So, they are definitely great words there in 2 Samuel 22, so great in fact that it's
one of the Psalms as well.
If you look at Psalm 18, we won't look at that now, but if you look at Psalm 18, it's
basically word for word the exact same Psalm there from David.
And we will return back to 2 Samuel 22, I just wanted to start that with the introduction
and I'm going to end on that one.
I'm going to end on some passages within that chapter, but for now can you please turn to
2 Timothy chapter 2, turn to 2 Timothy chapter 2 and I am continuing the series on the fruits
of the Spirit.
I hope so far the series has been interesting, I hope it's been a little bit challenging.
I'm not sure what you have thought about when we looked at, when I mentioned first of all
that we're going to be looking for this series, but I personally, I get challenged all the
time.
You know, when I look at these fruits and I realise, oh boy, there are some areas in
my life that I really need to work on and that's my desire.
My desire is when we look at these passages that you don't look at other people, that
you don't think, oh yeah, brother so and so, you know, he really needs a bit of long suffering
that guy, or you know, he really needs to show a bit of love.
No, take it upon yourself, what are the areas that I need to work on?
What is it that God wants to develop in my life?
Am I matching up to the work, the fruit that God wants in my life?
And we are, I'll just really quickly read to you again from the passage in Galatians
5.22, which says, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering.
Does anyone know I'm off by heart?
What's next?
Does anybody know?
Kindness.
Well, that's no, but you know, it's kind of, it's kind of, it's kind of close, kind of
close.
Maybe in the NIV it's kindness, but it's gentleness, okay?
It's gentleness, right?
It says, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such
there is no law.
But then it says this in verse number 24, straight afterwards, it says, and they that
are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
Okay, just a reminder, in order for you to have these fruits develop in your Christian
life, first of all, you have to be of Christ's, you have to be in Christ, you have to be saved,
but you're also somebody that crucifies the flesh, okay?
And when you crucify that flesh, you're also crucifying the affections of the flesh and
the lusts of the flesh.
That is a challenge that we have every single day, every moment of our days.
Do I walk in the spirit?
Do I put on these fruits that God wants me to develop or am I going to walk in the flesh?
You know, this flesh wants to live, it's struggling, it's rebellious, it's rebellious against God,
it wants to do its own thing, it has its affections, it has its own lusts, but if you
fall off your flesh brethren, you're not going to develop the fruit in your life, okay?
What do you have to do?
You have to crucify the flesh.
Say no, that was crucified with Christ, stay there crucified, I don't want to pick you
up again flesh and walk therein.
God has given me a new man, God has made me a new creature, I need to walk in the steps
that God has given me and when you do that, you will develop these fruits in your life,
okay?
Number one is gentleness, gentleness.
Now I don't know what you make of gentleness, I don't know if you consider yourself a gentle
person and you may think well hold on, you know, Pastor Kevin, you know, one of the reasons
I like this church or I like to preach from this church as I hear it sometimes is the
boldness which by the word of God is being preached, it's the strength, it's the courage,
it's the confidence and sometimes, you know, you may look at other preachers and other
churches, you say those churches are just too, they're too gentle, they're too soft,
you know?
But here's the thing, you know, gentleness plays a part in our Christian work as well.
I want you to be careful about, you know, differentiating between, you know, standing
strong on God's word and preaching God's word with boldness, there's an element to that
and preaching ought to be that way, preaching ought to be something that is confronting
and challenges you but at the same time when we're dealing with one another, when we're
dealing with each other on a personal level, it ought to be with gentleness, okay?
The way I preach or the way other people preach ought not to be the way you just speak to
one another, okay?
Preaching is one thing, dealing with one another, helping one another, loving one another, that
is something completely different to preaching to a general, you know, a group of people,
dealing with one another.
The roots have to do with our relationship toward other people.
Look at 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse number 24, don't forget this is a letter written
to a pastor from the Apostle Paul, okay?
And what does the Apostle Paul say to Timothy?
In verse number 24, he says, and the servants of the Lord must not strive.
What's strive?
It's to get into arguments, right?
Basically arguing, fighting, being in conflict, okay?
Who's the servants of the Lord in the context of this passage?
Timothy, the pastor of the church.
He says to Timothy, and the servant of the Lord must not strive but, so here's the
opposite of that you need to be, but be gentle unto all men apt to teach patience.
So you can see there the pastor's job, the preacher's job is to be gentle unto the
church people, his brothers and sisters in the Lord, the people that are his friends,
his family, now to all men, all men, okay?
All men means all men.
That means anybody I come across in this world, believer, unbeliever, I also treat that person
with gentleness.
Now, yes, the direct context of this is a church pastor but all of us are servants of
the Lord.
Or at least you should consider yourself as a servant of the Lord.
He bought you, he paid the price, he saved you from your sins, he ought to be your Lord,
he ought to be your master, you ought to say yes Lord I will do what you want me to do
and when you do that you are putting yourself as a servant of the Lord.
So anybody brethren that is a servant of the Lord, you know, we can apply this to all servants
of the Lord.
You are servants of the Lord, you are commanded not to strive but to be gentle.
