Speaker 1: Today, we're in part three of the series on Jesus'
Speaker 1: eight keys to living a blessed life.
Speaker 2: They're often called the Beatitudes.
Speaker 1: That the first eight verses of the most important sermon
Speaker 1: ever preached on planet Earth, the Sermon on the Mount
Speaker 1: in Matthew chapter five, Verse five, Jesus says this the
Speaker 1: third key to God's blessing on your life. God blesses
Speaker 1: those who are gentle. Look at that, God blesses those
Speaker 1: who are gentle.
Speaker 2: And then here's the promise. The whole earth will belong
Speaker 2: to them. Are you kidding me?
Speaker 1: That's about the most extravagant statement ever made. The whole
Speaker 1: earth will belong to anybody who's gentle. Do I really
Speaker 1: believe that?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 1: I wouldn't except Jesus said it, And Jesus doesn't lie.
Speaker 1: Jesus said, I am the truth. Not I have the truth.
Speaker 1: I teach the truth to point the truth. I am
Speaker 1: the truth. So if Jesus says, God blesses those who
Speaker 1: are gentle, the whole earth will belong to them, guess
Speaker 1: what I believe that he's saying. Somehow locked up in
Speaker 1: this third key of blessing is the key that when
Speaker 1: you learn what it really means to be gentle. The
Speaker 1: world's yours. I mean, it's your apple, it's it's you're
Speaker 1: You're in charge, just not driving you.
Speaker 2: You're driving it. Now.
Speaker 1: In our hard driving, ego driven, market driven culture, you
Speaker 1: don't hear a whole lot about gentleness. And the reason
Speaker 1: why is we don't understand what it really means to
Speaker 1: be gentle. We think gentleness means weakness, and God says
Speaker 1: absolutely not. The gentle are the strongest people on the planet,
Speaker 1: and the earth will be theirs. It's the weak people
Speaker 1: who are arrogant. It's the weak people who are prideful.
Speaker 1: It's the weak people who are pushy and rude and
Speaker 1: mean and gossip. Those are weak people, he said. The
Speaker 1: truly strong people in life are the gentle, and the
Speaker 1: world will be theirs. Now, I want you to write
Speaker 1: down a definition. This is not the first fill in,
Speaker 1: so don't put it on that line. He's gonna have
Speaker 1: to write it somewhere else.
Speaker 2: On the outline.
Speaker 1: But let me give you a true definition of gentleness.
Speaker 1: It's here on the screen. Gentleness is strength under control. Gentleness,
Speaker 1: the Bible teaches real gentleness is not weakness, but rather
Speaker 1: it's strength under control. A gentle person does not over react.
Speaker 1: A gentle person is not driven by their own emotions.
Speaker 1: A gentle person is not someone who just is so
Speaker 1: moody and anything can let them fly off the handle.
Speaker 1: Gentleman person is strength under control. The Greek word in
Speaker 1: the Bible for gentleness is the word pratase pratase In
Speaker 1: the old translations of the Bible. In English, it is
Speaker 1: translated as the word meek meek. Now nobody uses that
Speaker 1: word anymore because meek has become a synonym for weak,
Speaker 1: and gentleness or protease is anything but weak. In fact,
Speaker 1: the word pratase or gentleness in the Bible was actually
Speaker 1: used to refer to a wild.
Speaker 2: Stallion that had been tamed.
Speaker 1: If you go out into the fields or in the
Speaker 1: hills and you find a wild stallion who's strong and unbridled,
Speaker 1: and they have enormous strength, and they could kick you
Speaker 1: and kill you pretty quickly. But if you bring that
Speaker 1: stallion back and you tame it, then the strength is
Speaker 1: brought under control. The strength is bottled up for the
Speaker 1: master's use, and now it's useful. A tamed horse is
Speaker 1: no less strong than a wild horse. It has just
Speaker 1: as much strength. It can go just as fast. But
Speaker 1: a tamed horse, a proud taste horse, a meek horse,
Speaker 1: a gentle horse, is one that it is strength under control.
Speaker 2: It is bottled up for the master's use.
Speaker 1: And when you learn true gentleness as a man of God,
Speaker 1: when you learn true gentleness as a woman of God,
Speaker 1: it doesn't mean you're weak. It doesn't mean you're a doormat,
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean you're any of those things that you
Speaker 1: might think meekness or gentleness means. It means you're not overreacting,
Speaker 1: you're in control of your emotions, and you have strength
Speaker 1: under control.
