Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope with Rick Warren.
Speaker 1: We are so glad you're here with us. Today we're
Speaker 1: going to continue our series called The Keys to a
Speaker 1: Blessed Life.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: In these messages, Rick walks through Jesus' Sermon on the
Speaker 1: Mount and shows us how to live a truly hopeful
Speaker 1: and purpose filled life. Okay, we're continuing with part two
Speaker 1: of the strength of gentleness.
Speaker 2: Number four. This is a really big one, particularly if
Speaker 2: you're looking for a husband or wife. Number four, Gentleness
Speaker 2: is attractive. The Bible says, if you want to be
Speaker 2: more attractive, you need to learn to be more gentle
Speaker 2: in your life. Now, this is true in both men
Speaker 2: and in women. Now, one of the laws of life
Speaker 2: is I attract what I am. I don't attract what
Speaker 2: I want. I attract what I am. If you want
Speaker 2: to attract the godly man, you have to be a
Speaker 2: godly woman. If you want to attract a godly woman,
Speaker 2: you have to be a godly man. You can't be
Speaker 2: some rude dude in a crude mood and say I
Speaker 2: really want one of those good women. Now, you will
Speaker 2: attract what you are, and so gentleness attracts gentleness, and
Speaker 2: godliness attracts godliness. Now, since we've got a bunch of
Speaker 2: singles in this service for some guys, let me show
Speaker 2: you this one Timothy six eleven. Here on the screen.
Speaker 2: Here's the I'm gonna give you a verse for guys
Speaker 2: and verse for guals. One Timothy six eleven. As a
Speaker 2: man of God, and I want all of you, guys
Speaker 2: to be men of God. As a man of God,
Speaker 2: pursue what God approves of, and then he gives you
Speaker 2: the five marks of a godly man. This is Paul
Speaker 2: talking to Timothy. He's mentoring his son and the minut
Speaker 2: he says, pursue what God approves of, and here are
Speaker 2: the five things that make a godly man Godliness, faith, love, endurance,
Speaker 2: and oh, by the way, gentleness, gentleness. Now he says,
Speaker 2: God approves of godliness. What is godliness? It means I'm
Speaker 2: trying to let Jesus live through me. I want to
Speaker 2: be like God. I want to be like Christ. I
Speaker 2: want to be christ Like. That's godliness. And then he says,
Speaker 2: another mark of a man of God is faith. I
Speaker 2: trust God in every area of my life. Another mark
Speaker 2: of a man of God is love. You're loving, you're unselfish.
Speaker 2: Another mark of a man of God of endurance. You
Speaker 2: don't give up, you don't quit. You have endurance, you
Speaker 2: have diligence, you have determination. And then one of the
Speaker 2: marks of a man of God is gentleness. That is
Speaker 2: strength under control, and that is attractive. Now, I don't
Speaker 2: want to belabor this point, but for you single guys,
Speaker 2: I'm want to give you a little advice tonight, because
Speaker 2: doctor Love is in the house, all right, doctor Ricky Love.
Speaker 2: Here he is. Guys, if you want to tract a
Speaker 2: good woman, you need to do what Boaz did. Who Boas?
Speaker 2: Where is he? In the old Desma? Where is it?
Speaker 2: Look it up? No, No, I'll tell you. I'll tell you.
Speaker 2: Bo As is in the Story of Ruth, named after
Speaker 2: her in the Book of Ruth. Now here's the story
Speaker 2: of Boaz. Boas is a young businessman and he is
Speaker 2: pretty successful. And one day he looks out on his
Speaker 2: field and he sees some stragglers taking from his crop. Now,
Speaker 2: he'd already harvest the crop, but there's a little left over,
Speaker 2: And a lot of times homeless people are very poor.
Speaker 2: People would go out into the fields that had already
Speaker 2: been harvested and find the little extra. This is called gleaning.
Speaker 2: And he looks out and he sees one of these
Speaker 2: people is a woman named Ruth. And she's very, very
Speaker 2: poor because her husband has died. She's a widow, she's young,
Speaker 2: but her husband has died. And Ruth decides, I'm going
Speaker 2: to take care of my aged mother in law. My
Speaker 2: husband has died. She has no legal responsibility to take
Speaker 2: care of her mother in law, but she goes, this
Speaker 2: is what God would want me to do. So I'm
Speaker 2: going to take care of my aged mother in law,
Speaker 2: even though my young husband has died. And so she's
Speaker 2: out here picking grains in the fields in bo As.