Now the reason I wanted to start with this passage is because if you do a quick search
you know for the word gentle or gentleness in the Bible, there aren't many references.
I mean I can't remember right now, it's on my head, might be five or six references in
the whole Bible.
And you know generally speaking we understand what gentle means, generally speaking.
You know if you did a quick dictionary definition, you know, looking for the meaning, some other
words that are associated with gentleness would be to be kind, you know, kind toward
one another, tender hearted, you know, I have to be soft to others, right, have a tender
heart, affectionate and some of the opposites would be not to be harsh or abrasive.
Not to be harsh or abrasive, okay.
So sometimes you know yet we can understand gentleness but to better understand it I think
because we don't have a lot of verses in the Bible, to better understand it is to look
at what the opposite is.
Okay as we saw in the dictionary definition it's not to be harsh or abrasive or as the
Apostle Paul told Timothy, don't be someone that strives, don't be in constant arguments,
constant fighting, constant frustration with one another.
If that's you, if you're constantly striving you will not develop the fruits of gentleness
in your life, okay.
It's one or the other.
You either strive, now is there a time to fight and to strive, of course there is, okay.
The main aspect of your life, what most people know you of as a believer ought to be someone
that is gentle.
Now I don't know if you think about, you know, think that of me, I hope so, you know, I hope
when I deal with you on a one-on-one basis I, you know, you consider that yeah my pastor
deals with me gently, you know, even if I have to correct you, even if I have to rebuke
you, you know, I generally speak and I would do it with gentleness, you know, unless you're
some rebellious person that's just trying to make my life hell then obviously that would
be treated in a different way.
But generally speaking, I hope, that's my aim anyway, if I've messed up, I've messed
up, I'm human, right, but my goal is to treat you gently, you know, when I deal with you
one-on-one because that is definitely a commandment toward a pastor and a commandment toward all
who would call themselves a servant of the Lord.
Now can you please turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 10 for me, 2 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse
number 1.
As I said, don't misunderstand.
Being gentle does not mean you stop being bold, okay, that's not what it means.
It doesn't mean you stop being courageous and strong and, you know, forward with your
mouth when it comes to the things of God and standing on God's Word.
You can be both bold and gentle at the same time.
Because I just told you, my goal behind the pulpit is to be bold, is to be direct.
My goal is to step on your toes.
If you ever say, man, Pastor Kevin, he kind of offended me in the sermon today, well that's
my goal.
My goal is to offend the old man so the new man goes, all right, yeah, I need more of
that new man, I need to be walking in the Spirit, right, but again, you know, just because
I offend you or just because I preach something and I know you're probably in that sin or
you're struggling in that area, it doesn't mean that after I'm done preaching I'm going
to come up to you and have a go at you.
I know we're at different stages, I know we're at different places, you know, I might be
more mature in the Christian life in some areas than some of you but some of you might
be more mature in the Christian life than me in other areas, okay.
I mean this is just the way we're all at different places in our spiritual life, okay, but when
I deal with you, I ought to deal with you gently and I want to see, I want to show you
this here in 2 Corinthians chapter 10 because the Corinthian church, if you know your Bible,
was really messed up.
I mean it is by far, you know, I don't know by far, it is definitely one of the worst.
I mean, you know, maybe it's one of the bottom three churches that you read about in the
New Testament.
It's really messed up.
People in the church are arguing with one another, they've got their favorite preachers,
you know, I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos, you know, I'm of Cephas, you know, they've all
got their little niches and their little groups and, you know, and they're fighting amongst
each other.
You know, Paul says, you're babes in Christ, not only that, they've got false prophets
coming through and they're listening to false prophets that are telling them not to listen
to the Apostle Paul and so Paul has to fix his church.
I mean 1 Corinthians is all about fixing that church, it's really bad.
2 Corinthians we see that there's some improvement, but it's still not 100%.
And this is how Paul deals with them in 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse number 1.
He says, Now I, Paul, myself, beseech you, look at this, by the meekness and gentleness
of Christ.
Okay?
So does he want to deal with this church gently?
Yeah.
Okay?
It's not just his gentleness, no, he says the gentleness of Christ.
You know when Christ was walking this earth, he was gentle.
So, oh, but Pastor Kevin, how about when he's having a go at the Pharisees and the Christ
rejecting Jesus?
Yeah, all right, he's forward, he's bold, he's strong against his enemies, but listen,
when he's dealing with sinners, when he's dealing with people that he's come to save,
he's dealing them gently, gently, okay?
And so you see this, you know, Christ has this element of gentleness, Paul says, yeah,
I'm coming to you, I want you to understand that I'm coming to you with gentleness.
But then he says this, who in presence am base among you, base means I lower myself,
he's humbling himself before the people in this church, but then he says this, but being
absent and bold toward you.
So his letters are very bold toward the church.
And his letters, yeah, he's rebuking them, he's correcting them, he's calling them babes
in Christ because, you know, just because they're so messed up.
But at the same time, he says, yes, I'm bold toward you, but I come to you humbly, meekly
and with the gentleness of Jesus Christ.
So I want you to notice that, okay?
If, you know, you ought to be gentle, it's not one or the other.
