at you.”
During the Korean War back in the early 1950's some of our American officers were living in a house in Korea. And they hired a little Korean servant boy to do house-keeping, cooking and so forth. He was a teenager, and he was cheerful and they enjoyed playing tricks on him. One day they nailed his shoes to the floor. He put his shoes on and couldn’t even go. They put buckets of water on top of the door. He would open the door and come out and pshew, be doused with water. He seemed to take all this in good nature. And finally the officers felt guilty and they apologized to the boy, and promised not to continue that type of treatment. And the boy said, “No more shoes nailed to floor?” “No.” “No more buckets of water over the door?” “No.” They promised it would never happen again. He said, “Ok. No more spit in soup.”
The Jesus way is not to call fire down on people or to spit in the soup. The Jesus way is to respond with gentleness. Ask Him to help you to be more like Him. Is that fair? One of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. In Galatians, chapter 5 and verse 22, one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit is gentleness. Gentleness.
Do you know that Abraham Lincoln was criticized, criticized, for being too courteous to his enemies. They said, “You’re too courteous to your enemies. You’re the president of the United States. We’re in the civil war here. Your duty is to destroy your enemies.” And he gave this awesome reply. And you may even want to write it down. I don’t know. He said, “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them into my friends?” Isn’t that neat? That’s what you want to do. Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends? Even though a person is totally wrong, it is not your job description to regard that person as an enemy to be destroyed. Don’t destroy them. Regard them as a lost friend to be gently recovered.
One of the marks of a Christian gentleman is his refusal to make an issue out of every difference of opinion. I mean, who made us the editors of everybody else’s statements? Where do we find that in our job description? It’s not there. Who told us that we are people inspectors? We’re not. We might not know what kind of a Spirit we are. Like the disciples.
One pastor's wife in her early sixties was confiding that her husband had never lasted more than 2 or 3 years in any district. Always had to be moved on. And he had conflict after conflict with people, with church boards. And yet he refused to admit that he had a problem. He always thought that he was right.
Many people are that way. We always think everybody else is wrong. And I think if we’re going to be character inspectors, we ought to inspect the character of Jesus on a daily basis. And look at it. And behold it. That’s who you want to check out. Jesus did not have ulcers, and Jesus did not create ulcers. He didn’t give them.
Let me close by reading a statement from Gospel Workers, page 122. "A kind, courteous Christian is the most powerful argument that can be produced in favor of Christianity.” Do you agree with that? And let me change it. I’m going to add one word. A kind, courteous, and may I say gentle, Christian, is the most powerful argument that can be used in favor of Christianity. Let’s be gentle.
And what if you have not been gentle? What if you have abused children, or spouse? What if you’re guilty of that? God can change you. He can forgive you, and He can change you. We don’t have to be the same. We can go out of here as a new person.
Let’s all be more like the lovely Jesus. Let’s be more like Jesus Christ.
Let’s sing our closing hymn, number 4 hundred and 65.
Hymn of Praise: #220, When He Comes Scripture: Matthew 11:28-30 Hymn of Response: #465, I Heard the Voice of Jesus
Return to McDonald Road Sermons Index
McDonald Road Sermon transcribed by Steve Foster 10/16/07