Speaker 2: This field, now, bo As could have gone out. He
Speaker 2: could have been rude, He could have been ruthless. He
Speaker 2: could have been demanding, and he could have said, get
Speaker 2: off my property. This is my property. You don't have
Speaker 2: any right to be harvesting my grain. It's my grain,
Speaker 2: and if I want to leave it out, there can.
Speaker 2: But he was not rude, he was not ruthless. He he
Speaker 2: was not crude. In fact, he was gentle with Ruth.
Speaker 2: And not only does he allow her to pick, he says,
Speaker 2: I got enough let her pick some grain on my crops.
Speaker 2: Go ahead and let her do. He then commends her.
Speaker 2: He compliments Ruth for taking care of her aged mother
Speaker 2: in law. And he compliments her, and he's very kind
Speaker 2: and if you read the whole story, he's very gentle
Speaker 2: with this total stranger. And so then Ruth responds this way.
Speaker 2: In Ruth Chapter two, verse thirteen and fourteen, Ruth said
Speaker 2: to Boaz, you're very kind to me. You have made
Speaker 2: me feel better. You have made me feel better by
Speaker 2: speaking gently to me. Pause, guys, a woman always feels
Speaker 2: better when you speak gently to her, when you're not
Speaker 2: in a hurry, when you're not rushing, you're not rude,
Speaker 2: you're not worseful. A woman always feels better when you
Speaker 2: speak gently to her. You have made me feel better
Speaker 2: by speaking gently to me, and so it's going good.
Speaker 2: So Boas invites her at the lunch. And then at lunchtime,
Speaker 2: Boaz says to Ruth, come have a piece of bread
Speaker 2: with me and dip it in the sauce. Now you
Speaker 2: thought fondue was Swedish two thousand years before anybody said
Speaker 2: the word fondu. Boas is dipping in the sauce with Ruth.
Speaker 2: And it says then Boaz passed her some roasted grain
Speaker 2: to eat, little granola, and she ate it until she
Speaker 2: was satisfied, and she still had food left her. He
Speaker 2: gives her a doggie bag. Now this is a good thing.
Speaker 2: He's being kind, he's being gentle. Now here's an interesting
Speaker 2: thing out of that simple is it? Because he was kind,
Speaker 2: Because he was gentle, they end up becoming an item,
Speaker 2: falling in love and getting married. Now why is that
Speaker 2: story even in the Bible? Because Ruth was not even Jewish,
Speaker 2: and it was illegal for a Jewish man Boaz to
Speaker 2: marry a non Jewish woman, but he did, and God
Speaker 2: had a plan in it. And in Matthew chapter one,
Speaker 2: where it gives the genealogy of Jesus Christ the Messiah,
Speaker 2: there are four women mentioned in that genealogy and one
Speaker 2: of them is not even Jewish. Her name is Ruth.
Speaker 2: And God used that marriage as one of the marriages
Speaker 2: to bring the Messiah into the world. And it all
Speaker 2: happened because Boaz was gentle with a woman he didn't
Speaker 2: even know. Here's the point. If Boaz had been ruthless,
Speaker 2: he would have been ruth less. I've waited all week
Speaker 2: to share that with you. Okay, come on, that's pretty good, right, Okay.
Speaker 2: If Boaz had been ruthless, he would have been ruth
Speaker 2: less and all of that history would not have happened.
Speaker 2: But it all started with him just being gentle. Would
Speaker 2: you write this down? Gentle Men are gentlemen. Gentlemen are gentlemen.
Speaker 2: The way you become a gentleman is by being gentle.
Speaker 2: Now that's for the guys. Let me talk to you
Speaker 2: women for just a minute. Gentleness is attractive, not just
Speaker 2: on a man, but generalist is attractive in women too.
Speaker 2: One Peter, chapter three, verse four says this, talking to women.
Speaker 2: You should be known for the beauty that comes from within,
Speaker 2: the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which
Speaker 2: is so precious to God. Now I want you to
Speaker 2: circle the word unfading. God says, I want you to
Speaker 2: focus on unfading beauty. I hate to tell you this, ladies,
Speaker 2: but your beauty is going to fade. In fact, all
Speaker 2: men and all women our beauty. Faith Some of us,
Speaker 2: our beauty start fading about year one. We recute as babies.
Speaker 2: But he says, there is an unfading beauty that is
Speaker 2: attractive and what is that unfading beauty that is attractive,
Speaker 2: the beauty of a gentle spirit. Gentleness is attractive. Number five.