It's not I better be strong, harsh and abrasive, and I've got to, you know, make sure that
I overcome that soft gentleness, kindness part of me in order to accomplish that.
You need both.
Okay?
You're dealing with a whole church, you're addressing and teaching the Bible, do it with
boldness.
You're dealing with people individually, okay, that are just, you know, trying to do the
best they can to live godly, live righteously, you deal with them gently.
Both of these things are necessary for you to function the way the Lord wants you to
function as his servant.
Can you please turn to Proverbs chapter three?
Proverbs chapter three.
We saw that the opposite of being gentle was someone that would strive, okay?
So we're called not to be people that strive, and as I said, sometimes the best way to understand
is to see what the opposite is.
Because if you can identify yourself in the opposite, then you can say, well, I definitely
need to work on this, on the gentleness in my life, okay?
Proverbs chapter three, verse 30.
The Bible reads, Strive not with a man without cause.
If he have done thee no harm.
I preached a sermon a few months ago called Mind Your Own Business.
If someone is not doing you harm, okay, don't strive for that person without cause, without
reason.
You know, there are some people, some Christians that just run to drama, they run to conflicts,
they can't wait, what's going on, who's fighting, what's the argument about, how can I get involved?
Mind your own business.
If it's got nothing to do with you, all right, and no one's doing you harm, don't strive
in that situation.
I've seen Christians do this.
I've seen pastors do this, unfortunately.
It's bad.
It does end in a bad place, a bad result.
You know, sometimes you may be driving down a road, let me just sort of get you to understand
what this might be.
You know, you're driving down the road and, you know, the traffic slows down and there's
no reason for the traffic to slow down.
And then you find out on maybe on the other side of the road there was an accident.
So you can understand on the other side of the road there's going to be slow traffic
because it is an accident.
But then you wonder, why is there slow traffic on my side when there is no accident?
You know why?
Because people naturally want to look at strife.
They're driving down the road, perfectly fine, right, the traffic, oh, there's an accident
on this side.
I better slow down to have a look, all right.
I mean, we all do that.
And so we slow down and then the car behind us slows down, the car behind us, and before
you know it, it's like, what, was there an accident on this side?
You see, within the natural man, we like drama.
There's something happened, there's some disaster, there's some strife, I want to know about
it.
God says, listen, that's not for you to get involved.
You ought to be someone that is striving to build the fruit of gentleness in your life.
Not getting involved in strife that does not belong to you.
Go to Proverbs chapter 26.
This is a more familiar proverb probably to a lot of us.
I've heard it preached a few times already.
Proverbs 26, please, and verse number 17.
Proverbs 26 and verse number 17 reads, Hear that passeth by, and meddleth with strife,
belonging not to him is like one that taketh a dog by the ears.
Wow.
Why is this in the Bible, you think?
You know why this is in the Bible?
Because God knows when there is strife that has nothing to do with us.
We want to get involved.
We want to have our say.
It's in the flesh, brethren.
Don't tell me you're not like that, because I know I'm like that.
And if I'm like that, you're like that, because we're made of the same flesh and blood.
We've got the same sinful nature.
I don't mind admitting some of my sins and faults to you, because especially when I know
we all struggle with certain things like that.
There is strife that does not belong to us.
We like to get involved.
The Bible says when you do that, it's like one that taketh a dog by the ears.
You go to a dog and start pulling at its ears, it's going to bite.
The dog doesn't like that.
It's going to bite back.
The idea there, the thought there is you're going to get hurt with mischief, with strife
that didn't even belong to you in the first place.
It wasn't causing you any harm in the first place.
If this is you, you're going to struggle developing the fruit of gentleness, because you're after
the strife.
You're excited for the strife.
You want to get involved in the strife.
That's one of the reasons I hate Facebook.
Facebook has a lot of pros, but it's also got a lot of strife.
Then you've got people getting themselves invested in a strife that doesn't even belong
to them.
Be careful if you've got social media, because don't forget, those things are forever.
You put a comment, you get involved, you say something stupid, it's on the internet forever.
All it takes is for someone to take a screenshot.
Especially if you want to become a pastor one day, you want to get into the ministry,
we saw you ought not to be someone that is involved in strife.
Be careful what you get yourself into.
You may become a pastor one day in the future, people look back, but look at this guy.
Look at his Facebook message.
Look what he wrote on YouTube.
Some great embarrassment because you got yourself involved in some argument, some strife that
did not belong to you.
No, we're called to be people that are gentle, that have this element of gentleness.
Can you please go to Proverbs 25 now, Proverbs 25 verse 8.
So you can see the Proverbs has a lot to say about strife.
Again why am I focused on strife?
Because we see that it is the opposite behaviour of someone that is gentle.
Proverbs 25 verse 8, Proverbs 25 verse 8.
The Bible reads, go not forth hastily to strive.
Again why is this in the Bible?
Ask yourself these questions.
Because God knows we hastily go to strife.
That's why.
God is a God of common sense.
He puts these things in, not just read it and just read over it, it's because he knows
we struggle in these areas and we need to be fixed in these areas.
So it says, go not forth hastily to strive, lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof,
when thy neighbour have put thee to shame.