Speaker 2: Now to day.
Speaker 1: I want us to look at the strength of gentleness,
Speaker 1: this third key to being blessed by God in your life,
Speaker 1: and specifically, I want to give you eight benefits what
Speaker 1: the Bible says eight benefits of learning gentleness, so that
Speaker 1: this week you'll actually begin to work on this quality
Speaker 1: in your life. Because once you understand what this quality
Speaker 1: will do in your life, you're gonna go I want
Speaker 1: to be a gentle man, or I want to be
Speaker 1: a gentle woman because it brings so many blessings in
Speaker 1: your life.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna give you eight so we're.
Speaker 1: Gonna have to write quick take notes, real quick.
Speaker 2: Number one.
Speaker 1: Let's get right into it. How learning to be gentle
Speaker 1: will bless your life? Number one. The Bible teaches gentleness
Speaker 1: diffuses conflict. Gentleness diffuses conflict, It de escalates anger, It
Speaker 1: curbs anger, It difuses the time bomb in any relationship
Speaker 1: that's about to explode. Gentleness is an antidote to anger,
Speaker 1: the Bible says in Proverbs fifteen, verse one, A gentle
Speaker 1: answer turns away wrath, but.
Speaker 2: A harsh word stirs up anger.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've noticed this or not, but
Speaker 1: it is tendency of human beings. You and I tend
Speaker 1: to mimic the emotions of people across from us. And
Speaker 1: the reason we do this is because there's created in
Speaker 1: your brains. What are now we now know about this.
Speaker 1: We didn't even know about this years ago. We're in
Speaker 1: your brain. Are things called mirror neurons in your brain,
Speaker 1: and mirror neurons allows you to sympathize and also allow
Speaker 1: you to mirror back what other people feel. So, for instance,
Speaker 1: if somebody gets angry at you, you get angry back.
Speaker 1: If somebody gets upset, you get upset back. If somebody
Speaker 1: is really depressed, you hang around them long enough, you
Speaker 1: get depressed. On the other side, hand, if somebody's energetic,
Speaker 1: you get energetic. That's part of the system. Now, the
Speaker 1: Bible says, a gentle answer turns away wrath, but a
Speaker 1: harsh word stirs up anger. Let me give you a
Speaker 1: little tip that will save you a lot of problems
Speaker 1: and a lot of heartache and a lot of conflicts
Speaker 1: in your life. When other people raise their voice, you
Speaker 1: lower yours. That simple tip will save you from an
Speaker 1: enormous amount of conflict in your marriage and your parenting,
Speaker 1: and your friendships and at work. When other people raise
Speaker 1: your voice, you need to learn to automatically lower yours.
Speaker 1: That's called strength under control. See what happens is usually
Speaker 1: when somebody raises their voice against you, you raise your
Speaker 1: voice back, and then they raise their voice higher, and
Speaker 1: you raise your voice higher, and pretty soon it's way escalated,
Speaker 1: way up here. That means you're out of control of
Speaker 1: your emotions. Strength under control gentleness means that when they
Speaker 1: raise their emotions, you lower yours, and you're not going
Speaker 1: to mimic and mock them. Here's a good verse. You're
Speaker 1: gonna need someday. Maybe some of you need it this week.
Speaker 1: Ecclesiastes ten to four. If your boss is angry with you,
Speaker 1: don't quit. If your boss is angry with you, don't quit.
Speaker 1: A gentle a quiet, gentle spirit can overcome even great mistakes.
Speaker 2: You see, when your.
Speaker 1: Boss rips one on you and just let her let it,
Speaker 1: let's it rip and just kind of vomits on you
Speaker 1: bad and really gets mad at you, you need to
Speaker 1: first realize it may not be anything have anything to
Speaker 1: do with you. They may have just got a bad
Speaker 1: phone call. They may receiving pressure from their boss. They
Speaker 1: may have a bad situation at home, They may eate
Speaker 1: a bad pizza.
Speaker 2: It could be any number of things.
Speaker 1: And now they're turning to the person's closest to them,
Speaker 1: which is somebody who works for them, and they just
Speaker 1: kind of vent on you. And a lot of times
Speaker 1: that has nothing to do with you. And he says,
Speaker 1: when your boss gets angry at you, he don't get
Speaker 1: angry back.
Speaker 2: But be don't walk away either.