Speaker 2: The fifth reason why you want to learn this quality
Speaker 2: in your life is that gentleness communicates love. Gentleness communicates love,
Speaker 2: It diffuses conflict, it disarms critics, it's persuasive, it's attractive,
Speaker 2: and gentleness communicates love. Guys, those you her husbands and
Speaker 2: are married, the quickest way to improve your marriage. The
Speaker 2: quickest way to improve your marriage is to start talking
Speaker 2: to your wife more gently. It'll do wonders if you'll
Speaker 2: begin to talk to your wife in a more gentle way. Colossians,
Speaker 2: Chapter three, Verse nineteen. Husbands, love your wives and be
Speaker 2: gentle with them. Any fool can be selfish, any fool
Speaker 2: can be rough, any fool can be rude. But gentlemen
Speaker 2: aren't gentle men. Now this is true not only in marriage.
Speaker 2: The key a great marriage is simply the union of
Speaker 2: two great forgivers, because you're going to hurt each other
Speaker 2: a lot in life. I've been married to Kay thirty
Speaker 2: eight years. I've heard her so many times, and she's
Speaker 2: hurt me so many times. But we're both great forgivers
Speaker 2: and that's part of gentleness. Now it's not only a
Speaker 2: key to effective marriage. Gentleness you're going to need this
Speaker 2: someday is the key to effective parenting. Never discipline, I said,
Speaker 2: out of anger or out of frustration, but always gently
Speaker 2: out of love Fiesian six four. Fathers, Do not irritate
Speaker 2: your children. Do not provoke your children to anger. Now
Speaker 2: they don't do things that make them intentionally upset. Do
Speaker 2: not exasperate your children to resent them. What does that mean.
Speaker 2: It means don't raise the standard so high there's no
Speaker 2: way they can meet it. You know, you ask for ces,
Speaker 2: and you ask for you know, be's, and they get c's.
Speaker 2: Then you ask for bees and they get bees. And then
Speaker 2: you ask for a's. You want straight a's. And don't
Speaker 2: exasperate your kids asking for perfection in their life. But
Speaker 2: rear them tenderly, in other words, gently rear them tenderly,
Speaker 2: gently in the training and in the discipline, and in
Speaker 2: the council of the Lord. I can honestly say to
Speaker 2: you that I never remember my father ever raising his
Speaker 2: voice against me growing up. Not one time did you
Speaker 2: ever get angry? Of course he did. Was he ever
Speaker 2: upset with me? Of course he was upset. Did I
Speaker 2: ever really blow it? And have every reason for him
Speaker 2: to get it at many many times, almost a daily basis.
Speaker 2: But he was a gentle man. He had strength under control,
Speaker 2: and he would not yell at me. Gentleness communicates love.
Speaker 2: Number six. This is an important Gentleness earns respect. Proverbs eleven,
Speaker 2: verse sixteen. Women. If you want to be respected as
Speaker 2: a woman, here's what the Bible says. A woman of
Speaker 2: gentle grace will be respected. A woman of gentle grace
Speaker 2: will be respected. That's also true of men. But you know,
Speaker 2: when I think of that verse, a woman of grace,
Speaker 2: general grace will be respected, I think a mother Teresa.
Speaker 2: Mother Teresa was this little, I mean, diminutive, barely, you know,
Speaker 2: I don't know, four half four and a half feet,
Speaker 2: maybe five feet tall at the most. I don't think
Speaker 2: she was even that tall, quite frail, quite small, diminutive,
Speaker 2: little Romanian Nune. But she could walk into the United
Speaker 2: States Congress and put the fear of God in every
Speaker 2: power broker in that room. Why Because gentlenscerns respect, and
Speaker 2: she was earned that respect. Gentleness, by the way, is
Speaker 2: a prerequisite to leadership. If you want to be a leader,
Speaker 2: in any area of life, you're gonna have to learn
Speaker 2: what we're talking about tonight. If you want to be
Speaker 2: a leader in the church, if you want to be
Speaker 2: a leader in government, if you want to be a
Speaker 2: leader in business, if you want to be a leader
Speaker 2: in your home, if you want to be a leader
Speaker 2: in your community, in your school, or in any other organization.
Speaker 2: Every great leader is a gentle leader. The greatest leaders
Speaker 2: of all time were the most gentle, Jesus being the
Speaker 2: supreme example. But for instance, the greatest president in our
Speaker 2: history was Abraham Lincoln. No one was more gentle than
Speaker 2: Abraham Lincoln. And he even showed gentleness in the way
Speaker 2: he treated the defeated Southern states with respect and brought
Speaker 2: them back in in a gentle way. If he hadn't
Speaker 2: been a gentleman, that we haven't divided nation. Gandhi was
Speaker 2: a gentle person. Martin Luther King was a gentle person.