God's telling us if we hastily get ourselves into some type of strife, that you will probably
most likely become shameful, embarrassed because of your involvement.
You did not think it through.
You rushed in a situation before weighing up the situation, before understanding what's
going on.
You said something hastily, you've acted hastily and your neighbour could cause you to be put
to shame.
Verse number 9, debate thy cause with thy neighbour himself and discover not a secret
to another, lest he that heareth it put thee to shame and thine infamy turn not away.
Brother if you have a strife with a neighbour, if you have a strife with someone in church,
what are you called to do?
debate thy cause with thy neighbour himself.
You take it one-on-one.
It's the same teaching that Christ teaches us in the New Testament about dealing with
conflict within a church.
He says if you have conflict with a brother, take it to them one-on-one and if they refuse
to hear you, then you get other people involved, okay?
Same thing, if you have a strife and God knows we're going to get into strife, again this
is why these things are in the Bible, you take it to your neighbour, hey I don't know
why we've got this strife, I don't know what the conflict is, I don't know, maybe you know,
maybe you don't know these things happen, let's sort it out.
What's the situation?
You know, I want to be someone that develops the fruit of gentleness.
If you do that, if you address the strife, okay, you are acting out of gentleness, okay?
You're developing that fruit.
Sometimes strife is okay because it forces you to know I need to fix this situation and
it's going to cause you to, you know, be gentle with that person that you're trying to develop
that peaceful resolution with, okay?
And you know, at the end of verse 10 it says, and thine infamy turn not away.
Infamy is like the word famous, but you know, usually when you use the word famous, it's
kind of, you're famous for a positive reason, well infamy is like you're famous for a negative
reason, okay?
You're infamy like maybe like a famous serial killer.
You don't really say they're famous, you say they're, you know, they've got like an infamy.
What's the word I'm looking for?
Maybe someone knows what I'm looking for.
Infamous.
Infamous, okay?
He's infamous, alright?
And that usually has a negative context to it.
You're infamous because of your strife.
You're infamous because you got involved in drama, in problems that were not your own
to get involved in.
It had nothing to do with you in the first place.
Please go to Matthew chapter 12 now.
Please go to Matthew chapter 12 in verse number 14.
Now we saw earlier that when the Apostle Paul spoke about his gentleness, he said that
it's the gentleness of Christ.
So we understand that therefore Christ operated with this gentleness.
As I said earlier, there are times, yeah, definitely where Christ stood up and preached
boldly against the wicked, against those that were religious leaders that rejected Christ.
He definitely did that.
But I also want you to notice here in Matthew chapter 12 that Jesus was careful about what
fights he would get himself into, what kind of strife he would get himself into, okay?
Christ would have to make a decision, do I get myself into this battle with these wicked
men or do I focus on the mission at hand that I have?
Sometimes he would struggle.
Sometimes he would fight.
Yes, sometimes he would do that, okay?
But I want you to notice this in Matthew chapter 12 and verse number 14.
I mean when you think about Christ's number one enemy during his ministry, wouldn't you
say it's the Pharisees?
I mean besides Satan of course, but you know the Pharisees, they were the main ones, right?
They were constantly trying to destroy the ministry of Jesus Christ.
And in verse number 14, Matthew 12, 14, the Bible reads,
Okay, so the Pharisees came together, we've got to kill Christ, we've got to destroy Christ.
Say come on Jesus, take him on, you're the God of the universe, you're the creator of
all things.
Surely you can rain down fire and destroy the wicked.
Show us your power, show us your might.
Some people think like that.
Come on Jesus, get in the fight.
How does he respond?
Verse number 15.
But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from events.
And great multitudes followed him and he healed them, sorry, he healed them all.
So Jesus goes, all right, these guys want to kill me, these guys want to fight.
Do I get into the fight?
Do I go and strive against these enemies of mine?
Or do I focus on my ministry?
I've got all these people that I need to minister to.
These people need healing, these people need to hear the words of Christ, these people
are coming here believing on me.
Do I focus on my work, do I focus on my ministry, am I gentle to these that are following me
or do I get into the battle, do I get into the strife, do I get into the fight?
What did Christ do?
He says, no, I'm going to withdraw myself away from that and I'm going to focus on the
work that God has left me to do.
Jesus Christ teaches us some great principles there, okay.
There's a time to fight, there's a time to be gentle, you know, and you need to figure
this out.
The best way to figure this out is being close to the Lord, having the Holy Spirit within
you and walking the Spirit, developing gentleness.
If you by and large are not a gentle person, like if you're not known as a gentle person,
you're most likely going to get into every fight, or at least the majority of the fights.
When you're gentle, you're more likely to assess.
Do I get into this one or do I withdraw myself from that situation and focus on what God
has for me?
You see, Christ made a decision.
These are examples for us to follow, to live after.
Okay, not only that, let's keep going to verse number 16.
He says, and charged them that they should not make him known, that he might be fulfilled,
which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying,
verse 18, behold my servants whom I have chosen, my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased.
I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall show judgment to the Gentiles.
But I want you to notice verse number 19, he shall not strive, nor cry, neither shall
any man hear his voice in the streets.