Speaker 1: Just hang in there, because it says a quiet spirit
Speaker 1: can overcome even great mistakes. Number two, Gentleness not only
Speaker 1: difuses anger. Gentleness this is a big one disarms critics.
Speaker 1: It disarms critics. Now, the more successful you are in life,
Speaker 1: the more critics.
Speaker 2: You're going to have.
Speaker 1: If you don't do anything with your life, nobody's going
Speaker 1: to criticize you. The only way to not be criticized
Speaker 1: do nothing, say nothing, be nothing. But if you actually
Speaker 1: stand for something instead of falling for anything, you're going
Speaker 1: to be criticized. Friends, if you're having trouble staying consistent
Speaker 1: in your Bible study and quiet time, one thing you
Speaker 1: can do is have the Daily Hope devotional and podcast
Speaker 1: emailed to you every single day. Did you know that?
Speaker 1: Now each devotional, each daily devotional gives you a Bible
Speaker 1: verse and both a written and an audio teaching about
Speaker 1: that verse. Now I mention this because that's exactly what
Speaker 1: one of my listeners has done. Marla wrote me, and
Speaker 1: she says that getting Daily Hope devotionals have helped deepen
Speaker 1: her relationship with the Lord and helped her be more consistent.
Speaker 1: Marla writes this, Hello Pastor Rick, I've been a Christian
Speaker 1: all my life, but I felt lost for the past
Speaker 1: few years. But a friend of mine told me about
Speaker 1: your Daily Hope emails, and I've been getting them for
Speaker 1: about a month now. I read them every morning, and
Speaker 1: my meditation and prayer practices have become more regular and
Speaker 1: definitely more meaningful. My relationship to God has grown because
Speaker 1: of you and the Daily Hope ministry. I now listen
Speaker 1: to your podcast every day on my way to or
Speaker 1: from work, and I love it. They have really helped
Speaker 1: me as a mother, as a wife, as a boss,
Speaker 1: and as a friend. So I'm going to share them
Speaker 1: with my oldest daughter, who's nineteen. She's trying to find
Speaker 1: friends and find her way in college. So thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you well, thank you, Marla, thank you
Speaker 1: for writing. I'm so encouraged to hear how God uses
Speaker 1: Daily Hope to change lives and help people just like
Speaker 1: you grow closer to Him. You know, I think it's
Speaker 1: great that you are sharing your Daily Hope podcast with
Speaker 1: your daughter, and I would invite all of our listeners
Speaker 1: to do this. I have no doubt that she is
Speaker 1: going to learn to lean on the Lord, and as
Speaker 1: she does that, she'll develop biblical discernment that means knowing
Speaker 1: which way to go and who to relate to, and
Speaker 1: it's going to help her find her way in college.
Speaker 1: All of these podcasts are free. And the reason we're
Speaker 1: able to do that is because the generous gifts from
Speaker 1: listeners like you. So those of you who are supporting
Speaker 1: us financially a million.
Speaker 2: Thanks.
Speaker 1: You're making a difference, You're changing lives. Your gifts are
Speaker 1: causing people to come into the Kingdom, grow in Christ
Speaker 1: and become all God intended for them to be.
Speaker 3: Hey, would you like to help support the ministry of
Speaker 3: Daily Hope. Well, it's easy, just scan the QR code
Speaker 3: or go to dailyhopetv dot com.
Speaker 1: Now, how do you handle the critics in your life?
Speaker 1: People who gossip against you at school, at work, in
Speaker 1: your neighborhood, the people who malign you, who say bad
Speaker 1: things against against you. Here's the point. When you respond
Speaker 1: in gentleness, it disarms your critics. Why, it actually disappoints them.
Speaker 1: Because when somebody criticizes you on social media, they're trolling friends,
Speaker 1: They're they're trolling. They want to hook you, and they
Speaker 1: want you and they they're expecting you to get mad back.
Speaker 1: They're expecting you and and they want you to be
Speaker 1: defensive and they want you to get angry. Now, let
Speaker 1: me explain the psychology behind this. There is actually an
Speaker 1: anger addiction that is as real as any other addiction.
Speaker 1: Some people are addicted to the feeling of anger. It's
Speaker 1: the only way they feel alive. And they live in
Speaker 1: such a depressed state. They're living in so much depression
Speaker 1: in their life. The only way they can actually feel good,
Speaker 1: or feel alive, or feel energetic is to get mad
Speaker 1: at somebody. Those people are always looking for a fight.