Speaker 2: George Washington was a gentleman. He was truly known as
Speaker 2: a gentleman. And great leaders are gentle You know, there's
Speaker 2: a story in the Bible that you really ought to
Speaker 2: know about, and it's the story of a guy named
Speaker 2: Riha Bohm. In the Bible, there was a guy named
Speaker 2: King David who united all twelve tribes of Israel and
Speaker 2: they became one nation. And together the twelve tribes became
Speaker 2: quite powerful, and they had a lot of land, and
Speaker 2: they were very strong. It was the apex of the
Speaker 2: power Solomon had, I mean Abraham David had a son
Speaker 2: named Solomon. Solomon expanded the empire of Israel and united
Speaker 2: the tribes even more, and they were at the greatest
Speaker 2: power at that point in history. They were the most
Speaker 2: powerful nation at that time. Solomon was the wisest man
Speaker 2: in the world. He was the wealthiest man in the world,
Speaker 2: and he was the most powerful man in the world.
Speaker 2: And he had this great united kingdom. And then Solomon
Speaker 2: dies and he turns this enormous, huge kingdom to his
Speaker 2: young son named Rhabone. Ria Boham had no experience in
Speaker 2: leadership at all, and so he starts by doing the
Speaker 2: right thing, and then he does the wrong thing. He
Speaker 2: starts by going to the older leaders of the nation.
Speaker 2: They are called the elders, and Ria Bohem goes that, look,
Speaker 2: I'm just a young guy. I don't know anything about leadership,
Speaker 2: and I'm thrust in this position. Would you guys, tell
Speaker 2: me what do I need to do to earn the
Speaker 2: respect of the nation and be the kind of leader
Speaker 2: my father Solomon and my grandfather David were. And he
Speaker 2: did the right thing. He listened. He went to the elders,
Speaker 2: the wise, and you should be listening to older men
Speaker 2: and older women in your life, listening to them always
Speaker 2: at every stage of your life. And the elders of
Speaker 2: the nation say to Ria Boem, I'll tell you what,
Speaker 2: if you'll just do two things, the people will follow
Speaker 2: you anywhere. First if you genuinely serve them and you
Speaker 2: show that you're there to meet their needs. And second,
Speaker 2: if you always speak to them gently. Don't do a
Speaker 2: power surge, don't do a power grab, don't be on
Speaker 2: an ego trip. Speak to them gently. He said, these
Speaker 2: people will follow you anywhere You'll they'll be putty in
Speaker 2: your hands. They'll do whatever you ask them to do
Speaker 2: as leaders. Now, that's the good thing he did. The
Speaker 2: bad thing is he paid no attention to the advice
Speaker 2: of the elders. And so then he goes to all
Speaker 2: the young guys. He grew up with all of his peers,
Speaker 2: and he says, what do you guys think I should
Speaker 2: do now. They weren't any wiser than he was, They
Speaker 2: had no more experience than he did. So he says
Speaker 2: to his friends, young friends, what do you think I
Speaker 2: should do as the new leader of this nation? And
Speaker 2: the young men gave him the exact opposite advice. They said,
Speaker 2: you got to prove that you are in authority. You
Speaker 2: got to prove you have the right to be king.
Speaker 2: You got to be tough, you got to be hard,
Speaker 2: You got to do me demanding. You need to lay
Speaker 2: down the law right now and let everybody know that
Speaker 2: you're in charge, and you can't. You have to be
Speaker 2: on and you need to prove. Because you're young, you're
Speaker 2: going to need to prove that you are the authority
Speaker 2: and the leader. And that's exactly what he followed that advice.
Speaker 2: You know what happened. The whole nation rebelled. They went
Speaker 2: into riots and chaos and eventually civil war, and ten
Speaker 2: of the twelve tribes of Israel split from Rear Boham's
Speaker 2: kingdom and started a whole new kingdom. And that was
Speaker 2: the end of the United Israel. And from then on
Speaker 2: they have no more power as a people. Why because
Speaker 2: Ria Bohom refused to be gentle. It was just a
Speaker 2: stupid thing. Instead, he threw his weight around. Listen, anytime
Speaker 2: you have to stand up in front of the group
Speaker 2: of people and says excuse me, everybody in the business room,
Speaker 2: in a clubhouse, or in a boardroom, anytime you say
Speaker 2: excuse me, I am the leader. If you have to
Speaker 2: tell the people you're a leader, you ain't. If you
Speaker 2: have to tell him, you're not. It he who thinketh,
Speaker 2: he leadeth, and hath no one following him is only
Speaker 2: taking a walk. So leadership is earned, it is learned,
Speaker 2: and it is discerned. It is never demanded. If you
Speaker 2: demand that you're the leader, you're not a leader. You're
Speaker 2: a dictator. And that's a big difference. There's even being
Speaker 2: a boss and a leader. A leader leads by example
Speaker 2: and leads by influence. Now, gentleness earns respect, and the
Speaker 2: more gentle you are, the more respected you're going to
Speaker 2: be as a leader. The greatest leader in the Bible was,
Speaker 2: of course Moses. Moses liberated Israelites from four hundred years
Speaker 2: of slavery. He took on the most powerful men in
Speaker 2: the world at that time, Pharaoh let my people go.