So what was the reputation of Christ?
Someone that got involved in strife, that was constantly striving against his enemies?
No, that's not, that wasn't his reputation.
But do we see him sometimes boldly calling out these false prophets and teachers?
Yes, but that's not his reputation.
His reputation was, no, this is a man that does not get involved in strife, okay?
He withdraws himself from those problems, from those arguments, and he focuses on what
God has left him to do.
Can you please go to 2 Timothy chapter 2, 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse number 14, 2
Timothy chapter 2 and verse number 14?
One thing I have noticed in my Christian life, and not only have you noticed, because I don't
want you to think, I just think negatively of other people, but I've noticed this in
my own life, all right?
As you grow in the Lord and you grow in doctrine and knowledge and understanding and, you know,
you can see false doctrine, maybe in your own church, maybe you go to church and you
see some false doctrines and, you know, you're growing in the Lord, you're maturing and you're
gaining knowledge, usually early in your Christian life you like the strife.
You really want to get involved in the fights.
Ah, pastor said something wrong.
I need to go fix him.
Ah, brother so-and-so, he's got that max, ah, I've got to correct him.
Or Facebook, ah, what, what, they wrote that on Facebook, I've got to get in there and
fix him up.
Now if that's you, I'm not having a go at you because I was like that as well.
I think a lot of people are like that.
I look at a lot of Christians as they grow, recently saved and growing and growing, right?
They haven't really developed the gentleness, they haven't developed all the fruits of the
Spirit, but they know how to fight.
Because this is natural of the flesh, the flesh likes that kind of stuff.
Even if the fight may seem righteous, okay, and yeah, sometimes the fight is righteous,
but you've got to fight in the Spirit.
You know, you've got to put on the armor of God and fight with the armor of God and not
fight with the flesh, okay, but this is a, this is a situation, and I think we all have
to go through this because it's part of our growth and development and the stuff that
God does in our lives to work in us.
And you need to be careful about this because, you know, I truly believe that blessed about
the church, and I'm not saying just me, there are other preachers here, we get a lot of
good preaching.
We get a lot of good doctrine.
We get a lot of good Bible being taught to us, you know, and we use a lot of Bible verses
and we draw back to God's Word and when we try to explain things, we try to use God's
Word as much as possible, you know, and so you get good doctrine, you get a good learning
and there's a lot of good preachers online as well that you may listen to that use a
lot of Bible, but you know what, there's a lot of churches that don't use a lot of Bibles.
You know, they're saved people, they have the gospel, these pastors, they're qualified
and they've been trained in the church and, you know, they're doing a decent job but sometimes
they're just not quite like us.
And you need to just understand that's how it is brethren, okay, and accept that and
treat these people as your brothers in the Lord with gentleness and not think that it's
my job to just go and strive and contend and argue every little point that they make that
I disagree with.
Look at 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse number 12, that's 14 sorry, 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse
14.
This is written to a pastor, Paul writing to a pastor, 2 Timothy 2.14.
The Bible reads, of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord
that they strive not about words to no profit but to the subverting of the hearers.
Okay, so I'm to charge you, I'm to instruct you not to strive about words to no profit.
That's what I'm supposed to charge you over, give you the charge, don't strive over words
to no profit.
What are you talking about?
I'm talking about brothers and sisters in the Lord that have bad terminology, that have
bad phraseology.
You know they've heard stuff from their Bible colleges, they've heard it from bad preaching
and they've just learned how to parrot information, parrot phrases, parrot words and that's because
we're holy and righteous and perfect, you know how we are, no we're not.
But we're knowledgeable and wise and well hopefully, okay, but you know we got to write
because we're, you know, we're blessed at Baptist Church and so on and so forth and
we got to fix it, we got to fix their words.
I've seen it happen a lot, okay.
Now is there a time to fix it?
You can talk to brethren, fix things, you know sort things out but you do it with gentleness,
not with striving, okay.
What am I talking about?
I'm talking about how people explain their salvation, okay.
Now if you ask me, Pastor Kevin, what do you have to do to be saved?
How do you know that you're saved?
What am I going to say?
You know more than likely I'm going to say something along the lines of, it's because
I've put my full faith and trust on Jesus Christ alone and on his finished work.
His death, burial and resurrection, he's paid for all of my sins and I'm going to heaven
because of the righteousness of Christ, I'm not going to heaven because of my own works
and my own righteousness.
I'll say something like that, okay.
And so I'm using biblical words, faith, trust, righteousness, not of works.
You guys know I'm using biblical words, okay, making things clear.
You know what, there are some saved people that when you're asking that same question
they're going to say things in a bit of a strange way.
I better jump on them and fix them and they say these things.
I better jump on them and fix them and tell them they're not saved because they haven't
said it the right way.
That's how some people react, okay.
What are some of the words that people say?
I'm sure you've heard these things, people say, I received Christ into my heart.
I'm sure we've all heard people say it and say something like that.
I know I'm saved because I received Christ in my heart.
What do you have to do to be saved?
You have to receive Christ into your heart.
You know what, there's nothing wrong with that statement in of itself.