Speaker 1: You know who I'm talking about. Don't look at them,
Speaker 1: but you know who they are. Maybe you had a
Speaker 1: parent like that, you know, maybe you married somebody like that.
Speaker 1: Maybe I had a boyfriend like that, And it's just like,
Speaker 1: why are you looking for a fight? Because some people
Speaker 1: actually don't feel very good until they get angry. And
Speaker 1: when they get angry, then what happens is it energizes
Speaker 1: them and they.
Speaker 2: Feel a whole lot better. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1: So you cannot let that let them pull you in,
Speaker 1: because somebody's going to say something to you on Instagram
Speaker 1: or Google Plus or Facebook or something, Twitter or something,
Speaker 1: and if you respond, they go up hook them.
Speaker 2: Now, I'm just gonna reel them in, and.
Speaker 1: They feel so good because they love getting in a fight.
Speaker 1: What do you do in those situations? One Corinthians four thirteen.
Speaker 1: Paul says, here's what he does. We respond gently when
Speaker 1: evil things are said about us. In other words, we
Speaker 1: don't retaliate, We don't get back. You see, if somebody
Speaker 1: hurts you, that puts them below you. If you get even,
Speaker 1: it puts you even. But if you respond gently, it
Speaker 1: actually puts you morally superior to them. And Paul says,
Speaker 1: we respond gently even when evil things are said about us.
Speaker 1: Titus two eight says this, your conversation should be so sensible,
Speaker 1: in other words, it's gentle, it's kind, it's sensitive and
Speaker 1: sensible that anyone who wants to argue, in other words,
Speaker 1: with you will be ashamed because there won't be anything
Speaker 1: to criticize in.
Speaker 2: Anything you say.
Speaker 1: Did you know that, as your pastor, I am forbidden
Speaker 1: by God to get into arguments. There are multiple passages
Speaker 1: in a scripture that says a pastor must never argue. Now,
Speaker 1: I know a lot of pastors who do, and they
Speaker 1: just violate that scripture. But the Bible says a pastor
Speaker 1: should never get caught brought into a heated argument or debate,
Speaker 1: and says it says, I am commanded by God to
Speaker 1: be gentle in every situation. So this is equality I've
Speaker 1: had to learn in ministry. Let me show you verse.
Speaker 1: It's up there on the screen two Timothy, two twenty five.
Speaker 1: This is one of many, it says, and the Lord's servant.
Speaker 1: It's talking about pastors. It gives the qualifications for being
Speaker 1: a pastor, and it says one of them is the
Speaker 1: Lord's servant must never quarrel.
Speaker 2: Look at that. I am not allowed to quarrel according
Speaker 2: to the Bible.
Speaker 1: Instead, he must be kind and gentle with everyone he
Speaker 1: agrees with. No, he must be kind and gentle with
Speaker 1: everyone in his political party. Now then say that he
Speaker 1: must be kind and gentle with everyone who is a Christian.
Speaker 1: And then say that it says with everyone. Does that
Speaker 1: include other religions? Yes, includes atheists, Yes, people with the
Speaker 1: lifestyle I disagree with. Yes, I am to be kind
Speaker 1: and gentle with everybody.
Speaker 2: I am forbidden to quarrel with anybody.
Speaker 1: It says they must be able to teach effectively a pastor,
Speaker 1: and they must be patient with difficult people.
Speaker 2: That means you. Then it says.
Speaker 1: It is those who oppose him. He must gently instruct gently.
Speaker 1: There's that word gentle. He must gently instruct in the
Speaker 1: hope that God will grant them repentance, leading them to.
Speaker 2: Know the truth.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've noticed this or not, but
Speaker 1: I get criticized every once in a while, in fact
Speaker 1: all the time, and most of it's just total nonsense.
Speaker 1: It makes no sense at all. And when I read it,
Speaker 1: I go, why would they criticize me for that? That's
Speaker 1: not true. I know the stuff they should criticize me.
Speaker 1: They should ask me, and then they could criticize the
Speaker 1: real things that I'm worthy of criticism about. But I
Speaker 1: am not allowed to retaliate in any way. It's why
Speaker 1: I never ever ever fight back with critics.
Speaker 2: Never. I just don't do it.
Speaker 1: Why the Bible says gentleness disarms critics, and so I
Speaker 1: constantly ask God for a tough skin and a tender heart.
Speaker 1: And that's what you need to do. You need to say, God,
Speaker 1: give me a tough skin. So when people say stuff
Speaker 1: about me, it just rolls off my back. I don't
Speaker 1: let it bother me. But I have a tender heart.
