She is patient with them, she feeds them, she clothes them, she teaches them, she holds them when they cry and laughs with them when they are happy.  God is the perfect picture of gentleness because God does the same things for His children that a good mother does for her children.  The apostles cared for those they brought the gospel to.  They did this by being patient to explain fully the Gospel of Jesus Christ to them, to feed them the Word of God, to cloth them in acts of righteousness, to teach them sound doctrine, and to be there with them to share in their joys and sorrows. 

(3) "We loved you so much".  Gentleness as a fruit of the Spirit comes from a heart full of love.  We are told to love the brethren, those who belong to the body of Christ. 

1Pe 1:22   Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.

Sometimes it is very difficult to love our brothers and sisters in Christ.  But we are told to treat them with gentleness, even when they stray from the truth.  We are to pull them from the fire and save them even as they are falling with gentleness.  But the Lord goes further telling us that we are to even love our enemies.

Lu 6:35   But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.

The reason we are to love our enemies is because even God is kind to the wicked by giving them every chance to repent and turn to Him.  We ought to do the same keeping in mind that God is not willing that any should perish but all come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.  When we have the fruit of gentleness in our lives we turn insults and hatred into love.  We react in a gentle way toward those who hate us.

(4) "delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well"  As gentle servants of God we should be happily sharing the Gospel to everyone.  That is the mark of a true believer.  But we don't stop there.  We also share our lives with our brothers and sisters in Christ.  We uphold one another in prayer, we help each other with our needs, we cry with those who cry and laugh with those who laugh, we sharpen one another in the things of the Lord.  We don't tear one another down and gossip behind people's backs.  We don't ignore people's needs when they are hurting.  We have true compassion for them and our actions come out in gentleness.

(5)  "you had become so dear to us." Anything that is dear or precious to you, you will treat with gentleness.  If you just bought a new tape player, you don't go out and throw it against the wall.  If you children borrow it you are careful to tell them not to drop it or spill Coke on it.  When something is dear to us we treat it with gentleness.  It should also be that way with our brothers in Christ.  They should be dear to us so that we don't treat them violently, or harshly, or with anger, but we treat them as though they are a prized possession.  Gentleness shows itself in the way we treat others.  If we love them and consider them to be of value, we will treat them the same way God treats us. 

TEXT: Gal. 5:23; Matt. 11:29-30; Num. 12:1-16

Read Gal. 5:23

INTRO:

In a culture of rough-and-rugged individualism, gentleness is thought of as weakness, being soft, and virtually spineless. Not so! ... Biblical gentleness is strength under control, in fact, the Greek word translated in Gal. 5:23 "Gentleness" came from a term that was used of a wild horse that had

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