When you get saved, you do, the Bible teaches us, Christ does live in our hearts, okay.
That is a biblical truth, alright.
Now it's not so much what they said, it's more about what they haven't said.
The question becomes, well what do you mean by receive?
You treat people gently, can you explain what you mean?
Because people have different ways of receiving Christ.
We say, well if they say, well to receive Him you just have to believe on Him.
You just have to have faith that He's done what He said He's going to do and He promised
us a home in heaven.
Then yeah, they're right.
But they might say, well you receive Him by going to church, by getting baptised, by living
a good life, but whatever, etcetera, etcetera, then it becomes worse, okay.
Now here's my point, if they say a phrase like that, it's not very clear, but you have
to ask questions with gentleness.
Can you please clarify, can you please explain what you mean by receiving?
How do you receive?
Don't just jump down that person's throat, I better strive for this person because I
haven't said it the way I would say it.
What other things do people say?
I gave my life to Jesus.
That's how I got saved, I gave my life to Jesus.
I'm sure you've heard that as well.
You know what, that's wrong.
That's not how you got saved.
Salvation is Christ giving His life to you.
Christ died for you, He gave His life, His righteousness to you.
It's not you giving your life to Jesus that saves you.
But you know what, some people say that phrase.
I gave my life to Jesus and all they mean is, I have entrusted my soul to the Lord.
That's all they mean, you know, I've entrusted, you know, Christ has my life, my eternal life
in His eternal hands and I know no matter what happens, I'm going to end up in heaven
and they use these phrases.
Look, I'm not saying it's okay to use these phrases, I'm not saying you should use these
phrases because it doesn't really answer anything.
But when people say these things, I'm just telling you, be gentle with them, ask them.
They may very well be a brother in the Lord, but you just have to ask further questions.
What about when they say, well, to be saved, you got to make Jesus your Lord and Saviour.
Well, immediately, this person believes in lordship salvation.
The fact that they said you got to make Jesus your Lord, lordship salvation, therefore,
what they're saying and, you know, this is what people tend to think, what you're saying
is you have to make Jesus your Lord, therefore, you now have to obey all His commandments,
you have to be obedient to His word, this is how you get saved.
Now, there is a doctrine called lordship salvation that teaches this exact same thing.
In order for you to be saved, you have to keep the commandments and make Him your Lord
and follow after everything that He wants you to do and that's how you get saved.
So that's wrong.
It's a false doctrine.
But just because someone says you got to make Jesus your Lord and Saviour, in of itself
is not wrong.
Because the Bible tells us, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved.
So yeah, of course, you know, to be saved, you do have to make Jesus your Lord, because
you got to make Him your God and reject whatever other lords or gods you may have and only
put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
So technically, it is correct, but I'm not going to jump down someone's throat and strive
about words to no profit.
I'm going to use gentleness.
Can you please explain?
What do you mean, make Him your Lord and Saviour?
All right.
What about, you know, some people say, well, to be saved, you got to follow after Jesus,
got to follow after Jesus.
Again, what does that sound like?
That sounds like discipleship, okay.
And sometimes they do mean discipleship.
Sometimes they do mean in order for you to be saved, you have to become a disciple.
You have to give up your former life and live a righteous life in order for you to be saved.
Again, that is a false doctrine.
That's a false gospel that will lead you to hell.
But sometimes people just say, yeah, you got to follow Jesus.
Jesus says, I am the way, the truth and the life, okay.
No man cometh unto the Father except by me.
And sometimes they say, well, you got to follow Jesus, what they say is, you know, Jesus is
my way of salvation.
And that's what they mean, okay.
But again, it's your gentleness that's going to get the information extracted from that
person to determine whether they mean something, believe that if they believe in a false doctrine,
a false gospel, or if they believe in the truth, okay.
Treat people gently, be gentle unto all men, the Bible said, okay.
So ask the questions, always ask the questions, you know, I don't want you striving over words
with no profit.
And sometimes I've seen this with Christians, I've seen reverend argue, and you know, maybe
argue is not the right word.
But you know, be a little bit at, you know, what's the word I'm looking for?
Debate.
A little debate, I don't know.
Because reverend baits are known for debate.
Striving.
Okay, let's just say striving.
About certain things, but here's the thing, they're using different terminology.
And this person is not happy, he's using that terminology.
And this person is not happy, they're using that terminology.
And now they can't, and I look behind, I go, you're both saying the same thing.
It's just you're not happy about what words you're using, you're striving over words to
no profit.
And so it's the pastor's job to tell their church, don't make strife over phraseology
and words.
You know, words change over time.
Understand that a lot of people go to churches, they're watered down, bad preaching, bad books,
bad phrases, they're not using the Bible to explain, you know, certain doctrines or
beliefs and it's easy, it's very easy.
If you want to get into fight and argue, it's so easy.
Anybody can argue and debate over words and phraseology.
Your goal ought to be, I want to develop gentleness and I want to discover what this person is
truly saying.
If they're a brother in the Lord, I'm going to treat them gently and help them to be able
to communicate with more clarity, with biblical language, what they really mean.
And if I find out this person actually does believe a false gospel, I ought to with gentleness,
ought to be able to give this person the true gospel that they may believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and be saved.