Speaker 1: You don't want a tough heart. You want a tender
Speaker 1: heart and a tough skin. What's really funny is because
Speaker 1: God says blesses God blesses those who are gentle. The
Speaker 1: whole earth belongs to them. Some of my biggest critics
Speaker 1: have actually become some of my best friends because I
Speaker 1: would not retaliate. I only responded in gentleness. Here's a
Speaker 1: real important one. Gentleness is persuasive. The Bible says gentleness
Speaker 1: is persuasive. Now, this is extremely important if you happen
Speaker 1: to make a career in sales.
Speaker 2: If you're a.
Speaker 1: Salesman, a saleswoman you have to sell a product or
Speaker 1: a service, you definitely need to learn gentleness. Why because
Speaker 1: the hard sell no longer works. It used to be
Speaker 1: the way you got people's attention in the world was
Speaker 1: to be the loudest advertisement. And all you had to
Speaker 1: do was be loud and fast and hard and strong,
Speaker 1: and people go, Okay, I'll buy I'll buy a vacuum cleaner.
Speaker 1: You know, okay, i'll buy your computer, I'll buy your car.
Speaker 1: None of that works anymore. I mean, you know, there
Speaker 1: were these guys used to be on TV to sell cars,
Speaker 1: and they talked real loud and real fast. Hi, my
Speaker 1: name's Kyl Worthington, and my dogs spot and they start
Speaker 1: to go see cow go see cow go see cown.
Speaker 2: You need to buy this right now, only ninety nine
Speaker 2: ninety five.
Speaker 1: And but wait, we'll throw on the gunzo knife. But wait,
Speaker 1: and then you know and you're going not a chance.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to go see that guy. In fact,
Speaker 1: when somebody comes on really hard and really forceful, what's
Speaker 1: your automatic reaction?
Speaker 2: Back off?
Speaker 1: No way am I buying anything from that person today?
Speaker 1: The heart selt no longer works. In fact, advertising doesn't
Speaker 1: work anymore. What works is gentleness. Let me show you
Speaker 1: some verses. Priverers twenty five, verse fifteen says gentle speech
Speaker 1: can break down rigid defenses. So you want to convince
Speaker 1: your girlfriend, your boyfriend, your husband, your wife, your parents
Speaker 1: to do something, not the hard cell.
Speaker 2: That's not gonna work.
Speaker 1: Gentle speech breaks down rigid defenses. The New Century version
Speaker 1: says a gentle word can get through to the hard headed.
Speaker 1: And so if you're a parent, screaming at your child
Speaker 1: never works, never works. You never discipline in anger, and
Speaker 1: you never discipline in frustration. You always discipline in love,
Speaker 1: and you do it gently. Because screaming never works. All
Speaker 1: it does is create fear and resentment in the person
Speaker 1: you're screaming at and they get defensive and they put
Speaker 1: it up.
Speaker 2: You know, if I want.
Speaker 1: To persuade you to live more for Jesus Christ, I
Speaker 1: must do it in a gentle way. So I could
Speaker 1: stand up here every Sunday evening and say, let me
Speaker 1: tell you all the things you're doing wrong.
Speaker 2: And what would you do?
Speaker 1: You just build emotional bears and forget rip and you
Speaker 1: probably stop coming you go. You wouldn't say, hey, let's
Speaker 1: go to Saddleback Sunday night and have Rick tell us
Speaker 1: what bad people we are.
Speaker 2: That doesn't work.
Speaker 1: It doesn't work in the pulpit, it doesn't work in
Speaker 1: the house, it doesn't work in as a teacher. Nagging
Speaker 1: never works. But gentleness is persuasions. A gentle word can
Speaker 1: get through to the hard headed. You say it gently.
Speaker 1: Look at this verse.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 1: In the contemporary English version says patience and gentle talk
Speaker 1: can convince a ruler and overcome any problem. That's what
Speaker 1: the Bible says. Now leave that verse up there for
Speaker 1: a minute. See that word ruler. Let me give you
Speaker 1: a little tip on Bible study. Anytime you see the
Speaker 1: word ruler in the Bible, you translate it boss. Because
Speaker 1: we don't have rulers. Today we're in a democracy. We
Speaker 1: don't have kings. We don't have queens, we don't have
Speaker 1: lords and ladies and counts and vassals. We don't have
Speaker 1: kings and rulers. Nobody rules over you. But everybody has
Speaker 1: a boss, and we all have to work under supervision
Speaker 1: at different times in our life. So anytime you see
Speaker 1: the word ruler or king in the Bible, just translated CEO, boss, manager,
Speaker 1: the supervisor over me. Patience and gentle talk can convince
Speaker 1: your supervisor and overcome any problem. Why, because gentleness is persuasive.