Speaker 2: He had nothing but God on his side, and that
Speaker 2: was enough. And he was fearless, and he was unafraid
Speaker 2: to go speak truth to power. And yet, here's what
Speaker 2: the Bible says about Moses. The greatest leader in the
Speaker 2: Bible numbers chapter twelve, verse three. Moses was a very
Speaker 2: meek and gentle man. In fact, he was more gentle
Speaker 2: than anyone else on the face of the earth. This
Speaker 2: is why you can understand Meekness is not weakness, Gentleness
Speaker 2: is not weakness. In the Bible, there are only two
Speaker 2: people in the entire Bible who were called meek or gentle,
Speaker 2: only two in the entire Bible. You know who they are,
Speaker 2: Moses and Jesus. Neither of them were weak. Jesus knew
Speaker 2: how to call the shots and turn the tables upside
Speaker 2: down when he needed to, and you know, turn over
Speaker 2: the money changers. And he had no problem being strong.
Speaker 2: He was strength under control. Here's the amazing thing. Moses
Speaker 2: is the only other man in the Bible called meek.
Speaker 2: And yet do you know what moses persistent sin was.
Speaker 2: He had an anger management problem. Moses had a temper,
Speaker 2: a violent temper. In fact, it is moses temper that
Speaker 2: got in trouble throughout his entire life. One day Moses
Speaker 2: got so mad, got so angry he killed an Egyptian.
Speaker 2: He murdered a guy out of anger. That's pretty angry.
Speaker 2: Another time, God gave him the Ten Commandments up on
Speaker 2: Mount Sinai. He came down and he saw all the
Speaker 2: people and they were all, like, you know, having an orgy.
Speaker 2: And he got so angry at that. He throws down
Speaker 2: the ten Commandments that God had made for him and
Speaker 2: they break and God says, you're making the second set, buddy,
Speaker 2: it's true. And he had to go back up and
Speaker 2: he had to carve personally the second set. God had
Speaker 2: given him the first set, but he broke him out
Speaker 2: of his anger. Another time, God said that people were thirsty.
Speaker 2: He said, well, I want you to speak to the
Speaker 2: rock and water will come out of He says, no, Lord,
Speaker 2: we've always done it another way. I want to do
Speaker 2: it in the traditional way, and he struck the rock.
Speaker 2: He got angry and struck the rock. It was anger
Speaker 2: that kept Moses out of the Promised Land. She had
Speaker 2: a lifelong problem with anger. How the guy has a
Speaker 2: lifelong problem with anger be the only other guy in
Speaker 2: the Bible called gentle here's the reason, and this should
Speaker 2: give hope to you who struggle with anger management. Moses
Speaker 2: was teachable, and when people spoke to him about areas
Speaker 2: of his life that needed to be changing, he didn't
Speaker 2: get angry back at that. He learned from them. Now
Speaker 2: you may have a struggle controlling your temper, The real
Speaker 2: issue is not that. The real issue is are you teachable?
Speaker 2: And when somebody points out that you have a temper problem,
Speaker 2: do you humbly listen and respond with gentleness or do
Speaker 2: you get mad at that too and have a hissy
Speaker 2: fit and a cow. Moses was meeking because he was teachable.
Speaker 1: You know, people are being transformed by these messages. In fact,
Speaker 1: here's Rick with a letter from one of our listeners today.
Speaker 2: I've got a quick note from a listener in Minneapolis.
Speaker 2: His name is Bill, and Bill wrote to me, Rick,
Speaker 2: I want to let you know that I prayed with
Speaker 2: you this morning, accepting God into my life. Wow. That's great.
Speaker 2: Daily Hope has become the way that I start each
Speaker 2: day listening to your podcast. So much has changed in
Speaker 2: my life over the past year. I had a job loss,
Speaker 2: I had a transition, I had a divorce, my dad passed,
Speaker 2: away cancer and my faith all in the same year.
Speaker 2: I'm so thankful for all that you do. So Bill,
Speaker 2: I want to tell you, I know you've been going
Speaker 2: through some really tough times this past year, but there's
Speaker 2: no greater news than hearing that you've accepted Jesus into
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