Okay?
But this has to do with gentleness, how we deal with one another.
You know, the next one I just want to bring up is the word, you know, repentance, the
topic of repentance.
You know, I've heard it said that Pastor Kevin does not believe in repentance.
You know, Pastor Kevin does not believe you have to repent to be saved.
Let me go on record to say that I believe that everybody has to repent in order to be
saved.
Okay?
I truly believe that.
The Bible tells us, you know, that God is not willing that any should perish, but that
all should come to repentance.
If that's what God wants, that's what I want.
I want all to come to repentance.
Okay?
But here's the thing.
We believe in repentance correctly and biblically defined.
Okay?
So again, you know, sometimes people will say something stupidly, not knowingly.
You know, a saved person may very well say, in order for you to be saved, you have to
turn from your sins.
You have to repent of your sins.
Because they're thinking just repentance.
Right?
Again, they've used that terminology, I'm going to jump down their throats.
I'm going to make them feel horrible.
I'm going to embarrass them and tell them, hey, that's not in the Bible.
What are you saying?
I'm going to treat them gently.
What do you mean that you have to repent of your sins?
Okay?
And there were so many people that used this phrase in so many different ways.
You know, I've confronted people gently about this topic.
Say, what do you mean?
Are you saying you have to turn from your sins?
Are you saying there are certain sins you have to give up in order for you to be saved?
No, that's not what I mean.
I mean that you just have to acknowledge you're a sinner.
Because when you acknowledge you're a sinner, now you're really, you know, you're acknowledging
that you need a saviour.
That's what I mean.
And it's like, yeah, okay, good.
You know, you're saved.
Okay?
Yes, you know, you understand what the gospel is, but still you're using a phrase that can
be misleading.
Okay?
So it's about treating people gently or they may say, well, what I mean is you just, you
know, you've got to feel the right emotions.
You've got to feel sorry for your sins.
Can you show me the Bible where it says in order for you to be saved you've got to feel
sorry for your sins?
But that's what they say.
Look, you know, and I don't think, I don't think, you know, someone that believes you've
got to feel sorry is unsaved.
You know, you're not adding works to the gospel, you're just adding like this emotion.
Like you're basically saying, well, I, when I got saved, I felt this emotion.
I felt really downcast about my sins and because I felt that way, therefore everybody else
has to feel that way.
You know, emotions are emotions.
Some people might feel great joy, some people might feel great relief, some people may feel
great sorrow, you know, for, for, for living a life that was worthless, that meant nothing
to God and they realize that, oh man, I feel bad.
But whatever your state of emotion is, what gets you saved is your faith on Christ.
Okay?
So if someone says they're going to be sorry, well, it's not that they're unsaved or they're
being wicked or something like that.
It's just that, you know, that they, they, they just, they kind of may remember how they
got saved and the emotions they felt and they just assume everybody's kind of going to feel
the same way.
It doesn't mean there's some lost heretic trying to preach them false doctrine or something
like that.
Okay?
But if someone says, yeah, yeah, yeah, in order for you to be saved, you do have to
either be willing to turn from your sins or you have to outright turn from your sins and
they actually outright basically start naming some sins.
Well, you know, if you're an alcoholic, you've got to give up on the, on the, on the drink.
Oh, if you're a fauna kitty, you have to stop living with your girlfriend.
If they start naming works, keeping the works of the law, doing the works of God, then these
people are definitely believing a false gospel.
Okay?
But again, how do you get to that point?
You use gentleness.
You don't use strife.
Use gentleness.
Okay?
And then again, gently rebuke them.
Try to get them saved.
Give them the right gospel.
Explain to them why their understanding of the gospel is incorrect or wrong.
Can you please turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter 2?
First Thessalonians chapter 2.
Can I say something without sounding boastful?
I've been able to convince a lot of my friends and other Christians on things that they were
wrong about and got them on the right place.
I've been able to do that a lot of times throughout my life.
I've never done it with strife.
Never.
I've never done it with an argument.
I've never done it with a hot head.
I've only ever been able to accomplish it with gentleness.
Being kind, polite, giving them a chance to talk, helping, you know, asking them to explain
what they mean, helping them along, using gentleness.
That is the only way I've been able to get someone from believing something wrong to
believing something right.
I've never been able to do it with a hot head, striving, arguing, using a, you know, argument,
you know, trying to win an argument.
It's never, it's never, maybe, I don't know.
I'm just telling you what I've experienced.
Maybe you've experienced something else, okay, but with my own experience, I see in order
to help people, I need to be gentle toward them, okay, and not full of strife.
First Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 7.
So Paul, now, and Silas, and there's a third person that wrote to this church, I can't
remember right now, writing to this church in Thessalonica, First Thessalonians 2 verse
7.
Look at this.
But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherishes her children.
So gentleness, how, what does this look like?
Well, we get a great illustration here, a nurse that cherishes her children.
Maybe a mother, someone who is raising little babies, sometimes we think about a mother
that nurses their child, we're talking about a mother that is, you know, breastfeeding,
you know, looking after that child, making sure that child has everything it needs, that
it's getting the food, it's getting the clothing, it's having the nappies changed, and, you
know, a mother that loves its children, her children.