Speaker 1: Look at the next verse. The Bible says in Proverbs
Speaker 1: sixteen twenty one, a wise mature person is known for understanding.
Speaker 1: The more pleasant his words, the more persuasive he is. Now,
Speaker 1: circle the word pleasant, and circle the word persuasive, and
Speaker 1: draw a line between them. Because if you want to
Speaker 1: be persuasive, if you want to persuade people of your idea,
Speaker 1: your product, your service, your faith, or anything else, you
Speaker 1: must be pleasant pleasant. The more pleasant is words, more
Speaker 1: persuasive is now. This is the mark of maturity. Wise
Speaker 1: mature people are pleasant. Fools and idiots are rude. Fools
Speaker 1: and idiots are rude. They're crass, they're crude, they're not pleasant,
Speaker 1: they're unpleasant, and they speak in rude, crude ways. The
Speaker 1: more mature, the more wise you are, the more pleasant,
Speaker 1: the more positive your speech is going to be.
Speaker 2: If your speech is.
Speaker 1: Negative, negative, negative, negative, negative, guess what, you're not that smart,
Speaker 1: you're not wise, and you certainly aren't mature. Because the
Speaker 1: more wise and mature you are, the more pleasant your
Speaker 1: words are.
Speaker 2: I want you to write this down.
Speaker 1: In fact, you can tweet this one. I'm never persuasive
Speaker 1: when I'm abrasive. Write that one now, I tweet it
Speaker 1: right now. I'm never persuasive when I'm abrasive. When you
Speaker 1: are abrasive in your language, you actually self defeat your
Speaker 1: because all the things you want don't happen because you
Speaker 1: are being abrasive rather than being persuasive.
Speaker 2: Gentleness is persuasive. Number four.
Speaker 1: This is a really big one, particularly if you're looking
Speaker 1: for a husband or wife.
Speaker 2: Number four, Gentleness is attractive.
Speaker 1: The Bible says, if you want to be more attractive,
Speaker 1: you need to learn to be more gentle in your life. Now,
Speaker 1: this is true in both men and in women.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: One of the laws of life is I attract what
Speaker 1: I am. I don't attract what I want. I attract
Speaker 1: what I am. If you want to attract a godly man,
Speaker 1: you have to be a godly woman. If you want
Speaker 1: to attract a godly woman, you have to be a
Speaker 1: godly man. You can't be some rude dude, crude mood
Speaker 1: and say I really want one of those good women.
Speaker 1: Now you will attract what you are. And so gentleness
Speaker 1: attracts gentleness, and godliness attracts godliness. Now, since we've got
Speaker 1: a bunch of singles in this service for some guys,
Speaker 1: let me show you this one Timothy six eleven here
Speaker 1: on the screen. One Timothy six eleven, as a man
Speaker 1: of God. And I want all of you guys to
Speaker 1: be men of God. As a man of God, pursue
Speaker 1: what God approves of, and then he gives you the
Speaker 1: five marks of a godly man. This is Paul talking
Speaker 1: to Timothy. He's mentoring his son in the ministry. He says,
Speaker 1: pursue what God approves of, and here are the five
Speaker 1: things that make a godly man Godliness, faith, love, endurance,
Speaker 1: and oh, by the way, gentleness, gentleness. Now he says,
Speaker 1: God approves of godliness. What is godliness? It means I'm
Speaker 1: trying to let Jesus live through me. I want to
Speaker 1: be like God. I want to be like Christ. I
Speaker 1: want to be christ Like. That's godliness. And then he says,
Speaker 1: another mark of a man of God is faith. I
Speaker 1: trust God in every area of my life. Another mark
Speaker 1: of a man of God is love. You're loving, You're unselfish.
Speaker 1: Another mark of a man of God of endurance. You
Speaker 1: don't give up, you don't quit. You have endurance, you
Speaker 1: have diligence, you have determination. And then one of the
Speaker 1: marks of a man of God is gentleness. Gentle Men
Speaker 1: are gentlemen. Gentlemen are gentlemen. The way you become a
Speaker 1: gentleman is by being gentle