That's what gentleness ought to look like in your life.
You know, that you have that much, that kind of love.
I want to help this person, I need to be gentle with them the same way a nurse is toward her
children.
Look at verse number 8.
So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not
the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us.
You know what?
If you want to fix somebody, you want to get someone saved, okay, you knock on someone's
door, random stranger, you know, you want to win them over and understand.
What did it say there?
Talk about the gospel, not the gospel of God only.
So what Paul is saying is, yeah, we were gentle with you with the gospel, but not with the
gospel only, but in your continual spiritual growth, we've been gentle with you, okay?
This is how you help people.
This is how you help people grow and develop.
Be gentle, okay?
Long suffering as well.
We've seen long suffering before.
Give people time, you know, to get right, to get their doctrines right, to get their
phraseology right, okay?
Don't be someone that thinks, oh, I'm just going to strive about this, I'm going to show
them I'm right.
It's just pride, brethren.
It's just strife, okay?
Gentleness is what we need.
I love the words of Paul there, how he speaks, how he taught this church, you know?
And the Thessalonian church were a great church, they were a mature church, okay?
Because Paul, the apostle Paul, dealt with them gently.
All right.
Can you please go to 2 Samuel?
We started with 2 Samuel with a Bible reading, 2 Samuel 22.
I just want to show you why I wanted to finish up on this one, 2 Samuel 22, because I don't
think a lot of us before this sermon thought that gentleness was really something worth
acquiring in our life.
Ah, gentleness.
Don't want to be effeminate.
Don't want to be considered soft and, well, effeminate, that's a sin, that's got nothing
to do with being gentle, okay?
But, you know, some of you kind of have that idea, right?
Oh, we've got to be manly, and it's going to be tough, it's going to be a show, you
know?
Look, we need gentleness.
Christ was gentle, okay?
There's a huge advantage to gentleness.
This is definitely a fruit of the Spirit you want to develop in your life.
2 Samuel 22 verse 1, and David spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day
that the Lord had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies and out of the hand
of Saul.
And he said, the Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer.
So we start this chapter or this psalm, you know, in strength, you know?
We're looking at the strength of David here.
He was able to defeat the enemies, he was able to be delivered from King Saul, he was
striving to kill David, and he was able to do it through the Lord.
The Lord gave him strength, the Lord gave him victory over his enemy.
David was a man of war, okay?
David was a soldier.
David took down Goliath as a young man.
He took down the lion, he took down the bear before he took down Goliath.
He took down the Philistines.
He was a great king, okay?
He set up Israel to prosper under his son Solomon.
Under Solomon, Israel was at peace, was prosperous, had a great reputation, it was a great nation,
but it was built upon the efforts of King David, okay?
He was a strong man, definitely a strong man, okay?
Definitely a powerful man because the Lord was with him.
The Lord was his rock, his fortress, his deliverer.
I want you to notice those qualities of God, strength, okay?
Fortress, strong.
Drop down to verse number 36 now.
Second Samuel 22, verse number 36.
David says, thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation, now look at the next words,
and thy gentleness have made me great.
Ah man, what made David great was the strength of the Lord, what was fighting the battles
and taking down the enemy.
You know what David says?
It was your gentleness, God.
Your gentleness has made me great.
What made me a great king?
Was it all the battles?
No, it was the gentleness of God.
I want you to be a great Christian.
I want this church to be a great church.
I want to be a great pastor.
Is there anything wrong with that?
I want us to be great people of the Lord, but you know what we need?
We need the gentleness of God.
Thy gentleness hath made me great.
And so when we look at the fruits of the Spirit, the reason it's called the fruit of the Spirit
is because the Spirit is gentle, okay?
This is what the Spirit of God is, this is what God is, he's a gentle God.
And then he wants us to be gentle as well.
Boy, you want to be great?
You want to accomplish great things?
I want to have great kids, I want to have a great family.
You know, I want what I produce in my life to be great.
You know what, just like God, with his gentleness, I also need to develop this fruit of gentleness
in my life so that what I produce will be great as well.
So is it a great quality to have?
Is it a great fruit to have?
Absolutely, because without it, you're not going to be great.
We need gentleness, okay?
So nothing wrong with being strong, nothing wrong with being courageous, nothing wrong
with being a rock and a deliverer and fighting battles, okay?
Just remember, when you are in a time of conflict or a situation where you're at loggerheads
with other people, you need to decide, is this an enemy to God?
Is this a battle that I need to fight?
Is this something where I, with gentleness, am able to transform people, you know, get
people saved or bring them along and be a better Christian or be knowledgeable more
in the Bible?
Well, that's where you have to decide these things.
There's a time to fight, but you want to do it with the strength of the Lord.
It's a law that fights for you, okay?
Otherwise, if that's a distraction, you're better off just withdrawing yourself.
No, I'm going to treat things gently.
I'm going to treat my brethren gently.
I need to treat the situation gently because I need to continue doing the work as a servant
of the Lord that he has called me to do because I want to end up being great in the eyes of
God.
Okay, let's pray.